Ron Dunn Podcast - Birthmark Of Poverty

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series "Birthmarks Of A Believer"

Matthew chapter 7 verses 24 through 29 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine,

for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. The best way I know to describe our generation is fallen houses, fallen lives, fallen churches, fallen Christians, and a fallen nation. Jesus said, everyone who hears my sayings and does them shall be like a wise man that builds his house on a rock. And no matter how terrific the storm and how persistent the winds blow,

the house will stand. Now, I don't know about you, but if I had warning that a storm was coming and that winds were going to blow of hurricane force and that unless I had a proper foundation, my life, my home, everything I had worked for was going to be swept away in a flood of waters, I would be a fool not to get the proper foundation. After the service is over this morning, if I were to come up to you and call you a sinner, you might be a little offended, but not too much, because you know you are. If I were to come up to you and

say, you're a backslider, you might be a little offended, but you would take it. But if I were to come to you after the service and point my finger in your face and say, Sir, you're a fool, you know your reaction would be a little bit different. Because there's something about being called a fool. Jesus said that term is such an insult that for a man to call another man a fool is to be in danger of hellfire. And calling someone a fool is a very serious and solemn affair. And if you'll study carefully the Word of God, you'll find that God rarely calls men fools.

But he does call some men fools but he does call some men fools and that title God seems to reserve for special situation but on the other hand if a person hears the words and obeys them, he's a wise man. You want to be wise? Well, I look then and he says, you must hear and do these sayings of mine. So the first thing I want to know is, what sayings of mine is Jesus talking about? Well, this statement comes at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount.

What he is talking about is the Sermon on the Mount. What he is talking about is the Sermon on the Mount. His first public address in which he makes it clear what he is about and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And Jesus says anybody who listens to what I've said in these three chapters and follows them and obeys them, that person will be a wise man

and no matter how fierce the storms and how terrific the winds blow, no matter what storms may assail his life, I guarantee it on the authority of my deity, I guarantee it, his life will stand. Now, any way you want to say it, that is a bargain. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

He tells us in this. Now, so far, that is introduction to the introduction. What I'm going to be doing starting this morning is preaching a series of messages on the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. And I want us now to turn to Matthew chapter 4. And I'm going to begin reading with verse 23 and read through verse 12 of Matthew chapter 5. And before we read these verses, I want to point out something to you. In the last verses of chapter 4, we have Jesus' public ministry. It is one of miracles.

It is one of healing. It is one of casting out evil spirits. And you see that the great crowds follow him and great crowds following him always disturbed Jesus. And Jesus realized that these people were getting the wrong idea about what it meant to follow Jesus. They were getting the idea that following Jesus meant riding on some bandwagon

and seeing miracles all day long and that it consisted in healing and casting out demons and seeing miracles perform. And Jesus realizes that these people really are mistaken about their idea of what it means to be a follower. And so in Matthew chapter five, he gets away from the crowd. He goes into a mountain place and he draws his disciples round about them and they sit at his feet and he teaches them. All right, now let's begin reading with the 23rd verse of Matthew four. And Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria.

They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments. Those which were possessed with devils, those which were lunatic and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. And 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 see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. What does it mean to come to Jesus?

How does a man approach Jesus Christ? What does it mean to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ. One of the tragedies of our day is the gross misconception of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And we share that mistake with these early Christians. And as we go through these, I want you to notice that it was in direct contrast to what everybody thought being a disciple of Jesus would be. This is why Jesus was continually having trouble with his followers.

