Today we continue our systematic exposition of the Lord's teaching. And as some of you know, we have returned to the beginning, right back to the Beatitudes, to the beginning of the Lord's teaching, because the first few messages were not recorded, and therefore the tape ministry was incomplete, because the first twelve messages were missing. And therefore we have returned again to the beginning. But many of you have noticed that though we have done this — and very few of you were here, with the exception of Don, there are very few, maybe even Tasty and Shelley, right at the beginning of those days — and you will, if you remember at all the first messages, you will see that they have not actually repeated what was preached then, but have prepared the messages completely afresh. And one always likes to rework everything over again. And even the format is different.
So today, we will study together the Lord's teaching at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 5. Here we come to the third Beatitude, as it is called, the blessing. And here we read: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Now when we studied the poor in spirit, we already saw that this basically means the meek. But today what we need to ask is a further question: what does meek mean? We need to go more deeply into this.
Now, I want to say once again that it is very important for us to understand the Lord's teaching on salvation. And I would like to reiterate, to repeat what was said and say it again. The Lord's teaching is based on a teaching of salvation, not by creed. We are not saved by just having the right creed, important that that is. Nor are we saved by works, important as good works are. As Paul has said, good works whereunto you have been ordained. But we are saved neither by creed nor by works. We are saved — how then? By becoming a new person through the grace and the power of God. God makes us into new people. We are saved, and only saved, by God's power given to us in his grace to change us into new persons.
Then what are these new persons like? Now that is exactly what the Beatitude is telling us. This is the picture of the new man, the new kind of person. A person whom God blesses because he is poor in spirit, he is humble. God blesses him because he mourns over sin, because he loves righteousness, he hates iniquity. And God blesses him because he is meek. And he is meek not because he tries to be outwardly humble, tries to bow down his head, tries to darken his face, tries to behave in a mournful fashion. No, no. He is meek because God has made him to become this kind of a new person.
I find the gospel is so wonderful, only because only the gospel can really solve the problems of mankind. And it can solve the problems of mankind only because the gospel alone gets to the root of the problem. What is the root of the problem? The human heart. Right there, to the root of the problem, to change the man from inside. No other way can man's problems be solved. You can change his economic situation, you can improve his educational situation, you can improve his sanitary situation, you can improve his longevity so that by antibiotics and other things — assuming that they do work very well — extending the person's life a little bit more. But that is nothing to change the man inside. He is basically the same selfish being that he is. Through education he learns to be a little more subtle in the way he expresses his selfishness. He learns to be more cunning, and that makes it all the more dangerous. Before, he expresses his selfishness so plainly, he comes from A to B in a straight line. Now that he is educated, he is sophisticated, he knows how to go around all the corners and express his selfishness in a very well and very subtly expressed form. But he is still selfish. He is basically the same person that he was before, except now that he is a lot smarter in the way he expresses himself.
We want to have a better world. We want to have a world in which there is abundance, there is peace, there is prosperity. No way. Look at the world today, everybody's fingers on the trigger, the question of whether we can keep the balance of power, and what happens if this balance is disturbed. We live in a very dangerous, in a very fragile situation. How long can we keep things balanced? Very difficult. When things are too evenly balanced, you put a little grain and it goes over onto this side. You put a little grain of weight on this side and it pops over the other side. And what happens when the balance is temporarily upset? Then the other side will take the advantage to make the first strike. We don't live in the kind of situation that assures us of any kind of peace, any kind of certainty.
The only way that this can be achieved is the way in which God, in his wisdom, works it out. Man has to be changed from the inside. When people say, "What do you Christians do about the social problems?" Well, we do a great deal. We do the only thing that really matters. We go to the heart of a man and change him. And when you have a new man, you will have the beginnings of a new society. When you have a new society, you have a new world. They shall inherit the earth. God hasn't finished with this earth yet. Please notice. There is a kind of teaching today which seems to forget about the earth. We are all going to heaven and by my earth I don't care what happens to you. I am finished with the earth. God hasn't finished with this earth. God is going to establish his kingdom in this world, on this earth. Remember this well, in Scripture. Our teaching is no kind of escapism. Christianity is not a refusal to face the problems of the world so we are going to get out of this world. "I don't care about this world. I am just going to heaven. So what happens to this world? I don't care." Well, God cares. The meek shall inherit the earth, this very earth. Strange, isn't it, that God is still concerned about this earth? At least strange to our mind, not strange to God. God created this earth and he is going to establish his righteousness here on this earth.
