Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5 and reading
from our text, verse 6. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you in due
time. Peter has several exhortations
here in this last chapter of his first epistle. Exhortations to the elders that
were among them. and directing them to feed the
flock of God which was among them, to do it willingly and
not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind. He warns them not to be
lords over God's heritage but examples to the flock. He then speaks to the younger
and he exhorts them to submit themselves unto the elder. And then he says this, yea, all
of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. for God resisteth the proud and
giveth grace to the humble. So he sets before them the grace,
the blessing of humility and gives the reason why that God
resisteth the proud, giveth grace to the humble, And then in the
words of our text, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand
of God that he may exalt you in due time. Going from a humility,
a humbling before one another, to humbling ourselves under the
mighty hand of God. I believe that such a word as
this is very important for us at this present time in our nation. We are under the mighty hand
of God. We are under it by the virus
that is in our nation and throughout the world. We are under it when
those that God has put in authority over us and given them the responsibility
of dealing with this, whether they do it in a way we agree
with or not, yet it profoundly is affecting all of our lives
and affecting, along with all of the nation, our gathering
in the Lord's house as well. Those things that are being done
in this land are not in persecution against the people of God, nor
are they dictating that we do not preach in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, but they are joining the assemblies together,
the gathering together of people that has been identified as a
cause of the spreading of the virus as a reason why that we
should suffer along with the rest of the population. And truly, God will deal with
his people. Judgment must begin at the house
of God. And we must not think that God
will deal with this nation, but for some reason will not touch
the churches, has no voice to them, has nothing to humble them
in, but they can just go on as they would in a proud spirit,
in a spirit that says to the world, we are better than you,
we are not under God's hand, and we will just continue to
go on as if there was no virus, as if there was no laws that
affected us at all. The case with Peter, when he
was so specifically told that he could not give the credit
for the wonderful miracle that had been wrought to God, that
they could not preach in the name of the Lord Jesus, it was
forbidding to do the very commission of the apostles. and to ascribe
that glory to God that was due at that time, where this time
we have not got one that was healed and able to walk, that
could not walk before, but we have the Lord's hand and it is
the privilege of the Church of God to acknowledge, notice and
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. I want to look this
morning at firstly the reason for this exhortation. And the reason is seen in the
verse before that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to
the humble. Secondly, The exhortation, humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. And I want to look from the scriptures
at how the mighty hand of God is evidenced and set forth there. And then thirdly, the expectation
of blessing that we have here. The expectation is that he may
exalt you in due time. Let us consider first the reason
for the exhortation. In the previous verse we have
a picture of clothing. He exhorts, be clothed with humility. Now our clothing is what people
will see. They notice what kind of clothing
that we actually are wearing. And so it is a statement, a statement
that is quite without a voice but is just a
visual statement that is set before us. And so in clothing
we have this picture of humility that it shows itself to those
that are round about us. It betrays how we are thinking,
it betrays how we speak to others, we think the best of others and
the worst of ourselves. We have an attitude of mind that
does not take the preeminence and exalt itself and act in a
way as if we were somebody when we're nobody. And then when we
have things that happen to us that we may be treated with contempt,
that we are dealt with in a way that would stir up usually a
reaction in pride or a counter to it, that we take it patiently
and humbly and lowly as if those things that are said, all they
do is to reinforce our own estimation and feeling of ourselves, that
we acknowledge our own unworthiness, our foolishness, our sinfulness,
and ascribing all that we may do that may be praiseworthy to
the grace of God. The Apostle Paul, he says, when
speaking of those that were also labouring as he was, he says,
I laboured more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the
grace of God that was with me. And though he magnified his office,
he acknowledged the help, the grace that God had given him,
yet he himself He had low opinions of himself. One time he says,
one reason for this was because he persecuted the people of God. He couldn't get out of his mind
what he once did to Christ's church. He calls himself the
chief of sinners and that God had had mercy upon him and he
does not forget what he once was. And so it is this grace,
this grace of humility. And you know it is, it comes
right through the holy scriptures. James, when he writes in his
epistle, we read again. Do ye think that this scripture
saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? but he giveth more grace. Wherefore
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto thee humble,
taking from the words that are in Proverbs. You know, even,
even wicked Ahab, when he heard the word from Elijah, on that
plot of ground of Naboth. That word that God said what
he would do unto his house and what he did do to his house.
