Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Pulpit, preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ, and now the message. We're in James chapter 1. James chapter 1. It's interesting, the chorus we sang. What was that entitled again? Alright, and it goes, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord, I will sing. And it gives you an idea when he's talking about this that it is a perpetual thing. Almost as though you're to rejoice always, and again I say, rejoice. Now, is that a biblical concept? Should I always be rejoicing? I don't know, that's a Greek shrug, you know. Should I always be rejoicing? You know the next half of this question, right? Do I always rejoice? I really think that the human side of us looks at that and says, probably not. God's designed us as his saints. In fact, the moment you are saved, you received the spirit of God in your inner man. That's a wonderful consideration. Outwardly, you may not have changed. In fact, it's possible to receive the inner man and there'd be very little outward change. Meaning what? Well, meaning you, you may not get taller just because you got saved. Now, if you got saved younger in life, before your growth spurt, you might get taller, but was that because of your salvation? No. Probably aren't gonna get any more teeth because you got saved. Some, there are changes, you know. Sometimes you get saved, you lost all your hair. I don't know. But the reality is, outwardly, we're being a little silly, there's not a whole lot of outward change that has to always happen. Now, you do see that in the life of some believers, that outwardly there were physical changes. As the Spirit of God worked within them through the Word of God, there was an outward change that occurred. That does happen sometimes. But as a general sense, It doesn't work in that sense. One of the greatest changes in which you'll see is an inward change. And the problem with that is you only see it outwardly manifested. You can't see the work in your heart. Let me back that up just a bit. I know you're in Galatians, I mean you're in James, but turn over to Galatians. So at the moment you get saved, who's the new resident in your heart? Holy Spirit of God. Now, with that in mind, look in Galatians. Now I want you to turn to fifth chapter. And I want you to look at these nine fruit, and they are in the singular. So all of these are important. All of these have equality. All of them are present. You don't move from one to another. If the Holy Spirit of God is in you, these are the inward, dare I call it, attitudes that exist. And you'll see the emphasis is mostly inward, yet it does change the outward. Notice the first of them. What's the first of them? Love. Now, outwardly, I suppose one could say that love is manifested by a hug or a handshake or in keeping with matrimony, a kiss. But was Judas showing affection to Christ when he kissed him? So not every handshake, hug, and kiss is tethered to the idea of love. The place where the Spirit of God often makes that first change is inward. And now when there's the love of God that is shed abroad, do you remember the rest of this, in our heart? It does impact us outwardly. Because of God's love for me and 1 John 4, my reciprocating love of God for him, I begin to love what he loves. And that creates a definitive change in my life because I love the things God loves. I want to be around the things that God loves. But the change must first occur inwardly if it's going to have staying power. Another one that's given is joy. And again, I probably will mention this in the morning hour, but joy is the gift of God, happiness isn't. Happiness is manifested by happenings. And you can see or estimate when someone's going to be happy. When fortune favors us, as it were. When there are surprises of life that occur. Happiness brings about smiles. What's interesting in scripture is that the pronouncement of joy exists despite all the happenings. So as a child of God, I can have the gift of joy. No, as a child of God, I should be able to have the gift of joy even if my world is upside down. That's present, that's there, that's keeping. Why? Because it's the gift of God. Another one that you see is peace. And again, how do you manifest peace outwardly? Well, the only way we can really do it outwardly is peace is the absence of conflict. But how is it manifested inwardly? How is the peace of God manifested inwardly? We would talk about comfort, stability, These should always be present in the life of a believer. Now with these three in mind, and there's nine of them, but it would take the balance of our classroom this morning, look in James. So the moment I'm saved, the indwelling of the spirit begins to develop these nine fruit as a singular entity in my life. So then the question is, why then do I as a believer have restlessness? Restlessness is antithetical, if you will, to peace. Restlessness can manifest itself as anxiousness, anxiety, Psalm 37, fret. Does that sound like love, joy, and peace? No. And so we've been looking at this a couple of weeks, and essentially, the God of restless soul is always pride. That's your last sentence there in that first paragraph. Yet, now I'm moving to the last paragraph, probably on the front page, but a fruit that is born in the life of a spirit, yielded saint, is meekness. We paused a little bit earlier, but love, joy, peace. He moves to long-suffering. He moves to gentleness and meekness. Meekness is learned, Matthew chapter 11, from the Master. And that, all caps, is indicative that we're speaking of the Lord