Beatitudes - Part 5 — Leonard Ravenhill

Maturity Through Obedience and the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter 5, when John wrote, I write to you young men, well pardon me, I write to you little children, I write to you young men, I write to you fathers, I don't think he was talking in a physical dimension, I think he was talking spiritually, about the children, spiritual children, young men, in the Christian life, and then the older men.

And if we have any aspirations at all spiritually, surely it should be that we come to maturity. And again, we do not necessarily come to maturity by living a long while, there are sure a lot of old fools around.

And I say that respectively because I'm not one of them, but there are a lot of old people who've been in churches and all they've done is clogged up the machinery, they've got set in their ways, a young vigorous pastor comes along, he wants to change them, oh you can't do it, they don't know why you can't do it, except, well my grandfather didn't do it this way, you know, and he happened to buy that stained glass window.

And my uncle didn't believe it, and he bought the old church organ, you know. But the thing is that we come to maturity, I believe, by obedience. And that's a great old hymn again, trust and obey, there's no other way.

I believe you can become 50 years old in 5 years if you walk in the light that God gives you. And you can be 5 years old when you've served God 50 years if you refuse to take light and you refuse to walk in that light.

Poverty of Spirit and Entrance into the Kingdom

Now if you're shooting for maturity, and I don't see any other thing to shoot for as Christians, then I would suggest that you saturate yourself in reading the Sermon on the Mount. I believe it's the very epitome of all the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

Again, it is, in my judgment, it's the, what's the word you use, manifesto of the kingdom. The law of the kingdom, of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the royal rule and reign of love. And that's only possible as these wonderful things that are spoken of here in this charter are real in our lives.

We began, in case you're here for the first time, we dealt with blessed are the poor in spirit. That's the entrance to the kingdom. Isn't it amazing that God doesn't demand anything of you to enter the kingdom except an acknowledgement of sin, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

He doesn't turn up your track record and say, sorry, you passed, you know, you can't come in for the entrance examination. You've sinned enough to damn a hundred people, never mind yourself. He doesn't cut us off like that.

It's true as the old hymn says, nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to thy cross I cling. I think again of the word of the psalmist when he says, bow down thine ear and hear me, I'm poor and needy.

Well, he sure wasn't poor intellectually. He was writing bestsellers, you know. He was writing psalms and other things. He had a standing army. He lived in a castle. He had all the privileges of kingship.

And yet he says, bow down thine ear and hear me, for I'm poor and needy. Again, you remember in one of his best quoted psalms, he says, this poor man cried. You know, on the law of averages, people in the world, material world, they're poor because they have to be.

There are some who take vows to poverty that throw away millions of dollars or give away millions of dollars. There's a group of young men in the state of New York that come off wealthy parents, you know.

My dad has so many shares. He's worth five million, another ten million, another something else. And the boys refuse to take the money because they say it's not clean. It's exploitation. You can't get rich in a society like this and get it all honestly.

And they wash their hands. They're determined to be poor. Now, there are other people who went into monasteries and convents. They said the only way you can be spiritual, you know, is to sleep on a bed, just a piece of wood and have a blanket over you and have one suit and two meals a day and do this and do penances.

And when you wake up at one o 'clock in the morning, get out of bed and say your prayers, which they're doing some monasteries in America today. And they pray till two o 'clock and then go back to bed and get up at five and pray till six.

And they regiment their lives. And they think this self-stripping, you see, is virtuous. But there's no virtue in it. Because it's not done as unto God. It's done for their own, to prove to themselves that they're poor in spirit when they're not poor in spirit at all.

Thomas Merton and the Limits of External Asceticism

There was a man died a few years ago. He's one of the most brilliant men in the Roman Church of late, Thomas Merton. You may have read his book, Seven Story Mountain. It was his testimony. And then he wrote other books.

And he used to be a playboy in New York. He used to go on West 44, 42, 44th Street there, where the legitimate theatres are. And at night he would wait around and see pretty girls come out, chorus girls, you know, at one o 'clock in the morning.

And he'd say, hey, come on, my buddy and I want to take you to dinner. I'm a gourmet cook and I do this, I do that, I do the other. And when we made a good meal and I always cook in wine and I do this, you know, then we roll the rug up and we dance.

And you can take the bedroom and we guys... And there was never any sexual immorality. He just loved to entertain. He just loved to be with good intellectual people, he said. But one day he got fed up.

