Spirit of God Rests Upon the Lord Jesus

[00:00:00] All right, let's go back to Matthew chapter number three, if you would. We will, Lord willing, this evening we'll close out Matthew chapter three, just looking at a couple of verses, just another, just covering all the bases here. [00:00:16] And we will read verse number 16 and 17. [00:00:26] The Bible says, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Let's pray one more time. [00:00:54] Father, we ask your blessing and your grace and help upon the reading and hearing and explanation, exposition of your word. Help us, Lord, to learn more about you. Help us, Lord, to have more of your character in us, more of your attributes that are transferred to us as we learn more about who you are. In Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:21] You know, as I go through the book of. As I go through a book, whether it's the psalms on Wednesday night or go through Matthew or acts or whatnot, I try to get several good books that are good commentaries just to refer to things. What I found is that commentaries number one almost always say the same thing as each other. [00:01:43] But one good thing about doing that is it kind of gives you a breadth of understanding, and it gives you kind of ideas, lines of thought that you can search out yourself. And so I try to do that. I feel like it's important to dig, even if I don't use any of it. I feel like it's important to go through the paces and to dig and to see what other men before me have said. But this was one case where it wasn't exactly all that sustainable, pleasant. You know why? Because almost all of the commentaries that you read after are protestant commentaries, right? And commentaries by Protestants are abundant. [00:02:28] And you should see how many of them go and the links to which they're willing to go to try and argue from verse 16 that Jesus was not actually baptized by immersion. [00:02:42] They really, really go out of their way to try and argue that. And I just. This is just. This has nothing to do with what I want to say tonight. But it says, when Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. [00:02:57] Okay, well, it begs the question, if Jesus was not baptized by immersion, if there was some other way, then why did they have to go to the river to begin with? Like, why take the trek all the way into the. In the journey to the water, through the wilderness, to the Jordan? It's not like it was near anything and go through all that trouble. And there's actually one verse that says that John was baptizing in a certain place because there was much water there. Why is that necessary if you really only need a cup of water? And. But so, you know, they try to say, well, Jesus, it doesn't mean he came up out of the water. He was just at the water's edge, you know, that kind of thing. And I just, you know, if I didn't believe in baptism by immersion, I would just skip the verse instead of, you know, going through all that with that kind of stuff. But the other thing is the word baptized. The word means to dip. Like, that is actually what the word means. In fact, if you. For. For you language nerds, the root of the word baptize. [00:04:01] The greek root is actually, in our Bible, is translated like when the rich man said that he was in hell and he lifted up his eyes and he's in torments, and he asked Lazarus to do what with the tip of his finger? [00:04:16] To dip. [00:04:18] That's not this word, but it's the root of this word, to dip. [00:04:23] And that's what the word means. [00:04:27] And so anyway, I just thought that was kind of an interesting side issue. Of course, this is not the only place where you can argue that point, but I do want to point out one thing from these two verses, kind of as we go, before I get to, the main thing I want to park at for a little bit is just notice in verse number 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven. Now stop a second. Look at verse 17. A voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. Now, who from heaven is speaking? [00:05:12] How do you know? [00:05:15] Now, we assume that because, of course, nobody speaks from heaven but God. Right. But there's actually. How do you know it was God the Father speaking? [00:05:22] Because he refers to Jesus as his son. Okay, so in these two verses, what you have is one of the several references to the Trinity together in one spot in the scripture. There aren't a whole lot of them, but there are several. This is one. They occur together. The great commission is another when he says teaching them to observe, or he says baptizing them in the name of the Father. It's interesting. It says baptizing what you see here. The Trinity shows up together at the baptism of Jesus. And then Jesus says, at the great commission to baptize the disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And of course, the most, I guess, despised verse in the Bible. One John five seven. There are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the word, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. But there are several occurrences of the Trinity together that in this kind of way that you see, and if you pay attention, you can pick up on a few of those. And so