Clothed with Humility

1 Peter 5, verse 5 says, Be clothed with
humility. It says, God resisteth the proud,
and God gives grace to the humble. It says again, Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you. in his own time. Now, pride is
so natural to fallen man that someone said it springs up in
his heart like weeds in a well-watered garden. Pride is an ever-present
sin, and it's harder to get rid of than mosquitoes in a swamp
or blight on an apple tree. If we kill it, it keeps coming
back from the grave. And when you think you have destroyed
pride, your very rejoicing is pride in the worst form. None
have more pride than those who think they have none. Someone said pride has a thousand
lives. It even grows on that which is
intended to destroy it. He said pride has a thousand
shapes. Strange, but it can thrive on
poverty as well as riches. It can thrive on ignorance as
well as education. It can thrive on evil as well
as morality. It can thrive on religion as
well as blasphemy. Pride was man's first sin. He
said, I'll be like God. And pride will be the last sin
he commits before he hears the Lord say, depart from me. For
at the judgment he will exclaim, Lord, I preached in your name
and cast out devils and did many wonderful works. There is no
place that is safe from the evil of pride. One day it entered
heaven, for Lucifer cried out, I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. It came down to the altar, for
Cain stepped forth in the presence of God, his hands filled with
the works of his own deeds. It cropped up among the disciples,
for they began to inquire who's going to sit on thy right hand
and thy left hand when thou comest into thy kingdom." It continued
to plague the early Church, for Paul wrote and said, John wrote,
Diostrophes loves the preeminence. We ought to fear it, and we ought
to fight it. And our text tonight tells us
it's something that we have to do. Be clothed with humility. humbled yourselves. We ought
to fight it. We ought to fight it with all
of our hearts, for it says here, God resisteth the proud, and
the more pride he finds in our hearts, the less grace is going
to enter there. And he said in his word, Pride
goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
And then in Proverbs chapter 6, I want you to read this. In
Proverbs chapter verse 16, Solomon listed several things that God
hates. And the first one he listed had
to do with this evil. He said in Proverbs 6, 16, These
six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination
unto him. A proud look. A proud look. Now this may not be understood
by everyone, but what I'm about to say is true. We cannot in any respect, we
cannot in any respect make it the object of our Christian life
to be esteemed among the brethren, whether for my gifts or whether
for my service, or whether for my spirituality, or whether for
my wisdom, or my righteousness, we are not to strive at all in
any respect to make it the object of our Christian life to be esteemed
and well spoken of by our brethren. We are to strive to think little
of ourselves and highly of others. The scripture says, Seekest thou
great things for thyself, seek them not. Every one that exalteth
himself, our Lord said, shall be abased. Now, just to get a
general idea of the importance of our subject tonight, its importance
to me and to you, to every one of us, I want to look at a few
scriptures. First of all, I know this. That
humility, genuine humility, true humility, leads to justification. For the Lord Jesus himself told
us about the Pharisee who came to the temple, and thank God
he was not like other men. But then he mentioned a publican,
and he said that publican cried not so much as lifting even his
eyes to heaven, let alone his hands in prayer, as the Pharisees
did. But he cried, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. And our Lord said he went home
justified. His humility led to justification. And then the thief on the cross.
