Let's turn now in our Bibles
to Matthew chapter five. Someone's phone or something
is going off. Car alarm, okay. Matthew chapter five and we'll
read the first 10 verses. 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. As I was preparing the notes
for the message this morning, I thought about the fact that
our Lord was preaching, as we saw last week, to the multitudes
as well as to his disciples. And the multitudes, of course,
would mean the Jewish people. Our Lord himself was born of
David, the son of David. He was a Jew. They had been taught,
and most of them were convinced, that when the Messiah came, he
would set up a kingdom in this world, a kingdom of power, a
kingdom of great glory, much like had been the kingdom when
David had reigned years before and Solomon. And it's interesting
that those to whom the Lord is speaking, he mentions kingdom
twice in these Beatitudes. The first Beatitude, blessed
are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And the last
one, blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They were looking
for a kingdom in this world. The Apostle Paul in Romans tells
us that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost. They were looking for a material
kingdom. And you know, it's sad to say
that there are people today, Christian people today, who are
taught of a kingdom in this world, a Jewish kingdom in this world. Dispensationalism is pretty well
accepted today in most so-called Christian churches. And that
was what the Jews were looking for when the Lord came the first
time. And they missed his coming. And
it's sad to say that people today are still looking for a kingdom
in this world, a kingdom that the Jews will be the superior
ones, and they shall reign over all the world. The kingdom, our
Lord said, his kingdom is within you. It's within you. He sets up his
throne within his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is reigning
today. He's reigning in the hearts of
every one of us here this morning who know Him as our Lord and
Savior. We have a King. He's not going
to be King. He is King. He's up on the throne
at the Father's right hand, ruling and reigning. He's not some pitiful
Jesus that men talk about so much, but He's the King of kings
and Lord of lords. And He reigns, and there's not
a mosquito. There's not a mosquito that flies
in this world that is somehow outside of His control. He reigns
and rules today over all things and all places at all times. And He reigns in the hearts of
His people. If He's not your King, if He's
not your Lord, He's not your Savior. He must be both Lord
and Savior. When you bow to Him, you no longer
are the ruling king of your life. Now you have a new king, and
that master is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now these Beatitudes,
these first Beatitudes, I mentioned last time that they are characteristics
of God's people. They're characteristics of those
in whom God the Holy Spirit works a work of grace in their heart. And the first ones, especially
the first four, they sort of follow the order in which we
experience conversion. And that is, first of all, poverty
of spirit. Poverty of spirit. mourning over
our sin. And then, blessed are the meek.
We looked at the first two last time, and today we're going to
be looking at the third and fourth beatitude. Blessed are the meek. Now, in many ways, at least for
me, this is the most difficult of all of these Beatitudes to
really define. I know this, that there are many
scriptures, when you begin to look at the word meek and meekness,
there are many scriptures where you find this word and it's usually
attached to lowliness, lowliness, meekness and lowliness. They
go together. For instance, an example in Ephesians
4 verses 1 and 2, Paul, writing to the believers, said, I, therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation, and that word vocation is the calling, that you walk
worthy, your life in this world. You don't want to bring reproach
upon your Lord, upon your Savior, upon the gospel, that we walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with, now notice,
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love. And there are many other verses
of scripture I could take us to this morning where we see
meekness and lowliness. They're connected together. In
fact, remember the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly. They go together, many verses
of scripture. And for that reason, most people
say, well, blessed are the meek. It simply means those who are
humble, humility. Well, that's part, that's part,
no doubt, of what is meant by meek, humility, but that's not
all. I want to say something I said
last week again, and that is these Beatitudes, these characteristics
or qualities, they are not qualities that we bring with us when we
come into this world. They're not natural temperaments
that some people have, natural dispositions that some people
have. Some people are born with just
an easygoing spirit. The last thing they want is confrontation. As that old saying is, they go
along to get along. And they'll go along even with
error. They'll go along evil with evil,
just to get along. That's not what this word meekness
means. People have that temperament.
There's no doubt about it. One writer said some people are
just naturally born nice. They're just nice. Some people
aren't. That's not what meekness means. These are not temperaments that
we bring with us when we are born into this world. These are
characteristics that God the Holy Spirit works in us, that
he makes us like this. A good example of this is in
Numbers chapter 12 and verse 3 concerning Moses. This is what
we read there. Now the man Moses was very meek. He was very meek. Above all the
men which were upon the face of the earth, he was meek. Now some people, they connect
meekness with weakness. And they think, well, if a person's
meek, that means he's weak. No, Moses was the meekest man
that scripture tells us upon the face of the earth at that
time. But just think about him when
he came down from that mountain, mountain of Mount Sinai, and
he had those two tables of the commandments. And he comes down
to a scene where Israel, the nation of Israel, they're dancing
around that idol, that calf. And you see how he confronts
them. This is the meekest man. And
he throw, in anger, the scripture says, in anger, he threw down
those tablets. And the law, of course, it's
a picture, isn't it? That the law that God gave was
broken even before they agreed to it. And of course, they did
eventually agree to that covenant, that Old Testament covenant,
that law that was given to Israel. But they broke it. It was a conditional
covenant. That's something to keep in mind
when we talk about a covenant. There are conditional covenants
that God gave with the nation of Israel. and it was conditioned. Staying in the law in the land
of Canaan and being prosperous and being prospered by the Lord
was conditioned upon their obedience. And of course they were disobedient.
