If you would, turn with me in
your Bible to 1 Peter 5. When you get there, just hold
your place while I make a few comments. I'll give you time
to get there first. 1 Peter 5. I often think about King Solomon. There was one thing that King
Solomon desired more than anything else in the world. One particular
night, the Lord God Almighty appeared unto Solomon and asked
him what he could give him. And Solomon wanted something
that would enable him to better serve God and his people. You
cannot go wrong asking God for something like that. Solomon
answered the Lord and he said, give me wisdom and knowledge
that I may go out and come in before thy people for who can
judge this thy people that is so great. And God said to Solomon
this, he said, because this was the desire of your heart, and
you didn't ask for riches, and you didn't ask for wealth, you
didn't ask for fame, nor for the life or the destruction of
your enemies, nor did you ask for yourself long life, but because
you've asked for wisdom and knowledge that you may better serve my
people over whom I made you king, I'm gonna give you that wisdom
and that knowledge, and I'm gonna give you riches and wealth, and
I'm gonna give you the honor such as no king before you or
after you have ever had. And oh, how I pray that God would
grant and give me spiritual wisdom and knowledge. And how I pray
that God would grant it to you abundantly. Now Solomon, after
experiencing many of the pitfalls of sin and depravity in his life,
he came to this conclusion. He came to this realization.
And living our lives according to the desires of the flesh,
Solomon said, is vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Solomon's father
David had said, man in his best state is altogether vanity. And time and time again, Solomon
warns us of the pride that's found in a man's heart by nature,
in a woman's heart by nature. He said, pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall. He said, before destruction,
the heart of man is haughty, it's prideful. And before honor
is humility. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Why? Because they're full of pride.
They have it all figured out. They can't be taught anything
unless God intervenes and interrupts in their lives. One who is in
pride knows everything, and one who is in pride can be taught
nothing because they know everything. And it's very clear from God's
Word that there is a direct connection between wisdom and knowledge
and submission and humility to serve God rightly in this life,
as Solomon did. We all need spiritual wisdom
and spiritual knowledge and knowing who and what we are. and knowing
who and what God is produces humility. Trust me, it does. And that's what Peter is talking
about in our text. And in verse five of 1 Peter
chapter five, Peter admonishes God's people this way. He first
speaks to the young. And he says, likewise, you younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. You know, when I was 17 or 18
years old, I thought I knew everything. And I thought that my father
knew nothing. And I see now that my father,
though not an educated man, he only went to the fourth grade.
When he was young, his father died, and he had to help work
to provide for the family. He was not an educated man. He
could barely read or write his name, but he was a very wise
man. I only wish that I'd listened
to him more. He tried to save me a lot of
pain and anguish and grief, but no, no, no, I knew everything. There's not a day goes by now
that I don't wish that I still had him to confide in. It's always
wise for those who are younger to seek counsel from their elders
who have experienced more of life than they have. And most
believers who are older in years have graduated from the University
of Adversity. My dad used to say that he went
to the School of Hard Knocks. May God cause you who are younger
to submit yourselves unto the elder. And then Peter says, yea,
all of you be subject one to another. Now, this means that
we should encourage and admonish one another in love. We should
serve one another in things temporal and in things spiritual. We should
be concerned for the wellbeing of each other more than we're
concerned for the wellbeing of ourselves. Now, I'll tell you
this, apart from God's grace, this is impossible. We love ourselves
way too much to consider and concern ourselves with the wellbeing
of others like we should. But we can do all things through
Christ who strengthens us. So it is my prayer that God would
enable us and help us to do that. And then Peter continues again
in verse five and he says, be clothed with humility. Boy, that's
a word that I'm interested in. Humility. Someone once asked
John Calvin the three greatest Christian graces. And he said,
first, humility. And second, humility. And third,
humility. What is more beautiful and gracious
than true and genuine humility? I can think of nothing. The loveliest
are the lowliest. Did you notice Peter's words
closely? He said, be clothed in humility. We are to wear it always, child
of God. And when a man or a woman is
clothed with humility, they speak and think the best of others.
They are content with being in the lowest place. In chapter
3 of this epistle, Peter had written that the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of God is of great price. Peter had to learn this through
God-given wisdom, knowledge, and revelation. I suppose of
all the apostles of the Lord Jesus, Peter was the most proud. When the Lord told His disciples
that they would all be offended because of Him, that they would
smite the shepherd and the sheep would scatter, Peter is the one
who proudly stepped forward and said, all these may leave you,
all these may be offended of you, but not me. I'll die with
you. And yet he was the one who denied
the Lord three times before the rooster crowed the next morning.
