The Essential Grace of Humility, Part 2

Introduction: Peter's Pastoral Burden and the Context of Suffering

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, April 9, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to 1 Peter and chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, and I shall read verses 1 through 7, 1 through 7 this morning. The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, tend or shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God, nor yet for base gain, but of a ready mind, neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. And when? When the chief shepherd shall be manifested, you shall receive the crown of glory that fades not away. Likewise, you younger, be subject unto the elder.

1:25 Yes, all of you, gird yourselves with humility to serve one another, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. That he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. Now let us again pray and ask God that by his spirit he will minister his word with light and heat and power to all of our hearts.

2:04 Let us pray. Our Father, we again bow before you because to some measure we have come. We have come to believe and experience the truth of your word, that without you we can do nothing. Your word says vain is the help of man, but it also encourages us that with the psalmist we may say, but through you we shall do valiantly.

2:34 Come, Lord, and help both preacher and listener alike this morning, that we may know the presence of our risen Lord. Lord, by the Spirit, instructing us as our great prophet, ministering to us as our high priest, governing and directing us as our gracious King, Lord Jesus, in your threefold office, be amongst us, minister to us for our good and for your praise. Amen. Now those of you who have been with us for these expositions in First Peter will know that you have been reminded again and again in the course of these expositions that the central pastoral burden of the Apostle Peter in this letter was to instruct, to comfort and to exhort the people of God in the churches of Asia Minor in the face of their present and future sufferings for the sake of Christ. Twelve times in this relatively brief epistle, the verb, the standard, verb for to suffer, pasco, is used by Peter more than all of the combined use of that verb in all the other New Testament epistles.

3:58 He is concerned with the subject of suffering. However, it has become clear to us that in the midst of discharging this practical pastoral burden, Peter assumes that the various churches in Asia Minor, among whom this letter would be circulated, would be the churches of Asia Minor. That is, the churches of Asia Minor would continue to exist, to flourish, and to grow even in the midst of that present and future suffering and persecution for the cause of Christ. In other words, Peter, writing most likely from Rome, knowing of the circumstances of the people of God way off in those northeast regions of the Roman Empire, Asia Minor, those provinces addressed in the first verse of the letter. He is confident that Christ's word that he heard in his own ears is true. He heard the Lord Jesus say in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And confident that his Lord was building his church in the midst of this rich instruction on the matter of Christian suffering, you'll remember that right smack in the middle of that final, final, final, final, final, final, final, final, final, final, final, final, concentrated teaching on suffering in chapter 4, verses 7 to 11 deal with church life and

5:23 how believers are to be filled with that love that covers a multitude of sins, how they are to use hospitality one to another, how they are to exercise their gifts so that the entire assemblies of God's people will be blessed and will grow in grace. Well, as he finishes the subject of suffering, at the end of chapter 4, he again comes back to this church-centered perspective, now not addressing church members in general, but by addressing the appointed leaders in the assembly, the elders among you, I exhort. So there are specific directives to this specific group within the church, namely the elders, the pastors, the overseers. And then, as we saw in verse 5a, he addresses specifically, all of the church members under the imagery of being the younger ones and their elders being the older ones, he calls them to be in submission to their pastors, to their elders, to their overseers, those who are Christ's under shepherds. But when he is done with his specific directives to elders, verses 1 to 4 in chapter 5, and then that fundamental directive to all of the church members, contrasted with the elders in 5a, we noted last Lord's Day in 5b,

6:53 he's now gathering up all of the people of God in all of the churches without distinction. Yes, all of you. This is for elders. This is for church members.

7:04 This is for experienced church members. This is for inexperienced church members. This is for those with a Jewish background. This is for those with a pagan background.

