Outline

I. Shatter the Cultural Lie: Meekness Is Not Weakness—It’s Rebellion Against Self
The world worships aggression, self-assertion, and survival of the fittest, viewing meekness as pathetic failure. Jesus directly contradicts this, declaring the meek blessed in His kingdom.

II. Step Into the Sacred Paradox: True Happiness Demands Total Reversal
Christ’s Beatitudes chart a divine pathway of blessedness that feels upside-down to natural hearts. Meekness flows from poverty of spirit and mourning over sin, producing supernatural happiness no seminar or self-help can deliver.

III. Fix Your Eyes on the Master: Learn Meekness from Christ Alone
Jesus embodies perfect meekness—riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, refusing to revile when reviled, and calling us to “learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” Without imitating His life, we cannot be saved by His death.

IV. Yield Your Will to God: Vertical Meekness Submits in Every Providence
Gospel meekness calms the soul before God’s Word and sovereign dealings, willingly receiving both good and evil without murmuring. It echoes Job, Eli, and David: “It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

V. Tame the Beast Within: Horizontal Meekness Quells Rage When Wronged
When insulted, injured, or persecuted, the meek restrain natural fury, refuse retaliation, and entrust themselves to the righteous Judge. This “lion-taming grace” turns away wrath with gentle answers and overcomes evil with good.

VI. Unleash the Irresistible Might: Meekness Is Courage That Inherits the Earth
Far from cowardice, meekness is the boldest strength—ruling one’s spirit better than capturing a city. Clothed in this Spirit-produced grace, believers bear Christ’s brand marks and receive the promised inheritance.

Bottom line: In a world that prizes rage and revenge, the meek who submit to God and restrain their anger for His glory are the truly mighty—and they alone will inherit the earth.

Prayer

Well, friends, as we prepare ourselves now to sit under the preached word of God, let us pray briefly that the Spirit of God would secretly and affectionately move upon our hearts, as that is what we so desperately need, that even the words that will proceed out of my mouth as a minister of Christ, that they would be made effectual, that they would stir in our hearts, that the kingdom of God, friends, is not in mere words, but it is in power. And so we need the Spirit, His demonstration of power to be at work in our hearts. So let’s bow now our hearts low before God.

O Lord God, we come now to you, humble, begging of you and your grace that you would speak to our hearts, even with the very voice of the one who speaks from heaven. the Lord Jesus Christ by means of his word, by means of his spirit, which he has poured out upon his church.

We ask, O God, father of glory, that you may give us truly the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, that our eyes, not our outward eyes, but our inward eyes, spiritually, that you would enlighten us, that we might come to know the hope of our calling in Christ. What are the riches of your glory? toward the inheritance of your saints, which is yes and amen. In Jesus Christ, we pray that you would feed us with the riches of heaven, that living manna who came down from heaven, even the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might feed upon him, that every word that proceeds from his mouth would live and abide in our hearts, that we might bear fruit unto you, O God, and unto righteousness in a manner which is Pleasing. unto you. In order for that to take place, O God, we ask that you would remove any hindrances of the flesh, of the world, even of the workings of the devil. We ask that you would cause your word to be as a fire that the true conviction of the Spirit might fall upon us as we consider your holy word and what it demands of every person here. And so we ask, O God, that to these ends you would use this time, that even this preacher would declare the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, of Him crucified, that these words would not be proclaimed in the wisdom of men, which is of little to no value, but in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. that our faith might not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

And so we ask, O God, that you would do these things for your namesake and the true edification and advancement of your church.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING: MATTHEW 5:1-12

Well, brothers and sisters, at this time I would invite you all to please take up your copy of God’s Word and turn with me in them to the Gospel according to Matthew, the Gospel according to Matthew. And for context’s sake, we’ll read the first portion of the Sermon on the Mount, just the Beatitudes. So that will be verses 1 to 12, but we’re going to be focusing this morning on verse 5 in particular, which is the third beatitude of the Lord Jesus Christ as he preached this sermon, which still is today and shall ever be the greatest sermon that has ever been preached. And so let’s give heed now to God’s holy, His inspired, His infallible word.

He who has an ear, let him hear. Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, reading all the way to verse 12. And seeing the multitudes, he, that is Jesus, went up on a mountain. And when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So ends the reading of God’s holy, his perfect word. May he write it now in each of our hearts and upon our minds.

THE QUESTION BEFORE US

I desire with you friends to treat and expound upon this verse of scripture, Matthew chapter five, verse five. Originally when I was asked to preach, I thought I was going to be preaching two sermons because that’s what I normally do on a, on a Lord’s day. And so we’re actually just, since I’m only preaching once to y’all going to just focus on the first half of verse five, blessed are. the meek. And so, as we begin, it is this question that I want to set before you and we will seek to answer this morning with God’s help.

What does Christ Jesus mean, the living word of God himself? What does he mean when he speaks of this gospel meekness that has its reward as the inheritance? of the earth? Or to ask it this way, what does it truly mean to be meek in the sight of God? Not just say that you’re meek, but to really experience that living reality in your heart and life.

