Blessed Are (Part 2)

[0:00] Jesus expects every believer to demonstrate all attributes of character and conduct described every believer to be like him. The outline we're covering has three sections. We talked about blessed defined last week. We're in the middle of blessed described, and eventually we'll get to behavior demanded. We made it through that first section. We'll go through more of the second section tonight. But just for some review, remember that makarios, the Greek word for blessed, means happy, fortunate, or blissful in addition to blessed. The fullest meaning of the term had to do with an inward continence that's unaffected by circumstances, and that's the kind of happiness that God desires for us. It's a state of joy and well-being that is not dependent upon physical or temporary circumstances.

[1:17] Let's go ahead and read Matthew 5, 3 through 12 again now. Remember, this is Jesus speaking, and he said, 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 satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive 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 others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. We discussed last time how the Beatitudes build upon one another. If we are to find true happiness, we must not seek it in the world's way.

[2:23] We must look for it in the way outlined by Jesus. According to Jesus, the way to happiness is found in a poverty of spirit, in a character that's marked by meekness, in a hunger and thirst for righteousness, in mercy, in purity, and in a desire to make peace. Jesus lived these things, and because he lived them, we too can find happiness. The life of the Sermon on the Mount is the life of Jesus, and the life of Jesus is communicated to the Christian by the Spirit of Jesus, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit, who comes to live within us. Before we look at verse 4 and beyond, remember what we said about verse 3. To be poor in spirit is to realize that I have nothing, am nothing, and can do nothing without God. Poverty of spirit is a consciousness of my emptiness, the result of the Spirit's work within. Poverty of spirit evidences itself by bringing the individual into the dust before

[3:25] God, acknowledging his utter helplessness and deservingness of hell. Being poor in spirit means that we empty ourselves of having any notion of being worthy to deserve God's favor. We talked last week about how this is the only beatitude that involves an emptying. The other beatitudes exhort us to fill ourselves with the qualities such as mournfulness, meekness, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercifulness, purity in heart, and peacemaking. So let's start looking at the first quality that Jesus said should fill believers. In verse 4, Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. We'll first consider what Jesus meant by the word translated as mourn.

[4:13] The Greek word means to mourn or to lament for the dead or to grieve over a severe and painful loss. It's very intense in its meaning. There are nine Greek words used in the New Testament to express grief, and this word is the most intense of all of those nine. In the context of this sermon, it means genuine mourning. It's used in the Greek Old Testament of Jacob's grief when he thought Joseph was killed by a wild animal. It's also used of the disciples' mourning for Jesus before they knew he was raised from the dead. And it's used of the mourning of world business leaders over the death of commerce because of the destruction of the world's economy during the tribulation. The word carries with it an idea of deep inner agony which may or may not be expressed by outward weeping, wailing, or lament.

[5:09] Although the same word is often used to speak of mourning for the death of someone, here the word is spiritual in its meaning. Jesus didn't say that those who mourn in a natural sense are happy, meaning that by mourning we're happy if we're mourning the death of someone.

[5:26] Remember what we saw in poverty of spirit. Poverty of spirit is not something financial, but something spiritual. So again here, this is something spiritual too. The mourning here has nothing to do with mourning our natural life in this world. All of these beatitudes have a reference to a spiritual condition and a spiritual attitude. The mourning talked about here springs from a sense of sin or from a tender conscience or from a broken heart. It's godly sorrow because we've rebelled against God and we've expressed a hostility to God's will. This mourning is the agonizing realization that it was our sins which nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. We mentioned earlier how the beatitudes build upon each other and here we see it illustrated. In the first beatitude we recognize our sinfulness and in the second beatitude we grieve over that sinfulness. The first beatitude affects the mind, the second affects the emotions. Mourning over sin is common throughout the Bible and we'll look at a few places where that is. Listen to Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 1 through 3. Those verses say,

[6:44] Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Oh that I had in the desert a traveler's lodging place that I might leave my people and go away from them for they are all adulterers a company of treacherous men.

