Meekness

I have a few questions for you today, brethren. What is the Christian characteristic of those that will eat and they'll be full?

What is the characteristic of those that their heart will live forever? What is the characteristic that the Lord will guide them in justice and will teach them his way? What is the characteristic of those that God will adorn them or surround them with salvation? That's an interesting question, isn't it? And we consider what characteristic that is. Now, I'm going to read three scriptures that refer to those characteristics, but if you have the King James Version, I would like you to consider the word that is used in the King James Version. I'm not saying that the word that is used in the New King James Version is incorrect because it is also applicable, but I think there is a slightly deeper meaning beyond just the word as in the New King James Version. So, the first one is Psalms 22 verse 26. Psalms 22 verse 26.

And Psalm 22 verse 26, it reads, and I'm going to read from the New King James Version, and then I'm going to tell you what is the word used in the Old King James Version, which is, you call it the United States to be the Authorized Version. Right, so that's... So, in verse 26 it says, the poor shall eat and be satisfied. And that's what I was saying. Who is it that will be eat and will be fattened with it, will be pleased? Well, it says, yeah, the poor shall eat and be satisfied. The King James Version, or the Authorized Version, says, the meek shall eat and be satisfied. Now, I want you to think about the word meek, and I'm going to dig a little bit deeper about that word, meek, and I'm going to show you some very interesting points about meekness. But, and then it says, those who seek him will praise the Lord, let your heart live forever. And that is for the poor. Well, when you and I think of poor, that means you live in utter poverty. And that basically does not exist. Okay, we think it does, but it really does not exist in the United States. You really don't know what poverty is. Okay, I know there are many people that struggle, not discounting that, but I've seen complete poverty, really complete poverty, in other countries. You know, they are now increasing more poor people in this country. We see sometimes them in the street corners. But when I lived in South Africa, every street corner had people in absolute poverty. And we had people looking for work, sitting outside on the streets, looking for work. And they wanted to work. And if you gave them a job, albeit small, they would be so grateful. And they worked for you for the whole day for a small little wage, because they needed that. So the other one I wanted to show you is Psalm 25 verse 9. Psalm 25 verse 9, because I asked those three questions to you. In Psalm 25 verse 9 is one of those that I asked you. And it says, the humble, he guides injustice. And the humble, he teaches his way. The King James Version says, the meek, he guides injustice. And the meek, he teaches his way. You see, the new King James Version sometimes is not, let's call it, consistent in translating this original word. But the old King James Version, or the authorized version, is more consistent by translating it as meek. So we'll go on to that. And the third one that of the questions I asked you, and yeah, you can see the word meek, translated as humble, is used twice. So the meek, he guides injustice, and the meek, he teaches his way. And the third one is Psalm 149 verse 4. Psalm 149 verse 4. And Psalm 149 verse 4 says, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people, he will beautify the humble with salvation. Now, your Bible may have a little marker next to it, and in a margin says meek. My Bible does have that. He will satisfy the meek with salvation. So we can see three, where sometimes it talks about poor, sometimes talks about humble, sometimes talks about maybe it could be meek. But in authorized version, always uses the word meek. If you use a literal translation like Derby, it always uses the word meek in this word. So my purpose today, brethren, is to talk about this Christian characteristic of meekness.

And how meekness changes wisdom from a human type wisdom to a godly wisdom.

So what is meekness? Quite often we think, well, it's poor, it's weak. Well, meekness is not weakness. It's actually a Christian characteristic of being in control of your emotions.

And you're leading that approach, how you deal with people, or whatever, with meekness.

Now let me ask you a question. How many of you, obviously most of you probably do not have a new year's wish, but you know, think about it. You know, for this year I'm going to have a goal, or whatever it is, maybe it's not a beginning of the year, maybe whatever it is, but hey, from feast to feast I'm going to have a goal. And how many of you say, well, during this year my goal is going to be to become amik. How many of us had a goal to say, this year I want to work on meekness? Probably very few, or maybe really very few. Why? Because a lot of people think of it as like saying, my goal is to be weak. I don't want to be meek because I'll be weak. No, it's got nothing to do with that. I want you to look at Numbers 12.3. Numbers 12.3.

