Humility

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Well, good morning. It's good to see all of you this morning.
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It's good to see the other sex than just men from last night.
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So it balances out the congregation here. I was asked by Mike to speak on humility.
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And I want to take you to a few places in the scriptures on this. It intrigued me as I was reading through the epistles one particular year.
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And let's go to the book of Ephesians, because oftentimes in biblical counseling, we find ourself in the book of Ephesians dealing with husbands and wives, parents and children, usually in chapter 5.
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And so I wanted to get back into, as I was reading through the epistles, and I read the first three chapters of Ephesians, and it all takes you vertically, mostly, you and your relationship with God, and who you are in Christ, and how he saved us by his grace.
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But I noticed something. As soon as it turns from practical theology, then into practical application.
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The epistles are constructed that way, as you know. About midway in between these epistles, it turns from more of a vertical dimension than taking your walk with Christ, and now let's apply it in your life.
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And then there's what's called a hinge, like a door turns on a hinge. That is the word therefore.
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And I want to have you look at chapter 4, verse 1, which is this hinge, from looking at Christ into now walk with Christ.
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And it says, I therefore, and there's that hinge, a prisoner for the Lord, I urge you to walk now in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
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With all what? With all humility, and then gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love.
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It goes into our walk with Christ, and the first thing that is addressed is our attitude.
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Our attitude. If you have the right attitude, if I say to a husband who is in Christ, you need to love your wife like Christ loved the church.
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Now, if he has a proud attitude, and impatient, it's going to not go well.
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But if he has this attitude of humility, and gentleness, and forbearing, it may be difficult, depending on what the situation is, but God will grace him, and he's humble enough to receive
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God's grace, to do what God's called him to do. The same with a wife. Submit to him, you've got to be kidding me.
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But with a humble attitude, gentle, forbearing, then by God's grace, they can do this.
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Again, as they keep their eyes on Christ. So right at the hinge, the attitude is addressed.
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Let's go to another epistle. Let's go to the book of Romans. Little quiz early in the morning, where's the hinge in the book of Romans?
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12 .1, all right? Chapter 12, verse 1. Let's see if the
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Lord, the Spirit of God addresses attitude here in chapter 12 at the hinge.
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We're very familiar with the first two verses. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
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And that's usually where we stop, but look at verse 3. For by the grace given to me,
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I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.
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What's that? What's another word for that? Pride, that's right.
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Go right after the attitude. Be that living sacrifice, but a humble attitude.
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Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
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Let's go to Philippians, a church dearly loved by Paul.
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But there were two women in that church that weren't getting along, were they? They're mentioned in chapter 4.
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There are many times I'm very thankful that I didn't live in that era. I'm mixed.
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I mean, I would love to have seen Jesus in person and walk with him, but I'm kind of afraid that my name would be mentioned in the
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New Testament, like Yodi and Syntyche. I mean, they're only mentioned here, and it's not a very good thing.
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And when we get to heaven, if we keep our names, they'll introduce,
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I'm Yodi, I'm Syntyche. Now, they're getting along now. But what you know of them is, oh, you're the two ladies that weren't getting along in the church at Philippi.
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That's a tough way to go when you're only known for that. But here, the church was to help them get along in chapter 4.
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But look at chapter 2. Chapter 2, where the
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Spirit of God through Apostle Paul says in verse 1, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the
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Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord of one mind.
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Do nothing from rivalry or conceit. There is speculation by some commentators that that's what was going on with these two ladies.
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They both had worked with Paul. That's kind of a big thing. Wow, I served along Paul.
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They ministered to him. And maybe there was some rivalry going on. And you have this being addressed.
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Be of the same mind, same love. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility.
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There it is again, sort of right in the middle of Philippians. And then the greatest expression of that comes next.
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Verse 5, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself.
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And then it goes on about the death and exaltation of Christ. We can go to Colossians chapter 3, same thing.
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Attitude is just fundamental in your walk with Christ, in your relationships.
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If you try to jump to chapter 5 of Ephesians and say, all right, let's help a husband and wife get along, and parents and children and siblings and all of this, and you do not have the humility, the humble mindset, it won't go well.
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It'll be pulling teeth, as they say, trying to corral cats. I mean, it just won't work.