Yet Ahab humbled himself and he went softly. And God said
to Elijah, seest thou that Ahab humbleth himself? I will not
do it in his day, but in his son's day. And even that humility
was noticed and acknowledged by God, though Ahab was not a
saved character and not blessed at all. Yet it shows the blessing
of the spirit of humility. We have it in the Prophets, Isaiah
chapter 57. And verse 15, for thus saith
the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is
of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble
and revive the heart. of the contrite ones. What a contrast. The God that
inhabiteth eternity, so high, and yet he himself condescends
to that humble spirit, that low spirit, and to revive that spirit. We have it again in Isaiah 66,
Verse two, or reading verse one and two. Thus saith the Lord,
the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of
my rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. This path is set
before us in the word of God. It is set before us as the path
that our Lord Jesus Christ walked. In Paul's epistle to the Philippians
chapter two, We read that let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." And then the other side of that,
"'Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth. Dear friends, here's a reason
for the exhortation that is set before us here by Peter. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due
time. Because the path of humility
and humbleness, bowing before the Lord is the path of blessing,
the path of pride, the path of resisting the hand of the Lord,
the path of shaking one's fist at the Lord and saying, who is
he? is not a humble path, but a path
that bows before the Lord, humbles before the Lord, has that spirit. And we must each ask ourselves,
what spirit are we of? What spirit do we evidence to
those round about us? If this be a clothing, what do
others see? Do they see clothing as humility
or do they see clothing as a proud spirit, one that is above the
mighty hand of God and not under the mighty hand of God? This reason, the blessing of
humility, applies really to every aspect of our lives, personally,
in the Church of God. Wherever you find trouble, contentions,
problems in the Church of God, you nearly always trace the problem
to be a lack of humility, a lack of submission to God's hand,
a lack of recognising God's hand and thinking that we're really
fighting against man and not against God. So this first point,
the blessing of humility, the blessing of humbling ourselves
under the mighty hand of God. So I want to look then secondly
at the exhortation itself. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God. The first thing that I would
say is that we are to recognize what is the mighty hand of God. Many have been under the mighty
hand of God but have not recognised it, nor given unto God that glory
at all. Pharaoh was such a one with the
Lord's judgments upon him in Egypt. God was visiting that
land with many plagues, one after another. And Moses was God's
instrument to bring this word each time to Pharaoh, and then
when Pharaoh requested for there to be a ceasing of it, to bring
that word to the Lord, to cry unto the Lord, to cease those
plagues. But we read in Exodus 10, when
Moses went into Pharaoh, and he says to him, Moses and Aaron
came in unto Pharaoh, said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God
of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself
before me? Let my people go, that they may
serve me. Pharaoh's hand all the time was,
who is the Lord that I should obey him? All the time, his heart
was hardened. He would not bow, he would not
humble. We are told that even that the
Lord was over him. The Lord said to Moses, I have
hardened his heart. But the sin was Pharaoh's. You'd ask Pharaoh, Pharaoh, is
anyone an influence over you? Or are you in control? He said,
I'm in control. I'm defying this God. I am the
king of Egypt and I will do what I will do. And so one thing after
another came upon Pharaoh and he was not recognising the hand
of God. Where do we find in our nation? Pharaoh's land was being visited
with these plagues. He was being told it was the
hand of God. He even asked of Moses to release
him from the frogs and from the lice and the things that came. And they stopped. But he still did not humble himself
under the hand of God. You know, men Men and extremities
and illness and plagues and things that we are under now, they will
call upon God as long as they can get some relief. And as soon
as it's gone, then just like Pharaoh, they don't want God
anymore. They're not interested. They
will just go on their way. But when God sends these things
out upon a nation, it is that we humble ourselves before Him,
that we acknowledge His hand, we turn to Him, and especially
the Church of God, that there be a real reviving, that there
be a real humbling before His hand. What a solemn thing, if
all of the rest of the nation profited and were blessed under
such a time, but not the Church of God. because they were too
proud. They thought, well, they're the
people. They're the holy people. There's no need for us to humble
under the hand of God. Well, there is. And so with Pharaoh,
those signs were repeated again and again until his firstborn
was slain. And then the children of Israel
went. And even then, He didn't humble
himself and was destroyed in the Red Sea. What a solemn end
to a man that would not humble himself under the mighty hand
of God. Could not see in the planks or
even if he could see God's hand would not bow before it. What
