Poverty of Spirit — Paul Washer

Before we go to our text, I want to just summarize something from this morning. We were in Ezekiel, Chapter 36, and one of the things that the Lord is impressed upon me, I believe, in these meetings is in many of the people who may run in some of the circles in which we run.

Truth Must Become a Living Reality

And we seem to be very concerned, preoccupied, and rightly so, with truth, with speaking forth the truth, identifying the truth, defining the truth. But I'm afraid that that is only a small part of the truth relationship or our relationship with the truth.

There is a sense in this Christianity, since it is not simply an intellectual endeavor, there is an experience. It is a religion in which we experience, a relationship in which we experience the Lord, we experience his life, we experience his power, the power of conversion.

It is not dead orthodoxy, it is not simply being prim, improper, and quite adequate in all we think and do, but it is the living, resurrected Lord and our relationship with him. And that the word that keeps coming to my mind is this word, to challenge you, is reality.

That it matters very little and it is of very little worth for you to profess a certain truth. Do you declare yourself to identify with that certain truth? The question comes down, is it a reality in your life?

Progressively, is that truth capturing you? Is it being manifested in your life because of our desire to be theologically correct? So many times when we hear preaching, we'll simply say, yes, I believe that.

And then that's where it stops. That's where it begins. Do I believe this? Yes. OK, is this a growing reality in my life? Because if it's not, just because I believe it does not mean that I'm without need of repentance.

And just because I believe it doesn't mean that I'm actually converted. There are many men that I am sure can define theologically certain things, even though they'd be unconverted, they can do it better than the converted person.

But the question is, is it a reality in your life? I remember several years ago, I was preaching in a thing called the Whitfield Fellowship in Detroit. And afterwards, we went out to eat and I was sitting around with these men and this waiter came up to us, a young man.

He looked to be somewhere in his early 20s and he had necklaces everywhere and little bracelets on. And the tips of his hair were all painted blonde or something. And he saw my Bible on the table. And he goes, dude, you got a Bible.

And I said, yeah, I do. He goes, man, I got one, too, because I was looking for God and looking for God and looking for God and seeking God and seeking God. And I found him. And now, like God and me are like, I'm walking with God.

And and he started saying all this stuff. And he went on and I looked at all those theologians sitting around me. And it so grieved me because I knew what every one of them was thinking. He didn't say anything right.

He wasn't looking for God. Some of you thought the same thing. He wasn't looking for God. God was looking for him. And I looked at those men, I said, you know, it's a lot better to have it and not know what to call it than to know what to call it and not have it.

And the point is, theology and the study of Scripture many times does not necessarily create a work in us. But describes the work that God has done in us and teaches us to understand it. It really doesn't matter if you're homeschooled and it really doesn't matter if you know all the answers.

And it doesn't really matter if you've gone through the catechism since you were little. The question is, do you experience the life and the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ? And that's what we're getting.

Ezekiel’s Signs of Genuine Conversion

We were getting at this morning in Ezekiel when he said certain things that I just want to bring to mind. First of all, he talked about vindicating his holiness, that the reason why he was going to save the nation of Israel was to vindicate his holiness, to prove to the nations that he was God.

And I asked the congregation this, does your conversion so disturb the unbelieving world that they have to attribute it to something? Does the unbelieving world look on you and at least realize, now they might misinterpret it and they probably do, but do they realize that something has happened to you?

That something external has acted upon you? Has the word fanatic ever been used? And then in Ezekiel, he tells the people, he says, I will take you from the nations and gather you into your own land. Here's the question.

Is there a reality of separation in your life? Can someone point and point, actually point and look at your life, certain things in which it is noticeable that God is separating you from the ungodly, unbelieving world?

And not only did he say he'll take you out of the nations, but he said he'd gather you into your own land. Can someone look and see that not only is God separating you from ungodly practices of the heathen, but God is drawing you unto himself and creating in you a passion and a longing for God and the things of God?

Because if not, you should be afraid. You should be afraid because this is not some unique experience to super spiritual Christians, but it is the experience of every true born again believer. And then he goes on and he says, I'll sprinkle you with clean water and you will be clean.

