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[0:00] Good morning, church. The scripture reading for today will be taken from Psalms 37, verses 1-40, and Matthew 5, verses 1-5.

[0:15] ! Be well in the land and befriend faithfulness.

[0:33] Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him. He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

[0:50] Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices.

[1:02] Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself. It tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

[1:17] In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant peace.

[1:32] The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes his teeth at him. But the Lord laughs at the wicked. He sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows, to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright.

[1:51] But their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

[2:03] For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever.

[2:15] They are not put to shame in evil times. In the days of famine, they have abundance. But the wicked will perish. The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pasture.

[2:29] They vanish like smoke. They vanish away. The wicked borrows, but does not pay back. But the righteous is generous and gives. For those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land.

[2:42] But those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.

[2:57] I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.

[3:12] Turn away from evil and do good. So shall you dwell forever. For the Lord loves justice. He will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever.

[3:25] But the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. The mouth of the righteous utter wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.

[3:39] The law of his God is in his heart. His steps do not slip. The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The Lord will not abandon him to his power, or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.

[3:56] Wait for the Lord, and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land. You will look on when the wicked are cut off. I have seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree.

[4:11] But he passed it away, and behold, he was no more. Though I sought him, he could not be found. Mark the blameless, and behold the upright.

[4:23] For there is a future for the man of peace. But the transgressors shall be altogether destroyed. The future of the wicked shall be cut off.

[4:33] The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

[4:52] Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 through 5. The Sermon on the Mount. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain.

[5:05] And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[5:17] Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Amen. Thank you very much, Joan.

[5:30] What comes to mind when you hear the word meek? It's not a word that we use commonly.

[5:41] And it wouldn't surprise me if some of us have never used that word. And it would definitely not surprise me if some of us don't know the meaning of the word meek.

[5:59] And it follows that some of us do not know if we are meek and if others are meek.

[6:10] But Jesus said that the meek will inherit the earth. And what does it mean to inherit the earth? What does it mean that the meek will inherit the earth?

[6:26] By God's grace, this morning I hope to answer these questions in this sermon. But first let me pray for us. Father, would you do for us what we just sang?

[6:42] Lord, would you do for us to hear the earth? Would you open our eyes to your wondrous words? Would you grant us illumination? And Lord, where this darkness in the pages of Scripture, would you shed light?

[7:02] Would you help us, Lord, to hear what you would say to us about what it means to be meek?

[7:14] Father, would you grant me abundant grace and the power of your Spirit to proclaim your word faithfully to these who are gathered and to all those who would hear this sermon.

[7:34] Would you help us now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. No doubt you've noticed that even though we are focusing on the third beatitude, which is Matthew 5, 5, we read the previous ones that we've already covered.

[7:53] We read the first and the second beatitude as well. And the reason for doing that is to remind us that the beatitudes are not to be understood in isolation.

[8:04] They are to be understood together. Indeed, the beatitudes are to be understood as a part of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole.

[8:15] Jesus was not giving random thoughts, but he was giving a carefully ordered message about what the new community of God looks like, what the people of God look like, the people that he came to bring about through his own sacrifice.

[8:39] And bearing this in mind helps us greatly to understand this first recorded sermon of Jesus. And so as we consider this third beatitude this morning, we should hear it as a call to meekness.

[8:57] And I have two simple points. The first point is the way of meekness. What is the way of meekness? The word meekness sounds very much like weakness.

[9:12] As a matter of fact, I don't type very well. And so I manuscript my sermon and I have a dictation feature in Word, which you have as well if you have Word.

[9:27] And as I was dictating, when I would say meekness, my computer was typing weakness. And sometimes we think that meekness is weakness.

[9:42] And when Jesus says, blessed are the meek, we sometimes can hear, blessed are the weak. But that's not what it means to be meek.

[9:56] In the original language, the word that was translated as meek in Matthew 5, 5, also means gentle. And so, for example, in Matthew 11, 29, Jesus says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden.

[10:17] And he says this in verse 29, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. It's the same word, the word that's translated gentle in Matthew 11, 29, is the same word that is translated meek in Matthew 5, 5, in this third beatitude that we are considering.