And how is it then that it is those particular characterized persons that they shall be the ones to inherit the earth? And so this is what we will be looking into, desiring to understand more fully this third descriptor of truly blessed persons, according to the most blessed and glorious person that there shall ever be, world without end. Who are those who have been made citizens of Christ’s kingdom of grace? And so let’s consider our text yet again. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

THE SACRED PARADOX OF THE KINGDOM

Friends, in these words, the Lord Jesus Christ, he charts out for us the third prescribed divine pathway of blessedness according to the rule, according to the way, according to the measure of his kingdom of grace.

And this one too, like the others that we just read of, It is set before us as what we might call a sacred paradox. It is describing to us the divine life and power of grace in the soul that every true disciple of Jesus Christ is in possession of as a member of the kingdom of heaven. and not just one who professes it, but one who with that profession has possession of this inward reality. To the unbelieving, to the dead in sin world, all of these gracious kingdom virtues mentioned here by the Lord Jesus, they are detestable. aren’t they?

To them, these descriptions, which we just read, it is the farthest thing from what somebody, if you asked on the side of the road or somebody that you work with at work or at school, it would be the opposite of what they might call a happy, meaningful life.

For who wants to be constantly, who wants to constantly be and see themselves as poor, as low, as little before God? before others. Who wants to willingly go through life clothed with a spirit of mourning, mourning daily over their inward and outward vileness due to sin and also that of others? And on top of that, who would ever want to prize and harbor this meek temperament, one that is directly counter to the culture of self, of me, myself, and I, we call that the unholy trinity. Being proud of everything about me and all that I have accomplished by my own willpower and intuition, et cetera.

You can be assured that out in the world, or even in the world that creeps into the church, it is hard to find a seminar, let’s say, about the secret to living a happy and a successful life, and the message being meekness. meekness. Because, you see, to the natural eye, to our natural hearts, apart from God, meekness is viewed as what? You often hear it, meekness is weakness. The world’s paradigm for success is all about the opposite of that, right?

It is survival of the fittest. Every man for himself. Doesn’t matter how many people I have to trample on to get what I am achieving and nothing can stop me. Aggressively putting yourself out there. Aggressively and expressing yourself as being able to do and accomplish anything that you set your mind upon. Dr. Lloyd-Jones, he said it best in setting forth how our world apart from Christ thinks. He says, the world thinks in terms of strength and power and ability and self-assurance and aggressiveness. That’s the world’s idea of conquest and possession. The more you assert yourself, the more you express yourself, the more you organize and plan and manifest your powers and your own abilities, the more likely you are to succeed and to get on in life.

But friends, let me very humbly and I hope in a true sense of the fear of God in my own soul, the way of Christ’s Kingdom is not that way. Is it? It’s actually the total opposite. For he ascribes, look at the text, true blessedness, divine happiness, and felicity to those who are characterized as meek, meek ones, clothed, I love this definition, clothed in the irresistible might of meekness. Brothers and sisters, if we will learn anything throughout this little study in the Beatitudes, whether it’s this Beatitude or the whole of them, it is this.

Friends, we must not, do not chase after happiness according to self, according to this fallen world. For they in that shall never come to find true substantial happiness, which is ultimately, we know, is found in God and in God alone. But we, those who are in Christ, I mean, we, really all people even, we must seek after happiness in Christ’s way.

For he alone knows the way. In John 14, 6, Christ says, not only do I know the way, I am the way. The true path of life, it comes from looking beyond this transient world unto God who is invisible himself. And that can only be done by faith. Psalm 16, verse 11. Lord, you will show me. the path of life, right? And why? Because the way of life is not found of man. What man thinks is death, right? What man thinks is the way is the way that leads unto death, according to the plain word of God.

But the psalmist goes on and says, in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand, our pleasures forevermore. Those are the true riches. That is the true wisdom and life and pathway of knowledge. The beginning of wisdom, my friends, is the fear of the Lord. And it is one who truly fears the Lord who will be found meek before God and before others. And so here in our context, we are let in on God’s way in and through Christ to experiencing a substantial and indissolvable, a lasting happiness, one that is not of this world. You won’t get it from the world. The world can never produce it. They will try to steal you on that. They’re trying to make you happy, but they can’t.

And one that can, this divine way of God through Christ, this can be your way, both now and forevermore. And Christ, he gives it to us under this spiritual maxim of true religion. All of these maxims, all of these beatitudes are the way of true inward religion. Blessed are the meek. for they shall inherit the earth.” There is so much packed in this statement. Blessed are the meek.

And so that we might see, truly see, that meekness of heart is indeed a true avenue. to supernatural happiness, along with the other gospel graces here mentioned by Christ. Because again, we don’t want to make these separate. They all come as one package. They are one particular pearl in a strain of pearls making one necklace, if you will. That meekness that is here mentioned by Christ is also a purchased grace of Christ that he has sovereignly sown into the hearts of his redeemed ones.

