Thank you for directing your internet connection to this sermon audio page for Christ Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Learn more about ChristOPC by visiting our webpage at www.ChristOPCATL.org. Currently, ChristOPC is meeting on campus each Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. for worship using social distancing protocols and assigned seating. Childcare is available at the 11 a.m. worship. Please contact the church through its website for additional information and directions. as we consider one of the Beatitudes that Christ taught to his disciples and to all of us in the Scripture. Matthew chapter 5, to give you the whole picture I'm going to read from verse 1 to 12, but our focus will be verse 5, the Mic. This is the Word of God. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and told 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 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." Let's pray. Our Father and our God, as we now come to both the reading and the hearing of the proclamation of your word, we ask you to bring heaven down to us through the declaration of your word by the power of your Holy Spirit. O Lord, as we now consider your word and open our ears to hear your voice from heaven through the preaching of your word, we remember your servant Samuel a long time ago, who said, Lord, Speak to your servant. Your servant is listening. O Lord, make us by your Spirit like your servant Samuel as we sit under the preaching of your Word tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On one occasion as I was leading a Bible study on the Sermon on the Mount, I asked the group Are you meek? Easy question, yeah? Well, everyone was kind of smiling and they were trying to avoid the question. And I saw one young man in the group raising his hand and I was surprised. And I was anxious to hear what the young man would say to me or how he would answer the question. And the young man said, I wouldn't say I am always meek, but I am not weak either. Now, what would you say to the young man if you were leading the Bible study? was the statement he made entirely or fully accurate or correct? Well, the first part was accurate, that no one is meek always. But the second part of his answer or statement was not right, because meekness doesn't mean weakness. Remember in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ was not teaching his disciples how to become poor in spirit, how to mourn over sin without the help of the Holy Spirit, of course, and how to become meek. On the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ was teaching his disciples how the person who have been converted by the power of the Holy Spirit, how a Christian who has been born of the Spirit looks like. Who is a Christian? Is the Sermon on the Mount all about? Who is a Christian? Who is the person who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, but also who have been born by the power of the Holy Spirit? And the meek person, the meek believer is a person, a man or a woman or a young woman or man who have been born of the Spirit. So why is not a person or a believer meek always? The answer, you see, is not because he lacks the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. or there is some kind of failure from God's end. The reason always is because that person is not obeying the Holy Spirit in the area of Christian meekness. Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit, one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. So if you don't control yourself, but especially if you don't obey the Holy Spirit in the area of meekness, you will not be meek all the time. So that brings us to the important question tonight. What does meek mean? In verse 5 you see Jesus said, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Jesus is speaking. He was addressing not the general public, but his own followers, his own disciples. If you are a Christian, if you are the follower of Jesus Christ, you are meek by the virtue of your spiritual birth, by the virtue of what the Holy Spirit has accomplished in your life. You are meek. You are not going to work on that. You are not going to produce meekness by your own strengths or by a way of, you know, giving something to God. It is there as the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is there in your life as the product of the blood of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. So I want us to consider this verse, blessed are the meek, happy are the meek. In the Greek language, it means, oh, how happy is the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. So we're going to consider this verse under three simple points. Number one, it's a question, what is meekness? And then the challenge with meekness or the issue that we face as Christians with meekness, Christian meekness. And then thirdly, the guide or the model to meekness. So first, let's ask this question in the light of the scripture, in the light of what Jesus instructed his disciples. What is meekness? From the outset, let me reveal to all of you, based in the scripture, meekness is not weakness. Meekness doesn't mean weakness. Spirit-regenerated people or Christians are not weak people. Sometimes you see or hear people saying, well, religion, church, church membership, being concerned about the Christian life is for the weak people. You know, that's many unbelievers even today say about Christians, they go to church because they are weak, they are helpless. Now, remember, when you become a Christian, when you become a child of God, one of the things that you receive from God as a gift is you are powerful. You are not weak because God gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter 4.10, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. And then 1 Corinthians 4.7, for who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you receive it, why do you boast as if you didn't receive it? So a believer, a Christian, is not a weak person. We are powerful because we have the gift of the Holy Spirit in us. We walk and live out the Christian life. We