[10:44] The King James Version, if you have that, actually translates the word meek in both places, in Matthew 5, 5, and also in Matthew 11, 29. So in order to gain an understanding of what this third beatitude means, let's go ahead and let's substitute the word gentle for where we have meek in Matthew 5, 5.

[11:08] And so it would read, Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Now I think you would agree with me that there are some people who are just naturally gentle.

[11:24] That's their disposition, that's their constitution, they are just naturally gentle. I think it's fair to say that in general, in general, females are more gentle than males.

[11:40] And that's one of the reasons when children are being disciplined, they run to their mother as opposed to their father. But it's Jesus saying that all gentle people are blessed and will inherit the earth.

[11:56] Is that what Jesus is saying? I think the obvious answer is no. He's not saying that at all. The reason we know that those who are naturally gentle are not in view of this third beatitude is that the beatitudes are not about our natural disposition or our natural constitution, how we are made up.

[12:22] The beatitudes and the character that they depict is something supernatural. It is something outside of ourselves. It is something that we can never manufacture in and of ourselves.

[12:40] So if it's not those who are naturally gentle, exactly what does it mean to be meek? Notice that the beatitudes, when we look at them, they don't describe a person.

[12:55] They describe a people. All the beatitudes are stated in plural form. Jesus says, blessed are the poor. Not blessed is the one who is poor, but blessed are the poor.

[13:08] Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. The beatitudes are addressed to a people, to a specific people.

[13:20] God's new community that lives in a broken and a fallen world. Those who are meek are those who are poor in spirit.

[13:32] And those who mourn, mourn over their sin personally and mourn over sin in general, as we heard last week. The meek are those who God acted upon by his spirit.

[13:46] Those whom God gave new birth, he regenerated them. And as a result, they were able to see how spiritually bankrupt and poor they really were.

[13:59] And when they see their sin, because God has brought them from death to life, from spiritual death to spiritual life, they mourn over their sin. They grieve over their sin. And it is those that Jesus is saying, blessed are the meek.

[14:20] Now think about that. It is a glaring inconsistency that this one upon whom God has acted, who has seen his spiritual bankruptcy, who mourns over his sin, and who moves away from that position and is anything other than meek.

[14:37] is an inconsistency. And meekness is gentleness before God, aware of our sinfulness, aware that we're not all that.

[14:55] And it's a gentleness towards other people, mindful of those realities of who we are. Not puffed up, not thinking that we're all that, but down to earth, recognizing who we are, being tender before God, and being tender towards other people.

[15:19] The first mention of the word meek in Scripture is at a very sad moment in the history of the nation of Israel.

[15:31] It's found in Numbers chapter 12. And the book of Numbers chapter 12 opens with these three verses.

[15:43] Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.

[15:55] And that is the term that is regularly referred to as a black person or black people. In verse 2, And they said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?

[16:10] Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.

[16:27] Now Moses wrote those words. Moses wrote the book of Numbers as he did the first five. Books of the Old Testament. And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he writes these words about himself.

[16:40] Moses was a very meek man, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. So the issue was that Miriam, Moses' older sister, and Aaron, his brother, were upset at Moses because he married a Cushite woman, a black woman.

[17:01] And they began to oppose his leadership. And in the face of their prejudice and their opposition, Moses does not retaliate, even though he could.

[17:14] He was the powerful leader of Israel. He could have fired Aaron as his assistant. But we see no rancor.

[17:25] We see no retaliation. We don't see a hint of any animosity from Moses towards them. Obviously he is, and the Lord heard it.

[17:40] Moses wasn't spiteful. Moses was not vengeful. He didn't feel the need to vindicate himself or vindicate his wife, who was being despised by her sister-in-law and her brother-in-law.

[17:52] Moses did what the meek do. He left them to God. Didn't take matters into his own hands. He left them to God. The Lord was angry at them, especially Miriam, because clearly she was the ringleader, and she is the one that God actually poured his judgment upon.

[18:12] And that judgment came in the form of leprosy. And what was Moses' response when he saw his sister covered in leprosy?

[18:29] God judged his sister for her sin, and here's how Moses responds. We have it recorded for us in Numbers 12, verse 13.

