Galatians chapter 5, and we'll
be looking at verse 23 this evening. Galatians chapter 25, and we'll
be looking at verse 23. Let's begin our reading in verse
22. The title of the message tonight,
the grace of meekness. The grace of meekness. And Paul says in verse 22 of
Galatians chapter 5, But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. If you'll remember last week,
we looked at the grace of faith. And we saw how that the grace
of faith is the foundation of all other graces. We saw that
the grace of faith is the foundation of love, joy, peace, and all
of the other graces. And without faith, we know that
it is impossible to please God. Without faith, there is no one
that will ever be able to stand before God. Faith is the foundation
grace. And no man has faith by nature. We saw that faith is a gift of
God. If you have faith tonight, that
is because God has given you the gift of faith. He has saved
you by grace and through faith, which is the gift of God and
not of works. Well, so it is with this grace
of meekness. The true grace of meekness is
a gift just as faith is. In fact, faith is what I'd like
to term the robe of faith. Meekness is the robe of faith. When faith comes, it'll always
come like this. It'll always come wrapped with
meekness, won't it? We won't come in faith with pride. We won't come in faith with arrogancy. Everyone that comes to Christ
by faith will come in meekness of spirit. In meekness. And now this word meekness, it
just means humility. Humility. When I was thinking
about this, I thought of a king and a servant. When a servant
comes before a king, he comes in humbleness before the king. He comes in humbleness before
the king. And so this is what the Word is. It is an humbleness. James says this in James 1 and
verse 21. I believe it is 21. Yeah, James
1, 21. He says, Lay aside, lay apart
all superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the
word, the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. When
we came by faith, my friends, we came with meekness, didn't
we? This is the Gospel message, is
it not? Lay aside your sin, lay aside
all of the thoughts of self, and come to Christ with nothing. The Scripture says repent and
believe the Gospel. And we know that repentance from
sin is to humble ourselves and to take God's side against ourselves. It is to fall at His feet and
take our place as vile sinners, unworthy of acceptance with Him
and worthy only of His justice. To come before God with faith
and meekness is to own God to be right. If He sent us to hell,
God would still be right. And my friend, that goes against
every bit of human nature. This is a grace. This is the
grace of God that He bring us to the end of ourselves. To bring
us to Himself with nothing. Owing only to my sin. That's the only thing I have
when I came into this world, is my sin. It's mine. It's mine. The only thing that we as humans
possess is sin. That's all we possess. We owned
our sin and we come to sue for the mercy of God and based solely
upon His grace. I came to God with nothing but
asking for mercy. I know I've told you this before,
the wife of a traitor under the Emperor Napoleon came before
the Emperor and she was begging for her husband's life. She was
begging for mercy. And the Emperor turned and said,
yes, but your husband is guilty. And she says, that's right. That's
why I came for mercy and not justice. I came asking you for
mercy. And this is how we came to Christ.
So faith is always wrapped up in meekness, in humbleness of
heart. But we know this is not natural
to man. This was not natural to us. If
we have meekness of heart now, it is not because we always had
meekness of heart. Meekness of heart is foreign
to human nature. It is natural for a man to be
proud and not meek. I thought about this this week,
about that self-esteem problem. I hear this so much, it makes
me want to throw up. Everybody's got a self-esteem
problem. No, the only problem we have
is things aren't going our way. And that's it. If things would
go our way, we wouldn't have a self-esteem problem. We would
think everything was well. But because people are against
us or against what we want to do, we think, oh, woe is me,
woe is me. I just have a self-esteem. No,
man has a high esteem of himself. Man naturally has a high esteem
of himself and he's proud against God by nature. In Luke chapter
19, the Lord was giving the parable of the nobleman. And the nobleman
sent out his servants and he said, go and occupy this country
that is far away until I come. And the scripture says that the
people, the citizens of that country, said they hated Him,
and they said, I will not have this man to rule over me. And
that, my friends, is the nation of this world. The far country
is this world, and all the men in this world by nature hate
God, whether they say it or not. Oh, no, I love God. I love God. I like to do what I want to do,
but I love God. No, you don't. Natural man does
not love God. It's a foreign to him to bow
to Jesus Christ. It's foreign. This is the heart
of men by nature. And if men, if you're lost tonight
without Christ, this is your heart. You hate God and you esteem
yourself too highly. Men think highly of themselves,
and they will boast of their works, of their religion, or
something they have done, or something they will do for God.