How does he want to do this? He is going to do it first by changing us. Have you got a better solution to the world? If you have, let me know. I haven't heard of any yet. Look at this world and the mess it is in. There is no way you are going to produce a better society, you are going to establish righteousness on the earth, until you change man from the inside. That is why I have perceived that the gospel is basically the only solution, the only fundamental solution to the problems of this world, on this earth. I challenge anyone to find a better one. There is a point. The truth of the matter is, it is so obvious. You cannot produce a good society, a new society, without new people in it. And you cannot produce new people by education. Can you produce good people by giving them a swimming pool each and two cars to drive? Lots of gangsters have swimming pools and two cars to drive, 45 cars to drive. If good economic status could change people, that everybody would have become — having two cars and three houses or whatever else it takes to make a new man. But it does not work. It does not change a man from the inside. God has to come in and change the man.
And then how do you know that you are changed? A Sunday school teacher was asking a little girl, a little girl who had recently made a profession of faith. "Do you think," she said to the little girl, "now that you have given yourself to Christ, to the Lord Jesus, do you think you have a new heart inside of you?" The little girl said, "Oh yes, I think so, teacher." The teacher said, "Well, how do you know? How do you know you have a new heart?" She said, "Well, it's like this. The things I used to like before, I used to love before, I hate now. And the things that I used to hate, I now love." And this expresses just what it says here.
If, when I was a teenager, somebody said to me about blessed are the meek, I would have sneered. Meek? That's the last thing I want to be. I want to squat like a lion, walk like a tiger. Meek? That's for the chickens. No, no, no. Those are for the nobodies of this world, but for the likes of us — the superior, the elite — who wants to be meek? You know, in our Chinese thinking it expresses — they say, "He walks like a tiger," implying that he is really something very powerful. Walk like a tiger. I don't know. What about walking like a man? Oh, weak, defenseless. No, no, we don't like this. And the things that I hated before — the meek. What has God done to me that I love meekness? Even when I was studying again this passage, I was saying to myself, "What a miracle. What a miracle God has done, that there would be one day I would be standing up here and talking about blessed are the meek." If you had known me in the days when I wasn't a Christian, you would know that meekness was not a virtue I thought of at all. I regarded it as pure rubbish. And maybe you're not a Christian now and you hear the word "Blessed are the meek." You say, "Oh, what kind of a blessing is this? What kind of quality?" But when God has changed you, the sense of value has changed completely. Then you know something has happened to you.
Once you thought money is so important. You still listen to the conversation. Everybody is talking about money and how they got it, how they made a lot of profits the other day in their business, and what great success, and how they appeared on this TV show and this and that and the other thing. Funny. How come when I sit there and listen to this, it doesn't interest me in the least? The things that fascinated me once don't fascinate me anymore. And even I don't understand what happened. God has changed my sense of values. And so, like the Sunday school girl, the things that I hated before, I despised before, including the Christians — I despised them — now I love. And the things I loved before, now I reject, I hate them. The pride, the arrogance. God has changed the person.
And you know, it is also strange. Nowadays, many times when I feel that I have been wronged by persons, it surprises me that I don't feel a sense of revenge, a sense of bitterness. In those days, nobody would have wronged me the wrong way, you know. But now I don't even feel a sense of revenge. Strange. And sometimes when people say bad things about me, it doesn't touch me. I don't even want to defend myself. I don't even want to say, "No, no, no, you've got it wrong, I'm not like that at all." Okay. You want to believe that? I have changed. Oh, I know that. Time will not bother me at all. Strange, isn't it? It doesn't touch one. And when people praise me, strangely enough, it doesn't do anything for me at all. I don't feel any sense of pride. I don't feel anything particular about it. Why? Because I know it is not I. It is he who did it. It is Christ that matters.
Another great composer — eternal composer — Toscanini, who is said to be a very humble man. And once when he was going through a rehearsal with his orchestra, he inspired this orchestra to such heights of performance. He lifted up this orchestra to such heights of excellence that even the orchestra themselves realized how they had been lifted up. So that at the close of the rehearsal, the orchestra put down their instruments and applauded Toscanini. This was even in a rehearsal. And Toscanini, the tears in his eyes, said, "It is not I, it's Beethoven." He passed on the excellence and he nearly felt that he had only brought out what was in Beethoven. He hadn't done anything. Such was the humility of the man. And when I thought of these words of Toscanini, "It is not I, it is Beethoven," it reminds me of the words of John the Baptist: "It is not I, it is Christ." Not I, but Christ. And so when people praise you, what is he praising you for? You didn't make yourself a new person. It is Christ who changed you from inside.
