Matthew 5:5

A few months ago we started in the study of Matthew and we find ourselves in the greatest

sermon that has ever been preached by the greatest preacher who has ever lived, which

is the word Jesus Christ himself. Matthew chapter 5, we're just going to be looking

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

at verse 5 this morning. Jesus, pronouncing a benediction upon his people, says, blessed

are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit

the earth. It's so good to have with us a dear friend and brother and colleague and minister

with us, Zach Heberlin and his family with us. Would you stand and ask the Lord to help

us as we enter into this time of preaching?

Amen. One of the interesting things about languages

and it's not just English but all languages is that how words tend to change meaning over

time. There's a whole branch of study that's devoted to this. I mean, each of us this morning

we can probably think of examples of words that no longer mean what they once did. I

have a couple of these written down and certainly you could add to this list. For example, the

word speed. Speed. It used to mean success or prosperity. One might even wish you God's

speed, God's blessing. Today it's used just as a rate of movement. The word naughty, N-A-U-G-H-T-Y.

It once meant poor, indigent. You didn't have anything. Today if someone is naughty, they

are mischievous or they're misbehaving in some fashion. The word bully. Did you know

that bully once meant sweetheart? And it could be a man or a woman. If you had a bully, you

had a sweetheart. And now of course we know it's just the exact opposite today. It's one

who seeks to hurt or intimidate others. Now admittedly we could go on this list for quite

some time but sometimes you even see the same dynamic at play in the scriptures where words

mean something different than what they once did. For example, the verse that Pastor Colle

just read out of Hebrews 13. If you have Hebrews 13 in the King James it will say, let your

conversation be without covetousness. For God has said he will never leave you nor forsake

you. When we think of the word conversation, we think of a dialogue between two people.

But in Hebrews 13 that is not the way the word is used at all. It's referring to your

manner of life. Let your lifestyle, let your way of living be without covetousness. The

word conversation simply has changed meaning over time. And in our text today we see this

word meek. And the word meant something different than how we might use it today. Biblically,

I'm going to give you the definition up front and then we're going to try to explain it

throughout. Biblically, when we're talking about someone being meek, it is essentially

an attitude, we could say a quality of heart, whereby a person is willing to accept and

submit without resistance to the will or desire of someone else. In Christian theology it's

where we are meek before God. We are willing to submit ourselves to the will and desire

of God. But let me ask you this question. What comes to your mind when you hear someone

described as meek? I would think, just guessing, that for most of us when we hear this word

meek it usually conjures up ideas of being weak, soft, what they used to call milk toast.

We tend to think that someone who is meek is overly passive. Maybe someone who's lacking

in courage and doesn't have a backbone and will not stand up for their own convictions.

That's what we think meek is. The meek person is just who is simply passive, goes along

with everything, no strong convictions that they're willing to stand upon. So today if

someone says, well, they're a meek person, usually that's not a compliment. But what

is so ironic is that in the text of sacred scripture our Lord says it is the meek who

are blessed, to be blessed favored by God. This group of people, he's pronouncing a benediction,

the people over whom he is pronouncing a blessing are the meek. He said those people, they

truly have God's blessing resting upon them. So what exactly did he mean when he pronounced

a blessing on the meek? Well, we've been looking at the Beatitudes for a couple weeks now, and

as we just follow them we start to see a natural progression forming. The very first Beatitude

we looked at several weeks ago was to be poor in spirit, bankrupt spiritually. These are

those who see themselves as spiritual beggars. They are unable to say themselves. And by

the way, let me just say this, this is the beginning of salvation. When the Lord, the

Holy Spirit brings conviction that you are absolutely spiritually bankrupt, you are poor

in spirit, you understand that you have nothing which to commend yourself to God. You know,

you understand you are not righteous in God's sight and you have no hope whatsoever unless

God intervenes to show you mercy. And that's really an intellectual awareness that's done

in the heart or in the mind. But it doesn't stop there. Once we start to truly understand

by the Spirit's conviction that we are bankrupt spiritually, it leads to an emotional response.

