protects this Lord's Day from Galatians 5.22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness. And then I would have you turn with me to Matthew chapter 27. beginning with verse 35 through verse 44. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there, and set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross. and we will believe him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now, if he will have him. For he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth." To speak about gentleness or kindness to those who run and operate a successful business is to receive a blank stare or an incredulous expression, at least from a worldly perspective. For the grace of gentleness and running a successful business just don't seem to fit together from a worldview. that does not have Jesus Christ and his revelation as the center of that worldview. How can one be gentle and yet make a profit or be successful in the world? It's the tough, harsh approach that alone motivates people to meet deadlines. It's the leader that is willing at times to compromise Biblical principles that alone can succeed in a world that does not play by the same Biblical principles and rules that Christians, those who are sincerely, truly Christians, live their lives by and their businesses by. The motto of this world is, to be successful in this world, you have to play by the rules of this world, not by the rules given to us by God. Dear ones, even if, hypothetically, the Christian never ever meets the financial success in this world that non-Christians meet, That is no reason at all to forsake or minimize the gentleness and kindness that characterize the life of the greatest leader that ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we Christians or not? Do we only bear that fruit of the spirit of gentleness because it will make us successful? Dear ones, God forbid. As Christians, we have the DNA of Jesus Christ implanted within us. And one of those godly divine qualities is that of gentleness or kindness, good leadership, And gentleness and kindness, that of Christ himself, are not contradictory. But good leadership and gentleness or kindness are complementary one to another. Beloved, the fruit of gentleness and kindness will only grow in our lives toward our family members toward our neighbor, toward those with whom we work, toward our fellow students, toward our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ as we behold by faith and live out the gospel displayed in the gentleness and kindness of Jesus Christ as He was humiliated upon the cross in order that sinners who trust in Him might be rescued from sin, the guilt of sin, the condemnation of sin, and the power of sin, and might be exalted to the status of the heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. The work of Jesus Christ upon the cross is the epitome of gentleness and kindness. Notice in Titus chapter 3 what the Apostle Paul says, verses 4-7, But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Dear ones, if anyone knew what it was to demonstrate gentleness and kindness as he suffered the humiliation of mockery, lies, and unjust criticism and accusation, it was the Lord Jesus Christ as he hung upon that cursed cross. You see, dear ones, the world may teach that showing gentleness or kindness when humiliation is heaped upon you is simply a sign of your weakness and your powerlessness, but our text demonstrates the error of such a worldly view. The main points from our text this Lord's Day are the following. 1. The Lord Jesus demonstrated His gentleness and kindness as He suffered the humiliation of nakedness. Matthew 27, verses 35-36 2. The Lord Jesus demonstrated His gentleness and kindness as He suffered the humiliation of being numbered with criminals. Matthew 27, verses 37-38 3. The Lord Jesus demonstrated His gentleness and His kindness as He suffered the humiliation of further mockery. Matthew 27, verses 39-44 Throughout the sermon, as I noted last Lord's Day in the previous sermon, The words gentleness and kindness are used interchangeably. Sometimes that word that we find for the fruit of the Spirit, gentleness, is translated as gentleness. Other times it's translated as kindness. And so I will use both words as I did last Lord's Day in this sermon, this Lord's Day. And so we come to the first main point. The Lord Jesus demonstrated his gentleness or kindness as he suffered the humiliation of nakedness. Look with me once again, verses 35 to 36. And they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there. As our text begins, the Lord Jesus has now been led to Golgotha, the place of the skull, outside of Jerusalem to be crucified, having endured the kangaroo courts of the Sanhedrin and of Pilate and Herod. Once having arrived, our blessed Savior is cruelly nailed to the cross and lifted up from the earth for all to behold, for all to scorn, for all to ridicule. It was now the third hour. of the day, that is, 9 a.m. in the morning, according to Mark 15, 25, the parallel passage to this one. Every aspect of Roman crucifixion was intended to dehumanize a man. Thus, being crucified ordinarily meant suffering the indignity of being stripped of all one's clothing. Not only was it a curse to hang upon a cross, but it was also a public humiliation as well. To be publicly exposed in one's nakedness before men, before women and children, in such a way was to endure one of the most extreme humiliations among Israelites. Back in 2 Samuel 10 verses 4-5 we find some of the ambassadors of David sent to the Ammonite king and he suspects that the Israelites are spies and coming to him to comfort him at the death of his father and so he takes the spies, he shaves half of their beard and he cuts off their robes about at their waist so that the lower part of their body is revealed. This is Such a shame that they, even the beard being shaved halfway