The Mighty Meek | Part 2

Why is meekness so crucial to you now?

You can inherit the earth. Welcome to Love Worth Finding. Pastor, teacher and author Adrian Rogers said, When you seek happiness, you'll never find it. But when you get right with God, blessedness will find you. When we were created, God put certain drives, instincts and ambitions into our very nature.

These are not evil in themselves, but they must yield to the Holy Spirit so that we can bring Him glory and honor. How do we develop a spirit of meekness? If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 5 and look at verse 5 as Adrian Rogers shares the powerful conclusion of the mighty meek. You'll find out that meekness is not weakness. And if you think that meekness is weakness, you go a week trying to be meek and you'll find out that meekness is not weakness. You know what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11? Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Do you think of Jesus as weak?

Jesus said, I am meek. Do you think Jesus was weak? If you think that Jesus was weak, then you read the Bible where He fasted 40 days and 40 nights alone in the wilderness with wild beasts.

I'd like to see one of you macho men do that. If you think Jesus was weak, get a picture of Jesus making a whip and driving the money changers out of the temple. Jesus who said, the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, the son of man hath not where to lay his head.

These pictures of Jesus that make Him look like He just stepped out of a beauty parlor make me sick. Jesus was a man. He was a strong man. He said, I was meek. I am meek and lowly of heart. What is meekness? It's not cowardice.

It is not a milk toast type of character. It is not weakness. The word means yielded.

Yielded. It literally has the idea of strength under control. Spirit. You see, these Beatitudes come in order. First in step is this blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, my dear friend, that shows our condition. We say in myself, I am spiritually bankrupt. And then blessed are they that mourn because after our condition comes our contrition. You see, then we say, oh God, have mercy upon me. I see what I am. I weep over it. I truly repent of it. And then after that condition and that contrition comes that control. Where I take myself now, Lord, and I place myself under your control, I am meek.

Not weak. Meek. I have a new master. Now let me give you a verse for your margin. It's Romans chapter 6 and verse 19.

Listen to it. I have yielded your members' servants to uncleanness and to iniquity. Unto iniquity. That is, as you used to be yielded to Satan. Listen to it. Even so now yields your members' servants to righteousness unto holiness. That's it. You yield. That's what the word meek means. Strength under control.

The same members, the same eyes, the same ears, the same tongue. But now rather than using my tongue to black, blaspheme, I use my tongue to praise. I still have ambition.

But now my ambition is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm still a fighter. But now I'm fighting the devil.

I'm fighting that crowd. It's the same strength. God does not hobble the horse. He energizes that, but he puts the bit on. He puts the bridle on.

He puts the saddle on. He says blessed are those who have yielded. Have you ever yielded? Have you ever yielded?

That's the one thing we don't want to do, and that's the one thing that we need to do more than anything else. Now I want you to look with me not only about the definition of meekness, but how do you have meekness? I mean, how do you develop meekness? You know, Jesus said blessed are the meek.

Well, where do you get it? Now remember, there's a sequence. First of all, you see yourself as poor in spirit, absolutely bankrupt. Secondly, you are broke hearted over it. Now, dear friend, if you've never been broken, you're never going to be meek.

A meektorse is a horse that has been broken. We sit in our church's heady, high-minded, unbent, unbroken, somehow getting the idea that we've done God a wild favor because we've come here. But we walk out never ever seeing our bankrupt condition, never ever mourning over our sin, and therefore we never ever yield our lives to Jesus Christ. But if you're ready to yield your life to Jesus Christ, let me give you three steps now to develop this meekness. First of all, you must be submitted to the Son of God. Submitted to the Son of God. Put these verses in your margin. Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30.

Listen to them. Jesus Christ is saying to you, today, come unto me. Are you listening?

Jesus Christ, not Adrian Rogers. Jesus Christ is saying to you today, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, listen to it. Take my yoke upon you.

Now, what is that? An oxen that has the yoke is meekt. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek. Do you see it?

Do you see it? I am meek. And lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now, here's the picture of two oxen, and they're pulling together.

The yoke is on one and the yoke is on the other, and these two oxens side by side are pulling. Jesus Christ is saying, I want you to take my yoke upon you. It is no longer only you, but it is you and Jesus. Whenever the yoke is on two oxen, one oxen is the lead oxen, and in this case, it's Jesus. Jesus says, therefore, you follow me. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy. Now, when he means my yoke is easy, it means it fits right.

It fits right. Friend, Christianity is not something that you have to do. It's something you get to do. I mean, God loves you so incredibly. He says, my yoke is easy. I hear people say, oh, it's hard to be a Christian. It's hard to be a Christian. It's hard to be a Christian.

