Well, hello church. If you would open to Numbers 12. The book of Numbers 12. We'll continue our series on virtues. We'll look at the theme of meekness tonight. In Numbers 12. I'm going to read this whole chapter for us. This is God's Word. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, come out from there. You three from the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forward. And He said, hear My words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My house. With Him I speak mouth to mouth clearly and not in riddles. He beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them. And He departed. When the clouds were moved from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leopard-like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, O my Lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead whose flesh is half eaten away and comes out of her mother's womb. And Moses cried to the Lord, O God, please heal her, please. And the Lord said to Moses, if her father had sped, in her face. Should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that, she may be brought in again. So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days. And the people did not set out on march till Miriam was brought in again. After that, the people set out from Hazaroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran." So Father, You have already done much good work in my own soul this week through this passage. And Lord, I pray that You would do that for everyone here tonight. Lord, as Brother Tim just said, we don't want to be hearers of Your Word only, but You've called us to be doers of Your Word. And so God, as we see, Your meekness shining through Moses help us to be doers. Help us to image forth Your virtue of meekness in our lives as a result of this. And so we need You, Holy Spirit, to come and help us to hear and then to help us to obey. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, last week, I started this series Neglected virtues is what we're calling it because these are neglected virtues. They're not like the more popular non-neglected virtues like love and humility and faith and grace. They're the more neglected virtues. And so we looked at kindness last week and we're looking at meekness this week. I'm going to kind of dive in the deep end right here. Maybe you could say I'm going to go up high and give us a 30,000 foot view of virtue before we get into meekness in particular. I was talking about kindness last week, and I thought someone maybe would be wondering why are we sitting here doing a whole sermon on kindness when non-believers can be kind You know, maybe you're thinking, I know co-workers that are kind. I know family members that are not believers, and they're kind. We're going to sit here and talk about kindness when a non-Christian can be kind. And what I would say is, yes, they can be kind. Because kindness is a trait of humanity. And God is kind, and we are made in God's image, all people. And so people can embody kindness in some measure because they're made in the image of a God who is kind. But there is another sense in which Christians can only show the kindness of God in ways the world can't. And because of the Spirit living in us, He is actually conforming us back into the image of this kind God in ways a non-Christian is not being conformed to the image of God. So there are levels of kindness, degrees of kindness that look like God. That we are being conformed back into the image of God. So think of it when I do counseling. Maybe I'm sitting with someone who's struggling with anger or worry or some sort of sexual sin. And I want to encourage them. And so, sometimes I'll take people to a passage like Ephesians 4, where it says, put off the old self. That's Adam's character. And put on the new self. That's Christ's character. And then here's what it says right after that. Put on the new self, Christ's character, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So what is this virtue that we're trying to put on? We talk about putting on kindness. We talk about putting on meekness. We're going to talk about putting on loyalty and honor and all these different virtues coming. What are we saying? We're saying put on Christ. Put on the new self. put on the image of God that the Spirit of God is conforming you back into. That's the big overarching idea. And we're studying all these virtues underneath that. And that doesn't mean that we just sit back and go, OK, God's conforming me to His image. He's working these virtues in me, so I'll just sit back. You know, because there's a passage like Ephesians 8, 29 says, you were predestined to become conformed to the image of God. And so someone could hear that and go, I'm predestined to become conformed to the image of God. That sounds good. I'll just sit back and wait for God to do that. Right. That's not how we treat it. That is not how we treat it. Paul talking about holiness said, I worked harder than any of them. toward holiness, toward virtue. Jesus said what? In Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom and what? His righteousness. Seek that first. So this isn't a lazy, I'm just sitting back and God's gonna make me into His image again, apart from any effort on my part. No, we seek these virtues. We seek them. And we know that at the same time, God is sovereignly and powerfully and graciously working these virtues in us. We often hear in our culture things like, Be you. Be your true you. Be your true