off, that they are sent away in order to wait until their beard grows back. But again, the nakedness as well, being a way to dishonor, a way to humiliate and shame a person. So suffered our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the scripture does not explicitly use the word naked in regard to Christ's condition, it would seem to imply either a partial or a complete nakedness. For we find in Matthew chapter 27 verse 35 that the four Roman soldiers specifically responsible for Christ's crucifixion, took the garments, in the plural, garments, that Christ was wearing and divided them among themselves. John chapter 19, the parallel passage there, verses 23 through 24 gives a little bit more information when it says Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, once again in the plural, and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be. that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. And so you notice here that The coat, the outer garment, was without any seams, so they cast lots for the outer garment, but that wasn't all that they divided among themselves. There were four ways that they divided other parts of his clothing among themselves, which would include the inner garments that they removed from the Lord Jesus, so as to bring shame and humiliation upon our Savior. The soldiers, as we have just read, then cast lots in fulfillment of Psalm 22, verse 18, to determine who would get the various pieces of Christ's clothing. What a scene this was indeed, dear ones. The sinless Son of God suffered in extreme misery and agony for sinners, sinners like those men who played games under the shadow of His cross. They had so little interest in the suffering of Christ, they blocked out His suffering by making His execution into some kind of a game. These executioners had become so calloused to the suffering of the sinless Son of God, that they entertained themselves while Christ groaned in anguish and pain, and was humiliated before them by His nakedness. Yet the Lord Jesus, dear ones, became naked, that in gentleness and kindness to sinners He might show His amazing grace and love to those who trust alone in Christ alone. He became naked that He might clothe with the garments of His own righteousness those who put their confidence and trust in Him. Dear ones, think for a moment. because we were like those soldiers who lived for our own pleasure in the shadow of the cross. We cared not for the suffering of Jesus Christ. We cared not for our shameful reproach of stripping Christ of his glory by the way we live, by the way we spoke, But dear ones, because He suffered the shame of nakedness on our behalf, He showed kindness. He showed His gentleness to us. He loved us with an everlasting love. And in spite of our bringing shame upon His holy name and person, He showed us and everlasting kindness and gentleness, and gave us eyes to see our own nakedness before Him, our own shame before Him, and to see and understand that Christ became naked that we might be clothed, not in our own righteousness, but clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I ask you today Do you understand that your sin has made you naked and infinitely shameful before a holy God? Do you acknowledge that you are without any righteousness or goodness with which to clothe yourselves? Instead of being ashamed of sin, dear ones, do we glory in that for which we ought to be ashamed? If so, dear ones, if we glory in our shame, we glory in our own nakedness. Dear ones, you may falsely assume that your own works of righteousness and obedience are a sufficient robe with which to clothe yourself and your nakedness before a holy God, and that your own goodness is in fact a beautiful garment in the sight of God, but you have deceived yourselves. Just as the emperor in that fable was deceived when he was told that he was clothed in the most beautiful royal garments ever made, when all along, all along he was simply walking about in the shame of his own nakedness. Listen, dear ones, to the invitation of the Lord Jesus as he addresses all those who hear his voice, even those who are within the visible church of Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 3, verses 15 through 18. Listen to the invitation and receive it. Come to Christ. When Jesus says, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot, so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and here's the invitation in verse 18. I counsel thee, buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. The gentleness and the kindness of the Lord in His invitation to all who will hear him, to whom the gospel is proclaimed. Clothed, be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. See that you are naked now by way of your own righteousness before God. Come to Jesus Christ. And dear ones, now that we have, by God's grace and by God's gentleness and kindness been clothed with the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. Let us no longer live for our own pleasure, treating the clothing or righteousness of Christ as if it were a game that we're playing. For we act in such cases, dear ones, like those soldiers, when we can lie when we can deceive, when we can steal, when we can boast, when we can lust or commit any other sin that we choose to commit without shame, playing our games in the shadow of Christ's suffering for us as those who claim to be Christians. How seriously, dear ones, do you take your sin? Come to Him today with your nakedness and shame, and He will clothe you. He asks, dear ones, for no qualifications to come. The only qualification is that you confess and acknowledge your nakedness, your shamefulness, your humiliation, and that if He alone can clothe you with His righteousness. The Lord Jesus, dear ones, suffered the humiliation of nakedness in order to show you the blessedness of His gentleness and His kindness in clothing