The one thief was cursing Christ and the other thief said, don't
you fear God, seeing we're in the same condemnation and we
indeed justly, for we receive just what we deserve. And he
turned and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. And Christ said, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Humility led to justification. It didn't justify them, but it
led them to the place where God Almighty, through Christ, would
justify them. And then let's look at another
scripture, Psalm 34. Humility is a mark of redemption. Humility not only leads to justification,
but humility is a mark of salvation. In Psalm 34, verse 18, the Lord
is now unto them that are of a broken heart. God is near them. And saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. Turn to Psalm 51. This is a mark
of salvation. Psalm 51, verse 17, the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. And then humility makes us like
Christ. Did not Paul write in Philippians
2, 5 through 8, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus? who thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation and took upon
himself the form of a servant. Christ our Lord became a servant. And let this mind, this same
spirit of humility be in you. And then humility leads to true
honor. Turn to Proverbs again, chapter
15. Humility leads to true honor. In Proverbs 15, verse 33, the
fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor, before
true honor. Now, we can get the honor that
comes from me. We can acquire that. There are
a lot of ways of doing that. But before honor, genuine, true
honor that comes from God is humility. Now, look, if you will,
Proverbs 22. Here's another verse that says
practically the same thing. Proverbs 22, verse 4. Listen
to this. Proverbs 22, 4. By humility and
the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. And then,
in the next place, humility is pleasing to our Lord. In 1 Peter
3, He's talking here about women adorning themselves, let it not
be verse 3, 1 Peter 3, verse 3, let it not be your major emphasis
and so forth, the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing
of gold, of putting on of apparel. Don't try to make this your mark
of beauty, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that
which is not corruptible, even the ornament And what is said
about them is said about men too, even the ornament of a meek
and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. And then in the next place, humility
is the dominant trait in all of the Beatitudes. Turn and look
at that with me in Matthew chapter 5. Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. Listen to these Beatitudes and
note how that humility is the dominant trait in all of the
Beatitudes. Listen to them in Matthew 5,
beginning with verse 5, or verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Arthur Pink said the poor in
spirit are those who realize that they know nothing, they
have nothing, and they are nothing. Verse 4, blessed are they that
mourn. being poor in spirit, they mourn
over their sins and over their failure. And then, blessed are
the meek, verse 5, and blessed are they that hunger and thirst
for righteousness, and verse 7, blessed are the merciful,
and blessed are the pure in heart, and blessed are the peacemakers,
and blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake. Be clothed with humility. What
is humility? according to the Word of God.
I told the ladies in our Bible class Sunday morning that sometimes
when we get to talking about humility, we joke about it a
little bit, and I've just wrote a book on humility and how I
attained it, and nobody proud like the man that says he's not
proud, and then we let it go. But we need to come away from
that and, as our text says, seek this grace. Seek this grace as
we seek the person of Christ and seek to be like our Lord.
And what is humility according to the Scriptures? Well, three
things it's not. Number one, it's not to be a
coward. That's not humility. There are
some people who are cowards. But the man who is a coward is
not necessarily a humble man because Moses was the meekest
of men. And yet he was no coward. because
he dared to face the high court of Egypt and demand that Pharaoh
let God's people go. And then to be humble is not
to be weak. David slew the enemies of God. David built a mighty
kingdom, and yet David walked humbly before God. Being humble is not just to be
religious. There are many religionists who
are quite proud and quite overbearing. They wear their religion, someone
says, like an army general wears his brass and wears his medals
to be seen of men. I want to sidetrack just a little
bit and give you a few notes that I jotted down here that
I think fits right here. Being humble is not just to be
religious. Some of the proudest people on
earth are religious people. And I ask this question as I
was dwelling or thinking on this point right here, how can a person
be religious and yet not obnoxious? How can a person be religious
and devoted to God and be an effective witness for Christ
and yet not be judged a troublesome person? Well, I can give you
five or six things that I jotted down here, and I want you to
listen How can I be an effective witness? How can I be to my own
family and to my neighborhood and to the town in which I live
and the people with whom I do business and the people with
whom I have social contact? How can I be an effective witness
for Christ? There are a lot of people who
talk a lot. Are you born again? Are you saved? Are you this?
Are you that? Do you believe this? And they
just make themselves obnoxious. They make themselves troublesome
to those to whom they talk. And most of them are most unaffected
witnesses because there's so many other things that they have
done and said to make their witness ineffective. How to be a good
witness? How to be an effective witness?
First thing is shut your mouth. That's the first thing. Just
close your mouth for a little while. Close your mouth until
you've got something to say. And do this while you're closing
it. Number one, have a good report among those without. A good report. In other words, first of all,
have a good credit rating. Pay your bills. As you would
that men should do to you, you do the same thing to them. When
you have any kind of business dealings with an individual,
I don't care what kind of business dealings it is, If it's not the
type of business dealings with that individual that will leave
a good taste in his mouth, you needn't talk to him about God.