And this is what I mean about this humility here, this meekness. We don't go around making ourselves look very meek. And we bend our back a few degrees more so that, according — the humility is judged by the angle of your back. So presumably the further down you bend, the more humble you are. And if you have a reasonably good posture, you are very arrogant. My posture is poor, I have to confess. I think I should fix my posture again. But this has nothing to do with humility, that posture. Humility is from the heart. It is because Christ has changed us from inside. And when Christ has changed us from inside, we begin to understand this teaching. When the Lord said, "Blessed are the meek," he doesn't mean that therefore you should go around scraping and bowing like some meek person. But be meek in the heart. The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, "For I am meek and lowly of heart." The humble man does not always look outwardly as though he is meek. It is inside.
Don't judge a man by his merely outward performance. A certain pastor once told me how he went once into a meeting, and he saw the choir standing in front, and the choir there were singing. And he saw one man who stood up and he sang with his head up in the air, with an air of great pride and head sticking up in the air, his nose high up there. And this pastor said to me he was so incensed and disgusted with this fellow's posture and holding — the way he thought himself was singing like this. And he was very disturbed about this. So until after the meeting, he met this person who was singing, and discovered that he was blind. And then he realized that the reason why this person was singing like this and standing with his head up was in fact he was blind. He couldn't see at all. And then people when they are blind have this kind of a posture, not because they are proud but because that's the way they are. Don't judge people by that. Humility is of the heart.
And so we have this wonderful — there is this saying, a Chinese saying, which illustrates what the Lord is doing. That only when you change a man inwardly can we come to the stage one day when we shall inherit an earth in which righteousness dwells. A society in which people are genuinely humble, and not trying to rise up by stepping down on the other person and using him as a ladder to climb up. A society in which this kind of deadly competition, in which you push yourself up at somebody else's expense, is no more. A society in which each person truly cares for the other person, and regards the other person as better than himself. And this is a Chinese saying which I have seen many places when I have been traveling around. I have seen various shops, and you know in many shops you see little framed sayings, which they put there for you to hang on your wall, to remind you of some saying of wisdom. Some of them are quite good and some of them are rubbish, of course. But one very good one I have seen, which quotes a Chinese saying like this: "If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace on earth." Peace in the world. You see, this Chinese saying shows that you have to start from the human heart. If there is righteousness in the heart. And as we shall see in a moment, meekness has a lot to do with righteousness. So wonderful, so deep is the teaching of the Lord Jesus. So much to the point. He comes right to the heart of the matter.
Now how to understand this saying: "Happy are those who mourn"? But happy are those who are meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Well, many of you will know that this verse, the Lord Jesus actually takes straight out of Psalm 37, verse 11. It is a quotation of the 37th Psalm. In fact, let me read through Psalm 37. And to understand this verse, we must return to Psalm 37. And this is what the psalmist says here in the 37th Psalm: "But the meek shall possess the land," or the earth, "and delight themselves in abundant peace." The Hebrew word and the Greek word is "peace" here, which the RSV translates as "prosperity." The word is peace. The meek shall possess the earth, or the land. The same word, both in Hebrew and in Greek, can be translated as earth or land.
Now, how do we then expound a passage of the Lord's teaching like this? The way to do it is to look for where the Lord Jesus took these words, and then to study it in its context. The 37th Psalm, in fact, is unique. It is unique because it has this word "inherit," translated as "possess" here. The RSV translates "possess." The Hebrew and the Greek are both "inherit." And in fact, the Greek Old Testament has the word here in exactly the same word and the same tense as in the Greek New Testament. "The meek shall inherit the earth." Five times in this psalm do we find this word "inherit." And when we compare what is called in Hebrew a parallel statement, we begin to derive the meaning by observing the parallel. So we shall see this.
First of all, when you look at this psalm, you will notice that two kinds of people are contrasted in this psalm: the righteous and the sinner. And it is the righteous here in verse 11 that is described in its character as meek. You cannot be righteous without being meek. That's what it comes to. The meek are the righteous, and the righteous are the meek. So we learn three things from this psalm about the meek. What do we learn?