self. Or people say, I'm just trying to become my true self, or find my true self. First of all, I don't think they understand what they're saying when they say that, or they would not say that. I'll say something more about that in a minute. But I don't have a problem with a Christian saying that, actually. If a Christian says, I'm trying to find my true self, I'm like, amen, me too. Because our true self is Christ. Our true self is the image of God that we're wanting to become like again. And so we really are seeking to be our true self. And that's what these virtues are about. Now here, let me point this out, because this is important, I think, to say at the front end. Meekness is not something that's part of, it's not a personality type. Okay? Nobody's born meek. People are born shy. People are born introverted. People are born more timid. Nobody is born meek. Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit. Meekness is a spiritual quality that the Spirit of God must bring forth in our life. Nobody is born with this. That's why in Galatians 5, I don't know if anybody has the KJV, but it will say this. It will say, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. ESV says gentleness. Probably better translation, meekness. That if we have the Spirit of God in us, meekness should be coming out. Or maybe the Spirit isn't there. So this should be coming out of a Spirit-filled believer. Now, when we go to the Scriptures and we begin to say, okay, what is meekness? What is this virtue coming out by the Spirit? What does it look like? We actually only see it in two people. Now, I'm sure it's there in others, but it is only said to be present in two people. Anybody know who those two people are? Moses and Jesus. Those are the only two people in scripture that it explicitly says are meek. And so here's what I don't want to do. I don't want to preach the sermon and then we come out and go, Moses was meek, Jesus was meek, as if they're the same quality of meekness. It would be better to say Moses, like our passage says, Moses was very meek. And if Moses was very meek, I think it's safe to say Jesus was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very meek, right? There's a meekness that Moses has that's pure and it's true, but it's a shadow. And Christ is the definition of meekness. He embodies it perfectly. So any meekness we see of Moses in this passage, it is only pointing us to what is true and perfect in Christ, okay? Let's look at this together. Chapter 12, we'll start in verse one and read through verse three. It says, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses. There it is, very important. They spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. Is there racism involved in this possibly? That's not the point of this sermon. The point is they spoke against him. I don't think Moses did anything wrong by marrying this woman. They said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now, the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. That's a weird... Do you hear it? Okay, they're speaking against him. Why is he marrying this woman? Moses is very meek. more than anyone on the face of the earth. Weird, how it just flowed like that. Here's what it's telling us, I think. That meekness can only really be seen in the context of conflict. So this is a very important hermeneutical principle, principle of Bible study. When we're trying to figure out a word like meekness, and we go, what does meekness mean? Sometimes people will go to their bookshelf and they'll get a Greek lexicon and they'll go, well, what is the word in Greek? Let me look up what meekness is. Or let me go look at the Hebrew rendering of that word meek and study out that word. You can't often find out what a word means just by studying the word. One of the first principles of Bible interpretation is oftentimes we understand the meaning of a word in its context, because of its context. And that's what we're seeing here. We understand meekness because of the context in which it speaks of it. We have the conflict toward Moses, and then right after that, the man Moses was very meek, more than all the people on the face of the earth. So, here's the question. How do you know if you have meekness? And here would be the answer. Look at the conflict in your life. Look at the conflict in your life. How do you respond when you're attacked? How do you respond when someone makes an accusation against you that you don't think is justified or you think it's wrong? How do you respond when you're mistreated or devalued or disrespected by your spouse? Your children. Your boss or co-workers. How do you respond? Your response in those moments will reveal your meekness. Or, lack thereof. Moses is accused falsely and he doesn't respond. He doesn't defend himself. Why? Because he's meek. That's what a meek person does. They don't take the bait. We see this in the Apostle Paul also. He was being judged and accused by everybody falsely. And he says, hey, judge me. I don't care. I don't even judge myself. God is my judge. And so he doesn't get defensive. Why? Because he's meek. That's what meekness is. It's seen in those moments. It's seen in those moments. Why does a meek person not defend themselves? Let me give you a few reasons. Here's the first reason. They don't defend themselves because they trust God will defend them. A meek person does not need to defend themselves, they believe, because God they trust will defend them. Look at verse 2. It says that they're accusing Moses and then it says, God heard. Their accusations against Him. God heard. Why do we often defend ourselves? Because we think nobody heard. Nobody will know. I've got to defend myself. I need to say something here. I need to call this out. Listen, if you've been accused, God heard. God heard. He saw it. He knows. And then verse 3, he acts. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, come out you three to the tent of meeting. And the three of them came out and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forward. He said, hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He defends Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth clearly and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. Now notice what Moses is not doing at this moment. He's not going, shouldn't have spoke against me. Serves you right. I'm God's man. There's not an ounce of vengeance in him. Not a bit. You don't find a trace of it. These are his closest friends who have now become his enemies. And guys, it is worth noting this. It is very easy to be accused from strangers, right? Somebody says something about you, you're like, I don't even know them, I don't care what they say. It's much different to be accused by your spouse, or your boss, or a coworker, or somebody who actually is close to you, right? That's a very different accusation to not defend yourself against. Could we say it's 10,000 times harder? to not be defensive in that context? These are his closest friends. John Piper said, meekness refrains from anger, revenge, and defensiveness. Meekness loves to give place to wrath and leave the vindication with God. Meekness is the power to absorb adversity and criticism without lashing back. So Moses doesn't defend himself because he believes God really will defend him. And there's a deeper Old Testament context to this. You know, when Jesus says, blessed are the meek, Jesus is actually not quoting this passage in Numbers. He's quoting Psalms 37, which says, the meek shall inherit the earth. That's actually in Psalms 37. And in the context of that passage in Psalms 37, it's talking about the wicked coming against the righteous person and attacking them. and then it says the meek shall inherit the earth. Same context. The opposition, the conflict surrounding that righteous person, and then it says the righteous person trusts the Lord. They don't feel the need to get back and take revenge physically or verbally. Now here's the second reason why a meek person doesn't defend themselves. Because they're not most concerned about themselves. You're not going to defend yourself if you're not most concerned about yourself. You know, you'll actually know you've met a truly meek person when you realize this person isn't really most concerned about themselves. They're mainly seem to be concerned about me. They mainly seem interested in me. Moses isn't upset at their accusations. He's not trying to guard or protect his rights or his reputation because he's not mainly concerned about himself. He's mainly concerned for them. Look at verse 13. Listen to his heart in this prayer. Moses cried to the Lord, Oh God, please heal her. Please. You ever hear prayers like that in Scripture? That's a pretty unique prayer. It sounds incredibly genuine and pure. Lord, please heal her. Please! He's not praying for judgment. He's praying for mercy. He's clearly forgiven her. He's not holding anything against her. There's an innocence and a genuine care for Miriam in this prayer. And guys, does it not remind us of Christ on the cross? sitting there. I mean, can you imagine the people that are mocking you? The people that have just spit on you and lashed your back to pieces and they falsely accused you? Who is ever more falsely accused than Christ? And yet, as He's hanging there, what does He say? Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Not an ounce of vengeance. Pure forgiveness. Pure mercy. Look, the world will never see that type meekness. You know why? Because it's in heaven now. That exists in Christ. The best we can do is try to show little pictures of a much lesser type meekness as His representatives. That's pure meekness right there. Here's a little representation of the meekness that He empowers us to display. about Jim Elliot and Elizabeth Elliot this week. Many of you know their story. They were missionaries in Ecuador. A young married couple go out on the mission field. This is an unreached tribe. They're trying to reach a hostile tribe. And Jim Elliot and a few of his buddies, they go out to try to have this friendly interaction with this tribe, and they get speared to death on the beach there. And then Elizabeth Elliot, this young girl, 10-month-old child, widowed, sitting there in a little hut in Ecuador. And you think, what's going on in her? What's happening? She mad at God? She mad at the tribe that just murdered her husband? She just going to go home and try to forget about all of it? What's going on here? You know what was going on? Because she was meek, she forgave them. She learned the language. She kept loving and serving them until they finally welcomed her into the tribe. She takes her child into the tribe that killed her husband, lives among them, sharing the gospel with them until they knew Christ. Why? Because she's meek. That's what meekness looks like. which brings up this very important point. Meekness is not weakness. We've all heard the cliche little phrase, right? We say, oh, it's