Jesus. And it will stabilize the faithful disciple and this is so important here, prevent pride from ruling in our heart and mind. That's the paragraph that we ended with last week. You could, if you wanted to call this this morning, you could talk about the importance of meekness. You could talk about an inoculation against pride. But God's way of dealing with pride in our life is for you and I by His Spirit to develop meekness. Keep in mind the cry of restlessness, the chorus of pride in our life is most often preceded by the singular pronoun, I. I was thinking this morning as reviewing my notes, I was thinking about old Elijah there in Kings. I think it's chapter 17, 1 Kings, maybe chapter 17, 18. He finishes up Mount Carmel. He runs from thence. And I've related a little bit of how God cared for him. He caused him to sleep and eat. Those two important things to deal with a lot of the pressures of life. But they'll never fix our dealing. They're not the permanent solution. God never intended us to go through all the pressures of life without Him. That's what makes it worse. That's why the world really doesn't have an answer for how to deal with all the pressures of life, with the exception of exercise and nutrition. Outside of that, they get into pharmaceuticals and they seek to dull the senses. That's what happens. But we have access to the Almighty God. We have the indwelling of the Spirit of God. And so after he has eaten and after he has slept, the Lord speaks to him through a still, small voice. Now, it's interesting. to listen a little bit to Elijah's complaint. I alone am standing for you. I alone. Me and nobody else. Now we know that that was inaccurate. The Lord in that very passage would talk about 7,000 bowed the knee to Baal. But isn't it interesting? The restless soul is focused on itself. And when it cannot get what it craves, when it cannot get what it grasps at, when it cannot get what it desires, it will scheme, blame, and worry. And if there is going to be a peaceable soul that is manifested in the life of saints, it will always be a soul that is governed by God. So this point of meekness, I have here I think five things listed for you, so we're going to try to move through this. Meekness itself, that word meek or meekness is found approximately 30 times in scriptures. The word meek being used 16 times, 12 of which are in the Old Testament. Perhaps I would think, in my mind, one of the ones that is easiest to consider is the passage where Moses is considered by the Lord as being the meekest man in all the earth. The word meekness is mentioned 14 times, 12 in the New and two in the Old Testament. The definition of meekness has to do with mildness, mildness. To an extent, gentleness. And of course, humility. And throughout the Scriptures, both in the Old and New Testament, the fruit of meekness is praised. Let's look at this a bit here this morning. The first point about meekness is meekness perceived. Meekness perceived. We can consider the life of Moses. Numbers chapter 12 and verse 3. That's the passage I referenced a moment ago, him being the meekest man on all the earth. Or the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 1 and in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 21. And both of these men are regarded well for the meekness they possessed. In particularly, their meekness in both of these categories, their meekness was witnessed by their response to those that had wrongly confronted them. When you want to perceive meekness, you look at the passage there in the Old Testament of Moses. They confronted him about whether or not he rightfully should be the leader of Israel. And that would happen a multitude of times in Moses' ministry. In fact, it often happened by those that had greatest access to him. And on at least two occasions, the ringleaders were people that were biologically related to him. One of them was the time in which Korah, do you remember him? Korah would bring again an accusation against Moses. He felt that Moses had too much executive leadership and that Korah didn't. And if you'll trace the genealogical charts, they were cousins. And yet you don't find Moses full of threatenings. You find Moses mildly, in a sense gently, and of course humbly interacting. You come to Numbers chapter 12, the ringleader. was his sister, Miriam. And you think when you're opposed, what I'm opposed, what is the reflection we give? When we're corrected, and perhaps even wrongfully confronted, what's the attitude you give? Me, me, me, I, I, I? Or could our life in response be seen and perceived by meekness? Both of these individuals were God-appointed leaders. Both had to deal with the sinful rebellions of others, but they did so in a God-approved manner. I would submit to you, you can see meekness perceived during times of confrontation. My friend, sometimes confrontation happens. How do you respond to it? Are our arguments full of I and me? Or are they perceived by one that is following the will of God? I have not related much about Paul, but if you search these scriptures, they argued, the Corinthian church, that Paul or elements within the Corinthian church, that Paul wasn't even an apostle. It's interesting. How much time do you do defending yourself? your actions versus yielding to God's authority in our life. Meekness should be perceived. Number two, meekness should be prized. Meekness prized. God places an extremely high value on the attainment of meekness. I'm giving you a list of verses here from the Psalms even to Isaiah chapter 29. Surely God has proclaimed that the