First, we learn that the meek are those who wait upon God. Look at verse 9, and you will see the same phrase, this time in another parallel. Verse 9 of Psalm 37: "For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the earth," shall possess the land. Now when you take the second part, both cases have to do with "inherit the earth," and the first part, "meek" and "wait," of course are in parallel. So those who are meek are those who wait for the Lord. Now the next question we have to ask is, what does it mean to wait for the Lord? And by the way, in verse 34 you find the same parallel again: "Wait for the Lord and keep to his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the earth," or as the RSV translates it, to possess the land. So twice in this psalm, it is those who wait for the Lord whom the Lord will exalt. Humble yourself before God, and the Lord will exalt you. He will lift you up. The humble are those who humble themselves because they trust in God. They are those whom God will exalt by his power.
And by the way, this brings us to another point which is very important, and that is here we are dealing with principles of power. Principles of spiritual power. There are many Christians who are exceedingly lacking in spiritual dynamism, spiritual power. And the reason is that they have not let God do this transforming work in their lives. If you don't let God do this transforming work, making you to be humble of heart — not trying to be outwardly humble, but letting him truly make you humble within — then you will experience spiritual power, the power of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Spirit in your life. And so this is a principle of power. And the humble person then is one who waits for the Lord. Waits for the Lord.
What does it mean to wait for the Lord? Well, verse 7 tells us in this psalm: it is to be still, to be quiet. "Wait patiently for him." What does that mean? It says, "Fret not yourself." Now what does the word "fret" mean? Fret, in some ways, fret means to be restless in English. But the Hebrew is much more precise. The Hebrew means to be burning, to be burning with anger. Don't get all angry and heated up.
You see, let me mention another point here. How is your temper? How is your temper lately? If you are a person who gets angry easily, then you best ask the Lord to get on with the transforming work in your life. Anger is the opposite — this kind of anger is the opposite of humility. A person who gets bad tempered and angry easily is evidenced by that fact that he has either not been transformed or not been fully transformed. He has a long way to go. "Fret not yourself over him who prospers." Here the anger is over the person, the evil man who is prospering. The righteous man is trampled down and the bad man is prospering. Both of you who are familiar with Hong Kong society especially, often you feel the sense of annoyance as these bad characters, especially corrupt police officers, corrupt government officials, people who are through corruption getting rich, driving around in Cadillacs or Mercedes Benz or whatever, and living in great style. These are crooks and robbers. And you feel annoyed. You feel angry. You feel heated up inside. Just like it says here, the heat is coming up. That heat of anger. That the unrighteous should prosper while the righteous are trampled down.
So here it says, "Fret not yourself." And so verse 8 it says: "Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath." And again, "Fret not." Don't be angry. It tends only to evil. Anger tends to evil. It's no use getting angry. Oh, why should we get angry? We say we've got to do something about this. Don't worry. God will do plenty about it. Verse 9: "For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land." God is a God of justice. This world in which we live, this earth, he will execute justice in the earth. Don't you think that the wicked will get away with it? God will cut them off. And then verse 10 says: "Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Though you look well at his place, he will not be there." You will look at the place and say, "Where was he? I thought he was here somewhere before." All these monuments that he raised for himself, all these trophies of his glory, God will wipe them away. You will look for him and you can't find the shadow of him left. But the meek — now that is the context. Verse 11: "But the meek shall possess the land and delight themselves in peace."
You know, this world has a saying, backed up by alleged sayings of evolution: "It is the survival of the fittest." The survival of the fittest. Nature is said to be red in tooth and claw. And so we are brought up — many of us are brought up — and that is why, of course, I disliked this teaching on meekness and humility, which I regarded as so much rubbish. Because we are brought up to fight for yourself. You don't fight for yourself, who fights for you? Well, the Bible answers: God will fight for you. Why, you don't have faith, you won't believe that. So you fight for yourself. The only trouble is that if you run into somebody stronger than you, then he will chew you up, and that is the end of you. Or else you will have to fight. See, if we say, "Okay, you are a big buck. Okay, buck. You got it. You are stronger than me. So how about you leave some crumbs for me when you have finished your dinner." Because not everybody can be strong with survival of the fittest. So you are going to bow down to somebody in the end.
So here there is the law of survival of the fittest. Is it true? Some of you have heard of Richard Wurmbrand, the pastor from the Eastern European States, from Romania, who in one of his books says, "You know, just think of the survival of the fittest." He said, "In the case of survival of the fittest, how come that at the end of this whole evolutionary process there are still animals as defenseless as the sheep? How do you explain this?" You see, the sheep, he says, he can't run very fast. He's got no horns. He can't fight. How come there is still a creature called a sheep in existence at the end of this thing? There should only be lions left by now. Since only the fittest can survive, there must be — as compared to lions, what else can survive around here? Well, maybe there is some point to this. I don't know how sheep manage to survive till now. I don't know whether they are not a challenge to this doctrine of the survival of the fittest. But what I do know is that the Lord Jesus says, "I send you as sheep among wolves." Defenseless. Who will be your defense? You will be slaughtered, as Paul says, all the day long like sheep. But God is our defense.
