Lesson 35

PRIDE AND HUMILITY PT. 2

(Audio Transcript)

Scriptures Cited:
James 4:6-7, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:5-6, Psalm 138:6, Proverbs 11:2, Proverbs 16:18-19, Numbers 12:3, Matthew 11:29, Matthew 18:1-5, Matthew 23:12, Titus 2:11

Good morning, guys. It’s good to be here another Lord’s day – a morning to study again in God’s word, to see what He has to speak to us. And as we do every Sunday, I ask you to engage your minds, engage your spirits with His word and His Spirit, and see if we can grow by what the word of God has to say to us today.

And this week we’re going to actually be doing a continuation of what we started on last week. You could say this is a part 2 of “Pride and Humility”. Last week we focused mainly on the subject of pride, and we looked at the dangers of it and how God looks at pride. And we saw that if you’re lucky, He will just resist you and bring you low to humble you, to put you in a position where you can actually have a correct relationship with Him. But then we also see when pride gets to a certain level, it’s pretty much… God will kind of resist you to the point where it’s almost as if He turns His back on you – or where like we saw in Romans He’ll, turn you over – He can turn you over to your own ways, if you’re that determined to be stuck in those ways.

And so, this week we’re going to look a little bit more on the benefits and the necessities of humility. And we’re going to look at some of those verses that we did look at last week, because these are like two sides of the same coins. So, a lot of times where you see pride, you know (taught about in the scriptures) keep reading – you’ll see the flip side. It’ll give us some information that we need to know about humility and the importance of it.

So, we’re going to start, like I said in a few of the verses that we looked at last week. We’re going to start in the book of James. And we looked at James chapter 4 last week. And what we read last week was James chapter 4 verse 6, and this week we’re going to continue to read a little bit further to see the flip side of that coin. So, in James chapter 4 and in verse 6 it reads:

James 4:6-7
⁶ But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Note: And if we continue to read in verse 7, it says…

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

So, there we can see as we keep reading… and actually, rather than read the whole thing we’re going to jump down to verse 10, where he says:

James 4:10
¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

So, that’s where we get the flip side of that coin; of the benefits of humility and having that humble spirit towards the Lord. We see that it says that He will lift you up. The other interesting thing to note here is that we’re talking about pride and humility and we see the term or the subject of grace being brought up here – that it says in verse 6, He gives ‘grace to the humble’. And we know that in other places in scripture, it tells us clearly: it is by grace that we are saved. So, we need to know who it is that receives that grace – it’s the humble. That’s the person who receives that grace.

And what does it mean to be humble? Well, we can see it in verse 7, it’s by submitting yourself to God. That’s the humility that we need to have; we need to lower our own opinion of ourselves like – I believe last week I read that definition that I found online, of pride being when we exalt our own opinions and thoughts above God’s authoritative word (that’s the pride). And the flip side of that is to submit yourself; that is the humility that we need and that we have to have, in order to have that proper relationship with God.

So, we’re going to continue on here with another one that we looked at last week. Another witness, like this was James – and we’ll go over to Peter. And 1 Peter chapter 5… And we’ll see the same thing taught over again as we see a lot of times – the Lord is kind in that He repeats the important messages over and over to us. I guess, so if we missed it in one place maybe we’ll catch it in the other. So last week we were in 1 Peter chapter 5 when we read verse 5. It says:

1 Peter 5:5
⁵ Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. 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, the exact same things that James said – we see Peter here saying the same thing, and we also see at the beginning of that, “submit yourselves”. We’ll see that tells us – it gives us an idea of what the humility is. It’s in submitting ourselves to God, as we read over in James. If we continue to read into verse 6 now, it says:

1 Peter 5:6
⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

So, there it is – we see it again. The way that we have this humility is to humble ourselves to God. And you could almost say this is like a law that He has in place, where if you do this… God will do this. If you humble yourself, God will lift you up. And we have to really think ultimately… the ultimate lifting up that we want to have is to be lifted up with Him into Heaven. That’s the ultimate ‘lifted up’. And so, we have to humble ourselves though, in order for God to lift us up.