THE PORTRAIT OF GOSPEL MEEKNESS

And it is imperative that we comprehend here what gospel meekness actually consists of. Because it’s one thing to say, I’m meek. And it’s another thing altogether to actually be in that meekness. And in looking into what it is, friends, that we might be compelled to see it as our only option even. to be in active, constant possession of this meekness ourselves, manifesting it daily in our day-to-day lives, because true happiness, again, as it is defined by God, and that’s what we are most concerned about, it resides in the heart in which this grace flows out of.

This is to be the demeanor. of our hearts that we offer up to Christ as we come to feast upon him, as we feast upon him continually. For as we sing in Psalm 149, who does the Lord take delight in and adorn his salvation with? It is the meek. He beautifies the meek with salvation. And so my friends, what does it really mean to be meek?

And how do we tangibly exhibit, right? Let’s make this practical. How do we actually enact, not just as a play actor, but actually have this dynamic, powerful Christian grace that is so precious in the sight of God be daily manifested in our going ins and our going outs? And why are those who are classified as such to be the inheritors of the earth?

Now that second part we’ll have to wait on, but we need to first begin with the first question. So to begin to answer these questions, we’ll seek to make sense of this text with the Spirit’s help under two simple headings today. Well, I’m going to give you the two headings, but we’re going to really focus on the first. which really just effectively breaks up the text into two parts, right?

We don’t want to overcomplicate Jesus’s very plain outline. And it’s something that we can do with each of the Beatitudes as Christ presents them all in a very similar pattern. First, defining who are the divinely blessed ones, and then stating what divine blessings by grace shall be theirs. Each of the Beatitudes follows this very simple pattern.

And so, consider with me first, will you, brothers and sisters, the portrait of gospel meekness. The portrait of gospel meekness, which is conveyed to us in the first half of the text, blessed are the meek, etc. This is where we need to begin. We need to parse out, briefly, from the scriptures Christ’s meaning when he attributes everlasting happiness, divine bliss in the soul, both here and now, to those who are the meek. The word in the original is the word for a gentle person, a mild, individual as one who is not harsh, one who is not abrasive, one who is not a fighter or a brawler, even mentioned in 1 Timothy 3 of the qualifications of an elder, not easily provoked to anger. It pictures one who is not easily riled up but tender-hearted and thus not aggressively combative, does not just flare up out of control into a fit of rage. Used as an adjective in the New Testament, we see that this word is used in three other places in scripture, and these are very important places of scripture in terms of meekness.

CHRIST — THE PERFECT EMBODIMENT OF MEEKNESS

The Lord Jesus himself describes himself in this way. It’s one of the only places in the New Testament where he really talks about a characteristic description of himself other than, you know, when he talks about metaphors or, you know, I am the good shepherd. Those are all designation. Those are all names. But here we get to really see the heart. of Christ, as it has been well said.

It is a compelling reason for sinners, Christ says, to come to Him for life, to find rest for their weary and heavily burdened souls in sin and weariness in the ways of the world, in the ways of their own flesh and self, etc. Christ says in Matthew 11, 29, he says, take my yoke upon me. Now, why would I want to do that? Take my yoke upon me and learn of me. Why? For I am meek. That’s the same word in our text. And lowly in heart.

That is, if I could put it in my own words, Christ is saying, I am not a brawler. I’m not a quarrelsome person. I will not deal with you severely. or as you deserve, or forcefully in light of your sins. For they shall not send me into a fit of rage, no, but I will instead calmly move toward you. I will compassionately bear with you and bear you up. so that I might relieve you of your burdens by taking them upon myself. Come to me that I might heal you.

Friends, if you wish to see what meekness looks like in all of its shining perfection, then you must get a good long look at the Lord Jesus Christ. It is well said by one theologian, if I’m remembering correctly, that the whole life of Christ, in his humiliation, in his work, which he accomplished as the redeemer of men, it was clothed in humility. even to the very end. It was one long act of meekness that without meekness, our salvation does not get accomplished and we all perish and we all die in our sins and go into everlasting misery and woe. When it came time for Christ to do his cross work, his redemptive work, laying down his perfectly righteous life on the cross of Calvary for an entirely sinful and an unrighteous people, how did the Lord Jesus enter into the gates of Jerusalem? with a blasting of trumpets, on a war stallion arrayed in all the pomp and gold of this world?

No. How does he come? He came to Zion in meekness, in direct fulfillment of that prophecy of the prophet Zechariah, who said, tell the daughter of Zion. Behold, thy king comes unto thee, meek, sitting upon a donkey, and a colt the full of a donkey. Christ, he had the power and ability to call down every angel from heaven to worship him and to celebrate what he was coming to do for the good of the world. But he doesn’t exercise that divine right. Instead, what? He comes to save his people from their sins in a very low and humble condition. Meekly riding in on a donkey, seeking no glory for himself, but only the glory of his father.