so cliche. I've heard that. Meekness is not weakness. But guess what? It's true. Meekness is not weakness. It really is not. Meekness isn't male passivity. Meekness isn't feminine fragility. Meekness, this is what it actually means. It is strength under control. That's what the Greek word means, prowess. It means strength under control. So I was talking to Priscilla about this the other day, and an illustration came to my mind, so I don't know if this is helpful to explain this, but I picture a, let's just say it's a UFC boxer or fighter or whatever. He goes into a restaurant, and he's sitting there with his family, and somebody comes up and starts saying stuff to him, mocking him, just verbally kind of saying, and then actually pushes him in the restaurant, but it's just him. And he just sits there, unfazed, doesn't do anything, right? He has the ability to do something, but he doesn't do anything. That is meekness. It's the ability to act out. It's the ability to do something, but you are restraining, which is not the same as if you're a 70-pound man who's soaking wet and can't defend yourself, right? That's a guy who just doesn't have an option. That's not the same. That's actually weakness. Meekness is having the ability to defend yourself, but yet you don't. It's strength under control. Now, if the same guy is out in the parking lot, and let's say his family is with him, and now they're messing with his family, you regret you messed with that man and his family, right? You're going to see it. Because meekness knows when to fight, when to defend. There's a wisdom to it. And I would take it a step further. It's not just physical, but also maybe verbal. So, for example, a meek person knows, I could win this argument. I could win this. I could prove to them they're wrong, but because they're meek, they know when to stay silent and not speak. See, that's meekness as well. James calls it the meekness of wisdom. Proverbs says a wise man conceals knowledge. He knows he can say something. He knows he can win the argument. He knows he can take his opponent, but he chooses not to. Strength constrained. Now, one more clarifier here. Go back to the boxer, the UFC guy, right? He's sitting there at the table getting pushed, getting mocked. Here's what he's not doing. He's not sitting there clenching his fists going, I want to see something. I want to do something, but I'm not going to do it. That might be self-control, but it's not meekness. Meekness is that when he's getting pushed or something said to him, he's not even mad. He's not even mad. He's not even personally offended. See, that's something different. That's meekness. Elizabeth Elliot said, there is no irritability in a truly meek spirit. None. So here's a question I was thinking as a result of that. Can you even have marriage problems or relational problems if you're truly meek? I don't think so. Not when you're being meek. You can't. The person can be saying something to you, but you don't have to defend. You don't have to fight back. You don't have to be offended. You can love and honor and forgive and cover with grace and work for their good. And I know some of y'all are thinking, yeah, that's impossible. And I would say yes and no. At one level, that is impossible. And at another level, that is not impossible. And here's why I say that. if you would flip over to Matthew 5. And I really think Jesus is teaching this in the Sermon on the Mount. So let's go there to our passage on meekness. Matthew 5. Chapter 5. I do think He's giving us something we can do and something we can't do. So He says in Matthew 5, blessed are the meek. Is that verse 5? Matthew 5.5? Blessed are the meek. Is that impossible to be meek like that? Well, I don't know. Let's look at the context here. I think he's going to explain to us what that meekness is. Because you can't tell. We don't know what meekness is from that verse, right? Blessed are the meek. It just says, blessed are the meek. They will inherit the earth. It doesn't tell us what the meekness looks like until you keep reading. Look at verse 11. 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. That's what meekness looks like. When you're reviled, you can even be glad because you know there's rewards coming if I endure this and don't fight back. Verse 23, if you're offering there your gift at the altar and there, remember, your brother has something against you, Not necessarily you have something against them, but they have something against you. Leave your gift before the altar and first go be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift. So meekness isn't just apologizing for something you did wrong to that person, but it is knowing they have done something wrong to me and I'm going to go seek them out and make peace. That's what a meek person does. I hope you hear some marriage counseling. in Jesus' words here. Verse 38, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles, give to the one who begs from you. Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. What a heart of meekness. Verse 43, You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. There's Moses to Miriam. So that you may be sons of your Father who's in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same? Here it is. You, therefore, must be perfect. As your heavenly Father is perfect. See what I mean by you can't be meek like this? You can't reach that level of meekness. At that level, this is impossible. You must rely upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You must receive His meekness by faith. This drives us to the Gospel at one level. At another level, when Jesus says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. If you want to inherit the earth, that is the new heaven and the new earth, you better be meek. Right? How else would you read that? You better actually embody this meekness at some degree, or you aren't inheriting the earth. So at that level, it is doable. It is a responsibility that we have. And by the way, that's how you read the Sermon on the Mount. The possibility and the impossibility of the Christian life. A little side note there. This would be a very frustrating sermon if I stopped here, because I basically told you what meekness is. We've looked at why it's important. It's how you inherit the earth. This is what it is. Strength under control. But I haven't said how you get meekness. How do you become meek? So I want to end answering that question, and I'll start by just saying this. You can't become meek by trying to become meek. Doesn't work like that. You don't get in an argument with somebody and you're heated and you're mad and you walk in the bathroom and you look at the mirror and you go, be meek. Come on. It's too late at that point. You're not meek. You need to pray for forgiveness and patience and all this other stuff, but meekness is not what you need at that moment. You're not meek. So I think meekness is something you cultivate daily. It's something we cultivate daily by making ourselves small. You say, how do I make myself small? Well, you see God as big. That's how you make yourself small. By seeing God as big. You say, what do you mean? Well, think about Moses. Why was Moses more meek than anyone else? He went to the burning bush. Moses went up the mountain. Moses knew God better than anyone, therefore, he was more meek than anyone. You think, why was Jesus so meek? Well, who knew the Father like Jesus? The more time you spend in the presence of God, the more meek you will become. It really is as simple as that. This is why Moses was meek. This is why Jesus was meek. This is why those who don't know God are full of arrogance. Because they don't know God. God is small to them. They are big. Therefore, they're prideful. But when you see God is big and glorious, you shrink. That's how it works. Now here's the second way that we become meek. And it's very similar to the first. But you're teachable. You're teachable. Look at James 1. You can turn there if you want, but I'll read this quickly. James 1.19-21 says this, Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls." Now, when I say teachability, there's a type of teachability. I hope our minds don't go there because this is not what I mean by teachability. I've been hearing this a lot lately in culture and Christendom. You know, somebody will ask someone a question on a moral issue. a very clear one, like the Bible clearly says this issue is sin, and someone asks the person, is that sin? And any of us sitting here could pick a verse out and go, yeah, it's clearly sin, not a hard thing to see, right? But someone asks them that, maybe in an interview, and they know a lot of people are gonna listen to this, and they go, you know, I'm just a learner. Give me space and grace to learn. That is not what I'm talking about. That is not what James is talking about by being teachable. We're not always in the process of learning to the point we never come to biblical convictions on things the Bible is clear about. Being teachable means that when we see what God has revealed in His Word, we humble ourself and receive with meekness, humility, what He has revealed. We don't get defensive and go, I'm going to try to fit this into my own understanding. I'm going to just try to figure out how I can affirm this issue over here, this moral issue, and still claim to be a Christian. I'm going to work God into my own worldview. No. Meekness is saying, I will submit to the Bible, this is up here, and my own understanding is down here, and I'm going to fit my own understanding to conform with Scripture. you get in the habit of fixing your mind to line up with truth, and it will produce meekness in you. It will. So I hope you're seeing how this is working practically. You don't get defensive or angry in conflict because you're allowing God to tell you who you are. Now, let me read a quote. This is Martin Lloyd-Jones. Listen to this. When a man truly sees Himself. Nobody can say anything about Him that is not too bad. So if somebody says, you're not good at this, or you're not good at that, they're going, well, you only know a little bit. I'm actually way worse than you realize. If your boss is like, hey, you're not doing good at this. You're underachieving at this. You're like, man, but you don't even know what I'm doing at home. I'm also failing there. And you don't even know the secret places of my heart. And that's wicked too. Someone who truly knows who they are isn't going to get as offended at a little accusation because they know it's way worse than that person's pointing out. They're only talking about this much of it. You see the difference? We need to see ourselves rightly. There's a famous German philosopher named Johann Wolfgang von Goth. And he said this, I do not know myself, only God does. And may He deliver me from ever finding out. That's true. That would be a terrible day if God ever showed you who you really are. You don't want to see that. You don't want to see