The Fear of God (05) the Humility of Mind — Don Courville

I have had great struggle with this message, with God. We were up in Canada a little over a month ago, and one of the speakers there had two messages that he had had great struggle with God. He didn't want to give them, but he did give them.

And as I get into this message, you might understand. But finally, yesterday about noon, I thought I had freedom from God to change the subject. I've been studying on the fear of God and to go over into another area, not to go into this area.

And I thought I had freedom from God to do that, but I just fooled myself. And I thought, okay, God will go over into the judgment of God, an area we haven't covered with the fear of God. But no, he brought me back and made it very clear I'm supposed to share this with you.

The Fear of God and Its Fruits

It's the fear of God and the next fruit. We've been going through these things on the fear of God. And I'm sorry I haven't got an outline made up for you on this. I'm just not that disciplined, I guess.

I think it'd be nice if I could do that somewhere along the line. I don't know how far we'll go. But briefly, the first thing I started off on this study, of course, was just for myself, not for you. But the object and reason of fear, why should we fear God?

And I've covered this. It helps us to understand God himself and just the highlights on it. His presence is dreadful. His name is dreadful. His worship is to be fearful in the church and things of this.

And I started this study from studying from Bunyan, Paul Bunyan, and just for some devotional thoughts. And it just has affected me. And we've looked at also a father's responsibility on Father's Day in this area.

Five things about a father's responsibility. I'm not going to go back over there. And then the third time I covered it's one of the greatest needs of man. And it brings some benefits in us. The fear of God is a great benefit to us.

And I've covered the reverence, four things about that, and six principles. And the carefulness, second fruit, our benefit. It produces carefulness and watchfulness in our life. Without the fear of God, we get really pretty sloppy in about every area of our life as a Christian.

And Godly fellowship and conversation is one of the benefits of having the fear of God. And enjoyment of the word, we looked at that. And different things that that gives. And the fifth fruit I covered was self-denial.

The fear of God will produce that in our life, in the life of a believer. A singleness of heart. We'll have compassion. And we'll pray. And of course all these things are not fruits in an unbeliever's life or professing believer's life.

He's not careful. He doesn't really desire godly fellowship. Unless he's just content to go along with it. And there's not enough of the power and the presence of God, like in the book of Acts, to bring conviction on him.

Actually, I believe if God brings unsaved people into the church, they should not feel comfortable there very long. The church where God is working. And I've actually seen two guys jump up at the same time and run out of the church.

There was so much of the presence of God. So it brings these things, these fruits, into our lives. Prayer. Professing Christian doesn't really pray. Now this one, the next one, the ninth fruit is humility of mind.

Humility of Mind Opposes Spiritual Pride

Humility of mind. And I actually stopped and didn't give this last week, thinking maybe I wouldn't have to cover this subject. But God has made it clear I'm to share these things with you. And because of the power of this subject and the self-conviction and the deep, deep root of this area, we have a lot of problems in our lives and in our churches because of not having a humility of mind.

John Bunyan said this just to kick us off so that we understand where we're going. And I have a text, Romans chapter 11, that we'll look at. What I did quite a bit of studying on Romans chapter 11. And because of the subject of high-mindedness there addressed, it's a pretty powerful subject.

But Bunyan said this. The man that is proud and of a high and lofty mind fears not God. This is plain from the exhortation, Be not high-minded, but fear. And that's in Romans 11, 20, where we'll be in a little bit.

Here you see that a high mind and the fear of God are set in direct opposition, the one to the other. And there is in them, closely concluded by the Apostle, that where indeed the one is, there cannot be the other.

Where there is a high mind, there is not the fear of God. And where there is the fear of God, the mind is not high, but lowly. Can a man at the same time be a proud man and fear God too? Why then is it said, God beholdeth everyone that is proud and abases him, Job.

And again, he beholds the proud afar off, in the Psalms. Psalms 138, 6. The other was Job 40, verse 11. He therefore that is proud of his person, of his riches, of his office, of his parts and the like, but feareth not God, it is also manifest further.

For God resisted the proud, James 4, 6, which he would not do if he feared him. But in that he sets him at such a distance from him, in that he testifies that he will abase him and resist him, it is evident that he is not the man that hath this grace of fear.

For that man, as I have showed you, is the man of God's delight, the yogic of his pleasure, the man that fears God. The covetous man feareth not God, and he goes on into these things. In Romans chapter 11, if I might give you the background of our subject, because it is actually about seven pages into what I have.

