Humility - A Gut Check (for the believer)

Humility as Progressive Godliness

Dear God our Heavenly Father we come before you Lord this morning. We ask you to teach us we are Here to learn from you and to be changed by you and Lord. We also pray for those who haven't been able to make it this morning.

We pray especially for Eileen and her family or we pray that you be with her and I Restore her and we also pray for the others who can't be here I'll be with them Lord and those who are able please bring them in for service.

In Christ's name we pray amen. All right, I haven't passed out the handout because I realized some of the questions I have have answers in them, so I'll ask a few questions, and then I'll pass out the handout.

Pastor Mike had a an opportunity to meet with Sinclair Ferguson and One of the times he met him he said what do you think God is doing right now right now? What is God doing and Sinclair Ferguson gave him a very Fascinating answer does anyone here know what he heard, but he's exercising all of his attributes simultaneously.

God in his glory is is Exercising every single attribute that makes who he is who God is and that's happening together simultaneously at the same time and It is it's kind of mind-boggling for us. We can think of God's holiness.

We can think of God's mercy. We can think of God's love. But to kind of put them all together and say this is God exercising them all simultaneously is something I don't think I can grasp. But it is something that we can understand because by nature God is who he is and by definition.

He does what he does. So that's God. Now let's think about humans so as humans how do we Demonstrate our godliness. Or rather how do we grow in godliness? Keeping this picture of who God is and mind how do Christians grow in godliness?

So it's not a rhetorical question you can answer do we yes Bruce. Excellent excellent, and I'm glad you've got the whole verse there very good and you can see that there is a progression there are certain areas in our lives that we need to grow in and we need to focus on them and Develop them in a certain way.

We will see how that happens today. But it is not simultaneously we got saved we come to the ledge and then open our wings and you know Exercise all of our godliness under the radiant sky and Sun yes Flat what happens and Many a time when we get saved we get so excited because there is something in our lives That's changed, and we we know that there is God working in us.

There's a new way of looking at sin and holiness we want to do things that are holy and we feel holy don't we when when you get saved and Because it is true We are changed inside out and we do overcome sin because we have the Spirit of God within us.

But it doesn't take too long before you find out that we haven't arrived. You know when we were justified and there is a progression that takes step by step by step and what normally happens is we we have the Word of God that has shown in our lives when he got saved and As we grow in the knowledge of the word the word illumines our lives.

He says oh You know there's other areas that you did not know need to be Purified and cleansed, maybe I didn't know that anger was an issue when I got saved I was dealing with lust and I thought oh, I I'm not gonna go back this place again, but as the word opens your eyes to what Holiness truly is different areas of our lives start to become Under come under the influence of the Holy Spirit we get conviction and then by the power of God we overcome.

And we will grow in Virtue after virtue as we come under the Spirit of God and the Word of God convicts us. So our godliness is progressive and The way I want us to think of godliness is we ought to be reflecting Christ.

So we become more and more in the image of Christ and as we do that We reflect God and we become more godly. Now one more question as an introduction and then I'll have the handouts out. Do all of us grow in the same way so when we get saved.

Do we have a list of you know, here's what godliness is and we say, okay. I've passed level one. I've been a Christian a year level two. I'm getting these virtues covered. Is that how godliness works?

Why not? Excellent point there are some Christians who Remain Sinfully so as immature Christians and they ought to be growing that's one one aspect of it. Even in the more positive sense why even if two Christians are studying the word and growing will they grow the same way?

Or will they grow differently? Why not? That is that is true, too. What I was looking for is this I think CS Lewis was used in illustration. He said, you know take a Christian and take a non-christian don't don't put a tag on them and you know, just a Christian who's a genuine Christian a Christian who's growing put them both side-by-side and Compare how they live their life right now one of the guys is you know still mean and curly and the other guy is like really pleasant and sweet and You know Exhibiting the sweetness of you just want to sit around one guy and not the other.

Typically you'd you'd you'd assume that the guy who is nice and sweet is a believer, right? You ought to reflect the sweetness of God. But what CS Lewis was trying to make a point was you know, what you didn't know was this guy who's curly and mean.

Was just this Mass murderer who was in jail and just got saved. He is just a new believer and his life is going in a different direction. Whereas this other guy who was nice and lived a beautiful social life his whole life Has no idea of who Christ is.