[18:39] And Moses cried to the Lord, Oh God, please heal her. Please. That was Moses' response to his sister, who demeaned his wife, who was opposing his leadership.

[19:02] And when he sees her covered in leprosy, he cries out to God, Oh God, please heal her. Please. Moses demonstrated meekness by praying for his sister Miriam rather than leaving her to the judgment of God.

[19:23] And brothers and sisters, it takes spiritual strength to genuinely pray for those who wrong us, and that spiritual strength only comes from the Lord.

[19:34] That doesn't come from our constitution. That doesn't come from our ability to do that. We may be able to mask that and say, hey, it's okay. But to truly forgive from the heart, to truly not hold any kind of a grudge, that is something supernatural.

[19:51] That is something out of this world. That is something that only God can bring about in a transformed heart. Now remember that this is the same Moses who murdered an Egyptian who was fighting one of his, one of the Hebrews, one of Moses' countrymen.

[20:14] This is the same Moses who, when the children of Israel worshipped a golden calf that they had made, he burnt it, ground it to powder, scattered the powder of the idol in the water and made them drink it.

[20:34] I don't think that's too gentle. But this is the same Moses. Meekness, brothers and sisters, is not a matter of personal disposition or constitution.

[20:50] Moses was not gentle in the conventional way. But Moses, as Scripture tells us, was a meek man. He was more meek than anyone else on the face of the whole earth.

[21:07] His gentleness is seen in the fact that despite all the power that he had, all the human justification that he had, he restrained himself from retaliating against Miriam and Aaron and he left them to the Lord rather than taking matters into his own hands.

[21:26] That, brothers and sisters, is meekness on display. And so as we consider this third beatitude, I think it's fair to say that the meek are those who entrust themselves to God, remaining within the boundaries of what is right before God and what is right towards other people.

[21:48] they don't resort to self or sin to bring about the outcome that they want. For example, some people try to have their own way and bring about the outcome they want by resorting to anger and being rough with others rather emotionally or physically to try to force them to do what they want them to do.

[22:15] That's not the way of meekness. The way of meekness is we stand in the boundaries of what is right before God, what is right towards others, and we trust the Lord for anything outside of that that we are not able to rightly do in his sight.

[22:37] Meek people do not force their way. meek people trust the Lord. They don't resort to any kind of human motivated activity or influence that is a violation of those boundaries before the Lord just to get the outcome that they want.

[22:56] Ultimately, meek people leave it up to the Lord and they only do what they are able to legitimately do and they trust God being confident that all things are in their sovereign hands and being reminded that ultimately we're not dealing with people, we're dealing with God.

[23:18] And this is what we see in Psalm 37. The theme of Psalm 37 is meekness. Let's turn back there for a moment.

[23:31] I encourage you to read and meditate upon Psalm 37. We're not going to go through it again. It was just a blessing to my own soul as I heard Joan read that extended a portion of Scripture on meekness.

[23:48] But let's consider two parts of it beginning in verse 37. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.

[24:00] Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Those who are meek will wait patiently for the Lord and not worry about those who take matters into their own hands and prosper in their own strength by doing evil.

[24:22] We see the way of meekness laid out for us in verses 8 to 11. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself.

[24:33] It tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while the wicked will be no more.

[24:46] Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

[24:58] The meek person refrains from anger and wrath. And we don't need to show our hands this morning, but I'm sure that all of us have lived long enough to have used anger and wrath, believing that we could get something that we're not getting by not being angry or being wrathful.

[25:19] that's not the way of meekness. The meek person waits. The meek person trusts. The wicked person makes his own way, but he will soon be cut off.

[25:35] Notice again what it says in verse 11, but the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Jesus is in the third theology quoting this portion of Psalm 37.

[25:54] Look at the way Psalm 37 ends in verses 39 and 40. It says, the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

[26:06] The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.

[26:18] Not in their own strength, but they take refuge in him. We can actually substitute where we have the word righteous in verse 39.

[26:32] And we can say the salvation of the meek is from the Lord. The deliverance of the meek, the outcome that they desire, God brings that about. He delivers them.

[26:43] He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him. Let's turn back to Matthew 5.

