"Blessed Are The Meek"

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 5:5

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Well, this morning we continue on as we are working our way through the Beatitudes and now we've arrived at the third
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Beatitude in Matthew chapter 5, verse 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
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Now we have to remember that these blessings, this opening to the
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Sermon on the Mount is something declared by Jesus, it's not as we've said for the past two weeks now, it's not something conditional, it's not a carrot being dangled in front of anyone, that if you are meek or if you somehow muster up these qualities in your life, then you will receive this, rather Jesus is declaring what is already true of His people.
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His disciples had come to Him. Many others were hearing, they were at the base of the Mount, they were at the foot of the
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Mount, His disciples came to Him, He said this to them. It was a declaration of who they are in light of what
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God has done, in light of what Jesus was doing and would do in their midst. Blessed are the meek ones, they shall inherit the earth.
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Now this third Beatitude we want to consider in three parts and in a lot of ways we're going to be sort of working our way through a number of passages this morning and it's important that we see how so much of this is held together.
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As I said, the Beatitudes are almost like this dragnet that's been cast into the ocean of Old Testament references and Jesus is culling together so many streams and images and motifs in these opening
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Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. So we want to appreciate that, appreciate so much of how
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He's drawing and culling together Scripture to make this declaration, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
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So the first thing we want to consider is just the first part of verse 5. Who are the meek?
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Blessed are the meek, so who are the meek? What is meekness? And then secondly, we want to consider the second part of verse 5, they shall inherit the earth, so what's the inheritance?
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Then lastly, as sort of an exhortation as well as an example, we want to consider the pursuit of meekness.
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Meekness is something we need to pursue, an example that needs to be followed, something that needs to be put on in our lives and so that'll be where we close.
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So the meek, the inheritance, and the pursuit. So let's begin first with the meek,
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Matthew 5 .5, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
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Now the word meek, it's translated or could be translated gentle, mild, in fact it's often translated gentle.
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The word for gentleness or gentle in Greek is a derivative from the word for meek, praeutes.
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You have other examples of this in that language, it could be used of an animal that was tame, an animal that had been bridled.
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So you have this great contrast between an animal that is not domesticated, an animal that's wild, and yet it's been tamed, it's been, as it were, brought to heel.
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Now it's meek, relative or contrasting to what it had been.
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So who are the meek in Matthew 5 .5, who are the meek? Well first things first, as Matthew Henry wrote,
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Matthew Henry of course famous for his commentary on the Bible, but he actually wrote and published a discourse, it's well worth your time to read, it's not very long, and you can find several
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PDFs of it, you can probably find an audio version of it, it's called A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit, it's tremendous,
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I really enjoyed reading it this week. Matthew Henry says, the meek are those who quietly submit themselves to God, to His Word.
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The meek are those who rarely and are hardly provoked, but very easily pacified, and who would rather forgive twenty injuries than revenge even one, because they've learned to rule their own spirits.
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That's a great definition of meekness. Now he adds about eight other paragraphs to that definition, but this is what really stood out to me, a rule over one's own spirit.
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If we think of an animal being tamed, that's exactly what's taking place, an animal wasn't born into the wild in meekness.
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Wild animals are not meek creatures, in fact, I think of our cat, it's not, even though it's domesticated, it's not very meek at times, some of you have been nipped when you've visited us.
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It needs to be brought to heel, an animal needs to be tamed, and here's this example of one that's grown to rule over their own spirit.
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So it's not a natural disposition, he's always been mild -mannered. This is actually something that is spiritual.
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And because the spirit is at work in this one's life, the spirit is reigning and ruling in their life, now therefore they have a rule over their own spirit.
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That's the idea. I think of my maternal grandfather, who, you know,
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I wish I had spent so much time with him, but when you're young you're just ignorant and you don't realize how much you'll miss those opportunities once they're gone.
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But if I had one word to describe him, it would be meek. I have many memories of him,
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I don't have a single memory of him ever being harsh. And he was very quiet, almost to the point of being simple in a bad way, but it was really just his meekness.
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He hated being a bother to anyone. He had all sorts of strength, even as his body was falling apart and he couldn't taste, he couldn't hear, he couldn't practically do anything for himself, but there was this quiet strength within him.
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What a great ideal, what a great attribute, what a great thing to have on your tombstone.
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He was meek. In other words, he learned over many decades of life how to rule his spirit, how to constrain his flesh, how to curb his appetites, how to have a certain walk that was quiet and simple and above reproach in every respect.
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This is what meekness describes. And again, we're not talking about a natural disposition. This is a spiritually wrought meekness.
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It's wrought by the Spirit of God. Galatians 6 .1 says, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness.
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Paul's already assuming that only someone who has the spirit has any chance of developing and treating someone overtaken in a spirit of meekness.
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That others will just be torn asunder or frustrated or they will provoke or they'll fail in all sorts of ways, they'll lose heart, they won't persevere.
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Paul actually assumes not only do you need the spirit, even if you have the spirit, you still need a spirit of meekness.
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So this is something that is gradually developed in the life of a believer. And where it's developed, where it's being cultivated, where this seed is sprouting, blessed are you, blessed are the meek.
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Paul knows the difference. He says to the church at Corinth, what do you want? Do you want me to come to you with a rod?
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Or do you want me to come to you with a spirit of meekness? He knew the difference.
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He knew how to be bold, how to be harsh, how to take his apostolic authority and use it to crush the church at Corinth.
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He says, I could do that. In fact, he often rather apologizes for his bold speech.
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He says, I'm speaking like a fool to speak in this way. I could come in this way to you. I could come, it wouldn't be good if I come in this way to you.
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Is that what you want? I love the veiled threats that he throws in. Really, his whole letter is crafted with this rhetoric of meekness.