He's just gonna go straight that way or he's gonna go down there is a direction in the life of this believer and each of us here may have certain areas that You struggle with you could be like this unbeliever who has no problem with speaking nicely.

But really don't know the Lord or you could be this Mean old guy out here, but you know the Lord and you know when the word shines in this particular area. You don't want to stay this way. You're gonna be your life is going to be tending in a certain direction.

So today I'm going to pick one such aspect of godliness the the aspect is Humility and you're going to just examine how we ought to grow in this particular area today's study is going to be a little theological, but it's not going to be focusing on the Study of humility in particular.

We're going to be looking at application through questions, and it's going to be more interactive. But as you as you respond we will look at the theology behind this specific aspect of Humility so some of you may be struggling with this area saying you know I'm constantly trip up in this area others may say I haven't thought about it.

Which is and others don't remind you that you should be thinking about it. Which means you know this is not area you typically struggle with but as Christian. This is one of the areas that all of us can definitely grow.

Humility in Scripture and the Example of Moses

So as we think of humility give me a few passages passages that you can think of oh if I think of humility here are Some scriptures that come to mind. What are some of the scriptures that you can think of?

Excellent does anyone know the reference to that James. James for thank you excellent verse humble yourself, and he will lift you up any other verses. Let me maybe switch it around think of some Bible characters that you can think of okay.

If I think of a humble guy or a humble lady in the scriptures. Here are some names that come to mind who are some people you can think of Moses and why do you say that and why will says so he was one of the most humble men on earth?

Let's talk about this a bit. Why was Moses humble? What made Moses humble? Think of some events in Moses life. Yes, cattle, okay? That's a very nice point actually we will we will talk about that in the Psalms.

Humility especially in the Old Testament talks not just about a heart attitude. But just your state in life you don't have some ability like speech in this case. Did I hear something else? Oh? Sorry Paul you just to hold on that for a second.

Paul is a great example, too. When we talk about Moses, so that was one of the abilities He didn't have and humility in one sense is just recognizing that. We don't have it all you know having a humble view of myself because I know that I'm not Somebody super beyond who I am.

So that's that's one aspect of Moses another aspect of anyone else can think of Moses. Yes excellent point once again. Pretty much close to son-of-the-king kind of deal had everything and then lost everything now has to recognize who he is and.

Then this is the best part. I'll just finish this so now you come back as a leader of Israel the guy who speaks with God and who has communion with God and here the people grumble and and Aaron and Miriam come and question him he could have just said I mean if I was him I would have said surely but He was humble he genuinely saw himself as somebody that God just chose rather than you know I'm the leader of Israel.

You just better go and shut up. You know He really understood that he was not anybody except for the grace of God so excellent point about Moses. Excellent point actually I was going to do this a little later, but I'll probably speak to this you know.

The lesson I have for today Can be a non-christian lesson? I'm sure there are some non-christians would like to be humble too because it's you would like to be around humble people. What makes Christian humility a little different is that?

You have encountered God and There is a response to the gospel when you are humble, and we will see that in a little more detail. Excellent point. You mentioned Paul, right?

Did he have some yeah?

That's right God tells me to write this. I will but but there's a lot of evidence that in his life that we can see and Yeah, you have to be humble enough to write it sometimes. So we'll just take one more example, and we'll get get down.

So the example of Paul can someone think of a few reasons why Paul was humble. Excellent answer. His his goal was to exalt Christ and not himself. Good examples. Any other thoughts on Paul. Yes. Maybe.

Okay, I didn't know that little one. Excellent. I didn't know that. So as for those of you who didn't know Paul's original name was Saul the Hebrew name. He had a Roman name Paul. He lived in Antioch.

This is why I shouldn't get off my notes too much. He wasn't in. He was he was in the Roman Empire, so he had a Hebrew and a Roman name, but the Roman name is. Thank you. That's very good. I'm glad you pointed it.

If I had more time We would spend on Paul, but that's one of the things sometimes you read Paul's letters. He's this guy proud. But it's not when you actually study who Paul was and we've been going through first Corinthians for he treats himself as The scum of the earth you know the stuff that you wipe off your shoes, and that's the attitude He had you know in terms of his own position, but when it came to the gospel He was like a rabid dog.