So, what I want to do now, let’s go back into the Old Testament a little bit, and we’ll see that this whole concept and this relationship of pride and humility is not just in the New Testament; it’s obviously in the Old. It’s just something that God established in the beginning. So, if you go in the book of Psalms, we’re going to go to chapter 138. And this is obviously – the Psalms are written by David through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and we’ll see what He has to say in Psalms 138 and in verse 6. 138 and verse 6, the book of Psalms says:

Psalm 138:6
⁶ Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

And so, there’s kind of three different things listed here. We see the Lord, obviously He’s the highest. We saw that last week, where there’s the Old Testament prophecy about the King of Tyre wanting to lift himself above the throne of God… But we see here that it’s the Lord who is on high – He is the highest. And then it says, ‘but He hath respect to the lowly’. I think some newer translations might say ‘the humble’ there. ‘But the proud He knoweth afar off’. So, it’s not that He doesn’t know them – He knows the proud, but He keeps them at a distance. He knows them from a distance, but it’s the lowly and the meek that He has respect, or He.. I think some of the translations say He even honors them. Similar to what we saw in the New Testament.

So now, let’s flip over to the book of Proverbs right next door here. Proverbs chapter 11, and we’ll see… you know, we know all of the wisdom in the book of Proverbs. And there’s a lot that we could look at as far as pride and humility in the book of Proverbs. And we’ll just look at a couple places here. Proverbs chapter 11 and in verse 2, it reads:

Proverbs 11:2
² When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

So, we see that same coin… flip sides of the same coin. Shame comes from pride. And it’s the type of shame that the Lord will deliver to you – the spiritual shame. You know, when circumstances – you can’t figure out why things aren’t going a certain way… and it might be because of your position towards the Lord. If you’re coming to Him pridefully, that shame that’ll come sometimes, it’s to bring you to that lowly position so that you will approach Him from a place of humility. And then it says, though, with the lowly or the meek, or the humble – is wisdom.

And a few weeks ago we did the whole lesson on wisdom and the importance of wisdom being the ability to – once you know the difference between right and wrong – wisdom being: just do what’s right. So with the meek or the lowly, they have wisdom. They just do the right thing; they don’t ‘haught’ their own opinion up in opposition to God. They submit themselves and do the right thing, which is wisdom.

So, we’re going to stay here in the book of Proverbs and go over to chapter 16 and verse 18. This is one of the ones that we read last week when we were talking about Pride. We’re in verse 18, it says:

Proverbs 16:18-19
¹⁸ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Note: So we see that, and we know that it’s very straight forward and plainly stated. But if we continue to read into verse 19, it says…

¹⁹ Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

So we see it there again, this principle of pride and humility; the dangers of pride and the benefits of being humble. And what that does for us in our relationship with God is throughout the Old Testament and the New. It’s taught in both.

And what I want to do now is, I guess look at 2 examples of I guess we would say ‘humble’ individuals in the Bible. And the first one is going to be Moses. And if we go to the book of Numbers and in chapter 12 – it’s interesting because it’s Numbers 1-2-3. But it’s Numbers chapter 12 and in verse 3. We’ll read something about Moses that I think maybe gets looked over a little bit, because most of the things we read about Moses is in Exodus, Deuteronomy, we read a lot there – but here in Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 we’ll see just a little commentary inserted about Moses. And this is when Aaron and Miriam were having complaints about Moses’ wife. They were bringing accusations and things like that because they didn’t approve of His wife. But in verse 3 we’ll see that God has this commentary inserted about Moses. And it says:

Numbers 12:3
³ (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

So now when we think about Moses and what God used Him for – it was to deliver His people. We know that was the foreshadowing. And the person that God chose to do that job, to go into Pharaoh and stand in front of Pharaoh and proclaim ‘Let my people go’ – God chose the meekest man on the whole earth to do that. And then we think about years later with the children of Israel, when they would look back at how much pride they took in Moses, you know… ‘We have Moses’, they would say ‘We have Abraham’. You know, this meek and lowly man was spoken of for generations and generations, and generations. So, it’s just another example of God taking the meek person and lifting Him up. And this person here, He lifted Him up and made Him a deliverer.

And we know that there’s always those connections between Moses and Jesus, because God said to Moses ‘I will lift up a prophet like you unto the people’. So, if there was going to be a prophet that came along like Moses, I guess we would expect Him to have some of the same characteristics. So, if we look over in the book of Matthew (we’re going over to the New Testament now)… in Matthew chapter 11, we’ll see another one of these parallels between Moses and Jesus – both being the deliverer, both being the person who God chose for that job. And in Matthew chapter 11 verse 29, this is Jesus speaking. He says:

Matthew 11:29
²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

So, there we see Jesus Himself out of His own mouth. He’s saying ‘when you come to learn of me and if you’re going to follow me..’ He says ‘I am meek and lowly in heart’ (He, obviously being our ultimate example). And if He is meek and lowly in heart, then we definitely should be. And we saw that actually taking place – probably most exemplified when He was in the garden praying. And He didn’t necessarily want to go through what He was going to have to go through. But He humbled Himself and submitted Himself to the will of God. And He said ‘nevertheless, not my will but your will be done’. And that’s the ultimate example of humility.