[7:04] They bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood and not truth has grown strong in their land for they proceed from evil to evil and they do not know me declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9 was written a long time ago but verse 3 sounds like it could have been written recently to describe our society. Listen to verse 3 one more time. They bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood and not truth has grown strong in their land for they proceed from evil to evil and they do not know me declares the Lord.

[7:41] Jesus himself mourned over Israel's sin in Matthew chapter 23 verses 37 and 38. Jesus said there, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

[7:57] How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing. See your house is left to you desolate. The mourning over sin that we see here in the Beatitudes goes further than the mourning described in the first part of Jeremiah 9 though.

[8:16] The mourning goes beyond the type of mourning that Jesus had in Matthew 23 as well. Here in the Beatitude, the mourning that Jesus commends is the mourning over sin that produces true repentance.

[8:29] We have to understand that. The mourning here is the mourning that produces true repentance. Don't simply take my word for it. Listen to what the Bible says about that. Here is what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 7.10. 2 Corinthians 7.10 says, For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. Jesus preached the same message before Paul did. Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 4, 18 and 19. Again, this is Luke chapter 4 verses 18 and 19 when Jesus was speaking at the synagogue, in Nazareth. Jesus said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

[9:21] He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

[9:34] In his preaching there, Jesus paraphrases an Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 and 2. Listen to those verses. You'll hear some familiar words at the end of verse 2.

[9:48] Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 and 2 say, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor.

[9:59] He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.

[10:16] Did you catch the familiar words there? At the very end, Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah was coming to comfort those who mourn. So, what was the deliverance that Christ was preaching here?

[10:33] It wasn't a proclamation against physical slavery, although that eventually followed in the history of the Christian church. He didn't set out to overthrow the slavery of the Roman Empire.

[10:44] He actually never preached against it directly. The deliverance that Jesus proclaimed was a deliverance from the tyranny of sin, and it was actually because he broke sin's tyranny over men that he proved to be so effective later in getting slavery and other things wrong with society overthrown.

[11:05] Think back again to what we saw in 2 Corinthians 7.10. That's the verse that says, For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

[11:20] Does having salvation without regret make you feel happy or blessed? It should. And that's one reason here why Jesus says, Blessed are happy are those who mourn.

[11:37] Here in Matthew 5, the mourning Jesus references certainly describes the mourning that leads to salvation, but the words Jesus chose mean even more than that.

[11:47] The Greek word translated mourn is a present participle, and that means a continuous action. In other words, those who are continually mourning are those who will be continually comforted.

[12:02] A.W. Pink said, This mourning is by no means to be confined unto the initial experience of conviction and contrition about sin. Observe the tense of the verb.

[12:14] It is not have mourned, but mourn, a present and continuous experience. The Christian himself has much to mourn over. The sins which he now commits, both of omission and commission, are a sense of daily grief to him, or should be, and will be, if his conscience is kept tender.

[12:34] The faithful child of God is constantly broken over his sinfulness, and the longer he lives, and the more he becomes in the Lord, the harder it is for him to be frivolous.

[12:46] He sees more of God's love and mercy, but he also sees more of his own and the world's sinfulness. To grow in grace is also to grow in awareness of sin.

[12:59] Somebody might be thinking, how does this fit with Proverbs 17.22? Proverbs 17.22 is the verse that says, A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

[13:14] Well, it actually does fit together with that, because the Bible recognizes a proper sense of humor. Humor that's not at the expense of God's name, God's word, or God's church, or any person except perhaps ourselves.

[13:28] God does know that a joyful heart is good medicine, but a heart that rejoices in sin is taking poison, not medicine. The way to happiness is not in ignoring sin, much less in making light of it, but rather in sorrow over it that cries to God.

[13:46] Listen to that key part again. The Bible recognizes a proper sense of humor, humor that is not at the expense of God's name, God's word, or God's church, or any person except perhaps ourselves.