He would not compromise because it was Christ's glory that that should be. We will see the attitude that We need to have as Christians as well because although we may feel more holy when we first got saved.

As we progress in our Christian walk as more and more The washing of the word happens in our life. We get to realize that as Paul does he he talks in first Corinthians 4. That you just realize how much for the distances between redeemed Person who is still in the flesh and a thrice Holy God and that keeps us humble.

Excellent points. So let I'll have the men distribute the handouts at this point. So you'll be getting a few sheets and What I'm going to do is very simple. We're going to look at a couple of verses that frame this concept of holiness and once You get that Concept we're going to look at an application passage.

I picked a passage from 15th century writer. Mainly because I'd like to see Have a little laugh early morning. It wakes us up. We will look at that passage, it's I think it's pretty biblical. We'll look at some problems if you have time, but the passage I want to look at it as an application of holiness.

We're going to do some questions off of that passage and say All right, if this is true What are tied to be doing? How do I frame this in my own thinking? And how do I? How do I live this out so I'll wait till the handouts come out any any questions so far what we've just done with the introduction Dave.

Yes. And did you want to elaborate on that or? And yeah, we will see that particular verse today as well. All right. I think everybody has handouts. Do we need more print handouts or everybody? Okay? Do we you need five more?

Do we have enough? Okay. All right, so we'll we'll get started. Do you have enough or do you need more? Okay, so I'm going to go through the first section now. Points 1 2 3 this is basically out of the Eastern Eastern Bible Dictionary, so if any time you want to study something new and you don't know where to begin pick a Bible Dictionary.

I also looked at a couple of other Bible dictionaries that didn't have humility. So maybe you need to pick a good Bible Dictionary Eastern is available online free so you can Get it if you need it. So we'll just look at a few verses.

There's a bunch of verses in the in the first point I'm not going to look at any of them in This context the second one I'm going to look it is a state of mind well-pleasing to God. Let's actually read that first Peter 3 4.

Can someone whoever gets there first? Can you just read that out loud? First Peter 3 4 who knows what first Peter 3 is that that passage is about. What is it? Godly living. Yeah, it's primarily in the context of women and he talks about what exalts the woman is Humility and for the women here I want you to just keep that verse in mind because when we finish that will probably be the the place marker for you.

The second verse here it preserves and this is something that is pleasing to God first Peter 3 4 when you Have that attitude in yourself as humility. God is well-pleased with it. The second one I have is it's preserves the soul in tranquility.

I'm I'm let's actually open there Psalm 69 32 and 33. Because if you read that verse by yourself when you go back home, you may be a little confused. Someone who got there you can read 32 and 33. Okay.

The context here the humble and the needy humble in verse 32 and the needy in verse 33. Talk about the station in which these people are these people are humble because they are oppressed in prison they are in need of God's help and It talks about how God is going to help them.

If you want to understand where this passage comes from you can either read the whole psalm or at least back up a little bit to you know, maybe from verse 22 on to 36 and you will see the context of the proud oppressors and those who are God's people in the state of humiliation of Humbleness and the attitude that even this author has in verse 29.

He is in affliction and plain and plain but in verse 30 he's talking, you know in my humility and hum and my affliction I'm gonna be looking up to God. I'm gonna exalt God in my state of Humiliation and then in verse 32 you see the humble see this and they're gonna exalt God because they are looking up to God not really Looking to somehow exalt themselves in the midst of their trouble and this attitude of humility.

Connected with your station in life will be there in many of the other references, too. We will not see that. See other references, but you can look at look at them when you get home. It preserves the soul in tranquility.

So when you are in oppression, how do you have peace in the midst of the storm? When you are humble when you look to God with the right attitude and we'll cover this in our application the third point here.

It makes us patient under trials. Job 1 22 is the last verse of chapter 1. What do you what did Job say at the end of chapter 1? Paraphrase it this is after everything has come and gone and he says No, no just chapter 1 don't go beyond.

The Lord give it and the Lord take it let blessed be the name of the Lord and the and the reason is he says Naked I came from the womb. Naked I go into the grave. It's God who gave me everything. He has the right attitude in his Humiliation he says it's it's all of God and I'm going to look to God and so he in his trial He keeps it keeps him patient because he's not saying I deserve more and when you just think you deserve more and everything is gone.