You understand your brokenness and you start to feel it. And the poor in spirit respond

by mourning, which is what we looked at last week. Mourning over their sin. For they're

the ones that are going to find comfort. They mourn over their disobedience and independence

from God. They're mourning over their corruption. We see our sin and we hate it and it causes

this emotional response of mourning. And then having been broken by sin, having felt the

weight of sin, humbled by it, amazed by God's grace, a genuine meekness is produced. The

response to being broken and mourning is being meek. So what is biblical meekness? Well first

I want to begin with what it is not. It is not a personality trait or some natural disposition.

This is not something you are born with. We all know people who may be shy or reticent

by nature, but that's not what Jesus is saying. He's not pronouncing the blessing upon the

timid. There are some people who are just naturally more passive. They're not assertive.

But that doesn't necessarily imply meekness. There are some people who are more just peaceful.

They get along with everyone. They're almost pacifists. They seek peace at any cost. That's

not meekness. Meekness is not a weakness either. And I think it's noteworthy. We have to understand

the context in which Jesus is there in Matthew 5. He's speaking to primarily his disciples,

but by extension we know by chapter 7 a crowd is formed. So there's a crowd of Jewish people.

He's pronouncing this benediction and it really doesn't make sense. The Jews are living under

Roman occupation. Their hope was that a deliverer, a messiah would come and what were they hoping

for? Let's get Rome out of here. Let's get these pagan soldiers off our land. And they

thought the messiah would come as some political conqueror. He would free them from Roman occupation.

Then he would set up that Jewish kingdom that they longed for. So in their mind naturally

they start to assume some things about their messiah. He's going to be strong, powerful

militarily speaking. They admire strength. After all a meek messiah isn't going to do

much to deliver them. They want someone who's going to ride into Jerusalem on a war horse,

not a man who's going to come in on a donkey. So what they were looking for is a soldier

like figure, much like Alexander the Great, a conqueror sweeping through nations. So when

they hear him, doubtless many in the crowd that day heard a man speaking so fondly of

meekness they must have assumed, oh this can't be the one. He can't be the one to free us

from Rome. And yet so many Jews on that day had overlooked many Old Testament passages.

There's many passages in the Old Testament speaking of how meek the messiah would be.

Isaiah writing about the suffering servant of the Lord. They had missed it. They had

misinterpreted so many of the Old Testament passages. The nation was looking for brute

strength and Christ is there pronouncing a blessing on the meek. So we know what meekness

is not. Well what exactly is it? Well the word there is just pros. It can be mild. It

can be gentle. It also, a good translation, at times could be humble. So it's used to

refer to both animate and inanimate things. For example, like a gentle breeze. So you

think wind. Wind has the power to destroy. You think hurricanes, think tornadoes. But

a pros, a gentle breeze. So it has power but it's a power that's being used for good. It's

also used to refer to wild animals that had been broken by a trainer so that they're now

able to use them for useful work. So these animals, think about with me, these wild animals

are broken so that their power could be harnessed and then put to good use. So remember meekness

is to accept, I'm reading my notes and I wrote in here, sorry I was editing my notes this

morning and I don't usually use my handwriting and I couldn't read it right there. So meekness

is to accept without resistance the will of someone else. And that's what these animals

did. They're more powerful than their trainer but they had been broken by it. So meekness,

and here's how I'm defining it and I'm sure it's not unique to me, power under control.

Power that's harnessed. Aristotle said that it's someone of steady courage. Neither too

reckless but neither too cowardly. It's the person who doesn't get too angry but it's

also the person who does not get angry enough. So a meek person, they're going to take a

stand but they will take a stand at the right time, with the right people, and in the right

way. So it's used also elsewhere in text as someone who's not easily angered. They have

power but they're able to control it. Jesus used this designation to refer to himself

in Matthew chapter 11. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me for I am gentle. Same word there.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

I am gentle. A gentle savior. Lowly in heart. And I love this. This is one of my favorite

verses in scriptures. It says you will find rest but it's not just physical rest. Where's

this rest? It's a rest for your soul. So we have a meek, a gentle savior. What does that

mean? He's not using his power to crush. He's not using his power to destroy. He's using

his power to heal and to save. Nelson's Bible dictionary says meekness is an attitude of

humility toward God and gentleness toward people because it realizes God is in control.

And I love that. So the meek is what? Humble before God. And if you're humble before God

vertically, you are gentle before people horizontally. So meekness is going to show itself submitting

to what the will and the providence, accepting circumstances that God providentially brings

into your life. That means the meek person does not kick and scream, why me, every time

something goes awry in their life. Because he realizes God has a good plan behind it.