about the Philistines when the ark of God was taken from Shiloh,
and it was those six months in the Philistine's land. Went from one city to another,
a neat city, that the ark came in, the Lord plagued them with
plagues. Many, many died because of the
ark of God. They feared when they saw that
ark come to them. They said, send it back to its
own place. And then they did a test. Was this really the hand of God,
or was it a chance? They wanted to be out from under
it. They had their answer when they
put the ark on a cart, put coin to it and their calves at home,
and saw which way they went, whether they would go to Bethlehem
They went to Bashumesh to take the ark back or return back to
their calves. And the kind they took the highway
to Bashumesh, lowing as they went. Very clear indication this
was the hand of God that was upon them. Men will see the external things. They could see the illness, they
could see the death. But the question in their mind
was, has God really sent this? Is there a link between what
we are doing and having the ark of God which belonged to Israel
with us? Is there a link there? Are we doing the same? Are we saying,
well, we can go on in our nation and we can be aborting our babies,
we can be banning the chastising of children in Scotland, we can
be upholding the hands of those that are perverting the creation
order of a man and a woman, those who are undermining marriage. those who are walking in the
abominable practices of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we can go and
we can do all of these things, we can desecrate the Lord's Day,
we can empty the houses of prayer, and yet God takes no notice at
all. We can record His goodness in
the time of war and many answers to prayer, but now, now we can
go on and not think that God would notice. Really, it's a
great comfort, should be a great comfort to the people of God
that God does notice. Individuals, we shall be judged
at God's judgment day before his throne, but nations are judged
in this world. And the Lord's hand is upon us
as a nation at this time. And we, individuals, are part
of it. Our lives are being affected. And as much as what the philistines
could see, the illness and the death, may we clearly see and
not have to put a test to it and say this is the mighty hand
of God, but not just with the virus. those powers that be,
those that are in authority over us. You know, this is why we
read the portion in Jeremiah. The children of Israel had sinned
against the Lord there in Jeremiah 27. And God had sent Nebuchadnezzar
and he calls Nebuchadnezzar in verse six, my servant. He'd given him not only those
nations round about, as well as the children of Israel, but
the beasts of the field as well, to serve him. And there was a
solemn word against those that would not humble and bow themselves
before Nebuchadnezzar. There were those that were left
in the land, they rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. They didn't see
it was the Lord's hand. Put simply, it was. If you rebel
against Nebuchadnezzar, then you're rebelling against God. We understand, don't we, when
the Lord said to the apostle Paul, Saul, as he was, why persecutest
thou me? He was persecuting the people
of God. But the Lord says, no, you're
persecuting me. Whoso toucheth you toucheth the
apple of mine eye. there is that link together,
and so it is. When the Lord ordains the rulers
of this world, they are to be his messengers. If we resist
them, we read that in Romans, whoso resisteth the power resisteth
the ordinance of God. It is God's hand. And we are
to be very clear in this, to be able to clearly see the hand
of God and the account there with the children of Israel.
So clearly show that. You say, well, yes, they were
brought, they lost their temple, their temple was destroyed, they
were brought out into captivity. But there in captivity, what
do we find? We don't find that For the most
part of the time, the manner was Daniel could every day publicly,
openly worship his God, open his windows toward heaven. And
it was only there one time. when through the deceitfulness
and jealousy of the other rulers they had a law made that for
30 days supplication only could be made to the king and to no
other god. Their whole desire was to entrap
Daniel and Daniel did not obey that law. There was a direct
contradiction to the commandment of God to pray always and he
continued to do what he always did. and the Lord wonderfully
delivered him out of the lion's den. But in that time there in
Babylon, they had many of the privileges of meeting together,
the temple worship, the sacrifices. Much of their worship was all
put aside, but the private worship and the meeting before God, the
praying, that was still left there. You know, we have had
taken from us their being able to gather in their buildings
in the house of God, but not taken from us to gather online. They could shut down the broadband.
They could shut down the internet. They could forbid us from meeting
in our homes and listening as you are this morning. But they
have not done so. And it is in complete keeping
with that which is upon all of our fellow countrymen in this
land. And we are to then see as much
as Nebuchadnezzar was used, that yes, where there is a specific
command, like with the three Hebrew children, to worship an
idol, then we are not to do that. But where there is those restrictions
on our worship, we feel it. And we rightly feel it. But God
means us to feel it. We are to be under his hand. Not to say, well, the world can
have their pleasures touched. They can have their sport touched.
