SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Apostle James punctuates a long, long line of biblical truth when he writes, Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
SPEAKER_01: He says that just after quoting Proverbs 3.34, where the Proverb writes, Towards the scorners or the proud, he that is God is scornful.
SPEAKER_01: To the humble, he gives favor.
SPEAKER_01: Another Proverb, chapter 29, 23, confirms this basic reality.
SPEAKER_01: One's pride will bring him low.
SPEAKER_01: But he who is lowly or humble in spirit will obtain honor.
SPEAKER_01: This line of biblical truth continues through the psalmist who sang of this truth about God in 138, verse 6, for though the Lord is high, he regards the low.
SPEAKER_01: That is the humble.
SPEAKER_01: But the haughty or proud, he knows from afar.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist's father picks up this theme in Luke chapter 1, verse 52, when Zechariah prophesies, he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, our Lord taught this truth as well, for after all, it's his truth.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
SPEAKER_01: Was also the lesson of that great parable Christ told to those who trusted him themselves that they were righteous.
SPEAKER_01: As the tax collector cries for mercy to God, he goes down to his house justified.
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisee who boasts of his deeds does not.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
SPEAKER_01: That's why James writes, humble yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Now in a command.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, these are gospel words.
SPEAKER_01: They really are.
SPEAKER_01: For what is repentance and faith but the humbling of one's pride and unbelief?
SPEAKER_01: We just sang it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna mess it up.
SPEAKER_01: Let me grab my music.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have chords as much as I normally do.
SPEAKER_01: We just sang it, right?
SPEAKER_01: But as I ran my hellbound race and different to the cost, you looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So we can describe salvation this way I beheld God's love displayed.
SPEAKER_01: You suffered in my place, you bore the wrath reserved for me, and now all I know is grace.
SPEAKER_01: That is to say, look upon Christ crucified, look at Jesus hanging on the tree, see how much he loves you, see how your sins are pinned to the cross through his hands and feet, and it will humble you.
SPEAKER_01: 407 years or so ago, Richard Baxter wrote, Can pride look a crucified Savior in the face?
SPEAKER_01: Of course not.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard it said, there's no room for arrogance at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're humbled like that, Scripture says that your God loves to bend his knee and lift the chins of little children thus humbled by his love.
SPEAKER_01: Look them in the eyes, and full forgiveness meets their gaze and honors them, exalts them with his face shining upon them.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, this is a gospel promise.
SPEAKER_01: It might even be, if I speak a little hyperbolically, it might even be the gospel promise.
SPEAKER_01: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That is last week's slide, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: My sermon title for this morning is Walking Humbly with Our God.
SPEAKER_01: What of humility?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that simple after all?
SPEAKER_01: Did you turn with me to the book of Colossians?
SPEAKER_01: Book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: If you were here last week, you observed my attempt, as the slide shows, to open up the entire letter of Colossians before you.
SPEAKER_01: We saw how Christ is all and above all things.
SPEAKER_01: For by him all things were created through him and for him, and by his blood all things were reconciled to him, that includes all of you.
SPEAKER_01: He's the firstborn heir of the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: We saw Paul's concern in communicating this to the Colossians that he wanted to shore up their fortifications against false teaching, calling them back to walk in Christ Jesus just as they received him by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Rooted in and built up in Christ, established in the faith, just as they were taught, abounding in thanksgiving, putting off the body of the flesh as they did at first, and putting on Christ's likeness, as Scott led us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: The Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: The Colossians were being renewed in knowledge after the image of their Creator, who is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But seeing the forest from the window of an airplane, as we did last week, I'm sure it will come to no surprise to you that I missed some things.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get it all.
SPEAKER_01: And one peculiar curiosity has bothered me in this epistle for months now.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 3, verse 12, Paul writes, Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
SPEAKER_01: And this verse, Paul uses a Greek word for humility that's only used seven times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: There are several words for humility, but this one, which means something more like humble-minded or lowliness of mind, this one's only used seven times in the whole New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Once in Acts, once in Ephesians, excuse me, once in Philippians, and it is that time, once in 1 Peter, and then three times here in Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: Three times.