My friend, that's a lie. The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. Jesus said, my yoke is easy. My yoke is easy.

My yoke is easy. It doesn't mean you won't pull. It doesn't mean there's no work to do.

There's plenty of work to do. If you will not force you to take this yoke, you can say no if you wish. There are not enough angels in heaven or out of heaven to keep you from coming. But there are not enough angels in heaven or out of heaven to force you to come. There are not enough demons in hell or out of hell to keep you from coming. There's not a preacher in this world that can preach you down this aisle.

And if he could, it wouldn't do you any good. Anything I can talk you into, somebody else can talk you out of. But you're going to have to make a decision, my dear friend, to take the yoke of Jesus Christ. You're going to have to take it. Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. Now, you can refuse if you wish, and that's your privilege. And I can tear my heart out and beg you to come to Jesus Christ. But you're going to have to take his yoke.

You're going to have to learn of him. There comes a time when you make a decision, and Jesus Christ says, come unto me. He doesn't say come to deny me. He's not talking about a denomination. He's not talking about churchianity.

He's not talking about a creed. He's saying, come unto me. You'll find rest under your souls. And don't you let that dirty devil get you to thinking negatively about the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way to blessedness, and meekness is the way to inherit the earth. Not only, my dear friend, must you be submitted to the Son of God.

I want to tell you something else. If you would be meek today, you must be responsive to the Word of God. Turn with me to James chapter 1 here for a moment, and let's just turn to it because I think we ought to have it in our hand. James chapter 1, and I want you to see what our Lord says here in verse 21. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive, now watch it.

Look at it. James 1, 21. And receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. The word soul is suke.

We could say able to save your psyche. Receive with meekness. You want to be meek?

Friend, do you know what meekness is? It is submission to a higher power. And not only must you receive the Son of God, you must receive with meekness. You must respond to the Word of God. Receive with meekness. That is, let the Word of God be your control.

Let the Word of God be your bridle in your bit. Receive with meekness the engrafted word that is able to save your soul. And look at the word receive. Actually, the two Greek words that are translated receive. The first is a Greek word which is sort of a self-prompted taking.

It's sort of grasping, reaching out, snatching. Frankly, there's some people who think they can learn the Bible that way. They say, well, I'm going to study the Bible. And so what they do, they get them a readable Bible. And what they do, they get a dictionary, Bible dictionary. And they get a concordance. Maybe they get some commentaries. They get a yellow legal pad. They get a pen. They sit down at their desk and they say, I am going to learn the Bible.

I feel sorry for you. You're not going to learn the Bible. You might learn some facts about the Bible, but you're not going to learn God's Word until you receive it with meekness, ready to be taught. You might know the names of all the kings of Israel. You might know Bible chronology. You might know it all, but dear friend, you have not received the Word.

What you have done is simply lombano. You have gone into the Word of God to try to snatch out some truth, maybe for your pride. Maybe you'll know more than somebody else.

Maybe you'll show yourself as some teacher, but my dear friend, you will not know the Word of God because your spirit has never been broken. It's another word for receiving. It's the word deco mai. That's the word that's used here.

Do you know what that means? It means to welcome. To welcome with humility. To welcome.

Not to take, but to welcome. Have you ever welcomed the Word? Have you ever sat down to study the Bible, absolutely prepared to do everything it says? Not just parading the Word of God past the judgment bar of your mind to make up your mind whether you think this is right or whether you think that's wrong or whether you think this is interesting or that is interesting. The Bible is not meant to be interesting.

It's meant to be disturbing. I went to China to preach in China and preached in Taiwan and Taipei in a city-wide crusade there and I had a wonderful time. We learned one thing, that we went to a Chinese house. The Chinese, the most hospitable people I've ever known, will not allow you to come into their house without serving you something. And you should never come into the Chinese house without receiving something from their hand. But when they bring refreshment out, whether it be a cup of tea or whatever it is, they said to us, you never reach out with one hand and take it. You take it with both hands and bow and at least take a sip. To reach out with one hand has the idea of grasping.

To reach out with both hands has the idea of receiving, receiving. And oh dear friend, if you let go of this world with both hands and reach out to Jesus Christ with both hands and as you study the Word of God, receive with meekness the engrafted Word that is able to save your soul, deliver your psyche. Bring your life unto receive the Word of God. But oh dear friend, be filled with the Spirit of God. Be filled with the Spirit of God.

Read there in Galatians chapter 5 verses 21 and 22 and following. The Bible says, the fruit of the Spirit is what? Meekness. Meekness. When you say, Lord Jesus, I put your yoke upon me. When you say to the Word of God, I receive this Word with meekness. When you say to the Spirit of God, work in me, work in me.