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He's imploring, he's beseeching, he's pleading with them. I worked at a seafood counter for a few years and I remember one summer approaching
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July 4th, they, you know, would get chicken lobsters in all the time and chicken lobsters, anything a pound and a quarter or less, would have a tank full of them.
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And then one year they brought in this behemoth, this gargantuan lobster. It took up like half the tank.
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The thing was huge. Every day I would just go and stare at it and marvel at its size.
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We couldn't put the rubber bands around its claw, especially the bigger claw. We had to duct tape that thing shut.
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The problem was we were waiting for someone to buy it. Weeks were rolling by and we were losing all sorts of profit because it was just crushing all the chicken lobsters.
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We would just go to the edge of the tank and crush, crush. So every day we're scooping out dead lobsters and we're like, we've got to get rid of this thing.
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We're losing money on this thing. I remember the legendary day someone bought it, you know, dragging this thing to the steamer.
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That was an impressive sight. That's like Paul. He's saying, I could be,
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I could crush you, but rather I come in a spirit of meekness. He knew the difference.
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In fact, gentleness, meekness, the same idea, same root. It's a fruit of the spirit.
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That's what Galatians 5 says, gentleness, meekness in this way. That's a fruit of the spirit. This is not a natural disposition.
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You've grown up, you're mild, you're generally not thrown off by much in life.
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You're pretty gentle. We're not talking about that. We're not talking to you. This is something wrought by the spirit of God. This is something that goes far deeper than disposition, far deeper than personality traits, far deeper than learning how to be passive, as is the fault of so many.
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Paul says, in fact, not only is it a fruit of the spirit, it's something that the spirit endeavors to do in the lives of his people.
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Ephesians 4, he says, I'm exhorting you, walk worthy of the calling with which you are called in all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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That's a capital S spirit, I believe. That's how our translation views it. I think that's right.
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What does the spirit desire? If we keep looking at Ephesians, that's very clear in chapters 2 through 4.
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If we look at 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 through 14, what is the spirit desiring to do in a church body? Unify.
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There's a unity that comes from the spirit of God. As far as Paul understands, how does that unity come about?
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How is it reinforced? How is it cultivated? Meekness. And what is meekness? Fruit of the spirit.
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Do you see? When there's a unity problem in the church, there's a meekness problem in the church.
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That's the point. Of course, it has to be spiritual rather than natural.
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It begins, as we've seen in Matthew 5, 3, with the first beatitude. It begins with those who are poor in spirit.
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Remember, the beatitudes are not isolated statements. These are not fortune cookies that you could take or leave as you will.
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This is an integrated whole. This is a sermon that's going somewhere. Every beatitude assumes and builds on the previous one.
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And so we begin with those who are poor in spirit. They're the ones who belong to the kingdom.
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And then we see the mourners. If you're poor in spirit, if you're so poor, so helpless that you're begging, as it were, you're mourning.
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I can't believe I'm like this. I can't believe I'm so helpless. I can't believe I have such need. I'm ashamed that I have these kinds of needs and failures.
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And so your hand is open as you're mourning. These are the ones that are comforted. And then we come to the third beatitude. What is the disposition spiritually wrought of those who are poor in spirit, of those who are mourning over their own sin and their own need?
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They're meek. They're meek. Now, as to the term itself, when we look at it in the
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Old Testament, the term anav, which is actually sometimes translated poor, although there's another word or web of words that could be used to describe the poor.
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So this is, again, where sometimes the veil of English is less helpful to making certain connections, as we'll see in Isaiah in a moment.
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But meek can be translated poor. Certainly it has that connotation, as we'll see, humble.
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At times, it stands behind affliction. The word for the afflicted, for those who are struck down or broken, this is all contained in this idea of meekness or what the
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Old Testament puts forth as the anavim, the meek. In Isaiah 29, we read, is it not yet a very little while till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field?
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And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest, and in that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind will see, and out of obscurity, out of darkness.
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Does this sound familiar? This is like Isaiah 61. We open the service with this, right? He's come to proclaim good news.
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We'll be in Isaiah 61 in a few minutes. He's come to proclaim good news. He's come to open the ears of the deaf, the eyes of the blind, that the lame would leap.
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The humble, we read, also shall increase their joy in the Lord. The poor among men shall rejoice in the
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Holy One of Israel. And that's the anavim, the meek. And notice the parallel, right?
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The humble increase their joy. The poor or the meek shall rejoice. This is a parallel statement.
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And so you see the idea of meek being poor. The third beatitude so closely related to the first beatitude, the poor in spirit or the meek, the meek or the poor in spirit.
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We find the same theme in Psalm 10, and there as well as throughout many of the
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Psalms and even in Isaiah or Jeremiah, you find that the meek ones, the poor ones, are the afflicted ones.
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They're the ones that are suffering under the hands of evil men. They're the ones that are broken by the judgment that God is pouring out upon the land.
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And so we see this connection, the needy, the meek, the afflicted.
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According to Charles Talbert, meek and poor, though different words in the beatitudes, different Greek words, they're practically synonymous, and we've already seen that.
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The meek are not just those who are mild -mannered, but they're those who are afflicted, mourning. Those who are deep in need, helpless.
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And so we come back to Isaiah 61, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor, that is, to the meek, to the unhealed.
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He sent me to heal the brokenhearted. And now you see this language of oppression, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, you see?
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These meek ones, they're not just needy as far as their daily bread is concerned, they're bound, they're in captivity, they're being oppressed, they're afflicted, that's all background.
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And as Isaiah 61, Jesus defines His ministry opening in Luke 4 with these words, so also we're brought back right to Isaiah 40, another passage we'll see in a few minutes.
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Here this one has come to preach good tidings. Here this one has come to say comfort, yes, comfort my people.