They'll boast about that. By nature, men boast about these
things. Yet the Scripture plainly tells
us concerning the nature of man. The nature of man is that there
is none righteous, no, not one. The Scriptures tell us that man
from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head is nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And men gasp at that. Me? You're telling me I am full
of sin? No, God is. God is. Man by nature is proud
and boastful. Scripture says that we have all
sinned and come short of the glory of God, that all of our
righteousness are filthy rags, that we like sheep have all gone
astray and turned everyone to his own way. That's the Word
of God. That's what God says about our nature. And yet man in rebellion sticks
out his chest and begins to boast of what he's done for God. Man sticks out his chest and
boasts of his goodness to God. Flip over to Luke chapter 18.
I'm using this illustration. I think it's the clearest. I
think it's the clearest illustration that we have. The Lord Jesus
gave it of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee and the
publican. This Pharisee, look at this in
verse 10. It says, "...two men went up
into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican."
Notice that they went to the same place. They went to the
same place. They went up to the temple. And
they both went to pray. They both had the same object.
They had the same place of worship. And this tells us, my friends,
that the house of God will always have these two in their midst,
wheat and tares. Children of Satan and children
of God will always be in the house of God and they both Claim
to have the same purpose But this Pharisee he is a picture
to all of us tonight of our nature now notice. I said our nature
Because I can relate to this Pharisee if you can't you've
not seen your sin. I I know we mock at him and we
look at him and we say, well, that Pharisee, I can't believe
he'd do such a thing. My friends, this is us. This
is who we are by nature. This is who we are. This Pharisee, he stands up and
he begins to boast. And this Pharisee, he is one
of the elite of the religious world. I want us to recognize,
when you hear the term Pharisee, This was different than when
Christ said it. We say Pharisee and we start
to get a chill up the back of our spine like this guy was the
worst scum of the earth. And we know in the sight of God
that he is. But you've got to understand,
this man in his day was the most religious, moral, upright man
that you could ever possibly lay your eyes on. You could not
have condemned him of one thing. I dare say that he was better
in morality than all of us put together this afternoon. He was
better in all outward ceremony and religion. This man was blameless
like Paul. Paul says, touching the law,
I was blameless. There was no man that could come
to me and say that I did anything wrong. He couldn't accuse me
of anything. And I think this Pharisee is
the same way. He was a moral man. And I don't
doubt that he fasted twice in a week. I don't doubt that he
gave tithes of all that he had. I don't doubt that he wasn't
unjust, that you couldn't point at anything wrong with him. He
wasn't an adulterer, a thief, or anything else. And he definitely
wasn't like that traitor, that Republican. These things were
true, he said. These weren't false. These were
true. But this man, he was proud. He was proud of his accomplishments. He was proud and he put as his
foundation of acceptance with God the things that he had done. The things that he had done.
His faith was not robed in meekness. When he came, he came in faith,
but he came in a faith with pride. And that, my friend, is not acceptable
with God. That is not acceptable with God. You know, he refers to himself
five times in this little prayer. Five times he says, I. I thank Thee. I fast. I tithe. And I am not like these
sinners. This prayer was I, me, I did
this for God. I don't do this for God. Therefore, I must be accepted."
That's his whole ground for being accepted. This was nothing but the pride
of men, and all who try to come to God by this way, they will pray thus with themselves. They are not praying to God.