Numbers 12.3. So it says, now the man Moses was very humble. Well, in the King James Version, it says, was very meek. In the English Standard Version, it says, meek. In the Revised Standard Version, it says, meek. In the Derby, it says, meek. Was Moses humble? Yes, he was. But the point where I'm trying, and I'm going to explain a little bit more about meekness, is that quite often we don't get the meaning of what meekness is all about. Sometimes people say, oh well, it's just humility. Am I saying it's not humility? No, it is humility. Sometimes it's translated in the New Testament as gentleness. Am I saying it's not gentleness? No, I'm not saying that. It is gentleness. It is humility. But it is a little bit more. And I think, regrettably, we have not emphasized the depth, the deeper depth, of what meekness is all about. So, Moses surely had courage to lead a stubborn bunch of Israelites.

Now, I deliberately use the word stubborn because maybe the word stubborn tells you the exact opposite of meekness. Now, that kind of starts giving you a clue. Now, let's look at the New Testament, and let's look at Matthew 11 verse 29. Matthew 11 verse 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. So, if you have a red letter Bible, you can see this is written in red. So, it's Christ's own words. Learn from me, for I am gentle. All right. Do you have a little number next to the word gentle? And if you look to the margin next to that little number, you see meek. You see, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Now, what is lowly in heart? Lonely in heart is humble, right? So, if I say, I'm humble and humble, that doesn't really apply, right? So, they had to look for another word, and so they used the word gentle. Is gentle incorrect? No, it's not incorrect, because I'll show you that gentleness is an important part of meekness. Humility is an important part of meekness. But we're missing the big picture, and that's what I want us all to focus on, the big picture. Now, let's look at another example. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians.

So, at this moment, brethren, I'm just still covering, let's call it the first part, what is meekness? Because then I'm going to go into a second part of a specific Scripture, and then we're going to look at its context, and then we're going to look at the real crux of the matter that I want to get to. But we're still looking at the first part, on a definition of what is meekness. So, let's look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1 and 2.

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. So, yeah, I spoke. This is a person he personally was in prison when he wrote this, and he says, I plead with you, I beseech you, to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. Brethren, you and I understand the calling that you have been called. Now, we've all been saying, well, we've been called to be sons and daughters of God. Right.

Brethren, I'd like to elevate that a little bit more. You and I are called now to be in the top echelon of the eternal government of God and the Christ.

Those that will lead and govern and teach the future additional brothers and sisters in the kingdom of God. You and I are called to be in the top, top creme de la creme, leading government for eternity with Christ. That is a high calling.

So, walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. With all lowliness, that's humility, with all lowness, humility and gentleness. But, here's the point. In the old King James version, he says, meekness. And all meekness, with long suffering, that means being patiently going through sufferings and holding on to the trunk of the tree, bearing with one another in love. The Greek word is prahotes, which is a word dealing with humility, but also gentleness, but also meekness. So, yeah, gentleness is not necessarily incorrect. But let me look at a very key point here. It's in Matthew chapter 5. Now, you know, Matthew chapter 5 is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, right? For the next three chapters, we've got the Sermon on the Mount. I usually equate the Sermon on the Mount to, let's say, the New Testament's Ten Commandments. You know what I mean? It's just a way of me putting it. It's just Christ taking those Ten Commandments and putting and adding them and announcing them to make them really practical at the heart. And at the beginning of chapter 5, it talks about what we call the Beatitudes. You've heard of the Beatitudes. The first one says in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit. What is a poor in spirit? It's a person that is humble, right? I think we all know, blessed are the people that are humble. They're poor in spirit, for this is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. Right. Verse 4, blessed are those that mourn. Who are those that mourn? Mourn is like you and I look at ourselves and you and I repent. We mourn for what we are and want to become different and better. So basically it's talking about you are humble. Let's step number one. Step number two of verse is you realize in humility that you need to repent. So you need to mourn for what you are. We need to repent for they shall be comforted. And blessed are the meek. Now some people say, well, it's just humble. Now if it was just humble, then we're going back to the first step, right? First step is blessed are poor in spirit. The second step is now you mourn. Now you go to the third step. You're climbing up a ladder of Beatitudes, of Christian attitudes to be in. And the next one is blessed are the meek. Now, yeah, in the New King James Version, yes, they translate as meek. It's prowess like prowess. It's a similar word. And it says, for they will inherit the earth.