He said, is this all I'm here for? And he came down to a monastery in Kentucky and he took a vow to poverty. He took a vow to celibacy, which means he wasn't going to get married. And he took a vow to silence.

He took every vow which would bring his body into total subjection. And he said when he went in, a man met him at the door. He was sure it was St. Francis of Assisi that had risen from the dead. The man had a tongue show, you know, they cut their hair there.

He was bald and he had a great long gown to his feet and he had a cord around his waist. And he met the young man and he escorted him there, first of all, to the table where he would eat in the refectory.

And this is your place always. And you never speak now when you take this vow. Then he showed him the cell where he was going to live and then he showed him something else. And finally the guy takes the job, you know.

And he has to walk with his hands together, four feet behind the guy, going around the garden, you know, saying their prayers, their paternosters. And he said, this is paradise. Wasn't I an idiot living in New York, breathing in the fumes of automobiles?

I'm just living for excess, for wine and riches and everything. I was an idiot. This is paradise regained. Oh, wow, wow. Quietness, birds singing, beauty, majesty, loveliness, you know. But one day the guy that let him in at the door that he thought was some fancy of Assisi, somebody tread on his toes, you know, metaphorically.

Somebody hurt him. Bah, he exploded like a bomb. Woo, he got mad. And he shouted to the Lord, I didn't even curse. The young monk said, oh, oh, I see if you've got it inside of you. You don't get rid of it by coming in the monastery.

You don't get rid of it by sleeping on a plank or wearing a hair shirt that irritates you, so you've got a hundred bugs down your back. Or eating once a day and fasting one week in every three. No, no, no, you don't cure the old devil, the old appetite in you like that.

You can take vows to poverty. You can take vows to silence. You can take vows to having a single life all your life. You can take all these vows, but they don't do anything in themselves to you. It's a miracle that God has to work in us.

Grace, Repentance, and the New Birth

That poverty is the way into the kingdom of God. There's an old song that says, I nothing have, I nothing am. Glory to the bleeding lamb. Isn't it amazing that God doesn't say, well, I'll consider you eligible for the eternal kingdom after you've proved yourself for so many weeks or so many months that you live a righteous life and then you'll merit salvation.

He doesn't ask that. He doesn't care how twisted, tangled, depraved, rotten, corrupt we are. If we come in penitence and brokenness and say, I'm poor, I'm nothing. I'm not trying to buy salvation. I can't merit salvation.

Isn't it true as the word of God says that while we were yet sinners, and only you know what the sin was, I don't know. I wasn't a rotten, smoking, drinking, sex-perverting sinner. I was a good Methodist sinner.

I went to church all my life. I never went into a movie house till I came to America. See how you get corrupted by leaving your homeland. And I was over 50 years of age before I ever saw a movie. And it was a good one, so to speak.

King of Ten Commandments, I think it was that we saw. Free tickets, that's where I went. But anyhow, it was very interesting to see it. But I was brought in a godly home. Where the word was read every day.

Where there was prayer every day. Where the standards were set up very high. Man, I didn't have the track record some people have. But you see, the devil's got two great major attacks on people. One is, you're so good you don't need to be saved.

You're so bad you can't be saved. Those are the two tricks he pulls. I mean, after all, you don't need to be saved. That guy that's a deacon in a church. The girls say he tells dirty stories in the office.

And he lies. And always he gets angry. He curses. He has a blazing temper. And somebody says, well, the man down there, you know. He doesn't even go to church. And he's so sweet. He's so gracious. He remembers every birthday.

He greets you every time you go. And if you do anything wrong, he says, never mind dear. Everybody makes mistakes. And the guy says, can't you do it right? Well, lots of people are not saved who are far nicer than folk who are saved.

I don't like that, but I've got to be honest about it. Why? Because grace hasn't worked. Culture is a very lovely thing. I don't think there's anything better than scholarship on fire. As I tell them usually when I talk in theological seminaries.

That scholarship on ice, keep it. Stick it where it should be, in the refrigerator. With a brain on fire for God. A Wesley, a Finney, or one of the great saints. That's great. That's great. I like that kind of thing.

It doesn't mean that you have a greater advantage because you're intellectual. It doesn't necessarily mean that. God takes what we have. I'm sure there are lots of boys more brainy than the one that handed his fishes and loaves to Jesus.