You needn't talk to him about Christ. You needn't talk to him
about religion, unless you have a good credit rating with that
person or a good name. That's the first thing, establish
a good name. Be a good neighbor. You're not
going to be able to fight with that man next door and witness
to him by Christ. He's not going to pay attention
to you. He's just not going to do it. And you really can't blame
him. You may believe what you believe,
and what you say may be true. It may be just as true as the
Bible is true. But you're not going to have
any effect on him. Be kind to people. Be kind to
people. Establish a relationship of kindness
with people around you, but don't talk to them until you do. Just
don't do it. Now that's the first thing. All
right, secondly, be faithful in worship with your family.
Now the scripture says, talking about people who are leaders
in the church, don't put any man as a leader in your church,
as a teacher or a preacher or a leader, who cannot lead his
family. A man who cannot get his wife
to come to church and his children to come to church, don't put
him in leadership. Because he's got no business trying to lead
anybody else if he can't lead his own home. That's right. Have your family in the house
of God. And don't talk to a man about coming to church on Wednesday
nights if you don't come. Don't talk to a man about walking
with God and living for God if he comes to church and looks
around and you're not there. If he continues to miss you,
don't try to witness to him about the things of God. You've got
to establish a faithfulness. with your family, with your household,
you've got to be able to say with Joshua, as for me and my
house, I may just rule over a little plot, just me and, as Abraham
said, me and Saber. But Saber's going to go the way
I go, or else. I may rule over a plot with me
and Saber, Isaac and Ishmael, but they're going to do what
I say. I may rule over a plot that's bigger than that. But
Joshua says, I don't know about the rest of you fellows, but
for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Number three. Now listen to this. Control your
temper. Let your language be seasoned
with grace. You needn't talk to a man about
Christ if you just got through blessing him out. If you just
got through painting the air blue with some kind of profanity,
don't talk to him about the Lord. Keep your mouth shut. Out of
the same fountain comes forth bitter water and sweet water?
Not possible. It can't be, the scripture says.
Number four, treat your family and your friends and your fellow
employees, the people you work with, with kindness. Work on
your attitude. I know you run into problems
on the job, I know you run into conflicts, but you've got to
learn to cope with these things. Life is full of conflict. disappointments
and trouble. And you needn't talk to that
man about the Lord if the Lord you know has not given you some
kind of victory over your conflicts and trials. Learn to control
yourself. Work on your attitude. Don't
talk to him about Christ until you've worked on that attitude.
And you men who work people, you've got to be firm. I know
that. You've got to run a business. You've got to run a job. You're
a foreman or you're a superintendent or you're a supervisor, and you've
got to be firm. But you can be firm with reason. You can be firm with kindness.
You can be firm with graciousness. Our Lord was firm. Very firm. But he was firm with a godly
attitude and a godly deportment. And then in
the fifth place, be a dedicated employee. If you're working on
a job, do the best you can. Work for that man, the scripture
says, like you're working for the Lord Jesus. You work for
that man just like you're working for the Son of God. You give
him all you have and all you can. You treat that business
like it meant your last dollar, like it was your business, like
it belonged to your Heavenly Father, and make it prosper.
Don't you do anything that would bring reproach upon the Lord
in this way. A lazy employee needn't talk
to me about the Savior. I don't want to listen to him.
Be a dedicated boss. Care for those who work for you.
Show them you care. Be concerned about their problems
and their difficulties and their needs. Care about them. And then
when that's done, when you have an opportunity to tell an individual
whose respect you have earned and whose confidence you've gained,
when you have an opportunity then to tell him what Christ
has done for you, tell him. When you have an opportunity
to express what you believe, what the Bible teaches, express
it. But if these other things are
not true, leave God out of it. Now, that's good advice. And
that would do away with a lot of the criticism which churches
and what we call doctrines and what we call what we believe,
it would do away with a lot of criticism and keep some folks
from being, as the Apostle says, enemies of the gospel. Enemies
of the gospel. But being humble is not just
to be religious. Being humble is not just talking
religion. That's not humility. Well, what
is it? Well, let me give you several things that I've collected
through the years and from some other writers. Here, let's just
make it a perfect number, make it seven things about humility.
What is humility? The Scripture says humble yourself.