that's just one kind of passing note as we, as we go on our study. Most of the time, when you see the different persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, you see them in pairs. You see Jesus talking to the Father or the spirit of God with Jesus mentioning the two and things like that. But it's not very often that you see all three of them apparent in one place, the spirit of God appearing as the dove. Jesus is, of course, being baptized and the voice from heaven. All right, now let's get into what I want to say. [00:07:09] What I want to say tonight. Notice it says this, the spirit of God descending, descending like a dove and lighting, or as a bird landing upon him. So as they were watching, I looked up the word. I looked up the phrase heaven was open. Because, you know, what does that mean? Heaven was opened. What did the clouds part? And the only thing I can come up with to make any sense is that when heaven is open, what you always see in scripture is, you see, whatever is present in heaven becomes visible to whoever's on earth when heaven is open. Like if you know. I know. It's not a question we often ask, what does it mean when heaven is opened? But think about it. What does that mean? [00:07:58] Well, the only thing I can come up with is that from the verses I read is that whatever was up there was all of a sudden visible, like when Stephen was stoned. The Bible says heaven was open, and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Right? And so whatever was up there already became visible to whoever was down here on earth. And that's apparently what happened here. Because while heaven, while the heaven was opened, the spirit of God came down, descending like a dove. Now, in Luke chapter three, the Bible says that the spirit of God came down in a bodily shape like a dove. Right? [00:08:35] And then in John chapter one, verse 33, it says, and lighting upon him. But in John 133, it says it remained upon him, which is key. That's key. So this was not a one time occurrence. The spirit of God comes down, he lights, and then he flies. Away. No, no. The spirit of God came down in the form of a dove, where the dove was visible. Now, just like, for instance, angels in the Old Testament would show up and appear as men, right? They would show up as men. In other words, they would take on a bodily shape. [00:09:09] Now, you can't normally see a spirit. A spirit is by nature immaterial. You can't see a spirit. That's why, as a testimony, remember this morning to John, that's why it became the spirit of God was visible to John. So John knew who he had just baptized. It was the one who would baptize with the Holy Ghost, the son of God. See, that's the whole reason it was visible, so that John could turn to us and to John the apostle in the book of John and say, I saw this and bear record. That's an important part of the scripture. JohN the Baptist was an eyewitness of this visible appearance of the spirit of God, which was the seal of genuineness of the man that he had baptized, the Lord Jesus. [00:10:00] Now let's look at a few verses in Isaiah. There's three passages in Isaiah I want to look at very quickly, not to spend a lot of time there. Isaiah, chapter eleven. If you'd look there with me. [00:10:18] Isaiah, eleven, verse one. [00:10:21] These three passages are prophecies about the coming of Christ. [00:10:28] Isaiah one, verse one says this. [00:10:32] And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. [00:10:43] You know, the Bible speaks of Jesus being a root out of a dry ground. Everybody remember that. A root out of a dry ground. So you have this idea of this plant's stem, right? Sticking up out of the ground. It's dry, there's no water. It shouldn't be alive. And yet out of this stem shoots a branch, the stem referring to the lion of Jesse. Remember, where was the lion of Jesse at this point when Jesus came into the world? Who was Joseph? [00:11:13] Joseph was just a carpenter in the middle of the despised place of Nazareth, right? In other words, the line of Jesse, the kingly line of David, which is what Jesse is, right? Was no more like that, wasn't even a thing that had long since passed away. And yet, out of a dry ground, this root, out of a dry ground, a branch comes to life and shoots forth that branch. He's called repeatedly in prophetic scriptures is Jesus. Notice what it says, verse two. And the spirit of the Lord, notice that. Shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and the spirit of the Lord shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Now notice this. Notice for all our, again, our doctrinal students. Right. [00:12:21] The spirit of the Lord is mentioned in verse two as resting upon the Lord Jesus, prophetically. Right. We see it happening in the baptism because we see the spirit of God coming down, visibly landing on Jesus and remaining. That's what John 133 says. It remained upon him. That's a prophetic scripture, that the spirit of God. And again, if it wasn't for the dove being visible, we would have no idea it happened. But yet it was visible for us. [00:12:49] And so the spirit of God rests upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going somewhere with this, but you get down to verse