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But really the central draw for the third beatitude is Psalm 37, verse 11.
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Commentators I think are right to point this out, this is essentially the launching point for the third beatitude.
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Let me begin in verse 9, Psalm 37, we'll get to verse 11. Again notice the context, captivity, oppression, tyranny, affliction, judgment, also need, the affliction of poverty, being helpless.
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Verse 9, evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth, for yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more.
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Indeed, you'll look carefully for his place, but it will be no more. And here's verse 11, but the meek shall inherit the earth, and the meek shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
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Now translators made a decision to translate the inheritance as the earth, here in Psalm 37.
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Same word, arets could be translated land. And if we're thinking of the people of God in the time that Psalm 37 is written, we have a good reason to want to translate that as the land, the land of Abrahamic promise.
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But by the time we get to Matthew 5, as we'll see momentarily, there's good reason that translators translate this term as earth.
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But I want to look at Psalm 37 through the lens of land, at least just here, we're going to get there in a moment when we talk about the inheritance, but again, consider the context, consider what we know of Isaiah already, what we know of Jeremiah, consider the judgment that brought
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Israel into captivity, brought them into this kind of oppression, the poor, as it were, crying out, being utterly helpless, and now if they were already poor in the land of their own countrymen, in the land that God had provided, how will they help themselves now that that land has been conquered and devastated, and their people have been dragged away?
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Evil doers now have been cut off. But God is saying those who wait on the
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Lord, they'll inherit the land. A little while, the wicked will be no more, you'll look for the wicked's place, but you won't find it, why?
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The meek will inherit it. The meek will inherit the land. And what comes with this inheritance?
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They delight themselves in the abundance of peace, in the fullness of God's shalom.
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This picture of wholeness. Were you helpless and empty? Now you've been made whole. God has brought peace, he's brought shalom.
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Meekness, in other words, is rooted in this waiting upon God to deliver, even through judgment.
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God sends judgment, and people cry out and wait, being poor and helpless, for Him, even through judgment, to bring forth deliverance.
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That's the context of Psalm 37. That's the context of Isaiah. And we saw this last week, this great definition by Donald Hagner on the term blessed, rather than being happy in some mundane sense, right?
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You know, good in a believer's home, very bad choice of word in an unbeliever's home.
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This little wall painting that says blessed, you know, because blessed is not just a sort of mundane happiness.
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It really is a waiting upon the Lord. This is what Hagner defined it as. Rather than happiness in the mundane sense, it refers to a deep inner joy of those who have long awaited the salvation promised by God, and who are now beginning to experience its fulfillment.
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In other words, even the beginning experience of fulfillment doesn't push away that anticipation, that expectation of more.
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That's what it means to be blessed. We'll see that next week in the fourth beatitude, those who hunger, those who thirst.
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And so the term translated meek, taken through the Psalms, taken through the language of Isaiah, it draws us toward this eschatological hope.
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God will judge in righteousness, and yet in that judgment, He will deliver His people. They will have an abundance of peace.
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They'll inherit the land. When that judgment falls, they won't be, as it were, burnt or crushed by it.
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They'll be protected in such a way that not only does peace come, but the inheritance becomes theirs.
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God fulfills His promise to Abraham. And so that brings us secondly to the inheritance. Matthew 5 .5,
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again, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. As I mentioned,
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Psalm 3711 says the meek will inherit the arets, that could be translated as earth, could be translated as land.
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I think we probably begin with Matthew 5 and see why translators describe that as the earth.
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But more often than not, arets is almost always translated land in the Old Testament. And of course, the obvious reference is to the promised land, the land that God promised
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Abraham and his descendants. But earth is certainly correct. It's the right translation.
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It's certainly when we come to Matthew 5, again, you have the same dilemma. Do we translate this as earth or as land?
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The term could go in either direction. Certainly the translators are right. In light of the whole redemptive scope of what
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Christ is doing, we're not going backward to the land. We're rather looking forward to this global inheritance.
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This is all downstream from the promises of God in Genesis 1 and 2. And so we find that the logic of the translation sees that the land, the land, that immediate situation that the
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Israelites possessed, that that was a foreshadowing, a microcosm of the inheritance of the world.
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And the Pentateuch plants a seed that in the New Covenant sprouts into this reality. So when we're reading the prophecies of Isaiah, Isaiah has to speak in terms of the
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Gentiles, the nations from afar, the very ends of the earth, and the Gospel writers scoop all of that up.
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Gary Burge, if anyone's really interested to chase rabbits on this discussion, Gary Burge has some excellent, excellent writings on the land promise in the
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New Testament, B -U -R -G -E. Isaiah 60, just give you one of dozens of examples.
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Isaiah 60, beginning in verse 19, where Isaiah is prophesying of the future glory of Zion, of the promised land.
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The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you. The Lord will be to you an everlasting light.
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Does this sound familiar? Does this sound like Revelation? Your God will be your glory. The sun will no longer go down.
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Your moon will no longer withdraw itself. The Lord will be everlasting light to you. And the days of your mourning shall be ended.
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And also, your people shall all be righteous. They will inherit the land, the earth, forever.
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That's the promise that Isaiah holds out, just ahead of Isaiah 61. How's this going to come about?
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If that's not clear enough, Paul makes it crystal clear in Romans 4 when he describes the promise that was given to Abraham, he says,
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Abraham believed that he would be heir of the world. And the point in Romans 4 is, he didn't believe according to the righteousness of the law, he believed by faith, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
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That's the whole argument there in Romans 4 around this verse. And almost as an aside, Paul says, by faith,
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Abraham believed God that he would be heir of the world. That's not land there, it's cosmos.
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So Paul, already, is looking at the Abrahamic promise, he's not viewing that as the land, he's viewing it as the world.