You see, here now, the point is this. Either you trust in your own strength, or you trust in God's strength. I heard that the other day — I couldn't get to the Bible study the previous week, and I studied about turning the other cheek. I hope you also got that point. A person who turns the other cheek is one who trusts in God for his defense. A person who strikes back trusts in himself for his defense. Now, he may be a Kung Fu expert, that's fine. But that's nothing compared to God's power, let me tell you. When God's power gets going, when God's power comes into action, no Kung Fu expert is much to reckon with.
I remember in our church in Liverpool, there was somebody who wanted to get baptized once. And his brother was furious. And his brother was a Kung Fu teacher. And so he phoned me, and I wasn't home. So usually we have our baptism in an English church. And so when he discovered that the baptism would take place in the English church, he phoned the English pastor and abused him, and said, "If you dare to go ahead with this baptism, I will be there to reckon with you. You better get your bed ready in hospital, because I will fix you up if you dare to baptize my brother." He was so furious. And when I got back, I was told, "You know, it was a terrible thing happening. But this dear brother wants to get baptized. And his brother, the Kung Fu expert, the Kung Fu teacher, said he is going to come to the church and disrupt the service and beat up the pastor." He said, "What are we going to do? Shall we call the police?" I said, "Well, I can't call the police because baptism is not in our church. Baptism will be in his church. It's up to him to call the police if he wants to call the police."
So I phoned his brother — the pastor — and I said, "Do you want to call the police?" He said, "No." Ah, this man knows the principle. He said, "I will trust in the Lord for my defense. It's okay." I said, "Praise God. There are still men of God around." And he said, "I don't want to have police standing around the church. But what kind of a service is this?" So I prayed about this thing. And sure enough, he phoned me when he heard I'd come back. He said, "I want to come and see you." He said, "Well, he's going to beat me up in the baptismal service." He's not going to do this. He's not even going to come to the service. So I committed this thing to the Lord. The Lord is my strong power and my defense. And when I asked him, I said to him, "Your brother — is he bluffing or does he really mean it?" And he said, "Well, I know my brother. He really means it." When he said he's going to do it, he's going to do it. And he said, "Not only would he beat up the pastor, he'd kill his brother too."
So he came to the house and committed the matter to the Lord in prayer. And then there was a ring on the door, and I opened the door and he was standing there. And he said, "Oh, I'm very, very sorry to trouble you. I'm sorry to waste your time and take your time like this." I said, "Hey, is this the same man who could have beaten me?" And so I said, "Come in, come in." And he was so friendly and so nice. I said, "What happened to him?" And we had a very nice chat together, and he and I became friends in one conversation. And he said to me, "I don't mind you baptizing my brother. After this conversation, everything is okay. On one condition: just ask him not to tell his mother. That's all we ask." Because she had a weak heart. I said, "Well, that's his decision, you know." Trust in God for our defense. I mean, if he brought out his Kung Fu, he'd probably have sent me to hospital in about three seconds flat, you know. But no. God is my defense. What happened to his Kung Fu? His Kung Fu became — he became my friend.
If you turn the other cheek, you can fight back, sure you can. You can be your own defense. Or else you can trust in God to be your defense. Now, it is more hypocritical if you happen to also be a Kung Fu expert — if somebody slapped you in the face and you think, "Oh, hey, you know, I can flatten him in one stroke." But you trust in God for your defense. What is the point here? Wait on the Lord. That's what it means. It means don't be impatient. Don't get hot under the collar and strike back straight away. Wait. Just wait. Give God the right. It is his right to be the judge. Let him be your defense. Now, if you don't have faith in God, you won't do this.
So this brings us to the second point. The second point of being meek is that you have faith. Without faith you would never have patience. You would never have this willingness to let God act on your behalf. And so we find the second thing, this is that it is faith in him. So we read here in verse 5. In fact, we can go back to verse 3: "Trust in the Lord, and do good." You see, the person who waits on God is the one who trusts in him. I don't strike back because I trust in the Lord. It doesn't matter whether I can beat him or I can't beat him. If you don't strike back because you are afraid you can't beat him, then you are a coward. Okay. If you strike back because you know you can beat him, then you are a bully, because you know that you can beat him. And if you strike back when you don't know whether you can beat him or not, then what is the result of the whole matter? You might end up pretty badly beaten and he ends up pretty badly beaten, and so in the end you are even. You have not squared anything at all.