four. [00:12:59] It speaks. It's the same branch in verse one and two, is smiting the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. How did we get all the way there? [00:13:12] We went from the baptism of Jesus when the spirit of God anointed him and was poured upon him. Right to Jesus being the king and judging the nations of the earth. [00:13:25] When did that happen? Here's the question. Is that happening spiritually? [00:13:31] No, this is a prophecy that's directly mentioned in revelation. When Jesus comes, it's mentioned in Matthew 24. It's mentioned in revelation when Jesus comes and smites or strikes the nations with a rod of iron. Psalm two also says that we studied that on Wednesday night. [00:13:50] But you covered a whole lot of ground in this huge gap of time. Prophetic gap of time. So these things in verse four haven't occurred yet. So you have this. But if you read this passage, you can be mistaken. If you're not paying attention, you can think this happens all in succession, but it doesn't have. This is a broad statement that takes its multiple steps before it comes to pass. Now look at chapter 42, if you would. [00:14:17] Isaiah 42, verse number one. [00:14:26] We saw that, saw this. Saw it this morning as well. [00:14:36] 42, one says, behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. See that? God says, I have put my spirit upon him. This is the baptism right there. He shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles. Now, notice, notice, notice the effect of the spirit being upon him. And this is where I want to go, but we'll get there in just a minute. [00:15:05] He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break. And the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. [00:15:30] What does this mean? Bruised reed, smoking flax. [00:15:35] So imagine a reed. This is a kind of plant. [00:15:39] You know, if it's bruised, that means, you know, you ever seen a plant where it's like a sapling and, you know, maybe you hit it and it kind of. [00:15:48] Right. That's a bruised reed. It's similar to a bruised reed. [00:15:53] And the Lord, notice he says, a bruised reed shall he not break. In other words, he leaves it alone even though it's bruised, smoking flax, something's on fire, and he leaves it alone. Now, there's a point to that, but let's just keep going. Keep that in your mind, and we'll keep going. Chapter 61. If you would look at Isaiah 61, verse number one. [00:16:26] The first time jesus went into the synagogue of Nazareth, these are the verses he read. [00:16:33] We covered this not too long ago with the phrase, he shall be called a nazarene. We talked about this. But the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the good tidings. Preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. Now notice the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Now, here's what we have in Isaiah. We have three prophetic passages that say that when Jesus comes, the spirit of goddess will be upon him in the baptism of Christ. And what happens immediately after that? [00:17:21] That's exactly what we see back in Matthew, chapter three. [00:17:25] We see the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? We know it's prophesied in the Old Testament. The Lord told us this. He will have the spirit. John, chapter three, says he has the spirit without measure. In other words, he is full of the spirit of God. Okay, but notice the dove. [00:17:49] Notice the dove. [00:17:51] In the Bible there are a number of birds mentioned. There's the eagle, of course, here we have the dove. There's also the raven. [00:18:02] There's the sparrow, the owl, a pelican, quail, the stork, a vulture, a hen, an ostrich. You're probably running through some of these verses in your mind where you've heard these before. A hawk, a swallow. [00:18:24] Where is swallow mentioned? [00:18:31] The sparrow hath found her a nest. [00:18:34] Swallow a nest in the house of the Lord. Remember that in the psalms the bat is mentioned, but a bat is not a bird. Technically, a heron is mentioned and a partridge is mentioned. Why did the Lord use the picture of a dove for the spirit of God? [00:18:53] From my reading, what I found is the dove was considered to be one of the most the highly sought after birds in that culture. Of course, we often look at the eagle, mostly because of our own culture with the bald eagle and how majestic it is and that kind of thing. But a bald eagle is a predator, a dove is not. [00:19:18] Get this, just a few facts about a dove that might be interesting to you. [00:19:25] Doves are totally vegetarian. [00:19:28] They don't eat worms. Doves eat seeds and different green things, plants and such, but they don't eat worms. That's not what doves eat. I remember when I was a pest control technician, I went up to a Michelin plant. I had to go there regularly, and we trapped pigeons. Pigeons and doves are practically the same animal. And we didn't use any live bait or anything. It was corn, because that's their diet, that's what they eat. They eat things that are. Now, we killed them with poison corn, but that's beside the point. [00:20:06] But doves are totally vegetarian. Now you remember, if you go back in your mind to