Christ is the very personal embodiment of what it means, my friend, to be meek. And if we wish to embody meekness before God and one another, to have that very same meekness dwell in us and reign in us and motivate us, etc., then we must ever be studying, looking upon, pondering upon the life of Christ during His humiliation. To do what he bids us, right? It’s a command. Learn of me. Learn of my ways, my disposition, my heart, for I am meek. Christ writes Thomas Watson, Christ is the example. He is the pattern of meekness.

When he was reviled, he reviled not. In man was he reviled. more than anyone else in this world. 1 Peter 2 verse 23, his enemy’s words were more bitter than the gal they gave him to drink. But Christ’s words in return were smoother than oil. He prayed, he even wept for his enemies.

He called us to learn of him. Christ does not bid us, and this is amazing. He does not bid us, says Augustine, to learn of him to work miracles, to open the eyes of the blind, we can’t do those things, to raise the dead, but he would have us learn of him to be meek. If we do not imitate his life, we cannot be saved by his death.” End quote. We need to look no further. than to Jesus.

Friends, to adorn our hearts, to enravish our hearts more with His meek and His quiet spirit, for that is the best ornament, that is the best decoration, that is the best clothing that you could possibly deck yourself with. Because that, my friend, is what God deems as being of great, tremendous worth in His eyes. And we know this because the very same word is used by the apostle Peter, where he says this, let your adorning be the hidden man of the heart in that which is incorruptible. And you’re like, what is that? That that’s what I want. This is what it is. Even the, uh, the ornament of a meek. and a quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.”

1 Peter 3 verse 4. And so friends, this meekness which Christ sets forth to us as the ever-blessed life that is made available to all of us in the covenant of grace, we must see it. as you will see the other graces to be as well, as being supernaturally spiritual disposition of divine grace’s own implanting in the heart and is experienced and is possessed by those who have believingly entered into Christ’s new and living way by faith. That’s the only way. Christ places it, we see here, third in its order so that you and I would really see how meekness of heart flows out of the two gospel graces before it, right?

You can’t bypass the first two. For we as believers will never show ourselves to be meek unless first you come to terms with your own spiritual bankruptcy within. because of your sin, because of the ways in which you have offended the most holy and righteous God, which then causes us, I would hope, if we’ve truly feeling the convicting work of the Holy Spirit within us, causes us to mourn over how we have greatly offended God and His holiness by our sins, right? David doesn’t say the sword, the sword.

He says, my sin, my sin, Oh, Lord, that is the nature, the heinousness of my act of rebellion against you, my God, my creator and my redeemer. And when we have that, then that will all bring us low. It can’t help bring us low to be silent before the Lord, rooting out any sense of pride or self-confidence before him. And what will be all that is left? or what should be the only thing left, a meek and a humble spirit before the righteous and holy God. When you know, and I’m not just saying intellectually here, I mean experientially know, that you are totally void of any righteousness whatsoever naturally. And when you see yourself as completely undone and lost eternally because of your natural fallen corrupt condition in sin in Adam, where does that take you? It takes you to a place of lowly humbled meekness before God.

And friend, that is a good, that is a good place to be and to stay. Because it is the humble, my friends, that God in Christ graciously bestows his grace upon. James 4 verse 5, be clothed with humility. And there’s a very close connection between humility and meekness. They’re brothers and sisters of one another. It’s hard to talk about one without the other. Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.

Or Psalm 25, the meek will, the Lord, that is, the meek the Lord will guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way.

A WORKING DEFINITION OF GOSPEL MEEKNESS

But all this while, friend, I have been seeking to describe to you what are the gracious outworkings of the one in actual possession of this fruit of the Spirit by a living faith. But I have not yet, if you’ve listened to me carefully, I’ve not yet even defined what meekness is. So let me now, if you will permit me, to set before you a definition of this grace of meekness that Christ joins inseparably to divine blessedness. I’m going to speak somewhat fast. I can give it to you afterwards.

And there’s nothing magical about this definition, but in my own study, this is what I came up with to really seek to capture the totality of what meekness is, right? Kind of a hard task. Gospel meekness is that inward dispositional gentleness that is sovereignly produced and sovereignly maintained in the soul of a believer by the operation of the divine spirit, and its chief function is to moderate, it is to pacify our passions, particularly by bringing the will to humbly submit itself, to resign itself to God, and especially when under affliction or reproach.

I’m not going to read that again, but I can give it to you later if you want to get that definition.

VERTICAL MEEKNESS: SUBMISSION BEFORE GOD

When it comes to exhibiting meekness in our hearts, there is a vertical component, and we’ve talked much about that, and you can’t have meekness without this vertical component. But there’s also a horizontal component. The vertical component is a spirit of meekness before the living God himself, where the soul is calmed. within, it is centered upon God, it is subdued, it is quiet before him, his word and toward all of his providential dealings toward you, particularly in your life personally.

It’s where our heart totally yields itself up to God’s sovereign authority in humbled serenity. When God brings affliction upon you for whatever reason, whether it’s chastening for sin or whether it’s to purify you more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. For whatever reason, the meek Christian in full composure, he willingly complies with it. And often there’s wrestling that takes place, but through that wrestling, you come to that place that you can submit without murmuring. or whining or without making exceptions.