So it's not just being humble. Now, of course, humility, meekness includes humility. Meekness includes gentleness. But meekness is something more.

Okay, where am I going? I'm still trying to get to the definition of meekness. So I'm still, let's call it, in phase one of the sermon. I just don't want you to get lost. I want you to make sure that you see where I'm going. Right. Now, let's look at the attributes of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. Right? You know where that is? Galatians? Let's go there. Galatians 5, 22, and 23. So this is the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. Now, I like to emphasize time and time again the word fruit is in singular. Now, why is it in singular? Because it is in singular. You know, like for instance, if you take a fruit, like a peach, you say, well, it's yellow, or maybe it's yellow reddish, whatever. And maybe it's got a skin like this. Or when you eat, it's got this kind of juicy meaty type. And then inside it's got a pup. Now, there are various attributes of the fruit. And if you want to compare a peach to an apricot, you can say, well, it's yellow reddish, and the other ones also. But it doesn't define enough about the fruit. So the fruit of the Holy Spirit has all these characteristics, these nine characteristics. And love, which is of going concern, joy, peace, long suffering, which is patiently waiting, patiently enduring, kindness, being kind to other people. Now, you say, oh well, that person's got a lot of love, therefore it's got to have God's Holy Spirit. Just because you're loving does not mean you have God's Holy Spirit. There are many good people. But do they have God's Holy Spirit? Not necessarily. You see, so just say because a person is good or they're good people does not mean that God God's Holy Spirit. Just because they go to church every Sunday or every whatever day they go to, some go on Wednesdays and go Friday night and whatever it is, and they go to Bible study, that does not mean you have God's Holy Spirit. Even if you come to God's church, every Sabbath does not mean you have God's Holy Spirit.

But anyway, and there it says, so these are different attributes of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. That means it's a faithful person. It's an attribute like faith. He's faithful. His word is yes, is yes, and is no, is no. He says he's going to do it. He does it. He's faithful. And then the next one is gentleness. But again, my Bible's got a little number next to it. And if you look on the margin to that little number, what do you read? Michnas. So, and then it says self-control, and against such there's no law. So what is michnas? In fact, brethren, I sometimes look at these attributes, and maybe one day I'll give us a sermon about it, because these attributes are structured in a very clever way. But you think about that, and there's a lot of meeting there to talk about it, but that's for another day. So, but what is michnas? Because it's one of the characteristics of God's Holy Spirit.

So, michnas, is it humility? Yes, it is. Is it gentleness? Yes, it is. Is it a poet in spirit? Yes, it is. In other words, it's not arrogant. Let me tell you, and this is what made me think about this, because the word michnas in Portuguese, and I'm going to give you a Portuguese word, and I'm going to translate it into English. And please, I'm not speaking in tongues, although I am speaking in a different language. But anyway, the word in Portuguese is maso, or mansidão. Translating it into English, maso means time. Masidão means being time, timeness. Now, typically we don't use that in English, that a person is time.