meek, this is Matthew chapter 5, shall do what? Inherit the earth. That was the first of, I think, maybe five discourses, messages that are recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. You should find them, you know, as you're reading through the Gospel of Matthew for your supplement. There's a series of five messages, discourses. Not all of them are the same length. The two that might come to mind the quickest to Bible students are the Sermon on the Mountain and the Olivet Discourse. But nonetheless, in this first discourse where the Lord is speaking, you have the Beatitudes, blessed are, and in verse five, the obtaining of meekness, carried with it the promise of inheriting the earth. Maybe another passage to consider, that the obtaining of a meek and quiet spirit, and I put in parentheses here, as opposed to constant contention, Proverbs 27, 15, is a prize that God esteems in the life of His saints. And Peter, you're hearing James, we're not too far from Peter, In 1 Peter chapter 3, I want to just reflect upon this. He's speaking to the virtuous godly woman, but there is an application to be made to all saints. Let it be the hidden man of the heart. This is what God wants to see manifested, which is not corrupted, corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Do you remember the next phrase? Which is in the sight of God a great price. P-R-I-C-E. What is God saying? God does not prize our blathering and blustering. God prizes meekness so much that when He esteems it, looking at His child who are really the only ones that can engage in meekness, for only they have the indwelling of the Spirit of God. And that attitude that promotes and is perceived of meekness in the life of a believer, God said it's worth a great value to them. That's interesting. I have Proverbs 27, 15. I wrote in my margin another one, I think 2715 talks about the contentions of a wife being a continual dropping. But in Proverbs 13 and verse 10, the scripture says this, only by what cometh contention? Do you remember what five little word brings you the promise of contention? Pride. You see, meekness should be prized, meekness how you and I address and interact, how we handle confrontation, how we handle perhaps even those that are wronging us, our engagement as a weakness is so prized that it should be pursued with vigor. This was the command given by the apostle in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 11, where he commands to Timothy that there were a series of things that he should flee and a series of things that he should pursue, And then he tells him about a life of contentment with meekness being of great value. Meekness perceived, meekness prized. A third element is meekness produced. Meekness produced. The fullest demonstration of meekness is seen in the life of Jesus Christ. Consider for a moment, He is the holy, eternal, just God, yet He deals meekly with those that are seeking His aid. You think about the diadem of glory, Jesus Christ, dwelling among men, perfect, holy, sinless, undefiled. And yet the lepers would come unto Him seeking healing. You know what all the Pharisees would do if a leper came unto them? They'd flee. You know what most likely you and I would do if a leper approached us? Flee. Why? Because that's a communicative disease. And when engaged in it, destroys the body, rots the skin right off the flesh. And yet you won't find that Jesus Christ turned them away. He's preaching and they would constantly bring the sickened to him. And he didn't even worry about putting a mask on. I'm teasing a little bit. Now you might in your mind say, well, yeah, but he was the almighty God. He told his disciples to do likewise. Disciples had to deal with those. You know, sometimes as Christians we look at certain tasks as being beneath us, or certain type of people as being beneath us. My friend, that's a manifestation of pride in our life. If you want to see meekness produced, look at the life of Christ. All that cometh of me I will in no wise I think of Matthew chapter 11, he promises any that will come unto him that his yoke is easy and his burden is light and tells them that they'll find rest in their souls as they learn of him, meekness produced. I'm glad that Lord Jesus Christ was not worried about only dealing with those that he felt were good enough. It's interesting, he had so much trouble with the Pharisees, but when one of them came to him by night, he was willing to discourse with him his need for eternal life. How do you deal with people that wrong you? How do you deal with situations where expectations are not met? How do you deal with frustrations with other people? I think I mentioned this at the opening of this entire session back several weeks ago. That harkens back in my mind to James chapter three. A lot of times we think that we're the spiritually minded person because we just shut the door of communication and therefore there's no conflict. That's never how God dealt with things. Really, that's still the manifestation of pride. You're just not proclaiming it. You've just chosen to keep it all in. God's manner in which he deals with those is the promotion of meekness, humility, reliance upon Him, mildness. Number four, meekness preserved. Meekness, as we read a moment ago, is a fruit of the Spirit. Ergo, it, like joy and love, are divinely given to those that have believed and have obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ. If these things, be it joy, be it love, be it peace, be it long-suffering, be it meekness, if we're going to see them preserved in our life, it's