So, with those two examples of characters or individuals in the Bible who are humble, let’s look at a little bit of the teaching that Jesus had. Let’s go to Matthew chapter 18. We’re going to stay here in Matthew, and see if Jesus taught on this subject of being humble and the importance of it. In Matthew chapter 18 – actually, I’ll just go ahead and start at the beginning of the chapter. Matthew chapter 18 verse 1 says:

Matthew 18:1-5
¹ At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

² And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, ³ And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
⁵ And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

So, there we see Jesus even giving us a little bit more on this type of humility we must have. And it says this is the humility we must have in order to enter into the Kingdom. It’s the humility of a little child. We’ll go one other place to see Jesus teaching on this topic or subject of humility in Matthew chapter 23. This will be the last place we’re going to go to in the scriptures here today (well maybe). Matthew chapter 23 and verse 12. Just like we saw it in the Old Testament in Psalms and Proverbs, we saw it in the epistles with James and Peter. Here we see Jesus Himself in Matthew chapter 23 verse 12, speaking:

Matthew 23:12
¹² And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

So, we see it – this whole idea throughout scripture, the importance of maintaining a humble spirit in ourselves, and especially in our relationship with God. And so, that leads me to – I guess today we’re going to have one of those ‘not quite parables’. And it’s a not-quite parable today that’s actually based on an allegory that maybe you guys have heard of. It’s the allegory of the ‘Blind Men and the Elephant’. I don’t know if anyone’s familiar with that allegory, but basically the allegory says that there’s an elephant (I’m going to paraphrase it a little bit):

There is an elephant in a room. And there’s these six men, and they’re considered wise men actually, and they’re all blind – that go into see if they can tell what this elephant is when they encounter this elephant. And them being blind, one goes in and he touches the tusk and he says ‘Oh it’s a spear’. And another one goes in and touches the side of the elephant and says ‘No, it’s a wall.’ And another one grabs the leg and says ‘No, it’s obviously a tree trunk’. And then there’s another one that grabs the tail and says ‘No, it’s a rope’. And one grabs the trunk and says ‘No, it’s a snake’. So they all have this different perception of what this thing is.

And then there comes a blind man and the person who is letting him in the room and asks him ‘Do you think you can go in there and tell us what’s in this room?’ And this blind man, using wisdom and being humble says ‘No, I could never tell you what that is unless someone show me – unless someone tells me.’ And then the person who has sight letting him in the room tells him ‘it’s an elephant’. So now, when he goes into the room and touches the side of it, he says ‘It’s an elephant’. When he touches the tusk, he says ‘It’s an elephant’. When he grabs the leg, he says ‘It’s an elephant’. It’s because he humbled himself to the person who was allowing him access to this elephant and just said ‘Unless you show me, I won’t know’.

And that’s the way that we really need to approach God. We really need to humble ourselves and not think that we can figure it out – we are like blind people down here. Like it says, His ways are so much higher than our ways. Unless we humble ourselves to Him, and ask Him to show us what He has for us, we’ll be just like those blind men guessing from the little bit that we can grasp of God. We’ll be guessing, as opposed to coming to him humbly and letting Him tell us what it is.

So, hopefully that parable helps us to see the importance of humility, and to humble ourselves before God. I think I’ll leave it there today, and extend the invitation for anyone who still hasn’t humbled themselves to the authoritative word of God and what He has said that we must do in order to be saved. You know, we notice here with all of the teachings on humility how grace was brought up there. And as I was getting this together and that one verse popped up in the end of Titus, I believe it’s chapter 2 and verse 11 where it says ‘the grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men.’ And then the next thing it says is ‘…teaching us to observe these things’. And so when we think about that grace that brings salvation, we’ve got to remember that what that grace does is, it teaches us – but we have to be taught. If we’re not humble, we’ll be prideful and we won’t receive that grace and the things that that grace is teaching.

So with that, if there’s anyone that has any need today – if there’s anyone that would like to obey the gospel and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ according to the scripture, you have that opportunity to do so, as together we stand and sing.