Meekness, it reasons along with Job in faith, saying, what? And he said this to his wife, you know, who said, curse, curse God and die. Be done with God and he’s not really helping you out right now. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?

Job 2.10.

The meek of heart, they are always ready, or again, after much wrestling with God, because this does not come naturally to your and my flesh, right? But there’s a readiness. The meek soul is ready to surrender their will, to lay it down for God’s will. for them.

Thy will be done. It’s the ultimate sacrifice, even that Christ was making in the garden of Gethsemane, right? And even at that moment, he said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death. But it was the meekness of the Lord Jesus Christ that led him to say, not my will, but thy will be done. Even though my will is perfectly holy and righteous, But yet I will lay down mine, Father, for yours.” Because a meek person knows that his will is always the best, even their best, particularly.

Even if it be a hard thing to receive, you’ll remember Eli the prophet in the book of 1 Samuel. He was not exactly what we would call the most faithful priest that Israel ever had, right? After young Samuel relayed to him how God was going to judge his household for sin, he actually has a meek response. He did not quarrel. He did not quibble at all, but he said, and he said rightly, It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. 1 Samuel 3, verse 18.

We can knock Eli for many things, but that statement, the meekness that it takes to even say the words, right? But it’s easier to say than to actually do. But still, that meekness before the Lord in that moment is not something that we can knock Eli for. To be meek before God then is to have a heart that is easily swayed, I would say, when God brings his word to bear, or he brings the hammer of his providences to your life, and it gets rather close, and we could say too close for comfort, reverently.

It doesn’t put up a fight against God’s precepts. It says where God has spoken, that is it. but it reserves all its fighting. So a meek spirit isn’t one that’s not willing to fight, but it fights at the right thing. It attacks the poison. It fights against the inward pollutions of our own heart, the temptations from without and from within. It knows the true enemy.

They are inclined, meek persons, to lay blame on self. and not upon God, they tremble before even thinking about laying the blame on God. When the Spirit visits us to reprove us by means of His word or inwardly with His reproof, says the scriptures speak of, a meek child of God is humbled to the dust by that. it will give the Job answer. Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer, yea, twice, but I will proceed no further.

And so where God has decisively spoken in his word, or where he has clearly gotten a hold of our attention through a trying providence in the testing of our faith, or as it is said, when God lays us on our backs, that’s when we look up to heaven. Sometimes it takes that. And it is very good and gracious of God to bring us to that place when he does. But again, where we have been clearly moved upon, wrought upon by God, he’s gotten our attention. When we see his word and what it demands of us and we can’t get around it one way or the other, for the meek person, there is the end of all debate. for him or her. It is that childlike, depending soul that leans wholly upon its God, where it can sing this song to him, Psalm 131, a beautiful song.

I’m so glad it’s not long, that it’s short, because it just gets to the essence of it. Lord, my heart is not haughty. Children, haughty is just pride, puffed up. nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself in great matters. The meek person has no desire to get into places that he should not be involved in, or in things that are too high for me. Surely I have behaved, I have quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child.” And so why do you think that Jesus says, the kingdom of God. You want to enter in the kingdom of God, disciples and all the people that he preached to, you must become like this little child.

HORIZONTAL MEEKNESS: RESTRAINT WHEN WRONGED

But friends, on top of the vertical element, which I would say is first, there is also a horizontal expression. of meekness, where not only is the heart itself calm, stilled and hushed within by the grace of the Lord, but it also manifests its calmness when it is reproached, when it is injured by our fellow man, such that it will take it, it’ll take the injury, the reproach, the wickedness without being riled up, without losing our temper or lashing back at them in a fireball of fury. Have you ever been there? And it is this horizontal angle that fits, I believe, most with Christ’s description here of the meek, one who is being afflicted wrongly, unjustly by others, as he will go on to say in verse 10, 11, and 12. And yet through the exercising of this grace, this inward grace of meekness, he or she is enabled supernaturally, not of the flesh, but of the spirit to keep his cool by suppressing down, by crucifying that natural passion of the flesh that wants to fight back. in a burst of rage and to retaliate in that persecuting, devouring, Cain nature that kills, desires to kill Abel. Now, why can I say to you that this is what Christ chiefly means in my estimation when referring to meekness in the text, right?

That’s a big claim. And my answer to you would be this, this particular beatitude that Jesus draws straight out of is from, and you’re Psalm singers, what Psalm is this? It’s Psalm 37. And that Psalm is all about what? And we’re actually gonna sing about it afterwards.

It’s all about what? not fretting, not being angry when the godly are troubled by evildoers in this life. That is one of the main threads, if not the very single thread. through the whole psalm. And I don’t have time to walk you through the whole psalm as much as I would love to do that, but the whole of the psalm is an inspired manual for us on how to pacify our anger toward the wicked in this world, how to not be envious of them, how to entrust ourselves wholly to the Lord that he might deal in his vengeance with them in his own time. how that expressing our anger toward those who plot evil against us doesn’t actually accomplish anything. Actually, it only makes matters worse most of the time, if not all the time. And it’s in the midst of all that that David pens this divine promise, verse 11 of that Psalm, but the meek shall inherit the earth.