Trust in God for your defense. That is the meek. "Trust in the Lord and do good." So you will dwell, notice, in the land, the land of promise. And you will enjoy security, the security that comes from the Lord. Verse 5: "Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him, and he will act." Now that is the point of turning the other cheek: he will act. And then verse 6: "He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday." He will establish your vindication, your justification, and he will establish your right.
# The Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Meek (Part 2)
Very interesting. I have often seen the wicked. They seem to have a much bigger income than mine, but they seem to be endlessly in debt. They may earn two or three times what I have, but they are forever in debt. I myself have scratched my head and tried to figure it out. How come they have such a big income, and yet they are living on their credit cards? Because lately President Carter, as you have known, has tried to put restrictions on the use of credit cards, because the Western nations are nations that live on credit. They are all broke. They all live on credit, and they are forever spending the rest of their lifetime to pay back what they owe to the banks. Very strange. I never want to owe anything on credit, because what I owe, I'm never sure I could pay back. So I don't want to be on credit. I'm scared of credit cards.
But most of the people today are so up to their neck in credit, because of course you can borrow — maybe against your income you can borrow $2,000 and pay back $25 a month. But how long is it going to take you, at the rate of 21% interest a year, to pay back your $2,000? So it's forever trying to catch up with endless credit. You're always living in debt. The wicked borrows, and he cannot pay back. Why? Because he's never satisfied with what he has. He wants more. He wants more. He wants a better car, a nicer car. The next guy just bought a 1979 model. I've got to buy a 1980 model. I've got one step better than him. And he bought a 1980 model. I've got to buy a 1981 model. And so it goes, forever keeping up with the Joneses. He got a leather coat. I've got to get a leather coat too. Not good that mine is plastic. Or he got a leather coat — I've got a fur coat. If he got a fur coat, I get a mink coat. Keeping up with the Joneses. Oh, in Hong Kong, I'm sure you know this very well. I have always tried to figure this thing out. I can't understand this mentality in Hong Kong. I've constantly lost by trying to understand it. The wicked borrow and cannot pay back. But the righteous — he may be poor. He may be poor, but he is giving. That is the beauty of the whole thing.
It is better to have a little, it says here, in verse 16 of this passage. A little is better that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. You may have very little, but so long as you are righteous, that's what matters. But the wicked has abundance. That doesn't do him any good. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken. Oh, it's truly wonderful. Put the Christian life into practice and see whether it works. I believe in the gospel because I know it works. It's so true. People may slander me, attack me. It's okay. My God is my defense. If I am wrong, I should be the one that is judged. If he is wrong, the Lord has mercy upon him because the Lord will judge him. So wonderful. Put it into practice and you will see how God will vindicate you, how God will defend you. Even as what happened to me when the Kung Fu expert comes to attack you, the Lord so deals with him, so changes him that he becomes your friend. In fact, next time somebody wants to attack you, he has to reckon with your Kung Fu friend, doesn't he?
And the third thing we notice here about the meek — of course by now you will have noticed — is that he is righteous. In verse 29, when you look at verse 29, you'll see exactly the parallel here. "The righteous shall possess the land." Notice: the meek are the righteous. They shall possess the land. They shall inherit the earth, and dwell upon it forever. Ah, that is wonderful. God has promised this earth to the righteous, to the meek, to those who wait upon him, to those who trust in him. These are the ones who shall inherit the earth.
Now let us understand one thing. The apostle John says in 1 John chapter 3, verse 7: "He that does righteousness is righteous." This is very important. Let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as Christ is righteous. Now this is a fundamental point here. That it is those — not who just talk righteously — but who do it. And earlier on, in the second chapter, the apostle John says that it is those who are born of God who do righteousness. Those born of God. And this is exactly what we find here. And when we return to the psalm, we notice that these righteous ones are called saints. Verse 28 of Psalm 37: "His saints," God's holy ones. And remember that I was expounding on discipleship, that Paul prefers the word "saints." And then the psalm goes on to say that this is because God's law is written in their hearts. Notice here, verse 31 of Psalm 37: "The law of his God is in his heart." Therefore, he is blameless and upright.