They had one idea of what it meant to be a Christian and Jesus had another idea of what it meant to be a Christian. We still have the same problem today. I am convinced that most of us really do not understand all the ramifications of following Jesus. And perhaps it's because preachers have been so eager to get a crowd that we have watered down the message and

made it so easy that anybody could come in regardless of their condition. And perhaps in our eagerness to grow bigger and bigger and bigger, we have palmed off on the people some misconceptions of what it means to come to Jesus. Jesus was never impressed by crowds. Did you know that? The things that impress you and me just don't impress the Lord at all. God is not impressed with bigness and success and wealth and talent and ability. You cannot impress God. And we have watered down and misconstrued what it means to be a disciple of Jesus because, you see,

we're so impressionable and you're so impressionable. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Now, I want you to see the relationship of the Beatitudes to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is telling us what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be born again. We're going to take the first one this morning. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, it is significant that Jesus places this one first. And these Beatitudes all follow a logical order. In other words, number one is the foundation. The second Beatitude grows out of the first one. The third one grows out of the second one.

The fourth one grows out of the third one, and so forth until they reach their climax. Jesus just didn't throw these Beatitudes out like pearls on a floor and see how they would land. Not at all. Jesus intended for number one to come first and number two to come secondly. If you rearrange them in any other order, they wouldn't make sense. So the first one is of utmost importance

because it reveals to us the foundation of salvation the way a man has to come to God this first one reveals to us the only basis upon which God will operate in our lives that is so important This first beatitude reveals to us the only basis upon which God will operate and bless in our lives. And he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, how contrary that is to the world's ideals. And it was like a dash of cold water in the face of those disciples because they weren't interested in being poor either in spirit or in material things. And they somehow had the idea that to follow Jesus they were going to cash in on a good thing. Jesus said, no, the very foundation of your coming after me and being a

part of my family is that you be poor in spirit. Now, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? Now notice it's poor in spirit, not just poor. Uh, that's very important. A lot of people think that there's some blessing in being poor. A lot of people think that you're holier if you're poor. And there is no premium upon poverty in and of itself. Not at all. Jesus isn't talking about physical, material, financial poverty. But rather he is talking about a certain kind of poverty. Poverty of spirit. You know what the spirit of man is now listen man is soul spirit and body or rather he's spirit soul and body

that's the way god's order is it starts at the spirit and there's the soul and there's the body man is spirit soul and body with the body i have world consciousness, physical consciousness. My body comes in contact with the world. I can live in the world. My soul is made up of my will, my intellect, and my emotions. My soul gives me self-consciousness, self-awareness. I know that I am. I know that I'm alive. I have will, intellect, and emotions. The Spirit is that part of me that makes me God conscious. The Spirit is that part of man and only that part of man which can commune and communicate with God. It is with the Spirit that man touches God and worships God. And when the Spirit of God at salvation comes to indwell me, he indwells me in my human spirit. Because Paul says in Romans 8 that the Spirit of God witnesses with our spirit that we are the sons of God.

Now, the Spirit is my consciousness of God. Now notice, you are to be poor in spirit. In other words, when I realize that I have a relationship with God, when I become conscious that there is a God, when I become aware that I stand before God, I realize that as I stand before him, I am absolutely poor. It's a man's attitude of himself in the presence of God. And what he's simply saying is that nobody struts in the presence of God. Now, there are two Greek words translated poor in the New Testament.

One means having little. Some of us, many of us, might qualify for that kind of poverty this morning. You're not dead broke, but you're down to your last dollar, perhaps. There is a poverty where you have a little bit. Then there is a poverty where you have a little bit. Then there is another Greek word that means having absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It's the same Greek word that is used in Luke chapter 16 to describe, guess who? Lazarus, a beggar. Lazarus, a beggar. Lazarus, a beggar. That is the Greek word that Jesus uses here. He says, folks, when you come into the presence of God, this is the way some of you come. Some of you come into the presence of God like this, when I, Lord, I know I'm not perfect.

And I know I'm not 100% right. But, Lord, I'm not all bad either. And there are some good points about me. And after all, I'm just as good as deacon so-and-so. And I'm just as good as sister so-and-so. And this is the way most of us come to God. Just like the rich young ruler. I've kept all these commandments from my youth up.