done by consistently walking in the Spirit. Meekness is not preserved by reliance of the flesh. You can't do it that way. Galatians 5, verse 16 talks about the flesh being at enmity with the Spirit. Your flesh is never going to choose meekness. The Spirit of God wants this for you. You're going to have to surrender to His will at these points of decisiveness, these points of impacts that arise in life. And reliance on the Spirit of God, even in times of conflict, will produce meekness. And finally, a fifth element of meekness, meekness pronounced. Meekness is necessary in order to effectively deal with people. It is necessary in God's obedient saints, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 2, he talks about lowliness and meekness. It's necessary for the restoration of repentant saints, Galatians chapter 6. He said, you have a brother that's aired you, which are spiritual, restore him in the spirit of. And that interesting, you know what that means? If he's committed a sin. And the church that he's part of was biblical, they've placed him under discipline. And for a time until he's repented of that sin, they've basically cut off communication with him. But when he has repented. When he's turned again to Christ and he seeks forgiveness, you're to restore him in a spirit, restore, and that's restore a fellowship, not position. Sometimes we think that restoration means that, you know, if there's a theft and he was the treasure of theft, you should let him go back to being a treasure. That's not the context. He's talking about restoring fellowship. Fellowship was broken because of unrepentant sin. Now that that repented sin has occurred, that repentance, forgiveness, and there seems to be in the life of one an eagerness to do right and to restore fellowship, that's what the restoration is. And yet to restore him to fellowship in a spirit of meekness, one of the reasons, considering thyself. You know, a lot of times we just like to think we're better than everybody. I can guarantee you. That's pride pronounced, not meekness. It's necessary in obedient saints. It's necessary, meekness is, in the restoration of repentant centers, or repentant saints. And it's necessary in the preaching of the gospel to the unbeliever. You know, sometimes you get online and you watch these people and they're bombastic in their presentation of gospel. I met a guy years ago. Look at 2 Timothy quick. I met a guy years ago and he visited church and I went out with him for a cup of coffee and we get to talking about things. And he asked, he was very interested about our soul winning program. And so I started talking to him and he said, preacher, I'm all in on that man. We love to talk to Jesus and witness and he goes through all of this. And I said, well, what do you do, go monthly or regularly? Oh, no. He said, I really try to go, I like to do public stuff. I said, public stuff, okay. And I knew where he was going with this. He said, what I really like to do is go out on pride day when they're having a march in Harrisburg. That's when I like to proclaim the gospel. And he said, but people don't like it. It takes a lot of courage and strength. And I go out there and I hold my signs how they're going to hell and how all that's wicked. I go out there and I'm giving the gospel that way. Look at 2 Timothy chapter two. And, verse 24, and the servant of the Lord must not but be, what's the word, gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. What's verse 25 say? Huh. Bombastically? This man began to tell me how times almost came to blow, the police had to break it up. I submit to you, he likely did more damage to the gospel of God than any good he could ever do. In meekness, instructing, by the way, homosexuality existed in Paul's time and you never find him behaving that way. You don't find Peter behaving that way. You don't find Jesus Christ behaving. What that is is a manifestation of a heart that wants attention. You spell it P-R-I. Interesting. Ironic, isn't it? Pride and pride met together and the police had to separate them. I digress. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God preadventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. It's a powerful thing to consider. It's necessary meekness in the preaching of the gospel to the unbeliever. You find that also in 1 Peter 3. Be ready always to give an answer of the hope that lieth within you with meekness. Without meekness, strife and contention abound. And listen, the strife and contention that some promulgate as effective New Testament missions of soul winning is neither winning souls nor honoring God. Meekness simply is this. It is the ability of an individual to allow God to govern them. It's being governed by God. And it's possible because we rest in His eternal care for us. You have the hymn of security there in Romans chapter 8. Meekness places the right God on the throne of our heart and promotes His exclusion worship. 1 Timothy there 6, He is the only God potentate King of kings and Lord of lords. You know what a travesty in our life that we would say that God was the only potentate King of kings and Lord of lords. But in dealing with people or difficulties, many times we allow the little God to be sovereign and supreme. And ultimately, the fruit of having that little God on our throne is a heart that abounds with no peace and much restlessness. May God add blessing to His word. Thank you for listening. If you would like to contact us, please write us at P.O. Box 126-541-Harrisburg, PA 17112 and visit our website at www.svbcpa.org. Until next time!