Now in 2 Corinthians 10, we're
going to read the first two verses again. Paul says, Now I, Paul,
myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who
in presence and base among you, but being absent and bold toward
you, But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present
with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some
which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. So when
the apostle Paul was present preaching the gospel, dealing
with the brethren in the church and with needy sinners that God
was drawing to Christ, he was meek and he was gentle. He said to the Thessalonians,
in case we want to see how meek and how gentle. He said to the
Thessalonians that we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth
her children. We were so affectionately desirous
of you. We were willing to have imparted
unto you not the gospel of God only, but our own souls because
you were dear unto us. That was the spirit Paul had.
But in his letters, when he wrote in his letters, he was bold to
chasten and correct the things that needed to be corrected.
And he did that so that he wouldn't have to be bold when he came
to visit. He wanted him to take care of
these things before he got there. So when he got there, he could
preach the gospel and not have to deal with problems. He said
in verse 2, But I beseech you that I may not be bold, that
is, that I may not have to be bold when I am present with that
confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some who think
of us as if we walked according to the flesh. Because Paul was
meek, when He was present. And because He was bold in His
letters, there were some at Corinth who accused Him of walking according
to the flesh. He accused Him of walking in
the flesh both in His letters and when He was present. Look
at verse 10. For His letters say they are weighty and powerful,
but His bodily presence is weak and His speech is contemptible.
When they said His letters are weighty and powerful, they meant
He was oppressive. He was harsh. He was severe. They meant He was walking according
to the flesh and not after the Spirit in His letters. And then
when they said His bodily presence is weak, they meant everything
about His bodily presence. His person, His character, His
speaking voice, everything about Him. See, they were mistaking
humility for walking according to the flesh. They were mistaking
that which was of the Spirit of God and calling it walking
according to the flesh. When they said His speech is
contemptible, they not only meant His stammering tongue, they meant
His wisdom and His knowledge. And since Paul didn't preach
with excellency of speech and wisdom like the preachers all
around him did, They said He walks according to the flesh.
He's not preaching by the power of the Spirit of God. And Paul
corrects this. He says this humility was produced
by the Spirit of Christ. He said in verse 1, Now I, Paul,
myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That's
how I beseech you. It's by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ. And here's what it makes me do.
In presence, I'm base among you, but being absent, I'm bold toward
you. Go over to 1 Corinthians 2. I want you to see this. So
everything his enemies, everything Paul's enemies thought was the
power of the Holy Spirit, everything that they deemed to be the power
of the Holy Spirit, Paul did not do that. He refused to do
those things. The things that these men thought
was walking in the power of the Spirit. But the things that these
men said was walking according to the flesh, Paul did those
things because that was the power of the Holy Spirit. Look, 1 Corinthians
2 and look at verse 1. Our brethren, when I came to
you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power." He is saying all that right there.
Everything that he just described, that was all by the power of
the Holy Spirit to make him humble and to cause him to preach only
Christ. and stay out of the way. And
He did it. He says that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So you
see, this is what I want us to see today in our text. The power
of the Holy Spirit creates humility in the believer so that He makes
us deal with brethren and with needy sinners that God is drawing
to Christ. He makes us deal with them in
meekness and gentleness. But that same Spirit also makes
you be bold toward those who are enemies. Now that's the work of the Spirit.
He might work that in some, not in others. No, that's what He
works in His people. Now first of all, the meekness and gentleness
of Christ Himself. This is what I want to look at.
He says there, the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I'm speaking
by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Let's see the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. Now many, you know, will appear
to be humble whenever they know that they're overpowered or there's
no way they can defeat their enemy or they're outnumbered
or something like that. People appear to be humble in
that case. That wasn't the case with Christ.
Christ was meek and gentle. when He was the strongest one
among us. Christ is God. He is the Son
of God. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He was in the form of God and
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. And yet He made
Himself of no reputation. Took upon Him the form of a servant.
Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself. He humbled
Himself. He became obedient even to the
death of the cross. But He's all-powerful, and that's
what He did. You know, there's something special
about a man who is a giant, and yet is very gentle and meek. He grabs your attention, because
you know He can snap you in two in a heartbeat if He wanted to.