And there's just one more thing I need to do to gain eternal life. Tell me what it is. And many people come into the presence of God knowing that they're a sinner they believe they're a sinner but they don't believe that's all they are and God says no when you come into my presence I want you to come realizing not only that you don't have very much you don't have anything you are a beggar in the presence of God you are absolutely bankrupt you are dead broke spiritually in the presence of God. You are absolutely bankrupt. You are dead broke spiritually in the presence of God. There is absolutely nothing to commend you to God. That's the only

way you can approach God. It is the only way on which God will operate in your life. And as long as you are convinced that you're a sinner, but not all sin, then God can never meet you in salvation or in blessing. It is when you come to realize, Lord, I am a sinner and not all sin, then God can never meet you in salvation or in blessing. It is when you come to realize, Lord, I am a sinner and that's all I am. Paul said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. He says we're beggars before God.

We're beggars before God. Now, there are three characteristics of a beggar that I want to share with you this morning. First of all, a beggar is a man who is conscious of his need. He is a man who is conscious of his need. I don't think there's a beggar in the world who's a beggar and doesn't know it. Every beggar I ever met knew he was a beggar. That's why he was begging. He wouldn't have been begging if he hadn't known he was a beggar. And until a man is conscious of his bankruptcy, he'll never go begging. You say, well, that's obvious. It is obvious, but some of us always miss the obvious.

Now, what is it that makes a man a beggar, makes him aware, makes him conscious of his beggarly spirit in the presence of God? All right, you still have your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 5? Now we're going to move into the sermon. Every beatitude is explained by the Sermon on the Mount. You see, the beatitudes is simply the text of the Sermon on the Mount. The beatitudes is the nut, you crack it and open it up, and inside you find the Sermon on the Mount. All the Sermon on the Mount is, is an expansion and explanation of what the beatitudes are. You can sum up the whole Sermon on the Mount in eight sentences, the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes is the seed, the Sermon on the Mount is the flower.

The Beatitudes define the character of the Christian. The Sermon on the Mount demonstrates that character in action. So if we want to know what the Beatitude really means, poor in spirit, we can go into the S the sermon where Jesus amplifies it and illustrates it, and there we'll see what it really means to be a beggar in spirit. All right, let's begin reading in that fifth chapter with the 20th verse. And the first thing that makes me conscious that I am a beggar is that my religion doesn't go deep enough. That's the first thing that makes

me conscious that I'm a beggar before God. My religion doesn't go deep enough. Look at the 20th verses and following. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, most of us in the world have the religion of the Pharisees. And oh, it looks great. Because it is a surface religion. Now, in verse 21, he gives the religion of the common man, the religion of the Pharisees. And then in verse 22, he tells us what of the common man, the religion of the Pharisees.

And then in verse 22, he tells us what religion really is as far as Jesus is concerned. Verse 21, you have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. A man walked around and he said, man, I haven't killed anybody. I must be pretty good. God said in the Old Testament thou shall not kill lord that's one i've kept so far so good and we evaluate ourselves on the basis of external actions most of us think we're pretty good because of external actions but jesus no, you're a beggar because that religion that you have doesn't go deep enough.

It's just a surface religion. Notice what he says, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother, now scratch out the next three words, without a cause. They're not in the Greek text. I don't know why those King James translators put that in unless they wanted an out. Most of us would like to keep in those words without a cause because we can always excuse

our anger saying, well, I had a reason. Jesus does not say if you're angry with your brother without a cause, he says, whosoever is angry with his brother, period, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, idiot, fool, that's a term of insult, raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Here's what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying your religion, your standing, your relationship before me is not based on external actions. He says, I do not care how you look on the outside. I, the Lord, search the heart. There's a song that I used to hear sung once in a while,

talking about if there was a photograph of the heart so that all the world could see. Then there was another one talking about if you would like a window in your heart so all the world could see. Then there was another one talking about if you would like a window in your heart so all the world could look in. And of course, the obvious answer is not that we would want that photograph or that we would want that window on the door of our heart so everybody could look in. Jesus is saying you're a beggar because your religion doesn't go deep enough. You say, well, I've never struck anybody. Have you ever wanted to? You say, I've never murdered anybody.