Usually, you use that for animals. But you know what a time is? It's like domesticated. It's malleable. It's teachable. Think about it. You know, a tame animal you can teach, you can train, is not wild. It's not wild. So, it's somebody that is moldable. Have you heard about you and I are clay in the potter's hand? And you and I need to be moldable, shapeable? Now, to be moldable, you've got to be humble, right? You've got to be gentle, because if you're hard, it kind of breaks, and you can't work with it.

So, now we understand what meekness is. It's a teachable, malleable, moldable attitude, which is not stubborn. It's not stiff. It's not a stiff-necked type of thing. It's teachable. Now, there is an interesting scripture in Zephaniah that kind of gives you that clue as well. So, let's look at it. First, we're going to read Zephaniah chapter 2. Now, there's a thing about Hebrew that is like poetic approach. You see that a lot in Proverbs, where it says, this and then that. You read it in Proverbs, you see, this and that, and you compare, and the next verse or the next phrase kind of expands that meaning slightly more.

So, let's look at Zephaniah, yeah, because it uses that type of poetry. And we're going to read chapter 2 of Zephaniah, verse 1 through 3. Gather yourselves together, yes, gather our undesirable nation. Before the degree is issued or the day passes like chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger. Seek the Lord. Now, this is very important because now it's talking about something else that says gather or unite the undesirable nation. Who's the undesirable nation in this world today? It's God's people. It's God's people.

And so, and you to do that before the day of the Lord. So, that in a sense, it's a prophecy, but that's what I'm talking about today. But then in verse 3 says, seek the Lord. All you meek of the earth. Oh, all you meek of the earth who have upheld his justice, seek righteousness, seek meekness. It's the same word in Hebrew.

Seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. So, maybe you'll be hidden in those bad days that ought to come if you seek meekness. Oh, that's interesting, isn't it? So, now look at, you can see a prophetic thing says, seek the Lord, seek meekness, uphold justice, seek righteousness, seek meekness. But look in chapter 3, verse 2. Look at chapter 3, verse 2. And I'm just, she has not obeyed his voice.

In other words, they do not seek God, right? They do not obey his voice. They do not seek God. She has not received correction. In other words, they were not meek. They were not teachable. You see that poetic analogy there, you see?

She has not trusted the Lord. And so, there is that. And look at in the same chapter, verse 7. In the same chapter, verse 7, I said, surely you will fear me. That's the beginning, fear God, that you seek God, you've got a first fear God.

You will receive instruction. So, Yah is a subtle hint that meekness, by comparing chapter 2, verse 3, with chapter 3, verse 2 and 7, it's a subtle hint that meekness is that teachability, is that desire to receive correction.

Now, let's go back to the Beatitudes. I think about it because I was talking to you, the Beatitudes is like you climbing up a ladder of Christian attitudes. So, in Matthew chapter 5, we saw the first Beatitude, which is humility. That's in verse 3. Poor in spirit. The second one, which is in verse 4, is mourn, which is equating to, in a sense, you mourn for what you are and for what's happening to all. So, we need to repent. We need to change. Verse 5 are the meek. Now, the meek means being teachable, being correctable. That means you need to be humble. Yes, you need to be gentle, but you are teachable. You are malleable. Now, when you teachable, when you desire to be corrected, what is the next step? What is the next Beatitude? And you see, they follow a logic, because the next one, bless are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So, if you are teachable, you are going to ask God to give you God's righteousness. You see, the people that are not teachable, oh, they want righteousness, but it's self-righteousness. So, if it's your own self-righteousness, you already got it. So, you don't need to ask God for it. But, you are a teachable, correctable attitude saying, teach me God and give me your righteousness. I'm hunger and thirst for what I don't have, which is God's righteousness.

And then, obviously, we realize that we don't have it, and we realize that we need God's mercy. So, that's the next one, and we need to be the same thing. And then, the next one is, we're going to be honest and genuinely seek for it. That says, pure in heart. And then, the outcome of that is being a peacemaker. You really are. So, you can see how these beatitudes build on one another. So, I'm just giving you something to meditate and actually maybe go home and study a little bit more about these beatitudes, because there's a lot of me taught you. So, now, as my introduction I said, I want to tell you how meekness changes your wisdom.

