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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Matthew Chapter 11, if you would in the word of God, please,
Matthew Chapter 11 this morning, as I just alluded to a few
moments ago, the title of the message today as we look at the
next characteristic of Christ is that Christ is meek.
Christ is meek. You know, if you call a man
knowledgeable, he'll probably be pleased.
If you call a man wise, you'll probably shake your hand.
You call him joyful, he'll probably give you a pat on the
back. But if you call a guy meek,
you'll probably punch you in the mouth just to prove that he's
not meek. That's kind of the way people
feel about meekness, isn't it? I mean, meekness isn't exactly
something that people usually use as a way to, you know, be
kind to somebody. But you know, you know, one of
the things I love about you, you're just so meek.
It's really not something that people would say 1 to another.
But yet we're going to find in our text this morning that it's
not just that Christ is called meek, but that Christ calls
himself meek. And so that means this, there's
got to be something good about it.
There must be something right and righteous about this issue
of meekness, that Christ calls himself meek and lowly of heart.
And so as we go through our series and we continue to go
through looking at these different characteristics, just
as we saw he was healer this week or last week, rather, we're
going to look at this issue of Christ being meek this morning
and why we should be so thrilled that Christ is meek when he
deals with us in our lives. Would you stand pleased for the
reading of God's Word? We're going to read 3 verses
this morning. Matthew Chapter 11, beginning in
verse #28 And just as we read from Matthew chapter 8 a few
moments ago, these verses, these 3 verses are also what I would
call some of the pinnacle verses that you will find within the
New Testament, often quoted, often used as a comfort and
encouragement. And you'll see why in just a
moment. If you're not familiar with it.
Matthew Chapter 11 verse #28 says, Come unto me, all you that
labor, 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 you shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Now if you have one of those Bibles that have red letters,
you'll find everything that we just read is in red letters,
isn't it? That means that the person who
is speaking is none other than Jesus Christ.
So this is Jesus who says, come unto me all you that labor and
are heavy laden. Remember I just asked a few
moments ago who needed encouragement, maybe a labor.
You're heavy laden. He said, I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek, I am meek
and lowly in heart. You shall find rest unto your
souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
We be seated as we get into the message this morning.
Heavenly Father, we do thank you for Your word.
We thank You for Your great love for us.
We're undeserving of that which we just heard sung a few moments
ago, and we know we're undeserving of it because of
Your word, but yet we know You also give it to us that great
love because of your word. So Lord, as we look at the issue
of Christ being meek this morning, help us to truly
understand what meekness is, understand how it applies to
Christ and how it applies to us as well in our lives.
And we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
The verses we just read represent some of the most
comforting and beautiful verses that you'll read anywhere in the
Word of God. And nestled right into middle of
these verses is this proclamation that Jesus makes of
himself when He says these 3 words.
I am meek. Now for us to truly understand
how Christ is meek, and I just alluded to a few moments ago, we
need to actually understand what meekness is because a lot of us
don't feel like meekness is a very good quality, certainly not
one that would be applied to Jesus Christ, at least in the
way that we normally think about what meekness is.
Now meekness, if you were to look at it in the dictionary and
really boil it down to what the dictionary would teach, and this
is just about any dictionary looked at several this week that
would try to define what meekness is.
It would really it down to this one word, gentleness.
Gentleness is meekness. Now listen, this is true.
There is no doubt within my mind that meekness and gentleness do
go together. However, just simply saying that
meekness is gentleness does not give the full and total picture
of what meekness is. I have defined it before here in
this church. I've defined it before through
preaching as this, and I believe I'm on solid biblical ground for
saying this, that meekness is not simply gentleness, but
rather meekness is power under control.
I'll say that again. Meekness is not simply
gentleness, but rather meekness is power under control.
We can put it this way, Meekness is not weakness.
And that's really what it comes down to, isn't it?
That's why a lot of us don't like the term meekness, because
we think inherently meekness is weakness and so we don't really
want to think of it anymore. And certainly if Jesus was
considered to be weak, well, he wouldn't have been the savior.
But what you know about the Word of God and what I know about the
Word of God this morning, we can certainly say this.