Every week as I'm doing sermon prep, I am convicted by the text. Some weeks more than

others. And this week, I'm like, I've told Sandy multiple times, some of you have called

this week and I'm like, we've laughed about it because like I've realized I'm not a meek

person and people talking to me said, yeah, we knew that. And I'm like, well, thank you

very much. But this has been very convicting in my life. So the meek person doesn't kick

and scream why. I love what J.I. Packer said. He said, meekness for a child of God means

accepting uncomplainingly what comes, knowing that it comes from the hand of God who orders

all things. What he sends, we accept in faith even if it hurts, knowing that it is for our

and others good. So that means injury, illness, heartache, difficult diagnoses, we accept

in faith because God has a redemptive loving purpose behind it. Now that's before God.

But then in relation to others, it is being gentle. What this means, church, is forgiving

injuries. You bear reproaches. And when someone does you wrong, you do them good. You return

good for evil. So you don't revenge. You don't seek revenge. You don't retaliate in kind

because someone did you wrong. And in the Old Testament, we see many examples of this.

We see Abraham being meek. We see Joseph, Moses, David. We'll look at those a little

bit later. But if you look at just those four men, none of them is considered weak. Abraham's

the great patriarch, but he's also the great warrior who went to battle and rescued his

nephew Lot. Joseph, he had risen to the second most powerful position in the world, really

in all of Egypt, but the world by extension. Moses was a dynamic leader who led the Hebrew

people out of Egyptian bondage. He was the one who was willing to go stand before Pharaoh.

David, yes, he's the great psalmist, but he's also the great warrior king of Israel. None

of them would be weak. And yet all of them are considered meek. In Ephesians chapter

four, verse two, Paul writing to the church, this to us, he said, our Christian walk, our

daily lifestyle, Ephesians four two, ought to be with all lowliness and gentleness. Same

word meekness there. Lowly and gentle. By the way, both of those words are used to describe

Christ as well. Meekness, it's the opposite of violence. It's the opposite of vengeance.

We don't take matters into our own hands. Now, the problem here is that we start to

think incorrectly. Some people then equate and conflate meekness with being nice. You

just have that Christian niceness. But did you understand nice is not necessarily a Christian

virtue? Nice is not one of the fruits of the spirit at all. Galatians five 22, the fruit

of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness

and self control against such there is no law. So you said, nice is not in there, but

kind is. Aren't they the same? No. Today, here's another way words change. We use someone

being kind, someone being nice in the same way. We use them interchangeably, but they

actually have two different definitions. Nice is being polite to someone. Courteous. Kind,

kindness historically has meant performing good acts for others out of compassion. Niceness

is words. Kindness is actions. And what we're seeing in the text this morning is the courage

and the strength and the kindness of meekness come from the Lord. They're generated by the

spirit of God. So before we are ever meek, we have to have been broken by God. That's

the poverty of spirit. Died to self. We're no longer defending ourselves. We don't live

for ourselves. We don't exalt ourselves. Yes, we will stand up for what is right, but we're

not going to call attention to ourselves while doing it. Think of our Lord, the perfect example

in anything you might mention as far as virtues. He stood up for the right things at the right

time without regard to any personal cost. The hypocritical religious leaders, he stared

him down. When the temple was being profaned by money changers, what did he do? He goes

in there. Here's the meek person, the lowly Jesus. He makes a cord and he makes a whip

and he drives them out. He turns over the temple or turns over the tables, pours out

all the money because they were buying and selling and making profit in the temple. It

angered him. Not personally, but they were defaming his father. And so Christ, he stands

up for his father's house. He stands up for the glory and reputation of his father. He

stood up for the defenseless and weak, but he did not stand up for himself. Peter tells

us that, speaking of Christ, who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return. When

he suffered, he didn't threaten. He committed himself to him who judges righteously. You

know, we don't think of these as being a marriage text, but think about it. When he's reviled,

if you ever feel like your spouse reviles you, what normally happens? Well, I'll tell

them. They think they're perfect. Let me show them how they're not. And then of course,

we just denigrate into a chaotic situation. Christ, the son of God is reviled. He's insulted,

treated contemptuously. And he says, I'll trust God in this. He didn't stand up for

himself. Why? Because in his meekness, he entrusted himself to his father's care. My

father will take care of it. But you remember, he's there before Pilate. Pilate's like, hey,

don't you know, buddy, I have the power to crucify you, which is the most really, not

ironic, but the most laughable statement. Jesus never makes a plea for his own defense.