7:15 This is... is a one-size-fits-all series of directives that Peter is now about to give to the people of God in the midst of suffering as they live out their life together in the various churches scattered throughout Asia Minor. And it is clear that when he turns now to these general directives, that they fall into two major categories. Look again at the text. Yea, all of you, gird yourselves with humility, or as we saw last week, apron yourselves with humility in respect to one another. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,

Humility on the Horizontal and Vertical

8:01 that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. The first category. The first category of general concern in this section is this matter of an appeal to all for humility. Humility with respect to one another. What one brother told me last week when I said, if you could give me a shorter title, he accommodated me and said I could have entitled the sermon, Humility on the Horizontal. And I thanked him. And so now I'm going to use his suggestion. Peter's emphasizing humility on the horizontal. He says, gird yourselves, apron yourselves with humility. And so now I'm going to use his suggestion. Peter's emphasizing humility himself with this grace of humility with respect, alee lus, with respect to one another. In all of your horizontal interactions, you should each one, elders and ordinary members, young and old, experienced, inexperienced, whatever other things distinguish us, we ought all to be found at all times in our interactions with one another, aproned with humility. The

9:09 garb of the servant. servant, ready in love to serve one another in a humble, selfless mind. But then it's clear that in the following verses, he is focusing upon a directive to watchfulness and sobriety. Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom withstands steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world. Then comes his benediction and his doxology. So the final pastoral burden of his heart, now directed not to elders, not to ordinary church members as they are distinct groups within the church, but to all of the people of God, all of you, here is a directive for humility, humility on the horizontal, as we'll see this morning, humility in the vertical. Then this passionate appeal for sobriety and watchfulness in the light of the reality of a

10:17 devil who is committed to gulp down all whom he can swallow, for that's the sense, as we shall see, of the vigorous language. Now, last week, we considered together the admonition that is given with respect to humility on the horizontal. Humility with respect to our relationships one to another. We come this morning to consider humility in the vertical dimension, verses 6 and 7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you. Now, many a good and helpful sermon has been preached on these two verses together, and each of the texts individually. These are texts that often get transferred to wall plaques, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. And rightly so. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble

The Importance of Expository Preaching and Textual Connections

11:22 yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Many good and helpful sermons have been preached on these texts in isolation from their context. And that has not been a mishandling of the word, because these texts state universal principles found throughout the scriptures, as we shall see this morning. But while many a good and helpful sermon has been preached on these passages without any sensitivity to the context, I want us to come to this morning remembering the overall context of 1 Peter. The very clear shadow of suffering is cast upon these verses from all that has preceded. Chapter 4 and verse 19 is that great summary statement about the Christian and how he has been treated. And it is a great summary statement about the Christian and how he is to respond to suffering. Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator. Suffering is in Peter's mind when he addresses the

12:23 elders. Suffering is in his mind when he addresses the church members. Suffering is in his mind when he calls to humility, when he calls to watchfulness. And we know that because look at the shadow that is cast on these verses from what follows. Verse 9.

12:38 Verse 9. Verse 9. Well, so much for that general introduction to the section as I often tell men in pastor's conferences. Expounding a text as a preacher is not the hardest thing. And giving expository lectures is not the hardest thing. But expository preaching is the most difficult discipline I know in the world. Because if it's preaching, it must have individual completeness and rhetorical

13:37 wholeness. But if it's preaching, it must have individual completeness and rhetorical wholeness. But if it's preaching, it must have individual completeness and rhetorical wholeness. But if it's expository, you cannot be indifferent to the train of thought that leads into the text and the trains of thought that lead out of it. So you bear with me if at times I have to take seven to eight minutes to have an introduction. I don't have the luxury of just saying, folks, we've got a wonderful text this morning, here it is, and dump it on you. Even though I were true to the language of the text, the mind of God is as much embedded in the connections of Scripture as it is in the very words of Scripture. Never forget that. Never, never forget it. No heretic ever established his heresy in the minds of men who was careful to consider the connections of Scripture. All right? So much, then, for that polemic for what I've done this morning. Now, as we come to these verses, six and seven, it's my desire to give a brief exposition of them this morning, relatively brief, and then tonight to come back to them and get some proof of what I've done this morning. And I'm going to do that in