So, what am I talking about? Turn with me to James chapter 3 verse 13. James chapter 3 verse 13.

Who is a wise understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

What does it mean, works being done in the meekness of wisdom?

That's why it's important to understand what the word meekness is all about. So, meekness is all about a willingness to be malleable, to be teachable, to be moldable clay in the potter's hand, which is God. We are being molded to become sons and daughters of God, but not only that, to become kings and priests in the kingdom of God. Okay. But what is the meekness of wisdom? Because he says, he says, who is the wise and understanding among you?

So, he's really talking about true wisdom. Now, you need to read the context of James, but the context of James, if you look at it, you know, in chapter 3 begins, he says, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we receive a stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many points, etc., etc. You see, don't think you know it all. Don't think you are going to be the boss, because, hey, it's going to be tougher for you as a boss. And, you know, there are many proverbs that say, hey, when you hear one side of one story, it sounds good until you hear the other side. And he says, oh, maybe I should have heard the other side before I made a decision. You know, so that's the thing we all need to think about. And then we read in Proverbs, it says, love covers many transgressions. So, yeah, and we read that in in in Peter as well. In Peter as well. First Peter says, you know, love covers many transgressions. So, but then we read a little bit further. I've seen that we are in James. When we read in James chapter 4 verse 11, it says, do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. What is all this talking about?

You see, brethren, if if you are speaking bad of other people, like gossiping or whatever it is, or speaking bad of other person, are you showing love to that person? And isn't the law love?

And therefore, when you're criticizing that other person, are we showing love to the other person? But we say, I'm better, I'm okay. Does it mean, therefore, the law is faulty? And therefore, am I judging what the law should be? And therefore, I'm not a doer, but I'm a judge. You see how all this ties together. So what is it? Because in chapter 4 of James says, why are there wars and fights amongst you? Why are there, why is there friction and problems and things happening sometimes? And brethren, James is talking to the church of God. He's not talking to the world. So he says, why are there little wars and factions and contentions in this congregation?

Because he says, you desire your own pleasure and things like that. So you know, what we see here is, I would call it, an attitude of saying, what I'm saying is true. And because it's true, these other people are wrong. Yeah, what he's saying, it could be true, and maybe it is true. But it's not just the what, it's the how.

The what is, yes, this is right and wrong. This is true. And yeah, we're going to stick to the truth. But how do we handle it in a loving, caring attitude? The how is so important. It's not just truth, but it's going to be truth in love.

So, for instance, was Satan ever deceived by God? No, you knew the truth. But when he rebelled against God, his problem was lack of humility. You and I know that, right? He was, but he did not have love. And so he came across in an attitude that was not teachable, moldable, accepting what God wanted to do. And because of that, he lacked love. And before he became the adversary. Christ all us. You know, in Christ says in John, I think he's about, run about John 13. That's obviously the foot washing, but run about there, maybe 14, 15, where he says, if you want to be my brethren, I'll give you a new commandment. It's not just love others as you love yourself, but a new commandment is love others as I have loved you. And whoever loves others is a true Christian. So the whole thing is about love, but it's got to be the truth. So doctrine must be right, but it must come across with genuine, outgoing, concerned way we approach it to other people. Now, obviously none of us is perfect. We all have slipped up. And therefore, James here is writing, who is wise and understanding among you? Because yeah, you think you're a big shot, you know it all, but you got to be careful with your tongue, you know, that talks about the tongue. Be careful how you speak things. And he says, you want to be wise? Have the meekness of wisdom in a good conduct. Now you talk to others and things like that. So what is this meekness of wisdom? Because then he says later on, but why are there all wars amongst yourselves? Because they're not using the meekness of wisdom. So what is this meekness of wisdom? Well, let's put it this way. In verse 14 through 16 tells us what is wisdom without meekness. You see, wisdom without meekness, without that teachability, it actually is worldly wisdom. It's actually Satan's wisdom. Because wisdom without humility, wisdom without being gentle, wisdom without being teachable, it just brings trouble. And that's why there's wars amongst yourselves. But if you have wisdom with meekness, you're not going to seek envy or self-seeking. You're going to be teachable and you're going to be focused on not getting concerned. And that's why then it says the wisdom that is from God that has meekness in it says in verse 17, is first pure.

