Standard For Humility

He gave himself John 6. He was hated without a cause, John 15. He was homeless, Matthew 8. Persecuted John 15. Betrayed, Matthew 26. He was condemned, Matthew 20 tells us. Again it tells us he was delivered up. In Luke 18 it says he was despised. In John 12 he was lifted on a cross. In Mark 10 it says he was mocked. In Luke 22 he was numbered with the criminals, and Matthew 16 says he was killed. He was he was God, and even though you’re something in God’s eyes, and even though you are a marvel of marvels, by grace redemptively you still walk humble.

Listen to this, Psalm 138.6. Listen this is great. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. Isn’t that good? Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. God make us humble. O God, preserve me and you from ever exalting ourselves in our own mind, thinking we’ve succeeded were big time, and everybody below us is to be looked down on. Paul knew this kind of humility. He said in Acts 2019 that we serve the Lord with all humility of mind, with all humility of mind, with many tears and trials, by the plotting of the Jews.

He says we serve the Lord with humility. Listen, if you don’t have a servant’s heart, you’ll never walk worthy. You’re a servant. As we’ve seen in 1 Corinthians 4, in our study, you’re a third-level galley slave, a huperedes, nothing more than an under rower on a ship. You have no significance other than you make a contribution to the place you’re going to. And as a Christian, all you have is a contribution by virtue of your effort to make to the goal that God is attaining, and that is his own glory. Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God.

He said, I was a blasphemer and a persecutor, but God counted me faithful in that he put me into the ministry. I who am the chief of what? Sinners. He knew what it was to suffer. It is said that when the story of West India’s slavery was told to the Moravians, it was told that it was impossible to reach the slave population of the West Indies, because they were separated from the ruling classes. And you, you just, they were just outcasts, and you couldn’t reach them. Well, a biographer says two Moravian missionaries offered themselves and said we will go and be slaves on the plantations, and we’ll work as slaves, and we’ll toil as slaves.

If need be, we’ll take the lash to get beside the slaves and teach them more Christ. And these two missionaries left their homes, went to the West Indies, went to work on the plantations as slaves, and by the side of other slaves, they were close to the hearts of those slaves. And the slave heard them, and their hearts were touched because they had received them humbled in their own condition. It was glorious. And yet, Christ’s example was infinitely greater than that, wasn’t it? He humbled himself and became one of us.

He encircled us in the embrace of his loving arms. He drew us into his own fellowship who were slaves of sin. You know, the Bible gives us some great examples of humility. I think of John the Baptist. You know what Jesus said about him in John, in Matthew 11, 11. He was the greatest man that ever lived. Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. The greatest man who ever lived. Now certainly he should have been the recipient of some award. The greatest man who ever lived award.

Maybe we could have it, the Matthew 11, 11 award. Well, he said, he must increase, and I must, what? Decrease. He said, he is the word, I’m just the voice, and the latchet of his shoe I’m not worthy to unloose. Mary, how humble was Mary, the sister of Martha. We see her three times sitting at the feet of Jesus, and you get the picture that Martha was busy trying to put on a real hot deal, a great meal. So everybody would say, Martha, you’ve done it again. Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you’ve got the wrong priority.

Pride can manifest itself in that way. I think of the writers of the Gospels. I was thinking about that this week in this regard. Have you ever noticed how the writers of the Gospel record could have said, and then of course I was there with Jesus, and really play themselves up. But you know, there’s almost a beautiful hiding of themselves in their Gospels. For example, Matthew. When Matthew introduces himself in his Gospel, he’s the only one that says, Matthew, the publican. He plays up the despised character that he was, and he makes no mention of himself, having made a tremendous feast and invited all of his friends to come and meet Jesus.

He put on a big evangelistic feast when he was going to go and follow Jesus, but he never mentions it. Luke writes about that. Matthew never writes about that. Matthew isn’t going to say anything about the things he’s done. And then Mark, Mark wrote no doubt under the tutelage of Peter. Mark reflects Peter’s perspective, and it’s always been interesting to me that Mark does not include two of the greatest things that ever happened to Peter. Number one, the walking on the water. And number two, the incident about, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and I give unto you the keys to the kingdom and all of this.