Peter learned humility. And he learned it the hard way.
And most of the time we have to. Sadly, but true. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
described his own heart, do you remember what he said? He said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly
in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. That is heavenly
humility. Christ is, always has been, and
always will be humble. And that gives us a glimpse of
the excellency of humility. Christ, our Lord, is meek and
lowly in heart. And what an example he should
be to us. Now his humility is different
in that he is and has always been meek and lowly and humble
and we, by nature, are just the opposite. We're boastful, we're
high-minded, and we're proud. So, what is humility? I heard a definition not long
ago that I thought very well described it. Humility is something
that we must have in order to be saved. God resisted the proud,
we'll see that here in a moment, and he giveth grace to who? The
humble. Humility is a just estimate of
oneself. I thought that was a good definition.
Hold your place here in 1 Peter chapter 5, stick your marker
here if you would, and turn with me to Romans chapter 12, would
you? Romans chapter 12. The Apostle Paul, writing here
in verse one, Romans chapter 12, he says, I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good an acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say, through the grace
given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Paul here tells us to prove what
is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And the
very first thing that he mentions is for us not to think of ourselves
more highly than we ought. So how ought we to think of ourselves? Well, we can answer that by another
question. What are we in and of ourselves? If we answer that, then it gives
us a pretty good clue as to how we should think of ourselves.
What are we by nature? And with shame, we must answer,
well, we're sinners. We're depraved sinners, undeserving
of God's love and mercy and grace. Paul said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. You see, it's only by the free
grace of God that we know what we are, truly. What do we have
to be proud of? And yet, it's God's grace that
shows us what we are in Christ. We're saints conformed to His
perfect image. Holy, righteous, and just. Unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. And we know that too, only by
the grace of God. Only by divine revelation. Let
me say it this way. Humility has a great appreciation
for God's grace. Why? Because humility is a right
estimation of what we really are. And apart from God's grace,
we would never truly know that. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Now the believer is justified
by the grace of God. The believer is sanctified by
the grace of God, forgiven by the grace of God, redeemed by
the grace of God. And salvation is of the Lord,
and true humility believes that. In Galatians 6.3, Paul wrote,
for if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. Friends, we're nothing. We're
nothing in and of ourselves. And if we think ourselves to
be something, we deceive ourselves. Has God shown you this? Has God
given you this wisdom? Are you growing in the grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord? If you think yourself to be something
when you are nothing, then he hasn't given you either wisdom
or knowledge. If you think yourself to be something,
he says you've deceived yourself. We've talked about many times
the verse of scripture found in 1 Corinthians chapter four,
verse seven. And the apostle Paul there asked
three very serious questions. All of us must answer them truthfully
for ourselves if we're ever to learn something of humility,
heavenly humility. The first question is this. Who
maketh thee to differ from another? The correct answer is God did. Only God can make one to differ
from another. We plant and we water, yes. We preach God's gospel. But only
God can give the increase. And then the second question
that comes right up on the heel of the first is what do you have? that you did not receive? Boy,
that's a question we ought to ask ourselves often. What do
we have that we did not receive? To answer rightly, we must all
say nothing. Nothing but our sin. That's all
that we have that's truly our own. I have nothing that I did
not receive but by the grace of God. and knowing that it was
God who made us to differ, and knowing that we have nothing
that God did not give us, the third question is, why do we
glory? Why do we take any pride in any
or all that God has given us as if He didn't give it, as if
we didn't receive it from Him? And the answer is, we shouldn't.
We shouldn't glory, we shouldn't take pride in anything that we
have, why? Because every good and perfect
gift cometh from above. God gets all the glory and all
that he gives us. And our pride is delusional,
friends. Those who walk in pride, the
scripture says this, God is able to abase. And that word abase
means to humble. God knows how to humble those
who walk in pride. And humility is honesty before
God. Ralph Barnard used to say, honest
people don't go to hell. What did he mean by that? Well,
if you have an honest view, an honest estimation of yourself,
if God shows you that you're nothing but sin, and you're honest
with yourself that that is so, Then and only then will you look
to Christ alone for redemption. Only then will you believe on
Christ, trust in Him, commit to Christ the safekeeping of
your soul. When I see that I can offer God
nothing that He would accept, that God accepts only perfection,
when you get to that point, When God humbles you to that point,
then and only then you'll believe the gospel of Christ and Him
crucified. And then and only then will you
see that your forgiveness and your redemption comes only by
the substitution of one who kept God's law perfectly for you. That doesn't mean a lot to some
people because they really don't believe that God is going to
punish sin. A lot of folks Don't believe that God is angry with
the wicked every day, but that's what this book says. We'll see
that our forgiveness and our redemption comes only by the
substitution of one who satisfied God's holy law for us. It must be perfect to be accepted.