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And it doesn't bring glory to God. Now, as I was going through and reading this and seeing the change here in the transitions to humility and attitude,
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I do have to confess, I didn't think I had that big of a problem with pride. I really didn't.
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I thought a proud person was someone who would walk around and boast on themself all the time.
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That's what I thought. I should have known better. But I thought someone who goes around saying,
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I'm the greatest, everyone look at me, and all that kind of thing, and constantly talking about themselves, wanting to be first in everything, they probably have a pride problem.
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They need to read this and meditate on it. Until I look more closely at pride, and for a week,
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I just began meditating on the manifestations in scripture of pride.
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You don't have notes, but let me just give you a couple of words here about pride.
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It may be helpful. When you ever do get the notes, you can kind of just, it'll be the outline.
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A little bit of information about pride, God hates it. It's an abomination to God.
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One of the first things it says that God hates is a proud look. In Proverbs chapter six, it says in Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.
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Proverbs 16, verse five, everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the
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Lord. Assuredly, he will not go unpunished. Proverbs 13, 10, behind contention is pride.
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Behind fighting will be pride. When you look at the definitions of the words that are used for pride, in the
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Old Testament, several different Hebrew words are used, six of them to be exact, and all of them refer to a magnification, an exaltation, and even rebellion.
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You can see this kind of a highness mentality. When you go into the
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New Testament, you'll find two different categories for pride. One word group suggests the meaning of straining or stretching your neck up.
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You kind of catch that, it's a picturesque type of language here, of stretching or straining your neck.
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Then the other word group conveys a blindedness, a blindedness, enveloped with smoke, a literal translation.
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You think, now what does that mean? Oh, here they are, these are the notes. All right, so what does that mean? So as you get those, you can fill those in.
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Great, thank you all for helping. So if you just kind of get that in your mind, pride is an exaltation of oneself, it's a stretching up of one's neck, and when it's up there, you're enveloped with smoke.
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And I thought, what does that mean, you're enveloped with smoke? Started looking at some commentators, and here are the two different ways that that might be implied there.
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One, you're a legend in your own mind. All right, you're a legend in your own mind.
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You're thinking too highly of yourself, and you have grandiose thoughts, so you're enveloped with smoke.
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The other implication is you're blinded in the smoke, you can't see, you can't see that you're an arrogant individual.
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Now, which one do I side with of those two? Both. Both. You think way too highly of yourself, and you're blind, and you can't even see it.
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And what intrigued me is after, well, before I got married, I had a professor say to me in a preaching lap, where I was just,
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I was falling apart, I was so nervous, I didn't wanna speak in front of people, and people were grading me in these homiletics labs,
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I mean, they're saying they're grading you on how you're doing. And I had every nervous tick you can imagine.
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I was scratching, shaking, quivering, I mean, you name it, I had it. And the professor afterwards said,
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Mike would know him, Dr. Zemeck, he said, Stuart, you don't look very comfortable when you're speaking in front of people.
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I said, well, you're very observant. He says, what are you thinking about when you're up there?
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I guess I'm thinking about what they're thinking of me. He said, that's your problem, that's pride.
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That's what he said to me, that's pride. My first semester in seminary. I've never had anyone tell me that before.
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Now, they told me I was shy, I was introverted, I was nervous, all of those kind of words, but no one ever said, that's very much pride.
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Oh, then I got married. Marriage is a great sanctification project, isn't it?
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So is parenting, they're all sanctifying agents in your life. When I got married, stuff was coming out of me and out of my mouth and my actions that I just couldn't believe.
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I mean, I thought, this woman that you have given me, Lord, is bringing me down spiritually.
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Do you know what it was? It was already in my heart. The Lord was allowing me to see what was in my heart.
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I definitely married up. Zandra is a phenomenal, godly woman.
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And it wasn't that she was bringing me down, she was just being the agent in my sanctification to bring out of my heart what was in there and the need.
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But she also said one time with great respect, honey, I think there's a lot of pride there.
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But that's the second time I've heard that. I don't see it. GK Chesterton says, if one person calls you a mule, consider the source.
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If two call you a mule, look for hoof prints. And if three call you a mule, just get a saddle.
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It's the mouth of two or three witnesses, let a matter be confirmed. And here I was hearing it again, and I'm thinking, what is it?
