Sunday, November 2, 2025 AM

What would you pray with me? Lord we ask your blessing just now upon your word. Feed our souls. May we be satisfied in all that you give. Lord your word is truth. Help us to receive your word with joy and gladness today.

May we encourage one another and build one another up in the faith as we come before your throne of grace today. Thank you for your faithfulness, your kindness, your goodness. You are worthy of all praise and glory and honor and blessing.

And so we give you thanks in Jesus name. Amen. Well in the interest of full disclosure, I preached this sermon over 20 years ago. In further full disclosure, I have changed almost all of it except for the basic outline.

So even if you were here in March of 2005, yeah, it's not going to be exactly the same. It'll have basic elements will be the same, but a little bit different. It's probably safe to say that this is the one character quality that will enable us to be all that Christ wants us to be.

We cannot come to God without it. We cannot love God supremely without it. We cannot be an effective witness for Christ without it. We cannot love and serve others without it. We cannot lead in a godly way without it.

We cannot communicate properly without it. We cannot resolve conflict without it. We cannot deal with the sins of others without it. We especially cannot resist sin without it. What is it? It, according to Stuart Scott in his book, The Exemplary Husband, is humility.

Humility is something that we must embrace and live out in order to truly live and be who God means for us to be, Scott says. That being said, it, humility, is a virtue that we know we ought to exhibit even as we often struggle with the corresponding vice of pride.

Genuine humility is a trait that God wants each of us to put on and to display in our lives. Whether we are persecuted or praised, whether we are a follower or a leader, the lowly characteristic of humility needs to rank high as a characteristic of God's people.

The promise of humility is that God will personally and providentially support and supply for the truly humble. So if you have your Bible, turn to 1 Peter chapter 5, and we're going to take up in the middle of verse 5 and read through verse 7.

So 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 5, the last, about the middle of the verse, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Humility and pride. But what is humility, and what exactly is pride? Let's take pride first, all right? So I want to give you definitions here, the definition of humility and pride, and we'll start with pride.

Our friend Noah Webster, in his 1828 Dictionary of the American Language, defines pride like this, inordinate self-esteem. Now I had to look up inordinate. Okay, again, I mentioned this in Sunday school.

Webster always gives you a word in the definition that you don't know, so you have to look further into his dictionary to find out what in the world he's talking about. So inordinate means out of place, giving it way more significance than it ought to have, okay?

So inordinate self-esteem, an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank, or elevation in office, which really fits in the context here, talking about elders in the church and how we respond to their leadership, okay, which manifests itself then in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others.

Okay, that is pride, as Noah Webster defined it back in 1828. I mentioned Stuart Scott, and he defines pride like this. It is the mindset of self. Pride is the mindset of self, a focus on self and the service of self by pursuing self-recognition, self-exaltation, and the desire to control and use all things for self.

I think it was Chuck Swindoll who one time said, the smallest package in the world is a man wrapped up in himself, the self. Biblically, the Bible has much to say about pride, and we can't go everywhere, but just to give you a couple of instances.

In Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 17, God gives a warning to the Israelites as they are preparing to enter into the promised land after 40 years of God's discipline in the wilderness, and he's reiterating the law to them.

And in Deuteronomy 8 17, God says to them, beware lest you say in your heart, once they settle down, my power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. In the book of Revelation in chapter 3, the Lord addresses the last of the seven churches, the church at Laodicea, and he charges them with this, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.

And of course, Jesus says, you have no idea what you need. That is, briefly, pride. But what about humility? Again, going back to Webster, humility, he says, is lowliness of mind, a deep sense of one's own unworthiness in the sight of God, of self-abasement, penitence for sin, and submission to the divine will.

Again, Stuart Scott says, in contrast to pride, which is the mindset of self, he says, humility is the mindset of Christ. It is a servant's mindset. He says, it is a focus on God and others by pursuing the recognition of God, the exaltation of God, and a desire to glorify God and please God in all things and by all things.

So you catch the contrast here between pride and humility. Pride is focused on me, self-exaltation, self-recognition, the desire to control and use all things for me. And in contrast, humility is the mindset of Christ, a servant's mindset, a focus on God, pursuing the recognition of God, the exaltation of God, and a desire to glorify God and please God in all things and by all things.

Biblically, Scripture points us in many places to the blessedness of humility. In 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15, Paul says this, for the love of Christ controls us. Okay, you get that picture here?