you with His glorious righteousness. Our second main point is this. The Lord Jesus demonstrated His gentleness and his kindness as he suffered the humiliation of being numbered with criminals." Back again to our text in Matthew 27, verses 37-38, "...and set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right hand and another on the left. A further indignity which Christ suffered as He hung upon that cursed cross was to be accounted a common criminal with the alleged crime for which He was crucified hanging nailed over his head upon that cross, which stated, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. That was the crime that he committed, that he called himself the Messiah, Jesus, the Savior. Dear ones, Christ was condemned, and Christ suffered as the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. He was not a mere man suffering for his own sin, but was the King of Israel, suffering for the sins of all who will look by faith alone, in Christ alone, for their eternal salvation. Even in Christ's death, man could not remove the glory of Christ from his suffering for sinners. even in His death, that which was intended to be an accusation against Him was simply sending out in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew the fact that He was the Son of God. He was the Messiah. The Word of God tells us in Matthew 27, 38 that Christ was numbered with transgressors, with criminals, placed in the middle, one on each side. This was in fulfillment, actually, of Isaiah's prophecy. In Isaiah 53, verse 7, again, we find that in the life and in the death of Jesus Christ, how many prophecies were fulfilled, hundreds of years separated the prophecy given and the fulfillment realized. Again, another glorious testimony that what we have here, dear ones, is the infallible Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. He was placed in the center as if he was the chief of all sinners. And in a sense, He was the chief of all sinners, as he suffered for the sins of all sinners, chosen in Christ Jesus before the world began. It is most likely the case, dear ones, that Barabbas, the murdering insurrectionist, was intended by Pilate to occupy that middle position. between his two accomplices in murder and robbery as the chief sinner. But Christ voluntarily took the place of the chief of sinners and was accounted to be the vilest criminal in order that he might rescue those who are actually the chief of sinners. According to the Apostle Paul, about himself, he says, he was the chief of sinners, that Jesus Christ in his kindness, in his gentleness, suffered and died to save even the chief of sinners. If that, dear ones, is not good news, if that is not good news, there is no good news in all of this world. We'll never hear good news if that is not good news. And if it does not cause your heart to rejoice, Even now, as you hear the Gospel of Christ proclaimed, dear ones, shake yourself, awaken yourself from that attitude of neutrality, of lukewarmness. This is the glorious Gospel of Christ that is offered, His gentleness, His kindness, and He suffered all type of shame in order to show to you that out of humiliation there is kindness and gentleness that comes forth from God. It was no accident, dear ones, that Jesus was numbered with criminals, for He was ordained from all eternity to be the Savior of sinners. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, according to Revelation 13.8. If we who are corrupt sinners would find it shameful and repugnant to be stripped of all our clothing, dehumanized before men and women and children, and classified, identified with the worst of criminals for no crime which he had committed, can we even begin to imagine the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He suffered, who was forever, ever pure and holy, and had never even thought even once that which was sinful, let alone spoken or done that which was sinful, to suffer such humiliation. To go from His heavenly glory In order to be stripped naked, crucified, and accounted the chief of sinners was an inexpressible humiliation. But he suffered that humiliation willingly, that indignity willingly, that you and me, the real criminals, the real transgressors, might be lavished with His gentleness and His kindness by forgiving us who trust alone in Christ alone, now and for all eternity, every sin which brings true shame and humiliation and eternal condemnation to man. Dear ones, you might understand to some degree this humiliation of Christ in being accounted and numbered with these criminals if you have ever been falsely accused of some sin, of some immoral behavior, falsely accused of some wicked error. But horror, dear ones, for one, who is innocent to have his or her name, her or his reputation, tarnished by being publicly treated and identified with those who grope around at night to perform their wicked acts that they might not be seen so doing in the light of day. How easy, dear ones, is it to be gentle and kind to those who drag your name and reputation through the mud and account you with those types of sinners and those types of criminals? And yet, Jesus Christ suffered that humiliation, and out of that humiliation came and flowed forth a gentleness and kindness that the world has never seen to the same degree. Dear ones, the Lord Jesus suffered this indignity of being numbered among the worst of criminals and transgressors so that you who trust in Christ alone might be numbered among his own adopted brethren. and made the heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If He has, dear ones, condescended in such gentleness and kindness to suffer such shame for you, dear Christian, can any shameful sin that you have committed against Him or against your neighbor not be forgiven? Dear child of God, His shame in being numbered among the worst of criminals and sinners is the guarantee of the removal of