But Jesus took those things. But again, the way into the kingdom, it's a difficult way. It's the eye of the needle, isn't it? I mean, what? You're going to say I'm poor? I was... Well, I wasn't preaching that time.

I was teaching in the... a university, the... in the Appalachians there in Boone. It was a conference. And... in one morning prayer meeting, the fellow leading it, he divided us up into groups and then the other fellow that was leading this group said, I don't have anything to say.

One lady said, can I give a little word of testimony? Yes, he is. I've been a good Presbyterian for over 40 years. I've always supported missions. I've taught in Sunday school. I've helped missions. And she went down the list of all her virtues and she said, I've been a good, great, good, you know, 100 Presbyterian for 40 years.

And I got saved six months ago. And so I went... What? That's a bone you choke on. I mean, you've been taking communion 40 years, you've been a good worker, and suddenly, yeah, just a few months ago, I got really born again to the Spirit of God.

I've become a new creation in Christ Jesus. I've got new desires, new appetites, new interests, new hopes. Everything's new. Why? Because she had to come in helpless and say, I'm poor and I need it. And then after that what we get?

The Kingdom of God Within

Blessed are the poor. Blessed are they that mourn. But, you know, we skip over that. Blessed are what? Blessed are the poor in spirit. What's the compensation for it? Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. We stress the first part.

We don't stress the second part. It isn't something away, you know, something you can't get hold of. It's just beyond the horizon. It's two minutes inside eternity. The Kingdom of God is within you, Jesus said.

And it's not meat and drink, but it's righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. Now, if we haven't got those, we're not born again. How can we be? The Kingdom of God, what do we pray? Millions of people in thousands of churches have prayed over and over again, Thy Kingdom come.

What do they mean? Sometimes I like to stop at the door and say, Hey, you said the Lord's Prayer today. Tell me, what did you mean when you said, Thy Kingdom come? Huh? Thy will be done on earth or in earth.

You know that hymn, Breathe on me, Breath of God? Edwin Hatch wrote it. Good song, written in England. And he said, Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am holy thine, till all this earthly part of me.

Isn't it amazing what God can do with a handful of dust? Hmm? I mean, you're not the prettiest group I've ever seen, but you're not the worst. But, I mean, that's all we are, dust. We're dust. I am dust, you are dust.

Can His Kingdom come and dwell in me while I'm still here in this, you know, as Shakespeare said, before you shuffle off this mortal coil? After all, that's what it's all about, isn't it? That the Kingdom of God is within us.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn. I've skipped that, I'll come back to it later. What's the compensation? For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Jesus' Authority and the Radical Nature of the Beatitudes

Now, that was about as ridiculous as anything under heaven, wasn't it? Have you ever pondered, you know, to say these things in the framework of jets flying overhead and computers not too far away, you know, and all these modern techniques, to talk about this, I mean, we can lose a lot of the majesty and wonder of it if we don't put it in its original framework.

Here he's talking to his disciples. Round about, there are other people listening. I'm sure the scribes and the Pharisees weren't very far off. Can you imagine them going home and talking and saying, you know what, this fellow here, I was going to say this guy, they wouldn't, they didn't say words like that, they'd say, this fellow, this new teacher that's come around here, he's a bit of a sensationalist, but, you know, he puzzles me with his miracles, but goodness, he sure puzzles me with his philosophy.

I mean, what do you think they were saying in the bazaars? What do you think people were saying that were sitting around the pool of Ceylon where they used to sit and talk? What do you think they were saying in the coffee shops or the wine shops of the day?

What do you think they were discussing in the Sanhedrin? Do you think all that Jesus said just blew away on the wind like that? Don't you think people were puzzled? Don't you think some said, you know, if this fellow's right, we're a million miles from truth.

It's all right talking about the God of Abraham, but wow, wow, a God of Abraham's as far off there, and this God he talks about seems as far away or that way. What's he doing, this person? They never heard anything like this.

After all, it's a fascinating thing when you think the temple soldiers were sent to arrest Jesus. And what happened? He arrested them. Not by laying his hands on them, he arrested them by his words. Where's the man Jesus?

Why didn't you bring him back? Oh, yeah, that's right. You did send us. Oh, we forgot all about it. What do you mean you forgot all about it? Listen, did you ever sit down and listen to him? No, but we heard all the rumors.