Sound familiar? and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” So we need to, friends, get completely out of our minds the world’s idea that meekness is weakness because that’s the farthest thing. from what it actually is. For the man who is equipped, or woman, or child even, the righteous who are equipped with making use and who are clothed in and brought under this gospel meekness, they are supernaturally enabled by faith to moderate, to restrain his own passions from flaring up when personally reproached. insulted or injured by others. Meekness, if I could put it this way, is the lion taming grace. It is the bridle that keeps the stallion of our anger from bucking or kicking others in the face. I know that’s kind of graphic, but that is the power of the meekness of the Lord Jesus Christ at work in your heart. It has the ability to tame what is untameable by the flesh.

And friends, you know this in your heart. It doesn’t take much, does it? Think upon your own experience for us to be provoked to anger when we are wrongly treated. Whether it’s people out in the world, it’s probably hardest for us when it’s people who are closest to us, even when it’s those in the church, right, who we serve and love, right, when they treat us unjustly. And sadly, that can happen.

But meekness as a grace and fruit of the divine spirit operating in and upon you, if we would make use of him through gospel grace, meekness is that, if I could use it this way, is that bucket of ice that douses the flames of our own malice that wants to break out against those who have harassed and offended us. in any way.

Thomas Watson defined it this way, he said, meekness is a grace whereby we are enabled by the spirit to moderate our passion. By nature, our hearts are like a troubled sea casting forth the foam of anger and wrath. Now meekness calms that storm, the passions. It sits, and I love this, you’ll appreciate this as Presbyterians, meekness sits as the moderator in the soul, quieting and giving check to all the distempered motions or things that shouldn’t be said. As the moon tempers and mitigates the heat of the sun, so Christian meekness mitigates the heat of passion. You see how that changes our thoughts on the preciousness of meekness.

And so my friends, to show forth a meek spirit in the face of being maltreated, friends, that is no sign of weakness. That is no sign of cowardice as the world would have you think. But it actually demonstrates, it shows forth immense boldness and courage because you are able by the Spirit to fully harness, to keep in your anger and makes it bow to the will of the Lord rather than using it to do your own. And you know what happens when you are left to do your own will, never works out. The end of letting your unsubdued passions run wild unrestrictedly is and can only be death.

And so by the meek, Christ does not mean someone who never gets angry, but it’s one who knows how to quell their anger. And I would say this, spare it, we could say, reserve it for a right, a righteous use of anger when it is called for. The only way to be angry righteously according to God in a way that pleases God is to be angry toward, one, the right things and the right reasons, and if that’s not hard enough, to sin not at all while exhibiting such righteous anger. Ephesians chapter four, verse 26 and 27, be angry and sin not, which is an anger that is not excessive. nor one that is fired out of our own will, and one that doesn’t give place for the devil to creep into your heart.

And friends, to put it mildly, that is extremely hard for us to do as fallen human beings, isn’t it? Who naturally want to live in our own flesh and ways and wisdom. We want to lash out, right? We want to put the boxing gloves on and we want to duke it out right here and right now to the death, right? We want to get even with our revilers, right here, right now. Let’s settle this once and for all. We want to give them an eye for an eye. We want to give them a tooth for a tooth, don’t we? But listen to me, listen to me, please.

I beg you as a minister of the gospel, That is not Christ’s way because He desires to see us not be so provoked or rather taken captive to sinful anger by our own will. but rather to reserve our anger for things that are truly worth getting angry about, right?

For the defilement of God’s name, his being blasphemed, his attributes slandered, the pollution of his gospel worship, the sliding and perverting of his commandments, calling righteousness unrighteousness and evil good and good evil, et cetera. truly meek persons, those deeply bowed down and meekened by the grace of Christ’s Spirit, they will not tolerate, they will not bear having, or excuse me, they can tolerate, they can bear having their persons reproached. But what they will not stand for is God being reproached, God being mocked. Do we truly think more highly of ourselves than we do of God and His name and His glory? May it never be. My friends, do you care more about your own honor than God the Most High who is God-blessed forever? So, let’s get this clear. Christ is not saying there is never a time to be zealous. That there’s never a time to be full of fury in the matters of religion. For surely there is such a time. Why?

Because Christ was the meekest man who ever lived. is found in the gospels to cleanse the temple in holy rage and zeal for the glory of God and the purification of his church. But when it came to being spitefully treated by sinful man, and these are those who Christ was involved in creating, which heightens the magnitude of the sinfulness when he was mistreated by his own creation.

He always bore it in a spirit of meekness, as the scriptures say. When he was reviled, he reviled not in return. When he suffered, he threatened not. That’s the horizontal aspect, but then here’s the vertical. But how could he do that? He committed himself to him that judges righteously. 1 Peter 2 verse 23. Is that weakness? No, my friend. Not at all.