The Holy Spirit of God, my dear friend, produces meekness. It's the fruit of the Spirit. You don't produce that fruit. You bear that fruit.

He produces that fruit in you. You walk in the Spirit. There'll be that meekness in your heart and in your life.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit. The earth. Talk to you about the definition of it. I've talked to you about the development of it. Let me talk to you for just a moment about the dynamic of it. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Have you ever just sort of daydreamed about having an inheritance? I heard a man sitting on a curb crying. Somebody said, why are you crying? He said, well, I just read in the newspaper where Rockefeller, the richest man in the world, died. He said, well, why are you crying? You're not a relative of his.

He said, that's what I'm crying. All of us, you know, we just kind of dream about having an inheritance. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

That's the dynamic of it. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean? Well, may I say, friend, you'll never have your full inheritance without meekness. Now, a man who cannot control himself or be controlled by the Spirit of God is never satisfied. What does he mean when he says we're going to inherit the earth? Well, it speaks of now and it speaks of hereafter. In the sweet by and by and in the nasty now and now, you can inherit the earth. First of all, how do we inherit the earth right now?

1 Corinthians 3, verses 21 and following. I want you to listen to it. All things are yours. Do you believe that?

I hope you do. It's in the Word of God. You say, well, I believe it in my head, but it never got to my heart. All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come.

All are yours. And ye are Christ's. And Christ's is God's. Now, just keep that in mind and turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 6 and verse 10. 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 10. We're talking about now inheriting the earth. He says here, all things are yours.

Now look, if you will, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6 and verse 10. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, well, that doesn't sound like you've inherited the earth, does it? As poor, yet making many rich, and now here's the key thing, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

Friend, I don't care what you have. If you don't have blessedness, you can't enjoy it because blessedness does not come in things. And I don't care what you don't have if you have blessedness, you have everything.

It's so strange. Well, what can the devil do to a person like this? He says here in this verse, that all things are yours, as having nothing yet possessing all things. And the devil comes to you. And you know, the devil will either come as what? The devil will come either as a roaring lion to terrify you or he'll come as an angel of light to entice you.

So first of all, the devil comes as a roaring lion and the devil says, roar. If you don't follow me, I'll take everything from you. You say, devil, you can't take anything from me because I don't have anything. That's what it says here, is having nothing. I don't have anything. So how are you going to take something from me when I don't have anything? Well, the devil says that doesn't work. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll come to him not as a roaring lion, I'll come to him as an angel of light. If you follow me, he says, I'll give you everything. I'll give you this and this and this. You say, devil, how are you going to give me anything?

I already have everything. What's he going to do? As possessing nothing yet having all things.

What can the devil do with a man like that? All things are yours. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. But in the world to come, have you ever thought about that prayer that we pray?

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. It's coming a time when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. And Jesus shall reign where the sun doth his successive journeys run, his kingdom spread from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more and the branches will bend. They shall reign down with fruit.

The plains will wave with grain. The lamb and the lion will lie down together. And the saints will rule and reign with Jesus Christ. He didn't make this for the devil's crowd. He made it for his people.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. I don't know what side you're on, dear friend. But I want to line up on this side.

I want to see myself as bankrupt, broken, and destitute. I want to weep over it. And then I want to say, Lord Jesus, as best I know how, I yield myself to you. I take your yoke. I believe your word. I'm bled of your spirit. And I'll inherit. I'll inherit the earth.

Do you know Jesus? Would you today consciously say, Lord Jesus, I trust you. I commit my life to you. You died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust you.

I take your yoke right now. I submit my life myself to you. You might pray it like this. Lord Jesus, just pray this way in your heart if you want to be saved. Lord Jesus, come into my heart today. Forgive my sin. Save me, Lord Jesus. Pray it and say it and mean it. Save me, Lord Jesus.

Did you ask him? Then say, Lord Jesus, thank you for doing it. And give me the courage today to make it public, not to be ashamed of you.

Amen. If you've given your heart and life to Jesus Christ today, we would love to celebrate with you. And we invite you to visit our Discover Jesus page. There you'll find answers at the website that you may need about your newfound faith.

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Just go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus. Welcome to God's forever family. We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, it's titled The Mighty Meek.

Visit us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Have you yielded to the Holy Spirit and developed a meek spirit? Take these steps today.

Submit to God, receive his word, and be filled with his spirit. We're so glad you studied with us today in God's word. And we hope you'll tune in next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.

A Facebook friend said this about Adrian Rogers. He speaks truth in love and cares about lost souls. That sums it up.

We could not agree more. And we're so honored to be able to share these profound yet practical messages at such a time as this. As 2020 winds down, Love Worth Finding wants you to know how much we appreciate your prayers and your faithfulness, especially during a year like this one.

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