Oh, I want to tell you something. Never man spake like this man. What did the scribes just say? He taught them as one having authority not as the scribes. What did the scribes? The scribes went through a rotation.

The scribes said the right things at the right time with the right tone of voice and it did nothing for nobody. But when Jesus speaks, grace and truth proceed out of him. What he even said of the apostle Paul, his words were waiting.

They'd float in the air, somehow they were like arrows, bang, bang, bang. Whitfield used to say now to people when they really got anointing, he'd say, you listen there, I'll shoot the arrows of God into your heart.

And he'd draw his hand back because that's how they fought in those days. They were gentle enough. They shot with bows and arrows and he'd reach for one in his quiver and he'd say, this is the arrow of conviction.

I'm going to fling this arrow into you. And the congregation would all judge because they thought the arrow was coming. But you see he spoke with truth. He describes a sinner as being blind and helpless and walking down a road and there's a chasm, he's going to fall into it.

And he's describing this Lord Chesterfield, one of England's greatest men, was sitting there listening to Whitfield. Whitfield let him get a bit nearer. He said, ah, there he goes. He's going to fall into that eternal abyss.

And then he interrupts himself three or four times and he says, and now he's just within a yard of going over that abyss and now and Chesterfield jumps up and says, my God, he's fallen over. Well, that's what you call having the congregation in your hand.

You've captured their senses. You've lifted them out of their pews. They're not just saying, I'm glad we put this new lighting system in. Isn't this new rug lovely? We've needed this in the church. We noticed Mary Jane's hat over there.

There isn't that authority it seems. He spoke with authority. What's he talking about a kingdom for? Because he's the king. He's laying down the principles of righteousness. He's laying down the conditions of being a member in his eternal kingdom.

And the gateway again is poverty. I have nothing. I have nothing. Bow down thine ear and hear me. I'm poor and needy. Then bless of the day but mourn. Mourn what? Because there's nothing to bring. Because they're poor.

There was a hymn in the Methodist hymn book. I guess it's still there. I don't know how it begins for once but anyhow I know it says this in the hymn. Blessed are the men of broken heart who mourn for sin with inward smart.

And it doesn't mean that they're just mourning for their own sin. It means they mourn about all sin which is an offense to God. We all want the stress and the joy and the excitement. But sin is an offense to God and so they mourned over that sin.

And there must be times when in your life you look back and remember some horrible thing in your life. You know you're saved now. You've got assurance you're saved. And that thing keeps coming up and you mourn over it.

Oh God I wish I'd never done it. I wish it could be eradicated from my mind. Why doesn't God blot it out? He blotted it out of his memory. He hasn't blotted it out of yours. Why? Because that's one thing that will help to keep you humble.

If you don't watch out you can fall exactly into the same pit again. You aren't changed physiologically. We haven't yet received the glorified body. And therefore I've got to keep my eye looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.

Meekness Versus Weakness

Now he says blessed are the meek. Can you imagine somebody saying boy he's missed it this time. Where's this fellow going to get with his teaching? Well every time you turn your head all you hear is clank, clank, clank.

They were living in total bondage to the Romans. Arrogant Romans sticking their chests out. Wearing their breastplates. Having their helmets with a plume on it to distinguish what rank they had. And they marched around.

They said you lift up my burden and carry it. Meek? Well that's not what we believe today is it? This is a day when you assert yourself. Learn how to develop your personality. Get your place in the sun.

Assert yourself. Blessed are the meek. Boy everything in this amazing sermon on the mount is the very opposite of the world standard. The world says don't recognize any poverty. You'll get out and assert yourself.

You're as good as the next John or Jane or somebody round about you. Come on make your way. I think what we've done with this word meek we've made it a synonym for weakness. Now Jesus did not say blessed are the weak.

He says blessed are the meek. Now some people are born with a natural disposition of meekness. All their lives they've been gentle and tender. They're not assertive. They're not arrogant. They seem to have been born with almost a natural trait of Christianity or trait as we should say really of Christianity in them.

But not so. There's a meekness which is indolent. Oh don't disturb me about it. Don't disturb me. I'm prepared to let the thing go. There's a meekness that says well I'm for peace at any price. I don't want agitating.

Things could be a lot better but don't let's upset. Don't rock the boat. But the general attitude of the world is one of arrogance. What is it? The scripture says the lame take the prey. The world says the weak go to the wall.

