Matthew 5 (Part 3) :5

We've been looking at the Beatitudes and I've been sharing them with you over the course of the last through a few weeks as a kind of stairs, stair steps, if you will, to better knowing and serving God and so forth. So I once again, I want to put a slide up for you this morning and just very simply put up this stair step idea. This is a little bit less of a slide than I had last week, but, but, you know, I just, I wanted to show you this because once again, we're looking at the Beatitudes as, as steps that lead to knowing God and understanding God. And you'll remember that on the very first step, what we looked at was poverty of spirit. Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And you'll remember that we talked about what that meant. We talked about that. It means complete and utter depravity or understanding, I guess, our utter depravity, our utter uselessness, our, our, our nothingness, if you will. We have nothing. We have nothing to offer God. We, we, we have nothing to bring to the table. You know, we, in and of our lives that we need the Lord completely, totally, and there's nothing we can do about our condition. And that's the first step that, that, that total humility, you know, where you're just, Lord, I need you. I need you, you know? And Jesus started off that way. We talked about as Christians, how that is so necessary in every aspect of our walk with the Lord. If you and I bring something into our relationship to the Lord that we think is a benefit to us, it's probably going to get in the way as far as what the Lord wants to do in our lives. Once the Lord reveals that poverty of spirit, we move up to the next step, which is, which is blessed are those who mourn. And that's where we're sorrowful over sin. We talked about this last week. We talked about the fact that godly sorrow, as the Bible teaches us, brings repentance. It leads to life. And that's what he's referring to here. Blessed are those who mourn. There is, there is truly a mourning over that which has been lost in our lives. The things that, that, you know, we no longer have control over, the things that we've frittered away and so forth and so on. And then we come to this third step, which is all about meekness. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Now, if I said to you something like, Joe is a meek guy. What would you think that I just told you about Joe? Joe is a, you know, he's a guy, he's just a generic name I drew out of the air. You know, you would probably think that I was saying to you that he's a fairly weak person. You know, I was, you probably would think that I was saying that he's like a guy without a backbone. You know, if I say, well, you know, Joe's kind of a meek sort of a fella. You might think of kind of a mousy sort of a guy that is real apprehensive about asserting himself in just about any situation. He lets people walk all over him, sort of a thing, you know. But the biblical meaning of the word is actually quite different from that. Let me show you meekness as it is defined in the word of God is essentially a willingness to submit and work under authority. It is a willingness to disregard one's own rights and privileges. Now, I don't know if that definition really kind of resonates in your heart very much, but I want you to think about it for a moment. Now, just imagine for a moment that this definition has nothing to do with a human being. Imagine if we were defining a horse. Now, don't stay with me here. Imagine we were defining a horse, willingness to submit to work under authority. You know what you would call that horse? Broken, right? We talk about the breaking process of working with a horse when a horse, you know, before a horse will allow a rider on its back, before it will even allow, you know, a bitten bridle and stuff like that, and they kick and bite and buck and everything else. And they have to go through that breaking process, don't they? You know, in order that they might be willing to ultimately submit and work under the authority of the rider, right, of that horse. Willingness also to disregard their own rights. You know, that horse wants to take off and run, but he's going to stay right here because now he is under the authority of the individual. Who is in control, you know? Okay, now bring it back to a man. It speaks of brokenness in a man's life as well. And a woman, when I say man, I'm using that in a, you know. So it speaks of brokenness. It speaks of that willingness to submit and work under authority, okay? And now let me show you something else. This is a statement from Adam Clark, who was around a long time ago, so I paraphrase this. But it says, our word meek comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning companion or equal. Because a meek person is always ready to associate with anyone, never believing himself or herself, of course, to be superior. And knowing that every good thing that he or she possesses is a gift from God. I love that statement because it tells me that when someone is meek, that they see themselves as they really are. This statement or this definition, this further elaboration of the definition of meekness is a really good one. Because it basically says that this person isn't puffed up about themself. And because they've been broken by the Lord, they now are open and willing to associate