But He's meek and He's gentle. Christ had all power in heaven
and earth, but He was meek and He was gentle. When John the
Baptist first preached Christ, he looked up and he said, Behold,
the Lamb of God. Now he said that because he is
that lamb that God promised he would provide himself. But also,
you think about it, a lamb is the most gentle and meek creature
there is. A lamb doesn't have any defenses
to hurt anybody. It can't even defend itself.
A lamb. And as He walked this earth,
though He was God all-powerful, Christ was meek and gentle in
that He submitted Himself entirely to God His Father, trusting the
Father to protect Him, trusting the Father to draw His people
to Him, trusting the Father to show Him where His sheep were.
And Christ did nothing through strife or vain glory. He didn't
strive to make anything happen. He didn't argue with men or fight
with men. And He did nothing for vain glory.
He wasn't trying to just be right so that He could get glory for
being right. He did nothing to strive for vain glory. Scripture
says, but in lowliness of mind. That's how Christ esteemed others
better than Himself. In lowliness of mind. He never
looked only on His own things. He always looked on the things
of others. He was always going about seeking how He could help
poor, needy, oppressed sinners. Always. When He walked to serve. And His gentleness of spirit
is seen in this. He said, I didn't come to judge
the world. I came that the world might be saved. He didn't come
to condemn. We were already condemned. We
were already dead in sin. He didn't come to condemn us. He came that through Him many
might be saved. That's why He came. You see the
meekness and gentleness of Christ? He had power. On one occasion
that demoniac He had power to command the evil spirits to come
out of that man and gave permission to go into a herd of pigs and
they ran headlong off a cliff. He had that power. And yet we
see Him so meek and so gentle, drawing His people to Himself
in such tenderness. and saying to them, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto yourselves. Can you imagine if
He came in power without us knowing Him? If He just was in unveiled
splendor like they saw Him on the Mount of Transfiguration?
Nobody would have come to Him. Men wouldn't have come to Him,
but He said come. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart. I'll teach you. I'll instruct
you. I won't whip you. I'll be gentle
with you. I'll be meek with you. But understand
this too, Christ's gentleness and His meekness was not weakness.
was not weakness. He defended the helpless. He
was meek and gentle towards the helpless, but he was very bold
towards his enemies. He was very bold towards the
self-righteous Pharisee. He stood toe-to-toe with them
and called them a generation of vipers. He stood toe-to-toe
with them and said, you're children of the devil. He was bold toward
those who were oppressing sinners and whipping sinners and abusing
God's law and changing God's Word and making commandments
of themselves. He was very bold towards them.
And yet, even in their case, after all was said and done,
what did He say to them? He stood without Jerusalem and
He said, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, How often I would have gathered
you like a chicken gathers her little ones under her wings,
and you would not. And also, Christ's humility,
it didn't mean He was ignorant of men's characters. He knew
the heart of every man He came in contact with. He knew what
was in the heart. And that was part of the reason
He was gentle and meek toward His people. Because knowing our
heart, He knows that we're dust. He knows the difficulties we
have because of our sinful flesh. He knows the depravity of the
human heart by nature. He understands why we stumble
and fall and the troubles that we have. He's walked where we
walked. He's experienced the weakness
of our flesh in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though he never sinned,
though he never fell, he knows when he said to them, The spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak. He knew that by experience
when He walked as a man. And this is one of the reasons
He was meek and gentle. You know, when His disciples
thought He was a spirit, remember that? When He was walking on
the water and they thought He was a spirit walking on the water.
Did He yell at them? And rebuke them? And call them
ignorant? And call them names? He said, be of good cheer, it's
I, be not afraid. That's what you do with somebody
you love. You want them to be of good cheer. You don't want
them to be afraid. When Peter and John hit their
face on the Mount of Transfiguration, when God spoke and they hit their
face, what did Christ say to them? Arise, be not afraid. whenever Paul was at Corinth.