You're not going to be patient. You're going to be impatient. So that's an example from Job so here are a few verses to just Put humility in context, but look at point number two Christ has set us an example of humility Philippians 2 6 2 8 in the end of your handout I have actually copied verses 3 to 8 over there and When we think of Moses gives us a few Examples when you think of Paul it gives you a few examples.

But I think the chief example that all of us should have in any aspect of godliness and especially here in humility should be Christ. Because Christ is different than us in what way? He's perfect he had everything he Could in perfection any everything we could have in perfection and yet his attitude was That of humility, I mean the specific reference here for humility is that he was God.

But he didn't treat equality with God as something to be grasped. But when God decreed that he Take on the shape of man. He just became a man imagine that God becoming man. He was willing to do all that because he had a humble he was humble the Bible says.

So Christ should be our biggest example few more verses. I'm going to go quickly through them. It says we should be led there to by a remembrance of our sins. If you look at lamentation 328 39, you don't have to turn there the idea is the Jeremiah says I'm not going to complain because if I look at my sin What do I have to complain about when I realize who I am as a sinner even redeemed by grace I'm not going to be complaining.

And so that's a humble attitude you preserve by looking at who you are genuinely. By the thought of it is the way to honor Proverbs 16 18. There is no humility in that reference but it talks about the opposite which is Pride.

God is not going to honor the proud full proud pride proud person but rather he's going to bring them down and it is a humble person that God will lift up and Then the greatest promises are made to the humble and I think if you want to go back and read any reference you should read these because this talks both about salvation as well as exaltation of the believer and Point number three.

It is the greatest paradox in Christianity that it makes humility the avenue to glory every other Religion wants to somehow build oneself up but the path to glory is always through Humility for us and when you look at Jesus Christ, it was the cross in the cross is the glory for The believer.

Humility in Heart and Action, Before God and Neighbor

All right. So with a few of these references, let's now get into the rest of our study here. I've done quest introductory questions one and two we're going to look at introductory question number three.

Contrast humility as an attitude of the heart and outward action. Let me break that up in two when you think of humility as an attitude of the heart. What comes to mind? How do you how do you visualize it?

Self-sacrifice as I had attitude of the heart. Okay. Very good. So when you when you. Excellent. So you you don't put yourself first when you think of who you are. You always look at others as more Important or the needs of others more important than yourself and you want to be outward rather than inward and exalting Attitude of the heart.

Any other thoughts? All right. So let's now come to the outward action. When you see a humble guy. In practice, I'm not not tongue-in-cheek. Really. What what do you see in outward action? Sacrificing somebody who wants to serve and help.

Did I see another hand. Exactly, so they tried not to even if they have to write Moses was a humble man. They are not looking to you know, say, you know, Moses was a humble man. They try not to get the spotlight.

Janet. Excellent. So these are some outward characteristics of what happens inside and that's my second part of the question. What is the right relationship between the two the inward attitude and the outward action?

Easy question the inward should lead to the outward the wrong relationship would be. You know somehow putting up a front of humility when there is no genuine inner humility in the heart. God transforms us as believers from the inside out.

He doesn't put White washed plaster on the outside and make us look good. He changes us inside and that's one of the cautions we always ought to look for when we look at sanctification is am I just trying to do certain things and somehow become holy which would be sanctification by works versus is there something that is changing in the inside out.

So am I Keeping my eyes on the lord. Am I going back to my salvation? Am I looking at the gospel and the power of christ that changes me and and my life is now being transformed because of the power of god in the gospel.

Question number four contrast humility in relation to god and one yourself. Let me read the full question and then we'll see oh, maybe not so contrast humility in relation to god and yourself. Why should we be humble when we look at our relationship with god?

There's nothing that we brought into that relationship. And our lives even now has nothing to boast about anything else exalts. Excellent so on the one aspect is our humility our sinfulness that ought to keep us humble.

But on the other hand is god's Grandeur in his goodness to us when we see that he gave up everything and became in died on the cross for us. I mean that is Beyond our mind. So it keeps us humble thinking of the greatness of god bruce.

Excellent point because I think the more we know about god The more humble we will be. And part of this knowing about god is this? Attributes that he exercises completely all the time all of them at the same time.

