In his sermon titled 'Admonition on the Poor in Spirit and Modesty,' Steve Hopkins discusses two main themes: the spiritual condition of being 'poor in spirit' and the concept of modesty in a biblical context. He begins by exploring Matthew 5:3, emphasizing the blessedness of those who recognize their deep spiritual need and unworthiness before God. He highlights that such humility leads to the kingdom of heaven and contrasts this with the pride seen in the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3. Hopkins explains the 'beatific vision' as the future, joyous communion with God that begins on earth for those who are poor in spirit. Transitioning to modesty, he talks about the biblical terms 'nakedness' and 'covering,' referencing Genesis 3 to illustrate the difference between human and divine perspectives on clothing. The coverings made by Adam and Eve symbolize human attempts at righteousness, while God's provision of coats represents divine grace through Christ. Hopkins argues that clothing choices should reflect Christ's righteousness, challenging Christians to consider whether their attire points to their faith. He concludes by noting that modesty in covering is not solely a woman's issue, but a responsibility for men as well, as Christ clothes His bride in righteousness.

Two things on my heart that I wanted to bring today. The first from Matthew chapter 5 beginning with verse 3. Most of you will recognize this as being from the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached in the history of the world. And Jesus begins with it, Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." A few minutes ago Michael prayed about pride. He said, let us not be proud in the opening prayer.

Let us not be proud. And then Mr. Beckler went through the Baptist Confession, chapter 8, paragraph 10, and these words kept jumping off the page at me. We need, we need, we need, we stand in need. We need His prophetic office, we need His priestly office, we need His kingly office, we need.

Again, Michael prayed about pride. Those who are poor in spirit recognize their need. Our people who recognize their deep spiritual poverty and their deep spiritual need. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." A former fellow elder, the late Don Stubblefield, used to pray every Sunday. You remember he would pray concerning the beatific vision.

How many remember you saying, oh Lord, one day we would see the beatific vision every single Sunday, in every prayer Sunday.� The beatific vision refers to believers' future beholding of God face to face in His unveiled glory. A thing that not one of us can do right now in these bodies of sin. Jesus begins, blessed, blessed, your version might say happy, but it's really more than just what we believe or we perceive to be happiness and how it's defined in our culture. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessedness refers to communion with God in the highest state of happiness, that state of supreme joy and completeness that all believers will enjoy in the presence of God in glory when we are ushered into God's presence one day to behold the beatific vision, God face to face in His unveiled glory.

That blessed state, however, begins right here and now on earth. Blessed are the poor in spirit. In the sense that believers are blessed, we are enjoying the highest state of happiness and joy of all God's creatures in our communion with Him in Christ through the Spirit right now here on earth. Blessed are the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are those who recognize their need and they're those who recognize their unworthiness before God.

They are those who recognize that they are unworthy of the grace of God and that they're deserving of God's wrath. The poor in spirit are those who humbly and meekly come before God recognizing their spiritual poverty and their spiritual emptiness and their need, their need, their need for a Savior. The poor in spirit are those who, dying to themselves, cry out to God in Repentance and faith for mercy and pardon. The church in Revelation chapter 3 was not such a church. They said, I am rich and in need of nothing.

That was how they esteemed themselves. But God said, you're poor, blind, and naked, and you need to see your spiritual poverty. Jesus said, except you humble yourself as this little child that he was holding in his arms, you won't enter into the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisee trusted in himself and his works. The publican would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven but beat upon his chest crying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.

God, be merciful to me a sinner. God, be merciful to me a sinner. Matthew 23 verse 12, Jesus said, whoever therefore shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Blessed are the poor in spirit who see their deep spiritual need and come to God humbly in repentance and faith for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such.

Amen. And then second, I wanted to talk for a moment about modesty. I pray God might be pleased to use this short talk for His glory. I prefer to talk when I talk on the issue of modesty, so much controversy about just the Word and Scripture, but I prefer to talk about the subject using the biblical terms nakedness and covering, Nakedness and covering, which we see throughout Scripture. Each generation of the church in America and the West, if you just – I've been around long enough to see it, but if you just trust me, if you haven't seen it in your lifetime, each generation of the church in America and the West uncovered themselves more than the generation before them.

That's just what happens. That's what's been going on since about the 1930s. Before that, 30s and 40s, Before that it wasn't so, but we're just continuing to do that. And with every step in the direction towards total nakedness, the generation that grows older and we wonder why, why is the generation after us uncovering more than we did? And then they grow up and they think everything's fine and they look at the generation after them and they go Why are they uncovering more than us?

Everyone just does it. It's just one generation after another but I like to talk to you about this just for a moment about this in relationship to Nakedness and covering Genesis chapter 3 is a good place to start It's a good place to look at the issues of nakedness and covering. Adam and Eve, after their plunge into rebellion against God, we read, knew that they were naked. But They thought that their nakedness was sufficiently covered with aprons that they made to cover their shame. But God comes along and He makes them coats of skins.

The same word coats there is used in many other passages as robes. Aprons cover the most private areas of the body. The coats, as it's rendered in other places, robes cover everything. And when we read these things, people ask, do I think that means we're all supposed to start adopting the, wearing robes and wearing coats that go all the way down to our ankles or what have you. And I respond, I say, we're not talking about fashion here.

This isn't talking about fashion. We're not talking about fashion. We're talking about covering. You see the difference between the covering that was sufficient in the mind of man, I cover my most private parts, our most private parts, Adam and Eve by the way, I just see Eve, Adam and Eve, I cover our most private parts. God says, no, here's covering.

And He covers their bodies. Adam and Eve, really you could say made the first clothes, but they weren't really clothes. They made the first clothes, aprons, and they covered their most private parts. But God makes the true clothes, the first real clothing, and He covers all their nakedness. And God's purpose for clothing Adam and Eve was to be a picture of the righteousness of Christ.

This is a picture of the righteousness of Christ by which the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve alone could be covered. When we choose our clothing each day, men and women, sons and daughters, as Christians we should be thinking of Christ and Him crucified. We should be thinking, does my clothing, does the clothing that I'm going out, that I'm going to put on my body today and wear out there in the world today, does it point people to the righteousness of Christ, which covers all shame, Or does it affirm the nakedness of our first parents in their shame? Is my covering closer to the covering of Adam and Eve's aprons, or is it closer to the coats provided by God which points to Christ and him crucified? I'll close this out just telling a quick story.

A woman told me that she was out shopping one day and another woman came up to her and she stood there right in front of her and she looked her up and down with just this disgusted look on her face and then indignantly said, are those your Jesus clothes? She didn't know how to respond. I thought about that and I said a good response would have been this, I am so honored that you identified me with Jesus by the things that I'm wearing. Can I tell you about Him? Can I tell you about what Jesus did to cover my sin and shame?

He was stripped naked and beaten and nailed to a cruel Roman cross, where he took my sins on himself and suffered and died to pay my sin debt and clothed me a vile sinner in his perfect robe of righteousness." I'll just end with this. Ultimately, the issue of nakedness and covering, husbands need to understand, and fathers it's our issue. People look at it they say what's a woman's issue? No, It's a man's issue, it's a husband's issue because Christ is the one who clothes His bride in His perfect robe of righteousness. Christ is the one who clothes his bride in his righteous robe.