Humble yourself. Well, first of all, humility
is a person actually experiencing, actually experiencing and seeing
what he is by nature. That's right. Only enlightened
eyes can see this. There's no way that I can reveal
this to you. There's no way it can be taught
to you. Only an enlightened heart can understand it. Now this man
speaking here is the greatest preacher other than our Savior
who ever lived. He wrote most of the New Testament
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He founded churches. He ordained elders. He was the
first missionary to travel the world, his known world, preaching
Christ. Listen to him. I'm not worthy
to be an apostle. I'm not worthy. Listen to him. I am less than the least of all
the saints. Listen to him, I am the chief
of sinners. Oh, wretched man that I am. Now there's a man who is a humble
man. Why? He has actually seen what he
is by nature. These were not just words, these
were not just idle expressions, these were the deep feelings
of his heart. I am not fit to be an apostle. You pick out, he said, the least
saint in the family of God, and I'm less than the least. I'm
the chief of sinners. Listen to Isaiah, I'm a man of
unclean lips. How many of us would actually
admit to that? I am a man of unclean lips. Listen
to Peter, Lord, depart from me, I am a sinful man. Now there's
no way that we're going to see this, there's no way we're going
to enter into it, there's no way we're going to believe it,
as long as we're measuring ourselves by our own standards or as long
as we're measuring ourselves in the light of other people's
failures. The Pharisees said, I thank you, Lord, I'm not like
other men. He was measuring himself by human
standards. He was measuring himself in the
light of other men's failures. He said, I'm not an adulterer.
I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. He was measuring
himself by their failures. No, he wasn't like other men. And neither was he like God.
And God was visiting in mercy other men and passing him by. So humility begins here. It is
God in his grace giving us a genuine understanding of what we are
by nature, what we are. Secondly, humility is being able,
sincerely able, to disclaim to disclaim any personal righteousness
even, now watch this, even to seeing sin in the best thing
I do. Now brethren, this is the most
difficult area in the pursuit of the grace of humility right
here. This is the most difficult. Now
get what I'm saying, and this is what God's Word teaches. Humility
is being able, sincerely able, to take, to disclaim not only
any personal merit, I'm a sinner, I have no merit, I have no righteousness,
but true humility is being able to see sin in the best deed I've
ever done. Now, we're able to weep over
our sins. I think everybody here who knows
Christ can weep over our sins. And we can bring our sins to
Calvary for cleansing. We can cry with David, purge
me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be
whiter than the snow. But we are reluctant to admit
that even, turn to Isaiah 64, 6, that even our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. that even our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. of the tribe of Benjamin concerning
the law blameless, zeal persecuting the Church. I count all these
things but dumb. I fill out my income tax and
I write down, gave the Church, boy, I gave the Church a thousand
or two or three or four thousand dollars last year. Well, that's,
you know, dumb. Well, I prayed. I led the church
in prayer and felt a measure of power. I feel like I got a
hold of the horns of their altar and feel like God heard me and
I prayed a pretty good prayer. Done. Well, last year I got through the year pretty good,
you know. I brought four people to church with me and even some
of them joined and done. I taught my Sunday school class,
and I studied hard, and I really took them through the Scripture,
and we studied all the verses there, and go out feeling dumb. Think about that. And I kept
my dear old mother, and took care of her, and made sure she
was all right, you know, and bought her a car, and did all
that. Dumb. Just pick out all of your writing.
Come on, this is the most difficult area, but this is where humility
is. It's not only to weep over our sins, but it's being able
to say in Luke 17, turn over that Luke 17, 10, listen to this,
Luke 17, 10, so likewise, so likewise, when you shall have
done all those things which are commanded you, all of them, and
none of us come up to that yet, say, we're unprofitable servants. And we've done that which is
our duty to do. We haven't done anything after
all. That's when a man is creeping
up on this grace of humility, when he's able to see himself
as an unclean thing, and when he's able to see that all of
his righteousness, all of his good deeds, all of his merit,
all of his commendable attributes in the eyes of God are filthy rags, filthy rags. Thirdly, what is humility? I'm saying this is what it is,
this is true humility. It is ascribing all that I am
and all that I have to the free grace of God, all that I am. and all that I have. Now, brethren,
this pride, as I say it, the heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked, but all of us are proud creatures. And pride grows in
every heart. It grows in the heart of the
poor and the rich. It grows in the heart of the
ignorant and the educated. It grows in the heart of the
success and the failure. It grows in every heart. And
we're shooting at humility when we come to the place where we
acknowledge that I'm even standing here tonight by the grace of
God. I'm even looking at you by the will and grace of God.
