Okay, turn in your Bibles with
me to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. And we'll be in verse 5 this
morning. Matthew chapter 5, verse 5. You can look in your outlines there,
in your bulletin, and you can follow along with me. Matthew
5, verse 5 says, this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, and
He says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Now, meekness is something that
we want to look at here this morning. is a disposition of
the Spirit within a believer toward God. Meekness is the disposition of
Spirit within a believer toward God. And it affects his disposition
in spirit toward sinners, towards others in this world. Believers
bow to God. They bow to what God says about
Himself, about what God says about them, about Christ being
the way of salvation. They bow to His Word. And therefore,
this spirit of meekness has an effect on how they deal with
others in this world. Now, meekness towards others
has to do with a mild and gentle disposition. not easily provoked
when somebody does something against you. Ready to take offense. You're not ready to endure anything
to those that treat you shamefully or harshly. Now, he says here,
first of all, blessed are the meek. Now, first of all, this
spirit of meekness is not something that we can create. I can't create
it in me, and you can't create it in you. The spirit of meekness
is of the Spirit of God. That's why the word blessed comes
before here in this. In Galatians 5.22, it says the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness. goodness and faith meekness Temperance
and against these things there is no law. These are of the Spirit
of God Our text says the man whom God has blessed is meek
I've told you before that these art things that we strive to
attain and we come to little by little This is what a believer
is He's blessed by God and therefore he's poor in spirit He's blessed
by God and therefore he mourns his sin. He's blessed by God
and therefore he has a meek spirit. Now, secondly, since the believer
submits to God, and this is first and foremost, meekness is submission
to God. And because the believer does
this, the believer will not compromise, he endeavors not to compromise
the plain truth of God, no matter who it is to whom he's speaking.
In 1 Peter 3.15, we read this, sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts. Regard God, see God, bow to God,
know that God is above all, that He's holy, He's just, He's right. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man,
every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that's in you with
meekness and fear. gentleness and Fear it means first of all
you don't have a proud arrogant spirit and an irreverent spirit
first and foremost to God as you're telling somebody this
or about God as you're telling somebody and Then you are meek
in the way that you tell somebody now There is a fake meekness. There is a show of meekness. that's highly regarded by man,
highly regarded by sinners, but it's the disposition of spirit
that compromises the gospel, and compromise the gospel in
order to appear meek to other men, in order to appear as if
there's some humility or meekness in the person. And really what
it is, is it's not meekness at all. God calls it, using wisdom
of words, God calls it making the cross of Christ of no effect.
In reality, it might appear to you as a spirit of meekness. But what it really is, is it's
a bold, defiant, stiff-necked, hard-hearted spirit of rebellion
toward God. It's totally the opposite of
meekness. It's designed to show... It's
man's way of thinking that we can we can attract people by
our way and our meekness and our doing instead of preaching
the truth to them or saying the truth to them. Indeed, be gentle
and meek towards somebody when you say the truth to them and
show them the Scriptures in truth, but show them the Scriptures
in truth knowing that it's God through the Spirit, through the
Scriptures that's going to break a man's heart and bring him to
Christ and not your meekness and your gentleness. That's not
going to bring him there. but sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts and give the reason of your hope with meekness and
fear." Do you remember when Paul said to the Corinthians, I was
with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling? He wasn't
there in weakness and fear and trembling because he was afraid
of the people. He was there in weakness and fear and trembling
as he submitted to God Almighty because what he had to say to
the people, first and foremost, he had to say in accordance with
God's Word. and he was fearful and trembling
and careful to make sure he said exactly what God said. So it
couldn't be misconstrued that you didn't walk out of there
understanding what he was talking about. That's what his fear was.
That's meekness. That's meekness. Let me give
you an example. In Daniel 3, verse 16. Daniel 3, verse 16. There was these three boys named
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. three of the brethren. And the
king Nebuchadnezzar had given a decree that anybody who didn't
bow to him would be thrown into a fiery furnace. And they didn't
bow. And word came back to the king.