And so the covenant was null and void. But the covenant of
grace, the everlasting covenant, this is a covenant that brings
salvation to sinners. This covenant was made before
the foundation of the world. In this covenant, the Lord Jesus
Christ stood as a surety for his people. And all of the blessings
were predicated upon him, upon Christ keeping the law, which
he did. He kept the law perfectly. And so the blessings of the covenant,
eternal life, forgiveness of sins, justification, sanctification,
all of these wonderful things, adoption, they're all given to
us freely because Christ obeyed the law. He kept the law. But Moses was a very meek man, meekest
man, the scripture says. But yet we see that there came
a time, a place when he showed he wasn't a weak man. He stood
up. Actually, I think Joshua was
with him, but they were two against a million people there. And think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've already mentioned that verse when he said, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart. But
think of him when he went into the temple, and there was those
money changers, and there was cattle, and there were birds,
and they were making profit, and they had made his house,
he said, my house shall be called a house of prayer. And what did
they, they had made it a house of merchandise. A place where
they bought and sold, and the Lord Jesus Christ made a scourge
of some kind. And what did he do? He drove
them all, the scripture says, in Mark, drove them all out of
the temple. And by all, driving them all
out of the temple, that means the animals, He drove them out
of the temple. He turned over the tables, the
money changing tables. He drove the money changers out
of the temple. But he was the most meek person
who's ever lived. So don't confuse meekness with
weakness. That's something that we're like
to do, but that's not what meekness is. Well, what is this meekness? Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. What is this
meekness? Well, we notice it follows in
this order, first of all being poor in spirit, spiritually poor,
then mourning over that spiritual poverty, and now this meekness. Lloyd-Jones, in his His work
on the Sermon on the Mount, he defined meekness in this way. The man who is truly meek, now
listen, take stock, let's see if we're meek or not. The man
who is truly meek is one who is amazed that God and man can
think of him as well as they do. and treat him as well as
they do. That's a meek person. Knowing
himself, knowing what I am. You see, when I look at believers,
I look at you, those of you who know Christ, I think there's
no one here in this room who could be as wicked and sinful
as I am. I'm convinced of that. But most
likely you feel the same way. You see me and you see others.
No one else could be as wicked and sinful as I am. Why? Because
you see yourself, you know yourself to some extent, what's on the
inside. Others just see the outside.
A meek person is a person who recognizes what a vile and sinful
individual he really is, she really is, no matter what the
world says. Now, have you ever thought about
this? When that rich young ruler came
to the Lord and said, good master, what must I do to be saved? Our
Lord said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one. Think about that. There's none
good but one. Speaking about God, of course.
There's none, well now, his measurement, the Lord's measurement is certainly
different from what we use. We say, well, that's a good person.
And relatively, one person is good. Maybe another person is
not so good. But using God's standard, you
see what I'm saying? Using God's standard, God's unit
of measurement. There's none good. There's none. And his standard of measurement
is perfection, holiness. Perfect holiness, there's none
good. And a meek person is a person
who has been taught by God the Holy Spirit to see something,
and I believe I said something. Because as we grow in grace,
we see more and more. We see more and more what debtors
we are to the grace of God. Isn't that your experience? It
is mine. We see more and more how God, the pure and holy Lord
God that he is, how, as Lloyd-Jones said, how he could think as well
and do as well for me as he does. A person sees that who is meek. But there's something else, as
I said, humility, that's one part of it. But there's something
else that's very important that is included in this meekness,
and that is a teachable spirit. A teachable spirit. A meek person
is never a person who knows it all. You've met people like that,
haven't you? We all have. He knows everything,
no matter what subject you bring up. He's going to top you. He's going to beat you at it,
no matter what you're talking about. A meek person is never
a know-it-all person. And especially, he's a teachable
person. That is, he submits to the teaching
of God the Holy Spirit, the teaching of the scriptures. Is that what
the Bible says? I accept that. The Bible says there's none good.