[26:55] So what is the way of meekness? The way of meekness is a settled confidence in God that he can and will take care of us and that nothing happens to us outside of his sovereign will.

[27:09] So we don't need to be rough and aggressive and try to make things to happen for ourselves when we want them and how we want them. We can trust God to make a way for us.

[27:22] And we don't need to make a way for ourselves by being rough and tumble with others. Instead, we can be kind and gentle. And meekness is the basis for many other aspects of the Sermon on the Mount.

[27:40] That we are called to. Many other aspects. For example, you don't go the extra mile unless you're meek. You don't turn the other cheek unless you're meek.

[27:55] How do we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Genuinely, from our hearts, if we're not meek. And while there's a lot we can learn from the example of Moses, our chief example of meekness is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

[28:21] If you turn forward to Matthew 12, we see the meekness of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 12, in verses 15 to 21.

[28:37] And the context for this is that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath day with a withered hand. And the Pharisees were angry at him and they plotted about how they were going to destroy him.

[28:49] They were going to destroy him. That's what the previous verse says. And look at what it says starting in verse 15. Jesus aware of this. Jesus aware that these Pharisees were plotting against him.

[29:02] Doesn't call lightning down from heaven on them. He withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known.

[29:16] Matthew says in verse 17, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

[29:29] I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry out aloud nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

[29:40] A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory and in his name the Gentiles will hold.

[29:56] Meekness, the meekness of Christ is especially highlighted in verses 18 to 20. Notice in verses 18 and 19. It says that Christ will proclaim justice to the Gentiles but not through human strength, not through manipulation.

[30:16] He will not seek to do so by quarreling and by crying out aloud and screaming in the streets. Instead, the Gentiles will come to trust him through the Spirit of God who is upon him and not because of manipulative quarreling or crying out aloud or screaming to get them to do what he wants them to do.

[30:36] That's the way of meekness. We also see Christ's gentleness described in verse 20.

[30:47] It says, a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Reeds were among some of the most abundant plants in the land of Palestine.

[31:06] And through scripture, reeds are generally referred to as an indication of weakness. You may remember when Jesus was speaking to the crowd in Matthew 11 about John the Baptist in verse 7.

[31:21] He said to them, what do you go to the wilderness to see? Did you go out to see a reed shaken in the wind? He was saying John the Baptist was not this weak reed who they went out to see.

[31:36] But reeds are symbolic of weakness. And reeds were used for light tasks like a measuring rod or a writing quill or some other light like something to extend things.

[31:56] They used the reed when they were putting the hyssop in the mouth of Jesus. They used it for common ordinary tasks. Nothing major, nothing serious. And because reeds were in such abundance, whenever a reed was bruised, the typical thing to do was to just break it and throw it into the fire as fuel because they were in such abundance.

[32:21] And very similar to the wick. Wick came from flax and flax was in abundance as well. And whenever the wick was smoldering, the common practice was you just get rid of it and you get another wick because they were in abundance.

[32:39] abundance. But it was possible to trim the smoldering flax and once you trimmed it, it would burn brightly, it would be able to function. And hopefully you see that what is being referred to as reeds and wicks are really people.

[32:58] They're not reeds and wicks literally, but they're people. And they're people who are bruised and they're people who are smoldering, who are marginalized, who are weak, who are vulnerable.

[33:16] And what we see about the Lord is that he doesn't discard them. He doesn't take the bruised reed, that bruised person, and break them even more.

[33:27] He doesn't take the smoldering ebb, the person who is almost on the end of just being thrown away and discarded.

[33:39] He doesn't discard them, but he takes them and nurtures them and uses them beyond what appears to be any useful life that they have.

[33:51] That is the way of meekness. And especially meekness is important when we're dealing with the weak and the vulnerable, when we're dealing with the bruised and the broken.

[34:05] meekness is especially important in those situations.

[34:17] things. It's no praiseworthy thing when we come to the weak and we exert our power over them, exert our advantages over them.

[34:31] No. When we come to the weak, what we want to do towards them is we want to be meek towards them, want to be gentle towards them, want to be caring towards them. We don't want to further marginalize them or further bring harm to them.

[34:51] Why do we scream and shout and throw tantrums? You know, adults throw tantrums as well. We don't do it the way the children do. We may not lay on the floor, but we throw tantrums.

[35:04] Why do we do that? We do it because we can't stand to stay within the four corners of what is right, before the Lord and towards others and trust him for the outcome that we desire but we don't see that's coming our way.

[35:21] That's the way of meekness. And I think we would all agree that it's not an automatic thing. You see, God begins a work on all of us when he gives us new birth, when he regenerates us, when he brings us from death to life.

[35:42] But it is not equal that we will all see our spiritual bankruptcy before God. It is not equal that we will all see our sin and mourn over our sin and grieve over our sin.

[35:56] It is not equal that we will all be meek. We will all be gentle before the Lord and towards others. It isn't automatic. But the Lord Jesus calls us to it in this sermon.

[36:11] He calls us to these attributes of what it looks like to be one who belongs to him. And it is something that we are to be convicted about.

[36:23] It is something we seek to grow in. And so let's think for a moment. Maybe there is a live situation in your life where meekness is the attribute that God would have you to exhibit.

[36:41] Maybe it is something going on between you as husband and wife. Maybe it is going on between siblings at home. Maybe it is some issue on the job.

[36:56] The natural way is to do whatever we feel we need to do to get the outcome we desire. That is the natural way. But the meek way is to trust the Lord.

[37:08] And that is not to say that we don't do the things that we are supposed to do. They are things that we are supposed to do and they are legitimate to do. It is not throwing up our hands. But we are to do those things and do no more.

[37:20] And we are to trust the Lord with the outcome because ultimately we are not dealing with that person. We are dealing with the Lord. The one who sees and the one who knows.

[37:33] That is the way of meekness. And now finally and briefly we come to the second and the last point, the blessing of meekness.

[37:46] What is the blessing of meekness? Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth. This is perhaps one of the most vague blessings listed among the beatitudes.

[38:05] But I believe understanding this blessing helps us even more to understand what it means to be meek.

[38:22] I think you would agree with me that human history shows that the majority of strife and contention between human beings has been over land.

[38:37] You see that in the book of Genesis very early on. The issue was land and fighting over land. At the moment the two major wars that are taking place in the world today between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and the Palestinians is over land.

[39:00] land. And this is true about every major war. It's about land. Boundaries, land boundaries change. There are wars of economics.

[39:14] And land is the source of all wealth. Sometimes we don't think about that, but every single thing that is visible to us right now came out of the land.

[39:26] land. If the land is not worked, if the land is not cultivated, it cannot sustain value and other assets and wealth in the world.

[39:42] land is where we get all of the natural resources, the precious metals, that's where we're getting the gold and the silver, where we're getting the oil and the gas, the coal.

[40:03] They come from the land. The rich resources of the rivers and the seas that we get to eat, that comes from the land that's covered by water.

[40:14] The land is the source of all wealth. And people are least meek when land is at stake.

[40:27] They fight tooth and nail to get it or to keep it. And we have legend stories in this country about fights over land.

[40:41] one of the best examples in scripture of this third beatitude on display is the account of Abraham and Lot in Genesis 13.

[40:52] Lot was Abraham's nephew. When God called Abraham, Abraham kindly brought Lot along. And God blessed Abraham so much, and Lot as a result of that as well, the land was not able to contain them.

[41:09] And what we see in Genesis 13 is that there was a dispute between the herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot.

[41:20] And Abraham took the initiative and he said to Lot, he said, let there be no fight between us, we're brothers. He said, if you go to the left, I'll go to the right. And the Bible tells us what Lot did.

[41:33] It says Lot lifted up his eyes and he saw the Jordan Valley and he saw how it was well watered everywhere. He said it was so beautiful, it was like the Garden of Eden. And we're told in Genesis 13 11, these words, so Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and journeyed east.

[41:58] Thus they separated from each other. Lot was not meek. Lot was proud. Lot was ruthless.

[42:09] Lot was selfish. Lot was ungrateful towards his uncle, his old uncle, to whom he was indebted for everything that he possessed.