What do people in the world say? Oh it's a rat race. Other people say oh it's dog eat dog. Dog eat cat and cat and dog fight. That's the attitude of the world outside. The attitude of the prince of peace is very opposite to all the warfare and all the clashing that there is in the world outside.

Now there's no way in which you and I can make ourselves meek. Look at Galatians chapter 5 and verse 18 there. Galatians 5 18. But if ye be led of the spirit ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these.

Oh mercy what a list. It will catch us all out somewhere. The works of the flesh are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like.

The witch I tell you before as I've also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now that's the only kingdom opposite to the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Satan.

Ours is the kingdom of light theirs is the kingdom of darkness. Now what's the changeover? The changeover is in verse 22 that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Meekness is what? A fruit of the spirit. It's the very opposite of the works of the flesh. I can work all those things out of myself that he's mentioned earlier. All the seeds are there, they may not be developed yet but you see the potential in you is the potential like everybody else.

You didn't murder, no, no, no, but the seed was there, the possibilities were there. And I have to become repentant and broken and confess I'm poor and needy and I need outside help. I can't do this by myself.

I'm so human and frail and fallible and weak that I have to come to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and confess my poverty. Mourn over my sin. And then ask him to do that work, that sovereign work of grace in me.

Not only to forgive my guilty past which again may be enough to damn a hundred men. I need more than my sins forgiving, I need him to do something in me, not just something for me. You see, this fruit of the Spirit would not be possible unless you go back to Galatians chapter 2, one of the best known verses where Paul says I'm crucified with Christ, not I was, I am.

Crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me. Now if Christ lives in me, I don't have to strive to be meek. If the Spirit of God dwells in me, he is the Spirit of meekness.

I don't have to come to him and say Lord help me to get through this day and grit my teeth. It's not that I just don't do a certain thing, it's that I don't want to do a certain thing. He's taken the appetite, he's taken the nature out of me to do it.

Fruit is the result of what? You've got some trees, they're not going to bear fruit this year. Well you can't argue the trees are not alive, you hope they are, I mean what did you put in, 350? It'd be some rough going if 349 die, wouldn't it?

But hopefully they won't. But you don't expect fruit this year, maybe not next year, maybe the third year. You see fruit doesn't come on a tree because it's alive. Fruit is the result of overflowing life.

Now a tree will go home and it'll go all over. You're going to have a lot of work when those trees come up, somebody's going to have to do some pruning somewhere. We think of that in John 15 that I am the vine and you are the branches, every branch that beareth not fruit you take it away.

And every branch that beareth fruit. Now we kind of think, look I'm doing alright. The Lord says no you're not. You're growing too much of this, snip this off, snip that off, snip something else off. I need constant pruning, you need constant pruning.

Why? Because the flesh will take over. Not carnal flesh necessarily, just my natural flesh. I'll do this naturally. The natural way is to take the line of least resistance usually. Blessed are the meek.

What do they get? Well the scripture says blessed are the meek for what? For they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is the opposite of toughness and being overbearing, domineering, pushing others on one side that you may have preeminence.

What was the first call of Jesus in Matthew 11 .28? Come unto me all ye that are labor and heavy laden. For I am meek and lowly in heart. Everything about him was meek. I've often said why, you know Enoch, Enoch, way way back before there were any Bibles, before there were any prophets, before there were any preachers, Enoch prophesied.

About what? Well Jude says he prophesied about the Lord coming with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment. Imagine it. There's no Bible, there's no temple, there's no prophet, there's no sacrifices, and Enoch is walking with God and God shares secrets with his friends.

And he says to Enoch, centuries, millenniums hence, four or five thousand years ahead, Jesus is going to come sweeping through the skies with ten thousand of his saints. Pays to be in the know, doesn't it?

God initiates a man thousands of years before. Well why didn't Jesus come like that the first time? When the Romans had spread their tentacles all over the world they had the world like an octopus had it.

My dear wife and I used to live in the city of Bath in England. The Romans were there in 55 B .C. They made a great big bath there. It's the only hot spring in England. And when you go in you see models of beautiful carvings all around.

Tiberius Caesar and Caligula and Caesar Augustus. All the great monuments are there. Why Jesus had come one day, one night when Caesar was going down Main Street, there you know, when they had their torches up and people were shouting their hosannas which they used to do.