with people whom they may have considered before that beneath them. You know, the little people or people of very little importance. Suddenly now, after that brokenness takes place and meekness begins to permeate their lives, there's a willingness now to kind of reach out and touch other people. And the old self-image, you know, is gone and they no longer think of themselves as too good or even not good enough for that matter. They're not puffed up about themselves, but nor are they struggling with poor self-esteem. Do you guys understand that poor self-esteem is a byproduct of selfishness? Do you understand that? Do you understand that poor self-esteem comes from the same root as conceitedness and vanity? We think of vanity as someone who struts around going, yeah, I'm the best, you know, sort of a thing, you know. And then we think of people, and we think of the opposite of that as people with poor self-esteem who are always going around, you know, I can't do that, I can't go, I can't, you know, I'm not any good at anything. Do you know that the root of both of those things is self-absorption? Both of those things come from an over-connection to self. I either think too much of myself or I think too little of myself. But selfishness is the root in both cases. A meek person has gotten over themselves. They've understood who they really are in the light of the grace of God and the word of God. And it's not that they think too highly of themselves or they think lowly of themselves. They're not thinking of themselves. Self isn't on the radar anymore. Other people are on the radar. God is on the radar because self has been broken away, you see. So, you know, it's crazy. Our world thinks that the answer to getting people to act better, behave better, and so forth is to build up their self-esteem. You see, all that does is feed self, you know. So what? You get somebody's self-esteem built up, and then what do you got? Vanity. But it's the same thing ultimately. It's selfishness, self-centeredness, self-absorption. One of the beautiful things about a person who has, on that first step, confessed and understood the utter depravity of their lives, who has sorrowed over their sin in the second step. And they've sorrowed in a godly way so as to repent and turn from that. And now you have a person who begins to walk in meekness of character, which is a true, accurate estimation of who they really are. And self is no longer the focal point of their thoughts because self has been put in its place. Self has been dealt with, you know, at the cross. And now it's not all about me, you know. It's all about God. It's all about Jesus now. Because He has done a work in my life, just like that work we talked about for horses. You know, I have accepted the gracious bit and bridle of the Lord. I have accepted the saddle of the Lord, if you will. And I am no longer bucking and nipping against the Lord my God. I have surrendered to a greater expression of His Lordship in my life. Not that it happens and just, and happens perfectly all at once and then we're just godly people and we have a, you know, glow over our heads. But I'm talking about the meek person who has been conquered by the Lord. That's another good word, isn't it? When you think about, once again you go back to that idea of a horse, really what you're doing when you're breaking a horse is you're conquering that will and spirit that would otherwise just say, you are not going to swing your leg over my back. Sort of a thing, you know? And the Lord has to conquer us, doesn't He? If there is going to be an expression of His Lordship, I mean truly in our lives, then He must conquer us. There must be brokenness. That's why David writes in the Psalms and says a broken and contrite spirit, O Lord, you will not despise. Brokenness is a powerful thing and somebody who's been through that process, and it really ought to be every Christian, but every people who've been through that process of, again, the first step, recognizing my spiritual depravity, second of all, recognizing the depth of my sin and mourning over it, now coming to that place of meekness, a person that recognizes that, you know, should understand these things and they often have a limp to prove it. Do you know what I mean by that? Do you guys remember the story in Genesis chapter 32? I won't make you turn there. Great story. One of my favorite stories in all the Bible, I finished my class, I've been teaching a class for the last 10 weeks in Boise, at Calvary Chapel Boise, as part of their school of ministry. And last Thursday night at my last class, one of my students said to me before I started, he says, hey, Pastor Paul, what's your favorite verse? What's your favorite story or whatever? I didn't, I can never answer that question when people throw it out at me, you know. But then I'll read something in the Bible and go, I think that's my favorite. But then the next day I'll read something else and that's my favorite. So it's just, that's kind of the way it goes. But so for the next 10 minutes, this is my favorite Bible story. Okay? Anyway, it's that story of Jacob and you guys know about Jacob. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham and Jacob was a man who did things his way. In fact, his name meant deceiver. If you're named Jacob here today, God bless you. But you're, you know, it literally meant, well, it meant heel catcher, which was a figurative name for deceiver or someone who grasps at the heel in order to kind of trip up an adversary, manipulate circumstances and that sort of thing. Maybe you can relate a little bit. Well, anyway, Jacob was the kind of guy, whatever he wanted, he was going to find a way to get it done. You know? And even if he had to resort to weirdness from time to time, Jacob wasn't, you know, he would even be weird to do things like that. You'll remember that when he was raising flocks for his father-in-law, he would strip the bark off branches and put them in the feeding trough so that when the animals came to eat and drink and stuff, and they mated there, that they would see these stripes, literally strips torn away on the branches. And then he thought that they would give birth to striped and spotted and speckled goats and stuff. Because he had made a deal with his father-in-law, all the striped and spotted and speckled animals are mine. And all the ones that are just plain are yours. So he literally thought that was going to make a difference. So this is the kind of a guy Jacob was. He was a manipulator. He would even manipulate God if he could. I mean, it's like, hey, whatever he's got to do to get the job done. Well, you know, there's always something, there comes that day of reckoning in the life of a manipulator. You know what I mean? They're going to come to a place in their lives where they're going to face a situation that they just can't manipulate. Right? It's bigger than them. It's bigger than their ability to manipulate. And that's exactly what happened with Jacob about 20 years after he left home. And he left home because his brother wanted to kill him. Right? Esau had his birthright taken by Jacob. And Esau was mad. He was, you know, he talked about killing his brother. And when their mother heard about it, she sent Jacob away to go live with her brother. And so now it's 20 years later, and Jacob has sensed the direction of the Lord to go back home. But on his way home, on his way home with his family and flocks and children and all this stuff, he gets word that Esau is coming out to meet him with 400 men. And Jacob is absolutely a basket case of worry. He's just worrying out of his... He thinks his brother is going to come and slaughter him and his family. Well, guess what? Jacob finally has himself in a situation. Or shall I say this? God has Jacob in a situation that Jacob can't manipulate his way out of. There aren't enough branches to strip the bark off. There aren't enough people to cheat or steal from to make this situation better. And what happens in the story is one of the most poignant, powerful insights, I think, into the breaking process of a man. Because the Bible says that Jacob in kind of what would have been a futile attempt to save some of his family members, he separated them, you know. But during the night, he was alone, except the Lord met him that night. And the Scripture says that during the entirety of that night, Jacob wrestled with God. And what Jacob didn't realize probably until much later is that that's what he'd been doing all his life. And, you know, and you can't wrestle with God and win. I don't know if you know that or not. But it is an exercise in futility, but people try all the time, you know. And it's kind of like the horse, isn't it? That bucks and nips and, you know, kicks when you're walking around the back. Have you ever been kicked by a horse? I have. I got sent across the barn one time by the back leg of a horse. But anyway, so...but we're like that, aren't we? We're like that. We'll do that same sort of a thing with God. And then finally, we get into a situation that we can't control and so forth. All the kicking and nipping and biting and bucking and whatever else, we're just...we're stuck. And so, Jacob fought with the Lord all night long. And finally, the Lord, just to show his absolute total sovereignty after this wrestling match that went on all night, he reached out and just touched Jacob's hip. And the Bible says it instantly went out of socket. Anybody who's had that happen to them knows that that was probably something of intense pain. But the Bible tells us that Jacob limped for the rest of his life. But see, that's not the important thing to learn really about Jacob. The important thing to learn is that it wasn't just that he limped. The limp was a symptom. It was a sidelight of what took place. Jacob entered into a whole new relationship with God after that point. He entered into a place of brokenness and recognition that God was in charge in his life. And he didn't talk like he used to talk. He didn't do the things that he used to do, manipulating. And he started realizing that God was the Lord of his life. He started realizing that everything that he'd ever had... In fact, if you read in Genesis, you'll see that he starts talking about all of his possessions, all of his blessings, everything he had. He starts saying things like, God's given me all this. But see, that's a man who's been broken. Whereas Jacob probably would have boasted, you know, previously, about all the things that he has, all the things that he has done. Now it's a different man. It's a man with a limp. And you know what? We walk into the next part of Jacob's life and there's a meekness there that didn't exist