Chapter Nine, The Power of A Humble Christian - Clover Sites



Chapter Nine, The Power of A Humble ChristianReadings: Isaiah 14:12-20; Phil. 2:3-11This is the last talk in “Gospel Powered Humility” series. We have said that humility matters greatly, that pride is the great sin, that humility precedes all the other virtues, and that humility is counter cultural. We also learned that God designed the gospel to humble our pride, and that the Holy Spirit has been most active whenever the church has communicated the gospel with this intention. Last weeks sermon and today’s are about qualities we need to faithfully communicate a humbling gospel. Last week we learned that we need to overcome the fear of man. Our reading from Isaiah describes, what many theologians feel, is the fall of Satan. In this text, he exalts himself with five “I wills” (Vs 13,14). I will ascend I will set my throne on highI will sit on the mount of assembly I will ascend above the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. God always humbles those that exalt themselves, so God cast him down. Then, desiring to morph God’s creation into his own image, the Devil tempted Eve with the same pride that now corrupted him. To the woman he hissed, if you eat from the forbidden Tree—(Gen 3:5-6)“Your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was to be desired to…make one wise she took of it and ate.” Sin corrupted the image of God in Adam and Eve. The Devil had morphed them into his own image. By contrast, our reading from Philippians 2 shows us what the image of God looks like in a man without sin. It describes Jesus’ infinite descent. His self-humbling displays the image of God. He came to reverse the Fall. Instead of “I will exalt myself,” he said I “will humble myself.” He emptied himself, abased himself, and refused to grasp for equality with God. He humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name…to the glory of God the Father. Satan is “the Ruler of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). The world is in the Devil’s image and likeness. The mission of every Christian, therefore, is to export God’s humble love to a fallen world. To do this we must pursue humility ourselves. We must increasingly model what we preach. Richard Baxter, (1615-91) “Our very business is to teach the great lesson of humility to our people; and how unfit, then, is it that we should be proud ourselves? We must study humility, and preach humility; and must we not possess and practice humility? A proud preacher of humility is at least a self-condemning man.”How and why to not be a “proud preacher of humility” is the subject of this final sermon. Each of us will export humility to the degree that we model it. To help us do that I want to make two crucial applications. First, we will exam some expressions of prideSecond, we will pivot to examine some evidences of humilityFour Symptoms of Pride Intellectual PrideThe first symptom of pride is intellectual. It is especially tempting to those zealous for knowledge. An aspiring leader pursues knowledge but for the wrong reasons. He wants the respect of his peers. This motive has a corrupting affect. Because the Devil knows this, he drives and pushes these motives. Anecdote: The Baptist confession of 1689. Knowledge is crucial: We can never have enough. But there is a right and wrong reason to pursue it. Hunger to know and love God is the right reason. Intellectual respectability—the admiration of others—is the wrong reason. Herein lies the great danger of formal theological education. As knowledge and degrees accumulate, respect follows. The desire to gain more respect, or at least not lose what I have, is the great temptation. Christians pursuing humility resist it. Why is this so important? If peer-respect is a primary motivation for me then I will tempted to compromise the gospel. Why? I will be tempted to compromise the gospel to gain respect, and there is nothing “respectable” about the gospel. Because our motives are mixed, discerning this sin is difficult. Here are some tell-tale symptoms. Do you delight in quoting authors that others find hard to read? Do you pursue advanced degrees to earn the admiration and respect of your peers? Do you talk about the books you read to impress others? Is your alma mater a place of either boasting or shame? It would be better to be ignorant than to be a slave of intellectual pride. In the words of the apostle, Paul—(1 Cor. 8:1-3) “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. " (1 Cor. 8:1-3). Two inferences from this passage. First, The evidence that I pursue knowledge for the right reasons is that my knowledge promotes a deepened contact with reality. In other words, my knowledge is humbling me. True knowledge makes us feel ignorant. By contrast, false knowledge makes us proud of our erudition. It convinces us that our knowledge is great. Second, Knowledge pursued for the right reasons produces love. “Love builds up” the church. But, knowledge pursued for the wrong reasons produces arguments, quarreling over theological minutiae, and endless splits and division. Jonathan Edwards: “Such is the nature of grace, and of true spiritual light, that they naturally dispose the saints in the present state, to look upon their grace and goodness little, and their deformity great….All true spiritual knowledge is of that nature, that the more a person has of it, the more is he sensible of his own ignorance.” The crucial test then is this: What is the effect of your learning? Measure yourself! Does it make you feel small, ignorant, sinful, and needy; or does it leave you self-satisfied, proud of your erudition, and convinced that you are wise, certainly wiser than most? Do you become irritated when others do not make much of your learning? Intellectual pride renders entire denominations useless. It drains seminaries of spiritual