He stands there silently, not offering anything. He had all the power in the world, but he

would not use it for personal benefit or selfish reasons. Meekness, it's power wrapped in goodness.

And you see that supremely in Christ Jesus. I love the designation. You go to the book

of Revelation and John, he looks and he sees a lion, powerful, king of the jungle, a lion

from the tribe of Judah, this powerful conquering animal. But then he turns again and what does

he see? Same person, just different. He sees a lamb, a lamb slain who allowed himself,

willingly submitted himself to contemptible treatment because he was meek. All powerful

our Lord is, but he's all good. And he would only use his power and authority for God's

noble intentions. That's it. So it really is a strength that is surrendered to God's

control. As I mentioned earlier, there's some men in the Old Testament. I'll go through

these quickly. Think of Abraham. Again, he's a great patriarch. God made this covenant,

the Abrahamic covenant with him. Yet when Abraham and his lot, remember Lot's his nephew,

and they have all this cattle and the pasture is not big enough for them. So he goes to,

in a spirit of meekness, Abraham tells Lot, he says, Lot, you choose the land you want

first. And of course we knew where Lot chose. He looked for the well watered plains of Sodom

and Gomorrah. So Lot chose the better pasture land. Abraham didn't argue. He didn't get

Lot to seek to change his mind. He gave up his own rights for the sake of harmony with

the family and for testimony's sake. He had the right to demand whatever he wanted. He's

the elder. Lot would have had to surrender. But in meekness, Abraham surrendered that

right. Abraham was not weak. And again, later on, he had to go rescue Lot. He goes into

battle for him. Think of Joseph. Here's a young man sold into slavery by jealous brothers.

But God later vindicates him and elevates him to the second most powerful man in Egypt.

His brothers are standing before him on that fateful day. Here's a man, he's in a position

to take revenge on his brothers for the true manifest evil they had done to him. He could

do whatever he wanted with his brothers. He could have had them killed on the spot. Instead,

he wept and forgave. He was meek. He knew that it was God's place to judge his brothers.

It was his responsibility to forgive and help them. What about Moses? Moses, we're told

in Numbers chapter 12, listen to the text, now the man Moses was very meek, more than

Numbers 12 · chapter mention

all men who were on the face of the earth. That's scripture. Meekest man on the planet

at that time. You think he was weak? No. It's the same Moses who smashed the Ten Commandments

as he came down from Mount Sinai when he sees Israel involved in that drunken party. It's

the same Moses who's known for his meekness, who is so angry with Pharaoh for his mistreatment

of the Israelites. How is Moses meek then? Because he became angry at the right things.

He was personally attacked even by his own people. He didn't retaliate. What did he do?

He goes to God and then he intercedes when God's going to judge those people for speaking

against them. He was meek. He takes his complaint to God and he interceded. Nothing for personal

gain and he didn't assert his own rights. David. David had been anointed by Samuel to

replace Saul as the next king. Everyone knew it. Saul's in this jealous rage since he's

trying to kill David. He's a maniac. So he's hunting him down so much so that David is

on the run. He had to go try to live in caves. Then one day, David's in the cave of En-Gedi.

Saul comes in there, unbeknownst to him, David's hiding. Saul doesn't know it. And David sneaks

up on Saul and cuts a piece of his robe off. Just a piece of his robe. And later he would

show it to Saul. Notice the meekness here. David's conscience was bothered by that act.

He said, I should have never stretched out my hand against the words anointed. What do

you mean stretch out your hand? You cut a piece of robe, a piece of cloth. Saul's doing

you wickedly. Saul wants to cut off your head. You just cut off a piece of his robe. And

he did that to show Saul he meant no harm. David had all the opportunity to kill Saul

and he was convicted of cutting his office robe. Here's a man who's meek. His power under

control and the Lord would exalt him. He would be the next warrior king of Israel. In the

New Testament, we see the apostle Paul. Here's the most erudite scholar of his time, sophisticated,

more educated than all the apostles, yet he refused to call himself anything but the least

of the apostles. He didn't put any confidence in his flesh although he had impressive pedigree.