The love of Christ controls us. Because we concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

There is the picture of humility, that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who for our sake died and was raised. Romans 11, 36 concludes a beautiful passage of Scripture speaking of the transcendent of God's greatness and majesty, a knowledge that far outstrips our own limited perspective.

And Paul concludes with this great verse, Romans 11, 36, where he says, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. This is the praise of a humble heart to the glorious God.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18

We see pretty clearly the contrast of pride and humility in a story that Jesus told in Luke 18. So if you have your Bibles, I'll just turn there for a second. Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 9. Luke 18, verse 9.

He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Okay, that very much fits with the definition of pride that we just read. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

You understand how shocking that would have been to Jesus' audience? The tax collector goes home justified, not the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

So when we think about what humility is and what pride is, it becomes quickly apparent which one the Lord prefers, which one the Lord honors, which one we need to get as far away from as we can, and which one we ought to run to and embrace.

So we go back to 1 Peter. Peter says, what are we to do? We are to clothe ourselves with humility. Who is to do this? Well, if he'd been from Oklahoma, he probably would have said y 'all, but he says, clothe yourselves, all of you.

Now in reading that in the context, you might think, okay, who is the all here? Is he talking to the elders? That's kind of the immediate contest. He's talking about elders, how elders are to conduct themselves in shepherding the flock of God.

Is that who he's talking about? Elders, you need to, all of you, clothe yourselves in humility. Yes, that should certainly be true of elders. Well, or is he talking to, as he mentions in the first part of verse 5, likewise you who are younger be subject to the elders.

Is it those who are under the authority, particularly the younger people, especially here the younger men, are they the ones who are struggling here with humility? And Peter is saying, you young guys, you young whippersnappers, you guys who think you know it all, you clothe yourselves with humility.

Is that who he's talking to? Yes. Truth be told here, Peter is talking to everybody, okay? Elders, young men, the whole congregation, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility. So here's point number two.

Point number one was the definition of humility and pride. This point number two is the expression of humility and pride. Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, all of you. In other words, we're to be dressed to serve.

Be dressed to serve. The word that Peter uses here for clothe yourselves with humility, clothe, refers to the white apron that was worn by a household slave and it refers to anything that was tied with a knot, particularly the servant's apron that he wore when he served within the household.

So what's Peter telling us here? He's saying, as the slave ties on an apron to serve, so we should tie on humility in our relationships with one another. We're to be dressed to serve and we are to serve like the Savior.

As Peter writes this down, where do you think his mind went? It would seem pretty clear that Peter is thinking back to the night that Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples in that upper room and in John 13 it tells us that he took off his outer garment and girded himself with a towel and took up the basin and began to do what?

To wash the disciples' feet. And he goes around and finally he comes to Peter and what does Peter say? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. These other guys probably need that, but not me. Not me. And Jesus says, no, you need this as well.

We need to serve like the Savior. Again, just to read part of that passage in John 13, Jesus says, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. We need to be willing to humbly allow the Lord to do his work to cleanse us daily.

In Mark chapter 10, Jesus walks through a little bit of a tension-filled moment with his disciples when two of them, James and John, come to him and they say to him, Jesus, can we talk to you for just a second?

Yeah, what is it? We have a favor. Will you do whatever we ask of you? That should be a tip-off right there. What is it that you want? Well, Lord, when you come in your glory, when you come into your kingdom, grant that one of us can sit at your right hand and the other at your left.

And Jesus says, that's not for me to say. The Father will take care of that in his good time and in his own way. It will be given to those for whom it has been prepared. Verse 41, Mark chapter 10, and when the ten heard of it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

You sort of get the picture of, I wanted, I should have gotten there earlier. I thought of that and they beat me to the punch. I don't know if that's exactly what they were thinking, but you kind of get that sense.

Verse 42, and Jesus called them to him and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Peter says, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. We need to be dressed to serve, and we need to serve like the Savior did. To be dressed to serve is to manifest, well, let me put it this way, we can be dressed to serve like Christ, or we can be dressed to be served.

And to be dressed to be served is to not take up the apron of the servant, but to sit back like the master. To be dressed to be served is to manifest a master's mindset. It is to be one of the proud whom God opposes.

And God's opposition of the proud is not just sometimes he is, sometimes he isn't. The word here for opposes is God is always opposed to pride and those who are prideful. God opposes the proud who want to be served.