the shame of your sin and forgiveness in Christ now and for all eternity. Therefore, in light of that, dear ones, walk not in that shame any longer. cease from walking in that shame. Walk rather in the glorious position and rank of children of the living God. And our third and final main point is this. The Lord Jesus demonstrated His gentleness and kindness as He suffered the humiliation of further mockery. In Matthew 27, verses 39-44 we read, And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. You recall that Christ had previously been mocked and ridiculed by the Roman soldiers back in Matthew chapter 27 verse 31, but now the King of Kings is mocked and insulted by those who pass by. Secondly, he's mocked and ridiculed by the chief priests and the elders of the nation of Israel. And thirdly, he's even mocked and ridiculed by the two criminals who were crucified on either side of him. Those passing by looked upon Christ as an imposter whom they thought had claimed to destroy the temple in Jerusalem and in three days miraculously to raise it up again. which he did not, in fact, claim at all, because John 2.19 says he was not speaking about the temple that sat in a particular location there in Jerusalem. He was talking about the temple of his body. Here were people who, no doubt, had either witnessed or heard of the many miracles of Jesus Christ, and they conveniently misinterpreted his words and selectively forgot his actual miracles that he had performed. And then there were the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin who gloated in their supposed victory, Christ there hanging upon the cross, their enemy, gone, they thought. They also mocked the Lord Jesus by recounting how Christ had miraculously rescued others from all types of illnesses and diseases and infirmities, but He could not rescue Himself. Save yourself! You are able to save and heal others. Save yourself if you are the Son of God. These people knew and could not deny the miracles which Christ had performed. And yet, due to the hardness of their hearts, they would not see the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ as confirming His deity, confirming the gospel which He preached. Every man, dear ones, who refuses to come to Christ when the Gospel is proclaimed will either misinterpret Christ's claims or will ignore Christ's claims or will attribute Christ's claims to other causes. But the reality of Jesus Christ and His claims, dear ones, cannot forever go unheeded. For every man will on that final day of judgment appear before God, before Jesus Christ, and will acknowledge Him to be Christ and His claims to be true. How foolish, therefore, for men and women and children to deny and reject now what they must confess on that final day. to be true and then suffer the eternal consequences for their rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These mockers challenge Christ to come down from the cross. And they say, if He does so, they will believe in Him. They will simply come down from the cross. You see, the Jewish leaders had heard and seen Christ perform, as we noted, many miracles during His ministry, and that was not sufficient for them to believe in Him. They had heard the gospel, but that was not sufficient for them to believe in Him. Just a few hours before, these Jewish leaders had witnessed The power of Jesus Christ knocked down 600 soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane that came to take Him captive. And yet in His gentleness and in His kindness, He knocked them down rather than sending fire from heaven to consume them. And then they witnessed the Lord Jesus take the ear that had been severed from the head of the high priest servant by Peter and take that severed ear and put it back in place and to heal that ear. They witnessed that. But that wasn't sufficient for them to believe that he was the son of God. They would not believe. They would also, dear ones, come to know and to realize that Christ even had been raised from the dead. Because after the resurrection, the stone was rolled away, the angels, the bright light, the soldiers that were guarding the tomb ran back to the Sanhedrin, to the elders, the high priests, and told them what had happened. And they paid them off to tell a lie that his disciples came and took the body. Which was, in effect, to seal their own doom and fate, or to fall asleep, was a capital punishment. But the high priest said, we'll take care of it. We'll take care of it. You see, dear ones, these people have no intention to believe in Christ, even if he did come down from the cross. They would have explained it away, just like they explained everything else away. For their hearts are blinded by self-deception and unbelief. And that is the condition of every human being, except Jesus Christ. Every human being has that type of deception and unbelief. Unless God implants by his kindness and his gentleness in plants, saving faith within that person to lay hold of the gospel, to open his spiritual eyes so that he sees, to open his ears so that he hears. As sinners, dear ones, we think we are so intellectually honest. in evaluating facts. We pride ourselves in our honesty and in our sincerity, but this is one of the greatest delusions under which sinners suffer. For apart from the grace of God, we cannot see the facts concerning Christ clearly and come to Him in faith-believing. Those atheists who taunt and challenge God to appear before them, or to move a table in front of them, and then they will believe, are very much like the Pharisees who said, simply come down from the cross and we will believe. And yet, when he was raised from the dead, they did not believe. Beloved, if the testimony of inspired scripture is not a sufficient testimony to lead one to faith in Jesus Christ. If what God has revealed in His Word is not sufficient to lead one to Christ, no miracle will