That’s the epitome of what it means to be a bold and a courageous person. It manifests an outstanding, even an otherworldly, supernatural might to be so slow to anger as the Lord is. toward us. That in fact the scriptures say that it takes far more boldness to deter and curb our anger than it does to capture an entire city by force of arms. Think about that. Proverbs 16 verse 32, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a whole city. So then I ask you dear friends as a way of application Do you want to be truly a mighty man or woman in your life before the eyes of God? Then here is the way. Here is the way.

You must manifest this meek spirit within you when you are tempted to boil over in your anger toward one who has done you wrong. And it is the hardest, in my own experience, and I think I can speak to some degree to the saints of old, it is the hardest when it is one who is very close to you.

Think of Judas’ betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, mine own familiar friend hath lifted up the heel against me. One who I used to walk to the worship of God and converse with, and he turned against me and delivered me up to be slaughtered. And yet, Christ says to Judas, friend, friend.

And friends, we can do that too. With the Spirit of God, the same Spirit which was animating the Lord Jesus Christ. And we do that by entrusting ourselves wholly and completely to God. which quiets the soul, it centers our souls, it resolves us to bear our injuries patiently and silently and letting God avenge and plead your cause. And on your end, you hold your peace and you pray that God would still your passions toward that person. And so tell me if you can.

What good will ever come out of showing forth sinful anger toward them in return? Is that how we’re told to overcome evil in the New Testament? No good can come out of that. For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. It cannot. It can never do it. And so just stand there when you are reproached, when you are mistreated, and take it manfully. Now, that’s much easier said than done. Granted.

But are we, again, so full of ourselves, our own name, our own glory, our own reputation, that we cannot bear a little injury or shot to our pride? Are we so full of self-love that we will value our reputation more than we value the reputation of God? Or must we always be found standing up for ourselves?

Christ who drank down to the dregs, suffering for our sake, for our salvation. And can we not even endure just a sip of that cup for love of him? The cup of sufferings with his very same spirit ruling and reigning in you. And this is a token to the power of the gospel. We can, brethren, we can. endure the cross to receive the crown. He who will not go through the cross can never have the crown.

When we will not endure personal injuries with meekness, our passions are loosed and we end up taking for ourselves an office that is God’s alone. that of an avenger. We are commanded by God in the Word. Romans 12, which is right before overcome evil with good. Romans 12, 19. Avenge not yourselves. That is really hard. But why? Because that’s God’s job. He has reserved that for himself. He doesn’t need your help. He’s not asking for your help. Your part is to overcome evil with good. So rather than seeking immediate revenge or plotting evil toward that person in your heart, we are called to bury it.

For the true glory of a man is to what in the scriptures? To pass over, to overlook a transgression. Not that it didn’t happen. To just overlook it, wouldn’t you rather bear the shame of that reproach than to sin against God by giving way to the malice of your own?

Friends, when we take up malice against those who have done ill to us, we’re fighting sin with sin. We are seeking to cast out Satan by Satan. And we think that that’s a good strategy. Do we value? Again, these are deep questions. Do we really value and love ourselves so much that we would rather wound our immortal soul with sin, because that’s what sin does, rather than taking a little laceration from an evildoer? The meek says, it’s not worth losing my temper over these evil words that are spoken to me. And oftentimes I would say it’s better 99% of the time, if I could say it, to just say nothing. Or if you are going to speak, it is a gentle answer, which turns away wrath.

Proverbs 15.1, to take it as a cross that our Lord Jesus Christ has called you in that particular situation to bear in his providence. I know I’ve gone long, but I feel that my heart, I need to share this to show you just the power of the meek spirit of the Lord Jesus living in you.

There was a minister in London in the 1600s. He was a preacher of righteousness. He was going about preaching in the streets. And he was preaching, offering the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ to any who would come and receive it. And somebody came up to him and punched him in the face and said, take that for Jesus’ sake. And that young preacher, only 19 years of age, actually probably even younger than that, he looked him in the eye and said, friend, I do take that for Jesus Christ’s sake. How is such a one able to say that when punched in the face for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and true love for his soul and every soul that he preached to?

Or from my own example, and I don’t share this, I don’t actually like sharing anything from my own. example, but I have experienced of late this meek spirit supernaturally enabling me to do things incomprehensible. I was walking to work, I’m a hospital chaplain these days, walking into work as I usually do from the metro, about to cross the street to get to the hospital, and a homeless man comes up to me and spits directly in my eye. And I was able, by God’s grace, to forgive that man. and to pray unto the Lord that the Lord would have pity. and compassion on that man and to bear this cross and to accept it as an affliction to be born and to wear that even as a brand mark of Jesus Christ and was able, by God’s grace, to go out the rest of that day thanking the Lord for his preservation of my life and to not have any ounce of vengeance or resentment to what that man did unto me.”

Remember when Shimei shouted out curses to David, calling him a bloody man and a man of Belial. Abishai was fuming at the ears and at the mouth probably and asked for David to give him permission to go lop off his head and no doubt Abishai would have accomplished that very easily.