When people did Paul wrong, what did he do? He said, the Lord will pay him. The Lord will

deal with him. See, this is what it means to be meek. We don't personally retaliate.

We don't seek revenge. We don't take matters into our own hands. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, he

said, the man who is meek is not even sensitive about himself. He's not always watching himself

and his own interests. He's not always on the defensive. We spend the whole of our lives

watching ourselves. But when a man becomes meek, he is finished with all that. He no

longer worries about himself and what other people say. To be truly meek means we no longer

protect ourselves because we see there's nothing worth defending. So we're not on the defensive.

All that is gone. The man who's truly meek never pities himself. He is never sorry for

himself. Wow. But there's a promise that's attached to each of these beatitudes, isn't

it? What did Jesus say? The meek, they're blessed. Why? Well, they're going to inherit

the earth. You find that expression several times in the Old Testament as a way to show

God's great blessing. You find this exact phrase in Psalm 37, 11. I put verse 10 up

there as well. But look at verse 11. But the meek shall inherit the earth. Jesus is just

quoting Psalm 37, 11. And they shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. But

right now, let's be honest, right now we live east of Eden. We live in a fallen world. And

today it seems that the earth or the blessings go to the strong and those who know how to

advance and promote themselves. Have you ever wondered why the wicked seem to be blessed?

I mean, it seems some people had the Midas touch and a lot of times they're just evil

wicked men. And yet the righteous and the godly, they seem to suffer so much tragedy.

The meek commits themselves to Christ, commits themselves to God and His care. Chris Miller

in his commentary, he said, the meek do not demand their rights because they cower, intimidated.

No, they're not fearful, but because they refuse to act out of selfish ambition, preferring

the interests of others ahead of their own. They give God room to act on their behalf

and then and in time, on their behalf in the due time He will. If I ask today, we could

all give examples of how life does not seem fair. Some of you may be tempted to look at

the lives of wicked people and you begin to envy them. The psalmist says, don't, don't

do it. God will be vindicated. God is going to judge them. We're in Psalm 37, look at

the first three verses. Do not fret, do not worry because of evil doers. Don't be envious

of the workers of iniquity. Yeah, they may have some money right now. For they shall

soon be cut down like the grass and they will wither as the green herb. You trust in the

Lord and do good. Look at down to verse 10, for you'll get a little while and the wicked

there will be no more, they're gone. One day the Lord will take away the wicked from the

earth and He will give it to His people. What do you and I do right now? We walk by faith,

trusting that God and His word will be vindicated. We believe Psalm 37. We believe that the meek

will inherit the earth. The entire cosmos, the entire earth has been given to Jesus and

His people will share with Him in His inheritance. The earth and the fullness belong to God and

He is very happy to share it with His people. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that all of creation

right now is currently groaning, waiting for the redemption of the sons of God. What's

that mean? All of creation, the entire cosmos is patiently waiting for the Lord Jesus to

return and the consummation of the kingdom that He began when He first came in His first

advent. They're waiting for that day and when our Lord returns, there's going to be a grand

megas renovation. A new heaven doesn't mean new in the way we think, it's restored, renovated

heaven, a new, a restored, renovated earth and the meek, you're going to inherit this

entire new, renovated, restored cosmos given to Christ. That's why you're blessed. So what

do we do in the meantime? I love what MacArthur said, I'm quoting too much but forgive me.

Our responsibility is to trust the Lord and obey His will. That's it. The setting of a

settling of accounts, whether judgment or blessing is in His hands, it will be accomplished

in the right time and in the right way. Yet now, God's children live in faith and hope

based on the certain promise, the divine pronouncement, they inherit the earth. So meekness, it is

produced by seeing ourselves who we really are, poor in spirit, spiritually bankrupt,

poverty stricken people, and who God really is, the absolutely holy sovereign one, and

that leads to humble meek disposition. So we've seen what it is, we've seen what it's

like, but how can you tell if you're living a meek life? Again, Martin Lloyd-Jones, I'm

just going to read these. If you're taking notes, I'm sorry, you can get my slides later.