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And I think when you are up there in your own mind, whether you are boasting on yourself or the flip side of self -pity and fear of man, you are consumed with yourself and you're blind to it.
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You just don't see it. It's a blind spot in your life. So these words of being high and lifted up,
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Thomas Watson said, an angel is a knowledgeable creature, but take away humility from an angel and you have the devil.
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Take away humility and what can be very beautiful can become very wicked. St. Chrysostom said, pride is the mother of hell.
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We should hate it because God hates it. And we could go on with more things that people said about pride, but some biblical examples of proud people.
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We could go with Satan, whether you go with Ezekiel 28 or Isaiah 14, if you allude to that of his high and lofty, if it's a double meaning there.
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But you just go to Genesis three and anyone who contradicts God is a proud individual. And he did.
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He contradicted God to Eve and the temptation. You have
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Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26, 16, where it said that when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly.
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It's not just Uzziah. As I've been reading through the Old Testament this year, I'm finding one person after another says when they became strong, they forgot
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God, they became proud. Nebuchadnezzar's on his rooftop.
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And he said, oh, this is Babylon, my idea. I did it by my own hands and I did it for my own glory.
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And that was the last thing he said before he was the human lawnmower, right?
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In the backyard of the palace. I mean, God humbled him. And he says in Daniel 4, 37, that God is able to humble those who walk in pride.
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The thing about Nebuchadnezzar was he was warned a year earlier to humble himself by Daniel in interpreting the dream.
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He said, please humble yourself. This is you, you're gonna fall. And he didn't. As Spurgeon said, either you have two options, right?
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To humble yourself or be humbled. And we better go with the former.
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Then we can go to the Pharisee in Luke 18, where he says he was praying to himself and comparing himself with the publican and boasting on his good deeds.
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King Herod in Acts 12 preaches, well, he didn't preach. He gave an oration, a wonderful speech.
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And the people said the voice of a God, not a man. Now I'm reading into the white space here.
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But you catch that he just said, well, thank you very much. You know, it was good. Because the next thing it says is
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God killed him. And why? Well, it says in Acts 12, because he did not give glory to God.
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Now that's a pagan king. That wasn't even a believer. Because every gift, every good gift that we have, even unbelievers who have been graced by God in common grace, every ability and good thing that they have, they should be thanking
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God for it and giving him the praise. That's a sobering passage. Now his children,
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God's children, we should excel in being thankful and giving
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God the glory for everything. That's good. God's very jealous.
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All the glory belongs to him. Then you have a lot of different warnings in scripture.
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In Deuteronomy 8, Israel is warned. He says, lest, he says, don't forget the
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Lord. Once you get into the land and you've eaten and are satisfied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the
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Lord, your God. You'll become proud, you'll forget. In Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling.
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There are so many Proverbs against pride and the results of it.
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A lot of warnings in there. Now, what is pride?
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Pride really is self -worship. It's a mindset of self that has a focus on oneself.
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I think you have three blanks in your notes. There's a focus on yourself.
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Secondly, there is a pursuit for self -recognition. You're wanting attention to yourself.
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So a focus on self, a pursuit of self -recognition. And thirdly, there's a desire to control and use all things for self.
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Let me put it a different way. That may make sense to you. It helped me.
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If you think that from you, by you or to you belong anything, that's gonna be pride.
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Because from him, by him and to him belong all things.
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At the end of Romans chapter 11, you're stealing the glory that belongs to the
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Lord. You're thinking that something good came out from you and that by your own strength, you did something and that you should receive some of the glory and recognition.
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You think this goes on in our day? Think it goes on in our day and in our life?
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Yes. No one is void of pride on any given day.
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Completely void of it. So it's an ongoing sanctification that the
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Lord wants us to keep humbling ourselves, growing in humility. You said, well, you can't really do that.
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If you think you're humble at all, you're not. You ever heard that one? If you think you're humble at all, you're not?
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That's some bizarre theology. I remember hearing that. That's a command in scripture, to humble yourself.
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Just like the command to love one another. So what if I do that with that one? If you think you're loving at all, you're not.
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What if I did that to all of the imperatives? If you think you're encouraging to one another, you're not.
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Now, if you think you've arrived at humility, you've not. You have not done that.
