And then we see the third one in verse 5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth."
Now this is taken directly from Psalm 37.
This is one that is not original in Matthew 5.
Jesus is basically quoting the book of Psalms here with this one.
Now let's talk, before we jump into Psalm 37, let's talk about what it means to be meek.
Okay meekness is a word that has to do with humility, gentleness, longsuffering, and kindness.
Okay and these are all biblical virtues, these are all things that God says we should have.
We should be humble, we should be gentle, we should be longsuffering, and we should
be kind.
These are all virtues, these are good things, right?
Now the problem with the word meek today in 2019 is that it has taken on a secondary definition.
So if you look up meek in the dictionary, definition number one is a good definition
of being humble, kind, gentle, longsuffering, but then definition number two says, oh this
is just somebody who just lets people walk all over them and they're just a weakling
and they're a coward, you know, they kind of have this other definition that makes it
sound bad to be meek because of the fact that you're basically just a victim.
You're just a sucker or something like that, okay.
That's not the biblical meekness though.
We stay on definition number one, okay, because that's what the Bible teaches.
Now let me give you an example.
There's a guy in the Bible who the Bible says was more meek than any person on the face
of the earth, and that person was Moses.
It says that Moses was more meek than any man that was on the face of the earth.
And that is said in the context of Miriam and Aaron attacking him and saying, "Hath
the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?
Hath he not spoken also by us?"
So they're acting like Moses is puffed up, proud, high and mighty.
That's what they're accusing him of.
So God, the narrator, tells us, "No, actually, they're wrong because Moses was the meekest
man on the face of the earth," which is why God even chose to use Moses in the first place.
Because he uses the humble and the meek to fulfill his will.
But what I've noticed in the Bible, and this is a whole sermon in and of itself, is that
whenever you have a strong leader executing God's will, they're always accused of being
prideful 100% of the time, over and over again.
That's why I preached a sermon a while back called Pride versus Strong Leadership, because
people will look at strong leadership and say, "Oh, you're prideful.
You're proud."
You know, a father who rules his home, oh, that's pride.
Or you know, a pastor who strongly leads the church, oh, he's so prideful.
No, don't confuse pride and strong leadership, because Moses was a very strong leader, yet
he was very meek.
What about Jesus?
Jesus was meek.
Jesus said, "I'm meek," in Matthew chapter number 10, I believe.
He said, "I'm meek," and then we see him, though, exercising strong leadership and ruling
over the disciples and obviously he's going to come back and rule with a rod of iron.
Meekness is a virtue, so it has to do with being humble, gentle, long-suffering and kind,
but it doesn't mean that you let people walk all over you and it doesn't mean that you're
a weak leader and that you let people do whatever they want.
That's not what it means.
So don't mix these things up.
It means being humble.
Leaders should be humble and why was Moses humble?
Look when God came to Moses and told him to lead, he had to be practically begged to lead.
He wasn't just all about advancing himself and getting a position and getting a title
and being a big shot.
The guy's living out in the backside of the desert for 40 years just doing his own thing.
He's just happy to work for his father-in-law and just do his own thing and just tend the
sheep and he's not even leading anything.
He's just doing his own thing.
He's working for someone else.
And God comes to him and tells him he's going to go to Pharaoh and say, "Let my people..."
He doesn't even want to do it.
Why?
Because he wasn't a prideful, arrogant person.
Now once he obeyed the call of God, he's going to do what needs to be done.
Not because of pride or arrogance, he's lifting himself up, but because of the fact that he's
obeying the Lord, but he's humble.
He didn't think of himself as being a great person.
He talked down on himself, if anything, to a fault in that chapter, Exodus 3 and Exodus
4.
So look at Psalm 37 verse 8, and we'll see what it means when Jesus said, "Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
He's actually quoting this passage.
It says in Psalm 37 verse 8, "Cease from anger and forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any
wise to do evil, for evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord shall
inherit the earth."
Does that sound familiar?
"For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place, and it shall not be, but the meek shall inherit the earth."
That's what I was saying.
Jesus is giving an exact quote of this.
"But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance
of peace.
The wicked plaudeth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming."
Go to Mark chapter number 10, Mark chapter number 10.
What we see here is a contrast between the wicked people who are trying to take over,
and they're trying to gain power, and they're fighting, they war, like it says in James,
where they kill, and lust, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.
The wicked versus the meek, who's not out for himself, he's not out to lift himself
up or steal something that belongs to someone else, he just wants to humbly do his own thing,
live his life, be good, he's going to inherit the earth, and these people who are out trying
to grasp and seize everything for themselves, they're going to get nothing, they're going
to be gone, they're going to disappear, right?
He says that they're going to die, and God's going to laugh at them and destroy them, their
day's coming, but the meek, people are just humbly, gently, kindly, long-suffering and
doing the work of God, they're going to inherit the earth, even if on this earth they're not
seizing everything and they don't have a big portfolio or bank account.
Look at Mark 10 verse 42, "But Jesus called them to him and saith unto him, Ye know that
they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and
their great ones exercise authority upon them."
So basically the Gentiles, when they look at people who rule them, in the parallel passage
in Luke, where Jesus makes the same statement, he says they look at the people who rule over
them as benefactors.
Like they look at Caesar as someone who just loves them and cares about them and does good
things for them.
So the world has this view that conquerors and rulers and people who are taking things
from other people, that they're the ones who are the blessed.
They're the great ones, right?
But what does the Bible say?
Verse 43, "But so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall
be your minister."
Minister means servant.
"And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be the servant of all.
For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many."
So the Bible says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
What he's saying is, you don't have to go out and seize everything and grasp everything
and trample everybody, dog eat dog, and climb over everybody else to get to the top.
And you're going to have your ego and arrogance and pride driving your success, and you're
going to just plow over everybody and take it for yourself.
And no, because you know what, that's all going to be gone.
Because whatever you achieve in this lifetime, this life's just a vapor that appeared for
a little time and then vanished in the way.
It's actually the humble, meek servant who cares about other people, who loves other
people, who puts other people first, and makes himself a servant, not a despot.
He is the one who's going to inherit the earth, he says.
So it's more blessed to be meek.
Well, but if you're meek, you know, everybody's just going to walk all over you.
That's what the world wants you to think.
But actually being meek is going to cause you to inherit all things.
And again, we're not talking about poor leadership here.
Okay, obviously leaders have to rule.
But what the people that are the bad example are doing, they're ruling over people that
are not under their authority.
They're trying to take things that don't belong to them.
You see the difference?
See the wife who basically just decides, "You know what?
If I submit to my husband, then I'm not going to get what I need and I just need to throw
a big fit and pout and fuss and murmur and complain and fight, you know, to grasp and
seize what's rightfully mine, how about the meek and quiet spirit that the Bible says
women should have when he said that it's better than any outward adorning, anything you could
do with your hair or with your face or your clothing or your shoes or whatever.
He said, "How about a meek and a quiet spirit?"
See, the meek wife is going to inherit the earth instead of the wife who's trying to
usurp the authority.
The meek child is going to inherit all things, not the one who says, "Give me the portion
of the inheritance that falls to me now, I don't want to wait.
Give me everything now, give me the money now, give me the goods now."
Okay, how did he end up?
He ended up in the pig pen with nothing and then even when he comes home, he's downgraded.
His inheritance is gone.
See the difference between the meek that are going to inherit the earth and those who lack
meekness, they do not go far.