Those are absent from Mark, but you know what’s present in Mark? Peter’s rebuke, Peter’s fall. See? And I think of John. John, who writes a 21 chapter Gospel, and never one single time mentions his name. Humility. Humility. Gothri has written, the grandest edifices, the tallest towers, the loftiest spires, rest upon deep foundations. The very safety of eminent gifts and preeminent graces lies in their association with deep humility. They were dangerous without it. Great men do need to be good men. Look at the mighty ship, he says. A leviathan of the sea, with her towering masts and carrying a cloud of canvas, how she steadies herself on the waves, and walks erect upon the rolling waters, like a thing of inherent self-regulating life.

When the corn is waving and trees are bending, and foaming billows roll before the blast and break in thunders on the beach, why is she not flung on her beams end, sent down foundering into the deep? Why, because unseen, beneath the surface, a vast, well-ballast hull gives her balance, and takes hold of the water, keeps her steady under a press of sail, and on the bosom of a swelling sea. Even so, he says, to preserve the saint upright, to preserve the saint erect, and safe from falling, God gives him balance and ballast, bestowing on the man to whom he has given lofty endowments the attendant grace of a proportionate humility.

End quote. He’s right. And what is humility? Let me close with this. What is it? You say, I know it’s right, John. What is it? I’m going to give you three things. First of all, self-awareness. First of all, humility begins with self-awareness. So important, Bernard said, quote, the virtue by which a man becomes conscious of his own unworthiness. Humility starts with really looking at yourself honestly. And you know what I believe that involves, people? Daily, now market, daily, every day of your life, an open, honest, confession of sin before God. You can mask who you really are.

You can play games and convince yourself that you’re something wonderful and never be honest with yourself. But we are the ones, 1 John 1.9 says, that are constantly confessing our sins. We are like Paul, who said, I am the chief of sinners. We, who never obtain but press toward the mark but never get there, must realize it. Whenever you’re tempted to be proud, remember who you are. You haven’t arrived. Don’t kid yourself. You’re not there. You haven’t done it all. You haven’t fulfilled it. Proper self-awareness. And you know what the problem gets to be every time.

You know when we get all fouled up about who we really are, when we compare ourselves with other people, because we can always find people worse than us. Do you know that? Well, I’m not so bad. Look at him. I used to use that on my mom. She was always concerned about my grades in school. I’d come home with a C and she’d say, Johnny, you should not get a C. You did not put out your best effort. Why did you get a C? And I will. Mom, 10 kids got a D.

See? That’s typical. You see, there’s always a lower standard. You can always find one. You know? And it goes on in the home too. Your wife’s giving you, you know, nagging you a little bit about something. And you say, well, you know, if you don’t like it, go marry the drunk next door and see how you like that. You can always find her. You can always find something worse than you. You know, you can think you’re the greatest pianist until you have to play a concert with Rubenstein. Or you can think you’re a great golfer until you’re asked to tee off with Jack Nicholas.

Or you’ve done a great job in painting. Isn’t it wonderful how well you painted the living room until you stand beside Rembrandt? We can always find somebody to make you look good. And that’s the problem. You know what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to deal with yourself honestly before God. Second Corinthians 10 gives you the principle in verse 12. Paul says, listen, we dare not, listen now, we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. Say boy, aren’t we wonderful? You know, boy, they commend themselves.

They are the number who commend themselves. And you know how they do it? They measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves. You see, they use their own self-made criteria to evaluate what they are. And they’re never really honest. Humility is taking off the rose-colored glasses of self-love and seeing that you’re nothing but an unworthy sinner. That’s humility. That’s where it starts. And these false apostles, in Second Corinthians 10, these false apostles were coming into town and saying, we got the greatest truth. We’re the new breed. Listen to us.

We’re the big heroes. They were even apparently calling themselves super apostles. They were the big shots. And Paul says, well, they compare themselves with themselves. That’s why they think they’re so great. They got the wrong standard. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the standard for humility. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].