They can have their pubs touched. They can have all of these things
touched. But we don't do those things
anyway. And what we do, we're not going
to bow before God under the government's hand. We're going to still continue.
and mate. No. We are part of this nation
and those things that mean a lot to us, the Lord touches that. The Lord uses that. And yet even
that is limited. There's been mercies in it. And
so we think of the case of Job. We think of what the Lord brought
there. You say Satan did it, only with the permission of the
Lord. Job was a very rich man, a very
wealthy man. But when Satan said, the only
reason why Job serves the Lord is by his protection, his care,
and all the blessings that are given. You touch those things
and he will curse you to your face. So God gave him permission.
So then there was Job one day, and suddenly these messengers
start to come. The oxen, the serpents have come
and taken all the oxen and killed the servants. I'm the only one
that is left. Then there's those that are looking
after the sheep. And one of the shepherds comes
back and he says there came fire from God out of heaven and consumed
them. I'm the only one that is left. And then another comes in and
he said the Chaldeans come and they took all the camels and
they killed all the servants. I'm the only one left. And then
another one comes in and he said, your own sons, your daughters
were eating in your eldest son's house and the wind came from
the wilderness and destroyed it and they're all dead and I'm
the only one that's left. And dear Job, you know he comes
and he humbles himself before God, bows before God's hand. He doesn't blame thee. Sabians
or Satan or the Chaldeans or some nature phenomenon. No, he
sees it as God's hand. Then Job arose and rent his mantle
and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshipped
and said, naked came I out of my mother's womb. Naked shall
I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not,
nor charged God foolishly. And later on, when Satan again
said, well, everything a man will give for his life, you touch
his life. Well, the Lord forbade him to
take his life, but he afflicted him with boils. And so then,
Dear Job, he humbles himself even further. We see such a contrast
with his wife. She couldn't be humbled under
it. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest
as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at
the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? In all this
did not Job sin. with his lips. And so we have men that are visited
with tremendous calamities, and they see it as God's hand, and
they humble themselves before his hand. David, when he numbered
Israel, we're given two accounts of it. One, the Lord saw Israel,
and he visited them for their sins and moved David. The other
account, it is that Satan stood up against Israel and moved David. And so we see a picture like
with Job. God is over all. Satan thinks
he's doing a work to destroy the people of God, but God overrules
Satan and makes it work for good. But you know, when David was
convinced of the sin of numbering the children of Israel out of
the pride of his heart and without paying into the sanctuary. Then,
he said, I have sinned. He doesn't blame the Lord or
Satan, but humbles himself. And when offered those three
things of the Lord's chastening hand, he said, let me now fall
into the hand of the Lord. And what did the Lord do? He
sent a pestilence for three days. 70,000 died. How much more than
those that have died of the coronavirus in our land in three days? The
Lord had a beginning to that pestilence and an end to that
pestilence in three days. If the Lord willed, he could
stop this virus immediately. It has come gradually, as it
were. It looks like it will go gradually or maybe stay with
us for generations, but God is able in these things to stop
them immediately if it was his will. And yet you see what the
Lord did with that time with numbering Israel. When God answered
David, when God stemmed that plague, because he met him on
Mount Moriah in the threshing floor of Rona the Jebusite, then
David sacrificed there. And he said, this shall be the
house of God. Remember, David was not permitted
to build the temple of God, his son Solomon was. David prepared
for it, but through that trial, and David's humbling himself
under it, bowing before God in whatever God chose to bring as
a chastening hand and as a pestilence, he showed him where the temple
was to be built. That's what we need, in the humbling
under the hand of God, that there be a blessing left behind, that
it be used for good. And the path for that is in our
text. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And so for our third point, the
expectation of blessing. The path that we are to walk
is a path of humility. It is the Lord's hand to lift
up, to exalt, to bless. Our path is to seek to get low
before the Lord in submission in all that he sends and all
that he brings, acknowledging the mighty hand of God. I fear that in many ways We are
not acknowledging the mighty hand of God. We are not doing
it as a nation, but we're not doing it in the churches either.
