A distillation of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones 'Studies on the Sermon on the Mount'. All credit to him. One of the finest preachers and theologian minds of the modern age.

The world thinks in terms of strength and power, of ability, self-assurance and aggressiveness. Yet again, we are reminded that the Christian is altogether different from the world.

He is a new man, a new creation. He belongs to an entirely different kingdom. And if we are obviously different from the non-Christians around us, this tells us a great deal about of profession of the Christian faith.

The Jews that Christ was speaking to expected a materialistic and military kingdom, with Him on the throne. They were not expecting a kingdom of the meek. It was important to confront that.

The meek are NOT THOSE who trust to their own organising, their own powers and abilities, their own institutions, they are the reverse of that.

'Blessed Are The Meek'. These Beatitudes get increasingly difficult. It demands that we allow others to say critical things to us. We are happy to say we are a wretched sinner, but how do we feel when someone else tells us the same thing!

The Lord Jesus exemplifies meekness in the face of his enemies, and in his submission to His Father. He says that 'the father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works'.

This meekness is not a natural quality. Every Christian is meant to be like this.

It is something that is produced by the Spirit of God.

It is compatible with great strength, authority and power. The martyrs were meek but never *weak*. God forbid that we should confuse this noble quality with something merely animal or physical or natural.

Meekness is a true view of oneself, expressed through attitude and conduct with respect to others.

You see how inevitably it follows being 'poor in spirit' and 'mourning'. The meek man is not proud of himself. He does not want to be. He is ashamed of it.

The meek man - for blessed are the meek - does not make demands for his position, his privileges, his possessions, his status in life. Christ did asset that right to equality with God. He deliberately did not. And that is the point to which you and I need to come.

The man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.

It also means that we are ready to listen and learn - that we have such a poor idea of ourselves, our capabilities that we are ready to listen to others.

We learn to accept that 'vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord'. He will repay. We have nothing to do

We who are meek have already inherited the earth. As Paul said 'having nothing, and yet possessing all things'.

But in the future kingdom 'do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?'. We will judge the world. We will judge angels!

Nothing but the Holy Spirit can humble us. Nothing but the Holy Spirit can make us poor in spirit and make us mourn because of our sinfulness and produce in us this true, right view of self and give us this very mind of Christ Himself. -- Dr M. Lloyd-Jones