But what is meek King David’s response? He responds in the meekness of faith. How are we to rightly view our being shamed by a fellow sinful human being like ourselves? Look at what he says. This is 2 Samuel 16, 10-12. And then the king said, what have I to do with you, you sons of Zariah? So let him curse. Why? Because the Lord has said unto him, curse David. Who shall then say, why have you done so? And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeks my life.

How much more shall this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look upon my affliction and that the Lord will recompense me good for his cursing this day. Friends, that is what a meek soul does. It places itself wholly in God’s hand, at His disposal.

You see, notwithstanding the painful reproaches suffered, it doesn’t minimize the pain and the hurt, not at all, and believes that God will surely come to their aid, uphold them, defend their cause and their case, rather than feeling the need to fire back rashly out of malice. No doubt there is a time to have our name and our integrity to be cleared and defended from vicious slanderers who are our enemies, but to angrily resort to injure back ones who have injured us, that is to fight evil with evil or to try to expunge evil with the devil’s own tools, which is foolish. But yet that’s exactly what we often do when we will not be ruled by the spirit. when we will not be ruled by that meekness of Christ’s own spirit in our hearts. To exhibit a heart that is slow to become angry at our aggressors is the response of the meek.

And they are compelled to do this because they are well aware that that is how the Lord deals with us, as we have often been the aggressor and the assailor. of God, who is the being of all beings. And so then, to come to the end, to be meek is one of the ways that we as his people can be most like God, right? We always say, I want to be like God, you know, in our prayers to some capacity, I want to be like Christ. Well, this is the way.

One Puritan preacher put it this way, to incite us to seek after and obtaining a heart of gospel meekness. God is meek. towards them who provoke him. How many mouths are open daily against the majesty of heaven? How do men tear his name and vex his spirit and crucify his son afresh, as it says in Hebrews?

They walk up and down the earth as so many devils covered with flesh, yet the Lord nevertheless is meek, not wishing any should perish, 2 Peter 3.9. How easily could God crush sinners the very moment they sin and just kick them into hell forever?

But he moderates his anger. Though he be full of majesty on the one hand, yet also full of meekness. In him is mixed princely greatness and fatherly mildness. Oh, how this should make us fall in love with meekness. Hereby we bear a kind of likeness to God.

And this is so deep. It is not profession that makes us like God, but imitation. Oh friends, we talk and we pray much about being made conformable to the image of Jesus Christ, don’t we? I hope so. But here is the golden way. To show forth genuine meekness of heart towards sinners who snub us with their own words and with their own deeds. And what does that look like? It looks like this.

Bearing their raging hostility with a quieted, subdued and humble spirit. actively desiring the Holy Spirit to repress in us any sense of anger toward them that may creep up in us and then be ready to melt their hearts, right? And this is the moving toward them by a gentle and a cool disposition that is inclined to forgive and to have compassion and pity. upon them, though they be so hot and furious toward you, to be even able to say, like Stephen said, they’re throwing rocks at him to kill him, and it would kill him. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is the way, my friends.

It is very narrow, as Jesus said, and few find it. This is the way of divine blessedness that is here commended to you by the Lord Jesus. And it is these people who are truly blessed of the Father. and they are the true inheritors of the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. So ends the portrait of gospel meekness. Maybe next time, God willing, that I’m asked to preach to you, should I get another opportunity, we can look at the blessed privilege of gospel meekness. Amen.

CLOSING PRAYER

Let’s pray.

Lord God, Almighty, let these deep truths penetrate our hearts that we might truly prize and see within, not just with words, but within by our own experiencing of their power, the preciousness in your sight of a meek and quiet spirit. Whether that is toward you, God, who is to be feared and glorified above all, or towards others who do us ill and wrong, that we might bear the hostility of sinners, that we might resist unto blood, that when spat on in the face, when punched in the face, when ill spoken of unjustly, let us bear those brand marks of the Lord Jesus Christ, which indeed will be to us a fulfilling of the sufferings, the leavings of Christ’s sufferings for his sake and for his body’s sake. Lord, we confess that we have not the power of ourselves according to the natural man, but you have given us your spirit, the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the lion taming ability. that we need to tap into. It’s the only way to live in the Spirit. We’ve been regenerated by the Spirit if we’re in Christ, and the only way to continue on, to bear that mark of grace in our hearts is to live, to walk in that very same Spirit. It is a fruit of the Spirit, gentleness. meekness.

And so God we ask that whatever you would have come to us in your providence in our lives Lord that we would learn truly inwardly to be a people who are meek and lowly even as the early church was known in that way and suffered so much and was willing to be tortured and thrown into lions pits and mauled and for the sake of Christ but they bore it with a meek spirit and faith and in humble devotion to you. And so we ask, O God, that you would close us with this grace and clothe your church that we might overcome evil with good. A meek spirit before you, O God. Write this upon our hearts that this might be the fruit of our lives before you, O God. We ask in Christ’s name for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.