My voice, I'm speaking by the permission of God. I'm lifting
this arm by the power of God. And if left alone and left to
myself, I'd perish. Who maketh you to differ? What
hast thou that thou hast not received? How can we look upon
the drunk in the gutter and feel any better than him? It's only
by God's grace that we haven't switched places. It's only by
God's grace. The same God that permitted him
to follow that path of alcoholism, the same God by his restraining
hand kept me out of the gutter. The same God who by his providence
allowed some boy to be born with a brain injury, that same God
brought me forth by the safe delivery. Same God. Sometimes we make fun of God's
creatures, find fault with God's creatures and think we're better,
bigger, stronger, richer, smarter. God ought to cast us all in the
pits of eternal damnation. Because it's only by his grace
we have any smart at all. It's only by his grace that we
have clothes on our backs. It's only by his grace we have
food in our bellies. It's only by his grace that we're
not born to hot-and-tot parents in the heart of Africa. My friend,
did you know even your repentance is a gift of God? The goodness
of God led you to repentance. If he had left you alone, you'd
have gone straight to eternal damnation. Your faith is the
gift of God, for by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves? It's the gift of God. Turn to
1 Corinthians 15 and listen to Paul. 1 Corinthians 15. You say, I know all those things,
why do I think otherwise? 1 Corinthians 15.10, listen,
Paul says, by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which
was bestowed upon me was not in vain. I labored more abundantly
than they all. Yet not I. I didn't do it. The
grace of God which was with me did it. I didn't do anything.
I've never done anything, said anything, accomplished anything,
known anything that God Almighty didn't give me. I'm a beggar
with an empty hand. God filled it. Every friend I've
got, God gave me. Every bite I've ever taken, God
supplied it. Every foot I ever walk, God Almighty
enabled me, ascribing all that I am and all that I have to the
free grace of God. And then fourthly, what is humility?
I'll tell you what it is. According to the Scriptures,
it's submitting, submitting quietly and willingly to the purpose
of God Whether it be the most severe trial or the most severe
tribulation, it's submitting. Submitting quietly and willingly.
Not blowing a trumpet. We can turn even our submission
into pride by blowing a trumpet. Our Lord said, when you pray,
go in and shut the door. Don't pray on the street corners
to be seen of men. He said, when you fast, When
you're going through a religious trial or burden or spiritual
burden and you're fasting, wash your face and comb your hair
and come out smiling, don't let anybody know you're fasting.
He said when you give, don't broadcast it. You know, Job,
when the Lord took everything he had, he just quietly worshipped
God. He said, well, I don't think
he ran it in the paper the next day. He just said, the Lord giveth
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And Eli, he said, it's the Lord. Let him do what he will. Turn
to 1 Thessalonians 5. I want you to look at this scripture
here. 1 Thessalonians 5. Here's a scripture I heard a
man preach on about a year ago. Some sermons are a special blessing
to us, and this one was a special blessing to me. He said in verse
18, 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, "...in everything give thanks." That's
hard to do, isn't it? He said he was riding along with
his wife one day, and he had one son. He had two boys. I met
one. I've never met the other one.
But he said, riding along with my wife, and one boy, he's always
in church, he's a real a joy to me. He's just a pride
of my heart. And if he said, that other boy,
he's brought me nothing but heartaches and tears and sorrows and don't
know ever, know where he is or what he's doing or who he's with.
And he said, I was riding along with my wife one day and he said,
I stopped my car and I turned and looked at her and he said,
you know honey, we keep giving thanks for Randy. And he said,
we haven't given thanks for this other boy. And he said, you know
that scripture, in everything give thanks. For this is the
will of God in Christ concerning you." Now, my neighbor may have
five kids and they're all in church on Sunday, and I've got
two and neither one of them is there, but that's the will of
God concerning him, and it's the will of God concerning me.