And one of the things is his omniscience. Here is this god who knows everything about me that even I myself may not recognize or admit and he knows the motives of every single thing I do and Before this great god who sees everything who knows everything.

Why do I need to pretend I can? I should have this right attitude of Falling down on my face before this god whenever I recognize god whenever I pray to god. The attitude that I should have is one of humility because he is that great and I am not.

Now, let's kind of break this relationship not break. Look at this relationship with god in two aspects. That's the second half of this question. How are they related for a believer in justification? And in sanctification someone tell me what justification is just quickly.

Justified in a code of law. It's a legal term saying not guilty god declares. You're not guilty. That's what happens when you are. Same when you're justified so you you you come to a relationship with god.

The first thing that happens is god says you're not guilty. Why is that you're not. Well, let's come to that in a minute. Sanctification can somebody give me a one-line definition of sanctification? Excellent.

It's a process by which we reflect christ more and more as we grow into godliness and justification. One-time thing happens at the moment you you get saved. Sanctification is a process that happens lifelong until you are glorified.

Lord comes back or you die and go to heaven. So in your relationship with humility with god, what what happens in this aspect of justification what. What humility was involved when you were justified?

That's right. You come before the cross. Recognizing that I the only thing I have to bring is negatives and I have absolutely nothing positive. That's how we fall before the cross and say before the lord symbolically in the cross and say I am nothing we admit in humility.

What is a good Event in the gospel that reminds you of this. Can you think of two people who came before god one justified and the other not? Yes, brian. Never seen the tax collector exactly. So the tax collector comes.

I have mercy on me the sinner. He he has no Need to look at anybody else. He knows who he is. I'm in relationship to god. So that's at the time of justification now in the time of sanctification. Are we better?

Since that State of our life in our sanctification. In relation to humility at least. What how does how do you relate to god and humility in your sanctification. Does the humility have a role you have to totally rely on christ to Be sanctified very good.

So even in our sanctity and actually, um When you were justified, why does god see you as not guilty you came humbly, but that humility didn't purchase salvation for you christ. Christ righteousness was imputed.

So christ god sees you as covered in the righteousness of christ. That's why you are not guilty and when you come in your sanctification It's not all of a sudden we climb out of this garb of christ and say, okay now i'm going to do this thing on my own.

Uh your sanctification flows out of your justification. It's because of who you are in christ. You are now able to walk this path and it is all of grace. Yes. Carol. You're talking about justification or sanctification.

Yes, that is true. It is the spirit of god that is within us Who is within us and he will enable us because you will see two aspects of sanctification. One is it's all of god's grace. It is the power of god that enables us to live out this New life that we have in christ and yet there is a responsibility that we ought to work it out.

We will see in philippians to work out your salvation that god has put in you because it is god who? Uh wills and Does what he would in your life, but we ought to live that out. But the but the right attitude should be it is the power of god that Changes me and of my own.

I cannot and in fact as I get more and more Into the image of god as god's word Shines on me. I just recognize that I am as I'm just a horrible sinner. I keep Recognizing that in me is not the power to be Holy it is god who needs to change me.

So this attitude of humility needs to continue in our sanctification. Which is for most of us here who I believe for all of us here who are believers, which is most of us here I Always underestimate time.

So let's just maybe do the first section. So at least we'll have an idea of what this application of humility should look like in sanctification. Um I have a small passage here applying humility. I'll read it and then i'll ask a couple of questions.

Be not troubled about those who are with you or against you. But take care that god be with you in everything you do. Can someone just give me a modern english translation of that sentence. So from an unbeliever if somebody is against you don't be concerned any other.

That's right. So your focus is on god with you. Don't have to worry about anything whether whatever it is that people think is In one sense almost irrelevant as long as you are with god. Second line keep your conscience clear.

And god will protect you for the malice of man cannot harm one whom god wishes to help. Anyone want to translate that for us? Yes. Excellent. If god is for us who can be against us and from my my Side I just need to keep my eyes on the lord and seek to please him.

That's keeping my conscience clear and god will take care. Next line if you know how to suffer in silence. You will undoubtedly experience god's help. He knows when and how to deliver you therefore place yourself in his hands for it is a divine Prerogative to help men and free them from all distress.