Jesus was not weak. No, he is all powerful.
No, he has all power within him. And yes, he is not weak, but he
is gentle. And so that leads us to this
understanding that it must be gentleness or power under
control, that those two going together, power and gentleness
together. You know, I think of a fire that
would take place. And, you know, even this time of
year, it's sometimes ironic that there could be large fires that
take place even with all the snow that's around.
But sometimes some of the worst fires can take place during this
time of year. You think of a fire that
ravages, the power of a fire that can RIP through a home.
It's uncontrollable, isn't it? It's unquenchable in a lot of
ways. It will eat up everything that's
around. There's no thought process to
it. It's wild.
It just goes in every direction until it has consumed everything
that it can possibly consume. That is a wildness.
There's no meekness that's involved in that whatsoever.
But maybe a better way for us to think of meekness would be not
weakness, but rather the firefighters that would go and
would take care of that fire. You know, I imagine when that
fire bell rings that they're not just running around going fire,
fire, What do we do? What do we do?
You know, they're not running around like that.
I've never done that church. That was kind of fun.
They're not running or what do we do?
There's an orderliness to what takes place Immediately the fire
bell rings. They get to the trucks, they get
to the fire. There's a procedure to getting
the equipment that they need out to hooking up to the water, from
going into the home, from going to place to place.
There's a lot of power that those firefighters have, but
that power is different than the power of the fire.
This is power that is under control.
Every movement, every thought, every action has discipline and
control. And you could make the argument
that those firefighters serving in the face of those wild flames
are the ones who really exemplify what true meekness is
all about. And wouldn't that say what our
Savior is? Wouldn't that explain to us who
our Savior is? Because Jesus Christ is not
weak. Jesus Christ is not one who has
no power, no, but rather Jesus Christ has power which was and
is under his control. Now, there's a passage that can
really help us to understand this.
So put your ribbon here in Matthew Chapter 11, if you
happen to have one. If not, put your finger in there
for just a minute. We'll go back to it.
But go to 2nd Corinthians chapter #10.
Second Corinthians chapter #10 you can go a couple 100 pages
maybe in your Bible here or there ahead to 2nd Corinthians
chapter #10 you're not sure where that is right after First
Corinthians. All right, you got that.
All right, good. Second Corinthians chapter #10
And Paul says this. Now I, Paul myself, beseech you
by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
So here it is, the word gentleness.
There it's associated with meekness.
No one is trying to deny that here.
Who in presence and base among you but be absent and bold
toward you. But I beseech you that I may not
be bold when I am present with that confidence that we'll stop
right there. Paul is ascribing to himself as
he is writing to the people of Corinth, He says, I, I want to
talk to you with the meekness of Christ.
But as soon as he says that he also associates some other words
as well. So as Paul is dealing with the
people of Corinthus meekness, he is also dealing with them well,
obviously in gentleness. That's number one, but he also
deals with them in humility. Do you see where it says he says
who in presence and base among you, meaning this, that Paul
says when I'm among you, I have humility.
When I'm among you, I don't act as I'm above you or I'm better
than you. He says when I'm among you, I
act with humility. That's part of meekness.
And wouldn't that again describe who Jesus Christ is, that he was
the humble one who humbled himself to come from the throne
of heaven to be able to be with sinful man and walk this earth
and die on the cross. What humility?
Who's ever been more humble than our Savior?
But he also says this, but being absent and bold toward you.
So this means that Paul says you can have meekness and boldness
at the same time. A lot of times the idea we have
of meekness, I think of someone who's kind of mousy and kind of
goes around corners and maybe talks really quiet so that
nobody knows anything that's going on.
But Jesus Christ was meek and he turned over tables.
Jesus Christ was meek, and he called the Pharisees Vipers and
whited sepulchers. Could we put it this way that
Jesus Christ, even in His meekness, was bold?
But it wasn't brashness. It wasn't out of control like
our boldness often can be. No, Jesus Christ in His meekness
showed power under control, which gave what?