Structure of 1 Peter 5:6-7: Command, Purpose, Attendant Duty, Reason

14:39 the next few minutes. So I'm going to show you the gleanings of things that would not be in my judgment appropriate to flesh out in the exposition so that we might feel the connections of the passage, but are vital, I believe, to our experience of what is set before us. So we're going to look at verse six this morning as a command with a purpose. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, in order that, you Greek students, a hinna clause of purpose, in order that he may exalt you in due time. So that's a command with a purpose. And then we have in verse seven an attendant duty with a reason, casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. Now, you may have a modern version that gives you two parallel imperatives. The NIV does this. The New English Bible does this. And it reads, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that in due

15:39 time he may exalt you, period. Cast all your anxieties upon him. And an English reader would look at it and say, Peter's saying the two things you need to do. Humble yourself, cast your anxieties. No, the only imperative is humble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

15:57 That's a command with a purpose in order that he may exalt you in due season. And then you have a participial construction. While humbling yourself, casting all your anxieties upon him. That's an attendant duty. With the humbling, you must be casting. The casting is to be the attendant duty of the humbling, and it is a duty with a reason. Casting all your care upon him because he cares for you. So then we take up the two verses then with those two very simple headings. A command with a purpose, verse six. Consider with me, first of all, the command. As surely as all of us, elders and all the members alike, are to tie on the apron of humility as we relate to one another. For this reason, God is in battle array against the proud. God is constantly resisting the proud and is constantly giving grace to the humble. As surely as that is true, and that's a quote from Proverbs 3, verse 24 in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. Peter is quoting from that passage, just substitutes God for Lord. There is

The Command: Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God

17:19 that general principle of God's administration. We are to tie on the apron of humility in all of our relationships to one another because there is a God who is committed as a principle of his moral administration to set himself against the proud and to continue to give grace to the humble. And therefore, if we would know that grace so essential for harmonious, useful, mutually edifying interpersonal relationships, we must not be proud for God is resisting us. And if God is resisting us in the chambers where grace operates within the heart, then it will be manifest in our relationships one to another. But as surely as we are to be found humbled in our relationship one to another, now the apostle begins the text by saying, humble yourselves, therefore. In other words, the last statement of verse five is not only the explanation of the previous imperative, apron yourselves with humility in relation to one another because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, because that principle is true. God is always resisting.

18:41 the proud, always giving grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves not only in your relationship to one another, but humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. Now this verb is an imperative. It's a passive imperative and some suggest we ought to keep the passive sense. Be humbled beneath the mighty hand of God. Let the humbling work do its, make its effect upon you. Others say no, it can be rendered as a middle. Humble yourselves. So whether it's be humbled therefore or humble yourselves therefore, one thing is clear. The humbling with reference to God has a peculiar focal point. Look at the text.

19:28 Humble yourselves therefore not under God or before God, but under the mighty hand of God. So our humbling with reference to God focuses upon what Peter describes as the mighty hand of God. Now what does that mean? Well if you were to take your concordance, and I would urge you to do this from time to time, it's a wonderful study, and you look up hand of God, the hand of his might, and you will find that this is a rich Old Testament phrase in different ways, the hand of God, the mighty hand of God, the right hand of his power, and in all of those usages there is some expression of what one commentator has helpfully described in this way. It is a familiar Old Testament expression describing God's irresistible actions in human affairs, whether in restraining and subduing his enemies, or in the defense and chastisement of his children and their ultimate deliverance and exaltation. The hand of God is a description of God's irresistible actions in human affairs, whether

20:49 in restraining and subduing his enemies, or in the defense and the chastisement of his children. Let's just look at a couple of examples, and then I hope that tweaks your interest and you'll look it out more thoroughly on your own. With respect to God bringing his people out of Egypt, how does he do it? Exodus 13 and verse 3.

