I want to read three portions
of scripture, and we'll read them without comment. Beginning
in verse 11 of Matthew chapter 23, the Lord Jesus says, the
greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself
will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Now if you'll turn to the book
of James chapter 4, Beginning in verse six, we read
this, but he gives us more grace. That is why the scripture says,
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves
then to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Come near to God and he will
come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change
your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves
before the Lord and he will lift you up. A few pages over to 1 Peter chapter
5, beginning with verse 5. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 5, young
men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of
you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God
opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves
therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up
in due time. Now of all the various graces
or virtues that a man might have, I say a man, a man or a woman,
any person of all the graces and virtues he might have, I
do believe that humility is probably the most difficult to produce
and therefore is the most rare. All the other virtues, love,
kindness, gentleness, all these things can be practiced outwardly. even though they do not exist
inwardly. We learn how we're supposed to
act. And we can act like we love people even when we don't. We
can be kind even if we're not kind-hearted. But humility? When
someone tries to put on humility, and by that I mean a false humility,
when they exhibit a false humility, It often kind of looks like someone
who's got a lot of years on them, but they keep trying to look
like they're young, and all it does is accent the fact that
they're not. Humility must be sincere, must
be real, or it will easily be seen for what it is. Self-righteousness
wrapping itself up in false virtue. Now it's difficult to clearly
define humility. I know some things it's not.
It is not necessarily to have a low opinion of yourselves in
relation to other people. It is not necessarily or does
not necessarily involve feeling bad about yourself at all. In fact, it seems to me that
humility, as the scriptures describe it, being humble, is pretty much
not being concerned about yourself at all. It's no longer worrying about
whether you're as good or better or worse than somebody else. It's no longer being taken up
with self-advancement and what the apostle calls selfish ambition. Humility is not this attitude
that some put on where they go about telling people about how
bad they are. Anybody trying to impress you
with their humility is not likely, well, I know they're not humble
at all. Anyone who goes about talking
about how bad they are, and I mean this is the normal course of
their conversation, not merely the confession of what all believers
know to be true, but it just seems that they've always got
to talk about how badly they've done things. Such a one, in all
likelihood, is simply trying to satisfy their self-righteous
belief that such humility is pleasing to God and will advance
them in the eyes of men. You say, how do you know that?
Well, because I've done it before. Probably we all have. But I think we can understand
something of humility if we'll look at these contrasts here. And I'm talking about, or contrasting
being humbled with being humiliated. There's a difference. We talk
about having humility. And I know that sounds like it
comes from the word humiliated, and it does, but over the course
of generations, these words have kind of diverged in their meaning.
And to be humiliated means something different than to be humbled.
And maybe in these contrasts, we'll gain some kind of understanding
of what true humility, humbling, is. To be humiliated is to have
one's pride offended. To be humbled is to have one's
pride killed. The humiliated person is still
filled with pride. And he's probably quite upset
that he's been outed and has been discovered what he really
is and that his boasts were vain. He set himself forward as something,
but he got proven that he was something else. And so it's not as though he
doesn't have pride. His humiliation is simply that
his pride has now been offended. Humiliation, let's bring this
into the spiritual world and the religious world. Humiliation
is the result of a law-based ministry. Humbling is the result
of a grace-based ministry. Now, the law humiliates, and
there's nothing wrong with that. We got a lot to be humiliated
about, don't we? And the law, if any man tries
to approach God by the law, he will be humiliated. by the law
in due time. He may spend his life trying
to obey the law and making a fair show in the flesh, as Paul calls
it, in all those things that other people can see, people
are going to say, now there's a godly man, there's somebody,
you know, he's walking, they use this phrase wrong, but they
say he's walking a straight and narrow. And they strut around Even if they do so with their
head hanging down, they're still enjoying the pats on the back
they get from their peers. But the day will come when the
law in all of its glorious power will reveal them for what they
really are. They'll be humiliated. It is
written that there will be some who will come before the Lord
in that day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this, that, and
the other? And they name some rather remarkable things that
they did. And our Lord never denied that they did them. But he says, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. There will be those to whom the
Lord will say, when I was naked, you didn't clothe me. When I
was in prison, you didn't come visit me. When I was poor, you