The Lord Jesus Christ said there's none good. But oh, I think of
myself as being pretty good. Well, a meek person, does the
Bible say that? Did the Lord Jesus Christ say
that? Absolutely. Well, that's true. We esteem
all his precepts to be right. All his precepts, all the word
of God. God says it, that's settled,
it's settled. You know, you've heard people
say, well, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. Whether
you believe it or not, makes no difference. God said it, it's
settled, it's settled. There are a number of examples
of meekness, of people, characters in the Bible who we see meekness,
but one stands out to me in the Old Testament, and that's Abraham. Abraham, we know, was the one
that God called out of Ur of the Chaldees, told him to leave
his family. and to follow him, and he would
show him where he should go. And Abraham followed the Lord,
but he took his father and his nephew with him. Of course, they
came to one place and his father died there, but Lot, his nephew,
stayed with him. And when they come into the land,
they were both wealthy, they had big cattle herds, and there
began to be strife between Lot's herdsmen and Abraham's herdsmen. Now the land is before them. And we're made to believe that
one part of the land was fertile, perfect for raising cattle. And
another part of the land was rocky and not so well suited
for ranching. Now think about this. Abraham,
he's the oldest one. But what did he do? In a spirit
of meekness, he said, you make the choice. Lot, you make the
choice. And you know what Lot chose,
don't you? He chose the best part. Abraham said, OK. And he went the other way. But
when you think about that, what happened to Lot? What happened
to him? He chose the most fertile area. And no doubt he did well, his
herds did well, but he did so well that he ended up in Sodom,
didn't he? And he didn't just move into
Sodom. This is another lesson for all
of us here this morning. He didn't just move into Sodom
one day. No, he moved, he pitched his
tent towards Sodom, and then eventually we find he's in Sodom. And the Lord delivered him out,
his wife and his two daughters. But it turned out to be an awful
situation, didn't it? Yeah, he chose the best part.
Abraham, in meekness, he took the part that wasn't all that
great, but yet he continued with the Lord. Now the scripture here
says the beatitude is blessed are the meek for they shall inherit
the earth. That is taken from Psalm 37. Arthur Pate called it an Old
Testament promise with a New Testament meaning. Blessed are
the meek for they shall inherit the earth. What does that mean?
Well, it has a present application and a future application. A person
who is meek, he already has inherited the earth. Why? Because he's
satisfied. He's satisfied with God's provision. He's satisfied with God's providence. He's satisfied. You know, the
apostle Paul, He made this statement, he said, as having nothing, I
don't have anything is what he said, having nothing but possessing
all things. He inherited the earth even in
this life. He was satisfied. Some people,
you know some, I know some, they're never satisfied. No matter what
they have, it's always more, more, more. like the horse leech
in the book of Proverbs, always wanting more. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth now and in the future
also. There's a future application,
of course, because the meek, the saved, will enjoy the new
heavens and the new earth. Now the second beatitude here,
blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. I want to point something out
here that is very, very important. I mentioned last week that the
word blessed means happy. Happy are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Well, doesn't
everyone want to be happy? Isn't that the goal of most people
just to be happy? Want to be happy. But here's
something to notice. It isn't. Blessed are they that seek after
happiness. You see, some people seek after
happiness, not after righteousness. And so they're never happy because
they're seeking after happiness. Happiness is, I might say, a
byproduct of seeking after righteousness, hungering and thirsting after
righteousness. Happy are they. Now, why? Some people, they don't see that. And they don't see that happiness
comes by hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and it never
comes by hungering and thirsting after happiness. If you set your
mind to hunger and thirst after happiness, you probably will
never be happy, never be blessed according to this this beatitude. But those who hunger and thirst
after righteousness, they are happy. Blessed, happy are they. Now, what do we mean by righteousness? Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Well, let me just say it includes
justifying righteousness. And I'll tell you why I say includes
in just a moment. It includes justifying righteousness. That's what the Apostle Paul
called the righteousness of God in the book of Romans. Look with
me in Romans chapter 10. Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. Brethren, verse 1. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now Israel, of course, he's speaking
about his kinsmen according to the flesh. He was an Israelite. And his prayer and his heart's
desire for his nation, the Jews, was that they might be saved.