They will not be heard of God. They will not be accepted of
God. But in verse 13, we have an example
of true humility. We have an example before us
of that which is pleasing unto God. Scripture says that God
giveth more grace to who? The humble, the humble, the meek,
the lowly of heart. In verse 13, we have the example
of one who was given this grace of meekness. One who was given faith that
was clothed in humility, wrapped in humility. Scripture says,
and the publican standing afar off. would not so lift up his
eyes so much to heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God, be
merciful to me, a sinner." This man, this man was so distraught
concerning his own sin that he would not stand among men nor
lift up his eyes where God placed His throne. Have you ever been
so distraught with sin? But you didn't want to be around
anybody else. You felt unworthy to be around God's people. This
man stood afar off. That Pharisee, he stood in the
middle of everybody. He stood in the middle of everybody, and
everybody was in awe of his prayer. And there was that publican,
the scum of the earth in his day. And my friends, he would
not so much as come close to anybody. He was not worthy to
be near that Pharisee. He said, I'm not worthy to be
near him. I'm going to stand over here. I'm going to bow down
over here. And he says, I know God is in
heaven and I'm not even worthy to look up. Have you ever been
that humble? That lowly of heart? If you've known your sin, you
have. If you've known your sin, you have. This man, he bowed
himself, he humbled himself. For one to have grace of humility,
he must first see who he is. Have you seen who you are? Have
you seen your relationship to that Pharisee? I have. I know
it. I know that that's my nature,
to be proud. to strive against God. You see,
human nature is always trying to compare ourselves with others
around us. But see, this publican, he did
not compare himself to anyone but God. He compared himself
to the law of God and found himself lacking in the things of God.
He found himself to be a sinner and worthy of God's justice.
Let us never compare ourselves with other men, but only with
Christ, who is the standard. There's only one standard. It's
Christ. Do we compare with Him? Do we
own His righteousness? If we don't, we'll never see
God's glory. We'll never see God's kingdom.
Christ said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Think for a moment, friends,
of the most righteous person on the face of the earth. Think of the most religious man
that ever walked, the most sincere man that ever walked on the face
of the earth. And except your righteousness
exceed his, you'll never go into heaven. You'll never see God's
glory. Your righteousness must be the
very righteousness of God to enter in. And my friends, if everyone,
even the lost, if they'll just be honest, if they'll just be
honest with themselves, they know that there is no one who
has honored God fully and met that standard. Even a lost man, if he'd honestly
look, he can see that. And yet, there's altogether a
difference in just knowing that and experiencing that, isn't
it? It's altogether a difference. You see, I always knew that nobody
deserved heaven. I knew that. The preacher told
me that when I was a little boy. I knew that. I knew that there
was none righteous, no, not one. But when the Spirit came, I knew
that I was not righteous. I knew personally that I was
not accepted by my works or my will or anything I could ever
do. I knew that I was guilty. Not
you. I knew that before that you were
guilty. But when Christ came, I knew I was guilty. I knew I
was guilty. When Christ comes, a person will
be personally affected by this. It's here that a person will
take his place with this publican and sue God for mercy. That word
mercy is propitious. And no doubt it has reference
to the sacrifice of the atonement on the mercy seat. This publican,
he was not altogether very knowledgeable about Scripture. I know that.
He was unlearned. That Pharisee was very learned,
but this man was unlearned. But he knew one thing. He knew
he needed a substitute. He knew God could not accept
him without one. My friends, when a man is humbled
before God, he will see his need of a substitute. That God must
be just. that God must be satisfied. And friends, there's only one
hope for a sinner like that, and his name is Christ, Jesus
the Lord. It is only by the blood of Christ
that God can be merciful, and all who come empty All who come empty, who come
utterly without merit and to the end of themselves with no
value found in themselves. Those who come in utter humility. With no hope. Those who come
seeking mercy and grace at the feet of Christ, my friends, I
guarantee everyone that come in that way will find it. Everyone
that comes in meekness before Christ, in loathing of self and
longing for mercy, everyone that comes to Christ in that manner
will be received. Everyone. And not one will be
cast out. Not one. No sinner, see my friend,
no sinner comes to Jesus as their buddy. I guarantee that. If you come to Jesus as equals,
you will be cast out. That is not true faith. True
faith is wrapped in meekness. It always comes in that package. It always comes together. It
comes in utter humility. Not just as a servant before
his king, but as a rebel servant before his king. He comes suing
for mercy. And all who come in this manner
will go away just like this publican. Jesus said, this man, I tell
you, the God of heaven said this, I tell you that this man went
back to his house justified rather than the other man. All my friends,
it's altogether important how we come to Christ. We must come
with the grace of meekness and humility. not boasting of our
free will. I talked to a lady this week
and it just made me sad in my heart to hear it. How that men... I asked this woman, I said, do
you believe that man is sovereign then in his salvation? That man is the chief result
of his own salvation? And she said, yes. What pride
and arrogancy to demand of God acceptance because they willed
it so. God will reject them and cast
them into utter darkness. It's blasphemy. Blasphemy. This man though, he came in utter
meekness and he was accepted. He was accepted. Like old Mephibosheth. Remember in Phibeshev how he
came to David, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon
a dead dog as I am? That's how you come to Christ,
as a dead dog. And what did David tell him?