Have you ever felt the burning sensation of anger and spitefulness and hostility in your heart? Jesus says you're in danger of hell fire, if that's true. John says if a man hates his brother, and the word hate there means to cherish ill will towards someone, you are a what? Murderer. Murderer. God doesn't care what you look like on the outside primarily. He goes right to the heart of things, your heart. He goes on to say that it's been said by them in old times, thou shall not commit adultery. But I say unto you, if you even look on somebody with that desire in your heart, you're already guilty. You say, I've never committed an immoral act. Have you ever had a desire?

That's why nobody can strut in the presence of God. Because God discards judgment based on deeds and he goes to desires. You say, I've never stolen anything. Have you ever wanted something that somebody else had? Desire. Desire. That's why you're a beggar. That's why you cannot stand in the presence of God. Because if all of us this morning were brought into the courts of the land and sentenced on the basis of our desires, all of us would get life imprisonment.

God judges on the basis of desires. All right, secondly, not only does our religion not go deep enough, it doesn't go far enough. We're going to have time just to barely mention this look at verse 41 and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile go with him two miles give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow thee turn not thou away now the law said you had to go one mile but that's all you had to go but jesus said if you're going to be my follower, you're going to do more than you have to do. How many of us are so careful to watch that we never do any more than we have to do? Your religion doesn't go far enough.

In the last place, it doesn't go high enough. Notice what he says in verse 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. My religion doesn't go high enough. You know what I've been doing most of my life? I've been comparing myself to Reverend so-and-so. And I've been comparing myself to Sister so-and-so and Brother so-and-so. And if my life somehow can come up to the level of his life

i must be a pretty good christian and that religion doesn't go high enough do you know why every man has to be born again do you know why every man is absolutely condemned under the wrath of god in his presence because the only standard upon which god will judge a man is his own nature. And he says, if you're not as good as God, you're lost. And any religion that believes that must preach, you have to be born again. God demands that I be absolutely holy. It says, without holiness, no man shall see the lord when i realize that that makes me realize that i'm just a beggar makes me conscious of my need let me hurry now with these last two characteristics of a beggar the second one is the first one was a beggar is conscious of his need a second characteristic of a beggar is that he is

dependent upon others for his living. He said, that's obvious. I wonder how many of you this morning really believe that you're dependent upon God for your breath, for your life. I'll tell you, I have come to know this so very well that God is not going to operate in blessings in my life until I come to this place where I realize I am absolutely dependent upon God for the very life that flows through my body. Third characteristic of a beggar is he has to be honest about his condition. And that's the clincher. He has to be honest about his condition.

A beggar has to be honest or he'll starve to death. Now, this is why it's important that you understand the words Jesus used. You see, he didn't say that you've got a little bit and you're still poor. You know, people who have a little bit sometimes put on airs to make people think they have more. You ever done that? Sure you have. If you've got a little bit, there are times when you'll try to act like live above your means to act like you have more that's why jesus says that person who comes to me and i'm going to meet in salvation and fullness of blessing must come to me as a beggar recognizing he has absolutely nothing and being honest about it being honest about it, being honest about it.

You've got to be honest about your condition or God cannot meet you. Are you willing this morning to be honest about your condition? You say, I've never been saved. I've never had an experience of salvation. You've made excuses and alibis and there's reasons why you've not done it. But will you be

honest about it this morning and realize that you depend upon Him for your life? And if you're not honest about your need and come to Him, you'll die in your sins. Perhaps the Lord leads you to make some other decision to come and unite with the fellowship of this church. Whatever it is, this is God's business

and God's time. Thank you.