For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge." They were very zealous. Paul knew, he spoke
by experience, didn't he? He had been very zealous, very
zealous in the religion of the Jews until he met the Lord, until
Christ revealed himself unto him. They have a zeal of God,
but it's not according to knowledge. Now, what was it that was not
according to knowledge? They were ignorant of God's righteousness. That is, the righteousness of
Christ. That's what he has reference
to. They were ignorant of the righteousness of Christ. The
righteousness of Christ is called the righteousness of God because
Christ is God. And that righteousness is his
perfect obedience to God's law. Perfect obedience. And that righteousness
they were ignorant of. They have not going about to
establish their own righteousness. In other words, by their doings.
by their zeal, by their attempting to keep the commandments, the
law, keeping the Sabbath day, paying their tithes, and we could
go on and on. They were zealous in doing these
things, and they thought by their works, by what they were doing,
that they would have a righteousness that God would accept. You see, they were ignorant of
God's righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness. They had not submitted to the
righteousness of God. How does a person submit to the
righteousness of God? He believes God. He trusts in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham believed God and it was
counted or imputed unto him for righteousness. There's people
all over this country, all around the world today, who are doing
this very same thing. They think by their religious
doings that they are going to be righteous before God by their
works. Paul made it very clear, by the
works of the law shall no man be just before God. Have you
submitted to the righteousness of God? Have you? Have you submitted to Christ,
trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior? That's what, blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. I need a
righteousness. I'm going to stand before God.
You're going to stand before God one day. Do you see that?
And the only way that you're going to be accepted, the only
way that He's going to say to you, Enter in to the joy of the
Lord is that you have a righteousness that He will accept. And that's
only His righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. Do you hunger and
thirst for that righteousness? To be justified before God. That's your goal, your aim in
life. Take the world. But give me Jesus. I must have this righteousness. That's the most important thing. Is it? Is it to you? Well, I've
got some good news for you. If you hunger and thirst for
it, the promise is they shall be filled. No question about
it. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now,
I said that it includes justifying righteousness. But once you have
been justified, that's yours. It's your righteousness now.
It can never be taken from you. You're just before God. But this
beatitude is in the present tense. We continue to hunger and thirst
after righteousness, not justifying righteousness. Do you see what
I'm saying? Not justifying righteousness. We have that. When we believe
in Christ, we're given that. That's imputed to us. But we
continue to hunger and thirst after righteousness. What does
that mean? It's kind of like the Apostle
Peter said when he wrote, to whom coming? Speaking about coming
to Christ. There is an initial coming to
Christ. Oh, happy day that fixed my choice
on thee, my Savior and my God. Yes, there is an initial coming
to Christ, but we don't just come one time and that's it. We come the first time and we
keep coming. We keep looking. We keep trusting
in Christ. We persevere in the faith. We are preserved by God and we
persevere. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Let us run with race. Let us
run with patience, a race that is set before us. How are we
to run that race? Looking unto Jesus. The same
thing is true here. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. And let me say something here. When a person loses physically,
a person says, well, I'm just not hungry. I don't have any
appetite. Get up in the morning, your wife
says, Honey, what would you like for me to fix you for breakfast?
I don't want anything. Lunchtime. I don't know. I don't
want to. That's a bad sign and health
wise, when a person loses their appetite. And the same thing
is true spiritually. When a person loses their appetite
for the things of God, when a person no longer hungers for the word
of God, one of the sure marks that the Lord has converted a
person is a person wants to read his word. A person wants to be in the word
of God, wants to know what God says. And not only read the Word of
God, but hear the preaching of the Word of God. I'm tired of
that preaching. I'm tired of that preacher. He
says the same thing every time I go. Amen. I hope I do. He says the same
thing every time I go. He tells me to keep looking to
Christ. and yet some of you just keep
coming back. Just like over the years. 66 years, yesterday, Pat and I have
been married. I've never got tired of coming
to the table. When she says, honey, supper's
ready, I'm ready, you know? And the same thing about the
gospel, right? Yeah, we're going to meet Sunday
morning. We're going to be there to study
the word of God. Oh, I've got a hunger. I want
to be there. It's too much trouble. I'd rather
be out somewhere else. No, that's a bad sign. It's a
bad, a healthy person has a hunger and even a thirst for prayer,
for the word of God, for fellowship with God's people. You know,
we've got a lot of technology today, don't we? And some of
it's so good, such a blessing. This streaming, for instance.
We stream our services here. And now that was never intended
for people who could be here just to stay home and watch the
streaming. We've got a lady in our congregation
who cannot come. She's physically disabled. That's
a blessing to her. That's a great blessing. And
there's others here, I understand that too. Some of you because
of the distance, I understand that. But that streaming cannot
take the place of fellowship, of us coming together, encouraging
one another. That's what Paul in Hebrews said,
not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as a manner
of some is. Now, we encourage one another
by our presence, and we discourage one another by our absence. But look at the promise, they
shall be filled. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Reminds me of the line of that
hymn that goes something like this. All the fitness he requireth. Right? For you to look to Christ,
for you today, right now, here in this building, for you to
trust in Christ. You say, I don't know if I'm
ready. I don't know if I'm qualified.
Listen, all the fitness he requireth is that you feel your need of
Him. Do you have that need? Do you
feel that need of Christ, of knowing Him? Do you hunger and
thirst after righteousness? Well, you have God's promise,
you shall be filled. Well, we're going to sing a