Give confidence. Verse #2 I beseech you that I
may not be bold when I'm present with that confidence, the idea
that this is not a cockiness, that Jesus Christ, when we put
it this way, knew who He was and that as such, He showed and
exemplified these things to those who He was around.
Now this isn't my message this morning, but that spirit of
meekness is the way we're supposed to live.
Wow, that didn't go over well. The spirit of meekness is how
we're supposed to live with gentleness, humility, boldness
and confidence in who confidence in me.
I have no confidence in my flesh.
My confidence is in him. And we're called to have this
type of meekness within our lives as well.
And again, that's not my message this morning because the message
is about Christ is meek and how that applies to us.
But I do think it's important for us to take a moment and say,
yes, we should be meek as well even as Christ is meek because
let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Now, last week we saw that Christ was healer, and our
understanding of this was broaden not just by looking at
the word heal, but also looking at the text around it.
I want to be careful when we're in this series that we're not
just taking one word and plucking it out and then just
going to wherever we want in the Bible to try to make our own
connections. No, those words are there in
context. Those words have meanings, and
the context helps us to broaden our understanding of what that's
about. South Jesus talked about this
word of being meek in and of himself, but what was the other
things that he was talking about to help us understand why it's
so important? So go back to where you were,
where your ribbon was, or where your ribbon is in Matthew
Chapter 11, and let's read this again where it says this.
It wasn't just that He was meek. All the words surrounded are
this. Come unto me, all ye that labor,
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 this is not just the fact that Jesus is explaining His
meekness to a crowd, but rather what He is doing is making a
call to a crowd and the call is this, Come unto me.
Why can you come to me? Because I am meek and lowly in
heart. This is important.
He is speaking to an entire crowd and He is telling them,
come to me and you can come to me in confidence because I am
the meek and lowly one of heart. So here's the question as we
broaden it out even more. So we took the word meek and
then we broaden it out to see the text of which He was
speaking about His meekness. But let's broaden it out even
more. Ask ourselves this question.
Who is He speaking to? OK, so he's making this call for
people to come, but who's supposed to come?
Who are the people that he's talking to?
Well, the good news is all the answer for us today is contained
in Matthew Chapter 11. So go all the way back to the
beginning. We're reading the whole chapter.
Just kidding. All right?
But some of you are really quite sad.
Should I say Amen to that? I don't know what I should say.
We're going to read some different sections here very
quickly, and I want to explain just for sake of time, but I do
want us to see here. Look at verse #1 Chapter 11.
And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding
His 12 disciples. He departed thence to teach and
preach in their cities. But that sounds familiar,
doesn't it? That's what we saw last week,
that He was healing to teach and preach because the healing was
to authenticate the message in the messenger.
Well, here he is again. He's still teaching and he's
still preaching. Verse 2.
Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, he
sent two of his disciples. Now which John is this?
You may ask? John the Baptist.
Not John the Baptizer, but John the Baptist as we talked about
last week. And John the Baptist sent two of
his disciples to Jesus, and look at what he says.
Some of you may never even seen this verse before, and some of
you might be surprised about what John the Baptist is about
to ask. Because John the Baptist was the
one who said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world. John the Baptist was the one who
was supposed to be baptizing Jesus and when he was approached
by Jesus about this, he says I'm not even worthy to unlatch your
shoe. But then Jesus said no, you are
to do this, for I am to follow to give an example to others.
John had great faith, but look at what it says in verse 3 and
said unto him, Art thou he that should come or we should look
for another? Do you understand the
ramifications of what we just read?
John is starting to question his own faith in the message that he
preached to the masses. Say, Pastor, how's that
possible? You've never doubted your faith
before. Don't make me come down there.
I'm coming all the way down. All right?
I'm about to go to the sound booth.
You've never doubted your faith? No, no.
Let's get down to brass tacks this morning.
Some of you just looking at me like this is pie in the sky
stuff here that we're just. This is what pastor has to do.
Because, you know, it was even ready because he thought there
was going to be a storm. Was he?
Did he have a sermon ready? Yeah, I had a sermon ready.
I got one for tonight, too. And I had one for this morning
for Sunday school. Right.
I was ready for all of it. But.