Back in the 1700s, the great preacher Jonathan Edwards wrote a letter to a young convert. In that letter, he said this about pride. He said, pride is the worst viper that is in the heart. He went on to say, it is the most hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts.

Pride lurks in all of our hearts. In Proverbs 16 verse 5, we are confronted with a sobering passage of scripture. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured, he will not go unpunished.

When it comes to pride, when it comes to being dressed to be served, the question is not, do I have it? Am I proud? That's really not the question. The question is, where is it and how much of it do I have?

What are some of the marks of a prideful heart? What are some of the marks of the proud whom God opposes? We see an example of it back in the Old Testament. We could look throughout the scripture and find many examples, but one that came to mind was King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4.

In Daniel chapter 4, starting in verse 29, Nebuchadnezzar is out for a stroll and he's looking at the city. This is what he says. At the end of 12 months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king answered and said, is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?

And we're told then that the words were barely out of his mouth when God struck him with insanity. And for seven years, he lives out with no roof over his head. His hair grows long. His fingernails grow long.

If you were to see him on the street, you would go, I am not getting anywhere near this guy. But at the end of that seven-year period, his mind returns. And in verse 37, Nebuchadnezzar now says, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor, not me, the king of heaven.

For all his works are right and his ways are just. And those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. Nebuchadnezzar is a great example of a prideful heart. But it would be easy for us to kind of sit back and go, yeah, but he's the king of Babylon.

I understand. I might be that way, but I have nothing like that and I am nothing like Nebuchadnezzar. Well, let's think about that for a minute. Again, Stuart Scott in his book, The Exemplary Husband, in a chapter on being a humble servant husband, lists in that chapter 30, count them 30 manifestations of a prideful heart.

Now I'm not going to take you through all 30, but let me just give you a few. And perhaps they apply to you or not. I know that many times these things apply to me. One thing that he mentions is a prideful heart has a lack of gratitude in general.

A prideful heart is characterized by a lack of gratitude in general. Proud people usually think they deserve what is good. A prideful heart is indicated by being devastated or angered by criticism. A prideful person cannot bear that they are not perfect or that they may have weaknesses.

And when that's pointed out, a prideful heart is sometimes marked by being unteachable. The proud in heart know it all. They are unwilling to learn from anyone else. A prideful heart finds it difficult to admit when they are wrong.

They often make many excuses like, oh, I was tired or I was having a bad day, shifting the blame rather than taking responsibility. A prideful heart is often characterized by a lack of biblical prayer.

Proud people pray little, if at all. And when they do pray, they are focused on themselves and their desires, not on God and others. And just to end the list, a prideful heart, Scott says, is sometimes characterized by not having close relationships.

The trouble and the work that relationships take outweighs the benefits. They see themselves as so self-sufficient that they really don't need others. So you could run down that list and just flip all that over and say, what then are the of a humble heart?

Someone who is thankful, who receives criticism with an open ear and an open heart. A humble person is someone who is eminently teachable, who doesn't think that they know it all. A humble person is quick to admit when they were wrong without making excuses.

A humble person prays and seeks God's glory and God's goodness to be poured out on others. A humble person is one who is willing to put in the hard work of seeking out and maintaining relationships with other people.

Humble Yourselves Under God's Mighty Hand

So clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace, grace to the humble. Point number three is we have here then an invitation to humility. Verse six, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you.

The invitation to humility begins with a declaration of God's power. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. The humble person is more than willing and ready to declare the greatness and the power and the majesty of God and to recognize not only the greatness of God, but their own smallness.

I'm reminded of one of David's prayers in the Psalms where he just very forthrightly says, Lord, I am poor and needy. God invites us to be a person of a humble heart. We recognize God's greatness and our smallness and we release the I-can-do-it-myself mindset.

We let that go. Under the mighty hand of God, that phrase is meant to bring to mind what God did in humbling proud Pharaoh to bring about the release of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. They did nothing other than just follow God's direction.

God's the one who brought about their deliverance. He revealed his mighty hand. What they could never do for themselves, God did for them. The humble trust God to do his work in his way in his time for his glory.

So God invites us to humility by declaring his power, but also we are called, interestingly enough, though it is God's power that is work, we are also called to make the decision to pursue humility. Humble yourselves.