interact with people, including unbelievers. We stand in the face of persecution and the pressures of this world by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not weak people. You are not weak, my friend. So meekness doesn't mean weakness. So what does meekness mean then? Biblical meekness. That's what we are talking about tonight. What is biblical meekness? As I was studying especially this Beatitude, Matthew Henry gives us a very helpful illustration. He resembles meek Christians with broken animals. You all know wild animals, before they become useful to domestic service, they go through a process of being broken, a process of breaking up. so that their power or their strength would be controlled, that they would be under control. So Matthew Henry says meek Christians are like a broken animal, broken and trained animal. They are being controlled by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't mean they are weak. but all their behaviors and attitude is controlled by the Holy Spirit, by the blessed spirit of God. Do you know, there was a time that God called Israel a wild donkey in Jeremiah 2, 23 and 24, because God saw them going to their own way. He couldn't control them. They became so wild in the presence of God, in the eyes of God. So God, through Jeremiah, called them a wild donkey. In Hosea 8 and 9, this is what we read. Israel is swallowed up. Already they are among the nations as a useless vessel, for they have gone up to Assyria. A wild donkey wandering alone, Ephraim has hired lovers." So they were acting like a wild animal. unbroken, untrained animal. Of course, God is sovereign, he can control them, but God was describing the behavior of the people of Israel. You know, being a born again Christian, being converted by the power of the Holy Spirit as a believer, as a Christian, you can still struggle with some of the behaviors that you have been displaying as a believer. No one is perfect, you see. Even as born-again Christians, we can lack meekness in our life. It is there, but we don't recognize it. We don't obey the Holy Spirit, so we don't become meek Christians. In Genesis 16, 12, you remember after Abraham sent Hagar away from his house, from his household, an angel appeared to Hagar. And this is what he told her. Behold, you are pregnant. You shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael. Because the Lord has listen to your affliction. He should be, he shall be, God said, a wild donkey. Imagine you being pregnant. You're a woman and an angel comes to you. Oh, you'll bear a son and he'll be like a wild donkey. You know, what a news, what an announcement. But you remember what God said, his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him and he shall dwell against all his kinsmen. He will be like a wild donkey. uncontrolled, wicked, and we know the story of his life. God told Hagar, he's going to be like a wild donkey, not like a sheep. You see, when you are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, when you are being transformed by God's Spirit, you become like sheep. under your shepherd, Jesus Christ, but also under the leading and the control of the Holy Spirit. So you see, meekness doesn't mean weakness. Meekness means to be broken by the Holy Spirit, to humble yourself before God and all people. In Romans 5, 19, Paul said, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were sinners. So by one man's obedience, the many will be righteous. What does it mean? They will be righteous. They will be like Jesus. They will be conformed to the likeness of the Son of God, to the likeness of Jesus Christ, through the ongoing spirit of the Holy Spirit in their life. They will become meek like Jesus. They will act, talk, and walk like Jesus. That's what Paul is saying. So meek is one broken by the power of the Holy Spirit, one came under the control of the Holy Spirit. And how is meekness displayed or expressed in real life? Now we know the meaning. The meaning is to be broken by the Holy Spirit, to become under complete control of the Holy Spirit. That's meekness. But how is it expressed or displayed in real life? In Numbers 12, 3, the Bible says, Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. So Moses was presented in the Old Testament as the meekest person on the face of the earth. Now I want us to consider how Moses meekness was displayed to the people of Israel and to all of us. What was the reason why Moses was called by God the most meek person on the face of the earth? Was it because Moses was a weak person? No. It was because of two reasons. One, Moses controlled his anger against the provocation of the people of Israel, number one. And then secondly, Moses put forth a righteous response to the disobedience and wickedness of the people of Israel. That's meekness. Listen, meekness doesn't mean, I mean, the only meaning of meekness is not to control your tongue. It also means to put forth a righteous and godly response before the very people who makes you angry. Imagine, picture Moses. He obeyed God. He went to Egypt. He delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians. He loved them. He served them. He led them to all ways of righteousness. And then we come to the book of Numbers. What do we see? We see the people in chapter 11 complaining. They told Moses what he did was wrong. I wish we could have remained in Egypt. That would have been better for us that we are going to die in the wilderness. What he did was wrong. It was not for our own interest. And God saw the wickedness of the people and he was about to destroy them. And consider Moses with me. What was Moses doing? He was praying on behalf of the people of Israel. He was responding to their anger, to their betrayal, to God's great love, great love of redemption. Deliverance. And Moses said, please, Lord, don't destroy these people. Forgive them. And God didn't destroy them. Did they stop there? No. In the same chapter, they continued complaining. And Moses continued praying for the people. You will never see Moses becoming angry towards the people of Israel. There was a moment