The pure means it's genuine, it's innocent, it's harnessed, it's first pure. So it's like the foundational of it. That wisdom with meekness of godly wisdom, it's pure. There's no fakeness in it. It's harnessed. There's no fakeness. It's innocent. Then he says the next thing it's peaceable because you work through those beatitudes, which meekness is one of them, and the outcome of that is peace. So it is peaceable. It's not manipulative. You're not trying to manipulate other people with your clever words and things like that. You really want peace and you are malleable, teachable to say, well, maybe I'm wrong, and you're working towards that. And then the next one is willing to yield.

Right, so it means he is prepared to change, prepared to adapt. And then what's the next one? Full of mercy and good fruits. So it's very merciful. He is very accepting other people.

I am not doing something to impress myself, but you know, when you think about the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. So yeah, there's justice first, but there's mercy as well. It's not mercy first. It's not mercy, justice, and faith. It's justice, mercy, and faith. So justice must be first, but must be done with mercy. So if there's true repentance, there is an additional component there. And then it goes on. And good fruits. You know, you shall know them by their fruits. And then it goes on without partiality and without hypocrisy. In other words, you're not showing favoritism to this person or that person, or just because a squeaky wheel gets more oil, then you're going to give more oil. No, you're not going to be partial. So there is judgment, but there's mercy as well. And it says without hypocrisy. You're not being hypocritical about it. It's genuine. It's not just something that it comes out of the mouth. It comes from the heart. So you and I can see that meekness. So that's why I spent quite a bit of time to just help us to frame what meekness is. Or meekness. When that wisdom has meekness, when that wisdom is applied with this teachable, malleable, caring, loving attitude, that's true godly wisdom. It's not just more knowledge about facts than whatever it is. And so for you and I to have that, it requires a lot of self-control. Because you and I, many times, are going to get something, and your blood's going to boil. My blood's going to boil. Being gentle, my blood boils, and I've got to control it. And say, George, calm down. Calm down. And if we don't control it, then it would happen. What we read in James 4, verse 11, that if we start speaking evil or not a one, we've got to kind of double check and say, hey, be careful. I always speak of others. And be careful of this. Why? Because then we're not doers of the law, but we're judges. And there's only one law giver with God, and he's the judge. Not us, not me. So in kind of, let's put it this way, in a way of conclusion, in a conclusion, I want you to look at Titus chapter 3 verse 2. Titus chapter 3 verse 2.

Titus is just before Hebrews, or rather before Philemon, and before Hebrews chapter 3 verse 2. It says, for when the kindness, I beg pardon, I'm reading verse 4, should I be reading verse 3?

For we ourselves, a big part of verse 2, that I want to speak, Titus chapter 3 verse 2. To speak evil on no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all, and he has the same word that's used in King James Version, showing all meekness to all men.

In the King James Version, it says, speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness to all men. In the Dobbins, it says, speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, but to be mild, showing all meekness towards all men. Brethren, I want to just leave with you this thought, that meekness changes wisdom to a godly wisdom. That's why it talks about the meekness of wisdom. I want you to think about that, maybe in your personal sturdist. Read through it a bit more. Meditate about scriptures, like particularly those in James chapter 3. Read the context, chapter 3 verse 4. Read that section about the meekness of wisdom, godly wisdom. Meditate, and part of your prayers ask God to help you and to help us all to actually become more meek, because it says the meek will inherit the earth.