I want to give you a little bit of the background of this, and you will be familiar with it. In verse 13, Paul is writing to the Romans, and the Gentiles of course are at Rome. And possibly some unsaved Gentiles mixed in there, it happens many times when there is a lot of people around and things are happening.

And so the subject had come up that God was done with Israel, and so Paul is attempting to set them straight in Romans 9, 10, and 11. And 13 he says, For I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office, if by any means I may provoke to immolation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, and this doctrine is pretty strong around today, what shall be the receiving of them be but life from the dead? For if the first roots be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree was grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches, but if thou boast thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

Thou will say then, the branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Detect anything there? Well because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith, be not high minded, but fear.

For God, if God spare not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee, behold therefore the goodness and severity of God, that's quite a subject, the goodness and severity of God, on them which fail severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in this goodness, otherwise thou also shall be cut off.

And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou was cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and was grafted contrary to nature, into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise, there's that subject again, in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, which hasn't happened yet.

And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

For God had concluded them in all an unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. And it goes into praising God here. What's going on in this passage is, he says you're in by grace, and don't get proud.

Don't boast. And there's all kinds of pride that goes around sometimes in the believer's lives. And he says you better fear. And if you don't think that this isn't possible, it is because it's happening in our country.

The grace of God has almost moved off of our country. It happened that in Revelation 2, 5, he said, I'll remove thy candlestick. And as I walked among those seven churches and I lived there, you could see the evidences of the blessing of God and the blasting.

Even Laodicea there. Nothing grew in that area. It was like somebody sterilized it. He had so spewed them out of his mouth. And so he's saying, lest I spare not thee. He's saying you can lose the glory of God.

I don't think he's talking about they're losing their salvation at all. But he's saying you can fall from God's favor by your pride. And so he's addressing a pretty serious subject. And he said the Jews had got to the point to where they thought, and they were God's chosen people, but they thought because they were God's chosen people, they were some kind of elite.

And they could get along without God. They could get along without God's word. And, of course, the fact of it was their independence of God led them into a lot of trouble. The church today is right where Israel was.

We have become, as a professing body of believers, independent of God. We're making excuses for our unproductivity. We have programs designed to try to shore us up, prop up programs, to make us look like we are progressive, to make it look like we are successful, that we are spiritual.

And I was thinking back 25 years ago when I was doing some traveling around the country and God had really tuned me up. He had really tuned me up. He had shaken me and dealt with me with my bitterness.

And so I started going around the country, and that's when I asked God to teach me about churches. And so for those few years, just really a couple, that I was really in on that, maybe up to three years on doing some of it.

But God really opened up my eyes to see a lot in this area. And just by keeping my mouth shut and listening. Now, it's very difficult to see this area of spiritual pride, which is what we're going to cover.

In this passage that I just read, he said in verse 22 about continuing, he's speaking of a position and a relationship that they were to continue in the Spirit and in humility, and they would not continue in pride.

Any kind of it. And so he's speaking about the fact that Ezra had grown independent of God, and they got into problems. As a matter of fact, he covered back down in there in that verse, he said three things about God.

There was His goodness, there was His severity, and there was His ability. He said God is able to bring them back in. In verse 23, for God is able to graft them in again. And he's saying He is going to do that.

And he says don't be wise in your own conceits, thinking oneself to be prudent. Years ago there was a preacher in my neck of the woods down in the south down there in Louisiana, who really had a large following.

But he got into a moral sin, and he fell. He had a big fall. That happens. While he's preaching, he was doing that. And here's a statement he said. He said, I never lost the feeling of the love of God, but I lost the consciousness of the fear of God.

Be sure your sins will follow you out. Or they'll catch you. Be sure your sin will find you. Now I want to go back over and come back along this way. And I want to cover some things. I don't know how long I go.

Maybe somebody might get their blessing in two hours. I don't know. This subject started looking at Jesus in Isaiah 11, where he said that the fear of the Lord would make him of quick understanding. He had those seven characteristics of the Spirit on him and the Spirit of the Lord.

We looked at that starting this off a few weeks ago. And shall make him of quick understanding and the fear of the Lord. And that's when I began to ask God, what is that? What does that mean? And that meant basically that he would live in such a holy reverence of the Father all his days.

He would have such a holy reverence of the Father that he would do nothing that would displease his Father. Basically what that meant. That his life would be a well-pleasing aroma. That's basically where the Hebrew went.

