How can we embody gentleness in a harsh world? Find out on Changed by Grace. Welcome to Changed by Grace. I'm Pastor Steve Hereford. Today we're exploring the fruit of the Spirit, known as gentleness, taken from Galatians 5.23. This often overlooked quality is crucial in our Christian walk. But how can we cultivate it in our daily interactions? How does gentleness reflect Christ's character? Well, let's find out. Well, take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Galatians chapter 5. Today we're beginning our 22nd message in our series on bad and good habits. In fact, next week we will conclude this study. When we began, we talked about the works of the flesh, and now we're talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians chapter five, verses 22 and 23 says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law. So we're looking at verse 23 today. And we're looking at gentleness. And as we have set up to this point with each characteristic of this fruit, they are true about God. But this one that we're looking at today, and the one we'll look at next week, is different than the rest, and I'll tell you how in just a moment. But what is important to note, if you wanna have the fruit of the Spirit in your life, then you must yield yourself to God. That is key. In the words of verse 16 of Galatians 5, it says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So to keep from carrying out the desire of the flesh, you have to walk by the means of the Spirit. And you and I know that's not easy. In fact, if you look up to verse 17, of Galatians 5, it says this, for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. In other words, the spirit-led life is a life of conflict because it's in constant combat with the old ways of the flesh that continue to tempt and seduce the believer. John Gill says, they are in opposition to one another as light and darkness, fire and water, or any two opposites can be thought to be. They are contrary in their nature, actings, and effects. There's not only a repugnancy to each other, but a continued war, conflict and combat is maintained between them. The flesh is the law in the members or force of sin which wars against the Spirit, the law in the mind or the force and power of the principle of grace. This is what you and I deal with on a daily basis. So we have to realize and recognize this battle that we have going on with the flesh and not lose heart. In fact, since we've been on the subject of Scripture memory and learning verses and so forth, I would think by now you would probably be able to memorize without much effort Galatians 5, 22 and 23. But I would certainly encourage you to include in that verse 16. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Because that, again, is key. We have to walk by the means of the Spirit. We have to yield to God in order for this to be produced. So as we begin this today, looking down at verse 23, let's ask a question. What is gentleness? In fact, the way I look at this is not necessarily always the English word that appears, but I want to know what the original word is, the Greek word. In the New Testament you're dealing with Koine Greek, in the Old Testament you're dealing with Hebrew, but here this word Praoutes, it includes the idea of gentleness, but it's usually better translated meekness, which is what you have in your King James Bible. Praoutes comes from the Greek word praos, and when it's referring to things, it means mild. When it's referring to animals, it means to be tamed. When it's used of persons, then it's referring to be gentle or pleasant. When it's used of activities or punishments, it means to be kindly or lenient. In fact, the adverb of this word, it denotes quiet and friendly composure. You say, well, that's a lot of information right there. Yeah, it certainly is because you have to understand what it's referring to. Many times when you do word studies, you have to understand how that author is using that word. That's just the way we speak today. You may use a word, and you may use it a certain way, and somebody else might use that word and carry some of that meaning, but they are emphasizing something else about that word. And of course, the English language is sometimes one of the most confusing things, especially when you get into grammar. But here, in this case, we could say it means to be mild, to be tame, to be gentle, to be pleasant, to be kindly, or to be lenient. Aristotle defined this word as the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness. The quality of the man who is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. That's speaking of power. In fact, this word has been used so much about animals, and when I think about this word, I think about animals that we have. We have horses, and that is a lot of power. These animals weigh upwards to 1,200 pounds. If they ran over you, they could kill you. And I used to always say if they had half the brain that they have, they would kill you. But they're powerful. And when you use the word meekness, that's one of the ways you can define it. Power under control. Because we take these large animals and we do things to control them. And a small bit in their mouth will control them. And so does food. Food controls everybody, right? Even animals. So let's add a little bit more to this or say a little bit more about that in light of all that I've just said. You take a man who is always angry at the right time. He's never angry at the wrong time. That's a man who has power under control. That's a man who is humble. That's a man who has a gentle attitude that is patiently submissive in every offense. while having no desire for revenge or no desire for retribution. That's the kind of person I want to be. I want to be all this anyway, but think about that. A humble and gentle attitude that is patiently submissive in every offense. So in other words, he understands Romans 12. Verses 17-19 which says, Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. So here is this person who has this power under control. He could be vengeful, but he chooses not to be. He chooses to be submissive to God in these offenses. He chooses to not show revenge. He chooses to not show retribution. He lets God take care of that. He leaves room for the wrath of God because it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. So we could say then, That gentleness is taking the lowly place as Jesus did when he washed his disciples' feet. Do you remember that? John chapter 13. They go into the room. There was not a servant present to wash the feet, and no one was going to wash anyone's feet, so Jesus washed their feet. He did what they should have done. But they didn't do it because they didn't see themselves as servants. They weren't going to serve one another to meet a need. They saw themselves as something more and what they did was always for themselves. They were selfish. And that's what you and I do at times. When we see somebody who has a need, we have the ability to meet that need, and we're no different than the Levite or the priest, and we pass that person on by, and we leave them to someone