He was there and Paul had been rejected by everybody at Corinth. And he was having his doubts. He was thinking about leaving
Corinth, remember? And the Lord came to him by night
in a dream and He said, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not
thy peace. Christ knows the heart of His
people. We don't know the heart of sinners. You remember Eli
when he walked out on the porch and there was Hannah out there,
had her eyes closed, praying. He thought she was drunk. He
scolded her with all kind of boldness and pride and arrogancy. And there she was praying to
the Lord. See, we don't know a man's heart. We know Christ
was meek and lowly and patient and forbearing because He knew
everything in the hearts of men. We ought to be very careful of
condemning others. I don't know their heart. Don't
try to separate the wheat and the chaff. You pull up the wheat
and leave the chaff. Knowing the sinfulness of His
people, Christ dealt gently even in His rebuke. Even when He had
to rebuke His people, He did it gently. He didn't do it harshly. And you think about it, how many
statements, how many times did His disciples make such foolish
statements? Say things that were just ignorant
things to say. And He would just overlook it. He even said to them on one occasion,
you know, you'll have preachers every now and then come along
and they'll tell you, you've got to know this or you've got
to know that or you've got to know the other or you can't be
saved. That's a lie. That's a lie. God will make His
people know what we've got to know. Christ said to His disciples,
there's many things I want to tell you, but you can't bear
them right now. He said to them, there's a lot
of things you don't know right now. But when the Spirits come,
He'll guide you into all truth. This was meekness and gentleness.
And though He was meek and gentle, He wasn't indifferent to justice
and holiness. Sometimes we can be meek and
gentle just simply because we're indifferent to sin. We're so
accustomed to sin. And sometimes we'll just appear
to be gentle towards sin because we're just so accustomed to it.
It's a matter of indifference to you. It ought not to be, but
that's true. And as He walked this earth,
Christ was meek and gentle, but He Himself was perfectly holy
and righteous. He was perfectly holy and righteous.
He taught His apostles to do that which was right. When they
came and they wanted taxes from Him, He knew they were abusing
and they were collecting taxes. They weren't collecting taxes
from their own people. They were collecting taxes from
the poor people. He knew that. He knew it was injustice. But
what did He tell His apostles? Give Caesar that which belongs
to Caesar. He was all for that which was holy and just. That's
why He came. He loved righteousness and He
hated iniquity. He came to this earth to declare
the righteousness of God. That's the whole reason He came.
He came to manifest how God can be just and justifier. How God can pour out His justice
on sinners who've broken His law and yet at the same time
be the justifier, justifying those very same sinners. That's
why Christ came. He's the only one who could do
that. And He did it by laying down
His life, the just for the unjust. He was meek and He was gentle,
even while He satisfied justice. While He was manifesting the
righteousness of God, He humbled Himself, it's said, and became
obedient even to the death of the cross. announcing Christ with these
words, Behold the Lamb of God. And in the end, you know what
Isaiah said about Him? He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a Lamb to the
slaughter. And as a sheep before her shivers
is done, so He openeth not His mouth. When He was revived, He
reviled not again. He was meek and he was gentle. Why? Why didn't he open his mouth? He could have easily said to
Peter, I could call on my father right now and he would send twelve
legions of angels. Why didn't he do that? Because
he knew he had one weapon. And that one weapon was to allow
wicked sinners with wicked hands to nail Him to that cross where
He would bear the sin of His people and bear the wrath and
justice of God and satisfy and honor God's law forever and justify
His people from all our sins. He knew that was His one weapon.
Laying down His life on that cross. So He didn't open His
mouth. And by that, He established righteousness and He purged His
people of all our sin. He made His people righteous
and purged us of our sin. Now, briefly, I want to talk
about the Spirit of Christ that makes the believer meek and gentle. Makes us meek and gentle in our
dealings with brethren and with needy sinners. Paul here said
it's by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. He's not just saying,
I'm wanting you to be meek and gentle like Christ, or I'm just
trying to be meek and gentle like Christ. He's saying, by
the Spirit of God in me, He's made me meek and gentle. And
I'm beseeching you the way I am by the Spirit of Christ making
me meek and gentle. See, Paul had experienced the
meekness and gentleness of Christ and he had experienced the boldness
of Christ. He experienced them both on the road to Damascus.