Not the same situation at all. My neighbor might never be ever
sick day in his life, and I may be like Spurgeon, sick 30 out
of 58 years, but that's the will of God concerning me. Somebody
else may go through life without any trials at all. It may look
like you're going to have one right after the other, but this
is the will of God concerning you. We're not to look on the,
like, you know, Peter said about John. He said, well, what about
him? The Lord said, if I will, that he stay here till I come
back, what's that to you? Ain't none of your business.
You do what I told you to do. This is the will of God concerning
you. And it's learning. It's learning to submit. quietly
and willingly to the will of God concerning you. And that's hard. I know that's
hard. I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm just saying that's humility. But whoever said it was easy?
Here's the fifth thing. It's a willingness to receive
instructions and rebuke graciously. Now, all these words are important
here. It is a willingness to receive
instructions and rebuke graciously. Turn to Proverbs 9, Proverbs
9. Proverbs 9, verse 8 and 9. Proverbs 9, 8 and 9. Listen to
this. Proverbs 9, verse 8 and 9. Reprove not a scorner. In other
words, leave him alone, lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man
and he'll love you. Give instruction to a wise man
and he'll be wiser. Teach a just man and he'll increase
in learning. Now, watch this. Somebody says,
how do you know us so well? Well, strange as it may seem
to you, I was born from the same clay and dug out of the same
pit, and I had the same problem. Now, watch this. This is the
second most difficult area in humility. Now, I said a while
ago, the first most difficult area is what? It's not just confessing
our sins, but it's confessing the sin of our righteousness. That's the first most difficult
area. Boy, it's hard not to be proud of sacrifice. You men have blessed your hearts
for the missionaries on the field, you provide well for your pastor,
you provide well for those missionaries, you built a place here to the
glory of God, you've been faithful, you're here at prayer meeting,
God bless you, but no, that's the way it is, and we've got
to come to that place. That's all it is, Paul said,
is that I may win Christ and be found in Him. I don't care
what we've done. There's nothing to it, all our righteousness
filthy right. Now here's the second most difficult
area. And I'm going to tell you the truth here. This is the age. It might have always been so,
but this is just time I know about because I've just been
here for a while. This is the age of super-sensitive
church members and preachers. Everyone has to be pampered.
Everybody has to be coddled. Every hot body has to be made
over. Everybody has to be appreciated. Everybody has to be courted.
Everybody has to be recognized. Don't offend. Preacher has to
really work at it to win friends and not offend people lest they
quit. The average church is a nursery
of sensitive infants who can't take instruction, they can't
take rebuke, and they can't take advice. And the preacher has
to be extra, extra careful, and so do the deacons, and so do
the elders, and so do each other. You've got to be so careful,
so careful not to offend, so careful not to hurt anybody's
feelings, so careful not to wound somebody, so careful they may
quit church. So today there are very few Nathans
who dare to say, David, you're the man. And there are a whole lot fewer
Davids who say back to Nathan, you're right, I'm wrong. There
are a few. You're right, I've been wrong. So humility is a willingness
to take instructions and rebuke graciously, and not be offended,
and not be offended. And then in the next place, humility
is to bear injustices and wrongs without hating and without revenge. Brother Joe, I've heard preachers,
and somebody said that the reason the pew is in such bad shape
is because the pulpit is in such bad shape, and I think that's
right. But I've heard them have problems with people in the Church
and come away saying, well, I'll tell you this, he bucked me,
but God burned his house down. Have you ever heard stuff like
that? Oh, that breaks your heart. Yeah, he caused a split in the
Church, and God caused his daughter to have an automobile wreck.
That's ungodly, that's what that is. That's ungodly. And we're not touching humility
until we come to the place where we can bear wrongs and injustices
if that's what they are, without hating. Turn to Colossians 3.