But understand, have you ever doubted?
You were just in your face. They got.
Are you good? Because I don't feel like it.
God, are you watching? Because it doesn't feel like you
know where I'm at. What are what are you doing?
And John had one of those moments.
What I love about it is that Jesus did not rebuke John, but
he also didn't leave him in that state.
What John told him to do is so illustrative for us.
Look at it. I could probably quote it for
you, but I want to make sure I say it correctly.
Look at what it says. And Jesus answered, said to him,
Go and show John again the things which you do here, and
see. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf here, the
dead are raised up, the poor of the Gospel preached unto them,
and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.
His answer was this. Go tell him again the things
that he saw. Could I maybe help you with what
you deal with when you deal with doubts?
What do I need to do? Go back to those things that you
know God has already taught you. Go back to those times you had
spiritual victories. Go all the way back to the time
that you got saved if you need to.
I can't tell you how many times that even in my own mind when
when when Satan has tried to get me twisted up in my own mind or
my flesh has gotten me into trouble and I start to question
if is there something within me that's wrong or did I maybe that
I never even get saved in the first place.
That I get taken back to that office at 5121 Kelly Rd. in
Tampa, FL where I was in the office of Steve Baker, where I
knelt down in front of a chair and asked Jesus Christ to save
me. I have to go back again.
But then I wondered, did I really?
Did that really happen? And then I had to start asking
myself, but what about when God spoke to me during these
messages and I got things right? Who's speaking to me then?
The Holy Spirit is inside of me. What's the Holy Spirit inside of
you? Proof of your salvation, It says
go tell him again. Go back to those passages you've
read in your Bible. You ought to have a, you ought
to have a top ten list in your Bible reading top 10 passages
that have blessed you in the past.
By the way, doesn't have to be 10.
But do you understand what I'm saying?
That when you start doubting certain things and you start
having trouble, that you go back to some old favorites.
You know, don't turn on the same old song that makes you feel
sorry again. Go back to the book of Psalms or
to some other book in this book that reminds you of what Jesus
has done in your life. So who is he speaking to?
Well, he's speaking to John through his disciples, but then
it says in verse number 7. And as they departed, Jesus
began to say to the multitudes concerning John, meaning that as
soon as he said this to the disciples and they left, Jesus
then turned to the crowd who had already been there, and now he
speaks to them. This is one event that's taking
place. This isn't several events that
are taking place. It's one event.
Are you following me right now? This means yes, and this means
no. All right.
Are we following? OK, good.
All right, he said. What went ye into the wilderness
to see a Reed shaken with the wind?
It's almost as if the crowd starts murmuring to themselves
like, what's John? Was John that great?
Why is John doubting that? It's almost like they're
starting to wonder if John the Baptist was the real deal.
And Jesus. Starts to explain to them don't
you take this out on John. That's what explains them.
Look at what he says but when you went out to see a man
clothed and soft raiment. Behold, they that wear soft
clothing are in King's houses. But what we out to see a
prophet. Yeah, I say unto you and more
than a prophet for this is he of whom it is written.
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face which shall
prepare the way before me. He even goes back to Malachi
chapter 3 verse 1. He said John and his mission and
his ministry was biblically ordained by God.
Don't look down on him because of his doubts.
And he continues on, and he finishes.
Verse #15 He says, He the hath ears, let him hear.
Then verse 16 he continues, But we're in too shy like in this
generation. It's like unto children sitting
in the markets and calling under their fellows, and saying, We
have piped unto you. We've not, you've not danced,
we've moored with you, and you've not lamented.
For John came neither eating nor drinking.
And they say He had the devil, the Son of man came eating and
drinking. And they say, behold, a man
gluttonous and a wine bib, or a friend of publicans and sinners.
But wisdom is justifies of her children.
And Jesus now exposes the duplicitous of the people.
He says this, you can't ever be satisfied.
You didn't like John and so one came with a different spirit
than John. And you didn't like me.
He says, like someone saying, Hey, did you?
Why don't you rejoice with me? And they turn around and say,
why don't you mourn with me? And you'd kind of say, well,
what do you want? And that's what Jesus is
exposing to the people. He says, what do you want?