I was talking about the sovereignty of God, not simply in election and justification, but the sovereignty of God and sanctification. This same sovereign God who saves men according to his will also has determined to sanctify every person he says you will be clean.

Can you point in your life? Is there the reality that this God that you say has saved you? Can you point and demonstrate in your life that that same God is working to cleanse you of all your filthiness and to destroy your idols?

Do you sometimes feel that you're literally a prisoner? Held captive by God and that he marks out everything before you and behind you and that the word of God comes to you with convicting power, that God is constantly dealing with you to make you holy.

And it goes on and we talked about the supernatural nature of being born again, of regeneration. And why do we do that? Because of the born again ism in this country. Everybody who thinks they've walked down an aisle, raised a hand or prayed a superstitious evangelical prayer, they believe themselves to be born again.

When the fact of the matter is being born again, being saved is more than just making a human decision to jump out of the line going to hell in order to jump into the line going to heaven. It is a supernatural work of God whereby the very power of God is manifested to a greater degree, I believe, than the very creation of the universe.

And then and he says, I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Is it a reality, the direction and the leadership and the working and the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life?

Many of the things that I've mentioned in this short summary, short summary is totally foreign to the average church member, completely and totally foreign. So these were realities that we looked at this morning.

The Salt of the Earth and the Marks of a Christian

And now we're going to look at another passage of Scripture that carries on this thought in this time in the New Testament. And I want us to go to Matthew.

Chapter five, let's go to verse 13.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. For the most part, when I see this text either preached or treated in a commentary, it is treated.

As a separate unit away from the first 12 verses of this text, and I think that that is completely and totally wrong. We have books written on, you know, coming out of the salt shaker and on to the world.

We have books about we need to be we need to be the salt of the earth. And it's preached in sort of a militant sort of way that we as Christians need to get out there and we need to get involved in politics and we need to get involved in culture.

We need to have a purifying influence because we're salt. Well, so much of that is true in a sense. But that that's not what Jesus is saying here. I don't believe it's what Jesus is saying at all. And I think it's one of the reasons why the evangelical culture in America is so superficial and impotent because we're not really understanding what Jesus is saying.

He's not talking about militant social activity or even the militant preaching of the gospel. I think he's talking about something quite different now, as you know, in the providence of God and in the teachings of Christ, where we may direct ourselves onto one certain purpose in what we say and do.

God has this ability to to work out an infinite number of things with one act or with one word. And that's what's going on here in this teaching, in the sense that that to some this means one thing to others, it means quite another thing.

To the unbeliever, we see something here to the false professor, those who believe themselves to be Christians and are not. It says so much, even to the believer, it's a warning. Now, what does this text mean?

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, what happens if it becomes tasteless? How can it be made salty again? Now, I don't want to get into chemistry at all because I didn't do very well at the university in chemistry and I'm going to use terminology that is not proper.

So if you're a chemist, please don't come up to me afterwards and scold me. But there are certain characteristics or properties or elements, we'll use all those as synonyms that make up salt. OK, make up the thing we call salt.

Now, if you take those properties, those characteristics, those elements, if you take them away, if you remove it from if you remove those key essential elements from what you call salt and you take them away.

You no longer have salt. If you take them away, you can still call it salt, but it's not salt because salt has certain characteristics, and if this substance no longer has those characteristics, it's not salt.

You can take them away and you can replace them with things, even other things that may be good, but you no longer have salt. So there are certain essential elements or characteristics that make up salt.

They're essential. You take them away. You no longer have salt. So stop calling it salt. I believe that's what Jesus is teaching, that there are certain essential characteristics to discipleship. And I don't want to use that word because we think today that there are Christians and then there's this higher group of Christians called disciples.

There are essential identifying characteristics to the Christian, to being Christian. There are certain things that you want to look for that really show us whether or not someone is a disciple of Jesus Christ and they're not militant activities, but they are things of nature.

They are things, characteristics of the very person themselves. And what are those characteristics? What are the essential things that make up what a disciple is? What are the characteristics of a true Christian?

Perseverance Rather Than Perfection

Now, before we go into that, let's look at this. When the Bible speaks about things, especially in First John and such, about certain characteristics of a true Christian, obviously it's not speaking about perfection.