SPEAKER_01: Which is odd, because the English Standard Bible, the New American Standard Bible, and most of your Bibles, only have humility in there once.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think, I wonder if the guys are scrambling frantically for my slides.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have them?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: That's on me, friends.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have to talk through it instead of me showing you.
SPEAKER_01: You ready?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism.
SPEAKER_01: The New American says self-abasement.
SPEAKER_01: The NIV says false humility.
SPEAKER_01: That word right there for asceticism.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same exact word.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word for humble-mindedness.
SPEAKER_01: And again, in verse 23 of chapter 2, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and humility.
SPEAKER_01: Humility.
SPEAKER_01: Asceticism, self-abasement, maybe false humility if you have the New America, New International Version.
SPEAKER_01: They have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism.
SPEAKER_01: But that word's the same word.
SPEAKER_01: It's even how Paul describes his service among the Ephesians in Acts chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I serve the Lord with all humility.
SPEAKER_01: This is the humility in which the Philippians are to count others more significant than themselves.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 2, verse 3, it eventually points to Jesus there, right?
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 5, all of us, all of you are commanded to clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same word.
SPEAKER_01: But here in Colossians, on the one hand, Paul condemns people who insist upon humility.
SPEAKER_01: And then he turns around and in chapter 3, he himself insists on humility, does he not?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 12, right?
SPEAKER_01: Put on then humility.
SPEAKER_01: Now what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: I think if we take Scripture at its word, we have to conclude.
SPEAKER_01: And a kind of humility that makes a mockery of him.
SPEAKER_01: Or, as I've titled my first point, a wretched humility.
SPEAKER_01: There must be two kinds of humility, at least in Paul's mind here in Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: A wretched humility, and as we'll see later, a glorious humility.
SPEAKER_01: But chapter 2, verse 18, again, let's dive into it.
SPEAKER_01: We find this wretched humility, this asceticism that Paul says in the ESV ought not to be insisted upon.
SPEAKER_01: The CSV actually translates it as delighting in instead of insisting on.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's better.
SPEAKER_01: It's a much better translation.
SPEAKER_01: It reads like this Let no one condemn you by delighting in humility and the worship of angels.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Paul is not warning the Colossians about judgmental people.
SPEAKER_01: He's already done that in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: This is something different.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing something different.
SPEAKER_01: Here he warns them concerning their own behavior.
SPEAKER_01: The Colossians were at risk of disqualification, of delighting, delighting in humility in the worship of angels.
SPEAKER_01: Like an athlete who cheats to win the prize.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of wretched humility, whatever it is, this kind of wretched humility disqualifies.
SPEAKER_01: And the victory no longer counts.
SPEAKER_01: So what then does the worship of angels have to do with it?
SPEAKER_01: The worship of angels, right?
SPEAKER_01: And delighting in humility and worship of angels.
SPEAKER_01: It seems likely that this phrase, the worship of angels, is about a kind of broken Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: A broken Judaism that had decided the humble thing to do was to worship the angels also.
SPEAKER_01: So the humble thing to do is just worship the angels also.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that also is important.
SPEAKER_01: I'm stressing it on purpose because throughout Israel's history, throughout Israel's history, when we see them go after other gods, Baal, Asherah, Molech, you name it, they didn't forsake the worship of Yahweh completely or necessarily.
SPEAKER_01: They just supplemented it, right?
SPEAKER_01: They just added something else.
SPEAKER_01: And that's no good.
SPEAKER_01: That's no good.
SPEAKER_01: As Pastor Anton read for us in Deuteronomy chapter 6, before the nation even entered the promised land, Moses told them, It is the Lord your God you shall fear.
SPEAKER_01: Him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God.
SPEAKER_01: Lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's chapter 6, verse 13 and 15.
SPEAKER_01: And so here in Colossians we have this false sort of worship, this idolatrous worship of angels that's according to human traditions.
SPEAKER_01: They made it up.
SPEAKER_01: And they it presented itself as humble-minded.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul says, in effect, don't be so humble that you go after other gods and disqualify yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And that would be condemning, right?
SPEAKER_01: Would it not?
SPEAKER_01: It would be a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Our joy in Christ would be robbed.
SPEAKER_01: We'd mess it all up if we went after other gods.
SPEAKER_01: And it might even indicate that you're not holding fast to the head at all, and maybe you don't really know the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's that sharp.
SPEAKER_01: Language is that sharp.
SPEAKER_01: So don't be so humble, so nice, so kind, that you go after other gods too.
SPEAKER_01: We feel this pressure all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It feels a little distant from us in this worship of angels thing, but we hear these things.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be so boastful as to think that your way to God is the only way.
SPEAKER_01: People don't like that we say Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, right?
SPEAKER_01: Country artist Zach Brown band sings, now you know me.
SPEAKER_01: He sings, Jesus preached the golden rule.
SPEAKER_01: Buddha taught it too.
SPEAKER_01: Gandhi said, eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.
SPEAKER_01: So with a little understanding, a little humbleness of mind, right?
SPEAKER_01: With a little understanding, we can break these chains that we've been handed.
SPEAKER_01: I've got the remedy, says Zach Brown.
SPEAKER_01: He's figured it out.
SPEAKER_01: I've got the remedy, the medication.
SPEAKER_01: Love is the remedy.
SPEAKER_01: Just humble yourselves a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Or my favorite, just live your truth.
SPEAKER_01: Let other people live their truths.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this stuff, it might be politically advantageous for a governmental system, but that's about as far as that stuff goes.
SPEAKER_01: Because, my friends, there is but one God.
SPEAKER_01: The eternally uncreated one, right?
SPEAKER_01: In chapter one, the firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: The preeminent one.
SPEAKER_01: There's only one God.
SPEAKER_01: He is who he is.
SPEAKER_01: He does not share his glory.
SPEAKER_01: He is a jealous God and a consuming fire.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he shared his glory, the whole world would fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Again, back in chapter one, it's God in Christ who holds everything together.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, sharing his glory with other gods is the very temptation that your Lord faced in the wilderness, or at least in part.
SPEAKER_01: Satan offered Jesus the whole world without the cross to share the glory with Satan.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe just give all of it to him.
SPEAKER_01: It'd start there.
SPEAKER_01: He'd grab for more, right?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Little Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: Dividing your worship between God and anything else.
SPEAKER_01: It's bad news.
SPEAKER_01: God sends people into exile over that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: But now, on to humility, which is connected with humiliation, right?
SPEAKER_01: The humble are the humiliated.
SPEAKER_01: So then when somebody says they've humbled themselves, the effect is that they've humiliated themselves.
SPEAKER_01: We don't usually put these two words together because we don't like it.
SPEAKER_01: We're kind of independent people, right?
SPEAKER_01: But they go together.
SPEAKER_01: Humility has more letters in common with humiliation than humble.
SPEAKER_01: They're the same.
SPEAKER_01: They go together.
SPEAKER_01: We often separate them, and I understand why, but the people of the Old Testament did not.
SPEAKER_01: Did not, hardly at all like we did.
SPEAKER_01: When Ezra and the people of Israel up with him went up from Babylonia into back to the promised land in chapter 8, Ezra says, Then I proclaimed a fast there before they set out, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God.
SPEAKER_01: Fasting was this expression of self-humiliation, a way to communicate, perhaps, that God was so much higher than them, that they would wait upon his word, at the ready, ready for his instruction, so faithfully attentive to the Lord that they would stand ready apart from their food.
SPEAKER_01: They'd stand there through lunch, were waiting upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine a faithful servant so submissive, he doesn't eat unless his leader, his master, or his God gives him leave.
SPEAKER_01: That's one part, maybe in a larger part than we usually give it credit, of the picture of fasting.
SPEAKER_01: Or another, Judges chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: The Philistines came up to Delilah and said to her, Seduce Samson and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him.
SPEAKER_01: Bind him to humble him.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll give you 1100 pieces of silver.
SPEAKER_01: Samson was surely brought low by the Philistines, was he not?
SPEAKER_01: A humiliated man.
SPEAKER_01: His head shaved, his eyes plucked out.
SPEAKER_01: What about falling prostrate with one's face to the ground, a posture of such weakness that it leaves one defenseless and at another's mercy?
SPEAKER_01: That's how Joseph's brothers humbled themselves when they returned to Egypt with Benjamin, fearful of death because they thought they'd accidentally stolen from Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: They humbled themselves, they fell on their faces, they were as low as the dirt before you.
SPEAKER_01: But all of these things, all of these things, to borrow a phrase, are just an outward expression of an inward reality.
SPEAKER_01: These are ways to say I'm humble by humiliating oneself.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Physical humiliation in these kind of ways is meant to point to a humility of the mind.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Paul's after here.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he uses the specific word, humble-mindedness.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's not necessarily the acts of humiliation that Paul's after.
SPEAKER_01: He really is after this posture of the mind in the worship of angels.
SPEAKER_01: Or at least with and the worship of angels.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is then a genuine, an inward, a true sense of humility of mind.
SPEAKER_01: That's wretched, it's idolatrous, miserable, pathetic, even.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to show you an extended example.
SPEAKER_01: Would you turn with me to the book of 1 Samuel?
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Book of 1 Samuel in chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Israel here at this point in the in the story has asked the Lord for a king.
SPEAKER_01: Samuel the prophet grows old.
SPEAKER_01: We'll begin in verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Samuel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, tomorrow about this time, I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I've seen my people because their cry has come to me.
SPEAKER_01: What a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_01: But when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, Here is the man of whom I spoke to you.
SPEAKER_01: He it is who shall restrain my people.
SPEAKER_01: Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, where is the house of the seer?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer.
SPEAKER_01: Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and tell you all that is on your mind.
SPEAKER_01: As for your donkeys that were lost two days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they've been found.
SPEAKER_01: And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel?
SPEAKER_01: For whom is that?
SPEAKER_01: Is it not for you and for all your father's house?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, all of Israel's good things are yours already.
SPEAKER_01: Saul, you're gonna be the king.
SPEAKER_01: All of it's for you.
SPEAKER_01: So don't worry about some donkeys.
SPEAKER_01: We'll take care of that.
SPEAKER_01: And Saul answers.
SPEAKER_01: Saul answers.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Am I not a Benjamite?
SPEAKER_01: From the least of the tribes of Israel?
SPEAKER_01: And is not my clan the humblest?
SPEAKER_01: There it is, right?
SPEAKER_01: The humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: Why have you spoken to me in this way?
SPEAKER_01: After his anointed king, Saul's, of course, too humble to accept the position, right?
SPEAKER_01: He hides in the baggage, his nation, his country.
SPEAKER_01: They call him to the highest and most noble forms of service, not just his nation, but his God.
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about God and country?
SPEAKER_01: God and country have called Saul by the casting of the lots and the word of the prophets to his duty.
SPEAKER_01: And he hides in the baggage.
SPEAKER_01: He's just, he's, this is a humble man.
SPEAKER_01: But is it really humble to hide from God?
SPEAKER_01: Then Saul goes up to fight the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to chapter 13.
SPEAKER_01: Goes up to fight the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 13, verse 8, he sins a little bit through there, right?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, verse 9, he sins grievously, for he does not offer the right sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: But instead, Saul offers an unlawful sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want the Lord to fail to save his neck.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, all of Israel's neck, but Saul's neck most of all, because he doesn't want the Lord to not come through because Samuel was late and didn't offer the sacrifices in time.
SPEAKER_01: And so he does what he has to do.
SPEAKER_01: But notice, notice how quickly this man who defies God in disobedience humbles himself when Samuel arrives.
SPEAKER_01: You can almost hear him stammer in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: I saw that the people were scattering, and I said to myself that this is going very badly, very badly indeed, and goodness me.
SPEAKER_01: Being a little hyperbolic, but you get the point.
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't sought the favor of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I offered, no, I forced myself.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to do it, Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: Oh buddy, but I did.
SPEAKER_01: I forced myself to do the humble thing and offer the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Samuel's not impressed by this show, and frankly, neither is the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom will not remain with Saul's house forever.
SPEAKER_01: You see this fake humility?
SPEAKER_01: Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This real humility?
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: Turn to chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: Saul neglects, neglects to obey, he disobeys, rather, the command of the Lord in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: God tells him to strike down the Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have.
SPEAKER_01: But Saul keeps Agag their king alive, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: As well as the best of the sheep and of the oxen, fine, the fattened calves too, and oh the lambs, sure, but just the nice ones, just the night, just the nice ones.
SPEAKER_01: The rest will devote to destruction.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord sends Samuel to the scene, and hear the humility in Saul's words, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Saul says, I performed the commandment of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I did it.
SPEAKER_01: And then Samuel asks after the bleeding of the sheep in his ears and the lowing of the oxen.
SPEAKER_01: And Saul says in verse 15, Oh, that, that was the people, but I did the rest of it the right way.
SPEAKER_01: And then Samuel said to Saul, verse 16, Stop! Enough.
SPEAKER_01: I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.
SPEAKER_01: And he asked, Why did you not obey the voice of the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 20, Saul turns on the people.
SPEAKER_01: He doubles down and he hides behind the people he's supposed to protect.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I've obeyed the voice of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I've gone on the mission.
SPEAKER_01: It was the people.
SPEAKER_01: And then, yeah, there it is, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: But the people took of the spoil.
SPEAKER_01: It was the people, Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: And so Samuel prophesies against Saul, concluding, Because you've rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king.
SPEAKER_01: And Saul confesses.
SPEAKER_01: Saul owns up, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: And frankly, apart from Saul's track record, it looks pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: It looks like a good and honest and true confession in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
SPEAKER_01: He gets deep.
SPEAKER_01: He gets underneath the surface of his sin, right?
SPEAKER_01: He feared the people and obeyed, huh?
SPEAKER_01: But then verse 25 starts to feel just a little funny.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, he says that.
SPEAKER_01: Says that in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me.
SPEAKER_01: It's like this that's settled.
SPEAKER_01: Got that taken care of.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just move on.
SPEAKER_01: Huh, Sam?
SPEAKER_01: Can we just go back to like it was before?
SPEAKER_01: And Samuel says no.
SPEAKER_01: He turns to leave, but Saul's lost it.
SPEAKER_01: It's over in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And the king of Israel raised his hand against the prophet of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: From his knees, he seized the skirt of Samuel's robe to force the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: His robe tore.
SPEAKER_01: And so the kingdom was torn from Saul.
SPEAKER_01: It's really over.
SPEAKER_01: Or is it?
SPEAKER_01: Notice in verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: After all of that, what's Saul's biggest concern?
SPEAKER_01: What's Saul most worried about?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: Yet honor me now before the elders of my people.
SPEAKER_01: What a wretched picture of humility this is.
SPEAKER_01: Saul, frankly, he does all the right things.
SPEAKER_01: He confesses, he repents, he baldly acknowledges his sin.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, time and time again, Saul makes it clear his heart is not humble toward the Lord his God.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is humble toward the people for fear of the people.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is not humble toward the Lord his God.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is humble towards his own throne.
SPEAKER_01: He's humble towards Samuel and the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He'll humiliate himself if it helps him keep his position, if it helps him hold on to the nation.
SPEAKER_01: Because I think, you guys, I think Saul is most humble towards himself.
SPEAKER_01: Towards himself.
SPEAKER_01: And simply groveling and abasing oneself for the fear of the consequences of your sin, like losing the kingdom or ruining your marriage, or flunking out of school, falling on your knees, squeezing out great tears.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a humility that pleases God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a humility that pleases you.
SPEAKER_01: A humility, to return to Colossians in our mind, that's a humility according to human traditions.
SPEAKER_01: Your traditions.
SPEAKER_01: Making ready confession of your faults and weaknesses, being the first to tell people about your shortcomings because you hope they'll forgive you and forget about it and pretend like it never happened, like Saul, who let just a bit more slip out each time Samuel challenged him.
SPEAKER_01: And then when he finally fessed up, it was like Saul thought Samuel owed him his restoration.
SPEAKER_01: That's, friends, that's not a humility that pleases the Lord, no.
SPEAKER_01: Humility that uses people like that.
SPEAKER_01: That's it's not God's way.
SPEAKER_01: It's not God's way, or merely bewailing your own sinfulness at the horror and the terror that you're more sinful than you realized you were.
SPEAKER_01: That also does not please God.
SPEAKER_01: That's all Judas did.
SPEAKER_01: That's all Judas did when he threw the silver back into the temple and fled to the field to mourn the ruin that he'd made of his life.
SPEAKER_01: What have I done?
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe I said that.
SPEAKER_01: How could I ever think that about my friend?
SPEAKER_01: All three of those are about you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Saul's self-made humility, our self-made humility leads nowhere good.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that Saul's wretchedness, maybe, led him to the same end as Judas.
SPEAKER_01: When Saul realized all of his pride and all of his foolishness was coming down on his head.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wretched, a miserable humility.
SPEAKER_01: Turn back to Colossians chapter 2 with me.
SPEAKER_01: What's really going on?
SPEAKER_01: What's really going on with this wretched humility?
SPEAKER_01: It's a real humility, alright?
SPEAKER_01: It's genuine self-abasement, it's a sincere lowliness of mind.
SPEAKER_01: But dear friends, it's a humility before the wrong things.
SPEAKER_01: It's a humility before idols crafted with your own ingenuity or your own hands.
SPEAKER_01: The Colossian church was facing pressure to be more humble-minded.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think you have it all figured out, those false teachers said.
SPEAKER_01: The angels surely know better than we do.
SPEAKER_01: These angels, they surely know better than we do.
SPEAKER_01: They pushed them.
SPEAKER_01: False teachers pushed the Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on.
SPEAKER_01: Be more humble.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think so much of yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Join us.
SPEAKER_01: Come.
SPEAKER_01: You're no better than we are, right?
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel that social pressure?
SPEAKER_01: Saul did.
SPEAKER_01: He feared the people.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think it was easy for the Colossians who feared these so-called philosophers?
SPEAKER_01: These men who promised a better and a higher, fuller kind of worship.
SPEAKER_01: I think they feared them.
SPEAKER_01: But friends, if the Colossians had caved to that pressure, they would have had to relinquish their hold on the head.
SPEAKER_01: Who is Christ, right?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Would have had to relinquish their hold upon the head, and they would have had to hold on to something else.
SPEAKER_01: They would have had to humble themselves.
SPEAKER_01: The head's the highest thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: To be brought low before something else.
SPEAKER_01: Humility like that is servile.
SPEAKER_01: It's pathetic, demeaning.
SPEAKER_01: And it's, friends, it's sad.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's humble before his position or his power or the opinion of the masses.
SPEAKER_01: It's like watching an addict plead for just one more hit.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's humble before his drug.
SPEAKER_01: He worships his lust, or maybe, maybe watching a hopelessly hopeful mother fawn all over her wayward child with platitudes about how they love them and it'll be all right while this hard-hearted teenager rolls their eyes and glares.
SPEAKER_01: It's just sad.
SPEAKER_01: It's just sad what you and I will overlook, hoping somebody will love us back, or our idols will respond to us, like the prophets of Baal, dancing and cutting themselves with swords, just waiting, waiting for their God to answer, to tell them they were special.
SPEAKER_01: What about a husband who falls to his knees and swears it will never happen again?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, wretches are humble people.
SPEAKER_01: Wretches are humble people, but their humility is wretched.
SPEAKER_01: For it's just idolatrous pride in disguise.
SPEAKER_01: It's just idolatrous pride in disguise.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll turn now to the glorious humility.
SPEAKER_01: The glorious humility, what is that?
SPEAKER_01: The humility that pleases God, though.
SPEAKER_01: The humility that pleases God holds fast to Christ in verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: It humbles himself before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because God, guys, God doesn't ask you for unseemly displays of self-abasement.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't ask you to fawn all over things in grief and mourning.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need them.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to convince God you're really sorry.