When he was marching down that road and the Lord arrested him
on the road to Damascus, the Lord was bold when He spoke to
him and put him in the dust. And then the Lord was meek and
gentle to him and revealed Himself to him. And it changed Paul completely. It changed his whole way of dealing
with men. Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus,
the Scripture says he made havoc at the church, entering into
every house, hailing men and women, and committed them to
prison. He was a tyrant when he was Saul of Tarsus. He was
arrogant and proud and self-righteous and self-exalting and always
blaming everybody else for everything that went wrong. That's the flesh. Listen to this. Go to Galatians
5. I want you to see this and hold your place there. Galatians
5. I want you to notice this. Verse 19, the works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft. We say of those things, oh, that's
bad stuff right there. Well, let me show you something
that's just as bad. Hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition,
heresy, envying. And those harsh dealings with
others, that being hateful and being striving and railing and
all that on people, that's in the same list with this. Look,
murderers, drunkenness, revelings, they're all in the same list
together. You know, just because a man doesn't commit murder,
he ought not think he's better because I'm just hateful as I
can be and I just rail on everybody and blame everybody else. But
I don't commit murder. Well, you're just as bad as a
murderer. They which do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. But now, Paul is beseeching by
the meekness and gentleness of Christ. There's been a whole
different spirit put in him. Look here, Galatians 5.22. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
and against such there is no law. That's the fruit of the
Spirit. When we have experienced the
power of Christ's boldness and the power of His meekness, that's
when we know, brethren, that though we walk after the flesh,
we don't war after the flesh. We've got one weapon. It's the
Gospel. It's the Gospel. It's Christ working from glory,
sending the Holy Spirit and giving a sinner a new heart. You know
that now because He had to do that to you to give you a new
heart. And so when we're dealing with one another now, We don't
have to nitpick one another and try to hold one another's feet
to the fire and be harsh and be overbearing and oppressive
toward one another. We can wait on the Lord. We can
wait on the Lord. We don't condone sin. But as long as the sin is not
interfering with the Gospel, and it's not interfering with
others hearing the Gospel of Christ, we can overlook a lot
of things while we wait on God to fix it. Because God will fix
it. If there He is, God will give
my heart and He'll correct it. He can do it a lot better than
I can do it. And that's true meekness and gentleness. You
know, Moses is called the meekest man on earth. Why? Because in
all the troubles he dealt with, you read through that wilderness
journey and find how many times in the midst of all the trouble
you find Moses on his face before God. That's meekness and gentleness
to trust God to handle it rather than you taking it by your own
hand and trying to handle it. So as we use this one weapon,
we do so in meekness and gentleness, so that men's faith stands in
the power of God and not in the wisdom of men. And I want you
to understand that applies to everything. That applies to our
dealings with our children, with our wives, wives with their husbands. That applies to our dealings
with brethren, that applies to our dealings with our friends.
Sometimes I think we think that only applies to the preacher
preaching the gospel. That you don't want men's faith
to stand in the power of God. And then we'll corner somebody
at work and get to talk to them about a certain doctrine and
we'll just buttonhole them and just get to pressing them and
pressing them like we're going to make them believe it. If you
make them believe it, Somebody or something else can make them
not believe it. But if the Spirit of God makes them believe it,
He got them. They'll believe Him. See, we
don't want it. This is our dealings at home.
This is our dealings in the church. This is our dealings at work.