And he's showing them how fickle they truly are.
And then it says in verse #20 then began he to upbraid the
cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because
they repented not. What does that word then mean?
It's just still the same conversation.
Now I'm going somewhere with this.
All right? If you think I'm not going
anywhere with this, I am getting there.
It just may take a while to get there.
All right. So he's talking about John the
Baptist, and then he talks to the people who are complaining
about John the Baptist. And then he talks about how
fickle the people are in their complaints.
And then in the same conversation, he starts to bring
condemnation on three towns in particular, Cherazin and Besadia
and Capernaum. And he says, in essence, he says
if the works that were done here were done in Sodom and Gomorrah,
they would have repented. He says, you are so hard in your
heart that what's been done in front of you, you don't even
recognize it. And he's talking to these what
could only be called unsaved people.
And he says this, why don't you get it?
And then verse 25, it says at that time, no, at that time.
Does that mean at a later time or at the same time?
A later time or the same time? OK, good.
Some of you want to participate. All this time I'm giving you a
chance, and now you don't want to take it at the same time.
This is the same conversation that's taking place all the way
from verse one to now. And so he says, I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise, and the prudent has revealed them
unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me
and my father. And no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, and neither knoweth any man by the Father save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him to.
And then after all that he says, come unto me, all you that
labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I meek and lowly in
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light. So you see how we expanded it.
We took the word meek and we asked ourselves, what?
What is he saying about meekness?
It's really a conversation about coming to him.
And then we asked ourselves, well, who's supposed to come to
him? And we enlarged it to the whole
chapter. And then the chapter we found
that he was talking about John. And then he was talking to the
people and calls out their hypocrisy and brings
condemnation upon them because of their unbelief.
And then in the same conversation he says, come.
So who was he talking to? Two groups of people.
First of all, he's obviously talking to the unsaved.
What was he saying to the unsaved?
Come, you know what the message is today?
Come unto him. You know what's interesting?
After all that took place and Jesus exposes the fickleness of
the people, brings condemnation upon them, and still he follows
that up with come unto me. This message is unique to Jesus
over every other person in history.
My message to you this morning is run to him.
Peter's message in Acts was believe on him.
Paul's message in the epistles was consider him and look unto
him. John the apostles message was to
have fellowship with him. The author of Hebrews message
was to diligently seek him. When man preaches, the finger
should always point to him. But Jesus is unique because he
didn't say to go seek someone else.
Jesus said this come to me and that ought to make us excited
this morning. Then I make a dead Baptist
excited this morning. Then everyone else says go to
him. But Jesus says come to me.
And he's the only one who legitimately can say come unto
me. For my yoke is easy.
My burden is light. The yoke of sin is heavy.
The yoke of bondage is heavy. The yoke of condemnation that is
upon you as unsaved is so heavy you can't even fathom it.
How heavy is it? It's as heavy as the lake of
fire for all eternity. And yet people would say, what
an angry God, what an unjust God, what a miserable God, when
that God is saying, come, come unto me, because only He can
lift that condemnation that's upon you.
No, only He can lift the condemnation that's upon you for
your sins. The wrath of God abideth on
those who are unsaved. You know what cannot remove the
wrath of God? The Eucharist, you know it
cannot remove the wrath of God, the baptismal waters, you said
when you're talking about the the other denominations, because
that pool that you have here, that horse through that can
remove that one can't remove it either because that's a picture
of what Christ has already done in the heart, not the actual
removal of sins. Your good works cannot remove
the condemnation. The heavy burden of sin and
judgment is upon you, and the Bible says that the wrath of God
abideth on you, and the only way that can be lifted is to come.
He didn't say come unto me in your works.
He didn't say come unto me with your excuses.
He just didn't say come unto me and be a good person says come
unto me, take my yoke upon you. He carried the burden for us.
You thought the cross was heavy. The cross was light compared to
the weight of your sins and the weight of my sins.
Come unto me. I'm meek and lowly of heart.
He showed His meekness on the cross.
