Introduction: For thirteen services, we have looked seven of the nine different facets of the fruit of the Spirit.  Some of the material has been enjoyable but most of it has been convicting.  We see where we have come but we have seen how far we have to go.  We have seen that love is the color of the fruit, and joy is the bloom and peace is the skin, and then longsuffering was the flavor of the fruit.  Flavor is a virtue fruit possesses, but which others must taste if it is to be realized and praised.  Since longsuffering is the flavor, then gentleness and goodness are the distinctive flavor of the fruit.  The next three virtues, faith, meekness and temperance, are the perfect unity of the fruit.  It also could be called the stem of the fruit. 

      These next two virtues are almost impossible for most folks to fake even though some try.  It is the virtues of meekness and temperance.  If these are ever real seen in me, it will be the Holy Spirit that has brought them forward. 

      Brother Al Hughes made this observation about the Fruit of the Spirit.  It bears repeating.  “Like any natural fruit, the fruit of the Spirit starts small and grows. This fruit should become more evident and more evident in your life. Its growth can be stunted if it is not cultivated and nourished.”

      So let’s look at this virtue of the fruit of the Spirit today- meekness.  As I was reading and studying, I realize how far I was from this.  By being that way, I am not very Christ like.  It should be the desire of every believer to be Christ like.

                                                Matthew 5:16

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

I.  THE MEANING OF MEEKNESS

      There is the world’s definition and the Bible’s definition of meekness.  Of course, the only one that counts is the Bible’s definition.  It comes down to whose word means the most.      Romans 3:4

“God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

A. The Bible’s definition of meekness

      Meekness is love with its head bowed.  It is that grace of the soul that consist in habitual submission to the dealings of God, arising from a sense of His goodness and man's own littleness and sin. 

      It means that we accept the will of God and His dealings without dispute and rebellion.  It does not question God.  It accepts what comes from the good hand of our Lord.  Meekness is merely not resigning that a person can detect.  Here is our usual attitude and this is not meekness.  "Well, I suppose I must submit; there's nothing I can do about it.  Meekness is the willing, positive acceptance to whatever God permits.  You can see this in the life of Job.

                              Job 1:20-22

"Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."

            Its definition is found in these two different dictionaries.

      1. Easton Bible dictionary says this: "a calm temper of mind, not easily provoked". 

2. Webster's dictionary says this: "soft, flexible, and agile.  It is mildness of temper, gentle; not easily provoked or irritated.  It is submissive."

                           Meekness has been DEFINED as "yielding my personal rights and expectations to God".   Psalm 62:5

                           “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”

                           The opposite of meekness is anger and pride.  We will explore this a little further later on.

                           Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones:  "The man who is meek is not sensitive about himself. He is not always watching himself and his own interests. He is not always on the defensive... The man who is truly meek never pities himself, he is never sorry for himself… Self pity! The man who has become meek has finished with all that. To be meek, in other words, means that you have finished with yourself altogether, and you've come to see that you have no rights or desserts at all. T he 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. That, it seems to me, is its essential quality."

         B. The world’s definition of meekness is basically weakness.  In our culture, to be "meek" is understood to be a sissy, insecure, unsure, weak or even effeminate. Imagine a sales manager telling his agents, "Now go out there and be very meek with your clients."

II.  THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MEEKNESS

      These are common because most people don’t either believe the Bible or even read the Bible. 

A.  Meekness is not WEAKNESS. The word for meekness was used in much extra-biblical literature to refer to a horse that had been trained. In reality it is "power under Holy Ghost control."

1. A horse that is trained is useful and safe. However one that cannot be controlled is useless and dangerous.

 2. A medicine that can be controlled can bring healing. However one that cannot be controlled can kill.

3. A wind that blows with controlled speeds is useful to pump water and provide energy. One without control is destructive.

4. A person who can control his words is encouraging and pleasant. Someone who does not can cause great harm.

      5. Someone said, "If you think meekness is weakness, try being meek for a week!"

B.  Meekness is not COWARDICE.

      1. Some people believe that to "turn the other cheek" is an act of cowardice.

                              Matthew 5:39

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

2. Jesus was the most courageous man who ever lived. He faced all the fury of sin, hell and death on the cross.

3.  Though He never defended Himself, He was quick to defend others. He drove the moneychangers out with a whip!

 4. A mature Christian has died to self and therefore will not worry about injury, insult, or loss for himself.

                  C. Meekness is not HUMAN NICENESS.

1. It is not lack of conviction or simple politeness, but a righteous respect for God and others.

      2. 1^st Peter 2:21-23 reminds us of Jesus' example.