This is our dealings in our community. Scripture said of Christ, He
shall not cry nor lift up nor cause His voice to be heard in
the street. Listen to this. A bruised reed. Have you ever seen a bruised
reed? A bruised reed is that reed that
can't stand up anymore, it's bent over, it's broken and it
looks like it takes nothing to snap it into. It's a bruised
reed. He said, a bruised reed shall
he not break. That sinner who is just weak
and so bent in sin and trouble, He won't break them. That woman
caught in adultery they brought, and all those men were saying,
this is what Moses says, what do you say? Who was he bold toward? The men that brought her. Who
was he meek and gentle toward? That bruised reed. That bruised
reed. I'm beginning to think Christ
doesn't like self-righteous, haughty, arrogant. That arrogant
spirit. That's right. Those being oppressed,
He deals with meekness and gentleness. The bruised reed shall he not
break, the smoking flax shall he not quench. You know, smoking
flax just stinks and it's like a candle or a piece of wood that
when you try to light it, it's not quite lit yet. It's just
smoking, smoking, smoking, smoking, but he wouldn't put it out. He
would keep working with it, get the flame going. He wouldn't
put it out. He's talking about sinners. He's talking about how
he dealt with sinners. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
You remember when His disciples, they went out and they came back
and there was men that were casting out devils and they came back
and they said, you want us to cry down fire on them? And He
rebuked them for having that severe spirit. You don't know
what spirit you're of, He said. No, I don't want you crying down
fire on them. So, go to James 3 with me. James
chapter 3. By His Spirit working in us,
brethren, Christ makes His people sow this gospel and in all our
dealings with men, doing that which is right, that which He
tells us to do, we sow in peace. Look here, James 3 and look at
verse 13. Who is a wise man? and endued
with knowledge among you. See, if you have knowledge, it
has to be endued upon you by God. Let Him show out of a good
conversation, good conduct, good way about Him, His works with
meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your heart, glory not, And lie not against the
truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. I'll be honest
with myself now. If I have that spirit toward
my wife, my children, my father, my mother, my loved ones, my
co-workers, it didn't come from God. That spirit didn't come
from God. That's devilish. For where envying
and strife is, there's confusion in every evil work. But, watch
this, the wisdom that is from above is first pure. And then,
watch this, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, easy for
men to come up to you and ask you a question, easy for them
to come up to you and speak honestly to you. Because they are not
worried about being railed upon. They are not worried about you
looking down on them. They are not, you know, easy
to be entreated. Full of mercy and good fruits. Without partiality. Doesn't treat
one different than the other. Without hypocrisy. And watch
this now. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. That sinner God is
going to bless, bless His Word to have some spiritual benefit
upon another sinner is going to be through that sinner sowing
that Word peacefully. You know, I think it was Brother
Scott Richardson that gave the illustration and he said, if
you take corn and you got some chickens around and you just
sling that corn at those chickens, they will scatter before they
come back and eat. But if you just drop that corn
gently, they'll come right up there all around you and feed
all around you. We sow in peace gently rather than harshly. So if there's a Spirit, brethren,
of Christ in you, then crucify the affections and the lust.
He said, they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with
the affections and the lust. If we live in the Spirit, let
us walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory. Let us not provoke one another,
envy one another. You want to see others obedient
to Christ? It's only going to be performed
by Christ. It's only going to be worked
by the Spirit of God. So the best thing you and I can
do is whatever it is that upsets you, Overlook that part. And sow in peace to them. Speak gently to them. Speak kindly
to them. And speak truthfully to them.
But not to exalt yourself, and not to belittle them, and not
to whip them. Sow peacefully. And as that gospel
is going forth in peace, Christ will work in the heart of His
people. And He'll bring that person to be the kind of person
that you hope they'll be. He'll make them so. But I can't
do it. If I start trying to take that
matter into my hand, do you know how wicked that is? That's trying
to usurp the throne of God. That's trying to usurp Christ's
authority for me to deal harshly and so overbearingly with somebody
and try to force them to be like I want them to be. That's taking
Christ's throne. That's why it's devilish. The
devil says, I'll ascend unto God. I'll be like the Most High.
That's why it's devilish. That's what we're saying when
we do that. The Spirit of Christ makes you humble and meek in
your dealings with one another, makes you ashamed of your sin,
makes you ashamed when you don't deal with people gently and meekly.
Now brethren, when we see Christ, we see how gently and meek, we
think about how He dealt with us and still deals with us. What
could be a better constraint than the love of Christ and His
dealing with us to make us want to deal with our brethren and
with needy sinners the same way that Christ has dealt with us?
No better motive whatsoever. I pray God will bless that. Alright,
Brother Eric.