It's not it's not saying that the the true Christian walks perfectly in the light. It's not saying that the true Christian perfectly always identify sin in their life and perfectly and and without without any mistake confesses it.

It's not saying that the true Christian walks just like Jesus all the time. But what it's saying is these characteristics are noticeable in the true Christian. They are realities. There are realities that may start small, but they will be there and they will be growing because he who began a good work will finish it.

And so as we look at these true essential characteristics of a Christian, without which you are not Christian. The question you have to ask yourself is this, are these things a reality in my life? Am I making progress in these things?

Now, before I go any further and identify these, I want you to think about something I was I was preaching a while back in Texas and this church was without a pastor and I preached my first sermon there on Sunday morning.

And and I came down from the pulpit and was greeting people and a group of people came up to me and they said, you need to be our pastor. And I looked at them and I thought, what's the best way to put across the biblical truth?

I looked at them and I said, are you all I was in Texas, so I could say that. Are you all completely out of your mind? And what do you talk? I said, you heard me preach one sermon. You don't know how I treat my wife.

You don't know what kind of father I am. You do not know anything about the sins with which I must struggle. You know nothing of what is required. You know nothing, and yet you want me to be your pastor because I spoke well today, you see how we identify Christianity, we identify true Christianity with activity and apparent I can't use the word real, but apparent success in ministry, the ability to talk.

But don't you understand? Ever since the devil entered into the garden, it's been the liar that's the best speaker. This is not about, you know, he's a man of God. How do you know that? Well, look at the way he talks.

He's a boy, this is a work of God. How do you know it? Look how many people are here. You ever gone to a Jehovah Witness Convention? It's a lot of people there, too. Well, he's a man of God. How do you know?

Well, I mean, he's casting out demons. He's prophesying. He's doing many miracles. Yes. And he could hear depart from me. I never knew you. Well, I'm a Christian. How do you know? Well, I asked Jesus to come into my heart.

What is the evidence? What is the evidence of true Christianity, of true discipleship, of a man or woman of God, a teenager of God? What is the true evidence? What are the things that we should be looking for?

And also, if we are Christian, this is the most important point. If we are Christian, what should we be striving for? What are the things that we should truly be striving for? I remember when I was a young man and knew the Lord had called me into the ministry.

Man, I was striving for power. Down on my knees, you know, Lord, power to preach, Lord, power to preach like Whitfield. Maybe I should have prayed for power to be as humble as the man who carried his bags.

What should we really be seeking to be in this Christianity of ours? And what is it that God esteems? Is it true that the Spurgeons and the Whitfields and the Edwards and the great minds and the great preachers are in some inner circle that I'll never belong to because I wasn't gifted in the same way?

Are those the things that bring man reward on that great day? Because those are the things that we honor. Those are the things we honor. But I'm not so sure they're the things that God honors. God can make donkeys and rocks talk, but he wants more.

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and Conformity to Christ

So what are these essential characteristics? Well, I think they're found in verses three through 12 of the very things. Now, I'm going to say something you might it might bother you. The very things that you ignore.

If you're like the average Christian, even the godly, there are things ignored in our culture, in our Christian culture and in our churches. And yet they are things utmost. They are things essential. Let's begin in verse one.

I want to show you something very important. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, the mountain. Why did Matthew put mountain? I mean, it's OK to say mountain and you could call it a mountain, but it'd probably be better to call it something else, maybe not quite as big as a mountain.

I mean, it really wasn't that big. Why did he use the word mountain? I believe there's a very important reason. Many, many years prior to this, there was a prophet who went up on a mountain to receive a law.

And what Matthew is putting before us on this day is the one who gave the law on that mountain to Moses is now the one seated on the mountain and opening his mouth to teach us. I am afraid that many of our doctors and many of our teachers give greater emphasis to what Moses was given than what was given through Jesus Christ, our Lord, the great interpreter of all things.

Even what Moses said, one greater than Moses, one greater than the Levitical priesthood, one greater than all is now going to sit down and he is going to open his mouth and teach us. It is all written in this form.