And in Daniel 3.16 we read, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered
and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, We are not careful to answer
thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we
serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be
it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Now that came
across to King Nebuchadnezzar as a couple of proud, arrogant,
fellows. Those fellows were meek. Those
fellows were meek to God. And that's where meekness has
to start. And because they were meek before God Almighty, they
spoke the truth to this man. So that's the first thing. Then
a spirit of meekness, this spirit of meekness is needed to teach
the gospel. Because everybody that we come
in contact with hates the truth. Everybody that you come in contact
with who is unregenerate, who hasn't been called by the Spirit
of God's grace, hates the truth of the Gospel. And so they may
appear meek outwardly, but they're proud in the heart. And so when
this Gospel comes forth, you're going to have some opposition
that comes back with it. And so this spirit of meekness
that God gives is needful for the believer to teach somebody
and to do it without offense. They don't take offense when
somebody rejects it. Listen to what Paul said. He
told Timothy, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but
be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patience, in meekness, instructing
those that oppose themselves. If God, perventure, will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, So we have to teach
somebody, somebody that's carnal, that they may appear meek, but
they're acting in their flesh. They're doing everything with
a heavy hand. They're trying to accomplish
and get their way by striving and by their power and by their
might. They may appear very meek outwardly, but that's what they're
trying to do from the heart. They won't have anybody rebuke
them. They won't have anybody give them instruction. They won't
bow to that instruction. They're going to go on in their
In their outward appearance of meekness, but in their inward
pride, they can justify for not being rebuked. They're not following
instruction. They'll go on that way. But the
Lord says, for you to teach that person, You don't return the
way they treat you with that same heavy-handedness and that
same power and might, because that's not how God saves. He
saves through His Word, through the Gospel of Christ. And He
says, be patient, be apt to teach them from this Word, be meek,
and teach them. If God, perventure, will break
into their heart and give them a new heart and a new nature
to repent and believe God. Now, here's the next thing. Because
the believer submits to God, this spirit of meekness accepts
God's dealing with us in providence as good, even if it causes us
sorrow. Because this spirit of meekness
that's created bows to God. He trusts whatever takes place
in providence is for his good. And he bows to God's dealings
with him in providence. It's, if evil's inflicted upon
a meat man, he knows that it's permitted by God. It serves to
separate our affections from this world, and it'll serve to
make us rely more on our God. It'll cause us to trust that
God's the one providing for us. Listen to what the Scripture
says. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,
and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear
them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. Let me give
you an example. In Numbers 12, verse 1. This
is one that a lot of people go to to talk about the meekness
of Moses. But let me show you something
here about this meekness of Moses. In Numbers 12, there was two
named Miriam and Aaron that spake against Moses because he had
married an Ethiopian woman. Look here in Numbers 12. 1. And
Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. And then
there's a parenthesis says, Now the man Moses was very meek above
all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And then look what verse 4 says,
And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto
Miriam, Come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation.
And they three came out. And the Lord came down in the
pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle,
and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forth. You
know why? Verse 2 says, they came and they
said these haughty, proud words to Moses. You take too much on
you, Moses. The Lord hasn't just spoken by
you. He speaks by all of us, so we don't need you to try to
lead us all the time. And it says, Moses was meek.