You come and you eat at my table for the rest of your life. And
he did. He did. He ate at the king's
table the rest of his life. Now, to those of us who have
come, if you have come in utter meekness to Christ, then I by
the Scripture tell you to walk in meekness. We didn't come in
meekness once and then everything went away, did it? We didn't
come in meekness and then all of a sudden we're able to exalt
ourselves now. No. My friend, we came in meekness
the first time and we come in meekness even tonight. Even tonight,
we who have come by faith in meekness, do we not still come
in meekness to Christ? Are we not more aware now of
our sin nature than when we first came to Christ? I am. I'm more aware of my utter worthlessness
today than I was yesterday. I'm more aware of my need for
Christ today than I was yesterday. I need Him more now than I ever
did. I see my need of this grace and
mercy now more than ever. I see my flesh has not gotten
better, but I've only been enlightened as to how bad it really was. I know that in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. And this should drive us to meekness,
my friends. It should drive us to a heart
of humility. This doctrine of grace should
be the most humbling doctrine ever preached in all the world. Those who believe it should be
the most meek and lowly people on the face of God's earth. having
received such grace from God. We should continually prostrate
ourselves before Him. In Philippians, the Apostle Paul
says that our conversation Our lifestyle, our walk should become
as the gospel. What is the gospel? Is it not
free grace in Christ? Is it not God giving us something
that we do not deserve? Walk like that. Walk like that,
believer. We're to walk humbly before our
God. Paul said, let this mind be in
you. You want to know what kind of
attitude we should have? This is it. Let this mind be
in you, which was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made of Himself no reputation, and took upon Him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. We that have been given grace,
the grace of meekness, Let us also order our lives to
become as the gospel of Jesus Christ. You want to know how
meek that we need to be? Look how meek Christ was. Look how low he condescended
for you. Go and do likewise. Let each esteem others better
than themselves. Do you do that? Or do you have
problems with that? My friend, I have problems, but I shouldn't. Not if I know
grace. I shouldn't have the least problem
exalting you above me. And when I look at this lost
world, I shouldn't look at people as
though they're beyond the reach of Christ. I do that many times. I say,
surely God has passed by that man. And I don't say a word. What arrogance, what pride is
in my heart when I do such a thing. We should be meek and lowly as
our savior. If God saved us, no one is beyond
his reach, no one. Therefore deliver the gospel
in such a manner to know that Christ can save anyone. I Believe
that don't you? If I didn't why am I here? I
shouldn't be here if I didn't believe that If I didn't believe
Christ was was able and willing to save sinners. I wouldn't be
here. I My friends, we ought to see this
great grace that Christ has given us and therefore humble ourselves
with great meekness. Pray to God to see what great
grace He's had on us. And by that, we can humble ourselves. I pray that God would bless this
to our hearts. And may He grant to us a spirit
of great meekness. And where there's meekness, my
friends, there's faith. Where great meekness is found,
there's also great faith. Remember that woman that came
to Him as a dog. What did the Lord say? Great
is thy faith. She came in meekness and He said,
great is thy faith. They're wrapped together, my
friends. I pray God will bless this to our hearts. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer.