Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

In Due Time Pt.4

Glory to God! Something that Richard said stood out to me and carries a lot of weight in who we really are. He said "What a good Father we have!" Amen? That's so cool to be able to say that on Mother's Day! That makes good mothers, amen? Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers and a job well done, praise God, being able to fulfill that roll of helping raise children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. It's something that the world celebrates and yet they don't even really know what the role is all about, and we're blessed by the grace of God to have great examples of it. We're always proud of you ladies, the jobs that you do, it's a tough job. The role that you have, the Scripture says, is one of the weaker vessel, one that's in a vulnerable position. It takes a strong person to walk in a vulnerable position and delight in it, so it's the grace of God, and we're excited about that.

Okay, let's pick up where we were in our study, and since I have just shown you so many pictures of myself, we want to talk about humility this morning, and really what it is to achieve this greatness in the kingdom of God. We're all battling this same war of pride and selfishness, self-reliance, and when we talk about humility as we were sharing in our last session, I think it's important that we realize what it is. Humility is being able to put the proper value on ourselves by placing the proper value on God, and that's really what humility's all about. Humility's about choosing God's will over our own. When we talk about the servant's heart and serving one another, humility in service is not service for the good of the recipient, but service for the glory of God; we're an extension. The humble man is the one who is willing to be an extension of the grace and the heart of God. It's all about God being glorified, not about His creatures being edified. But true humility does bring corporate edification, it does meet the needs of others. True humility does subordinate itself in care and concern for others instead of themselves, but it's always for the glory of God, it's always to affect those eternal purposes. We used the phrase last week "Where God is all, self is nothing." We need to get that into our thinking, where God is all, self is nothing. The way to humble ourselves, then, is to just get more of God in us. It's not about trying to discipline ourselves. It's not about service like the older brother. It's about God being all in all, being content with His goodness, with His grace, with His provision. Self, when we put the wrong value on self as we were talking in our last session--the greatest way to recognize that is our discontent, and we're always trying to get more because we believe we deserve it. Now, we'll say we don't, but we always want to gratify self, to satisfy self, to fulfill self-worth in things that we possess, the praises of men, the recognition of men, and we want more until the value that we've placed upon ourselves is finally reached, which is never.

When we talk about humility we're talking about being content in the will of God, and the question we have to ask ourselves this morning is, "Do I really believe that everything I have I've received of the Lord, and I have everything I'm supposed to have?" I'm talking about possessions: material possessions, temporal possessions. I'm talking about relationships. You know, some of us that are single and want to be married, and some of us that are married want to be single. Are you where God wants you? Humility believes that the steps of the good man are ordered by God. There isn't chance. When people around you get blessed, including brothers and sisters, do you ever feel that tinge of jealousy? Do you ever wonder why it never happens to you? That's not a humble spirit. "Why does everybody else get a break and I never get a break? I deserve more than this. I deserve more than God's given me. God's always making mistakes when it comes to true justice and me receiving what I deserve because of my worth." And beloved, what you deserve is hell, and everything else is a blessing, amen? Now, doctrinally we all believe that, but how do we practically live?

We left off in our last session--if you remember, we were talking in our last session about ambition, and about the improper value upon self, and we dealt with a couple of the parables that the Lord had given us concerning the two men that had gone up to pray, you remember, and we were talking about that, and we were talking about the publican, and his perception of his worth verses his brother. In Luke 14 and Luke 18, we saw two of the great parables of the Lord. Let's take a moment and look back at those. Luke 14, Luke 18. We'll start in Luke 18. The parable of the great supper is a little longer and more entailed. We want to take a little glimpse of ourselves here if we can. One of the quotes that we shared last week was, and I thought this carried so much weight to it "To be nothing in God's presence is the glory of man." It's a quote from Andrew Murray. The greatest achievement that we can ever reach is to finally achieve nothingness in our own eyes before God, to have all of the tainted view of the pride of Adam and Eve removed from us, that horrible injection of pride that Lucifer infused into the woman when he deceived her with the words, "Has God said you won't surely die?" Your eyes will be open, you will become as God, you will become independent, and everything that has to do with independence and self-sufficiency comes from the same god of this world, the one who said, "I will ascend above the throne of the Most High. I will be like the Most High." We shared with you, then, in the Hebrew that phrase means "I will supersede, I will dissolve, I will destroy, I will do away with." Not like in being able to emulate, but to replace. Lucifer said, "I will replace the Most High. I'll become a god unto myself." And anything that lives outside of biblical humility is living in that environment, is being motivated by that force. It doesn't matter how you wrap it up. You can wrap it up in humanism, philanthropy, whatever you want; it has to do with man doing what man merits, what man puts worth upon, by man, for man. Here we are living in this kind of a world trying to come to the place where it's all about God and not about man, not about us, and it's not an easy thing to accomplish. We are all of our father Adam. We all have that same desire in us to be preeminent. What I mean by preeminent--I'm not just talking about the fact that I'm over you, that I'm better than you, that I possesses more than you. I'm talking about preeminent in that I am the last, the final authority on what is acceptable and unacceptable in my life. Because of that, I'll set course, I'll change circumstances to accomplish my will in whatever it takes, my will will be done; my worth will be recognized. The highest order in the universe will be placed in to effect my will, my desire, what I want now. When we say it that way, it's very obvious and most of us would say that's not what we want for our lives, but what do we practice in our daily decisions?