didn't feed me. When did that happen? And they're
gonna be humiliated when the truth of what they are
is revealed. But the gospel, in the preaching
of the gospel, when it is joined with the power of the Spirit
of God, changes a person's heart. Now it doesn't immediately get
rid of his flesh. You know something, we who believe, we've been humbled
and we often get humiliated. Because we still got that fleshly
desire to be held in high regard, and people do for a while until
they find out what we are. But the gospel humbles us in
the sight of God, and that's the most important place to be
humble. In the Old Testament it says, what does your God require
of you? And among the several things it says, it says, and
to walk humbly before your God. Now, it's bad enough if we strut
in pride before men, but to do so in the presence of God. James, in his parallel scripture
that we read, he said, humble yourselves before God in the
sight of God. Now, I tell you this, if a man
isn't humble there, there's no hope for him. If you can't be
humbled in the presence of God, you simply can't be humbled.
Of course, one reason people are not humbled in the presence
or in the sight of God is that they've never been there. I know
God's everywhere, but you know what I'm talking about. They
have never actually, from their hearts, been in the presence
of God, understanding Him to be who He is. And even we who
have believed have never been given the full-blown revelation
of His glory. I would say that Isaiah, in the
first five chapters of his book, he was a believing man. And he'd
been humbled by God, and yet in chapter 6 he says, I saw the
Lord high and lifted up, and all at once he's humbled even
more. To where he says, woe is me,
I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. The gospel humbles us in the
sight of God. Humiliation brings anger and
an unsettled spirit. Humbling brings contentment and
satisfaction. When we are humiliated, we're
often angry, aren't we? We're mad because we work hard
to build up our reputation. And when we're humiliated, that
reputation is brought down. But if we've been humbled, truly
humbled by God, then we are content. We learn contentment with whatever
God is pleased to give us because we've already concluded that
we are not worthy of anything good. So if we get anything good,
it's better than we deserve. How can we complain? If someone
says, you are a wicked sinner, we're not going to be humiliated
because we've already confessed to that. Do you feel like saying,
well, tell me something I don't know? Early on in our time here, somebody
told one of our members, you all don't have any good people
down there. That fellow's absolutely right. Our church doesn't have
any good people, do we? There's none. There's none good. Not one. We already knew that. You're not going to humiliate
us by telling us what we already know and what we've already confessed
to. Humiliation breeds hate for the one who does the humiliating.
Humility loves the one who brought humbleness. If you are humiliated,
don't you despise the one who did it? So much so, you plot vengeance. They bring you down, okay, I'll
bring them down. Nowhere is this seen more than
in our political campaigns, where it seems like the greater part
of their energies in campaigning are trying to dig up dirt on
the other guy so as to humiliate him in public. And no sooner does one person
get humiliated, he turns around and tries to humiliate the other
one. And it's a humiliation contest. And to a greater or lesser degree,
that's how the world lives. But if you are truly humbled,
you're grateful and thankful for the one who did it. Because they've taken away from
you that which kills nearly all our joy, that's our pride. That
which ruins nearly all our relationships, pride. that which stands as a
wall between us and the full appreciation and enjoyment of
God, pride. If we could be utterly stripped
of pride, we would be the happiest people in the world. Humiliation will be the end of
every worksmonger, yet the humble will never be
humiliated. Those who trust in their works
will in the end be humiliated as all their works are shown
to be exactly what the prophet said they are, filthy rags. Before
the whole creation it will be shown what they really are. Wouldn't that be humiliating? if your inmost thoughts and your
most private and secret deeds were made known to all? Someone said, I've heard adults
say, I'm sure glad that there wasn't an internet when I was
a teenager. Oh, I tell you, if people could know us as we know
ourselves, it would be so humiliating. And yet, for the unbelieving,
that's exactly what will happen. For all those who trust in themselves,
that's exactly what will happen. For all those who said, well,
I'm not that bad, that's exactly what's going to happen. For all
those who said, I'm pretty good and is touching that righteousness
which is in the law, I'm blameless. That's going to happen. They're
going to be humiliated if God leads them that way and does
not humble them at some point in this life. But they who are
humble, those who have been humbled by the Spirit of God, they'll
never be humiliated. Why? Because they will have put
their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's nothing to be humiliated
in about that. They have called upon the name
of the Lord and found His salvation, which is entirely resting upon
the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's nothing wrong with
them. They who are humble, that is, they who have been humbled
by God, they will not be making any boast about what they have
done. In fact, we find them in the same category or in the same
situation we described before. The Lord will say to them, when
I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in jail, you visited
me. When I was naked, you clothed me. They're going to go, what?