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” 

III. THE MANIFESTATION OF MEEKNESS

      Even though there are several men in the Bible that we can study in regards to meekness, Jesus is the only true example.  When you look at these other people, you can find flaws.  But you will not find any of this with the Lord Jesus.  Time will not permit us to look at just one place and that is Calvary.  But Jesus himself called himself meek. 

                              Matthew 11:28-30

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

      People who were hurting were drawn to the Lord Jesus like a moth to a light.  He can back up this claim.

      Some people have said that Jesus was just a big sissy.  When I finish this section of the message, we will be able to prove that is not true.

      For years I preached that Jesus took our hell for us.  He suffered all the pains of hell for us on the cross that day.  He became sin for us.  Sin is always ultimately punished with hell.

                              2^nd Corinthians 5:21

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

      I want to show you where you can see Him taking our punishment of hell on Calvary.  Before that I want to read a few classic passages about hell.

                              Luke 16:19-26

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”

                              Mark 9:44, 46, 48

“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

                              Matthew 22:13

“Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

1. He suffered the pains of fire. Matthew 27:35

“And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.”

      Even though He was not in a fire, the pain from the nails driven into the nerves of His hands and feet was as powerful as a literal fire.  All nerve pain can be described like fire pain.  And He hung on that cross those six long agonizing hours for me and you and every sinner that has ever lived.

2. He suffered the pain of thirst. John 19:28

“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”

      According to Matthew just before He is nailed upon the cross, they offered some vinegar mixed with gall.  This gall or as Mark says myrrh was given to the ones who were dying on a cross a mixture to render them insensible to the pains of death. It was to stupify the senses.  Our Lord knowing this, when he had tasted it, refused to drink, he was unwilling to blunt the pains of dying.  He was willing to forgo one drink to suffer the cup that the Father had for Him.  Some people say that they cannot do without their drugs but Jesus resisted the temptation to take something to dull the pain of suffering for us.

3. He suffered the pain of darkness. 

                              Mark 15:33

“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”

      This is an excellent description of hell.  Albert Barnes said this about the darkness that I read from Matthew twenty-two.  This is an image of future punishment. It is not improbable that the image was taken from Roman dungeons or prisons. They were commonly constructed under-ground. They were shut out from the light of the sun. They were, of course, damp, dark, and unhealthy, and probably most filthy. Masters were in the habit of constructing such prisons for their slaves, where the unhappy prisoner, without light, or company, or comfort, spent his days and nights in weeping from grief, and in vainly gnashing his teeth from indignation. The image expresses the fact, that the wicked who are lost will be shut out from the light of heaven, and from peace, and joy; and hope; will be confined in gloomy darkness; will weep in hopeless grief; and gnash their teeth in indignation against God, and murmur against his justice. What a striking image of future woe! Go to a damp, dark, solitary, and filthy dungeon; see a miserable and enraged victim; add to his sufferings the idea of eternity, and then remember that this after all is but an image, a faint image, of hell!

4. He suffered the pain of separation. 

                              Mark 15:34

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

      The only time that our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus, His son was separate was those six hours when Jesus became sin for us.  Those last three hours without light were the worst.  The sun refused to shine on the Son.  The finality of the sin debt is placed on Jesus and it satisfied the demands of God.

      He suffered all the torments and pains of hell and all His last seven words spoken on Calvary were not cries of injustice or requests for mercy.  They were for others or so that the scriptures may be fulfilled.  This is no sissy.  He did not revile His tormentors.  He tried to give them the forgiveness.  This is just one example of the meekness of the Lord Jesus. 1^st Peter 2:21-25

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” 

Conclusion: These are just a few thoughts on meekness.  If there is any meekness in us, Jesus had to give to us through the Holy Spirit growing fruit in our lives.

      Next time we will continue the look at the virtue of meekness.