It would be an aroma of pleasure to God. I don't have time to go back into that. And even the wisest man in the world concluded everything that he said with these words. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of God. It is the duty of a believer to fear God. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

I'm not looking forward to Judgment Day. But if you've ever had God show up all of a sudden and open up your heart and show you what's there and it doesn't scare you to death, you probably really haven't had any encounter with God.

Spurgeon on Making Christ Attractive to the Young

This proud, arrogant spirit. Now let's go into this a little bit. Spurgeon said this. For you young people, he's told us as parents that we should all the time be trying to win you and make Christ attractive, bidding you to come to Jesus, basically.

I'm putting this into my own words. And that we're not to try to push you away. And basically many times that we can do that with legalism or with harshness because we want you to come along. We will put hedges around you.

And you will feel like those hedges are barriers to keep you from being free. But actually fences are for safety. And so you'll try to climb over the fence and go find out and then you get snakebitten.

And many get destroyed. It is a dangerous world spiritually out here. It's just by the grace of God that us parents that we are here in the position and in the tact that we're in because of the evil that is out there.

But he said we must get them away apart from toys and sports and try to occupy their minds with better pursuits. So Spurgeon preached it too, see? We must drive at the main points always. And what is the main point, Mr. Spurgeon?

Here it is. And keep the fear of the Lord ever uppermost in our teachings for we cannot well teach them while their minds are full of other things. And so if you hear us parents grumbling and mumbling and groaning and complaining and stuff about you wasting your time, it's because when you're wasting your time you're on the devil's turf.

You're there. When you're putting your mind into areas that will not promote godliness and spiritual strength, then that's the problem. Now, I've got some principles and I'm going to give you a copy of these when I'm done from Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards on Spiritual Pride

And as we go through, I'm going to stop and I'm going to give you the first one right now about this thing of humility of mind, not to be high-minded. He said, The first and worst cause of errors that abound in our day and age is spiritual pride.

This is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christ. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead the judgment.

And I'll tell you what, this is true. I have gone off down the by-path and gone through this path. It is a horrible place to be to where you think you are spiritual. And you're actually in pride. I was working with an evangelist a number of years ago.

There were several of us working with him. And he got off into this traveling from coast to coast. And I was a part of the team working with him. And he drew one of the elders, other men with him. And it took another evangelist to come in and work with us and try to corral him back in.

And the first one to get caught was our friend traveling with him. And when he saw what was going on, he was so ashamed and so humbled and so broke and crushed that he got carried along with this. It literally almost just broke him to pieces.

He was so embarrassed that he got carried along with this. And it took God Himself to get the evangelist straightened out. Because He told us we needed to be moving on. It was a horrible, horrible place.

"...Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded.". 2 Timothy 3, 4. Traitors, heady, high-minded. Spiritual pride is a sin of a very high damned of all natures. Bunyan had said.

Edwards said the second principle, he said pride is the main handle by which he has hold of Christian persons. This is the main handle that the devil can get a hold of us, Christian persons, and the chief source of all the mischief that he introduces to clog and hinder a work of God.

Spiritual pride is the main spring or at least the main support of all other errors. Until this disease is cured, medicines are applied in vain to heal all other diseases. I've got a list back here that I made of a few areas of this pride.

I've got ten of them. And I might come back and go through some of these. One of these is the last one I did is the pride of doctrine. It makes you proud. If it makes you proud, then there's something wrong.

The doctrine might be good, but the fact that you're proud of it. I remember one time, this just really hit me. And I'm still thinking about it. Maybe you can think about it. I'm not sure I know completely what to think about it.

But somebody had come up and they were so proud that they were one of the elect. I don't know, something just sort of hit me funny about that. I said, I don't know about this. I think it should work the other way.

It should break us and humble us that God would choose us and save us. It's just really strange how this thing works. Spiritual pride then, he says, is a sin of a very high, damnable nature. It was a sin of Satan.

It was a sin of the fallen angels. It was a sin of great damage. It's a sin of great damage in a leader. And this is why the qualification is not to be a novice, but to be lifted up into pride and have the condemnation of the devil.

It's really bad, he said. It's the thing that destroys spiritual life. Another principle, a third principle. Edwards said it is by spiritual pride that the mind defends and justifies itself in other errors.

It can be with spiritual pride we can get off in errors, doctrinal errors and whatever. We're so proud that God has shown us something. We cannot be convinced by the Word of God itself. It is a dangerous area.

This is why we need each other. I need you. We need each other. Now, I don't know if you want me to go on. Maybe we need revival. I've been thinking about this. We probably should be the lowest, humblest, neediest, meekest church around.