[14:00] We know that sin is always at the expense of at least one of those things, and sometimes more. The happiness or blessedness does not come in the morning itself.

[14:14] Happiness comes from what God does in response to the morning, and that is the forgiveness that the morning brings. Godly mourning brings God's forgiveness, which also brings God's happiness.

[14:28] Mourning is communion with the living God, the loving God who responds to the mourner with an objective reality, and that is the reality of God's forgiveness. True mourning over sin focuses on God, who alone can remove and forgive our sin.

[14:45] It's an attitude that begins when we enter the kingdom, and it will last as long as we live on earth. Only mourners over sin are happy, because only mourners over sin have their sins truly forgiven.

[15:01] Sin and happiness are totally incompatible. Where one exists, the other cannot. Until sin is forgiven or removed, happiness is going to be locked out.

[15:12] But mourning over sin, on the other hand, brings forgiveness of that sin, and that brings a freedom and joy that can't be experienced any other way. Let's transition to the last part of verse 4.

[15:26] That's where Jesus says that mourners are blessed because they will be comforted. Certainly, forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation are two types of comfort, but the comfort that Jesus speaks of here goes even further than that.

[15:40] The word translated comforted here is from the Greek word parakleo. You might recognize that as the same word that's rendered comforter when it's used as a noun.

[15:52] In John 14, 16, we are told that Jesus was the first helper, and the Holy Spirit is another helper who will be coming. Listen to what Jesus said in John 14, verses 16 and 17.

[16:07] He said, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.

[16:22] You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. Not only does Jesus promise believers that they will have the Holy Spirit, John 14, 17 makes it clear that only believers will receive the Holy Spirit.

[16:37] Otherwise known as the comforter. Now listen to what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3-5.

[16:49] He said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

[17:09] For we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. Think about what we've just looked at with these passages.

[17:21] The passage in John references the Holy Spirit and Jesus as comforters. The passage we just read in 1 Corinthians refers to God and Jesus as comforters.

[17:34] So we have God being a God of comfort, Christ being a Christ of comfort, and the Holy Spirit being a spirit of comfort. As believers, we get comfort from the entire Trinity.

[17:47] And let's talk about when believers get this comfort. Jesus says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The word shall be may at first sound like it refers to the future.

[18:02] But the comfort of Matthew 5.4 is future only in the sense that blessing comes after obedience. The comfort comes after the mourning. As we continually mourn over our sin, we will be continually comforted now in this present life.

[18:20] God is not only the God of future comfort, but He's the God of present comfort too. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 16 and 17, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

[18:48] So we see Jesus Himself and God mentioned as comforters here, and we also see comfort mentioned in two different respects here. Paul mentions comfort in the sense of eternal comfort, and he also mentions comfort in the sense of present comfort.

[19:05] Happiness comes to sad people because their godly sadness leads to God's comfort. Think about what Jesus said in Matthew 11.28. He said, Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[19:22] Jesus will lift the burden from those who mourn over sin, and He will give rest to those who are weary from that sin. As often as we confess our sins, we know that He's faithful to forgive, and as long as we mourn over sin, He is faithful to comfort us too.

[19:41] The conditions referenced here in this beatitude were predicted in the Old Testament. Listen to God speaking through Zechariah, and we'll look at two verses there. It's chapter 12, verse 10, and in Zechariah 13.1.

[19:56] Zechariah 12.10 says, And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on Me on whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him as one who mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him as one weeps over a firstborn.

[20:19] And then skipping a few verses to the first verse of chapter 13, it says, On that day there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

[20:34] We have time to cover one more beatitude tonight, and that comes in Matthew 5.5. That is where Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

[20:48] Our society typically views meekness as weakness, and that's an undesirable trait. Biblical meekness is much different, so we'll spend some time talking about what biblical meekness is.

