Blessed are the poor in spirit [Jesus said] (Mat 5:3):
First of all, Jesus is not talking about physical poverty, poor in spirit. This is in opposition to being proud, and this is always the inevitable consequence of a man coming into a personal, real confrontation with God. If you have come into a true confirmation of God in your own life, the result immediately always is that of poverty of spirit. You see a person who is proud and haughty, he is a man who has not had a true encounter with God.
In Isaiah chapter six, upon the death of the popular king Uzziah, when the throne of Israel has been emptied of this great popular monarch, Isaiah writes, "And in the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and his train did fill the temple...Then said I, woe is me! For I am undone; and I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips:" (Isaiah 6:1,5). That's always the result of a man seeing God in truth. "Woe is me! I am undone".
Daniel, when he saw the Lord said, "My beauty was turned into corruption" (Daniel 10:8). When Peter had his confrontation he said, "Depart from me; for Lo, I am a sinful man" (Luke 5:8). The man who truly sees God sees himself in truth.
Jesus said we do err because we so often are comparing ourselves with others around us. And when I look at you, I don't look near so bad. When I look at your flaws and your faults I'd be, well, I'm not too bad. Look at them. But when I look at the Lord, that purity, that holiness, that righteousness, I say, Oh, God help me. Woe is me, I'm undone. That is what poverty of spirit is.
It's a true evaluation of myself, not in the light of man but in the light of God, where I see the real truth about me and it brings me to that, oh God help me. I need help. The same thing that Paul said, "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24).
So that's always the beginning, the beginning consciousness of a man who has a true relationship with God. But Jesus said, really happy is that man. Why? Because he has had a true encounter with God, and as the result, the kingdom of heaven belongs to him. He's no longer living in just this temporal material realm, but he is now transferred into the kingdom and as a child of God and as a citizen of the eternal kingdom.
Matthew 5
27. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, You should not commit adultery:
28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
29. And if your right eye offends you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.
Lust: epithymeō (verb)
1. to turn upon a thing, to be curious about a thing
2. to have a desire for, long for
3. to lust after, covet
4. of those who seek things forbidden
In plain English, this is the route lust takes:
1, I want to just look at it
2. I want to think about it
3. I want to have it
4. I’m going after it
Jesus is not talking literally of plucking out your eye but he is just trying to show to you, because to every one of us, the thought of plucking out our right eye is a very repugnant and repulsive. But Jesus, by this, deliberately speaking of things that are so repugnant to us, is just seeking to show the importance of entering the kingdom of heaven.
In the reality of Jesus Christ, the most important thing for any of us, more important than a whole body, more important than having all the members of my body intact is that I enter into the kingdom of heaven. And I need to have that kind of primary emphasis in my life, the kingdom of heaven is the greatest goal, the greatest desire, and thus should bring into my life the greatest sacrifices. And I should not be concerned with what sacrifice I may make in a temporal way because I am seeking the eternal kingdom of heaven.
Satan played this game with Eve. She lost. Temptation is not a sin. But sin begins with temptation every single time.