I don't know about you, but I grew up as we are the first church. We're the best church. You're the worst church. You're the last church if you're boasting about yourself. Our boasting is always to be of the Lord.

Always of the Lord. Lord, you still want me to go on? That third principle. That third principle is spiritual pride that the mind defends itself and justifies itself in other errors and defends itself against light by which it might be corrected and reclaimed.

The spiritually proud man thinks he is full of light already and feels that he does not need instructions so he is ready to ignore the offer of it. And usually, we will hedge ourselves off from everybody else.

I just talked to a young man. He just left the church within the last couple of weeks. And they felt like they were the only church in their little group. I said, brother, you do need to get out of there.

You do need to get out of there. We are not superior to other churches. We're all in the body of Christ. We may have different things than they and whatever, but we are needed. And so that third principle is a powerful one.

Humility as Spiritual Clothing

Now, let's get into this. That's just introductory stuff. What is this thing called humility of mind? I'm going to cover five things. Five things about this. It is, first of all, our spiritual clothing.

It is our spiritual clothing. Let's go to 1 Peter 5. It would not be fair, I don't think, to God for us to cover this subject without seeing some of the strongest stuff that God has said about it. Your old man, your old nature doesn't have anything of itself that's any good.

It's just full of pride. It's full of corruption. And the worst of the worst is pride. And so God comes along in 1 Peter 5 and verse 4, He says, And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with self. You know, that's what's being pushed a lot today. Self-pushing programs. He says, No.

That's a heretical type teaching. Be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Has it not seemed incredible to you how so many people can profess to be Christians and live ungodly?

This is a topic that we talk about when I go after these revival conferences with the speakers and the evangelists. It's such a proportional problem in the churches. There's so much ungodliness even among leaders claiming to be Christians, yet they've got things in their life.

They will go live in their home and be shocked at how they live. But yet they will be a leader, professing to be a leader. And our conclusion, that's why we're writing this tract on this subject, is many of them are not saved.

Those in the church will come up to be professors of Christ. But yet when close interrogation is made of their life, which they don't like, they've got something else. They've got a testimony. Your testimony is what has happened to you by Christ, what is happening to you right now by Christ, and what will happen to you in the future by Christ.

But it's Christ. It's not about yourself. So he says, Be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

You know what we do? If we cannot get exalted, if we cannot get pushed up to the position that we think that we deserve, if we cannot get what we want, we'll do it ourselves. And if we have to trample over somebody, if we have to neglect our family, put aside things that are really important to get what we feel like we deserve, we'll do it.

I've got a lot of little stories in this area. And I've shared a lot of them with you. And I've got a lot of these things I'm not proud of myself. And God is using this this week to... This is why I didn't want to preach it.

I've had so much failure in this area. I even confessed to my family, I've been struggling with a fear the last few weeks. I've been struggling with a fear which is sin. And God has taken me to show me the root of this in the last day that this root is pride also.

It's a fear of finances, not having the finances. I've been buying Keith Daniels airline tickets and I've been getting worried because I've been charging lots of money. I don't happen to have that type of lifestyle.

But it's just God has shown me fear because I've done it every year. But this year there's just not that there to back it up. It would be backed up. But it was fear and its root is pride. Now let's look at this humility of mine.

It's our spiritual clothing in Christ. He says, 6. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you. There's my sin.

I confess it to you too. Now let me share another principle with you before we go into this. It's 1 Peter 5. This is the fourth principle. On the other hand, the humble person is like a little child who easily receives instruction.

He is cautious in his estimate of himself, sensitive as to how liable he is to go astray. If it is suggested to him that he is going astray, he is most ready to check into the matter. But on the other hand, if we have spiritual pride, we will be very resistant to one of the evidences of it.

I've been there and can be there. Very resistant. But on the other hand, he's saying humility is very open to suggestion. Oswald Chambers said, 7. The great characteristic of a saint is humility. How is this so that it is the great characteristic of a saint?

Bunyan's Six Warnings Against Sinful Tendencies

Bunyan has six suggestions. Would you like them? You're always open to get my notes afterwards, by the way. He says,. 1. Be afraid of self. Be afraid of self. The most terrifying person that you should be afraid of is yourself.

2. Be afraid of your own naughty heart. His words. 3. Be afraid lest the devil get advantage of you. Paul said he wasn't ignorant of his devices. 4. Be afraid of forgetting what we are by nature. 5. Be afraid of forgetting our need of continual.