the first mention of doves, who knows the first mention of doves in the Bible? [00:20:15] Somebody help me. Yeah, the ark. Exactly. There's another bird mentioned there, which is the raven. What is the raven known to eat? The crow, as we call it. [00:20:26] Huh? [00:20:27] What's. Carrion. [00:20:29] Yes, you're right. Correct. Dead animals, that's what you see them often. You see crows eating roadkill and such. [00:20:39] And so Noah sent out the raven the first time when the waters are still on the earth and the raven did not return. [00:20:46] Right? It's a picture of the flesh, because the raven can feed on whatever, right? But the dove is not that way. The dove is a gentle creature. The dove is. It has a very specific diet. And notice when the dove came back the second time, right? What did he have in his mouth, an olive leaf. An olive leaf. And then he let it go. And, of course, the dove, of course, they have a good sense of direction. You have. [00:21:16] The homing pigeon is in that same family. So the dove returned until the last time, the last time the dove was sent out. And because the dove did not return, that means the dove found a place suitable for its, you know, to live after the waters had dried off from the flood. But notice that you see this difference between this kind of nasty black bird that can eat anything and just does not have the gentility of a dove. And then you see a dove who is, you know, even in the picture, it's very docile and gentle. And doves are docile creatures. Even when they're caged, they're docile. That's what they're known for being known for being. They're easily frightened. [00:22:00] They're known to be the. And considered to be the gentlest among the birds. [00:22:06] And yet. Have you ever heard a dove's call? [00:22:10] A lot of times doves are taught to mourn, right? Mourning doves, because of the way they're call. Are doves loud? No. You know, you hear mocking birds and they'll call out and they'll make loud sounds. Doves are not that way. They're quiet. [00:22:24] They're very. And when you hear them coo, you, you know, you hear the cooing sound of a dove. It's a very soothing sound. It's a very quiet voice. In fact, I'll read this verse to you. Song of Solomon, chapter two, verse 14. Of course, Solomon uses a dove to describe his romantic lady. [00:22:47] Let me get to it here. [00:22:50] In Song of Solomon, 214 says this, o my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance. Now notice what he says. Let me hear thy voice. For sweet is thy voice. [00:23:09] He called his lady, his dove, his wife, his dove. [00:23:13] And thy countenance is comely. So you have this idea of. You have this idea of a dove being a very gentle, a very kind of meek, easily frightened, but sweet kind of. Even its voice is kind of quiet. And this is the Lord's chosen picture of the spirit of God. [00:23:34] Now, if you would take your Bible and look at Matthew, chapter ten. [00:23:41] Look at a couple of verses here. [00:23:47] Matthew ten, verse number 16. [00:23:59] It says this, behold, jesus says to his disciples, behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. [00:24:06] But be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You see the harmlessness of a dove. What does it mean to be harmless? Obviously no harm. Doesn't do any harm, obviously. Okay. But the idea is the gentleness, the gentleness of the dove. [00:24:29] So you have the spirit of God coming down upon the Lord Jesus. The picture the Lord gives is of a dove. [00:24:37] You can see a couple things from this. We know the spirit of God came down upon Jesus and rested upon him, remained upon him. So here's a couple things I just want to point out. We'll be done. A couple things. Number one, whatever the Lord Jesus did in his ministry, because this is the beginning, right? This is the inaugural moment, he is, you could say, of course, we know he always had the spirit of God, for he is God. But I. At this moment, it was evident the spirit of God came upon him to anoint him for his ministry, to start his ministry. [00:25:13] He is going to do his ministry by the power and through the leadership of the spirit of God from this point on. [00:25:21] And in fact, the Bible says this. [00:25:25] In Matthew 1228, it says this, jesus said, but if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. So even our Lord's ministry, remember that Jesus was a 100% God, but 100% man. And even in his ministry, he did it in a way that provides an example to us, that is, he did it by the power of the spirit of God in his humanity, you see, yielding himself to the spirit of God's power and influence in his life. And what he did, he did so by the spirit of God. In fact, in Matthew, chapter four, verse one, the Bible says that immediately after his baptism, the spirit of God led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. [00:26:11] So whatever the Lord Jesus was doing, he was doing by the power and through the leadership of the spirit of God. The ministry of Christ was done. Bye by God's spirit. That's number one. Number two is this. [00:26:28] The spirit of God was the source of the tone and manner of the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:26:40] Because