else. I see a man on the side of the road standing at the light, and you and I have witnessed these things many times, and I know that in some cases there's fraud involved there. But this gentleman, he seems to look like he has a genuine need. Somebody gave him a watermelon. A big old watermelon was sitting out there by him. I was thinking, buddy, I'd be busting that thing open and eating it. I'd find a way to get that open. But at times you run into people who genuinely have needs, and you have it in your power to have the ability to meet that need. That's being gentle. That's being meek. Gentleness is even an expression of humility, considering the needs and the hurts of others before your own personal goals. Think about Moses. Moses was very gentle, Numbers 12.3 says, in the sense that he faced undeserved criticism. And he did not give way to the rage, but rather he interceded with God for the offenders. And that one time when he did give in and he blew it, it cost him his opportunity to go into the promised land. But I believe he still saw it. After he died in the transfiguration in Matthew 17, Elijah and Moses appeared with Jesus and Peter was also there and John was there. And where are they at? They're in the promised land. They're in the land of Canaan. Jesus was this word. Jesus was gentle. He was lowly in heart. And he was perfectly capable of indignation. We see that in Mark chapter 3 as he goes into the temple with a whip. And he drives out the money changers. Power under control. Sometimes we think if we get angry immediately we have sinned. But we can be angry and not sin. We can have meekness in that moment. We can have power under control. You've heard Paul say this in 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 1, where he entreats the Corinthians by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. Now, I said earlier that this characteristic is different than the others when referring to God, and it's different because it's never used for God. God is never said to be meek. He's never said to be one who has self-control. He doesn't need it. And again, that's because when it's used in the Septuagint, the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. I told you earlier the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. Well, there is also a Greek translation. And this word, when it's used in that Greek translation of the Old Testament, it primarily refers to social position of a servant or someone who is inferior. It's never used of God. It's only used one time in the Pentateuch, and it's used in Numbers 12-3 for Moses, but never of God. So the Old Testament never refers to God as being meek. Now, He does treat us gently, does He not? Matthew 5-5 says He blesses those who are gentle. It says, blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. You say, well, what about the New Testament? Because that's Old Testament. Well, in the New Testament, only Jesus is spoken of as being meek, and that's only in His incarnation, in His becoming a man, becoming a person, becoming flesh. So, in the New Testament, this word is used really in three different ways. In the New Testament, it means to be submissive to the will of God, to be submissive to the will of God. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 29, and 30. He said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle, that's the word, and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He's meek, he's gentle. It also means not only being submissive to the will of God, it also means being teachable. being not too proud to learn. James 1.21 says, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility, that's this word translated humility, receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls. So we've already got now two different types of translations. You have meek, You have gentle, you have humility, that's how the word is translated. And most often times this third meaning is used and it's translated to be considerate. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10.1, I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ, I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am absent. There you are seeing again power under control. Paul could assert himself as an apostle of Christ to these Corinthians, but he chose at times not to do that. So are you submissive? Am I submissive? Are we teachable? Are we considerate? Do we have, as one writer put it, power under control? Because we are to be meek or gentle. That's what believers are to be. Just as we've looked at all these others, we are to love, we are to have joy, we are to have peace, we are to be patient, we are to be kind and good and faithful. This is a command that we are to be used over and over in Scripture in that manner, that we are to be meek. Now how are we to do this? Because Scripture does give us ways to do this, or areas to do this in, and of course we could certainly say with faithfulness, we're gonna be faithful in every area of our life, right? But meekness is similar to that, but let me give you some specifics. Let me have you look at Proverbs chapter 15. Proverbs 15 and verse 1. Proverbs 15 and verse 1. We've said at times that we have trouble with our tongues. Sometimes we say things we shouldn't say. But when we do say the right thing, it's time to have a celebration, right? We didn't blow it. It says in chapter 15 of Proverbs in verse 1, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So where are we to be meek at? Where are we to be meek in how we answer those? How we answer those who are harsh in their words. We're not to be harsh back. We're not to repay evil for evil. We're to be gentle. We're to be meek. We're to have this power under control. And when you have this kind of response, it's going to turn away that anger. Because if you respond with a harsh word, all that's going to do is keep the anger alive. You're going to just keep throwing fuel on the fire. So we need to be meek or gentle in answering others. thing that we need to be meek in, and that is in dealing with others. The first is in answering. The second is in how we deal with them. On Wednesday night, we're studying 1 Thessalonians, and I remind you, chapter 2 and verse 7, where Paul says, we prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. And there he helps us to see the this caringness of this word. They were gentle enough to show that gentleness by caring for them like a mother cares for her own children. Over in Titus chapter three, it's speaking of this again. It says, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. And there he's telling, Paul is telling Titus, this is what you need to tell the churches at Crete. You need to tell each of these churches to submit to rulers, to submit to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed. What's that mean? Be ready to show good deeds. To do good. Not only be good, but do good. We talked about goodness earlier. Don't malign anyone. Be at peace, be gentle, show every consideration for all men. Peter says this kind of same thing, 1 Peter 2. Verse 17, he says, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor. If