Moses didn't rebuke him. Moses didn't fly off the handle
and get angry with them. Moses didn't turn around and
talk to them the same way that they talked to him. But here's
the point. He didn't have to. You know why? What's my point I'm making to
you? Whatever happens in Providence, the meek man knows God's on his
throne. God's going to turn this around
for my good. And before it gives us this parenthesis
and says Moses was more meek than any man on this earth, it
says Moses didn't even say a word. It don't say here Moses said
anything. But it said God heard Aaron and Miriam. And God came
down suddenly. Moses didn't even have to call
on God. He didn't have to say a word to Aaron, Miriam, or anybody. And God came forth suddenly and
He dealt with these fellas. And that's the point here. The
meek man knows that he doesn't have to take matters into his
own hands. He doesn't have to strive to turn people. He doesn't have to strive to
make things happen the way he wants them to happen because
his God's in the heavens. The meek man knows his God's
seated, the King of heaven and earth is seated at God's right
hand and he moves men's hearts. He'll turn to men. He'll come
and take up my cause. And that's the point here. The
Lord lifteth up the meek, he casteth the wicked down to the
ground. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He'll beautify
the meek with salvation. Joseph is an example. Joseph
went through all of the trials he went through. His brothers
had done all those things to him and he ended up, the king
promoted him to be the keeper of the storehouses in Egypt and
sent everybody to Joseph. And Joseph told his brothers,
you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. So the meek
man doesn't have to rebel. Now Christ is the one we need
to look to. Look here with me at Isaiah chapter
50. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 4. This is speaking of Christ Jesus
our Lord. But this is the heart that He
creates when His Spirit makes a man anew. This is the Spirit
of Christ and this is the Spirit that the believer has, the blessed
man has when Christ takes up his abode within him. Isaiah
50 verse 4, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned.
that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that
is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning,
he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God
hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned
away back. You see, this spirit of meekness
is first to God. This is speaking of Christ here,
the servant of God. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me,
therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old
as a garment. The moth shall eat them up. Scripture
says that the men held Jesus and mocked Him and smote Him,
and they blindfolded Him and hit Him on the face and said,
if you're a prophet, tell us who hit you. Who was it that
hit you? And it says when He was reviled,
He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened
not. He committed Himself to him that judgeth righteously.
who is His own self, bear our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes we're healed. He's the righteousness we live
unto. And if you really want to obey God, we don't fly to
the law when somebody appears to break the law. We don't fly
to the law in our own justifying hearty spirit and try to condemn
that person with the law. Why? Because the spirit of the
law is, He came and bear our own sins in His body, bearing
these things that were against the law and put away our sins
and is risen to the right hand of God and now we're alive unto
Him, committed unto Him. That's why He says, are you there
in Matthew 5? Look at Matthew 5 verse 38. This
is the law. This is the spirit of the law
that's within the believer, that spirit of meekness. Listen. You've
heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist
not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man
will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have
it. Let him have your cloak also,
and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go two miles with
him. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would
borrow of thee, turn not thou away." The meek man is not trying
to make something happen by his own spirit, his own power. The thing I love about this,
look at the second point here in Matthew 5 verse 4, verse 5. Now blessed are the meek. You'd
be blessed to be able to submit to God, to be able to treat brethren
this way, to teach those that oppose you this way, that oppose
themselves. to bow to God's dealings with
you in providence, to know that my God is going to take up my
cause, who can condemn me because of what Christ the Lord has accomplished
for me? This is the thing. He gives us
a paradox here. Look, he said, verse 3, blessed
are the poor in spirit. You mean theirs is the kingdom
of heaven? Blessed are they that mourn They're the ones that are
comforted. And He says, blessed are the
meek, those that aren't striving to try to gain and aren't striving
to make things happen by their power and might. You know what
this whole world thrives on? Living by the sword. If you want
it, you've got to get it and take it from somebody and make
it happen if you want it. The Lord said, the person that
has been blessed, not to be that way, but to trust Christ Jesus
the Lord alone. to trust Him, to submit to Him,
to bow to Him, to commit everything into His hands. That person,
though the world looks at him and says, he's a pushover. You
can walk all over him. That man won't ever have anything.
God says, that man who's striving to get everything in this world
will have nothing. And the man that this world says
is nobody and nothing because he don't strive to make it happen,
that man is going to have everything. I'm going to give him everything.