21:11 Exodus 13 and verse 3, and Moses said unto the people, Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from this place. You were delivered, a deliverance that meant the destruction of God's enemies, and the preservation of his people is described as a putting forth of the hand of Jehovah. Here is the mighty hand of God effecting the exodus, but now in 1 Samuel 5 and verse 6, we have another profuse use in this context of the concept of the hand of God, even by pagans. The situation is such that there's conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines, and the ark of God is captured and disaster begins to strike these Philistines. And here's how it's described in 1 Samuel 5, 6. But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod

22:28 and he destroyed them and smote them with tumors, even Ashdod and all the borders thereof. Verse 7b.

22:39 For his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon, our God. Verse 11b of the same chapter. For there was a deadly discomfiture throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

22:55 Chapter 6 and verse 3. And they said, if we send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but by all means return him a trespass offering, then you shall be healed and it is known to you why his hand is not removed from you. You see the profuse use of this concept. Even these Philistines knew that when God in a very focused, concentrated way intruded himself into their affairs, toppling their God, bringing sickness upon them, they said, this is the mighty hand of God.

23:30 This is God acting in a demonstrable way in judgment. And we can trace that out. You remember in Psalm 32, David says, day and night you're what? Your hand was heavy upon me.

23:43 What was God doing? God was putting forth a concentrated expression of his fatherly displeasure upon his sinning son, David. And David describes it as the hand of God was heavy upon him. Now I hope just those few examples will persuade you that we're in the right direction when we come back to 1 Peter.

24:04 Remember, here's a man steeped in his Old Testament. As the Spirit of God moves him to right, the Spirit of God takes the stock of a mind steeped in Old Testament concepts. And as he thinks of the saints of God scattered throughout the churches in Asia Minor, he's been writing verse after verse, passage after passage, on how to deal with their sufferings, how to deal with their manifold trials, 1-6, how to deal with those who speak evil of them, with those who are unreasonable in their oversight of these Christian slaves. Suffering is in his mind.

24:41 The Old Testament is in his mind. And as he thinks of this, concentrated suffering they are presently experiencing. And then in chapter 4 he says, don't think it strange concerning the fiery trial among you. There is something even greater coming among you, present among you.

24:56 Don't think it strange. How does he describe that unusual concentration of God's sovereign dealings in so ordering their circumstances that they are in the fire? They are under pressure. He describes it with this terminology.

25:14 Humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. A familiar Old Testament expression of God's irresistible action in human affairs, whether in restraining and subduing His enemies or in the defense and chastisement of His children. And so Peter wants these believers to look beyond the circumstances that are pinching them that he calls in chapter 1 in verse 6, these fiery trials.

25:47 He wants them to look beyond chapter 2 in verse 12, the evil speaking of those worldlings who cannot understand their new lifestyle, wherein they speak against you as evildoers. Verse 19, the slaves who are doing what is right and yet they have unreasonable masters. Wives who are converted and God's grace has not touched their husbands, and they must have the unenviable position of seeking to be subject to those that obey not the word. He speaks in verse 14, there are those who are suffering for righteousness sake.

26:28 Right through the epistle, Peter wants them to go back behind the secondary instruments and to see that behind all of the suffering, in all of its manifestations, in all of its peculiarities, is the mighty hand of God. God that is upon them in grace, in mercy, and in fatherly discipline. And what are they to do? They are to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God.

The Posture of Humility: Creature, Sinner, Recipient of Grace

27:01 They are to take the posture of those who recognize that God has every right to bring what he is bringing upon them, to allow them to feel the pinch and the pressure of the unbeliever, to allow them to feel that they are ungodly, and their ungodly words and actions, slandering them, lying about them. And he says to these believers, as surely as you have a mandate to apron yourselves with humility as you relate to one another, so humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. These afflictions to which you are exposed are the result of divine appointment and agency. Understand that, dear believers, Peter is saying. There is neither blind chance nor unintelligent necessity in God's world. So wrote the Scottish commentator John Brown.

28:02 Does the scriptures tell us that he works all things after the counsel of his will? Ephesians 1.11. Does he tell us in his word that no event occurs apart from his plan?