[21:03] The Greek word translated meek basically means mild or soft. The term sometimes was used to describe a soothing medicine or a soft breeze. It was used of cults and other animals whose naturally wild spirits were broken by a trainer so that they could do useful work.

[21:22] As a human attitude, it meant being gentle of spirit, submissive, quiet, and tender-hearted. So you may have caught in there that the definition has three components.

[21:35] The word that meek translates was one of the great words in Greek ethics. Aristotle carefully defined it in his works. For Aristotle, the virtues of life were always defined as the mean between the excess of virtue on one side and a deficiency of virtue in the other.

[21:56] To Aristotle, meekness was also a virtue because it was the proper balance between excessive anger and the inability to show anger at all. He described a meek man as someone who is angry on the right occasion with the right people at the right moment for the right length of time.

[22:17] William Barclay says a meek man is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. The second sense of the Greek word comes from the reference to wild animals that have been broken by a trainer to do useful work.

[22:33] By extension, the word was used of persons who knew how to behave properly. The word came to refer to those of the upper classes because they were well-mannered, balanced, or polite.

[22:46] This sense of the word meek is far better preserved in English by the related word gentle from which we get the compound words gentlefolk, gentlewoman, or gentleman.

[22:58] Gentleness is soft and loving behavior, the opposite of awkwardness or rudeness. In this sense, the Christian is also to be meek. He is to be loving, well-mannered, polite, balanced, and well-behaved, or said another way, he's to be God's gentleman.

[23:18] A final sense of the word meek comes from the fact that in biblical language, the word is most often used to represent a subservient and trusting attitude before God.

[23:29] God. This makes meekness generally a vertical virtue rather than a horizontal one because it looks toward God. It's the characteristic that makes a man bow low before God so that the man can stand high before other men.

[23:44] It makes men bold because the men know that their lives have been touched by God and that God comes into their lives and makes them God's messenger. Jesus actually quoted this beatitude from the Old Testament.

[23:58] It's not new with Jesus here. Flip over to Psalm 37 because we're going to spend a little bit of time in Psalm 37. We'll read the first 11 verses and while some of you are turning there, perhaps you're already thinking of that Psalm's best-known verse.

[24:18] Psalm 37.4 is probably its best-known but most misapplied verse. Psalm 37.4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

[24:30] As we'll see now, Psalm 37 has more to say to us than just verse 4. The ESV actually heads the psalm with, He will not forsake His saints.

[24:42] With that as the main idea of the psalm, we can already tell that it goes deeper than verse 4. So let's read the first 11 verses of Psalm 37 now and as we read those verses, look for the third beatitude in them.

[24:56] The psalm says of David and starting in verse 1 it says, Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

[25:11] Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord.

[25:23] Trust in Him and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

[25:36] Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil.

[25:50] 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. Though you look carefully at His place, He will not be there.

[26:04] But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Do you see the third beatitude there? Particularly the last couple of verses there?

[26:16] Absolutely. Starting in verse 9, it says, For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

[26:29] 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.

[26:40] Those verses really home in on the definition of meek because we see a balance between excessive anger and the inability to show anger.

[26:51] We see someone who, like a previously wild animal, has now been broken and exemplifies power under control. And we see someone who trusts in the Lord and waits for the Lord to act.

[27:04] We also see a reward for someone who is biblically meek. Verses 9 and 11 say that the meek will inherit the land. Now that we've looked at the definition of meek in detail, consider this one-sentence summary definition from John MacArthur.

[27:22] He said, Meekness means power put under control. Meekness means power put under control. As we're starting to look into verse 5 now, has any of you thought about how verse 5 seem similar to verse 3?

[27:41] Although this beatitude is similar to the first, they're different. The essential difference between being poor in spirit that we see in the first beatitude and being meek or gentle here in the third beatitude may be that poverty in spirit focuses on our own sinfulness.

[27:59] Meekness, though, is a response to God's holiness and focuses on God's holiness. Humility underlies both of those virtues because when we look honestly at ourselves, we're made humble by seeing how sinful and unworthy we are.