that. That's why one Greek lexicon defined meekness like this. It's not being overly impressed with one's own self-importance. Meekness is not being overly impressed with your own self-importance. Again, back to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the meek. What was said right before that? It will help us understand what He means by blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. And then it kind of falls into the meekness. Poverty of spirit, those who mourn, helps us understand meekness. And Martin Lloyd-Jones, looking at this, here's what he said. He said, you can't actually be meek unless you're first poor in spirit and you're mourning. Meaning, over your own sin primarily. We need to see ourselves rightly. If we're going to be meek. We must. And I'm not talking about some sort of self-hatred. I hope you don't hear that. So here's what I'm not saying. We're not talking about a high view of yourself. We're not talking about a low view of yourself. We're talking about an accurate view of yourself. And an accurate view of yourself humbles your pride. It breaks your pride. Because we are born into this world thinking everything revolves around us. or me. The whole world, the whole universe, everything revolves around me. That's how we're born. Every human, I think, is born into the world. They're the center. Everything is revolving. That's why parenting is difficult. Because you're trying to teach that child who thinks the whole world revolves around me. No, it does not. The whole world does not revolve around you. The whole world revolves around God. And you are meant to get in line with that. And you will be blessed and happy. if you will get in line with that. If your life will exist for His glory and not your own, you will have a happy, blessed life. That's what Jesus is saying in the Beatitudes. It's not about you. It's really not about you. Let me just say one more thing here on meekness before we end. I was studying this out this morning and I'll try to sum this up quickly, but regarding meekness and fighting. I got this from Jonathan Edwards. I was trying to kind of learn under him this week on this because he taught about meekness a lot. And this is really good marriage counseling. It's really good anger management. It's really good for conflict resolution. But he says the Christian life is war against your own sin. And he said nobody knows your sin as well as you do. So you're the best person to fight it. So he says we war against every impulse in us to make war. We fight against our instinct to fight. He says to win the war, we must have a brutal fierceness and a holy calm. a brutal fierceness to fight our own impulses toward fighting other people or defending our honor against other people, and we have a holy calm which comes when you're living for God's glory and not your own. There is something so calming, so peaceful to the soul, because we were made for this, to live for God's glory and not your own. to not have to defend yourself and prove yourself to everyone because you're not living for yourself. And someone who's doing that, the Bible's calling them meek. They're meek. And therefore, they'll inherit the earth. They'll inherit the earth. Let me take us to the Lord's table with this thought. I can't think of a better way to end this sermon. And if you would, turn to Matthew 11 quickly if you can. I'll let Jesus have the last word on meekness here. Matthew 11 v. 28-30. Listen to what Jesus says. We've all heard these words. Jesus says, come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." So Jesus says, learn from Me. I am meek. Those of us who've found forgiveness in Christ, for us, Christ is very meek. He's not sitting there in heaven with His fists clenched when you have a bad day. He's not. He says He's meek. Remember what meekness means. He says, I'm meek. You say, how did Jesus become meek? Well, Jesus became meek when He became small. How did Jesus become small? Well, Philippians 2 says Jesus became nothing when He became a man. And then He became less than nothing when He was a man that went to the cross. Guys, we must become meek. We must. I hope this sermon just puts some sort of passion or zeal or inclination to seek this out, to pursue this. We must become meek. And we will become meek as we draw near to the One who is. Amen? Let's pray. Father, O Lord, it is so freeing that your yoke is easy. This yoke, this commandment to be meek is easy. It is light. There's rest in it because you are meek. We don't have to uphold a perfect standard of meekness because You did. We just get to grow. We just get to progress. We just get to be conformed back into Your image. And Lord, we hunger for it. while we hunger for it, Lord. We're tired of anger. We're tired of unforgiveness. We're tired of resentment. We're tired of living for ourselves. And so God, because You're make, because Your Son is make, and You're not angry with Your people, You took out Your anger on Your Son on the cross so that You could be meek toward us, gentle toward us. We pray that You would in Your gentleness restore our souls, that You would grow us, that You would help us make progress. And all these virtues we're studying. But this week, we pray for meekness. And so, Lord, as we come to the table, we thank You for Your body and Your blood that You gave for us. Lord, help us to think great thoughts of You in these next few minutes as we come to the table. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.