Why? In order to show the great importance of what's being done here. We as Christians, now listen to me, are so concerned and rightly so with setting forth truths such as justification by faith and how that is worked out, propitiation and all the great doctrines that are constantly being attacked and in our circles, we so emphasize these things that I believe the teaching that's being given here is so important.

The teaching that's being given here with Jesus on this mount is basically ignored in our midst. It's basically ignored. It seems like always Christianity goes to different extremes. You've got the reformers over here and their whole thing is the theology, the theology, the theology, justification by faith, getting clear the doctrines and everything and on and on and on.

And you have over here, you have your more Mennonite and your Anabaptists in these groups are constantly saying life of Christ, life of Christ, life of Christ, imitating Jesus, imitating Jesus. And what happens?

If both groups go awry, correct theology will always lead, if it is correct, to a burning doxology or worship of God and to a solid praxis or practice of truth in God desiring and planning and doing one great thing.

And what is that? Does he say that in Romans chapter eight, that his great sunam bonam, his greatest good, his great purpose for his people is that they all become powerful preachers or that they all know what Edwards knew?

No, that they be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that is God's purpose for us and truth in itself is not an end. It is a means, it is a means to worship and a means to conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

Now, let me ask you a question. Is this a reality in your life? Could anyone look at your life for any moment of time or period of time and discern that you have a passion about being conformed to the image of Christ?

Because, my dear friend, so many good things can take the place of the most excellent thing. You know, he's got a passion for missions. He's got a passion for truth. So you have a passion for God's primary purpose in his life, which is being transformed to the image of Jesus Christ, our elder brother, and being transformed, not in the presence necessarily of a multitude of people who do not know us in our intimate moments, but being truly transformed and have that transformation being witnessed by the people closest to us.

How humble am I? I mean, really, my wife could answer that better. How kind. Can you answer that? Do you know how kind I am? Do you know if I'm gentle? So it is living out these things with the people that know us best.

Poverty of Spirit as the First Mark of Discipleship

And what are they? Blessed are the poor in spirit. When was the last time it could be said of you that you were striving even violently? You know how the kingdom is taken by violent men, that you are violently trying to lay hold of poverty of spirit.

You violently lay hold of insurance, of a new job, of passions, of a new car, violently lay hold of. When was the last time you forcefully and violently sought? In prayer, in the word, in fellowship to be made conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in your poverty of spirit.

And yet this is he said, look at this, he's talking about the essential characteristics of Christianity. This is not some fly by night teaching. This is not just some little word in passing. Here we have the greater than Moses.

He sits down and the writer puts it in such a way that is so majestic. He opens his mouth and begins to teach them, saying, I mean, you don't find that in many places in the Bible. He's setting up. Get ready, folks.

This is what all the prophets have ever promised. And he's getting ready to speak. And what does he say? Something we would have never said. And this is he's not being cute. He's not being romantic. He's not just trying to print something out there that sounds poetic.

He is really serious. OK, number one, number one, essential in Christianity, number one, poverty of spirit, when was the last time you thought in your heart? This is the most important, essential characteristic in my Christianity.

I need to be striving and praying towards this thing. Do you see how quickly we can. Air. Get distracted. You see how many truths that you can learn and you forget. You know what? I've been amazed as I go to college retreats and things and teach and, you know, I've also been to Bible conferences and things and and I don't want to sound smart alecky or anything, but I've been to a lot of Bible conferences.

I rarely learn anything. I mean, really tremendous. Among with great scholars and not because they're not great scholars or because they're not godly. Here's what I found out. I was in Kansas a while back at one of the universities there and I was speaking and they had all these brand new Christians.

I mean, brand spanking new been saved in the dormitories and were under discipleship and stuff. And they would all get up and share. And I was like filling my notebook with what truths I'd never heard.

No truths that I had heard, learned and stored away in my library is though, oh, I've caught that. I understand it. Let's put it up here on the shelf and now let's go on to greater things. I don't find that I have much trouble learning things.

I find that I have the greatest deal of trouble in retaining things. Poverty of spirit. What does this mean? An acknowledgment of absolute dependence upon God. Absolute dependence upon God. I used to tell sometimes teaching young preachers, I would say, you cannot preach without the power of God on your life.