[28:15] And when we look at God, we are made humble by seeing how righteous and worthy God is. The third beatitude also changes the perspective somewhat.

[28:26] The first beatitude relates more to how each of us sees ourselves. The second beatitude relates to something that we do ourselves. Here in the third beatitude, the focus begins to shift to how others see us.

[28:42] Here's what Martin Lloyd-Jones had to say about the change in perspective here. He said, I can see my own utter nothingness and helplessness face to face with the demands of the gospel and the law of God.

[28:56] I am aware when I am honest with myself of the sin and evil that are within me and that drag me down. And I am ready to face both of these things.

[29:08] But how much more difficult is it to allow other people to say things like that about me? I instinctively resent it. We, all of us, prefer to condemn ourselves rather than to allow somebody else to condemn us.

[29:22] I say of myself that I am a sinner, but I instinctively do not like anybody else to say that I am a sinner. That is the principle that is introduced at this point.

[29:33] So far, I have been looking at myself. Now, other people are looking at me and I am in a relationship to them and they are doing certain things to me. How do I react to that?

[29:47] He goes on to say, I think you will agree that this is more humbling and more humiliating than everything that has gone before. It is to allow other people to put the searchlight upon me instead of my doing it myself.

[30:04] Before we get too deep into the verse, we also need to think about the continued progression we've mentioned already. Remember that the Beatitudes build upon each other. Poverty of spirit, the first Beatitude, is negative and it results in mourning, which is the second Beatitude.

[30:23] Meekness, the third, is positive and it results in seeking righteousness which we'll see in the fourth Beatitude. Being poor in spirit causes us to turn away from ourselves in mourning and meekness causes us to turn toward God and seek God's righteousness.

[30:41] We'll also notice as we go along that in these Beatitudes, behaving like Jesus gets more and more difficult with each successive Beatitude. Remember the main idea.

[30:53] We still don't get a pass on the main idea just because things get harder. That main idea is that Jesus expects every believer to demonstrate all attributes of character and conduct described in these verses or said another way, Jesus expects every believer to be like Him.

[31:13] Getting back to verse 5, let's look at how meekness is a quality prominent throughout the Bible. We just saw how Psalm 37 illustrates meekness.

[31:24] We'll look at a sampling of a few more verses to show that meekness is a biblical virtue. From Willard's studies in Exodus so far, would you consider Moses to be meek if we use the world's definition of meekness?

[31:40] He wouldn't fit the world's definition of meekness, but Moses was meek in a good way. He was meek in the way that God defines meekness. Listen to Numbers chapter 12 verse 3.

[31:53] That verse says, Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. James wrote in James 1 verse 21, Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

[32:16] Paul defines meekness or gentleness as it's translated in the ESV as one of the fruits of the Spirit. Listen to Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23.

[32:26] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

[32:39] Against such things there is no law. And even though Galatians 5 22 says gentleness, it's the same word translated as meekness elsewhere. The ESV again translates the Greek word rendered in Matthew 5 as meekness when it gives us Peter's words in 1 Peter 3 15.

[32:58] And we'll actually see that they're using gentleness here instead of meekness. 1 Peter 3 15 says, But in your hearts honor Christ as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.

[33:18] So there's that word again. It's translated gentleness there instead of meekness, but it is the same word. Taken together, these verses teach that meekness is a characteristic by which God promises to bring blessing into the lives of believers and to also use them to give that blessing to others.

[33:37] It's not a natural characteristic of man, but the result of the supernatural working of God's Spirit. Consider some other examples of meek men in the Bible.

[33:49] We have Old Testament heroes like Abraham, Joseph, Job, and David. Every one of those submitted to God's will. And in the New Testament, Stephen, the apostles, particularly Paul and John, were often shown to exhibit meekness.

[34:07] However, they were anything but weak. Remember that Jesus referred to John as one of the sons of thunder. Meekness is compatible with great strength.

