I intended to speak this evening
and to meditate on something to do with the meekness and gentleness
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But in thinking of that,
I came across so many obstacles in my own heart and in the difficulties. So I wanted to first of all split
off and look at, and the hymn came quite sweetly to me this
morning that we've just sung about the various hindrances
there are to coming to worship. And so I wanted to read first
of all from Romans 7 and then we'll read on later to look at
the meekness of our Saviour. Romans chapter 7. Here we have
the Apostle Paul explaining what it is like to be a real Christian
and the fact that Sin is not reigning in the heart
of a true Christian, but sin does dwell, sadly, in the heart
of a true Christian. And therefore a true Christian
is at war with sin. And we have that spoken of and
explained to us in Romans 7. So I want to start reading at
verse 14. Earlier in the chapter he's talked about what the effect
was before he became a Christian, but now this is as a Christian. Romans 7, verse 14. For we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do
not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God. but with the flesh, the law of
sin. So if we look at this first part
then, that I want to speak of this evening, of the battleground
that there is in the heart of a true child of God. If we didn't have this written
for us in the Bible, when we had it in our hearts, we wouldn't
think it was right. or we wouldn't think it was a
genuine experience. But as we've had in our hymn,
there is a need to press forward. And yet, you see, verse 22 that
we've read says, for I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. Can you say that? Can you honestly
say before God that you delight in the law of God after the inward
man? You want to know more of his
love, more of his grace. You want holiness in your life. You want to live a life that
brings glory to God. And yet you find there's a factory
of evil. When you have that good desire,
it's pictured perhaps like a factory that's been taken over by new
management and the old person in charge has been thrown
out, and a new person has been put in charge of the factory,
and yet it's the same workers, and the same machines, and they've
got the Adamic way of doing things, the old way of doing things,
and though there's new management, there's new desires, there's
a heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, Yet there
is this old nature that constantly wants to twist everything, to
walk in pride, to be selfish, to be self-centered, to seek
those things which are not above. Well, this is what Paul speaks
of then. His desire, the true desire of
a child of God, is to delight in the law of God after the inward
man. And yet he sees another law,
and as we've sung in that opening hymn, there is a desire of a
child of God to press toward Jesus, to come and find him,
and to come and know him and know his blessing. And yet there's
all these things that get in the way. And in preparing it
and thinking about it, I was to think of this new management
and the factory of evil of all the old workers still wanting
to do things the old way. and how that is pictured in the
new man of grace, the new management, the new heart that hungers and
thirsts after righteousness. And Paul says, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Well,
the answer is he would be in this body until The death that
puts an end to sin, life will put an end to sin. And so, for
a child of God, you see, there is this tension that they would
do good, they would serve God, they would love Him, and they
would delight in Him, and yet there is this old nature. the
old man of sin in the members, like those factory workers that
have used to be doing things the old way and a sinful way,
and they want to twist everything so that it ends up in that way,
and so that the new management despairs sometimes of the fact
that when they would do good, evil is present with me. And
he says that I find then a law that when I would do good, evil
is present with me. Well, there is then, what is
the solution? Well, you see, we are to come
and know something of God's blessing. So I want to turn then to Matthew
chapter 11 and some well-known words in Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28,
we have these words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Matthew 11 and verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labour. Why are they labouring? Because
when they would do good, evil is present with them. 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. So I want to speak then of this
gracious call that we have here, come unto me, come out of all
your unbelief, out of all your sin, out of all your shortcomings,
come unto me. There is a saviour here of sinners,
one who delights in mercy, one who is able to give grace to
those that come. Come unto me. This is the one
that will nourish you. This is the one that will do
you good. You see, when the old man and all his wickedness and
all the sin that does so easily beset us is so raging, 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. We are to learn something of
the glorious Saviour. And what do we learn of him?
He tells us something about his heart. The only place we read
of him describing his own heart. For I am meek and lowly. in heart. He is a humble saviour,
and he is saying, learn of me. My people are to be humble too.