we will come to that. But he controlled himself, he controlled his tongue, and then he also put forth a righteous, a godly response before God and before those people who were trying his patience. And then the third episode. His own brother and his own sister spoke ill of him. Remember, and God was so furious, so angry. His sister Miriam became a leper. Remember what Moses did? He pleaded with God for mercy to come upon his own sister. He loved his sister. Aaron and Miriam, They were whispering, you know? I don't know where they were, but they were saying, he's not a prophet. God should speak to us, not to Moses. And God said, how can you do that against my servant Moses? And he punished Miriam. She became a leper, but Moses prayed on behalf of his brother and his sister. He controlled his tongue, he controlled his anger, his temper, but he also put forth a Godly response towards them. Joseph was the prime minister of Egypt. You see, he had the seal of Pharaoh in his hand. He could have sent his brothers to prison for life. He could have killed them. They were in his hand. He could have responded in a different way. And maybe people in Egypt, people in Israel would have said, well, you know, they deserve. But Joseph said to his brother, don't worry. Do not be afraid. I'm not going to punish you. You meant it for bad, but God meant it for good. I love you. I forgive you. Meekness. That's biblical meekness, my friends. Does Jesus like meekness? Colossians 3, 12, put on them as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness. You see, there are two different things. You see, often people think humility and meekness are the same. No, they're not the same. You see, Paul differentiates them. He puts them as two different qualities of the Christian life. You have humility, and then meekness, and then patience. I'm always amazed about the apostle Paul. Paul was a very gifted preacher. He was gifted with knowledge. He was godly. But you all remember how the church in Corinth treated Paul. How they insulted him, how they despised him as an apostle. And listen to Paul, in three incidents, 1 Corinthians 15, 9, Paul said, I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the last one. Even if you don't consider me as an apostle, it's okay. I'm the least of the apostles. Is he? And then Ephesians 3.8, I am the very least of all the saints, even you. And then comes this 1 Timothy 1.15, I was the worst sinner. That's bigness. Paul will never compete with you about righteousness, righteousness of his own. He would say to you, no, no, no, no. I'm the worst sinner of all. Proverbs 15, verse one, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. In verse 18, the wise king said, a hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quites contention. That's the meek. In Proverbs 16, 32, the wise king said, whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Did you hear that, my friends? Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city. That's meek. Secondly, we consider the challenge, the issue that Christians would face with meekness. And I want us to consider this in relation to the promise. You see, Jesus said, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. What is the issue? What is the problem? Moses, according to the scripture, was the most meek person on the face of the earth. But you all know, Moses didn't inherit the earth. You know that. When God told him, Moses, I want you to speak to the rock. Instead he speak to the rock, he struck the rock. He lost it. Like every one of us. He was not perfect. He was not meek enough to inherit the earth. That's the issue. That's the problem. He was the meekest person on the face of the earth, but he was not meek enough to inherit the earth, to lead the people of Israel in inheriting the promised land. Because God told him, you will never inherit the heirs, Moses. Because you didn't finish your race, your Christian journey, by being meek all the way. You expressed anger. Yes, these people are like a wild donkey sometimes. They're uncontrolled sometimes. They're angry people. They are sinful people. But I want you to put forth a Godly response to them. So that brings us to Our third point tonight, the guide to meekness. Now, maybe some of you are saying, well, you know, you have been exhorting us, you have been instructing us from the word of God to display meekness, to walk as meek believers, as meek Christians. It didn't work for Moses, so what makes you sure that this will work for us? Well, we have to come to one person tonight. Only one person who was meek enough to inherit the earth. His name is Jesus. He left his heavenly glory, took flesh, human flesh, became like each and every one of us except sin, The Romans arrested him. The apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2 tells us they reviled him, but he did not revile back. They insulted him. They beat him. They crucified him. They insulted his father. What did Jesus do? Jesus prayed. Not against his enemies, but for the sake of his enemies. And his prayer was this, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. You remember when he was entering Jerusalem, most of these people, they said, Hosanna, Hosanna, who comes in the name of of Father David. After some time they took him to the cross, they crucified him. But Jesus prayed for their conversion, for their salvation. Jesus was not only, you see, pleading with his father to have mercy on them, but also to convert them. to turn them to be Christians, to be believers, to be worshipers of God, so that they also would inherit the earth together with Jesus. Meekness. In Psalm 37, the psalmist talks about this meekness that we are considering tonight. And if you have your Bibles with you, I would encourage you to turn to Psalm 37, verse one to 11. And I want to encourage all of you to take notice of the word meekness in this Psalm. Threaten not yourself because of evildoers, Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Now listen to this. 