So by now I trust we have seen how the Lord Jesus takes these words from the psalm, Psalm 37, in order to give us the clue of what he means. And by now we see that the humble person is a person who has faith in God. He waits upon God. And secondly, we have seen that the humble person is a person who is generous and giving because he trusts in God. And thirdly, he is a person who does right. In verse 27 of the psalm, it says, "Do good and depart from evil." And verse 29, "The righteous shall possess the land."
So now that we understand what the righteous means, what the meek means, we come to ask finally the question: what is the result of this righteousness? What is the result of this meekness? What does it bring? Well, first of all, it brings salvation. Salvation. If you look at Psalm 37, you will see it again. Psalm 37, and right in the last part of the psalm, the last two verses, verses 39 and 40, you will see that the whole thing has to do with salvation: "The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their refuge in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him." The meek are those who will be saved. As I said right at the beginning, salvation has to do not just with what you believe, not just with what things you do externally, but what kind of person you are. And you can only be that kind of person by the transforming power of God.
Secondly, the righteous, the meek person is the person who has peace. Do you experience peace in your heart? Do you enjoy rest? Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, and Psalm 37, verse 11, as we have seen. Psalm 37:11 says, "They shall possess the land and they shall enjoy abundant peace." And Matthew 11:29 is exactly saying the same thing. The Lord Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Learn of me. Take my yoke upon you, and you shall find peace in your soul." That's exactly it. So many Christians today are restless. They're disturbed, anxious, under pressure. We live in a society that puts a lot of pressure on you. You have endless exams to take. You have to keep on under the pressure of a workload. It's a very stressful life that we have to live. But the meek find rest in their soul, deep inside that person. No matter what the external pressures are, there is that rest inside.
So first there is salvation. Secondly, there is rest. And thirdly, there is victory. The meek find victory. This is something truly beautiful. Let us look at Psalm 149, verse 4. This is exactly what this psalm says. Psalm 149, verse 4: "For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble, the meek, with victory." Isn't that beautiful? The meek are the ones who are victorious. Isn't that remarkable? We think that it is the nasty, the strong, the tough that are victorious. Not at all. It is the meek that he adorns with victory. You know, in Matthew 21, verse 9, it tells us of the Lord Jesus coming into Jerusalem, humble, meek is the Greek word there, riding upon a donkey. A donkey was the animal of peace. The horse was the instrument of war. The Lord Jesus comes in victorious, but riding on a donkey. This is something — again, the meek are the ones who will be adorned with victory. They are the ones whom the Lord will vindicate, as we saw in Psalm 37, verse 6.
And fourthly, we'll notice that the meek are the ones who will find guidance. Now, I spent a moment on victory because so many Christians live a very defeated life. Do you find yourself defeated all the time? Then here is the answer. Let God change you. Many people today, we live in a society that studies techniques — how to be successful, what steps and what techniques by which we can be successful. The Bible's answer has nothing to do with techniques. It has to do with what kind of person you become in order to be victorious and successful, successful in the spiritual sense. If you are defeated constantly in the Christian life, then what you need is to ask God to transform you, to change you. Make of you a new person. Make of me a new person too.
And the next point, the fourth point then, has to do with guidance. As we saw in Psalm 37, verse 23: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." So many Christians are seeking guidance. What should I do under this circumstance? What should I do with that circumstance? And a pastor often has to spend a lot of time answering the questions about guidance. "What should I do in that circumstance?" And then you go and look for a book in the bookshop and it tells you the technique by which you can get guidance from God. You've got it all the wrong way around. What we need is not a technique. What we need is what God will do in our lives, in such a way that when God changes you, transforms you, you will find that without looking for techniques, God guides you step by step forwards. His steps are ordered by the Lord. God orders the steps of a man who is humble, who is meek, inwardly in his heart. These kind of people don't have trouble with guidance. They're not forever confused as to what they should do next and then what's the next problem. "How do I know the will of God?" People who ask questions like this — their problem is not to know the technique of knowing the will of God. It is: what will God do with you? Start with saying, "Lord, so change me in my heart that I will know your will, because of being the kind of person who can understand, who can listen to your voice and understand your will."