I don't remember doing anything like that. I don't remember doing anything
good. Why? Because a humble, that's
just not what they're thinking about. Those who've been made
spiritually humble, their minds are consumed with the glories
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and their hope is completely in Him,
and therefore, when it comes to that great day, they shall
not be, and here's the scriptural word for it, they shall not be
put to shame. They won't be humiliated. He whose trust is in the Lord
shall not be humiliated in that day. Instead, they'll be vindicated. The world may try to humiliate
them in this day. The world may mock them, and
in their flesh they may feel some sense of humiliation, because
flesh is flesh and nothing good ever came out of it. We may get
embarrassed once in a while, but in that day, all who trust in him will not
be humiliated. They will be vindicated. And
God will say to them, to those on his right, come ye blessed
of the Lord and receive the inheritance of your father. And the rest
of the world is going to stand there wide eyed in wonder and broken down in humiliation. They will say we rejected him
and trusted ourselves and we are nothing. And we mocked them. in their simplicity. We even mocked them for their
humility. And now look, God has lifted
them up. And we are forever lost. Now in Peter's description of
this principle, note this first. Humble yourselves therefore under
God's mighty hand. God's mighty hand is upon all,
but not all respond to it in the same way. For example, God's
mighty hand was demonstrated both to Moses and to Pharaoh.
And one became known as the meekest man in all the earth. The other
hardened his heart against God. stiffened his neck in rebellion,
and was humiliated. Humble yourselves. I looked at
a lot of translations of that, and there really is no way to
translate it easily into English. Because you that know grammar, If you
look at it here in English, it's in the active voice. It says,
humble yourselves. But in the Greek, it's in the
passive voice, and actually what it means is, be humbled, therefore,
under God's almighty hand. Be humbled by it. You see, there
is within our natural selves a resistance to God's mighty
hand. We still have, or all of us are
born with, and even if we've been born again, we still have
within our flesh this idea that we should be in charge, that
we've got power, that we've got authority, that we've got rights
in the sight of God. And when God extends His mighty
hand in some way that runs contrary to how we want it, our first
reaction is to rebel. Our first reaction is to say,
that shouldn't be. I don't like that. What does
God think he's doing? But Peter says this, humble yourselves. Be humbled by it. Lest in time
to come, you be humiliated. Humble yourselves. Our humility
should show in our relations with one another, as the Lord
mentioned in Matthew 23, the greatest of you shall be your
servant. We ought always be ready to serve one another and to feel
in such service that we are in no way abased. We ought to be looking, Paul
says it this way, to look on the things of others more than
on ourselves. That is, be more concerned with the welfare of
others than ourselves. For if we exalt ourselves, we're
gonna get put down. But if we will acknowledge what
we are, and what we've been appointed
to be by the Lord Jesus, servants of one another, then at the right
time, God will exalt us, he will lift us up. But the most important
humility is that which is in the sight of God and is in response
to his sovereign rule over our lives and destiny. Compare these
two words, or these two statements. The Pharisee who said, I thank
you God, I am not like other men. Such a one is set up for
humiliation, isn't he? Such a one is full of pride,
pride which the Lord will either in grace humble someday, or pride
which he will in judgment humiliate at that last day. But compare those words with
those of David, the man after God's own heart. Have mercy on
me, O God, and all your tender compassions
blot out. all my transgressions." God's mighty hand rules the physical
universe. At your leisure, read Psalm 104. I've got that down as the proof
text, but that's a long psalm, but just read it. As the psalmist
just gushes forth with God's providential control of all things,
from the heavenly bodies down to the feeding of animals. Humility stands in all of that. David said in another place,
when I look at your handiwork, Sun, moon, stars, this sort of
thing. I stand out there and look at
the heavens. I think, what is man that you're mindful of him? Proud man looks into the universe
through his telescope or looks through his microscope or whatever
machines he invents in order to learn things about the universe.