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But we should be able to look back and look at the grace of God in our life and say, thank you for helping me to look a little more like Jesus.
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We should be growing in humility. Paul said in Acts 20, with humility of mind,
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I served you. How could he say that? How could
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Moses, who wrote the Pentateuch, how could he, in Numbers chapter 12, write
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Moses, the meekest man on the face of the earth? Now, there's one for you.
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Sit and think about that one. How could you say that about yourself? Well, this is the definition of pride.
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It is all about self, and there is a flip side to pride, and that is this wannabe.
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I wish I could boast on myself. I wish I could be like someone else. I wish
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I could speak like so -and -so or do like so -and -so. This flip side of self -pity, this low, quote, self -esteem that's being promoted today, that person is eaten up as as much pride as someone who goes around boasting on themself.
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Now, that's how I used to live growing up. I'm very familiar with this flip side.
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This was the kind of stuff I would do, and it's insidious. I'd do something, whether I was taking piano lessons and I'd play, and my dad or mom might say, you know,
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Stuart, that's really good. No, it's not. No, it's not.
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I can't play. And they say, oh, no, you really can. No, I really can't. Have you ever been around someone like this?
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They are manipulating you to fuel their self -focus and self -pursuit.
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Now, sometimes I come across people like this, especially, I mean, adults are a little bit more refined in their manipulation at times, but sometimes kids will still do that.
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You know, I'll come by one and they did something fairly well, and I say, you know, that's really, you really did a good job.
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No, no, I didn't. You know what I wanna say? And this is pretty fleshly. I wanna say, you're right, it stinks.
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Just to see their reaction. And I don't do that because that'd be mean, wouldn't be like Christ, but I know what they're doing.
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I've been there. And you're just as consumed with yourself as someone who goes around boasting on themself.
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It's insidious. I'm telling you, this thing of timidity, fear of man, you are thinking only of yourself.
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It's the wannabes. I wish I could, you know, be on top of the world. You're still consumed with yourself and talking about yourself.
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And it's pride. It's just a different manifestation of it. And as I began to meditate a whole week long on this,
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I began to thinking, where else does this come out? Most of these manifestations is an autobiography.
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I'm very familiar with these because this was sort of meditating on pride in my life.
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Where does it just seep out? So let me run through a few of them.
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You get kind of a glimpse at this. When you complain against God, you're a complainer.
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Not very thankful, just complain a lot. Whatever happens, you always see the bad side of things.
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A lack of gratitude, you're not very thankful because you think you deserve that or better.
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So a lack of gratitude. In Romans 1, it says unbelievers are known to be unthankful.
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But Christians should not be. We should be the most thankful people. When you're angry, you say, well,
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I'm righteously angry, right? So you're thinking about God and his reputation and his will.
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No, we're typically thinking about ourselves. What we're not getting, what someone's doing to us, our reputation, that's why we're angry.
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That's pride. Withdrawal, you pout, moody. And I'm not talking about DL, but you're moody.
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It's silent murder is what it is. You're gonna really, you're angry at your brother or sister.
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It's pride. So, seeing yourself better than other people, having an inflated view of your own importance, gifts and abilities, what
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Romans 12, three warns against. How about number seven in your list, perfectionism?
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Wow, I never thought about that as being pride. Sure it is, because you can't be faithful in everything when you're trying to be perfect in something.
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You can't. And usually what a person excels in is what gives them the strokes.
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They get the encouragement, the praise from people, or they'll show you what they can do to get that praise.
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But other areas are left undone. Mandated areas of their life are undone.
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You look at the commands of God, and oh, well, I don't get time to do that. Oh, I can't get to that either. I don't have any time for that, because I'm trying to be perfect over here.
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That's pride. Talking too much.
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Now I've been asked to speak during this hour. But when you're not forced to talk, who does most of the talking?
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When you're with other people, who does most of the talking? Because if you're humble, you're gonna try to draw people out.
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You're gonna try to take an interest in them. Consider their interests more than your own. Philippians chapter two.
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When you're not forced to talk, who does most of the talking? And when you do talk, do you talk about yourself?
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Even though the conversation moves down the road, you bring it back to you. Oh, by the way, yeah,
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I know what you're saying there. Did I tell you about what I, you know, back to me? There's a comic,
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Garfield, and he said to his, the other pet, Odie, Odie, I'm really tired of talking about me.
