BLESSED ARE THE MEEK-MATTHEW 5:5

BLESSED ARE THE MEEK

MATTHEW 5:5
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

Introduction:

Definition: Meek = Patient and mild; not inclined to anger or resentment.

In the Old Testament, Moses, in an attitude of meekness, yet maintaining strength of leadership, was ready to accept personal injury without resentment or recrimination.

The high place given to meekness in the list of human virtues is due to the example and teaching of Jesus Christ. Regarding meekness we see the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer as not only curious, but versatile. He makes his heart meek, pure, peaceable, etc. The Holy Spirit adorns “the hidden man of the heart” with a multiplicity of graces.

The proposition here is that meek persons are blessed persons.

I. MEEKNESS TOWARDS GOD AND MAN

A. Meekness toward God.

1. Submission to God’s will, 1 Samuel 3:18, “And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good.”

2. Flexibility to God’s Word.

a. Regarding the sinner, 2 Thessalonians 1:8, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:”

b. Regarding the Believer, James 1:21, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”

B. Meekness toward man.

1. Meekness is a grace to modify our passion (feelings, emotions), Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23-Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

2. “Meekness sits as moderator in the soul, quieting and giving check to its distempered motions.”

3. Meekness consist of three things:

a. The bearing of injuries.

b. The forgiving of injuries.

c. The recompensing of good for evil, Romans 12:19-20, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.”

COMMENTARY: “Coals of fire”

“The Scriptures have much to say about forgiving our enemies. Paul says that if we give food and drink to our enemies, “we shall be heaping coals of fire on their heads.” To us this doesn’t sound like forgiveness, but like taking vengeance. In the Bible lands almost everything is carried on the head – water jars, baskets of fruit, vegetables, fish or any other article. Those carrying the burden rarely touch it with the hands, and they walk through crowded streets and lanes with perfect ease.

In many homes the only fire they have is kept in a brazier which they use for simple cooking as well as for warmth. They plan to always keep it burning. If it should go out, some member of the family will take the brazier to a neighbor’s house to borrow fire. Then she will lift the brazier to her head and start for home. If her neighbor is a generous woman, she will heap the brazier full of coals. To feed an enemy and give him drink was like heaping the empty brazier with live coals, –which meant food, warmth, and almost life itself to the person or home needing it and was the symbol of finest generosity.” –Barbara M. Bowen, Strange Scriptures that Perplex the Western Mind.

II. MEEKNESS IN THE BEARING OF INJURIES.

Psalm 38:12-13, “They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. 13-But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.”

A. Meekness is contrary to hastiness of spirit, Ecclessiastes 7:9, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” Ephesians 4:26-27, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27-Neither give place to the devil.”

1. Christ was meek, Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

2. Yet Jesus was zealous, John 2:14-15, “And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15-And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;”

B. Meekness is contrary to malice.

1. Malice is a picture of the devil, John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

2. Malice is mental murder, 1 John 3:15, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

3. Meekness is opposed to revenge and Scripture forbids it, Romans 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

C. Meekness is contrary to evil speaking, Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:”

1. The tongue is a fire, James 3:6, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.”

2. We are commanded to control our tongue, Psalm 34:13-14, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. 14-Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.”

III. MEEKNESS IN THE FORGIVING OF INJURIES

A. When you pray, forgive, Mark 11:25-26, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26-But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

1. There should be forgiveness among brethren, Ephesians 4:32, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

2. An unforgiving spirit is contrary to meekness and makes our forgiveness impossible, Mark 11:26, “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

B. Forgiveness must be…

1. Real, God does not make a show of forgiveness and then keeps our sins by Him, Jeremiah 31:34, “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

2. Complete, Psalm 103:3, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;”

3. Often. Just as God forgives us often, we must do the same for others, Matthew 18:21, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22-Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

IV. EXAMPLES OF MEEKNESS.

A. The example of Jesus Christ, Matthew 21:5, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”

1. Jesus was the pattern of meekness, 1 Peter 2:23, “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:”

2. Jesus calls for men to learn of Him, Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

B. What is said of meekness.

1. Meekness is an ornament of “great price” in the Believer, 1 Peter 3:4, “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

2. What the Psalmist says of PRAISE, the same will be said of meekness, Psalm 33:1, “Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.”

C. Paul admonishes us to put on meekness, Colossians 3:12, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;”

CONCLUSION

Meekness argues for a noble and excellent spirit. A meek man is a man who has victory over himself. “Strength of passion argues weakness of judgment, but the meek man who is able to conquer his fury, is the most powerful and victorious.” –Thomas Watson

Meekness shows the character of the true believer. He that is of a meek spirit cannot be easily provoked, 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;” Our love for the Lord this grace in our life for His glory.