And the fifth and the last point we see here is that the meek shall, of course, inherit the earth. Ah, that is wonderful. We return to this point again. And what does "inherit the earth" mean? What is it that we are going to get? Well, here we must bear in mind this. It says in verse 3 of the Beatitudes, the poor in spirit shall inherit the kingdom of God. Then is it two different things? You inherit the kingdom of God and then you inherit also the earth? What does that mean? This is one and the same thing. Because God's kingdom will be established on the earth. God has not finished with this world. God is going to establish his kingdom on the earth. And that is why in the Lord's Prayer, as it is called, in Matthew chapter 6, verse 10, it says there, "Your kingdom come." Come where? Well, come to us. Come on this earth. Come to us. "Your will be done on earth." Here is where his will will be done. As it is in heaven. So when his kingdom comes upon the earth, his will will be done on the earth as it is done in heaven. Bear this well in mind. God hasn't finished with this earth. God's kingdom will be established here and now. God has not finished with this earth. It is already here, but it will be fully established when Jesus comes again.
The subject of the kingdom of God is a very big one. It takes a lot of time to expound. The kingdom of God, as it were, comes in stages, you might say. And at that final stage, when Jesus comes again, his kingdom will be fully established upon the earth. On this point, we will be looking at something still further at the Bible study on Friday about the coming of his kingdom and what it does. But right now, suffice it to say that God will establish his government upon the world, in the world. And his saints shall reign with him. To inherit the kingdom doesn't just mean that you're going to be there. We are not just going to be twiddling our thumbs. We are going to be given the task of reigning with him. And those that God chooses to reign are the humble, the meek of heart. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the saints shall reign with him. We read of the reign of the saints in Revelation chapter 5, verse 10, and Revelation 22, verse 5.
And so, when we have seen these things, we understand God's wonderful purpose. So to sum up as we close, what do these Beatitudes tell us? What is it that the Lord wants to say to us here? You know what I see? I see that God is looking down, up and down the earth, in this generation, and looking for men after his own heart. And I feel very excited about this. God's eyes are running to and fro over the earth at this present time, because he is selecting the people who shall reign with him, who are going to build his new earth, the kingdom of God. He is going to establish his kingdom. He is going to create a new society, which is called the kingdom of God, in which righteousness dwells, here upon the earth. He is going to build a new society by building new people. New men. That is his policy. His supreme, his divine wisdom. A new society, because of new people in it. And his eyes are running through the earth, looking for people after his own heart.
You know, every day we live, we live, as it were, under examination. God watches us, how we handle every situation, every crisis. He is putting us through the test. As Peter says, "Your faith, being tested by fire, will be as pure gold." God wants people of pure gold. He wants to watch how you handle every crisis, because that's the fire that's testing your faith. If you are insulted, do you strike back? God is watching. What kind of a person is he? Does he trust me, or does he trust his own right arm? Which might not be all that strong anyway. He is looking through the earth. He watches how you deal with people, how you handle your examinations, how you behave at work, how you make decisions. He is looking for a man, or for many people, after his own heart.
God is looking for people after his own heart. In 1 Samuel chapter 13 and verse 14, there the prophet Samuel says to Saul, "God has found himself a man after his own heart, to be king of Israel," namely David. Again in Acts chapter 13 and verse 22, David is called a man after God's own heart, who will do all God's will. God is producing a generation of new people, transformed men, and he is molding them into the image of Christ. He is going to establish this new society. That is why when Jesus came, he proclaimed the kingdom of God: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is coming. God's rule is coming." God's rule is going to be established. God's government will be established upon the earth. There will be a new generation of people. There will be peace, but because there are new people in it. And right now he is looking for those people. I find that very exciting.
And what kind of new people? Well, he tells us. He says here in the Sermon on the Mount, these are the kind of people who are going to be in the kingdom of God. The people who are poor in spirit, who weep because of sin, who are humble. And now we know — we cannot be any of these things unless the Spirit of God comes into us and changes us. You see, this very gift of meekness, this very meekness that is mentioned here, is one of the fruit of the Spirit, in Galatians chapter 5, verse 23. Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit. It is not something we can attain in our own strength. We cannot make ourselves this kind of new man. It is something that God has to make us into — that very image.
So I pray that when we listen to this Sermon on the Mount, we understand God's plan for his kingdom. We understand God's wonderful saving purpose. We understand God's purposes for the world. You see, God has not hidden these things from us. The Bible is so wonderful because it tells us, "This is my plan for the world." Wickedness is going to be wiped out. The wicked shall be cut off. But I am raising up people like this described here, with these nine Beatitudes. This is the kind of person I am going to make — a new man in my kingdom. Would to God that each one of you will find a place in that kingdom, that the Holy Spirit will come into your life and change you, and you will experience his grace and his power. Let us pray.