And every time he conquered people what did he do? He put a chain around their waists and then he tied the last chain to the wheel of his chariot. And the greater the men were the greater the humiliation.

He brought kings and rulers and famous people chained to the wheels of his chariot swept down the street. Imagine Jesus just coming in and blowing all that thing up. He didn't. Again as our old poet says they were looking for a king.

Then endless prophecies of a king was coming and their idea of a king was majesty and glory and triumph and asserting himself and tramping his enemies down and breaking all fetters and rulership and he comes up babe.

As the poet says they were looking for a king to bring salvation night. He came a little infant thing two spans long that made a woman cry. And everything about his life is meekness. You see we say about some people Oh I wouldn't read what that man writes.

I wouldn't read what that woman writes. Oh I wouldn't. No I wouldn't. Why? Because he doesn't do it she doesn't do it. What's the good of writing about meekness if you're arrogant? What's the good of writing about love if you're unloving?

What's the good of preaching unmerciful if you're unmerciful? But you see Jesus was everything that he talked about. Nobody could ever put a finger on him anywhere. He was full of mercy. He was full of compassion.

And he said blessed are they blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. That doesn't look very much like being a truism in the day in which we live does it? But it is true. Because if you're really meek in spirit it doesn't matter how much you're robbed externally it won't faze you at all.

And wait a minute. What is this meekness a part of? It's a part of the kingdom. Which is a present invisible it's in us. Before long it's going to be visible. Jesus shall reign wherever sun that its successive journeys run and his kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more.

The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and this Christ. And he says and if you're faithful and you overcome you'll sit with me in my kingdom. See God doesn't pay all his bills right now.

He delays his prizes. And yet if the kingdom of God is within us one of the features of your life and mine should be meekness. Now is it? I'm not saying it is or it isn't I'm asking you is it? Is one of the traits in your life meekness?

Or are you arrogant are you assertive? Imagine a little girl coming home from a party with her brother and mommy said did you have a nice party? She said no not very good and little Johnny says I did I had a good time.

Look what I got mommy and a huge apple. And mother looked down at her sister had a tiny one. Mother said well you got a big one didn't you? Yes mommy do you know what they did? They passed the dish round and Johnny grabbed the biggest that there was for himself.

And mother said what will you have done if they passed the dish to you? I would have taken the smallest. So Johnny says you've got it what are you grumbling about? He didn't get the point okay. Isn't that nice to think what I did?

No no no come on. Meekness is not assertive. Meekness is content to be misunderstood misrepresented. After all his eyes on the sparrow. Oh we sing that and feel oozy woozy about it don't we? And feel very nice and comfortable.

But his eyes on the eagle too but his eyes on the sparrow. Look what the scriptures say about this meekness. Psalm 149. Psalm 149 and verse 4. That's next to the last Psalm you remember? 150 of them. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people.

He will beautify the meek with salvation. Maybe we should call that spiritual cosmetics. Psalm 149 verse 4. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Look at Zephaniah chapter 2 and verse. Where? Verse 3.

Zephaniah. That's there in the man of prophets after just before. Just after Habakkuk and just before Haggai. Zephaniah 2 and verse 3. Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment.

Seek righteousness. Seek meekness. It may be he shall behead. That ye shall behead in the day of the Lord's anger. But the point is you see we need to continually pursue this thing. You can have one day today you walk in meekness and calmness and then tomorrow there's a thousand irritations coming.

Wait a minute. If you haven't taken time to be holy. You see we assume well I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm going to live a holy life as long as I'm here on earth. Oh no wait a minute. There are backslidings.

There are stumblings. There are failures. Do you know what we do? Often at the end of the day we pray over our little spiritual tragedies or our big spiritual tragedies. Do you know why? Because we didn't take time to pray in the morning about them.

We had to try and take time at night and repent over them. And if we'd taken time to be holy and strengthened ourselves in the morning we wouldn't have fainted by the way. You get up some morning very tired and you say oh well I won't take breakfast I haven't time.

I have to get to the office. And somebody says no we need you to go down to so and so. There's a cow get out on the road. And you go out and you rush after it and run after it. And you have no reserves.

And there you are. You're tired. You're exhausted. Well the same thing if you don't replenish yourself. You read in the Old Testament that one of the secrets I'm convinced of this in the Scriptures and out of the Scriptures is to rise early.