One commentator said. His meekness shone brightest at
the cross where love restrained. His omnipotence and patience
triumphed over power. The literal embodiment of power
under control was Jesus on the cross.
That is meekness. First Peter 223 who when he was
reviled, reviled not. Again, when he suffered, he
threatened not, but committed himself to him.
That judges righteously. Yes, we considered John the
Baptist, yet rather we consider John the Baptist that the
message of come was to the unsaved.
But remember, the same conversation started with what
John, who was John? A believer.
So the message of Come, come unto me was not just to the
unsaved, but also goes all the way back to the beginning of
that chapter, and it goes to John the Baptist and to all the
saved. Wouldn't it be great that after
you got saved, you had no more burdens?
Listen, the greatest burden has been lifted from you when you're
saved. But the trials and troubles of
life still weigh upon us, don't they?
Sickness is still real difficulties, still real
hardships, finances, work situations, family situations,
they all weigh upon the soul and your need to come to Christ is
true in salvation, but it never truly ends in your life.
I'm not saying you lose your salvation.
The Bible doesn't say that. It says quite the opposite.
But I will tell you this is that you still need to come to Him
every day. Like the old hymn says, I need
the every hour, every hour. And if you're saved this
morning, aren't you glad that the call for come unto me isn't
just to the unsaved, but that he's still calling you this
morning? And I could be so bold to even
tell you this morning, Jesus Christ is calling you today at
this moment, and says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, for I will give you rest if you're discouraged.
He says come unto me if your faith wavers.
He says, come unto me. When you have doubts, He says,
Come unto me. When you're confused, He says,
Come unto me. When you're tempted, he says,
Come unto me. Why is it so important to read
your Bible every day? Well, it's because it's an
extension of the call come unto me.
Why is it important to have an active prayer life?
Because it's an extension of the call.
Come unto me. He calls us through His word.
He beckons us to meet with Him every day.
He calls to us to pray. He He beckons to fellowship with
us. Why is it important to be in a
vibrant Bible preaching church? Because we come together to be
able to fellowship with Him and to fellowship with one another
so we can encourage one another. But all of that is to come unto
each other. No, the call is to come unto
Him. You can come that confidence
because he's meek. Really, all this comes down to
the fact that Jesus Christ is meek and because of his
meekness, you can meet with him. In fact, I would put it this
way, you can meet with Christ because of the meekness of
Christ. If you remember one thing this
morning, remember this, You can meet with Christ because of the
meekness of Christ, because there's a lot of people who
would tell you, hey, if you need something, come see me.
And then you need something and you're like, where'd they go?
As a pastor, it's often something that I will say if
someone extends to me the need that they have trouble, I'll say
if you need anything, let me know.
But something I've learned very quickly in ministry is if you
say that, you better mean it because everybody will tell you,
hey, you need something, call me and all of a sudden the phone's
off the hook. Wait, there's no hooks anymore,
But you understand the phone's on silent.
Is that better? The phones on do not disturb
people And I look, I understand that sometimes we can't be
available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I understand that. I'm not trying to say that we
are. But there is that element that
man will say come and then push away.
But Christ is so meek and lowly in heart that to every person
he's ever said come, He has never turned away.
That's a beautiful thing. Say well, you don't understand
what my life has been like. Jesus Christ couldn't save me.
He said come. He said come, you can be saved
today. He paid the penalty for your sin
on the cross. You can come to him today and
call upon him in salvation and you can be saved.
I'll ask you when it was truly the last time saved person here
this morning that you really went to him and had a real
fellowship with him. No, I mean that you, you read
your Bible and maybe just read a few verses and you just stopped.
So, you know, I'm going to sit here and think about this for a
while and maybe your mind starts to wander because our minds do,
don't they? And they kind of just bring it
back and bring it back again. When was the last time you were
in church and you felt like you really met with God?
Now he's here, He wants to meet with you, but that doesn't mean
we meet with him. That your heart was ready for
the Word of God, that as the word was preached, you thought I
need to respond to this. And again, that doesn't mean
that meeting with him means everyone has to flood the altar.
It just means this. You need to be responsive to the
word of God. Now, if you pray here at the
altar, that's a wonderful thing. We encourage that.