How ready are you, really, for the perfect will of God in your life? Can you humble yourself to say, "I have no agenda, I want exactly what God wants for me and nothing more?" Now everybody here would say--or virtually everybody, most of us here are believers, but how are we walking this thing out in believing that we're a people that aren't living by chance?--"God's in charge of my life." That's humility. "I believe that God is ordering my steps. I believe that everything I have I've received of God. I believe that everything I have is for the glory of God. I believe that everything that I have is grace and mercy because I deserve nothing, and I will not get rid of anything that I have out of a false humility or out of a fear unless God tells me to give away what He's blessed me with. I won't give it away and I don't desire any more than I have." Humility's being able to accept that where we are, what we have of God is for the glory of God. That's a good place to be. Here we are not needing more and regardless of men's opinions, not having to have less to satisfy or gratify humanism. In the eighteenth chapter, look what he goes on to say--this is an interesting parable--we talked about it. "And he spake this parable," verse 9, "unto certain which trusted in themselves..." We're talking about the self-righteous here, the legalistic individual, the one that thinks that by works we're meriting things and that the better we appear in that, the more that we do, the more righteous in fact we are, and the more deserving we are. It begins to put a false value upon ourselves. In Romans, Paul said don't think more of yourself, more highly than you ought to think but think soberly, be discreet in your perception of self (Romans 12:3). We know that God resists the proud, the Scripture says, but He gives grace to the humble.

Jesus, in His parable, identifies this guy as, number one; trusting in himself. Now how do I know if I'm self-righteous or not? Look at the next phrase, "...and despised others." This spiritual pride, the lack of biblical humility, despises others, others that don't meet your standards. We want to pass judgment upon people that don't see things the way we see it, that aren't as committed as we are. A lot of us just resent the fact that God's requiring me to pray eight hours and you only two. "I don't delight in the fact that I'm called to pray eight hours, I resent the fact that you're not, and if you were really spiritual, you'd pray eight hours like me and not that measly two that you're praying." Pride--we begin to set standards and values, and we seem to think that then we become the prototype, when in fact, Jesus is. He says two men went up to pray and--this is great--"Two men went up to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are," [and he gives his external list the way that you really perceive sin] "extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote himself upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." What is true biblical humility? Knowing that we must have the mercy of God; there is no merit. I can't merit a relationship with God. None of the works I do will make me just before God. It's not a performance oriented relationship. Isn't there something in you that wants to pay your own way? You want to merit it. You want to deserve it. You don't want to be a debtor to anybody. Even those of us that have a welfare mentality, that don't want to do anything, and have everything given to us gratis (meaning "without charge, free"), have that same spirit. You want to know why? They think they deserve that and therefore they owe no man anything. "I'm living off welfare. I'm living off the graces of a community like this. I'm taking all the time." And that same spirit of the guy who has the pride saying, "I'm not receiving anything, I'm going to make my own way. I don't need anything from you, I can pay my way, I'll earn it, I'll, bless God, do without it if I can't get it from my own sweat and strength." That same stinking pride is in the same person who's receiving everything gratis and just taking it because they believe that they deserve it, that they're worth that, and they don't see it as grace, and mercy, and gifts. They see it as being merited, not based upon works, but worth. "I deserve it!"

Doesn't it floor you? We look at our society today. People think they deserve all of this stuff for nothing. Who are these people? They're Satan's children. Just like the ones who having worked, and in many times done without, gloat in their self-righteousness. It's just two different ends of the spectrum and it's the same pride, and it's the same improper placing of value upon self. Jesus speaking here concerning these men speaks of this man understanding his true worth as a sinner and says, "I can't do anything to merit relationship. I need the grace of God; I need the mercy of God." The Lord goes on and says, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself [in his own eyes, everyone that places the improper value upon himself his own worth] shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself...," [he that realizes his true value, he that has no agenda, he that knows that nothing he can do will ever cause him to justly stand before God, that's biblical humility.] "...He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." We're going to go on and use this phrase a number of times this morning--exalted. Humble yourself; God will exalt you. Now, the natural mind immediately thinks of exaltation being, "Well praise God! Now I'm going to be above everybody else!" No, the exaltation, being exalted in the eyes of God, is bringing you to that place that we spoke of earlier and that is absolute nothingness, and contentment in it. Exaltation, when it says God will exalt you, He means that He will free you from yourself; you will no longer be this demigod. Exaltation is liberty of man's standards, from human value systems. Exalted is liberty of self-dominion. Exaltation is liberty from self-dominion. It's a great place to be and God's calling us to that, and He wants us to be able to walk this out, and work it out.