The choice is yours and mine to whether or not we will submit to God. And it is the freedom of submission that we will enjoy or we will be bound in slavery to our selfishness. It is interesting in verse five, we are exhorted to act humbly in our relationships to others.

Clothe yourselves, excuse me, clothe yourselves, all of you with humility toward one another. But in verse six, we are challenged to react humbly to the disciplines of God. Both are necessary. In other words, allow yourself to be humbled.

The Exaltation and Timing of Humility

Point number four is this, the exaltation of humility, which sounds contradictory. And I readily admit that, but this is Peter's wording here. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

The exaltation of humility. How does this happen? Well, it happens, first of all, according to God's way. Not that you may exalt yourself, but that what? That he may exalt you. However it happens, trust that God will do it and it will be good and right.

However it takes place, you may get a promotion or you may not. You may get a thank you for your service or you may not. But in the end, what are the words that we are promised to hear? Well done, good and faithful servant.

And who's going to say that? The Lord himself. The exaltation of humility. It will be done according to God's way, that he may exalt you. The emphasis here is on God doing the exalting, not my pursuit of being exalted.

That shouldn't even be a thought for any of us. God will take care of that. And he is right and good and just. The truly humble person gives no thought to the reward, but rejoices in the ability and the opportunity to serve the Lord and to serve others.

The exaltation of humility will happen according to God's way and it will happen according to God's time. At the proper time. At the proper time. One of the indicators of our own struggle with pride is our impatience with God's timing.

So, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. The last point is the application of humility. Peter says, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. It's interesting that this is where Peter concludes this passage on humility by talking about anxiety.

I thought humility is a good thing. Shouldn't that bring peace? Shouldn't that bring comfort? Shouldn't that bring the absence of anxiety? Well, not necessarily because we struggle with releasing control.

Peter calls upon us to acknowledge the reality of anxiety. Kind of the thought behind this is the thinking that, you know, if I really practice this humility thing, people are going to walk all over me.

But what does Peter say? The anxieties are probably going to come, but what are you supposed to do with those anxieties? Cast them on him. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. The word that Peter uses for anxiety and care literally means the state of being pulled apart.

Okay, those of you that struggle with anxiety understand that. What anxiety does to you, how it pulls you apart in all kinds of different ways. And so Peter says, cast those anxieties. Make a once and for all decision that I'm going to take this to God and leave this with God.

The idea here of casting is meant to be a clear decision that you don't go back on. And this is where I want to read a little bit of an extended quote from Matthew Henry that I think is so good and hopefully will be helpful to all of us who struggle at times with anxiety.

Matthew Henry says this, his, that is Peter's advice, is to cast all their care or all care of themselves upon God. Throw your cares which are so cutting and distracting, which wound your souls and pierce your hearts upon the wise and gracious providence of God.

Trust in him with a firm composed mind for he careth for you. He is willing to release you of your care and take the care of you upon himself. I love that line. He is willing to release you of your care and take the care of you upon himself.

He will either avert what you fear or support you under it. He will order all events to you so as shall convince you of his paternal love and tenderness toward you. And all shall be so ordered that no hurt but good shall come unto you.

How do we know that? Because God is good and he does what is good. Now, it doesn't mean that it always feels good in the moment, but God is good and he does what is good. So, clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

Let me just end with that last phrase as a conclusion. He cares for you. This is a very personal word. He cares for you. Okay, let that soak in. God is not indifferent to your sufferings or mine. He cares for you.

The clearest and best indication of the fact that God cares for you and me is seen in the incarnation. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. He made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

As we stop and consider what it means to be clothed with humility, we have no clearer picture of that than in the Lord Jesus himself. He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being clothed in humanity, he tied upon himself the servant's apron and gave himself for us that we might be reconciled to God.

It is that example of humility that we are called to follow, but it begins with coming to Christ, to humbling yourself before Jesus as Lord and Savior. And Jesus says, everyone who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

Let us pray. Lord, I thank you for this passage of scripture, for the challenge to my own heart to be humble. God, you know, and I'm not telling you anything you don't know, you know how much I struggle with pride, how often I am like that Pharisee, and I look down on others and exalt myself.

Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are willing in obedience to the Father's will to become a servant for my sake, to bear my sins upon your body on the cross. Lord, may you help us, help us to walk with you today, help us to wear the garment of humility, even as our Lord did.

Help us, God, to love you first, to love you most, and to love our neighbor. Thank you for your kindness and your goodness and your mercy.