Meek people do not boast in themselves. They don't find glory in themselves and they don't

desire that other people glory in them either. Meek people are not sensitive about themselves

and don't always feel the need to defend themselves when people point out their flaws and weaknesses.

Meek people have a teachable spirit. They're not gullible but they are open to criticism

and they expect it because they know they have a lot to learn. We've not yet arrived.

Who amongst us can claim perfection? Meek people love the word of God and submit to

it. They don't chafe against it. Meek people tend to be satisfied because they don't always

believe they're entitled to more. They're blessed with what they have. Meek people are

not weak people. A meek person will stand immovable, immovable in God's truth because

they submit to God before they will submit to man. Amen. This is the character of Christ

which means that my application cannot be be meek. You can't do it. I can't do it.

This is not something you produce or I produce. It's a spirit produced. You can't make yourself

be meek. How foolish if I would get up there and say, now church having heard this, be

meek. You ought to go out with ashes on your head and lament and wailing. You can't do

it. I can't do this. Naturally on our own we are bent in toward ourselves, curved inwardly.

We seek our own. We want our own. We want revenge on those who cross us. We want our

pound of flesh. But God in this glorious salvation, in our union with Christ, he has given to

us not just forgiveness of sins, he has given to us his Holy Spirit. And his Spirit begins

to produce the character of his Son in us. A Christ-like gentleness in us. And friends,

I am not there. It's a work of God's Spirit in the lives of God's people. We need to be

saved from our sin, yes, but we also need to be saved from ourselves, from our own selfish

orientation, our own narrow-minded, myopic view that looks out for just ourselves. Divine

rescue. Lord, rescue us from our sin, rescue us from ourselves, and thanks be to God, he

did just that when he sent his Son. He, Jesus, the meek one, he invites weary sinners to

come to him. Matthew 11, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden. You're tired,

you're burdened, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. I am gentle

and lowly in heart. You will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden

is light. I told you that the Jews stumbled over Christ. They were looking for this military

leader, but they should have known he would come as a gentle, suffering servant. Isaiah

42, listen to the words of Isaiah talking about our Lord. Behold my servant whom I uphold,

my elect one whom my soul delights. I put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice

to the Gentiles. Verse 2, he will not cry out, he will not raise his voice, he will

not cause his voice to be heard in the street. Verse 3, a bruised reed. He doesn't break

a smoking flax, he will not quench. He will bring justice, bring forth justice for truth.

He will not fail nor be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth and

the coastlands shall wait for his law. Look at verse 3 though, a bruised reed he will

not break. Friends, in the eyes of the world, a bruised reed has no value. There's no power

in it, there's no stability in a broken reed. The world says cut him down, it's weak, cut

the bruised reeds down. It's how our world operates isn't it? It's a dog eat dog world.

A bruised reed here is a symbol for bruised people. Those who are bruised emotionally,

physically, most of all spiritually, they've been bruised, they've been wounded. They're

the ones for whom Christ came. Weak, very weak, feeble people, whom the world will discard,

whom the world will despise. God takes in and he makes them his own family. This is

our God friends. He takes the bruised, the weak, the despised, the outcasts of the world

and adopts them and makes them his sons and daughters and gives them a glorious inheritance

with his divine son. Could anything be richer? Could anything be more grand than that? He

wants the bruised reeds. He says you come to me for healing, I'm not going to cut you

down. He understands bruised reeds, you know why? Because he too was bruised. He was bruised

for our iniquities. He was crushed on behalf of those who had been crushed by sin. Our

Lord, he came to heal the broken hearted. Blessed, God's favor, glorious favor, divine

favor rests upon you when you've come to realize that it's a work of the Spirit of God. I don't

know who wrote this, I quoted it but I can't attribute it to anyone. You may be pressed

down with the troubles of this world. You may be struggling with doubt and fear. You

may be feeble and disheartened and ready to break. But know this, Jesus cares. He will

have pity for the broken hearted, compassion for the humble, affection for the penitent

and healing for the afflicted. Come to him in faith, humbly trusting his strength and

you will find that he, our Lord, the divine son, the risen one, the crucified one, he

is gracious to all. This is the promise of the gospel. It is glorious. May the Lord be

pleased to open eyes this morning to this truth. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your

word.