You know what inheritance is? It's absolutely free. The father
chooses the son that will have the inheritance and gives it
to him. And they can't earn it. They can't do anything to earn
it. He just gives it to them. Those that are meek, that are
made to rest in God alone and trust Him alone and deal with
men. You know, the man who puts on the show outwardly that he's
meek, rebuke him. and find out real quick if he's
meek or not. You fly in your face and his own inner heart
betrays that outward show. The wise man will take rebuke
and he'll hide it away in his heart and think about it and
be corrected by it, but not the haughty man. I've seen a lot
of folks that appeared much more meek, naturally speaking, than
others on the outside. But the one who didn't appear
as meek by the carnal eye was the meek one. He would hear you,
and follow you, and trust you, and look into the Word to see
if these things were so, and was a meek man because he submitted
to God. And he trusts God. The other
man, I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to get it with an iron
fist. Oh, but I'm going to make you
think I'm just as meek as a lamb while I'm doing it. God said,
that's hypocrisy. That man won't have nothing.
But that meek man, he's going to have everything. I'll give
you something to go home and read. Go home and read the book
of Esther. And let me just give you some
highlights. There was two men in that book that are predominantly
the two that I want to use as an illustration here. One of
them is Mordecai, and one of them is a man named Haman. And
Mordecai sat at the gate mourning most all the time. And this man
Haman was a prince. And he would go into the king
and when he talked to the king, oh, he was just so humble to
that king and he just said all the right words to that king.
And all the while, he was conniving and moving and trying his best
to destroy Mordecai. That's all he wanted to do. And
he was going to make it happen by his conniving. He'd go in
and talk so sweet and meek and gentle to that king and get something
from the king and go out and use it to try to get ready to
destroy Mordecai. And all Mordecai did was mourned,
and he petitioned the king through his daughter Esther. He petitioned
the king. That's all he did. And Haman went through all of
this conniving to get everything that he could. And Mordecai,
when Haman would come by the prince, and Haman would come
by Though he appeared, though he was meek in heart, meek to
God and trusting God and praying for God to deliver his people. When that man would go by, Mordecai
didn't stoop and bow to him. Mordecai stood up. He said, I'm
not going to bow to that man. That man's not the prince. That
man's not the, he's not the noble one. My king in heaven is the
noble one. The son of God, God the Father,
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, he's the noble one. He's
the Prince of Peace. And he wouldn't bow to him. And
Haman thought he's arrogant and proud and stiff-hearted. But
in reality, Haman was the one before God who was proud and
arrogant and stiff-hearted. And Mordecai was the meat man.
And Haman built this big old gallows and he was going to hang
Mordecai on it. And he went in one day and the
king was thinking about he had heard some good news about Mordecai
and he was going to give Mordecai keys to the kingdom. He was so
pleased with what he heard about Mordecai. And Haman came in,
and the king was thinking about it. And Haman didn't know who
the king was thinking about. And the king said, Haman, what
should I do to the man that I'm thinking about right now to honor? And Haman thought, well, who
else could he want to honor but me? I'm the best in the whole
kingdom. Who else could he want to honor
but me? See, his heart was proud and arrogant. And so he went
through this whole list of things. Give this man the best horse,
the finest coat, the crown off your head, and have the best
prince in the kingdom march him through the street and say, this
is what the king has done to the man he honors. And the king
said, That sounds good, Hammond. You take all this stuff and my
horse and go out there and get Mordecai and put him on the horse
and put the crown on his head and the coat on his back and
go through the street and make that proclamation." And Hammond
went through that street. Just think how he felt walking
that horse through that street and there's Mordecai sitting
on that horse and he's having to say that throughout the town.
And Mordecai had everything. Mordecai had everything given
to him, freely. And Haman died with nothing. He died with nothing. If you'd
have looked at the two with these eyes, you'd have said, that Haman's
a meek man and he'll get it all. Look at how the Lord's blessed
him. And if you'd have looked at Mordecai, you'd have said,
he won't bow. He's proud and arrogant. He don't
have anything. And it was just the opposite.
The way God says it is, is how it is. And the way we look at
things with these eyes, that's not how it is. And Christ said,
blessed is the meek man, for he shall inherit the earth. That's
right.