Some of you will be aware that
last week we spoke on the two statements in the third and the
fourth verses. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. This evening, as God
may help and be with us, we'll speak on the next two, verses
five and six. And they read, 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. Well, as we spoke last week,
it's quite amazing how the Lord goes through these various points
and things which, naturally speaking, we wouldn't probably say that
such are blessed. But we see the Lord speaks very
positively and tells us in each case, apart from the very last,
that we shall. And when we read the shalls in
the Word of God, we know it's a very positive statement. So here we have this in the fifth
verse blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
well naturally Many are not meek, but it's a wonderful thing if
God gives us Submission to his will to submit ourselves to the
will of God to his word sometimes to his correction and yet all
to follow his directions and comply with the designs and we
prove how gentle he is toward all men and therefore we should
follow his gracious example and also be gentle to all men the
God's servant Titus as Paul wrote to Titus and he said this in
the third chapter to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. We must remember
these are the words of God, they're not the words of man, and therefore
he is exalting all to be gentle in our approach to people, to
be gentle in our life, And it's a great blessing if it is so.
And as such, of course, the words tell us such, are blessed. Blessed are the meek. What a wonderful favour that
is. And then we see there's a great
and glorious promise. Blessed are the meek for they
shall inherit the earth. Well, clearly that can't be the
earth as it is. It wouldn't be anything good
to inherit the earth as it is. But we know there will be a new
heaven and a new earth. We know that of course when time
shall be no more that Lord in his great sovereignty will cause
all this earth as we know it today to be burnt up and there
will be a new earth and therefore the psalmist also tells us in
the 37th psalm and the 11th verse he says but the meek shall inherit
the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. So we see how it's important
for us today to remember this great statement, blessed are
the meek, and sometimes perhaps if our old nature gets the better
of us and we're not being very meek. We should remember the
encouraging words of the Saviour himself who tells us, blessed
are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. That means those who
are blessed with his attitude will be found in glory at last. And surely we can thank God for
such a great statement. And then in the sixth verse we
read, And this of course refers to a spiritual condition. Righteousness
of course is A spiritual condition and righteousness
is here put really for all spiritual blessings. It's an encompassing
statement. therefore what a blessing it
is if we hunger and thirst after spiritual blessings naturally
mankind hungers and thirsts after the poor things of this world
seeks after those things which Solomon describes as vanity of
vanities and yet for the the vast majority of mankind That's
what they are doing. Well, here we have an encouraging
statement for us today where the Lord says, blessed, blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst, not after natural prosperity,
not after the vain things of time, but after righteousness,
after the blessing of the Lord. And what a mercy that is. you
know we're told in the book of Psalms again how many times the
Psalms are so appropriate and have such suitable words and
we read in Psalm 37 but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall
delight themselves in the abundance of peace well that's surely a
desire is it not to hunger and thirst after these things to
hunger and thirst after these things which are good. And so
may we recognise the wonderful favour that God gives to us.
And the Lord says, again in the Psalms, who shall ascend into
the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy
place? He shall receive the blessings
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Well that's a blessing if you
and I are kept by the power of God. And I found indeed, ascending
into the hill of the Lord, really the holy place, desiring truly
to feed spiritually. We're often very concerned about
our natural food. We don't like to miss a meal,
do we, naturally. And we don't like to really,
we've had to go without food for a day, it might be a real
hardship, and for a week it would be much worse. But when it comes
to spiritual hunger and thirst, it's good sometimes just to compare
the two and to see the difference and how we put the things of
time, the things of natural means before the great things of God. And yet the Lord speaks very
clearly, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
and a wonderful promise, for they shall be filled. Think of
it, to be filled with the glory of the truths of the gospel.
filled with that union and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. To
walk with the Lord, and not walk contrary to the Lord, and not
put other things first, but to put the things of God first in
our lives. They are the most important,
they are the principal desires. To be found truly worshipping
this great and gracious God, and to be found then with that
spiritual hunger and thirst after righteousness. I wonder whether
we really do hunger and thirst after righteousness. after the
blessings of God, or whether we just pass them by in a casual
way. It's very easy to become lukewarm. The devil wants you and me to
be lukewarm. He doesn't want us to hunger
and thirst after righteousness. But what a blessing if we are
enabled to earnestly do those things. And the Lord says, he
hath filled the hungry with good things and by comparison and
the rich hath he sent empty away. Well what a mercy if you and
I are blessed then with spiritual desires and seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness believing that all these things,
all necessary things will be added unto us. Well the Lord
graciously has given us these words of instruction As we term
it, the Sermon on the Mount, the first time we really read
about the Lord's words in his fifth chapter of Matthew and
how pertinent they were then and they are to us today. And it would be a great blessing
if you and I, given grace therefore, to follow these statements. 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. Well may God be gracious to us
and bless us.