before the wrestling match. There's a meekness to Jacob's life. You know, there's somebody else that I have to bring up that had a hard, hard lesson in the area of learning meekness. And that was Peter in the New Testament. You know, Peter was a man who desperately needed to see his life the way it really was. But he had an inflated view of himself, didn't he? You know? He was the man, you know, who thought that he could get the job done. He was the man who had the courage slash stupidity to go to Jesus after the Lord said to them all that he would be going to Jerusalem and there he would be betrayed into the hands of the Gentiles and so forth. He had the guts to go to Jesus and rebuke him. Can you imagine rebuking the Lord? I mean, this is the man who just previously, he had confessed as the Christ, the Son of the Most High God, and then he goes and rebukes him. It either takes guts or stupidity, and you're not always sure with Peter which one it is. Because this is kind of Peter's M.O. He's not a broken man up to this point. And even at the Last Supper, when Jesus is telling them all that, you're all going to fall away from me tonight. You're all going to fall away. You're all going to desert me and run for your lives. And Peter, you know, you remember, Peter's like, Not me, not me, Lord. You named me. You gave me the name Rock, remember? I am the Rock, and this Rock isn't going anywhere. Well, and Jesus just, you've got to just see the love in Jesus' face as he says to Peter, Oh, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter. He says, This very night, the Lord has given permission, or I've given permission is kind of the sense of it. He says, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. And essentially, the Lord said, I've said, Yeah. But when you return, strengthen your brothers. This very night, Satan is going to sift your life. But what happens in the sifting process? What happens? Have you thought about that phrase that he used with Peter? Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. In the sifting process, at least back in those days of sifting wheat, the chaff was removed, wasn't it? The stuff that wasn't edible, that wasn't functionally useful for their diet or the baking of bread or whatever. That sifting process is something the Lord puts us through, that what comes from it might be the pure grain, the pure fruit of our lives. And you know what happened. I'll put this very quickly up on the screen from Luke chapter 22. It says, The Lord, and this is after Peter, of course, had denied him, you know, the Lord three times. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. And then Peter remembered the word that the Lord had spoken to him before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times. And he went outside and he wept bitterly. Why did Peter weep bitterly? Why? Have you ever thought about that? Why did he weep? He didn't just cry. Do you know what weeping bitterly, you know what that's like? That's that sobbing convulsively kind of sort of a weeping. Why did Peter do that? Well, there were probably lots of dynamics related to it, but I think one of the things that probably disappointed him so much was just seeing himself as he really was. Knowing that he was the guy who would always step into the fray at least, but he always seemed to kind of mess things up. Even when Jesus was being arrested, Peter's the one who grabbed a sword and started swinging it, and all he managed to do with it is cut off somebody's ear as if that was going to make a difference. Jesus even had to clean up that mess. And, you see, that was kind of Peter's life was going from one thing to another and creating a little bit more of a mess than what he wanted to do. He wanted to be the man of the hour, you know, sort of a thing. And Jesus had to show him that, Peter, I've called you rock, but let me tell you something. Son, you're really just a pebble. And you need to understand this. If you're going to be used of me in my kingdom, if you are going to be a pillar in the church, and that is how I have so ordained you, then you must see yourself as you truly are, Peter. You must be broken. You must understand who you are and who you are not. You must see yourself in the light of my glory, in the light of my word, in the revelation of things as I see them from my perspective. And only then, Peter, will you be useful in my hands. Right now, you're a train wreck, buddy. You're an accident waiting to happen because you think of yourself as you want to be. But I have to show you who you really are. And it's going to be disappointing, son. Let me tell you something. You are going to be gravely disappointed when you see yourself in the mirror of my glory. But it will produce in you a meekness that will make you moldable in my hands in ways that you can't even begin to understand right now. And I will be able to use you in ways that you can't even imagine. But that meekness is absolutely necessary in your life. That brokenness, that's what happened that night. Peter was broken. Peter, the man who would reach for the sword at a moment's notice, was broken. And he realized who he really was. And he entered into that night a blessed condition. As Jesus said, blessed are the meek. There is a blessedness to that position. So what is the promise associated with this? Look again at verse 5.