Summarize it. Probably three four and five. Yeah. Right. That's for guidance, yes, and especially also in trials. Any other thoughts on this if you know how to suffer in silence? Yes, bruce so the silence here primarily refers to what we saw in uh in.

Exactly. So when you are in the in the midst of your suffering. Look up to the lord and he will deliver you in his time. Sovereignty of god you can trust in him and he will do what he does best. All right, so let's now ask a couple of questions and then we'll finish.

We won't go through the whole thing. Contrast humility in relation to yourself and your neighbor. So so far we saw the relationship between us and god. How do we relate to god in humility justification and sanctification?

Now in relation to yourself and your neighbor, so don't look further into the questions, but how should humility characterize me when I relate to the people around me. Yes, carol which is Excellent. So if you see someone who is uh sinning or you know doing things that you're like, how could they instead you say?

That's where I would be for the grace of god. I am not excellent point. Anybody? Yeah. Very good. So when you look at an unbeliever, uh that service which we said characterizes the outward life of humility.

Will come to the point of saying what can I do, you know in love? Toward this person rather so you come under them rather than over them. That's a good point. Um, I. Maybe when we continue this we will look at it all these tough situations, you know, especially in positions of authority you know, how do you deal in a humble attitude to one who you need to correct or you know when you need to speak out and when you ought not to um, so maybe if we take an example, okay, maybe can you just Fictitious name notice dear friend good example, maybe we'll use that as our final thing to wrap up so what would be situations where it is inappropriate to say that and that would be Slander gossip.

Yes. So that's uh unbiblical and what would be the right response instead of that? What would be? Exactly. So we always and we will see this later. Maybe some other time about how we deal with sin, you know, even a believer.

How do you deal with sin in a believer when we have a heart of humility? And Most of the cases will fall in this bucket. We will not talk to someone else about another person's sin. There would be some exceptions.

We will see that Next time when it would be justified to call out someone by name, but that would be the exception rather than the rule. Uh, all right, let's let's just stop here for now any questions or anything you want to add to what we've seen so far.

Within the family, okay, so within like a physical family unit I haven't actually thought about that. Okay, I I thought you meant in a broader context, okay. Yeah, you know, let me think about that because I unless anyone wants to respond.

Um because in my family at least my children are have a big age gradient. And I can't use that at this point in time and I need to think to see whether it would be appropriate or not. Actually, that is that is true because you know as parents we share the responsibility in correcting our children.

So, you know if I notice something that my wife hasn't obviously we sit down and we should talk about what this person has done wrong and how as parents we need to come together and Get the correct discipline help the child come through but I think in the context of siblings, I think that's one of the things.

Okay, good good, I think I know what you're saying now, yeah, so, um, let's say that in my family I Have my immediate family. I have four people in my unit. There's another family that's related to me that.

You know something has happened and all of us as a family know it. So my children let's say observe something that has already happened. Uh, definitely because if you don't say anything about it, then the child would not know whether that is an acceptable or an unacceptable Uh response of a christian and you need to be able to tell your children what they have seen to be able to discern this would not be right because the bible says this and this um, so when the Because the child has already observed something.

I mean, I wouldn't tell my child something that she doesn't know. Right, so if um, and that happens all the time we would yeah, I was just saying like in driving right. I think it's also it's just to say like, um, you know We love this person.

They went down the wrong path. They got into an accident pray for them. It's it's also the hard attitude because if you point that out without connecting it with In love trying to restore them or pray for them or help them then you just set up this On there than they are right, right.

So it's it's definitely. That's a very good point. And I think that is the that is what we've been looking. We've laid the groundwork for how we ought to look at this problem of with humility. But in terms of how we're going to work out we will see more examples Of how this works out practically in situations like this.

I didn't think of this particular example. So i've been kind of floundering for the last few minutes. But uh, but the bottom line should be that but for the grace of god, there would I go? And the hard attitude should always be yes, you can always speak the truth.

Just make sure we speak it in love. And in this context, I think it would be appropriate if they already knew it. All right, so I think we'll close unless there's any other question All right. Uh, let's let's pray Dear god our heavenly father.

We thank you for giving us your son our god our redeemer and our example of humility Lord, we thank you that you saved us By your grace, we thank you that you are Changing us into the image of christ by your grace.