And God will accept nothing less than perfection. Thank God for
Christ who satisfied God's holy justice. And it's Christ that
gives His holy and perfect righteousness for you. How does He do so? While
He was made sin for you. That you might be made the perfect
righteousness of God in Him. And friends, I'm telling you,
this is the best news that this sinner's ever heard. How about
you? But, but, if you're proud and
you insist on trying to save yourself by your own will, by
your own work, and by your own way, God knows how to humble
you, either in this life or in His wrath to come. And that's
what Peter is saying in our text. Look back again at 1 Peter chapter
five, and look at verse five again. He says there at the end
of that verse, for God resisted the proud and gives grace to
the humble. Now I'm interested in grace.
God resists those that are proud. Now that word resisted there
And the original Greek means to oppose. God opposes those
who are proud. Oh, I don't want God to oppose.
I don't want to be in opposition with God. Do you? But God will
give grace to the humble. Matter of fact, if you're humble
before God, he's already given you grace. And that's where this
grace comes from. It comes only from God and it
only comes in and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember
my uncle Harold. Some of you may remember him.
He attended here for a while. The Lord saved him, or began
a work of grace in him, watching Brother Mahan on the television
here almost 35 years ago. I remember talking to him one
day. This was before I knew the gospel. I was still steeped in
religion. And he asked me one day, he said,
when you stand before God in judgment, he said, what will
you plead? And arrogantly, I said, I'll
plead innocent. And he said, how so? And I said,
because I made Jesus Lord of my life. Because I decided to
follow Jesus. I accepted Jesus. I gave my heart
to Him. And oh, what answers of pride
and arrogance these were. Do you see that? And my uncle
said, well, it sounds to me like you saved yourself. And it made
me mad. But you know what? God wouldn't
leave me to myself. He was long-suffering to me.
He had mercy on me. And by His grace, He humbled
me. And He continues to enable me
to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
Truly, God giveth more grace. He just keeps giving more grace
and more grace. That's what James said. He said,
but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud,
but giveth grace to the humble. Humility comes from knowing something
about our inability. Humility comes by knowing something
of the majesty and the sovereignty of God. O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is Thy name in all the earth! Who has set Thy glory
above the heavens? When I consider Thy heavens,
the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou
hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and
the Son of Man that Thou visitest him? You see, where there is
a true knowledge of what we are and who God is, oh, there is
humility. Heavenly humility. And that's where humility comes
from. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And the knowledge of the holy
is understanding, Proverbs 9.20. The fear of the Lord is the instruction
of wisdom. And before honor is humility,
Proverbs 15.33. Before there's ever honor given
to a sinner, there's humility found and it's God-given. Now listen, we have never truly
worshipped God if we've not worshipped a sovereign and majestic God. And it's only when we see that
God didn't have to be mindful to us. He could have passed us
by and been no less God, been no less holy, been no less just,
no less righteous. God didn't have to visit us in
mercy. Do you see that? God's not obligated
to show us mercy. He is pleased to show mercy. He delights to show mercy. God
didn't have to expose us to our sin. He could have left us going
right on along in it, right all the way to hell. God didn't have
to show us our desperate need. God didn't have to reveal His
holiness. God didn't have to show us that
the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. He didn't have to
teach us that the wages of sin is death. God didn't have to
reveal to us that we have to be perfect to be accepted. God
didn't have to show us that. But to whom He does, they're
humbled. Oh, I'm so humbled by the thought
that God would be mindful of me. You see, I know me better
than you do. And yet, I don't know myself
near as good as God does. And yet, He still had mercy on
me. When I consider my salvation
and why God would save me, oh, I'm humbled. I'm humbled. Aren't
you? Turn with me to one more Scripture.