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 the heart. Commit your ways to the Lord, 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. Threaten not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Threaten not yourself, it tends only to evil. For the evil doer 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. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in the abundant peace. Now a couple of important Words here, trust, delight, commit, be still, refrain from anger and forsake wrath and then comes the meek shall inherit the land. If you have all those qualities in your Christian life, if you trust, if you refrain yourself from anger, and do all those things, wait upon the Lord, trust in the Lord. That of course will lead your life to meekness and you will inherit the land together with Jesus. How? How? Well, in Philippians chapter two, Paul reveals to us something that is related to the result of meekness. In Philippians chapter two, Paul, in verse nine, he says this, therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. Now listen to this, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth. Now, you come to the exaltation of Jesus Christ after you consider his humiliation at the cross. And because he was meek enough, his father exalted him so that not everything in heaven, but everything on earth shall bow down under his feet. Our salvation is not only the outcome of Christ's death on the cross. Yes, it is the result of the blood of Jesus Christ, the result of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. But remember, it is also the outcome, the result of the meekness of your Savior. Because he obeyed his father to the point of dying on the cross. In the middle of his journey, he never became angry and disrupted the plan of his father to save us through the death of his son Jesus Christ on the cross. From the beginning to the end, he was meek. Meek enough. And the father said, son, now I'm going to exalt you. And every knee shall bow under your feet. And my children will join you, and they will be united with you by faith, because you will inherit the earth by the power of the gospel. My followers, my disciples, your followers, your disciples, will inherit the earth together with you. You see, Moses could not lead the people of Israel to inherit the earth. Jesus He's able to lead us to inherit the earth by the power of the gospel. And how do we do that? You see, every time, you know, at work, in school, as a family, at the park, at the mall, everything, every time you display Christ's meekness in your life, people will see Jesus in you. And they will ask you how you do that in your life. You'll tell them about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will work in their life. They will become believers, Christians. What are you doing? You are inheriting the earth together with Jesus through the meekness of Christ in you. in your life as a Christian. And beloved, that's what the Lord's Supper reminds us as believers. As I instruct you tonight to come to the table to partake the Lord's Supper, once again, let me point all of you to the meekness of Jesus Christ, your Savior. His meekness brought your salvation. His meekness, his death brought your salvation. But are you meek? Are you displaying meekness the way you talk to people, husbands, the way you talk to your wife, the way you talk to your children, wives, the way you talk to your husband, to your children, to people in the church of Jesus Christ, to your pastor, to your elders, to your deacons, to unbelievers, wherever God brings them to your life. Are you meek? Do people see Christ in your meekness? Well, this person is different. And they come and they ask you. And you tell them about Jesus, who was meek enough to save them, so that they would inherit not only this earth, but also heaven. You see, the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, when he was exhorting believers before they take the Lord's supper, One of the exhortation Paul gives to believers is to examine our own hearts. Before we approach the table to take the Lord's Supper, to discern the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. And tonight, I want to encourage all of you to examine your own heart, whether you are displaying the meekness of Christ in your life or not. If you are not, you see, this table is for you. The Lord's Supper is a means of grace. The Lord's Supper is given to you, being administered to you to strengthen you in your faith. To strengthen your faith. So that you would go out to the unbelieving world and show the meekness of Christ in your life. So that you would inherit the earth. Especially this time where we all live in, we need to inherit this earth with the power of the gospel. Because you don't see meekness on the streets in America today. Meekness, no meekness, no humility. And beloved, don't say, but we are insignificant, the OPC, I'm in a small denomination in America. Oh, remember, they were 12. They were only 12. and they turned the whole world upside down. How? Meekness. Through meekness. Meekness of Christ. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, as we now come to the table to partake the Lord's Supper. Help us to be instructed by your spirit and by your word to discern the body and the blood of Jesus Christ as we take the Lord's Supper. Help us to examine our own hearts tonight, whether we are in the faith or not, whether we are members of a Bible-believing church in good standing. Help all of us to fence the table so that no one would take the Lord's Supper in unworthy manner and bring condemnation upon his own life. But enable us by your grace to examine our own heart tonight and partake the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. For the glory of you are God and the glory of the name of your son Jesus Christ, the head of the church. Examine, help us to examine our own hearts as far as Christian meekness is concerned. And if we are not displaying meekness in our life tonight, we ask you to strengthen us by this means of grace to show meekness, the meekness of Christ in the life of each and every one of us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.