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And so we see in Matthew 5, 5, the very point made in Psalm 37. God will so deliver his people from the judgment that is to come, that they will inherit the earth.
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That's the idea. God will stay true to his promise to Abraham. It was always comprehended to his spiritual seed, not to his carnal seed.
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Now, is it true that the meek inherit the earth? Doesn't that strike you as a little counterintuitive?
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Who's going to inherit Ukraine? Who's going to inherit Taiwan? Is this how things normally go?
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The meek are the ones who inherit, the meek aren't the ones who seize, they don't have the means to seize. They don't have the ability, they don't have the wherewithal.
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So how is it the meek ones are those who are inheriting? Isn't it the proud? Isn't it the violent? Isn't it the wealthy, the well -resourced?
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Isn't it the mighty? Is it not the ruthless that inherit the earth? Aren't they the ones that take it by force, that plunder it at their will?
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And yet not so in God's kingdom. In fact, as God prepares his people in the land in Deuteronomy 8, he warns them, if you neglect my commandments, if you walk in a way that refuses to heed my words, if you don't seek my countenance, if you walk in arrogance and pride, if you seek after the gods of the nations, if you walk like the pagan nations of the earth, all this land will be cursed to you.
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Rather than being blessed in the land of blessing, you'll be cursed. That's exactly what happens, that's what unfolds in the life of Israel.
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As they walk in unrelenting rebellion, God not only creates a curse in the land, bringing famine and drought and raids and war, but then eventually, such a judgment comes that they're dragged away from the land, they're brought into captivity, into exile, the whole preceding context of Isaiah.
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Of course, in 586 BC, the hammer blow finally falls when
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Nebuchadnezzar conquers the land of Judah, and the people are dragged away, and we read of this occurring in the prophecy of Jeremiah, and in Jeremiah 39, we see the fallout, the conclusion of this invasion.
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Zedekiah watches his kingdom torn asunder, sees his sons killed, the last sight he sees before his eyes are gouged out.
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Who seized the land? This axe handle of God's judgment, the
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Babylonians. And we read of the tragic end of Judah, the tragic end of Zedekiah, the tragic end of the people being in the land, but then in verses 9 and following here in Jeremiah 39, we read of something remarkable, something that has a lot to say about the third beatitude.
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We read of a captain of the guard among the Babylonians who clearly is there now that everything has been utterly razed, and he's there to basically take captives back to be slaves in the land of Babylon, and he's sorting anyone that can offer anything, they're being put in this captive strain.
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We have relief sculptures of what that may have looked like, hooks through the nose being roped along as it were, dragged away into captivity.
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The idea is we caught you like fish, you're plundered to us. It was dehumanizing. It was a return to the same slavery and oppression that God had rescued them from in Exodus.
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But we read of this captain of the guard,
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Nebuzaradan. We have pregnant ladies, that's a great name for a son, Nebuzaradan.
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Not very common, right? Nebi for short, or Buzi, I don't know, maybe not
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Buzi. Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard. We read, he carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who defected to him with all the rest of the people who remained.
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So here's this picture, it's an absolute seizure. Notice there's levels to this and the idea is wholesale, everyone's taken away.
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Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people, the people in the city, those who had defected to him, they're going to go have it made in Babylon, the rest of the people who remain.
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Who's left? Essentially it's saying anyone that was anyone is taken away, they're dragged away in this judgment.
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But, we read, verse 10, Nebuzaradan left in the land all the poor, the ones who had nothing, he gave them vineyards and fields.
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Now what do you think that word poor is? The anivim, the meek.
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So everyone, wholesale is taken away by this judgment, who is left? It's almost like everyone was taken away.
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Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, the poor, they're hardly worth mentioning. And he says you're so poor, you're so useless, you're so empty, you have such little to offer, you're not worth the trip to Babylon, you can just have the land, we'll give it to you.
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In fact, you want fields and vineyards, they're yours. And what happens in the context of Jeremiah 9?
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The meek inherit the land, the meek inherit the earth. Jeremiah is released from his chains, this captain says, the whole land is before you, what do you want to do?
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If you come with us to Babylon, you'll have it made or you can stay in the land. Jeremiah chooses to stay in the land, and again, a meek man, the weeping prophet, inherits the land.
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Now you map that onto the Beatitudes and you see this point. In other words,
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Jesus is giving this promise that is true in the greatest sense, it's an apocalyptic promise, it's very much future oriented, yet it has an influence in the present.
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We recognize that there is a judgment to come, and this judgment will fall upon all those who are proud and resist
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God, though they think they can rest and work their will into the world, when that judgment day comes, they'll be crushed to powder.
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And who's left to inherit the earth? The nameless ones, the empty ones, the weeping ones, the poor ones, the afflicted ones, the ones who cried out to God, the ones who are waiting on Him to deliver, they inherit the fields and vineyards of the land, that's the context.
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Calvin, in his sermon on this passage, he puts it in these terms, something we can talk about later tonight at the study, consider how greatly ferocious people are disturbed by their own restlessness.