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You talk about me for a while. That's the kind of thing, you know, of self -focus in your speech.
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Here's another manifestation, seeking independence or control. Trying to be sovereign, thinking there's a vacancy in the
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Trinity for you. You wanna be sovereign. Or even seeking independence.
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I don't want anybody telling me what to do. What is that? That's pride. We weren't created that way.
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We are created to be dependent on God and an interdependency upon one another.
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We weren't created to be independent of God and people. Here's the one
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I'm most familiar with, the number 11, being consumed with what others think. That so paralyzed me.
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I have a major regret in my life and I'm thankful the Lord forgives. And you move on and repent.
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That's why I'm here today by God's grace, repenting and doing what he wants me to do and using the gifts he's given me.
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But for years and years as a believer, I would not talk in public. I would not.
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I wouldn't give my testimony. I didn't even wanna get up and tell the class in college that we're having soccer practice down on the field.
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I turned down every offer to speak, every opportunity because I feared man.
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And that is insidious. It was pride. I needed to confess that as pride and then by God's grace, learn to fear
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God more and wanna please him more than what people think.
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Dr. Zemeck, my professor who first told me, you're thinking way too much of yourself. He said, what you need to do is study the word and then preach or teach it to God's people.
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They're there not to hear you. They wanna hear what God has to say in his word. That's very freeing.
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So why are they grading me in here in the homiletics? Oh, some other manifestations, being devastated by anger or criticism.
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You get someone to teach Sunday school and someone sits in and says, you know, that was just excellent. God really helped you to do well.
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This one thing might be helpful for you. Oh, I quit. Just devastated by a criticism.
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Or evaluations come in and you look at 20 of them. 19 are very encouraging.
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One has a problem with you and you just can't sleep that night because of the one. Being sarcastic or being unteachable.
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Being sarcastic or hurtful. You can really cut people down in pride. Lower people around you, it lifts you up.
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A lack of serving. Proud people don't serve, they like to be served. Last night
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I was telling the men, you know, one of the things that came out in my life is that when I got married, it was a lot like two in love with one.
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And my wife's a tremendous servant. Just tremendous help me and servant.
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And that was great. You know, I serve me, she serves me. And it does not make for a
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Christ honoring marriage. And again, as I was looking over all these and meditating on them, you can only imagine as I'm writing these things, this is where it's coming out of my life.
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That at the end of the week, I mean, I was devastated. I was a young pastor.
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We had two little children. I'm married and I'm looking at the pride and the amount of it in my life.
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I mean, I just wanted to go in a hole and die. Just saying, what have
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I been doing? And I'm thankful for God's grace and his mercy that he grants forgiveness.
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And by his grace, you can repent. And become more like Christ. And I'm thankful for people around me that were very forgiving.
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My kids, my wife, my congregation at the time. A lack of compassion.
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Manifestation of pride. You say, you want compassion? Talk to my wife. No, that means you're not like Jesus.
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Jesus is full of compassion. Being defensive. A lack of admitting when you're wrong.
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Yet we say, oh, we sin every day. Theologically. Well, do you confess your sin? Oh, well, I don't know.
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Last time I confessed sin, a couple days ago, I think. That's not humility.
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A lack of admitting when you're wrong. And you always find excuses. Or a lack of asking for forgiveness.
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A lack of biblical praying. Watson, the Puritan, said, beggars beg.
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You know, we ask God for grace every day. Oh, resisting authority, voicing preferences or opinions when you're not asked.
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Are you around people like this? You don't even ask them their preferences, but they'll tell you. I mean, we've had people wanting to redecorate our home.
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So why do you have the picture up there? And why is the couch over on that corner? It really should go over there.
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I didn't ask you. You don't live there. That's a proud mentality that wherever it goes, it wants the world to revolve around them the way they want it to be.
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Oh, we could go on. Minimizing one's own sins and shortcomings. Maximize others.
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I see the log in your eye. I think I only have the speck. Just the opposite of what Jesus said.
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Being impatient, jealous. Using other people. You have no time for people who don't serve you.
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Being deceitful. Using attention -getting tactics. Not having any close relationships because proud people tend not to go very deep.