Philippians chapter 2, if you would, please. Philippians chapter
2. Look at verse 4 when you get
there. Philippians chapter 2, verse
4. Paul here says, look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. That takes humility. Then he
says in verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus. Now the Arabic version interprets
verse five this way. It says, let that humility be
seen in you that was seen in Christ. Have you ever really
stopped and thought about the humility of the Lord Jesus? Let
this mind, this same mind, this same way of thinking be found
in you that was found in Christ. That mind of humility, that mind
of servitude and affection to His people. Oh, how wondrous
the love of Christ is that He exhibited for His people while
He took on their nature. He obeyed and suffered and died
in their room instead. Oh, what love! What amazing love. And verse six here is speaking
of the Lord Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God. Friends, Christ Jesus is
God, God the Son. And he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but here is what is so beautiful. Verse
seven, look at it. but made himself of no reputation. Now I want you to closely look
at the word made here. It's used two different times
in verse seven. And it means to make empty. Now
think about that. Christ emptied himself of any
reputation. And then that word reputation,
do you know what it means? It means the same thing. It means
to make empty. You see, that is what humility
is. Humility is to be made empty
of self. Humility is to empty yourself
of yourself. The Lord Jesus emptied Himself. You think about that. He who
spoke the worlds into existence. He who said, let there be, and
there was. He made Himself of no reputation. He emptied Himself. He voluntarily
made Himself to do so. He didn't empty Himself of the
fullness of His grace, no. He didn't empty Himself of the
perfections of His divine nature, no. For in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. So what does this mean? It means
that he covered his divine nature. Oh, the form of God was withheld
from those that saw him. Well, there was no form or comeliness
that they should desire him. There was no natural beauty in
him that we should desire him. Men viewed him as a mere man,
a sinful man at that. Even a worm and no man. Do you
know why? Because that's what we were.
And standing in our place to work out a perfect righteousness
for us, that's what Christ became. Read on, verse 7. And He took
upon Him the form of a servant. God made Himself a servant. That word took here means to
lay hold of. Christ laid hold of being a servant. That word means to consume yourself
with, to allow something to become a part of you. Christ was consumed
with taking upon the form of a servant and He made being a
servant a part of Him. God did. Why did God do this? Because He was standing in your
place. It means to occupy, to reside, to hold a position as
Christ held the position and He occupied the place of a servant. I'm telling you, that's humility. That's heavenly humility. Did you know that the word servant
in this verse means to voluntarily be made subservient? Our Lord
wasn't forced to be a servant. He graciously and voluntarily
consented to be a servant. But that's not all. He was made,
made empty in the likeness of men. What humility it was for
Christ, God the Son, to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh. God made Himself of no reputation.
God took on the form of a servant. God was made in the likeness
of man. Why? The answer? You know it. It's your only hope. to redeem
His chosen people from among Adam's fallen and helpless race. You see, God could not suffer
death, death being sin's wages. God being God could not die.
Man being man could not redeem. Man could not fulfill the law
of God. Man could not satisfy God's justice. But God the Son could do all
these things. That's why He became a man. In
order for God to redeem man, God had to become a man. And
oh, what a condescension, what humility it took for God to stoop
so low. But you know, his condescension
and his humility didn't stop there. Look at verse eight. And
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. Yes, Christ humbled himself by
becoming a man. He was in subjection to his earthly
parents. Do you see that humility? Can
you imagine God becoming an infant? The Infinite One becoming an
infant. God worked in a carpenter shop.
God washed His disciples' feet. Yes, it was God that did that.
He was patient with His enemies. He was long-suffering with His
disciples. All these things showed Christ
to be meek and lowly. But here's what infinitely sets
the Lord of glory apart from us. He became obedient unto death. From the cradle to the cross
He was obedient. But not just obedient unto death.
Look at this. Even the death of the cross. Oh, the death of the cross was
painful and shameful. It showed that He bore the curse
of the law for His elect. It proved that He was made a
curse for His people. And this was the punishment that
you and I should have been inflicted. And He died the just for the
unjust to bring us to God. That's heavenly humility and
only God could do it. And this is the only means by
which a sinner can be saved. So let me ask you in closing,
is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, to those of you
here this morning that have heard this glorious redemption of how
only God could accomplish salvation for an unworthy sinner. Is it
nothing to you? Or is it everything to you? You know, it's one or the other.
It's one or the other. You can't remain neutral on this.
How long will you halt between two opinions? Our Lord said,
behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which
is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the
day of his fierce anger. God his Father turned his back
on him, forsook him, and punished all the sin of all God's people
throughout all time upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that
mean anything to you? It should mean everything to
you. The message of the gospel is good news. It's certainly
that. Do you see his sorrow? Do you see that he was afflicted?
It took him being so to put away your sin. Look at verse 9. 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 at things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father." Every tongue should confess this. But not
every tongue will. The question is, will you? No sinner has been, is, or will
ever be saved apart from the heavenly humility that God the
Son displayed in the substitution for His people. May God enable you. And I say
that sincerely, that's not just a little phrase to say in closing. May God truly enable you to believe
and trust in Christ.