A distillation of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones 'Studies on the Sermon on the Mount'. All credit to him. One of the finest preachers and theologian minds of the modern age.
The first, and the key to all that follows. It is an emptying. All others are a filling. The beatitudes are in a specific order for a specific reason. Pour out the old wine, before filling with the new.
There is no more perfect statement of the doctrine of faith alone. It at once condemns every idea of the Sermon on the Mount which thinks in terms of something you and I can do ourselves.
It is emphatically NOT 'Blessed in spirit are the poor'.
It IS 'not possessed by the worldly spirit'. It IS a poverty of spirit. Man's attitude towards himself. Genuinely putting God first, and pride second.
This is despised by the world. Self reliance, self confidence and self expression. The hubris of mankind!
Neither is this Beatitude popular in the Church today. Even in the Church today there is this foolish talk about 'personality'. And personality something purely fleshy and carnal, and a matter of physical appearance. Humility is assumed as lacking in personality!
But Paul in Corinth went in weakness, fear and trembling. People said he looked weak and his speech, contemptible.
But being poor in spirit does not mean retiring, weak or lacking in courage. It does not mean putting on false humility. Our personality must be true
True humility in the presence of God runs throughout the OT. Having had a vision, Isaiah said 'I am a man of unclean lips'. Paul in the NT was well aware of his own nature, his pride. That is why he uses the word 'boasting' so much.
That, then is what is meant by being 'poor in spirit'. It means a complete absence of pride, self-assurance and self-reliance. A consciousness that we are NOTHING in the presence of God.
The life we have lived or are trying to live, who we are, means nothing.