28:14 In Isaiah, his counsel stands, he will do all his pleasure. Then if the people of God, we have got to do something more than stoically bear up under it and hope that sooner or later the hand will be lifted, we are to humble ourselves. We are, as we saw last week, consciously to take the place of the creature who has no right to look up into the face of the Creator, not only never to say, why have you made me thus, but why have you treated me thus? As Pastor Tripp reminded us so vividly yesterday and bristled with holy wrath and indignation when he talked about having over the course of the years, talked to people who say, I am angry at God. Since when, he said, does God have to conform to your expectations or mine and give account of what he is doing to us? Peter is saying, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. You are creatures.

29:15 He is the Creator and the Sovereign Lord. Furthermore, you are sinners. Oh yes, you have got some people whose tongues are like swords. You have got some unrighteous masters whose whips have been on your back and whose boots have been sunk into your britches.

29:32 Oh yes! But remember, you are sinners and anything short of hell is mercy. Anything short of hell is mercy. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

29:45 This is the way. This is God's way to purify you. Chapter 1, verse 6 and following. This is God's smelting furnace that your faith and your graces might have the dross removed that there may be more of the image of his Son wrought in you.

30:04 You are called to follow his steps, a Savior who, when he suffered, threatened not. When he was reviled, reviled not again. How are you going to be conformed to him and reflect him to an onlooking world? Unless you too are reviled.

30:17 Unless you too suffer. Remember, you are sinners. You are creatures. And remember, you are recipients of grace.

30:26 Though the mighty hand of God has been put forth in ways that if you were ordering the affairs might be different, remember all that we've said that this mighty hand, this God has provided for you. The God whose mighty hand is upon you is the one who has given you an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, committed, as we heard in the previous hour, by that five-fold cord of sovereign grace and mercy to bring us safely to heaven. Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the promise is given, more happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven. Why?

31:08 Because of the immutability of his counsel of electing grace rooted in his unfathomable love. Because of the efficacy of the intercession of Christ in my union with him. Because of his oaths. Because of the seed of divine life within me.

31:26 Because of his covenant. The mighty hand of God is pressing you, but humble yourself under that mighty hand of this God. You are creature. You are sinner.

31:39 You are recipient of grace. Embrace from the heart those circumstances by which God makes you to feel very keenly your creaturely dependence, makes you feel more acutely the depth and the extent of your sinfulness, and makes you appreciate more fully the wonders of his grace. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. That's the command.

The Purpose: That He May Exalt You in Due Time

32:11 Now, what's the purpose? Look at the text. Humble yourselves. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

32:17 That would be sufficient. God has a right to tell you to do it. He has a right to tell me to do it. But he said, I'm going to give you a purpose.

32:25 In order that. And what is the purpose? In order that he may exalt you in due time. The end in view is that by humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, or being humbled by the workings of God's mighty hand, is that this very God may in due season exalt us.

32:51 You see, if he were to do anything other than that, he would contradict what was already said at the end of verse 5. It is a universal principle that God is set in battle array against the proud. And he's continually giving grace to the humble. And before he can confer grace, he has to humble us.

33:10 And when he's brought us into the state of being humbled, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the hungry and the thirsty. They shall be filled.

33:21 It's all through the Bible. Now that God, who is set against the proud, but gives grace to the humble, is it grace that he would exalt us? Lift us up. That's the very word used of the exaltation of Christ in Acts 2.33.

33:36 He being by the right hand of God, exalted, lifted up, taken to the place of supreme blessing and glory and honor. It's used again in Acts 5.31. Peter is saying to these believers, God longs to exalt you, but he has to exalt you in a way consistent with his moral government, which is this.

34:00 He's set in battle array against the proud. He gives grace to the humble. It's pride that makes you question, why does God let this happen to me? If I can't figure it out, it ain't right.

34:15 Stinking, rotten, creaturely, sinful pride. What did Job know? He died never knowing what we know when reading the book of Job. But when all was taken, he falls upon his face and does what?

34:30 Grits his teeth and says, oh God, help me to grin and bear it. He says, the Lord gave. The Lord takes away. Blessed, blessed, worthy of honor and praise is the name of God.

34:48 That's humbling oneself under the mighty hand of God. In order that, Peter says, he may exalt you in due time, that he may raise you up, he may make high, when? In due time. Now the commentators differ.

35:05 This word, due time, the time word, kairos, is often used in a more technical sense. Judge nothing, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4.5, before the time, until the Lord come. It speaks of the time of the second coming.

35:20 Likewise, in Matthew 8.29, when those demons speak and they say, have you come to torment us before the what? Before the time. And it could be with this constant emphasis on the second coming.

35:33 Being kept by the power of God, waiting the revelation of our full salvation. Set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought to you at the coming of Christ. This constant emphasis in 1 Peter. It could be that what Peter is saying is, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in order that, in the consummation, when God displays the final work of His grace, He may exalt you, even to a place that Jesus talks about in Revelation 3.

36:03 To Him who overcomes, I will give to sit with me in my throne, as I have sat down with my Father in His throne. Think of it. God has highly exalted Him, and He says, I will exalt you and you will sit at my right hand. Think of it.

36:22 Maybe that's what Peter is pointing to and saying, look, in all the other admonitions I've given you about your suffering, I've sought to shut you up as believers to remember you are what I called you in the opening words. You are elect sojourners. This is not your home. This is not your dwelling place.

36:41 You're on your way to a better place. Keep your destination in your eye. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. It may well be He's pointing to that, but it could also be that He's stating this as another general principle, that it's ordinarily God's way when the work of humbling has been done by this unusual concentration of the putting forth of God's power and His working, His hand upon us.

37:13 Often when that work of humbling is done, there is an exaltation, even in this life. Can you think of some examples in the Old Testament? There's a young man filled with the knowledge of Egypt, skilled in languages, in military operations, in administration. His name is Moses.

37:35 He's going to be God's deliverer. And what happens? He becomes a murderer. And for 40 years, he's a fugitive and a lonely shepherd.

37:44 And then the day comes when God says, you're going to lead my people out of Egypt. He humbled himself under the mighty hand of God. And in God's time, there was a burning bush, and a voice spoke out of the bush. It said, you go to Pharaoh and say unto him, let my people go.

38:02 And by then, you see, he wasn't saying, oh, God, for 40 years, I've been here keeping sheep, but every time I see a sheep, I think of I'm going to be shepherd of Israel. And it's, God, I'm so glad you finally woke up to reality. No, no. He said, Lord, I'm not fit for that.

38:20 Until God got angry with him. It's as though his humility even went into a realm of petulance. I'm not sure about that. But God did exalt him.

38:29 Think of Joseph. God gives him dreams. His father and his brothers are going to bow down to him. But God's got to humble him.

38:36 Why? It's God's way of moral administration in his kingdom. He's against the proud, gives grace to the humble. So God takes the young, brash Joseph, telling his dreams indiscriminately, and I believe unwisely.

38:52 And it isn't long before he's what? He's in a pit. And from the pit, as a common slave, he becomes a prisoner for a sin he didn't commit. But when God's humbled him, he ends up being prime minister in Egypt.

39:12 Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, in kairos, in his time, in the appointed time. Think of Nebuchadnezzar. He's crawling around like a beast of the field. His fingernails grew, it says, like bird's claws, until he acknowledges that the Most High is God.

39:35 And God gives him back his sphere of influence, his head over the mighty nation of Babylon. It is a principle, operative even in this life, that the way up is indeed the way down. Now you always got to go down, simply because God says it. And though we may not discern in what way in this life, this principle will be operative, we can lay hold of it and fasten our faith upon its undeniable fulfillment in due time, the time when he comes.

40:07 And he will acknowledge us before the assembled universe of resurrected men and women, angels and all other creatures. And he will say, come, you blessed one, into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then we'll know what this verse means as we can never know it now. There's the command with a purpose.

Application: Guard Against Pride in All Areas of Life

40:33 And no matter what our oppressions or afflictions or trials or oppositions may be, this is God's word to us as his people. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due season. Keep your place as a creature Keep your place as a sinner. Keep your place as an undeserving recipient of grace.