Now I tell them you can't tie your shoes without the power of God on your life. And all these, you know, come in. They always were all. We just want to do something for God. How that's wonderful. OK, first exercise.

Everybody breathe in. They all breathe in. I said, breathe out. They all breathe out. I said, now, from where did that breath come from? God. OK. You can't even breathe apart from the power of God. Now, good luck in going and doing something for him.

It is seeking to live in absolute dependence upon him and praying towards that. But if I had to point out a most dangerous prayer, it would be this one. Lord, teach me absolute dependence upon you because you know what he's going to do.

He's going to knock out every prop that you're resting in and he's not going to do it for a month. He's going to do it for a lifetime. And then not only is he going to knock out every prop that's been holding you up, that's not him.

He is going to bring monsters and giants against you that would ground you to powder just with a look from their eyes. And he is going to cause you to survive. Only his power. Poverty of spirit. It is a most amazing thing as you come more and more to understand poverty of spirit.

It is so freeing. I can do nothing, but that's also wonderful in that if I can do nothing, I have no reputation. If I have no reputation, I have no reputation to uphold. I have nothing to prove. It's all gone, I'm just free.

Being Broken and Filled With Christ’s Power

If I do mess up and someone says something about it, what did you expect? Only God says I am what I am. Everyone else understanding properly says I am what I am by the grace of God. I think that I always hear about the life of Jesus.

You know that God's working in us, the life of Jesus, and I preach on that. It's a truth. But how come I almost never hear about the death of Jesus being worked in us? Remember that it just took an instant to fill those disciples with immeasurable earthquaking, earth shattering, cosmic crushing power of the Holy Spirit.

They went years of being emptied and broken. Peter being dashed on the rocks, possibly harder than all of them put together. Lord, I won't deny you. I'll die for you. I'm going to see to it, Peter, that that you deny me.

I'm going to step back so far that you're going to deny me, but not so far as that you perish. And I'm going to show you what you really are. And I am going to empty you. Not only am I going to empty you, I'm going to empty you so much.

It's going to seem as though I have turned you inside out. Don't you imagine that would hurt? And then I am going to fill you. Then I am going to fill you. But it also brings this about. If I have no power of my own, then I can trust and rely on his power.

And I become something more than a man. I become a vessel of clay. But within that housing, so weak and muddled. Behold, the abiding in that believer is the power to stop a storm according to the will of God.

Abiding in that believer is the same resurrection power manifested on Easter morning. To be emptied of self and self-will and self-power is to be filled with the very power of God. So that one who says, I can do nothing, I can't breathe apart from the power of God, also realizes that, Lord, if it be thy will, the dead shall be raised.

God Uses the Weak to Display His Glory

We are not competent in ourselves, but we are most certainly competent. Because he makes us competent. I was I was asked to do it was kind of a great privilege. I was asked to preach at a place where I was really amazed that they would ask me, but they did.

I was like a circus clown set free in a palace. And I couldn't believe that they they asked me. And and they called me up a couple of weeks prior, one of the secretaries. And they said, you know, Mr. Washer, we want to make sure everything is in place.

And, you know, everybody in the church is praying and things are and we're just excited. And I know, you know, we're just we're just praying. And I said, oh, dear sister, I said, don't worry. I said, pray, but don't fret.

She said, why? I said, you have the most qualified man in the world coming to preach. And I could just I could just feel her spirit just ground into dust. She just wilted. Who is this proud man? And I said, I am the most qualified.

And then I said, for consider your callings, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, nor many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised. God has chosen the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God.

He uses a man and a woman to the degree of how pitiful they are. It's giddy and all over again, don't you see? Trying to be so strong and usable. Was it Tozer said, I found that if a man would just make himself make himself usable, God will wear him out.

But the thing about it is it's looking and saying, this is what I am. Nothing. But God has said that he would take those who were nothing and do things that would astound the strongest man. You're all familiar, most of you are with our ministry, that the principles of the ministry, it's based on George Mueller's orphanage work that we do not we do not advertise.