And the more he learns, the more he's swelled up with pride in
his knowledge. It's good to learn. I love to know things. But our
knowledge of God's mighty hand in the creation and the controlling
and in the caring for of this universe ought to simply just
bring us to such humility. What am I? And David said that
with only the limited knowledge of the scope of this universe
that they had some 3,000 years ago. I'm always startled by that
picture they got from the Hubble telescope. And you see these
thousands of points of light out there, and you say, wow,
that's an amazing star field. It wasn't stars, it was galaxies.
Thousands upon thousands of them. Every galaxy containing billions
and billions of stars. And David could see roughly I
think I read that in the night sky is about 6,000 stars, so
if we assume some of them were in the southern hemisphere and
he never saw them, about 3,000 stars on a moonless night. And at the sight of that, he
said, what is man? Submit yourselves to God, humble
yourselves. under God's mighty hand, the
mighty hand that rules the physical universe. God's mighty hand controls
history. Pride rejects that. Humility
rests in it. If we've been humble under the
mighty hand of God, then we watch the news and we say, even so
be it. for it seems good in your sight. We need not be, I'll get this
out. We need not be bewildered. I shouldn't have even tried to
say that. That's too many long E's. We shouldn't be upset about
anything. Maybe that's just what I said.
We shouldn't be upset about anything, brethren. Our Lord rules it all. History is following the path
that he made for it. and not a speck of dust in the
air is going in any path other than that which he determined
for it before the world began. From the very beginning, our
God has known the end and everything in between because it's he who
determined it. Now, I'm not saying we're not
affected by what goes on. If sad things happen, we're supposed
to be sad. When happy things happen, we're
supposed to be happy. But we need never be uncontented. We can say, this is my father's
world. And though the off seems off
so strong, God is the ruler yet. Our Lord God's mighty hand controls
history. God's mighty hand controls our
history, our personal history. Look over at James chapter 4,
and that's exactly one of the ways that James applied this
whole thing about submitting yourselves to God and being humbled
in the sight of God. He says in James chapter 4, beginning
with verse 13, Now listen, you who say, today
or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, spend a year there,
carry on business and make money. Why? You do not even know what
will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a
mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead,
you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and
do this or that. As it is, you boast and brag.