41:01 Nobody can strut while remembering what he is as creature, sinner, and recipient of grace. You can't do it. What have you that you did not receive? So you got all A's in your report card.

41:15 Big deal. You could have been conceived in your mother's womb so that with all of your efforts you could have been exalted to heaven. With all of your efforts your peak capacity of mental activity would reach age four. Others are in this world in that condition.

41:32 Why not you? Why not me? You kids, having educational advantages some of us never had. Oh, how I wish I was made to take Latin.

41:42 I feel so shortchanged when I read serious theological literature and I don't know Latin. You're getting a grasp on it. You're being taught how to reason and think. You find yourself swelling with that, boy, I've got it all over them kids in those duncey publics.

42:02 What have you that you did not receive? Remember Nebuchadnezzar. This is my kingdom that I have built. God says, I'll show you who's done it.

42:11 And he's like a beast in the field for seven years. Don't you toy with a swelled head. If God's given you a good mind you're to recognize it. But recognize where it comes from and who sustains it.

42:30 One little cellular aberration and the cells begin to multiply. You've got a brain tumor and you're rendered comatose. Don't you go strutting inwardly, let alone outwardly. You've got some athletic coordination, eye to hand coordination.

42:50 You see that round ball coming and you can hit it. Who makes you to differ? Who makes you to differ? We've seen what happened in recent days when one little blood vessel burst or when some occlusion occurs in one part of the brain.

43:06 And a strong arm goes limp and hangs at a man's side. Remember what you are as creatures. Remember where you ought to be as a sinner. Remember what you are because of grace.

43:21 Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. In order that He may exalt you in due season. Well, I'd hoped to get to the attendant duty with a reason but it'd be irresponsible to try to plunge into it now. So I'm just going to preach that part tonight and piecemeal what I'd hoped to do tonight.

The Beauty of a Humble Church

43:43 I've increasingly prayed, Lord, don't let me be a slave to my outline and my preparation. I want to preach these things into my heart and your hearts, dear people. And if Peter, at the end of this profound epistle, felt it was important as his crowning directive to all of God's people to give these words, then they must be of very heightened importance. You get the picture now?

44:11 He assumes that by God's grace the elders in the midst of the pressures upon the people of God are seeking to be faithful shepherds. Seeking by God's grace to shepherd the flock among them. To regard them as a lot in charge, entrusted by God. Seeking always to be motivated out of the conviction God has called me to this.

44:34 Never for base gain, not abusing their authority but seeking to go before their people in godly, consistent, exemplary lives. And the people of God are cheerfully embracing their leadership. Not giving them obedience that God does not warrant and the elders do not seek. But rendering that obedience consistent with the whole testimony of Scripture.

44:58 And in that context, elders and the people of God are constantly tying on this apron of humility. In all of their dealings one with another, Philippians 2 is not just a beautiful passage on Christology. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. To what end?

45:17 To the end that you may obey the injunction I've just given you. That you are not each of you to be seeking his own things. You're to be preoccupied with the needs of your brothers and your sisters. You've got the apron of the slave.

45:31 You've got the towel in the basin to serve. And in that setting, all that God's mighty hand brings upon you meets not with stubborn resistance, not with a stoical grit the teeth or grin and bear it mentality. But a disposition that kisses the rod and the hand that holds the rod. Knowing as we shall see God willing tonight that behind the mighty hand is an arm that is eventually joined to a heart that overflows with fatherly compassion and love.

46:04 He cares for you. The one whose mighty hand is upon you is the God who cares for you. Surely those principles worked out in our experience, brethren, can only make the assembly of God's people a place of beauty in a world where everyone's pushing and shoving in one-upmanship, willing to trample underfoot anyone else's rights and feelings in order that I get number one. What a beautiful thing to see a people aproned with humility, bowing in principled humility before the mighty hand of God, cheered with the confidence in due season he himself will exalt us. I wish I could believe in closing this morning that this strikes a chord in every single one of you. I have reason to believe it strikes a chord in many of you. And you've sat there while I've been preaching saying, Oh, God, forgive me when I dared to raise my hand as a creature of God.