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You know, they tend to be a mile wide because they're building relationships. You gotta, that's a humbling process.
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You gotta work at that. Now, there's 30 there, and the last one says what? Et cetera.
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That's for you to fill in. Whatever I've left out. This pastor, well, it was a chaplain who came to me and he said, are you the one who wrote this book,
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Exemplary Husband, and there's a chapter in there on pride and all these manifestations. Did you do that? I said, well, yeah.
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He said, I hate you. He said, I went to my pastor, and our marriage was not doing too well, and so we went to our pastor, and he gave me that list of 30 manifestations.
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And he said, I want you to circle the manifestations that apply to your life. He said, that was a painful week.
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As I went through, he says, and I circled 27 out of 30. He said,
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I went back with my wife. I sat there. My head was about between my knees. I handed to the pastor all the ones that were circled, and you know what he said to me?
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What? He said, what is it about the other three you don't understand? This is an area that God gives grace to the humble, but he opposes the who?
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The proud. And it takes grace to grow in your walk with the
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Lord. It takes grace in your relationships. We need his grace daily, and we need as much as we can get.
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Well then, keep humbling yourself by God's grace. Keep your eyes on Christ.
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There's promoters of pride. Usually everything that has self in it, except self -denial, will be promoters of pride.
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Self -esteem, self -love, self -actualization, self -assertiveness, self -rights, self -righteousness.
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On you could go. All kinds of promoters of pride today. Now, we could skip over these.
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I get that, Stuart. I got that. I mean, I know I have some pride. Can we just move on?
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We have 15 minutes left. Hurry it up. I was intrigued reading the life of Job until I got to chapter 38.
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I'm feeling very sorry for this guy. All right, I moved to pity on him.
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He lost all his children, everything he owned, and he's afflicted with some physical malady.
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And in chapter 38, well, up to that, he's having a problem now with God. He can't figure out what's going on, doesn't know what's going on in the heavenlies between Satan and God.
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And he's struggling, and he starts to contend with God. He almost is putting God on a witness stand and pointing his finger at him.
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How can this be? And this isn't... In chapter 38, God speaks.
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The Lord speaks, and he says, I've got something to say, and I'm not interested in dialogue.
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Who is this that contends with the Almighty? I think immediately,
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Job realized he's not on the witness stand, God. Job is. And he needed to get who it is that God is and not get the answer to why this is happening in his life.
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Sometimes we're all caught up with why when we really should be thinking about who. Focus more on the character of God, and it's okay.
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I don't need to know the answer of why. God is good, and he's just, and he's wise, and he's perfect in every way.
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For two chapters, God speaks, and he just humbles Job. Where were you when the creation, you know, when the world was formed?
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Oh, let me think. There's no answer for that. At the end of two chapters, this is
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Job's reply. In Job 40, verses three and four, he says, behold, I am insignificant.
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What can I reply to you? I'll lay my hand on my mouth. Paraphrased, I'll keep my mouth shut.
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I'll bite my tongue, whatever expression people use. That's the wrong answer because the heart isn't changed.
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That's just a person saying, all right, all right. I've been sarcastic, and I've been doing this, and that, and the other.
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I'll just keep my mouth closed. Well, that's no heart changed. Remember, it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
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So just when you think, okay, let up, Lord. I mean, this is tough for Job. You almost get the sense from the passage that Job's getting up, and he's gonna walk away.
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And the Lord says, stand there. I have more for you. Two more chapters.
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Four chapters of where were you? Job, you are little.
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I am the Almighty. Now at the end of four chapters, this is what
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Job says. I know that you can do all things, that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
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I have declared that which I did not understand and things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. You instruct me.
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I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I retract and I repent.
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And Dustin asks you, see the difference? See the difference? I would encourage you, you wanna pursue humility and Christ -likeness.
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You may have to linger a little longer on where pride's being manifested. I think just in counseling and just in our own growth, you may need to linger a little longer on where pride is being manifested in your own heart and life, just like Job needed to do.
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And don't get morbid in self -examination. Martin Lloyd -Jones says, you know you've crossed the line.
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He said, if we're always talking to people about ourselves and our problems and our troubles, and if we're forever going to them with that kind of frown upon our face and saying
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I'm in great difficulty, it probably means that we are all the time centered upon ourselves.