for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly, For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if, when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God." Sometimes that's hard to swallow, isn't it? So we think about people who try to hurt us, people who persecute us, and Christians, many of them, apply this verse. They patiently endure and they suffer for the cause of Christ. This finds favor, he says, with God. But you've got to be submissive, he says, even to those who are gentle and those who are not. Those who are unreasonable, those who are gentle. You need to be submissive. You need to honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. There are a lot of Christians out there that still have not accepted Trump as their president and they're sinning. You realize that? Why would I say that? Because I voted for Trump? No, I say that because of what this verse just said. Honor the king. We don't have kings and queens and all that in our country. We have presidents and vice presidents and we have people in Congress and senators and representatives and so forth. And they get there by election. And what we have going on is chaos. Right? Because they're not willing to recognize him as their president. If we live in America, he's our president. The last president who was there for eight years, whether you voted for him or not, was our president. And the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that, and all the way to the beginning. And I have to say this, pulling down statues doesn't change anything. What you need to change is the heart. All that is nothing but hate. That's history. That's our past. That's not our present. We're not that anymore. But if you got rallies running around stirring that kind of stuff up, that's all it's gonna do is just stir up hate. It's not gonna stir up love. That's not honoring all people. That's not loving the brotherhood. That's not fearing God. That's not honoring the king. And that verse came at a time when Christians were being persecuted by Domitian. The Meshian was the ruler at the time of the book of Revelation. And you read through chapters two and three of Revelation and you see the churches and the suffering that occurred in those churches. Some, they brought about that suffering on their own. That is, they were being chastened by God. That wasn't persecution. That was discipline. That was chastening. But you had the church at Smyrna and the church at Philadelphia that were the only two churches out of the seven that had no condemnation given of them by Jesus, and they suffered for their faith. They suffered for their love of Jesus. They were these kind of people. Over in 2 Timothy chapter two, It tells us even ministers are to respond in this way. 2 Timothy 2.24 says, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged. Hmm. That's another hard one, to be patient when someone wrongs you. But that's what all of these are. And when you walk by the means of the Spirit, you can do that. And then it says, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. Having a shouting match isn't going to accomplish anything. All it's going to do is turn people away from you and have nothing to do with you. And it says, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. When you respond this way, when ministers respond this way to people, they may be dealing with an unbeliever and if you're gentle with them, as you correct them, then perhaps God may grant them repentance and they come to the knowledge of the truth. But if you're having this shouting match, you have pushed them away from the gospel. So we need to have gentleness and be gentle in how we answer others and also how we deal with others. But let me just say it further, because what I just said a minute ago about all that's going on in our culture right now with tearing down statues and so forth, that's really revealing something about a person's character in how they're going about it. Destroying these symbols of history is revealing something more in their hearts. And I've noticed that the Liberal Party has jumped in on this as well because that's where they believe that they'll get their votes, so they'll jump in too and try to do the same thing. This morning, I pulled up the news and it said that the military said, we are not changing the name of this military base because of what you're doing. In fact, I believe that It's causing anarchy and chaos in our culture because if someone wants something changed, then they just have to go and destroy everything and kill people, and then they'll get the change. Where is principle? Where is rule? Where is truth? And by the way, the stuff that went on in Charlotte, the police were told to stand down, and that's why it went the way it went. Nobody reports that kind of stuff because that's not news. That doesn't stir up people. That should stir up some problems with the government in that sense. But the next area that I believe which dictates how we deal with people and how we respond to people when we answer them is personal character. What's your personal character? Are you one who is gentle, meek? We're told in Philippians 4, 5, to let your gentle spirit be known to all men, the Lord is near. And we have to live in that manner. that the Lord is always there, so therefore we're not to be anxious about anything, we're to be prayerful and to have supplication, we're to be thankful, we're to let our requests be made known unto God. All this because the Lord is near, the Lord is right there. And knowing that the Lord is right there should help us with what verse four says about rejoicing in the Lord always. We were able to rejoice. We're able to let our gentle spirit be known. We're able not to worry. We're able to pray. We're able to be thankful. We have the peace of God in our hearts. We're able to think on things that are true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and of good repute, things that are excellent, things that are worthy of praise. We're able to practice these things when we're this. Want a different life? Want to change life? Look at this. The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. That's the title of our message today and it's taken from Galatians 5 and verse 23. This message is available on one full-length audio CD and you can get your copy today by calling us at 904-651-3351. Or if you like, you can go to our website and download the free mp3 at www.changedbygrace.org. Well, I'm Pastor Steve Hereford and I do want to thank you for joining us today and I hope you'll join us again next time as we study God's Word. Hi, I'm Pastor Steve Hereford and I want to invite you to visit our website at www.changedbygrace.org where you can take advantage of many of our resources. One in particular is our scripture memory system. We use music to help you lock scripture into your mind. As you learn the songs, you automatically memorize scripture. Visit our site and give it a try at www.changedbygrace.org. You can also hear it on many of the online music platforms like Spotify. 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