Jesus was anointed by, led by, influenced by, and empowered by the spirit of goddess, he exhibited the characteristics of someone who was walking in the spirit at all times. [00:27:00] We could say it was the spirit of God that gave him his character and his manner. [00:27:12] Look at Galatians, chapter five. If you would have. [00:27:22] Now think about the dove again. [00:27:25] The dove is an easily frightened bird. The dove does not hang out. He does not stay. I mean, how many of you have ever had mockingbirds flying around your house? You know, maybe you get near their nest, they'll dive bomb your head. They are not afraid of people. You know, crows, they'll perch up in a tree and they'll squawk and squawk and squawk and give a warning call. You know, let everybody know there's somebody around. They're squawk and squawk and squawk. They're not afraid of people. Doves are not like that. If you do anything to disturb a dove, it is gone. [00:27:55] It is gone. That's that gentility. In fact, there's an example of Jesus doing this very thing in. We won't look at it. But in Matthew, chapter twelve, the Lord withdrew from the. When there was opposition, when they sought to do him harm, he withdrew from that, from that controversy. [00:28:17] Notice Galatians five, verse number 22. [00:28:24] But the fruit of the spirit. Now notice the words here is love, joy, peace, long suffering. [00:28:36] Notice gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. [00:28:48] Notice that gentleness and goodness. Now we know in Galatians chapter five this is referring to someone who, like you and me, if we are yielded to the spirit of God, he is going to work in us and produce these attributes in us. Now imagine the Lord Jesus. [00:29:07] He has the spirit of God upon him. That's what we saw in the baptism. [00:29:12] And as a result, we can ask ourselves this question. We have a good reason to have a good answer. [00:29:19] What kind of person was our Lord Jesus with the spirit of God upon him, empowering him, influencing him, what kind of person was he? You know, I think I mentioned this before. [00:29:32] It seems that we tend to imagine that Jesus was whatever character that we think is most important to us. In other words, we look at Jesus and we think. We imagine him to have, like we're looking in the mirror. So if we're a hard nosed preacher, we hate everything. [00:30:00] We automatically, we look at Matthew chapter 23, and Jesus is talking to pharisees and hypocrites. You know, that's the way we view it, because that's our own character. [00:30:10] And then if you're in kind of a passive kind of, you know, you know kind of thing, then you imagine that Jesus never did flip tables over in the temple when they were buying and selling and ruining and defiling his temple. You can't imagine Jesus was doing that. The truth is that Jesus was whatever he said he was. [00:30:31] But one thing we do know is that Jesus was a meek and gentle person. [00:30:40] Why? Because the spirit of God was upon him. So if anybody in the world had the fruit of the spirit, these nine fruit listed in Galatians five, it was Jesus. [00:30:51] And two of them. Listen, two of them. Gentleness and meekness are related to a dove. [00:31:00] This kind of quiet, kind of soft. Now, we know that Jesus wasn't like this all the time. There were exceptions, like the cleansing of the temple, like when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees. But as a general rule, this was his character. [00:31:19] He was approachable. He was the one who. They wanted to get the kids away from him, right? And he actually turned his anger to his disciples and he says, what are, you know, I'm paraphrasing. What are you doing? Let the little children come unto me. He was approachable. In other words, kids. Now, you guys know Joseph and Pam have little kids. There's others in our church that have little kids. [00:31:44] Sharon and Eric have little kids. You know, kids don't approach just anybody, do they? [00:31:50] They approach someone who is very approachable, who seems and has the spirit and demeanor, and kids pick up on it like that. Who has a demeanor and a spirit that is very. That is very soft and tender and gentle, not rough. [00:32:06] This was our lord. [00:32:10] How do we know the dove? He was under control of the spirit of God all the time. Not like us, you know, not like us, but all the time. And so he was always. The Lord was always approachable. His words were filled with meekness and gentleness. He wasn't one who was harshen or crass or anything like that. No, he was these fruit we listed here, long suffering. He was patient. That doesn't mean he didn't rebuke. He rebuked when rebukes were needed. It doesn't mean that he didn't say things against sin. Remember, one of his good friends was John the Baptist. We already learned about him this morning. [00:32:55] But his temperament was one that was dove like, because the dove was resting upon him. [00:33:05] Now, I want to ask you a question. [00:33:13] If we as the people of God, have the same spirit that lighted upon the Lord, we have the same spirit of God in us. [00:33:24] What should be our temperament and demeanor? [00:33:29] What temperament and demeanor