All such boasting is evil. Now, James doesn't say we shouldn't
plan. Wisdom makes a plan, the best plan it can make. But true
wisdom from God also said, I've made this plan, and if the Lord
wills, it'll happen. And if the Lord doesn't will,
that's okay too. Now, some of us only reach the
level of resignation to God's will. That is, we tried something
and it failed, and we said, oh well, I guess that's what God
decided, but we didn't like it. If we could back up the clock
and make it go differently, we still would. Humility says, I
made a plan, God didn't let it happen. Thanks be to God, he's
done what's right, he's done what's wise, and it's good. Oh, how difficult. This can be. God doesn't always do the things
we might wish for. We are quick to praise God when
his providence provides prosperity, health, happy families, established
and well-married children, the candidate of our choosing, a
bigger house and a nicer car. How often when you say to someone,
give a word of praise to someone, does that word of praise, you
say, thanks to God, and what you say next has something to
do with the pleasures of this world. Now, first of all, we
should thank God for whatever pleasures he sends our way. I'm
not saying we shouldn't, but we should also thank God If he
removes them, for having been humbled, we understand he knows
better than we do. And while we might think that
it would be better if everything were going along as a rose petal
strewn pathway, he knows what's better. God is not obligated
to do pleasant things for us, nor has he made any promise to
us that if we act such and such a way, our lives will be good
and pleasant and enjoyable. He has taught us with food and
clothing to be content, and sometimes he may just reduce us to that. He may reduce us so that the
world will try to humiliate us, But in that hour, if the Lord
has humbled us, we will indeed acknowledge his right and justify
his wisdom in what he does. Can we say in the midst of the
greatest darkness, even so, it is well with my soul. My brethren, I always feel I
gotta issue a disclaimer when I see things like this. I boast
of no such level of humility. I worry and fret about things.
I think about what could happen. I think, oh, it just seems to
me like the economy's gonna fall apart, and if it does, things
could get really tough. I could lose my house. I could
lose my nice new car. I could lose this. I could be
reduced to that. Yeah, I think of those things. What if he did? Brethren, what
if he took away everything from us that we normally associate
with having a blessed life? You know what? We'd still have
him. If God gives us food to eat and
clothes to wear, and I'll add a roof over our head, but if
we've got those things, Whether it means we gotta move in with
somebody else, whatever. We got what we need to live.
Let us give thanks to God that he allowed us to have that much
and let our hearts be filled with praise that even though
that may be our earthly lot, in time to come, we shall be
made like the Lord Jesus Christ and we shall enjoy those pleasures
at his right hand forevermore. And then God's mighty hand controls
our eternal destiny. Look over at Romans chapter nine. Verse 13. Now Peter has said,
be humbled under God's mighty hand. His mighty hand controls
our eternal destiny. Romans 9, 13, just as it is written,
Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. But what then shall we say, is
God unjust? Not at all, for he says to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. It does not therefore depend
on man's will or works, but on God's mercy. For the scripture
says to Pharaoh, I raised you up for this very purpose, that
I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed
in all the earth. Therefore, God has mercy on whom
he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that the destiny of your everlasting soul is in the hand of God to
do whatever he wants to do with it? Or are you among those who say,
well, God wants to save everybody and he's done all he can and
now it's up to me to make the decision which way I shall go.
You know, if you really believe that and understand what it means,
I wonder if you've ever come to a knowledge of the God of
the Bible at all. The God of the Bible has chosen
a people and the rest he has left to themselves and to their
unavoidable destruction. If we are believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ and if we've been washed in the blood and our sins
have been forgiven, we have no one to credit with that but God
Himself because He, from the foundation of the world, chose
us and sent His Son to die for us and sent His Spirit to call
us. And until all that happened,
we were just rebels against Him on the way to everlasting doom,
just like everybody else. Man's willing to grant God authority
over temporal things, but he reserves to himself the authority
of his soul. That's against the scriptures.
I'll tell you this, if you've been humbled by God, nothing
gives you greater comfort of things to come to know this,
God didn't leave things to come in your hands. He didn't leave
your soul to your hands. He didn't say, well, I'm gonna
leave it up to you whether or not you come to me. I'm gonna
leave it up to you whether or not you believe me. I'm just
gonna sit back and see what you do. Oh, thank God he never did
that. We wouldn't be here. Well, we
might be in this spot, but we'd be doing something completely
different, wouldn't we? I'd be preaching something completely
different. But God, who is rich in mercy, Because of his great
love, wherewith he has loved us, has made us alive with Christ. And there's one thing I know
about making people alive, I've never done it, but by the very
nature of it, being made alive, that work is totally in the hands
of the one who does it. Because dead people cannot determine
whether or not they're made alive. They don't even know they're
dead. Alright, let's look at the promise.