[34:18] Meekness is compatible with great authority and power. The people that we just talked about and others have been great defenders of the truth. The meek man is one who may so believe in standing for the truth that he will die for it if necessary.

[34:33] The martyrs were meek, but they were never weak. They were strong men, yet meek men. Like the other Beatitudes, verse 5 defines both a requirement and a reward.

[34:47] The requirement, of course, is meekness. The reward is inheriting the earth. After creating man in his own image, God gave man dominion over the whole earth.

[34:58] That comes from Genesis 1, verse 28. The subjects of his kingdom are going to someday come back into that promised inheritance. It was largely lost and perverted after the fall, but we will get it back.

[35:12] So we will have a paradise regained. One day, God is going to completely reclaim this earthly domain, and those who become God's children through faith in his Son will rule that domain with him.

[35:25] The only ones who become his children and the subjects of his divine kingdom are ones who are gentle or those who are meek because they understand their unworthiness and sinfulness and cast themselves on the mercy of God.

[35:40] Put yourself in the place of the Jews back in Jesus' day when he was saying this for the first time. Most Jews thought that the coming great kingdom of the Messiah would belong to the strong, of whom the Jews would be the strongest, but the Messiah himself said that it would belong to the meek and to Jew and Gentile alike.

[36:02] That's one of the reasons why the Jews have such a difficulty believing the gospel. The promised reward in this beatitude obviously has a future component, but it has a present component too.

[36:14] Listen to what James Montgomery Boyce said. He said, There is a sense in which the meek shall inherit the earth now. The meek man is the man who is satisfied and therefore content.

[36:26] Paul was such a man. He owned very little, yet he spoke of himself as possessing everything. And here's the verse that that references.

[36:38] It's 2 Corinthians 6, verse 10. Paul was describing the servants of God, including himself, and he said, Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

[36:55] Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 21-23. He said, So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future.

[37:17] All are yours, and you are Christ, and Christ is God's. Paul says twice in these verses that all things belong to believers. As we've gone through these beatitudes so far, we've repeatedly referenced the main idea that Jesus expects every believer to demonstrate all attributes of character and conduct described in these verses, or that Jesus expects every believer to be like him.

[37:45] We also talked about how these verses describe the character of Jesus. So let's look at that again. We know Jesus mourned over sin. We read the verses where Jesus mourned over the sins of Jerusalem because he knew so many would fail to repent.

[38:01] And we also know that he mourned over sin so much that he gave himself as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of true believers. We know Jesus was meek.

[38:14] Matthew 21, verse 5, quotes Zechariah 9, 9, and this is from the passage documenting Jesus' triumphal entry. Matthew 21, 5 says, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

[38:37] Let's look at two other biblical passages that exhort believers to be meek. Colossians chapter 3, verses 12 through 14 tell us, put on them as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

[39:07] And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. We referenced Job earlier as an Old Testament example of a meek person and listen to what Job said in Job 5, verses 8 through 11.

[39:25] He said, As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.

[39:36] He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields. And here's the key verse. He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

[39:49] You might be saying, all that's wonderful, but for me, it's fantasy. It's a beautiful thought, but it's impossible. I'm not meek, and I shall never become meek by any amount of effort.

[40:02] The answer, of course, is that it is impossible by your own effort. This characteristic is not in man, but it can be created in a man by Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

[40:13] We looked at this verse earlier, but again, this is Matthew 11, 28. This time, we'll read it with verse 29. Jesus said, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[40:27] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus can do what you think is impossible.

[40:38] He can teach you meekness, and you will find rest for your soul. And when we fail sometimes to be meek and to be like Jesus, we can mourn, and even that's a good thing because we know that blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

[40:54] Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these verses today, and we thank you for the challenge that they put forward to us.

[41:05] Help us always rely on the Holy Spirit to become more and more like Christ, and help us exhibit these traits more and more every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[41:15] Amen.