would the Lord. Would the spirit of God. Same spirit, right. [00:33:38] Give to us? [00:33:41] Is it going to be a crass, harsh, bite your face, else. Don't get near me or I'll, you know. Is that the temperament? [00:33:51] No. The same spirit of God that empowered and influenced the Lord Jesus is working that same temperament in us. Same exact temperament. These fruit here, same one. It's just. Jesus is the exemplar. He's the example. [00:34:07] He had it in full measure. And we just hope to have some right of the spirit of God influencing us and change. Listen, as a believer, it matters. [00:34:23] It matters. Your temperament and my temperament matters. It matters among each other, and it matters among the world, our temperament, of peaceable, patient, long suffering, forgiving kind. [00:34:39] All of these things, gentle, meek, these are all. [00:34:45] This is what the spirit of God is trying to do in me. He's trying to do in you. [00:34:52] Indeed, it's what he is doing. He is changing us into the image of Christ, little by little. And this is the goal, the end result. So we can look at ourselves when we're out of sorts, and we can ask ourselves, do I have right now the temperament that the Lord Jesus has? By contrast, the flesh will be exactly the opposite, and you will only have to look no farther than Galatians five to see this. Verse 19. [00:35:20] We can go into adultery, fornication, et cetera. But there's also aspects of temperament here. Hatred, variance, emulation. [00:35:31] You know, that's that desire to compete with other people. [00:35:36] Wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. These are the exact opposite of what the spirit of God is working in us. [00:35:52] Let me read you a few verses. I'll just listen to them, okay? Just listen and we'll be finished. Philippians 214 15. Notice this. Paul says to the Philippians, do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be listen, blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. See that? Harmless. That's the same word used of the spirit of God, of the dove. Right. [00:36:27] Then we could go to one. Corinthians, chapter ten, verse one. He says that. Paul says this. Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. [00:36:40] Galatians six one, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, you know this verse, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. So even in a case, even in a case where someone has fallen, they deserve a rebuke, even in a case where something is messed up, yet still but there's a spirit of meekness. [00:37:08] See that considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Ephesians four one. I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love. Notice that loneliness, meekness, long suffering, that's patience, forbearing one another. Listen, I promise you. I promise you I am going to do things to you that will require you to be patient with me. [00:37:50] I promise you it is guaranteed. And you likely are going to do things that will require my patience and the patience of your brothers and sisters around you. You know why? Because that's just the way we are. [00:38:07] But that is. Listen, that is the temperament and character of our Lord. [00:38:14] You know, it is of the flesh to want to cut people off when they do something that doesn't suit you. That's a carnal mentality. That's a carnal attribute. That's not spiritual to cut people off. [00:38:29] No, a long suffering person is a person who, even when they cannot continue to fellowship with a person for some reason, yet it grieves them. You see the difference? [00:38:44] First Thessalonians two seven. But we, Paul, speaking, were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. [00:38:55] One Timothy 611. But thou, Paul, speaking now to a preacher, but thou, o man of God, preach hard. [00:39:05] No. [00:39:07] Give it to a mar. [00:39:09] No. [00:39:11] Flee these things and follow after righteousness. That's good godliness. That's good faith, love. Uh oh. Patience, meekness. [00:39:26] How many of. How many of us have heard those characteristics set forth as our, you know, our desire and our goal for preachers? It's just not, it's not common, is it? It's always something about being mean or being, you know, brash or whatever. You know, whatever. That's not. That's not scriptural, that's not. [00:39:47] Second Timothy 224 and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patient Titus three, one, two. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. [00:40:23] This is Paul's exhortation and direction to Timothy in instructing these believers in this church at Crete. James chapter three, verse 17, our last one. [00:40:37] But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. [00:40:53] So it doesn't listen. That was just a quick kind of purview of the New testament. And even though it doesn't explicitly say this is the spirit of God doing this, yet we see the same characteristics that were in the Lord Jesus that resulted directly from the fact that the spirit of God came upon and rested upon him the same spirit of God is in us working. These characteristics, this temperament in me and in you, to make us like our Lord. [00:41:28] Let's pray together.