[42:21] He should have deferred to Abraham. He should have said, uncle, if you go to the left, I'll go to the right. You choose for his uncle, I'll take what you don't choose. He didn't do that. He chose for himself.

[42:32] But a few verses later, we read these words in verses 14 and 15.

[42:45] The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward.

[43:00] For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever. Now, it's easy to miss, but what God did was God gave Abraham even the land that Lot chose for himself.

[43:16] That's why he told him, you look east, you look west, you look north, and you look south, and God gave him all of it. Now, some of you would remember when we were working our way through Genesis in our Genesis sermon series, you'd remember that Lot lost everything.

[43:39] When God brought judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot left only with the clothes on his back. All the flock that he hoped to keep by taking the best land for himself, lost it all.

[43:56] And what we see is that God is able to make what seems to be a long stick short, and he's able to take what seems to be a short stick and make it long.

[44:09] He's able to do that for the meek, and that is what he did for Abraham. Abraham inherited the land. He didn't choose it for himself. God gave it to him. He didn't grab at it.

[44:23] God gave it to Lot chose land, Abraham inherited land. The meek will inherit that which God gives them.

[44:37] Again, let's listen to Psalm 37, 7-11. You don't need to turn to dishear it. Be still before the Lord and pray patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices.

[44:52] Refrain from anger, forsake wrath, fret not yourself. It only tends to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off.

[45:03] For those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

[45:14] For the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundance of peace. meek. So what is the blessing of meekness?

[45:27] Well, first, the blessing of meekness is that God will give us an inheritance that is something far better and far more enduring than anything we can choose or take for ourselves.

[45:45] And sometimes, as in the case of Abraham, it means God will give to the meek an inheritance that they're trusting him for rather than grabbing it for themselves.

[46:01] It has to do with the here and now. But life isn't that neat. Sometimes the meek do not get that which they desire and want in the here and now.

[46:15] that is the hard reality of the dealings of God. Some do, some don't.

[46:29] But this third beatitude has a promise that is beyond this life. It is an ultimate promise to the meek that God will cut off the wicked from the earth and those who are meek will endure and they will inherit the earth together.

[46:49] They will live in the new heaven and in the new earth in which righteousness dwells. And that's the ultimate blessing. Because here's the reality. The reality is that any tangible thing that we get in the here and now is going to be all burnt up.

[47:06] It's not enduring. But the new heavens and the new earth that God will give us. That is enduring. And so some of the inheritance of the meek will only come when Christ returns.

[47:31] Here's a reality that I think we should all bear in mind. The reality is that none of us is perfectly meek. None of us. none of us is meek at every time and in every way.

[47:52] The truth is that there are seasons and circumstances where we find ourselves more or less meek than at other times. so exactly how meek do we need to be to inherit this promise?

[48:15] 90%? 95%? But with the holy God his only standard is perfection. We have to be perfectly meek.

[48:26] and that should give us a hint that in order to receive this promise, to receive this blessing, the ultimate blessing of inheriting the earth, when God removes everything that is sinful, our only hope is to inherit through the one who is perfectly meek.

[48:59] Our only hope is to look to Jesus Christ, the one who has been perfectly meek before God, the one who has succeeded at every point where we fall short.

[49:13] he is our only hope to be able to inherit the land that God has promised to us.

[49:24] Jesus is the only one who is perfectly meek. And he is our hope. And though we are called to pursue perfection, though we are called to be meek, that's not our hope, because we know we fall short.

[49:48] Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ to inherit what God would have for us now and what God would have for us in the future.

[50:00] Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Let's pray. Our Father, would you help us all to answer the call to meekness?

[50:19] Would you help us to pursue the way of meekness? And Lord, may we remember that it is not a natural trait or a natural strength, but it is only what you are able to do by your spirit working in our hearts.

[50:38] would you help us Lord to entrust situations to you where we are tempted to be anything other than meek.

[50:53] May we wait for you patiently and may we trust you to give us an inheritance rather than grabbing it for ourselves.

[51:03] to you and would you help us Lord whether now or in the future to know the joy of the blessing of meekness that we will inherit the earth.

[51:18]  We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's sign for our closing song. Thankyou.