All we're trying to do is to get out of the hand of it, or
to accuse the government, or say that they're not handling
things rightly, and they might not be. But they are under God,
and they are given that responsibility, not us. Are we recognising the mighty
hand of God? Well, the blessing that is joined
to it is that he may exalt you in due time. Maybe so, in Providence, we think
of how it was with the children of Israel. The Lord did bring
them out of Babylonia's captivity and exalted them, he blessed
them in their own land. and then brought forth the Lord
Jesus Christ. We think of Joseph, how that
he was brought so low, as a servant, sold, in fetters, in prison,
and then suddenly exalted. It was the same with Mordecai,
in sackcloth and ashes at the king's gate, and then exalted. next unto King Ahasuerus speaking
peace to all his seed. We think of this especially in
the way of grace. That which the Lord brings his
people is to bring them to consider the Lord. We've already mentioned
that in Philippians 2, the path of our Lord, that he walked to
redeem his people, that though he is the eternal God, the eternal
Son of God, yet he was made flesh and dwelt among us, that he endured
the contradiction of sinners against himself. He was charged
as being casting out devils by the prince of devils. Even his
own brethren didn't believe on him or didn't receive him. The path that he walked in all
his life was a path of obedience, walking out a life that you and
I can never walk out, a sinless life, a perfect life, working
out a righteousness to give to believers, to give to his people
so that they will be clothed with that and stand faultless
before God's throne. And then he was to humble himself
and become obedient unto the cross. When we think of Naaman
the Syrian, who so wanted to be healed of his leprosy, but
because the way of healing was to be a way of humility, he wanted
some dramatic things to be done, but just to be washed and cleansed,
no, he went away in a rage. And yet our Lord, how are you
to be crucified by the decision of Pilate, a man who's washed
his hands of the whole affair, a man who couldn't stand before
the Jews, a man such a poor specimen of a leader who said that he
had power to crucify, power to release him. The Lord told him
that that power was given him from God. It wasn't in his hand. And yet it was, in that sense,
in his hand. For all of those looking on,
for all of those seeing, as those two on the way to Emmaus so sad,
they saw the outside. They saw our Lord taken and under
the power of Pilate and the Roman soldiers and the baying mob that
he was led to Calvary. Our Lord said before, No man
taketh my life from me. I lay it down to myself." They
would have looked at what happened to him, and they'll say, how
can we reconcile this? His life is being taken from
him. Pilate's doing it. The soldiers
are doing it. But when he comes to yield up
his breath, he doesn't need his legs broken. In the strongness
of voice, into thy hand I commend my spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ
yielded up his breath to his Father. He did lay down his life for
his sheep. But Peter, the day of Pentecost,
is able to see the same as he does in these epistles, that
though he was delivered by the determinate counsel and full
knowledge of God, He was taken by wicked hands, crucified and
slain. It is a principle we are to remember
that in the bringing about of God's providence, in the bringing
about of the channel to blessing, the Lord will use means and use
men and rulers And in humbling under those means and seeing
the mighty hand of God, there is a blessing. There is a blessing
naturally, but there's a blessing spiritually. There's a blessing
of sweet fellowship with the Lord in his sufferings. There's
a blessing of being found in the word of God, of hearkening
to the voice of the Lord and hearing his voice and walking
in his ways. Blessed soul that sees the Lord
Jesus Christ, believes on Him, trusts in Him for the salvation
of their souls, that know that it is His blood that has put
away their sin, that He has shed this freely, voluntarily, and
that that is applied. You know, this grace of humility
is not something you and I find by nature. but it comes from
the Lord. And if you and I have not got
humility and we're consumed with pride, instead of seeking that
we might be humble to realise this, we do not, in walking in
that way, actually possess the grace of God. We're not like
the Lord. And we must ask ourselves, are
we truly saved? Do we truly know the Lord? Do
we truly trust in his salvation? Are we sheltering beneath His
precious blood? Have we really submitted under
the hand of God that we are sinners under the sentence of a broken
law and fall down as sinners, confessing our sin, that He might
save us by grace and by faith in His name alone? Until we're
truly humbled under God's hand as a sinner, then we are not
exalted to be saved by grace. The two, they go together in
salvation. They go together here. And may
the Lord be pleased to bless us spiritually, bring us into
a healthy, a wealthy place in our souls, that this time in
our lives, in our nation, is not lost. but that we bless the
Lord for it, that he uses it, so that we know him, love him,
see his hand. Our faith is strengthened and
we're brought together in one blessing of the Lord lifting
us up by his almighty hand. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
blessed with grace in time, and then in glory at last, exalted
at his right hand. May the Lord bless the word to
us. Amen.