Living by Faith: Meekness

Welcome to Delight in Grace, Rich Powell. This is part 3 of a message that was first preached on February 24, 2019 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear the whole message you can visit www.delightingrace.com.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at www.delightingrace.com. When demanding the accolades that he deserved, he found himself in low position. Neatness is defined as this, it is a quality of behavior that suggests a lack of arrogance and pride. You see there is hope in God through this redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He died because of our craving for autonomy, because of our self preeminence, because we counter God. He died so that we can be reconciled to God and as Paul described it in Colossians 2 verse 14, he took my guilt and nailed it to the cross.

It's a good picture isn't it? He took my guilt because who of us is not guilty? He took my guilt and nailed it to the cross and by faith I get his righteousness credited to my life and that makes me acceptable to be reconciled to God. You see there is hope in God and in that there is no ground for boasting or pride except in Jesus. Let's understand meekness for what it is.

I think E.W. Tozer paints a beautiful portrait of meekness. He says this, he writes this, The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority, rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson, but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God more important than angels.

He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. It's good isn't it? Get this, get your pens out, write this down. A good and successful life is not measured in time or things or titles, but in one's personal investments in others. A good and successful life. You see, in our autonomy that's what we think we deserve, right? I deserve a good and successful life from God and hear God saying to you, I have entrusted life to you, how are you investing it? We think we deserve the time and the things and the titles, particularly if we work hard for them, right? We think we deserve them, but that's not how a good and successful life is measured.

It is measured in one's personal investments in others. Again, I appeal to the supreme example of Jesus Christ. Remember the fact that he died pretty young, didn't he? 33 most think. That's pretty young. That's at the peak of life.

At least that's what I thought when I was 33. But consider his investment. Self preeminence says, I will advance myself. That is the opposite of meekness.

Self preeminence says, I will advance myself. Meekness on the other hand says, I am free through submission to Christ and I will advance you towards him. That is meekness. And what we find in Psalm 37 verse 11, these are the ones that will inherit the land. Jesus echoed this in Matthew 5. He said, blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.

In the regeneration, that's when everything is made new again, when Christ makes all things new, as he has promised, they're the meek, those who have submitted themselves to God find their destiny. There's a beautiful picture of this in Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15, for thus says the holy one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. The Lord is my portion. This is what the psalmist says, the Lord is my portion. My portion means my dwelling place, my secure plot of ground. The Lord is my secure plot of ground.

The place where I can settle down in complete satisfaction and security. The Apostle Peter paints us a portrait of this in the New Testament in his letter, 1 Peter chapter 1, our inheritance blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy. He has caused us to be born again, that's regeneration, born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Listen to this, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Now how's that for a promise? The Lord is my portion, my secure plot of ground and it's kept for me. I don't have to earn it, I don't have to try to keep it.

It's kept for me. Behold the grace of God through the meekness of Jesus Christ. What this is telling us, the promises of scripture that the coming reality that we can be very sure of, the coming reality where all is as it ought to be is mine in Christ. This is why Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 18, Paul is in prison. He is in prison for his faith, for communicating the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. Now stop and think right there for a minute, okay? Comfortable American Christians, stop and think about this for a minute, alright? Where was Paul when he said this? In prison. What happened to Paul?

He was executed. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and you think there's a disparity there, don't you? You see, when your spirit leaves this mortal tent to go be with God, are you telling me that's evil? But we believe that, don't we?

Because we are so comfortable here under the sun. We see that time when our spirit departs from this temporary corruptible body to go be with God, we see it as an evil thing. I always get a kick out if somebody posts something, right? We are so sad to inform you that such and such person has gone to be with the Lord. We pray like that all the time, don't we? The meek will inherit the land. The Lord is my portion.

The Lord is my secure, satisfying plot of ground forever. And they will delight themselves in abundant peace. Wholeness and satisfaction. To delight themselves means they luxuriate themselves in peace. The word here is shalom, which means wholeness and satisfaction. And this wholeness and satisfaction comes in abundance. It's not something that you need to protect and guard and you have to go out looking for more.

No, it's an abundance, it's an unending supply. They will delight themselves in abundant peace. Ooh, the meek.

Those who have submitted themselves to God. Last week, Jonathan and Hannah Romaine were here and didn't you enjoy Hannah's personal living picture? The testimony that she gave about her daughter, Mena, who was born with her hip out of joint.

And for the first year of her tiny life, had to live with a brace on. And Hannah was honest enough to admit that she was thinking along the lines of how we naturally tend to think, Lord, why? She didn't deserve this.

I don't deserve this. But that's not what it's about, is it? And Hannah, thank God by His grace, taught her that whether Mena would have had to keep that brace on or the Lord healed her, God is still good and you can still trust Him. They will delight themselves in abundant peace. Instead of being preoccupied with what she thought she and her daughter deserved, she came to realize that focus on the goodness of God in this temporary broken existence is where it's at. The peace and satisfaction of wholeness comes through this meekness. The meekness of Psalm 37-11. The peace and satisfaction of wholeness.

The completeness that we crave. This, loved ones, this is living by faith. This is living by faith. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. Abandon the notion that you think you know better than God and surrender yourself to Him in faith. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.