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There's no sense of peace, no sense of security, men who are violent by nature are very insecure, men who are aggressive by nature are unstable in all sorts of ways, there's no inner stability, no inner solitude, there's no inner peace, these things that are borne out by meekness, where meekness comes from, what meekness leads to, and Calvin says, they lead so stormy a life, that even if they were a hundred times lords of the earth, and they possess everything, they really possess nothing, they're restless to try to seize and not lose anything, but for the children of God, Calvin says,
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I answer, though they may not plant their foot on what is their own, they enjoy a quiet residence on the earth, and this is no imaginary possession, they know that all of the earth which they inhabit has been given to them by God, they already have a foretaste, at least, of this grace of God, that's enough for them, until at last they enter into this possession of the world, now we read these neutrally, words off a page, we need to read them in the context of the 16th century, where most of Calvin's countrymen were being burned at the stake, and he was sending men trained up in the seminary there at Geneva, and he was sending them back to France, and the graduation was very much a see you in heaven, we don't think you're going to make it long, if you're going to preach these things and teach these things in France, and he says, wherever you go, you put your foot, you may think that the kings and the magistrates and the rulers, that they're the ones who possess, they possess nothing, it may feel very temporary to you, but know everywhere you tread will one day be yours, the meek inherit the earth, and so brothers and sisters, thirdly and lastly, we need to pursue this meekness, this blessed meekness, blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth, this meekness, this gentleness, this humility that's born out of poverty and affliction, this is not something we generally strive after, there's a lot of things we pursue,
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I don't know that meekness is one of the things that we pursue, in fact pursue is such an active word, it's full of energy, it's full of desire, willful desire, power, strength, endurance, this is what it means to pursue, so to pursue meekness, meekness is the opposite of almost all of those things, meekness is a contentedness, meekness is a quietness, meekness is a peace, meekness doesn't need to defend, doesn't need to provoke, doesn't need to answer for itself, and so we need to pursue it and yet so often it's the one thing we won't pursue.
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Paul says this to Timothy, as an exemplar to the church, you, oh man of God, pursue righteousness, check, godliness, check, faith, check, love, check, endurance, definitely, and meekness, huh?
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Pursue meekness, that's not on our short list, but meekness is something to be pursued,
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Paul says pursue it, Paul says put it on, therefore as the elect of God, Colossians 3, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,
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Paul says to the church at Thessalonica, we were gentle among you, in other words we were, we were meek among you, how, how meek?
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Paul says like a mother, caring for her children, in verse 2 and in that chapter, chapter 2 of 1
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Thessalonians, Paul says we were bold, you know how we were, we were bold when we spoke among you, and then in verse 7 he says and you know how we were, we were like a mother to you, so meek and gentle, so Paul sees these two things going together, this is one of the problems we have, it's why we don't pursue meekness, we think meekness and boldness are antithetical, that's not true in Paul, that's not true in the life of Jesus, as we'll see, so why should we put it on, why should we pursue it?
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Well first and foremost we know that meekness is something very precious in the sight of God, really could just stop there and go home, that's reason enough to pursue it and put it on,
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God counts it as extremely precious in his sight, something is extremely precious when it's extremely rare,
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I think it's so precious in the sight of God because it's so rare among us, who are the truly meek, who are not the superficially meek but meek in the very mesh and fabric of their soul, who are the meek ones?
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These are precious in the sight of God. Peter says to the ladies, this is an incorruptible beauty, this isn't something you can plaster on in front of a mirror, this is something in the hidden person of the heart, and for the woman who acquires this kind of meekness and cultivates it in her life, she is praised among others, she is precious in the sight of God, and for the men we think, oh that's great for the ladies, but we're men, men, men, meekness is weakness, right?
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What's the greatest attribute we know of Moses? The greatest attribute that could possibly be given about Moses, of all the attributes,
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Numbers 12 verse 3 says, the man Moses was very meek, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth, that's his greatest claim to fame, it's his greatest attribute, it's his greatest trait, it's the thing most valuable about him, it's the thing most precious to God, he's very meek, as men we come across that, we want to read now
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Moses was the mightiest man among all the men of the earth, we want Moses to be like Lamech, but he's not, he's the meekest man, in fact might is shown forth in meekness, so we have to have a right understanding of what meekness looks like, meekness is something that adorns the life of a godly woman, it's a quiet spirit, meekness is also something that adorns the life of a man, a man who has fortitude and strength and might, ought to be known as a meek man, because his might, his reign over his own spirit is shown forth in his meekness, he can be provoked, he can be insulted, he never flies off a handle, he never has a harsh response, he knows how to endure, he knows how to, as it were, take the most pressing situations and be deliberative, not saying more than he should, not saying less than he should, this is a meek man, the meek man as Lloyd -Jones said is one who so believes in standing for the truth, he'll die for it if necessary, he says the martyrs were meek, but they were never weak, they were strong men because they were meek men.
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If you read at all any accounts of Roman history, you don't have to read deeply to recognize that masculinity was seen as a virtue, in fact it it was something that sort of overarched the the
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Roman cultural ethos as a whole, of course they loved the sort of pudicitia, the sort of modesty of their matrons, of women of note, and yet the culture as a whole was a very masculine culture, the virile culture of Rome, and the hallmarks of what true men were like, men of achievement, men of renown, men who went through the
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Cursus Honorum and and they had all of these achievements, their CV was like a long scroll, they would go to the gymnasium and scrape salt off with these iron bars, they would go through the baths, they were men of learning, men of power, men of wealth, men that could control and maneuver and manipulate situations to their own advantage, these were men, mighty men, warlike men, the imperial eagle putting its talons, puncturing its enemies, that's
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Rome, and here comes Christianity, how, how opposing to that value system, where actually meekness is seen as the hallmark of masculinity, a man who actually can reign over his own spirit, a man who has that kind of control over his own spirit, he can conquer a walled city, and so what's our emblem, what's on our battle standard, is it the the warlike eagle with sharp talons?
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No, it's the dove, the dove who descends to bring shalom. Masculinity and meekness, this is something that has to be recovered today, meekness of course without strength, meekness without fortitude, is really just veiled cowardice, and sometimes the manliest men are the ones who as soon as situations get difficult, they fold like wet cardboard, and it may be surprising that it's actually the one who didn't seem so bold, aggressive, so strong and outspoken, that are actually able to endure, they persevere to the bitter end, no matter the cost, and so meekness without fortitude is veiled cowardice.
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There's a way of being so meek, but having no integrity, no fortitude, that you're not actually able to stand, you think, well the reason
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I'm not standing is I'm so meek, no, you're veiling your cowardice and virtue. Meekness requires fortitude, but at the same time, fortitude without meekness, that's just arrogance, it's just pride.
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Fortitude, manliness without meekness, is actually the unmanning of man.
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Many men would be lions, when God here calls many men to be like lambs, to serve the king who's both the lion and the lamb.
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Knows in what situations, in what relationships, and at what times to be as mighty as a lion, the lion that he is, but also knows at what times and in what situations and in what relationships to be as meek as a lamb, and as silent as his shearers drawn near to him.
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And so Jesus, like Moses to an infinite degree, shows that fortitude, it belongs to meekness, strength is shown in meekness.
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This, as J .R. Miller says, is the crown, the loveliest crown of all the crowns of Christ's virtue.
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It's the loveliest. This is something to pursue. When we come to the
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Gospels, when we come to Jesus, we find this full description, this full illustration of the meek
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God now in flesh dwelling among us. Isaiah had prophesied about him, about his meekness, how surprising it would be that he was gentle.
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And here's Isaiah 40, again remember the context of Isaiah 40. Comfort, yes, comfort my people.
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Here comes the comforter, the one who comforts the mourners, the one who satisfies those who are broken in spirit.
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Verses 10 and following, behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand. There it is, there's that might, that's the word for might.
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Strong hand, his arm will rule for him. And what's the very next verse?
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What's the contrast? What does it look like when God comes with his mighty hand, with his strong arm, with his rule? He feeds his flock like a shepherd.
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He gathers his lambs into his arms. He carries them in his bosom. He gently leads those who are with young.
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Might's shown forth in meekness. This is what God does when he comes with a strong arm. Isaiah 42, behold my servant, the one
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I uphold. He will not cry out, he will not raise his voice, he won't cause his voice to be heard in the street.
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How meek is he? A bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench.
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I have a son, finally, I know how destructive little boys are just by nature. They're destructibots.
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As soon as they find something to break or stomp on, it's like you find a stick, go hit things with that stick.
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You find something you can stomp on, go stomp on that thing. What's this one like when he comes in might?
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What's this mighty lion of Judah like when he comes to power, when he comes into his own? He won't even yell in the street.
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He comes across something so pathetic, this bruised reed, he'll take care not to snap it in half.
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He comes across a smoking flax, he won't even stomp it out. That's how meek he is.
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He protects the weakest, restores those who are far gone.
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He is surprised, even delighted when he finds the weakest evidence of grace in his people.
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Isn't that a great encouragement to you? That people were drawing near to this one and he could see right through them.
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He saw everything within them. He could say to Nathanael, behold an Israelite in whom there's no guile. He could say to the woman with this, you know, issue of hemorrhage, he could say to you, he could say to her,
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I see as it were all your affliction. Daughter, go, you're made well now. He knew it all without it having to be expressed.
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It means people were coming to him with the darkest corners of their life exposed. The most atrocious and heinous sins standing before him.
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And he could see it as clear as day in ways that are veiled to us. He saw right through it.
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And when he sees the tiniest spark of mercy, he's delighted.
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So meek is he. Even a bruised reed he won't break. He leaves the 99, travels to the ends of the earth as it were for the one that's been running away, lost, confused, going from despair to despair.
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And of course as we saw last week in the interaction time, this doesn't mean there wasn't times where he also bound up a whip of cords and cleared out the temple courts.
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In other words, there was times that he had a righteous anger and he was consumed with zeal for God's house, but even then we can see it was borne out of his compassion toward his neighbors.
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He saw them as fleecing and deceiving and misleading his lambs.
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And so like a faithful shepherd he went to bear away those wolves, to clarify the way of God and the way of righteousness.
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In other words, it wasn't just his intense love for God, it was also his compassion for his neighbor that drove him to clear away the money changers tables.
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How meek is this one? He is the one according to Colossians, one through whom everything that is was made, for whom everything that is was made.
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We just pause there and try to get your mental fibers around that statement. He is the one through whom everything that is was made, for whom everything that is was made.
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And when he descended into the flesh, he didn't even have a bed. Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests.
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The son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Such was his meekness.
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Not only having nowhere to lay his head, though he dwells resplendent in peerless glory, he was not ashamed to walk humbly before his father and before the most vile sinners.
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Tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners of every kind. He wouldn't just take a photo op with them, he would eat and drink with them.
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He would enter into their slum, as it were, into their domain. He would have table fellowship with them.
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And then we come to Matthew's own gospel where meekness is the key word. In fact, that word praus in Greek, three of the four times it occurs in the
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New Testament, three of them are in Matthew. Matthew is the one who presents Jesus, this meek King. And he says as much when he points in Matthew 21 to Zechariah 9, and he says, all that was done, the preparation for the
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Passover, was so that what was spoken by the prophet would be fulfilled. And here's what it is. Rejoice, O daughter of Zion.
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Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you. This is great news.
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The zealots among the twelve, this is great. We finally throw off the iron yoke of the Romans. We finally pick up our sword.
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We finally go and strike at the very heart. We finally get a turn to be the men of blood, the men of valor, the men of strength and power.
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Now we have our King going forth to war. Well behold, the King is coming, Matthew 21 says.
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Righteous, bearing salvation, meek, riding on a donkey, a colt, the fall of a donkey.
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That's Zechariah 9. We went to Lilac Hedge Farms in Rutland a few weeks ago, and they have a few animals, and we went to the far end of the field and there was a little pen with three donkeys, and two of them
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I think were full -size, I don't really know the full specs on donkeys, but definitely two were bigger than one.
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One was pretty small. It was honestly a pretty pathetic looking creature. It looked like to the size of a greyhound, and it was off to the corner, and of course the kids ignored those full -size donkeys.
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They thought it was so cute, this little baby donkey. Well that's, that's the fall, that's the colt of a donkey, and notice what
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Zechariah 9 says is, here comes the King, and what does he come in on?
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A Clydesdale? A Belgian draft horse? Have you seen video?
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I know we have, Michaela could probably answer a lot of these things, but we have these mighty horses, ancient breeds bred for strength, bred for power, the muscles rippling over their chest.
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It's like, you want to stay 30 feet away from these things. You want to get anywhere near them. A hoof the size of a pumpkin, right, dragging logs across the field.
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Does he come stomping through the streets of Jerusalem on one of these? Everyone has to cower as they look up.
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No, how does this king of absolute might, peerless glory, how does he enter into the streets?
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On the colt of a donkey. Such is his meekness, and that's very emphatic in Zechariah 9.
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Your king is coming riding a donkey. Why? Verse 10, the very next verse. Why?
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Because I, God says, I'm gonna cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem.
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He's like, I'm done with this might, the might of the horse, the might of the chariot.
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My king, the one that I sent, he's humble, he's meek, his kingdom's not like this world.
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It's not from this world, which is clearly what Matthew's holding out when he uses this phrase, kingdom of heaven.
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He's speaking to the divine origin. It's so unlike the kingdoms of the earth. This is the kingdom of heaven brought to bear upon the earth.
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And what does this king do when he comes? Is he a man of blood? Does he throw down a stainless steel gauntlet on all of his enemies?
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No. He says, the battle bow is cut off, and he speaks peace. He speaks shalom to the nations, and his dominion is from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.
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Blessed are the meek, they inherit the earth. That's the idea. So consider the meekness of King Jesus.
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When his enemies come with clubs and swords to seize him, who has legions of angels at his disposal, he doesn't defend himself.
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In fact, he forbids his disciples from defending him. Put the sword back in its sheath, Peter. How many times do
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I have to tell you that this needs to take place? Not only does he not defend himself, when some man comes, as it were, to take a swing and kill him, he puts his hand over his ear and heals him.
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Usually when we have a name of a person in the Gospels, it's because they were still known among the earliest Christians, and most likely
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Malchus was a changed man ever after. Malchus was an ancient Christian, and he would tell you exactly what happened that night, and what it was like to stand before this meek king, this great physician.
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And he is a great physician. He's meek and lowly, and so he's come to treat and heal those who are meek, weak, afflicted.
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In fact, he only receives them. He only deals with those who are afflicted and poor and needy.
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Those who are wealthy and have other means, he won't see them. No appointments available. Those who don't have affliction unto death, he's not willing that they come and stand before him.
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He only deals with those who are afflicted, unto death, hopeless, helpless. Consider the meekness of Jesus when he's hanging on that cursed tree, this monument of a reckoning place for all of our sin.
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There was a few of us yesterday morning having read Thomas Watson on the wrath of God, and just thinking of that infinite, depthless, fiery judgment of God being poured out in that moment upon Calvary.
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And yet in his meekness, this king, when he surveys the mob, when he sees his bloodthirsty executioners hurling insults and spitting upon him, as they mock him, as they laugh at his misery and his pain, as he presses up on those nails that are pierced between his hands and his feet to take another gasp of air, what does he cry?
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Does he cry like we would cry? Does he cry like Paul cries when he's resolving himself, then as soon as he's struck, he's like,
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God's gonna strike you! Is that what Jesus does when he presses up for air? God's going to take vengeance on you!
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And he goes back to suffocating. No, what does he cry out when he finally catches a little air in his lungs to animate his vocal cord?
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What does he say? Father, forgive them. Such is his meekness.
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And this is why the meek are blessed. He is the meek one who sends his own spirit, this dove -like spirit into the lives of his people, that they will be conformed into his own meekness.
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And that in his meekness, he became heir of the world, and being, as it were, in communion with him, being made unto his meekness, they too will be co -heirs with him of all that God has made.
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They too will, in their meekness, be those who inherit the earth. They will be those who, like him, had hungered and thirsted after righteousness, and therefore have been satisfied.
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It's the meek who are satisfied. When we consider him on that tree in Psalm 22, of course, it's a great picture, something that has meant so much to me over many years.
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I remember the first time I read Psalm 22. It was just like, I had no idea that this was in Scripture.
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This is amazing. Why does Isaiah 53 get all the limelight when we have Psalm 22? Something that Jesus references on the tree, something that the
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Spirit uses, as it were, to encourage the
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Son of God to persevere to the end. And he says that, this is beginning in verse 14, this description of the one who's suffering under this judgment, right?
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And clearly, the psalmist as a portent of foreshadowing of Jesus on the tree. I'm poured out like water.
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All my bones out of joint. My heart is like wax melting within me. My strength is dried up.
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You think of all of the strength, that resolve, setting his face like a flint, being, as it were, tormented, whipped, impaled with the nails upon the tree, suffocating in that kind of agony with that kind of blood loss, that asphyxiation, as it were, creeping up his torso.
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And he's saying, my strength is dried up. I've got nothing left. Dogs surrounding me, the congregation of the wicked enclosing me.
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They've pierced my hands and my feet. You get the sense that he's on the cross and he's observing all that's happened, right?
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He says, I've got nothing left. He's looking around, he says, dogs have surrounded me.
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Right? They're barking, hissing at him. He says, the congregation of the wicked has encircled me.
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They're all around him as a circle. And he looks to his left and his right and he looks down at his feet and he says, they pierced my hands and my feet.
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Then he looks down and he says, I can count all my bones. His flesh is so torn asunder.
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He says, they're all staring at me. They look at me, they stare at me. He looks off at the corner, he sees some soldiers.
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He says, they're dividing my garments, casting lots. This is, we're not reading from a gospel, this is
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Psalm 22. And so then he turns to the Lord.
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Having surveyed this misery, this suffering, he looks to the Lord and he says, Lord, be not far from me.
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Oh, my strength, hasten to help me. And we come to verse 21 and there's this great shift in Psalm 22.
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He's borne the judgment, as it were, and God has delivered him. In his meekness, in his absolute dejection and yet willful trust and resolve in God, God has delivered him.
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Verse 21, you have answered me. And now, what was the joy set before him?
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What's driving him? What's causing him to endure? I will declare your name to the assembly. I'll speak your name to my brethren.
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And now what's going to be fulfilled? Verse 25, the meek will eat and be satisfied.
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Now there's something for them who are empty, something for them who are poor, something for them who are afflicted, something for those who are helpless.
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They've been starving to death, but because of what I've endured, now I can speak your name to them. I have something to give them, my own bread, my own broken body, my own blood.
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They'll eat and drink, they'll be satisfied. So it all amounts to praise now. Psalm 69, 32, he says, those who seek him will praise the
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Lord. Let your heart live forever. The humble will seek him, the meek will seek him and be glad, and their hearts will live.
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And then what goes on in Psalm 22, verse 27, all the ends of the world. What's that?
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That's the inheritance. That's the earth. That's the land come to fruition. The land that had begun in a microcosm there in Eden expanded to the promised land of Canaan, and now it consumes the whole earth.
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All the ends of the world remember now and turn to the Lord. Just again, just see, we're talking about the crucifixion of Christ, and what's taking place in verse 27.
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All of the ends of the earth remember what he has done on that tree, and because they are looking back to what he has done, they're turning to the
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Lord. All the families of the nations now are doing what?
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Worship. Because the kingdom belongs to the Lord and he rules the nations.
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Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Well, let me, as we come to a close, let me say this.
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In meekness, this meek King calls you, demands that you pursue meekness.
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Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, bearing with one another, forgiving one another.
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If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you also must do.
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This is the demand of our meek King, to be so poor in spirit that we walk in his own bloody footsteps.
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In fact, Jesus doesn't just call you, he says, take my yoke upon you, learn from me, because I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
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So Jesus says, as we see here in Matthew 5, disciples come to me, blessed are you in these ways, learn from me.
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We just, in a very quick way, we just work through several episodes of Jesus' life, learn from him.
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We could spend the next eight hours doing that, just walking through the gospel and seeing almost at every turn the meekness of this
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King, who says, learn from me, take my yoke, be meek like I am meek, have this mind in you, brothers and sisters.
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That's the call. Meekness is not a phase in the Christian's life. Meekness is not a reserve for those who have been humbled because of some flagrant sin.
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Meekness is the way of the Christian life. It's a quest that never ends until it's fully satisfied in glory.
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Seek the Lord, Zephaniah 2 .3 says, all you meek ones of the earth who have upheld righteousness, seek it.
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Seek humility. Seek, seek, seek. Triple emphasis. This is what seeking looks like.
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A thirst for righteousness, a desire to be humble. You're already meek and yet you need to seek more of it.
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Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth. Seek it in these ways. And so the poor, the mourner, the meek is one, as we'll see next week, who hungers and thirsts and for that reason will be filled and satisfied.
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Seek this kind of meekness. Learn from Jesus. The starving prodigal stumbles back to the dwelling place of the father and what happens?
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He finds himself feasting in a dorm. He was in need, he was in affliction, he was poor, he was helpless, he was starving unto death.
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When he comes back to the prodigal, to his old bedroom, the prodigal's old dwelling place, his old home, when he comes back, where does he find himself?
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At the father's table feasting, dressed in a fine robe, wearing a golden ring.
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Was that the end of his meekness? Was his meekness, his humility and recognition of his need on the way to the father's house?
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No, he wasn't even meek then. When he was feasting at the table, when he was clothed in a robe that did not belong to him, when he saw his father's countenance of joy shining upon him, that was just the beginning of his meekness.
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And so if you would seek meekness, if you would pursue meekness, recognize what
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Christ has done for you. It's just the beginning of growing in meekness.
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Praise the Lord. Psalm 149 says, let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.
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Verse 4, the Lord now takes pleasure in his people, and he will adorn the meek with salvation.
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That's what the prodigal's father will do to you. He'll adorn you as you meekly recognize what he's done for you.
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He will enrobe you with his mercies, surround you with his graces, bring you to the feasting table, not because you've earned it, but because it's been given to you freely.
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And if you are to wear the garments of Christ at his feasting table, you must be meek like him.
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Amen? Blessed are the meek. They will inherit the earth.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word, Lord. Let us be doers of it,
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Lord. Let us think long. Let us think deeply about your meekness, our
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King who rode into triumph on the call of a donkey, our King who bore up every injury and insult imaginable, and yet bore all these things out of love for God and love for fellow men.
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Let us learn from him, the one who died to save his people's souls, to save us from our own captivity and our sin,
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Lord. Let us see our great need and be those who are truly poor in spirit, those who mourn over our sin, those who for these exact reasons are meek.
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Let us not excuse our indolence or our resistance or our impudence by claiming it's just not our personality,
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Lord, for it's not about personality, it's about the fruit of your Spirit and about what follows by keeping in step with your
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Spirit. May this church be known as a meek church. May that meekness in this body be evident by our unity, the unity of the
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Spirit being lived out and worked out by the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. May that gentle dove make us more gentle.
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May we bow to the nail pierced feet of our meek King and be ever conformed to His own meekness for His glory and for the advance of His kingdom to the very ends of this earth, which one day we will inherit if we are meek like He is.