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That's introspection and that in turn leads to condition known as morbidity. Look at your sin, confess it, and then turn to Christ.
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Now the attitude of humility. And I'm gonna shift here on humility.
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Very unnatural to man. Very unnatural to man. This is something wrought by God.
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Several Old Testament terms all refer to a crouching down, bowing low, even in the
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New Testament. Everything from servile, base, gentle, yielding, just the opposite of this high lifted up, lost in the clouds, bowed low.
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If you think of a seesaw, when God is raised, man is lowered.
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When man is high, God is lowered. You can't have them both up there.
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One of the things that I do homework assignments in counseling, no matter what the person's problems are,
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I have them reading the attributes of God. They must get to know their God.
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There are many examples in scripture of humility, of humble people, of habitual humble people, not perfect.
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Abraham, when he preferred lot. Moses, when it compares him to everyone else on the face of the earth, that he's more humble.
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John the Baptist, who said I'm not worthy to untie the latchet of Christ's sandal, even though that was his cousin.
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Mary, who said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.
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The tax collector, who beat his breast and said, be merciful to me, the sinner. Apostle Paul, who just said,
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I'm the least of all saints. I'm the chief of all sinners. I mean, that's not, he wasn't just exaggerating.
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He really, the closer you come to Christ, the more you're gonna see your sin. And you're gonna realize that you are, you know, apart from God's grace, a miserable, wicked sinner.
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And he realized that God is perfectly holy and he is not.
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And yet God accepted him in Christ. And he just had a humble mindset before man.
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The greatest example is Jesus, of humbling himself, not grasping and holding tight to the independent use of his attributes in heaven and all the glory he shared up there with the other two members of the
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Trinity, but he humbled himself. He's the greatest example of humility. Humble servant,
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Philippians chapter two. Definition of humility, the three blanks are the same three words.
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Now you're focused more on God, namely in the face of Christ.
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You're pursuing that God is exalted, not you.
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And your desire now is to glorify and praise and please
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God in all things. So a focus, a pursuit, and a desire that from him, by him, and to him belong all things.
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Now, all of the manifestations of humility, you should be able to look at these and say, there's a little bit of this.
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I do try to do this by God's help. You should be able to do that. Not just see all the pride manifestations, but you ought to be able to come over to the humility and say,
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I have not arrived here, believe me, but there's some, praise
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God for that. Richard Baxter said when you have, he called it self -judging, self -examination.
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He said, if you only look at your weaknesses and not your strengths by God's grace, your graces, he called it.
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If you only look at where you're weak and where you fall short, and you don't look where God has graced you, you will not have an accurate picture of yourself.
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If you always look at your graces and never your shortcomings, you also will not have an accurate picture of yourself.
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You must look at both. This is where I need to grow, and praise God, this is where God has helped me to grow.
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And then you'll have a more accurate, sober assessment of yourself. But you look at all of these manifestations and we don't have time to go through them.
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You can do this. But looking to God, recognizing his character, thanking him for all things.
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Primarily number three, focusing on Jesus Christ. You're just consumed with Jesus. You just rejoice if someone sees anything about Jesus in your life.
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You're overwhelmed with his goodness and his grace. Oh, a few in relationships is number 10.
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You're a good listener, you care about people. You're listening to them, you're asking questions, you're trying to bring them out.
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You're preferring them, I mean, number 13. When someone criticizes you, you're thankful.
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It's hard maybe to hear it, but you're thankful. It's because you know that they love you and they're trying to help you.
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You have more of a teachable spirit. You're more aggressive in number 17, serving others, not wanting to be served.
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Number 22, Martin Lloyd -Jones said, this is one of the most difficult exhortations in Romans 12, that is rejoice with those who rejoice.
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He said, oh, it's easy to weep with those who weep. But when someone else is blessed by God and you don't happen to be in on that blessing, he said, that will expose your heart.
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Can you rejoice with those who rejoice? You know, we had two miscarriages and a friend of ours had a baby.
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Can you rejoice, could we rejoice with them that they just had a baby? See, I mean, that is now resting and our hope is in our
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God, not in our circumstances. Rejoice with those who rejoice.
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Weep with those who weep. And you'll be working harder on close relationships. Now I wanna go to a being intentional here, moving from pride to humility.