change that person's mind. According to Luke chapter 16, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus It makes the point, after the rich man is suffering in hell, he wants to go back and to tell his family, his brothers, about this awful place. And the rich man says, they will believe me if I appear from the dead. And he is told. Moses and the prophets, or they have Moses and the prophets, that is the brothers of the rich man have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. as we see exemplified in the religious leaders at that time. Dear ones, if you are waiting for some miracle to happen in order for you to receive the truth of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will never believe or if you're waiting for some miracle. You are a Christian, but you're waiting for some miracle to occur before you put off that particular sin from you. Dear ones, you have the Word of God. That is sufficient. The problem is not that you do not know the truth. That's not the problem at all. The problem is that you don't want to receive it and embrace it because Jesus Christ will bring changes into your life that you really do not want. The problem is that you still want to be the Lord of your own life and to enjoy the very sinful pleasures that will destroy you. That's the real problem. Not that there's not sufficient testimony that who Jesus is, what he will accomplish in your life by his grace, by his kindness, by his gentleness. And dear ones, we join in with those who are mocking Jesus Christ when we act as though His death and resurrection are not powerful enough to overcome the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life, our anger, our bitterness, our fears, or our worldliness. We join in with the mockers. if we do not trust, if we do not believe and lay hold of God's promises, His gentle, His kind promises to us, His people, which Jesus Christ secured in the midst of His humiliation and shame that He suffered for His people and being made naked and being accounted with sinners and being mocked and ridiculed. we join in with the mockers. Maybe not intending to, but we do in effect because we mock the sufficiency of his death for us in overcoming the sin that so easily besets us. Beloved, we cannot make excuses for not bearing the fruit of gentleness or kindness when we are humiliated by others For it was out of Christ's humiliation that the greatest demonstration of gentleness and kindness was displayed. Does Christ know what it is to stand all alone and to be stripped of dignity, shamed and accounted a criminal, mocked and taunted by others more than any man? will ever know. Listen to the words that we find in Hebrews Chapter 12, verses 1-3. 12 Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame despising the shame, treating it as if it were nothing, because of the gentleness and the kindness that he would show. As a result, he despised the shame, showed contempt for the shame in light of the blessings that would be secured for his people, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners, opposition of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. Look to the shame and the humiliation He suffered. And out of that shame and humiliation, dear ones, came forth the greatest display of gentleness and kindness to mankind that has ever been shown forth. Yes, we will suffer. Likewise, humiliation. If we follow Christ, we will suffer humiliation, shame, and mockery for Christ and his truth. But we must never ever forget that we do not suffer alone. We suffer with all the faithful who had gone before us, even the apostles in Acts chapter 5 verse 41, after being whipped, after being imprisoned for teaching the truth about Jesus Christ, it says in verse 41, and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." Counting it joy that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. Jesus, dear ones, did not flee from the shame of identifying with us as sinners. But how often do we flee from identifying with Him and His cause because we are ashamed to take a stand with Him and His faithful witnesses throughout history Beloved, this is precisely how we are to take up our cross daily and follow Christ. To look to Christ in the suffering of His humiliation and to see that out of that humiliation came gentleness and kindness. That's where, that's how gentleness and kindness is going to be born and produced in our lives out of shame and humiliation. Because then and there is gentleness and kindness tested. When we are humiliated, when we are shamed, it's easy, perhaps, or more easy. to show gentleness and kindness to those who treat us that way, but to those who do not treat us that way. Out of humiliation and shame, Jesus brought forth gentleness and kindness. So that must be true in our lives. Only as we live out the gentleness and kindness of Christ in the midst of suffering, shame from others, will we grow in the fruit of gentleness. Let us stand together in prayer. O gentle Lord Jesus, come unto us, we who find it, O Lord, contrary to our nature to be gentle and kind. Show forth thy gentleness and kindness out of our shame and humiliation as thou did. We pray our God causes to be those who bear fruit, causes to look, oh Lord, daily, continuously at the example of Jesus Christ, at the benefits of Christ, to look at the cross of Jesus Christ. and to realize that his death is our death, the sin. His resurrection is our resurrection to new life and all that accompanies it. O Lord, we glory in the greatness of the gentleness and the kindness of Jesus Christ today and pray, our God, cause us to be those who bear much fruit to thy glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. It's your worldwide online Reformation home for the very best in free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, mp3s, and videos. 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