SPEAKER_01: He sees your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to convince God that you're humbled, He sees past the outside.
SPEAKER_01: And those who really are humble of heart possess a glorious and dignified grace from God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul's talking about in chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's addressing people who with Christ have died in 220 and with Christ have been raised in 3.1.
SPEAKER_01: The humility that he calls for comes under the heading of God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.
SPEAKER_01: That is, it's a humility found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: A humility found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How then, saints, do we find a genuine humility in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: First, as Paul says, you have to look at him.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 1, seek the things that are above where Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Set your mind on him.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, verse 15, let his word dwell in you richly, let his peace rule in your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15 and 16.
SPEAKER_01: Look upon Christ and what do you see?
SPEAKER_01: Look upon Christ, what do you see?
SPEAKER_01: Consider his heart and ask.
SPEAKER_01: Is it humble?
SPEAKER_01: Is it and then behold his glory, right?
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_01: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same word.
SPEAKER_01: Humble and hard, lowly.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word for humble, not exactly the humble-mindedness, but that includes this.
SPEAKER_01: I misspoke there.
SPEAKER_01: His heart is lowly.
SPEAKER_01: His humility is glorious.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the hymn writers.
SPEAKER_01: How low was our Redeemer brought?
SPEAKER_01: The king who held the stars lay helpless in a maiden's arm and pressed against her heart.
SPEAKER_01: See his humility.
SPEAKER_01: While sheep and cattle raised their voice, the babe could speak no words.
SPEAKER_01: The ever-flowing spring of joy had come to share our thirst.
SPEAKER_01: How low was our Redeemer brought?
SPEAKER_01: How humbled was he?
SPEAKER_01: How low was our Redeemer brought?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord, the worlds obeyed, would stumble as he learned to walk upon the ground he'd made.
SPEAKER_01: The one the angels bowed before would kneel to wash our feet and be at home among the poor.
SPEAKER_01: Though he owned everything, how low was our Redeemer brought to raise up, to raise us from our shame.
SPEAKER_01: And now the highest praise of all belongs to Jesus' name, the healer, wounded.
SPEAKER_01: How's that happen?
SPEAKER_01: The healer wounded on a tree to bear our grief and sin.
SPEAKER_01: The king, the king gave up his crown so that we could ever reign with him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that you would humble yourselves before the humble king.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, all of our humiliation, I hope I've shown you, all of our humiliation is mixed with pride.
SPEAKER_01: There's a stiffness in our necks as we bow them, a rebellion in our obedience as we bend our wills, our knees may bend, but his side was pierced.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, who though he existed in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross, let this humility bring you low.
SPEAKER_01: The king of the cosmos hung upon a tree and died.
SPEAKER_01: John tells us that between crying out, it is finished and giving up his spirit, the Son of God, the Son of David, bowed his head.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the text.
SPEAKER_01: He bowed his head before the King of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He died.
SPEAKER_01: And even that he did humbly.
SPEAKER_01: Even that.
SPEAKER_01: Richard Sibbs wrote, The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight.
SPEAKER_01: Look upon him.
SPEAKER_01: Look upon him with your mind's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Behold him with all the strength of your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: The author of life, humbly giving up his life.
SPEAKER_01: The firstborn of all creation, submitting to his father in humble obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Obedience, like Samuel said, better than a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect obedience, better than a sacrifice, wrought with the humility of the greatest one, the only one whose life could support boasting, kept silent.
SPEAKER_01: The innocent one bound his head and accepted the Father's discipline, though he deserved it not.
SPEAKER_01: He humbled himself.
SPEAKER_01: He humbled himself and he had no reason to humble himself but love for his father and love for you.
SPEAKER_01: And at the proper time, God exalted him.
SPEAKER_01: At the proper time, God lifted him up.
SPEAKER_01: And so now my third point would be let's behold a humbling union.
SPEAKER_01: Humbling union.