They're to be a dependent people, not pushing themselves forward
and trusting in their own strength and ability and wisdom, but a
people who are dependent, who look out of themselves to a mighty
saviour. For I am meek and lowly in heart. You see, the meekness of Christ,
it's a humility. It's the opposite of pride. It's
the opposite of pride. But you see, when we are meek,
then we accept God's dealings with us. You see, when we, when
difficulties come in our lives, we naturally, we rise against
it. We think we will sort this out. But you see, a spirit of meekness. You see that displayed so beautifully
when our Lord was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers was done, so he opened not his mouth. Yes,
with a sheep going to her shearers, they don't know what's ahead
of them, and therefore their placidness is just because they're
ignorant of what's before them. But not so with the Saviour.
He wasn't placid because he didn't know what was before him. He
was placid because he trusted in his father. He trusted that
his father would care for him. So when he was reviled, he reviled
not again. You see, this is the beautiful
one that we are to consider this night. Out of all our uncleanness,
out of all our far-offness, we are to come through all the things
that would stop us coming and consider him. Consider this one
who says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. This is the
way to find rest. This is the way to find security.
The world would say, fight your own corner. Stand up for your
own rights. But I am meek and lowly in heart. He was a lowly one who was committed
himself to his father. You see Peter picks that up beautifully
in 1 Peter chapter 2. where he says, who when he was
reviled, this is verse 23, reviled not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. You see, he had all these people
against him. He was falsely accused. He was
on the cross. He was being ridiculed as being
weak and helpless. And if he was the Christ, then
he would save himself. But when he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. You see, he committed himself
to his father. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. I committed myself
to my father in that extremity of Calvary, the extremity of
the garden of Gethsemane. I committed myself to my father.
This is an example that we would follow his steps. You see, it
says in verse 21 of 1 Peter 2, for even here unto were ye called, Because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example. It's easy to think that he suffered
for us so that we wouldn't have to suffer. In one sense that's
true. For the sufferings of what would
have been due to us were at a never-ending eternity in hell. He did suffer
so that we don't have to suffer. But he suffered leaving us an
example. You see, so when we suffer and
we have that meekness to commit our way to our father in heaven
that cares for us, that has those 12 legions of angels to come
to our help whenever we need it, at the time that he appoints,
you see, he committed himself to his father, but it didn't
mean that he came off the cross. It didn't mean that he was, he
didn't need to go through the cross. went through the cross,
but his father, you see, raised him again from the dead and gave
him a name which is above every name. He trusted in God and he
was not ashamed. He was not ashamed and so this
is a picture for us. Let this mind be in you for I
am meek and lowly in heart. He trusted in God that God would
appear for him and he was not interested as it were in showing
himself and a meek person is not interested in putting themselves
forward. It's a beautiful picture there
is in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, that one that talks about charity
and love. In verse 4 of that chapter, 1
Corinthians 13 verse 4, it describes what true love or charity is. Charity suffereth long in his
kind, charity envieth not. That's a sinful thing, isn't
it? Envy. So quickly we can either
be envious of somebody or jealous of somebody, or despise them. Envy them or despise them, one
or the other, one way round. Either they're better than us
and we envy them, they're worse than us and we despise them in
our own thinking. Charity suffereth long and is
kind. charity envieth not, charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not As I was speaking a few weeks back on the Trinity,
we pointed that out, that it was the delight of the son to
glorify the father. It was the delight of the father
to put his son as center place of glory, as the lamb that has
been slain. You see, it seeks not its own,
it seeks the glory of another. So opposite to our own natural,
selfish, self-seeking, Adamic nature. doth not behave itself
unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. So
these words of the Saviour come unto me, come out of your unbelief. Come out of all that factory
of evil that dwells in your members. Yes, the new management has been
there. We are no longer of the flesh,
but of the spirit. We have the spirit of God in
the hearts of God's people. So they hunger and thirst after
righteousness, but they have this that the old nature still
exists, with all its cravings, with all its lusts, with all
its desires, with all its filthiness. 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. It's a very, very attractive
theme to a child of God, the meekness and lowliness of Christ. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy. and my burden is light." Well
may we know something of the beauties of Christ this evening
as we gather together and that we, though we have the old nature
that constantly tries to divert us and pull us away from the
right things, that we can come to the Saviour, press through
the crowd, and be able to worship him as the Lord gives us grace. Amen.