But we're not counting numbers here.
You know, I'd much rather have people who show lives that
they've met with God, not having numbers of people that have come
to the front. If you're weary, if you have
difficulty, you don't know where to turn.
Come unto him. He's meek and he's lowly of
heart. I remember when I was in first
grade, I don't remember the name of the teacher because I was in
her classroom for maybe a couple months.
It's a long story, one that no, all right, my teacher supposed
to be available. She's supposed to help students,
and for whatever reason, my teacher probably did not have
the real desire to teach. I'm not saying that everyone
that's in the teaching profession really has that
desire, and she certainly did not for whatever reason.
I remember very few things about this, but I do remember a little
bit. But I just remember thinking
that, well, I don't really like this class.
And apparently my parents saw enough that made them
uncomfortable that they wanted me out of the class and actually
changed me to a different class with a teacher that I do
remember whose name was Miss Lutheran, that was a Miss
Luthan's class. I loved Miss Luthan's class.
But then I got to 2nd grade. I had a teacher named Missus
Noriega. Now I love to read today.
And the reason I love to read is because of Missus Noriega.
And I remember she would read to us as all teachers are supposed
to. They read to you at that age.
But she had this bookshelf just filled with books.
And she said if you want some books, just come and get them.
And I remember after school I would stay in her classroom
sometimes and and read, grab a book.
I'd grab a book on Friday and bring it back on Monday and get
a new book. And I'd love to read today
because I would read in those little 5060 page books back in
Miss Noriega's class in second grade.
Now I read 607 hundred page books that still sometimes test
me. But was there more pictures in
them? Be honest with you.
But but 500 pages of pictures and 200 pages of reading might
be better. But I just remember that the
spirit of the two teachers was so different that I wanted to
stay with Miss Noriega. It was interesting.
When I was in 3rd grade, after school, I'd go back to Miss
Noriega's class. I didn't get passed over.
I'm just saying I went back and get more books and she became a
friend of our family by the time I was in fifth grade there at
Westgate or at Woodbridge Elementary School in Tampa.
I just remember, well, both of them were supposed to be
available. They're teachers, right?
Well, the spirit of one said I'm good, In fact, I want to get out
of here. The spirit of the other kept
bringing me back over and over and over again.
If you don't feel like you can come to Christ, is it because of
something that he has done in his posture or in his character
that would push you away? Well, he's not fair.
I can't be around him. Boy, He is so angry.
I can't be around him. Oh boy, He, he is not worthy of
faith. I can't be around him.
Or is it that he's always said come and he's meek and lowly of
heart and the reason you don't want to be around him as much as
because of you? That's tough talk, but it's not
meant to be mean. I'm just trying to present to
you what the Bible says. I'm not here to make you feel
good. I'm here to be your pastor.
Now, if I make you feel good along the way, that's good.
But sometimes we got to feel bad before we feel good.
And I'm saying if we go, I don't know what you said, Ralph, but I
like it. All right.
And if we don't want to be around him, is it because he's
not meek, he's not lowly? Because the whole central
message of come because his yoke is easy, it's his burden is
light is you can come to me because I'm meek and I'm lowly
and again, not weakness, but that meek Savior is so powerful
that he can help you with whatever you need, including and
most importantly your salvation. And if he can help you with your
salvation, you think he can help you with your bank account.
You know, I'm not going to be flipping.
I'm just saying, if he could save your soul for all eternity,
you think he can help your bank account or he can help you at
the job, or he can help you with a with a physical illness, or he
can bring you grace to be able to sustain you through those
things. Even if he doesn't solve them
the way you want them to be solved.
He can do it. But it all comes down to this
phrase. Come and you can come to him
because He's meek and lowly of heart.
I'll leave you with this verse. And we end the word of God with
it just two verses shy of the end of the Bible.
The Spirit and the Bride say come, but him that Heareth say
come and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him
take the water of life freely. The very end of the Bible, Jesus
reminds us you need to come. Come to him in salvation.
And once you get saved, don't stop coming to Him.
Keep coming to Him because he is meek and lowly of heart.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.