Now, as we're looking at this promise and talking about it very briefly about what it is, I want you to look at what I believe to be a key phrase in this promise and they are the words will inherit. And so it says blessed are the meek for they will inherit. Did you notice that will inherit, that phrase shows a future tense. Do you see that? It doesn't say blessed are the meek for they have inherited. It says blessed are the meek for they will inherit. So Jesus is associating this promise with something in the future. That's important to know. Then, what will the inheritance be? It says the earth. Right now, when you and I look at the earth, when you look at the world, when you look at the way where we live, it looks to be completely in the hands of those who are strong and self-assertive. And the world looks for that kind of a dominating characteristic or attribute in the people that they want to get behind. Like when we're looking for a president, we don't want to look for somebody who's meek. We want to look for somebody who's charismatic and strong and puts themselves out there. And when they're in a debate, they've got always the right answer to put the other person down. And their commercials are better than the other guy. And they have that kind of that Hollywood look to them sort of a thing, you know. Plus, they've got to have millions and millions of dollars. That's the one we want in the White House. Thank you, Jesus. Isn't that stupid? Don't you see how completely opposite what the world looks to is to the kingdom of God? Jesus said, the earth is not going to the self-assertive, strong, you know, square-jawed sort of a person, you know, that the world would think is, you know, this quintessential perfect specimen. Jesus said, no, it's going to the meek people. No, let me reword that, the broken people, the people who aren't afraid of the lordship of Jesus Christ, the people who have bowed the knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ, the people who have recognized their spiritual bankruptcy, the people who have mourned over their sin and have seen themselves as they truly are. That's who the world's going to. That's who the earth is going to. He says that they will literally inherit all of these things, all right? The meek people. I want to show you what I think is one of the coolest quotes that I've ever read about meekness from A.W. Tozer, probably my all-time favorite author. He says, the meek man will attain a place of soul rest. As he walks on in meekness, he will be happy to let God defend him. The old struggle to defend himself is over. He's found the peace which meekness brings. Isn't that great? Do you know that's another interesting characteristic of a meek individual when they're broken? When somebody comes along and says something about them that's like mean or nasty or whatever, the meek person doesn't defend themself. They've already come to terms with who they are. Self isn't on the focal point of their radar. And so when somebody comes along with something that's hurtful or mean or whatever, it's kind of like, yeah, well, I've been worse than that. So anyway, God bless. See ya. Do you see that? It's the vain person, it's the puffed-up person who says, say that again, sort of a thing. And they're challenging you and kind of like, hey, you can't talk that way to me, sort of a thing. What are you doing talking that way to me? Don't you know who you're talking to? See, that's the picture the world loves, doesn't it? Every shoot-em-up, bang-em-up movie, as my dad used to call them, probably still does, is all based on this strong character, this Rambo figure, you know, you don't know who you're messing with. And all along, the real strong person in the kingdom of God The one who's broken and meek, who doesn't have to defend themselves, you know, against all the accusations and the charges that might be leveled at their feet, they're just kind of like, you know, well, the Lord is in charge of my life. And, you know, so how do you get meekness? Well, it's not something that you can just kind of go out and do or get meekness is truly a byproduct, as I've been saying all along, that's why, that's why that picture of stair steps that we showed at the beginning is so important for us to understand or get into our heads. Meekness is a byproduct, a byproduct of first recognizing my spiritual nothingness, my bankruptcy, mourning over my sin, coming to the Lord, repenting of all that I've lost, all that I've done, all that caused him to go to the cross on my behalf. And then what comes from those things? Meekness, meekness. And sometimes if we don't get the lesson of meekness through our hearts the way it really needs to be, sometimes what God does is he takes us back to the first step once again. And we go back and he says, my child, I love you with an everlasting love, but you have just got to understand that my love for you is not based or predicated upon any good thing in your life. It's based upon my goodness, not you. You don't bring anything into this relationship that recommends you to me. I just love you. I've chosen to love you. And actually the way you need to see yourself is the way I have seen you. And that is with nothing. And then as the understanding and the revelation of that really takes hold in our lives, once again, that time of mourning comes upon us. And then we walk in that spirit of meekness. But let me tell you something. And this is the beautiful thing about this whole thing. Meekness is not weakness. It is strength. Jesus said, I am meek and humble in heart. And the last thing Jesus was, was weak. Amen. Amen.