Our need of continual. Need of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit. For support. For supply. For pardon. For bringing conviction in our lives so we can get pardon for that sin. And sixthly, he said,. 6. Be afraid of forgetting that our abilities are from God.

That's a good one, isn't it? If any man speak, speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it. It's the ability that God gives. 1 Peter 4 .11. It's God that gives you that ability. Here's a sixth principle from Edwards.

If spiritual pride is healed, other things are easily corrected. Could it be that we're just putting band-aids all over the place? And God has said, let's just go ahead and have major surgery and get down to the root of all these little areas in your life you're struggling with and look and see if there's spiritual pride there.

And so, our first care should be to correct the heart and pull the beam of pride out of our eye and then we shall see clearly. Spiritual pride affects our eyesight. B. First, A, it's our spiritual clothing.

Humility as Spiritual Guidance and Knowledge

And then, B, it's our spiritual guidance. And I don't think we need to say a lot on this. The psalmist said, the meek will he guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way. Then, of course, obviously if we have spiritual pride, we are really not open to God's guidance.

And if He does guide us, we're probably very likely to argue about the wisdom of what He is doing, where He is leading us, and that's why we will mumble and grumble and get angry and get upset and all these other things because we're proud.

Who am I to have this happen to me? Don't you know who I am? God says, yes, I know who you are. That's why I'm letting this happen to you. You think you're a somebody and I just need you to understand you're a nobody.

And I can use nobodies, but all these somebodies are out there pushing themselves. He said, I can't really use them. Go back. If you go through Proverbs on this subject, on the fear of God, it's an amazing study just to go through there and how much wisdom is promised along with the fear of God.

Here is a seventh principle which he titles, Growing Christians Beware. And I have copies of all this for you after I'm done. But if I don't get done today, I don't know if I want to give you all this.

Seven, those who are most zealous, and listen to this one, those who are most zealous in the cause of God are the most likely to be targeted as being filled with pride. In other words, he's saying if you are very zealous for God, very humble in your heart, and very sincerely seeking God and searching for Him and being used by Him, you're going to become a target and you're going to be accused of pride.

But no, if that does happen, the one that is accusing you is the one that has the problem because this is an age-old problem. We like to lift ourselves up by looking at the faults of others. But a humble person is not going to do that.

When any person, he goes on, appears in any respect to be noticeably excelling others in his Christian walk, odds are ten to one that it will immediately awaken the jealousy of those about him. Spiritually pride people become envious because you've got something they'd really like to have.

There's a little ananiasis fire they seem to pop up. Let's go to another one. C. A. We'll be clothed in humility. B. It's our spiritual guidance. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that one. C. It's our spiritual knowledge.

The fear of God in our life produces this humility of mind and it becomes our strength in the Word. Because the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility.

Before honor is humility. Number eight on the principles, Edwards said they will suspect whether they have good reason or not that he is very proud of his goodness and that he probably thinks no one is good as he is so that everything he says and does is observed with this prejudice.

Continuing on from that seventh one, they're going to just suspect that this person that is very humble and very godly is proud and they're proud of their goodness and that they... it's just really bad and does...is observed with his prejudice.

The Bible says who can stand before envy? Who can stand before envy? If you ever come under the attack of someone that is full of envy, it will be a brutal attack. Or if you've done it, it was a brutal attack.

It's a horrible thing, that area. Number nine principle, those who are themselves cold and dead and especially those who have never had any experience of the power of godliness on their own hearts will easily entertain such thoughts of the best Christians.

This arises from nothing less than a secret hostility against essential and fervent holiness. We have entered into a new age of attack on other Christians. It hadn't been around like this in years past unless there was... back in the Puritan days there was some stuff that went on, there was some of this letter writing and stuff, but today it's vicious.

It's vicious. I even know of some that have done this and one in particular, I really am scared of him. Because a man that doesn't have the fear of God, if you approach him about his sin, he has no fear of God to turn around and write letters about you.

And I've never had any real contact with this person, but there's been problems in letter writing and letter writing is going on a lot. But it comes from, we have no fear of God to do this. Let me go into another area.

I'm going to put these two together. 9. Edwards said this, Those who are themselves cold and dead, especially those who have never had any experience of the power of God on their own hearts will easily entertain such thoughts of the best Christian.

This is 9. This arises from nothing less than a secret hostility against essential and fervent holiness. Then he goes into 10 and he says,. But the zealous Christian should take heed that this does not prove a snare to him.