power and vitality, it sucks the life out of Bible studies, and it renders many “Phds” impotent. Doctorates of ministry are useful when sought for the right reason, but if sought, even partially, to obtain prestige, they can be harmful. It is better to be without them than suffer this sin. Worst of all, intellectual pride replicates itself. Students of the proud become proud (Matt. 23:15). The pursuit of God’s power and intellectual respectability are mutually exclusive. You can’t have both. You can have proud intellectual impotence, or intellectually humbling power but you can’t have both. On the other hand, the fear of intellectual pride should not discourage the pursuit of knowledge. Little good takes place in the church without a profound and earnest cultivation of the intellectual life. The gospel is the remedy. The cross, not knowledge, must always be our badge of identification. The cross is never intellectually fashionable. You must be growing in humility to preach it, and its proclamation will increase your humility. The offense of the cross is the first casualty of the lust for intellectual respectability. In summary, learn, study, and grow in the knowledge of God, but always scrutinize your motives. Study and learn for the right reasons. Spiritual PrideAnother sin, closely related, is spiritual pride, the secret conceit that, because we are smarter or more intimate with God, we and our church (or denomination), are God’s favorites. This sin seduced me for many years. If the other churches would only obey the Bible like we do, they would enjoy the special relationship with God that we have. Because we have ______, we are God’s favorites. I looked down on other churches. But there was a deep-seated problem: The more spiritual I felt, the more carnal I actually became. Pride is blindness, and to this sin I was oblivious. In his kindness God showed me my error. Over a period of years this sin slowly diminished. For that I am deeply grateful. Here are some symptoms: Looking down on others. To the parents of the blind man that Jesus healed the Pharisees said, “You were born in utter sin and you would teach us?” (John 9:34)? You cannot fellowship with Christians you look down on. Another symptom is control. Spiritual pride tries to control others. It is a first sign of cultic activity. How could someone leave our church for that inferior congregation across town? They will miss out on what God is doing. So, we reject those who leave, or guilt-manipulate them into staying. Publicly, sexual or financial scandals bring most leaders down. Spiritual pride is less obvious, but even more deadly. The difference is that we don’t put up with sexual or financial sin, but we readily put up with spiritual pride. A man can minister for years completely unaware of its presence, and almost no one will remove him from leadership because of it. In fact, by this sin the Devil can effectively weaken a pastor, rendering him completely ineffective. Why? The Devil knows that God resists the proud. He knows that God will resist any Christian leader who doesn’t aggressively pursue humility. Some chemical weapons are odorless and tasteless, but they are still deadly. In the same way, a proud leader may be a man of outward integrity, even attracting others to his “morality,” all the while infecting them with the same “spiritual pride” that has rendered him useless. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” warned Jesus. “For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). As with intellectual pride, it will be very difficult for those not repenting of spiritual pride to help others grow in humility. Selfish AmbitionUnselfish Ambition is good. It is ambition for God’s glory. This was the ambition of John the Baptist. At the height of his popularity and influence he laid down his ministry and reputation, a ministry for which he waited all of his life, and which he had only exercised for six months. “He must become greater,” he said. “I must become less” (John 3:30), and with these eight powerful words John retreated into the background to make room for Jesus. Selfish ambition is a passion energized Satan. Selfish ambition is ambition for my glory/importance/fame/reputation at the expense of God or others. Most of us assume that our ambition is unselfish, but is it really? Here are some signs. Am I happy when someone else gets the promotion at work? Are we pleased when someone else’s church grows faster than ours? Is jealousy a regular problem? Am I happy for another homegroup leader when his doubles in size while mine gets smaller? Am I happy that ______ is getting married even though I am still single? In other words am I like Paul? "Some preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice" (Phil. 1:15-18, emphasis mine).Boasting In GiftsLast, there is always the temptation to be proud of our gifts and strengths. If all else fails the Devil will try to drive us in this direction. We have all watched the athlete pound his chest on the post Super Bowl interview—, “I am the greatest. I am the best. No one can compete with me!” We find this repulsive, and we should. The reason it bothers us is transparent. The athlete is taking personal credit for a gift. His athletic ability is God’s gift. He did not create them or give them to himself. He could have been slow and clumsy. The story of C.H. Spurgeon (1834-92) is a good example of a man who faced this temptation and overcame it. So great were Spurgeon’s oratorical gifts that before he was twenty-one he regularly preached to crowds in excess of 5,000, and he would have preached to more if there had been a London building large enough to hold the throngs. He possessed an amazing intellect and gift of public speaking. To this gift God added spiritual power. Even more amazing was Spurgeon’s constant pursuit of humility. Reflecting back on his youth he wrote, “When I first became a pastor in London, (about age 20) my success appalled me, and the thought of the career which it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depths. Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude? ...It was just then that the curtain was rising upon my life-work, and I dreaded what it might reveal.” Spurgeon constantly credited his success to God and his mercy. He was convinced that his talents were “gifts” given for the edification of the church. Spurgeon continually reminded himself that he did not create himself, nor give himself his talents. Rather his gifts were given to him for the edification of God’s church. Every humble heart possesses this same conviction, prostrated in the dust, sensitized to its accounting, and knowing that it will be according to their gifting. "From everyone who has been given much much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48). "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1). What is your gift? Are you a teacher, preacher, administrator, counselor, musician, pastor? Are you brighter than average? Maybe you relate to people easily? Are you clever? Maybe your gift is in the athletic realm? Maybe you are a good listener. It matters not. When you take credit for your achievements and abilities, or lust for those that belong to another, you act out of pride. Fear God and repent! God humbles the proud but gives grace to the humble. As Matthew Henry observed, “It is God's prerogative to say, I am that I am; it is our privilege to be able to say, “By God's grace we are what we are.” We are nothing but what God makes us, nothing in religion but what his grace makes us. All that is good in us is a stream from this fountain.” Symptoms of HumilityYou love to make those around you successful. Even at your expense. Satan exalted himself at God’s expense. “I will make myself like God,” he said. By contrast, Jesus glorified God the Father at his own expense. He humbled himself by “obeying even unto death, death on a cross.” His end was his Father’s glory. That is why Phil 2:11 ends its description of Christ’s descent, “to the glory of God the Father.” Dave Harvey: “One great measure of our humility is whether we can be ambitious for someone else’s agenda. Not just tolerate and accommodate the goals of those over us, but adopt their vision, promote and pursue their dreams. Our willingness to make others a success is a great measure of the purity of our ambitions.”The will of God is more important than your own willJesus “humbled himself be becoming obedient.” Are you willing to push yourself outside of your comfort zone? Are you willing to pursue what pleases God even if it doesn’t please you? Are you willing to push through depression to do the will of God? Are you willing to make commitments like church membership, marriage, etc. because you know it pleases God? Phil 2:8 Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death.” The desires of others are more important than yours Phil 2:3 “In humility count others more important/significant than yourselves.” Irritability with others is the exact opposite. Judy likes movies all things Jane Austen. Bill like football. When we first got married, Judy liked the beach. Bill liked the Mountains. Judy likes vegetables. Bill like meat. Judy’s favorite movie is Roman Holiday. Bill’s is To End All Wars. You more aware of your own sins than those close to you (spouse, children, roommates, extended family)? 1 Cor. 15:9 “I am the least of the apostles.” Eph. 3:8 “I am the least of the Saints” 1 Tim. 1:15 “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.” Read Matt 7:1-5 You are increasingly patient with the failings of others. 1 Cor. 13:4 “Love is patient. Love is kind.” 1 Cor. 13:5 “Love is not irritable.” The gospel brings you more joy and hope than it did five years ago. You are quicker to forgive than five years ago. Hope for Proud ChristiansEach of us will be able to export humility to the degree that we model it. This applies to Fathers This applies to Mothers Evangelists. CounselorsLeaders of Ministry teams (Children, Technology, Music, Security, C.E., etc.) HomeGroup leadersElders/PastorsAs we mentioned in the beginning of this series, the first sign of pride is the conviction that I am already humble, certainly more humble than most. Pride is spiritual blindness, and the first thing it is blind to is the existence of itselfr. By contrast, the first sign of humility is a growing conviction that I am proud coupled with a growing hatred of that pride. The first sign of humility is the ability to see things as they really are, and the first thing the humble see is their own pride. If this is true, we must all agree that we are fatally flawed with pride. I am sure that most listening to this feel good about their humility. This means we have a problem. Thankfully, God has a glorious solution. It has five aspects, and each terminates in Christ. First, God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to be humbled in our place. Second, at the cross Jesus suffered the wrath that our pride deserves. Third, the example of Christ’s humility motivates the pursuit of humility. Fourth, God delights to help proud believers grow in humility. He does that be sending his HS to illuminate these truths to the eyes of our hearts. John Owen (1616-83) “The man that understands the evil of his own heart, how vile it is, is the only useful, fruitful, and solidly believing and obedient person.” If Owen was right, then humility should be both the aim of seminary training and pastoral apprenticeship. It should be the goal of both teacher and disciple. It should be the goal of every Christian ministry. We will only be able to do that to the degree that we are aggressively pursuing humility. ................
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