Be humble. Now back in 1st Peter chapter
5. Verse 5. Verse 6. Be humbled therefore
under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Now if we in the face of God's mighty hand. And under the rule of it, whatever
it determines, if we'll be humbled by that. If when he sends hardship
our way, we're humbled and don't complain about it as though we're
unworthy of hardship. If when he sends nice things
our way, In humility, we thank him for understanding it's a
gift of his grace. If we are humbled under God's
mighty hand, the time will come when he will lift us up. It says he will lift us up in
due season. And that's the hardest part of
this whole process. Recognizing that God's mighty
hand determines when the due season is. And that due season
may not come until you're done with this life. He may allow you to exist in
humble circumstances, not just with a humble spirit, but in
humble circumstances. He may allow you to live in what
at least our culture would call poverty for your entire life.
He may afflict you with an illness from which he never gives you
relief in this life. He may make it so that you have
not so much intelligence as the average person. He may make you
so that you're not, according to the world standard of beauty,
you're not very attractive. He may make you the kind of person
that people don't particularly warm up to. He may let you live your entire
lives seemingly, utterly insignificant in this world. But if you've been humbled by
Him, The day will come when for his glory, he will exalt you. He will say to all those who
rebelled, to all those who trusted in themselves and who counted
you as nothing in the offscouring of the world, he'll say, this
is my beloved. Do you remember when we were
going through the letters to the churches in Revelation? The
Lord said to one of them, I will bring these people who've persecuted
you and troubled you, and I will make them confess that I have
loved you. He will lift you up. He may lift
you up if he puts us in temporary humble circumstances. He may
make us sick and then lift us up again. He may send us into
poverty and lift us up again in this life. But know this, when he humbles
us, there is a time already appointed by him. It's the right time,
it's the wise time, it's the perfect time. When the time of humbling is
over and the time of exaltation begins, And when he exalts us,
here's the interesting thing. Now some of the translations
say lift you up, others say exalt. The same word works for both. Where does he lift us up to?
Himself. He makes us like himself. And therefore, knowing this, that God's almighty hand by which
we should be humbled, will it someday lift us up at the right
time, what can we do? Cast all your anxiety on him
because he cares for you. Anxiety can be the product of
circumstances or it just can be a product of a troubled mind. I know about anxiety on both
counts. But I can tell you what is the
remedy for it, or at least the way to face anxiety. Cast it
upon the Lord. For even though it may seem to
you he does not care, he does. And even though it may seem to
you he's letting things get out of control and not paying attention,
that's not the case. He knows your troubles, he knows
your anxieties, and he has everything well in hand. He's taking care
of it. Abraham's words, which in his
case were applied to a specific thing, but they can be applied
to the entirety of our lives. He said to Isaac, the Lord will
provide. And that word provide means see
to it. And no matter how the Lord's
mighty hand may be humbling you in this day, understand this,
he knows and you don't have to worry about it. Nothing's gonna
happen to you, that is if your trust is in Christ, nothing's
gonna happen to you that will not work for your good. No enemy
is gonna sneak in and be able to do anything to you that the
Lord has not allowed for your good and for his glory. Therefore,
be humbled under God's mighty hand and he will lift you up
at the proper time. Heavenly Father, we read these
things and we preach them and we confess we don't know a whole
lot about it by experience. We make no boast about this.
Why would we? We have learned that in us is
nothing good. We confess our natural pride,
Lord, But we do also pray, as you taught
us to pray, do not lead us into trouble. Do not bring us into
trial and temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. But Lord, whatever your mighty
hand determines to do, may it work in us humbling rather
than humiliation. In Christ's name we pray it.