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

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 regards this as utterly ridiculous! "Forget your troubles" it says. But the meaning is entirely spiritual. He is happy who mourns in spirit.

Absence of this in the Church is one reason why it is failing to evangelize. As Christians more closely approximate the Beatitudes, they are more sucesful in drawing others in. But not false piety. To be religious is not to be miserable!

But we will not attract other to the faith through forced brightness and joviality. We fail to see the true depth of sin AND fail to understand true Christian joy. A double failure!

That results in a superficial kind of person and a very inadequate Christian life.

We have to be poor in spirit before we can be filled with the Holy Spirit. Conviction must precede conversion. A real sense of sin must come before there can be a true joy of salvation. That is the essense of the Gospel.

"Blessed are they that mourn".

People want joy without the conviction of sin. But that is impossible. It can never be obtained.

Why is there no record of Jesus ever having laughed?
He was a 'man of sorrows, aquainted with grief' - but why?

As I confront God and His holiness, and contemplate the life that I am meant to live, I see myself, my utter helplessness and hopelessness. I discover my quality of spirit and immediately that makes me mourn.

Mourning is our reflection upon this wretchedness. Our state of sinfulness. We must ask ourselves 'what is it in me that makes me behave like that. Why am I not able to control myself'. We should hate it.

But we should also mourn the sins of others.

Mourn the state of society and the world. Know that it is all due to sin.

THAT is why our Lord Jesus mourned. Why he was a man of sorrows. It is impossible to be merry, to laugh, in the face of knowing ALL THAT SIN, the sin that he took upon himself on the Cross.

But for our mourning, we are comforted, by Christ's salvation, and the happiness and contentment that that brings. And the hope that lies in the new Kingdom, and Christ's return.

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 first, and the key to all that follows. It is an emptying. All others are a filling. The beatitudes are in a specific order for a specific reason. Pour out the old wine, before filling with the new.

There is no more perfect statement of the doctrine of faith alone. It at once condemns every idea of the Sermon on the Mount which thinks in terms of something you and I can do ourselves.

It is emphatically NOT 'Blessed in spirit are the poor'.

It IS 'not possessed by the worldly spirit'. It IS a poverty of spirit. Man's attitude towards himself. Genuinely putting God first, and pride second.

This is despised by the world. Self reliance, self confidence and self expression. The hubris of mankind!

Neither is this Beatitude popular in the Church today. Even in the Church today there is this foolish talk about 'personality'. And personality something purely fleshy and carnal, and a matter of physical appearance. Humility is assumed as lacking in personality!

But Paul in Corinth went in weakness, fear and trembling. People said he looked weak and his speech, contemptible.

But being poor in spirit does not mean retiring, weak or lacking in courage. It does not mean putting on false humility. Our personality must be true

True humility in the presence of God runs throughout the OT. Having had a vision, Isaiah said 'I am a man of unclean lips'. Paul in the NT was well aware of his own nature, his pride. That is why he uses the word 'boasting' so much.

That, then is what is meant by being 'poor in spirit'. It means a complete absence of pride, self-assurance and self-reliance. A consciousness that we are NOTHING in the presence of God.

The life we have lived or are trying to live, who we are, means nothing.