Warning to the Proud and Call to Humility for Unbelievers

47:10 And as a creature in question you, the Creator. Lord, forgive me when I have forgotten that as a sinner all you owe me is hell and anything beyond that is grace. Lord, forgive me when I've forgotten all you've conferred upon me and you don't take back any of that when your heavy hand is upon me. And God's had dealings with you and you've had dealings with God.

47:35 But I'd be a fool to believe that's true of all of you. There's some of you sitting here this morning. God is arrayed in battle armor against you. He resists the proud.

47:46 And I want to show you from turning to Luke chapter 18 that this statement in Peter is indeed a universal principle. There are three uses of it, each in a different context in the Gospels. Matthew 23, 12 in the context of Jesus indicting the Pharisees. Now in the context here of the Gospel of Luke, our Lord mentions it again.

48:11 And here in Luke 14 and now again in Luke 18, none of them parallel passages. Three different settings Jesus says these words. Look at Luke 18, 14. I say unto you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

48:29 The publican who owned his position as a creature accountable to God, as a sinner guilty before God, defiled and polluted, cried out, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus said, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. The one who stood proud and unbent in the presence of God. As if to tell God, look what I've got, God, in case you didn't see it.

48:54 Here's what I am. This is what I do. This is what I've done. Now the Lord says a great principle is illustrated in these two men.

49:02 Look at it. This man went down to his house justified rather than the other four. Here's our words. Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled.

49:13 He that humbles himself shall be exalted. What's the context here? It's the context of the creature and the sinner owning what he is. Looking totally out at himself to the living God for mercy and for pardon.

49:30 Some of you have never been humbled in this way. You've never taken the posture of a publican. See what Jesus said God will do to you? Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled.

49:44 You'll either be humbled before the amazing display of God's grace until it breaks you and overwhelms you and brings you broken and believing to the feet of Christ or you'll be broken and humbled when God forces you to own your creaturehood and your sinnerhood and will demonstrate his Godhood when he casts you into hell. That's a sobering thing. My friend, young person, adult, don't don't don't make yourself another fulfillment of these words of the Lord Jesus. You shall be humbled.

50:23 Be humbled now. Own what you are as creature and sinner and go to the God who delights to show mercy to sinners and you will find that he does exalt you. He will unite you to his Son and Paul can say you has he made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins and raised us up together to sit with Christ in heavenly places. That's where we are this morning as the people of God.

50:52 And in a little while the whole rest of us will be there. Just a little while. We shall be like him. We shall see him as he is.

51:01 That's the command with a purpose. God willing tonight we'll look at the attendant duty with a reason. Pray that God will help and guide us as I try to patchwork what I had prepared the process of preparing for tonight and work it in to expounding the next verse in the passage. Let's pray.

51:26 Our Father we have heard again that you are the God who delights to exalt to raise up the humble. We would afresh then from the depths of our being bow down before you and confess with shame our wretched arrogance that we would ever as creatures question what you the mighty infinitely holy wise sovereign God would do with us. O Lord forgive us. Forgive us when blinded to the depth of our sinfulness we have forgotten what we are by nature. We would take our place afresh and then thank you for what you have made us by grace to think that we are begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible undefiled reserved in heaven for us and we are kept by your power unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. O our Father give us a fresh sense and experience of that sheer delight that is ours when in our heart of hearts we own what we really are and we see you

52:53 for what you are. We pray for those who have never been humbled who stand stiff-necked and proud in heart O Lord we ask you by your spirit terrify them with the fact that you will humble them may that terror lead them to seek you and in seeking you may they find you to be gracious a welcoming God thank you for your presence thank you for your help in seeking to grasp what you have said in this portion of your word O God seal it to our hearts bring it to our remembrance again and again that by your grace we may walk in its light until you take us to yourself hear then our prayers dismiss us with your blessing receive the praise of our hearts for your mercies to us in this hour this morning we ask in the name of Jesus Amen