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First, you need to humble yourself before the mighty God, our mighty God, with focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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There is nothing that I know of in all of scripture that will humble you more than focusing on what
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God did through Christ in his life, death, burial, resurrection. If that doesn't move you to humility, then you need to hear the gospel and be saved.
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I mean, if Christians aren't moved by what Christ did on the cross, there is no higher motivation for a
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Christian than the mercies of God through Jesus Christ and what he did on our behalf. And that's what
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Paul beseeches us, by the mercies of God, right? The first 11 chapters of Romans, I beseech you then by all the mercies of God through Christ, be that living sacrifice, humble yourself, there's nothing higher.
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If that doesn't move you, then you need to check your pulse and examine yourself as Paul said, and see if you're in the faith.
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That's where we need not just, the gospel is not just for salvation. We must depend on what
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Christ has done and focus on that every day of our Christian life. There's a, by the way,
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I'm just gonna give you a pointer here or an info. There is a primer coming out, it's being published by Focus Publishers.
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It's a primer on the gospel and how to meditate on that every day for Christians.
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It's coming out, I think I'm gonna get sent a copy next week. So it should be out within a few weeks.
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Others talk about preach the gospel to yourself every day, like Jerry Bridges, C .J. Mahaney and others.
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But this is a primer on how to do it, of how to focus on it with the actual passages of scripture in a
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Christian's life every day. I would just encourage you, that may be a good thing to focus on in our quest to be more like Christ in humility.
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Practical steps, read the Psalms and Prophets. I would say, continue to read through the
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Old Testament. The Old Testament presents such a high view of God. To reverence
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Him. I mean, all of scripture does, but when you go, well, they complained. Where did they go? You know, the ground just opened up and they got swallowed up.
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Maybe I shouldn't complain. You know, there's something there that you see an awesome
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God and you reverence Him, you fear Him. In the right way.
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Here's one, ask others if you come across in a proud way. Ask your spouse and start the list.
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I would encourage you, you know, use the list. Circle the things that you see and say, if you're married, the youth in here, you could ask your parents.
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Ask your siblings if they're honest with you. And just say, here's some things I see. Do you see these?
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Are there others that you see? Would you put an asterisk by those that seem to stand out the most?
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Because that'll become your worksheet of moving and growing in this area.
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But remember, you also need to then look at the evidences of humility if you're a
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Christian and say, here is where I think the Lord is helping me. Would you agree? You know, you need to look at both.
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Not just the weaknesses, but the graces as well. And then have this mindset.
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This must be a way of life. And you must work with the spirit of God in doing this.
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You can't do this, okay, I'm gonna put on a humble mindset. You can't, you're gonna flop immediately. Without Christ, you can do nothing.
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It's his spirit who is in his children, both to will and to do is good pleasure. We must pray without ceasing.
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Lord, help me, what that person just did or said, this is tough to take.
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I pray for your grace. Help me to think for their good, for your glory and respond in a way that would be more like Christ.
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I mean, you just pray without ceasing. Dr. MacArthur says, humility creates the vacuum that divine grace fills.
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Humility creates the vacuum that divine grace fills.
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I'm gonna talk more about that issue of pride and humility even in the message this morning. I wanna close with a passage from Isaiah 57, verse 15.
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Isaiah 57, verse 15. For thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy.
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I dwell on a high and holy place and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit.
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In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.
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He's high and exalted and he dwells in the heavenlies but he also dwells with those who are broken and contrite of heart.
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May we be that kind of person, his children, as we walk with Christ.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time together. And Lord, in a room this size there,
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I'm sure those who have not bowed before you and humbled themselves and have acknowledged their sin before you and asked for saving faith and willing to repent of their sins and living for themselves and living now for the
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Savior. I pray that if it would please you, you would grant mercy and grace in their life today.
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May they see that their pride is truly an abomination to you and that it is your mercy that allows them to take one more breath this side of hell.
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And for your children, Lord, may we just be humbled under your mighty hand.
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We thank you for your grace and your mercy through Jesus Christ. We thank you for forgiveness of sins.
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We thank you that you have given us your spirit to indwell us and to help us to become more like our
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Savior. And Lord, I pray that as people are around us, what they would see would not be us, but Christ in us.