Let me read you a verse here. Let's look at Colossians 3. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel, whether
we're right or wrong, it doesn't matter whether you're right or
wrong. Against any, even as Christ forgave you, you forgive. Now,
boy, I got a lot of forgiving to do because he's done a lot
of forgiving for me. I don't have any reason not to
forgive, and you don't either. You don't have any reason. God loves me, God does love me,
God always will love me, and I want to be like my Master,
and you do too. You do too. True humility is
being able to wish, if we've been slighted, we've been offended,
we've been passed by, we've been crossed, we've been misunderstood,
forget it. We deserve it, probably. Just
forget it. Just forget it and love that
person a little bit more, because more than likely it wasn't deliberate,
more than likely it was a total misunderstanding, something over
which the person had no control at all. But our Lord looked down
on those who had nailed him to the cross and said, forgive them,
they don't know what to do. And God will bless that. Now,
God's not going to bless hatred and God's not going to bless
revenge. We read tonight in the study, if I regard iniquity in
my heart, God won't hear me. God won't hear me. I don't care
if it's hatred for my worst enemy. God won't hear me. And I think
some of my southern friends are reaping their oats they've sowed
in this bigotry and hatred for black people. God's not going
to bless hatred. I don't care who harbors it or
who holds it, he won't bless it. He won't bless it. And then
in the next place, humility as being able to rejoice. Now watch,
this is good. I got this from Charles Spurgeon.
I think it's good. Humility as being able to rejoice,
sincerely rejoice in the prosperity, whether it's material or physical
or spiritual, of other people. To be able actually to rejoice. Envy is a terrible monster. Pride gave birth to envy, and
envy reveals one of two things. If we are envious, it reveals
an unregenerate heart or an immature heart, one or the other. And
when I envy another person, whether it's his gifts or his talents
or his prosperity or his business or his riches or his health or
his family or whatever it is, if I envy him, you know what
it reveals? It reveals I'm putting a question
mark on God's wisdom. God gave it to him, didn't give
it to me. God put it there and didn't put it here. And I'm putting
a question mark on God's providence and God's wisdom, and I'm saying,
Lord, now you shouldn't have put it there, you should have
put it here, I'm smarter than you are. Now, this is the way you
ought to have done that, Lord. I'm the one that ought to have
the gifts and And he's the one that ought to be in my place.
No, sir. God Almighty knows. Who art thou
to quarrel with God? Turn over here to Romans 9. Now,
you listen to this. In Romans 9, verse 20. Man, who art thou that replyest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why did you make me thus? That's not to pot a pie over
the clay, to make one lump, make of the same lump one vessel to
honor another and to dishonor. In closing, how does one get
this humility? And I've told you what I believe
the scripture says it is. And I said this the other day,
don't seek a grace as such. Seek a person. If you get the
tree, you'll get the fruit. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is mercy." Now, you can't cut this up into
one, two, three, four. I want humility, and there's
a sense in which I want to have faith, I want to love, I want
to have humility, I want to have patience. I want these things,
but I must not And there's a sense in which we do pursue them, we
do seek them, but we don't seek them as such. We don't make that
the object of our search. You see what I'm saying? We don't
make the grace the object of our search. Because you can,
you could maybe attain that by certain floggings of yourself,
like Luther did as a monk, you know, when he'd lie on the stone
floor and beat his body and lie there and he's nearly dead, they
had to drag him off to the infirmary. He was seeking humility. If you
find the person, you'll find the grace. Now watch this. It comes, turn to Isaiah 6. Let's
look at this. I've gone over, but you'll forgive
me. Isaiah 6. Listen to this, verse
1. Isaiah said, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. And he said in
verse 5, look at verse 5. Then said I, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes
have seen the Lord." That did it. I've seen the Lord. And when we see him in his holiness,
we'll recognize our uncleanness. We'll recognize our righteousness
as filthy rags. We'll recognize that the best
we've ever done is far short of his glory. When we see his
love, we'll see our lack of it. When we see his grace, we'll
see our absence of it. When we see his glory, oh, when
we see his glory! I'll tell you this, if the prize
is a little bigger, a fellow will turn loose of this one to
get that one. He'll sell this to invest in that. And if a fellow
wants to turn loose of the world, All he's got to do is get a glimpse
of the glory of Christ, and it will lose its appeal. And when
we see his greater purpose, all of these things of this earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace. Our Father in Heaven, it doesn't
hurt you to mark up your Bible. Why don't you put a big star
by the side of this scripture?

Clothed with Humility

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Clothed with Humility

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