SPEAKER_01: And you, chapter 2, verse 11, you were spiritually circumcised with him by his death, buried spiritually with him in baptism, raised with him by faith and the powerful working of God, though dead, you were made alive with him as God forgave all the trespasses of your stubborn, rebellious, disobedient, proud hearts, canceling the record of debt that stood against you with his legal demands, nailing them to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: You died with him by faith, brought low to the grave with him, humbled unto death with him.
SPEAKER_01: So don't stop going around humbling yourselves before anything else but Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Don't bend the knee to idols formed of human hands.
SPEAKER_01: No, thus humbled with him into a death like his.
SPEAKER_01: You've been raised with him to new life, everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: And so, friends, live.
SPEAKER_01: Live humbly.
SPEAKER_01: Really live.
SPEAKER_01: Cling to him.
SPEAKER_01: Hold fast to the head in verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing when a father holds his children in his arms.
SPEAKER_01: It's another thing entirely when they cling to him as he carries them to safety.
SPEAKER_01: Take hold of Jesus by faith and don't let go.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let go.
SPEAKER_01: Live humbly with him.
SPEAKER_01: Walk humbly like him.
SPEAKER_01: Associate with the poor.
SPEAKER_01: Reach out to the lowly.
SPEAKER_01: Look the wretched in the eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Call their pride to account with gentleness and respect.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been raised with Christ, put on compassionate hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Kindness, humility, meekness, patience.
SPEAKER_01: For friends, the humility you do possess.
SPEAKER_01: If you find yourself humble before the sight of Christ crucified today, the humility you have is a gift of God's redeeming and revealing grace.
SPEAKER_01: Lean into it.
SPEAKER_01: Confess it to the Lord and fan it into a flame.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourselves before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: At the proper time, just wait.
SPEAKER_01: He's good.
SPEAKER_01: At the proper time, he will exalt you.
SPEAKER_01: Wesley writes.
SPEAKER_01: Soaring now, where Christ has led.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Following our exalted head.
SPEAKER_01: Made like him, like him we rise.
SPEAKER_01: Alleluia.
SPEAKER_01: Our is the cross, the grave, the skies.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_01: And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_01: Let's bow before our humble King.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, we marvel that you could be so humble.
SPEAKER_01: Seated at the right hand of the Father, Lord Jesus, you you live now interceding for us.
SPEAKER_01: For us.
SPEAKER_01: Who in our pride and rebellion scorn you so often.
SPEAKER_01: You intercede for us with grace.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what humility, what kindness.
SPEAKER_01: It's magnificent, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that you would please intercede for us all the more.
SPEAKER_01: Please pray for us.
SPEAKER_01: Make us like you.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us your humility so that we can count others more significant than ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Help us, Lord Jesus, not to look just to our own interests, but also to the interests of others like you did, like you did.
SPEAKER_01: When you died for us.
SPEAKER_01: Father, humble us before your humility.
SPEAKER_01: Bring us low by your lowliness.
SPEAKER_01: And help us to decrease that you may increase.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot do it on our own.
SPEAKER_01: We need your spirit at work in us to remind us moment by moment of Christ's great accomplishments on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: To remind us of your splendor, your majesty, your power, your holiness, your love, your gentleness, your humility.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we need your help.
SPEAKER_01: We need you to continue being at work in the hearts and minds of our brothers and sisters to encourage us, and if if need be, may they correct us as we get puffed up.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we get puffed up so easily.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us, Lord, to love the valley of humiliation.
SPEAKER_01: When we see ourselves the right way, you become all the more glorious and lovely to our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And what a privilege to see you, know you, and love you for who you are.
SPEAKER_01: Even though we walk in the in the valley of the darkest humiliations, we're already exalted by your mercies.
SPEAKER_01: That we'd receive the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We wait for you.
SPEAKER_01: Please help us, Lord, we pray to hold fast to you, our exalted head and good shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that no one can snatch us from your hand.
SPEAKER_01: And oh how we love you.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to cling.
SPEAKER_01: Because we need you.
SPEAKER_01: But we're not humble enough to walk before our God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, it's in your name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.