We do not make our needs known. We do not raise funds. We do not do all these all these things, even though they can be biblical and very proper to do. We do not make any of our needs known. If a millionaire walked up to me and said, you know, I'll give you up to six million dollars.

Just tell me what your needs are. I would say, no, we have none and walk away. We've done it. And because of that, people always say, man, you must have so much faith. You must be such a great prayer warrior.

You must be. Haven't you read First Corinthians? No, I have the weakest faith. I am the most frightened. I can see God do a deliverance. And in one day we have not a dime to support all the hundred missionaries that we have.

And then in two days, every need is supplied, even though no one knew there was a need. And I can see that great victory. And then two days later, my friend Darren Rotman, who works with me, comes in the office and says, Paul, we've run out of masking tape and pencils.

And I crawl up in a fetal position and start doubting God. God doesn't do things because men are great. God does things with the weakest men to prove that he alone is great. And we could just grasp that how free, you know, you look at men.

Sometimes you go, man, God uses him this way. He's a great man of God. Your attitude ought to be just the opposite. God's using him so much he must be pitiful because that's all God uses. And it's so wonderful, blessed are the poor in spirit.

The Kingdom Promised to the Poor in Spirit

What is blessed me? I don't know. I just think if you took every good word and every great promise that's found in Scripture and you put it all in a bag and handed it to somebody, that's what it would mean.

It goes so far beyond any word that, well, it goes, I don't need to say in English, it goes so far beyond any word in Greek or Hebrew, it goes beyond human language, goes beyond human comprehension. But who is blessed?

The poor in spirit, those who with regard to their salvation, if you were to even hint, even hint that they had something to do with their salvation, they would become so nauseous as to vomit, that if you were to even hint that there was something that they were doing that was unique in order to create a large ministry or a work of God, they would run out of the building screaming, not unto me, O God, not unto me, but to thee be the glory.

So, is there a reality in your life, not that you've arrived because none of us have, but is there a reality in your life that God is working death and weakness and all sorts of things into your life so that more and more you see your weakness, you see your weakness, you see your weakness, and he becomes stronger.

Poverty of Spirit, Repentance, and Progressive Revelation

Now, this applies to the Christian life. This applies to poverty of spirit. It also applies to repentance. And it brings in the doctrine of revelation at the same time. And if you can understand the way all these things work together, it can really make your soul happy.

Now, in what way? You're walking along, you're an unbeliever. What happens? We talked about it to a full extent this morning. If you're walking along and you're an unbeliever and Christ is revealed, God is revealed to you in a way that you've never seen him before.

And through the work of regeneration, everything else, what happens? You respond to that revelation. How? Poverty of spirit. Do you realize that's a big key in being saved? Repentance in a way is poverty of spirit.

It's just collapsing. That's why the old timers used to talk about repentance, even the Bible, repentance from good works. You just collapse. You realize that everything that you do is just striving, useless striving.

And so you have this revelation of God that you've never had before. And through the work of the Holy Spirit, what is created in you? A poverty of spirit and a repentance that just dashes all your hopes of self-salvation into the ground.

But are you left to despair? No. Why? Because in that revelation is also the revelation of the grace of God in the face of Christ. And it lifts you up. And even though you experience a poverty of spirit and a repentance like never before in your life, there is also a joy that you have never experienced in your life.

And then what happens? You go to bed and you get up the next day. You're walking along in your Christian life. And what's going to happen if you truly are a Christian? Another revelation. Now, I'm not talking about necessarily visions or something.

Just talk about God revealing more of himself to you. And what happens when he does that? You see more of God than you've ever seen before. You're brought to a deeper poverty of spirit and a repentance than you've ever experienced before.

But you're not left in despair, for your joy is increased to the same measure, because there again is the grace of God in the face of Christ to the end. I can't wait to get 90. I'm not kidding. Can you imagine?

That in the end of your days, you are there broken and impoverished and yet so full of joy, unspeakable, so distrusting in yourself, so confident and happy in him. You see, that's what we're talking about here.

This is the Christian life. It is an experience. It's not just experience, right? Not just experience and not just truth either. You are experiencing the living God and his work of sanctification in you.