Look over at the fourteenth chapter for just a moment, of Luke. Verse 7 says "And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man [come and you be sent down]." Now, again, this is something that many of us misapply. Okay, so we hear this principle, we learn it and we go, "Okay, now, I'm going to this feast, I'm coming to the community, I'm going out to represent God in the kingdom, and so what I have to do is, I always have to go to the lesser room. Now, I know that I'm better than everybody there, right? But, you see, I've got to go there so that I can be called up to the higher room because that's how Jesus said to do this thing." That's not what this parable's teaching. It's not saying you're always going to get called up to the higher room, it said don't go to the higher room. Why? Because you aren't all that, that's why! The people that start out in the high room, the people that go there assuming that's where they belong have placed the wrong value upon them. Always assume nothingness and if God wants to exalt you, let Him exalt you. The whole parable is if God wants to, and if He doesn't, guess what, you haven't been cheated because you're nothing anyway! That's the parable. Now most of us seem to think that we can work this thing by showing ourselves humble; that way we will get called up, we will get called to the high room, we will get exalted. "God is obligated to make me big in the eyes of men if I'll humble myself before Him." That's not humility. That has the wrong perception of what exaltation is, because any desire in you to be seen exalted before man is of your father the devil.

I was just sharing with Greer this morning as we were getting ready to come, and a lot of the different things we do--and we were actually talking about the new Z06 that's coming out, the new Corvette, and we of course were talking about it from a spiritual perspective. I'm serious! We were talking about it and I said that I don't think there's going to be the super increase that there was with the ZR1 when it first came out. The ZR1 Corvette basically had so few changes to the body that people didn't know what they were looking at. They couldn't tell the difference between it and a standard Corvette, but the cost was twice the amount. The basic car was $35,000, and if you got a ZR1, it was $70,000. If you sat them side by side, 99 percent of the people couldn't tell any difference, which made everybody that was buying it mad because--let me ask you something. If you pay twice as much, do you just want twice as much car or do you want people to know you have twice as much car? Now some people--there are people that say, "Hey I just want twice as much car." But the majority will want twice as much car and want everybody to know they have twice as much car, right? I could tell by your reaction that most of you are like me. We were just talking about that from the spiritual perspective and I was telling her, I said, "This is what's in man." And I said, "Those are the things that [companies] like GM have really blown it. If they're going to make this Z06, they need to do something radical with it if they're going to charge more and it's going to be the flagship car, because human nature--that's what advertising is, that's what sales is all about, giving people want they want, making them feel special." Aren't we all susceptible to that? It's because that's what's in us. But see, those of us like myself that are truly humble, we're not affected by that. We only do what God leads us to do.

(Most of you know I'm being facetious.) But do you recognize what's in yourself, really? Greer asked me this morning, she said, "Do you know that you wore those clothes last Sunday?" Does anybody here know that I wore this last Sunday, anybody here? Let me see if anybody remembers that I wore this last Sunday? [Members of the congregation raise their hands] Who else? Anybody else know that I wore this last Sunday? I'm not dressed exactly like I was last Sunday, though, because I forgot my belt. Have any of you noticed I didn't have a belt on this morning? I don't care. Greer said, "Do you want me to go home and get it?" I said, "No, my pants aren't going to fall down." It's all about aesthetics' man, we're talking function. Belts are supposed to hold your pants up. If your pants will stay up without them, you don't need one. It's all fringe benefits. Now see, many of us, when I'm talking about spending $35,000 extra, twice the price of a car, most of us don't relate to that, but what about all these other things? What about just the small things in life that are such a big deal to you because of your pride? What will people think? What will I think? How about the pride that you're totally overwhelmed and you won't let somebody come and help you, you won't even let them give you five minutes of their time because, "I can do it myself!" You're always ready to help everybody else. The reason you're so stressed out is because you're helping everybody else and you won't receive anything. "Well, I'm humble. I'm the servant. I'm always giving." Uh huh, right! I heard a few silent Oh, me's! How about the fact that we don't even want home fellowship at our house because it's not as nice as some of the others in the group, and the only reason that we do have it at our house is because it's forced upon us, and it's not because we don't want to, it's because our house isn't as nice as other peoples' houses. How about the fact that your kids don't have as nice clothes as some of the other kids have that come to discipleship training. Let's be like the Catholics, let's wear uniforms. That way you won't know who the rich kids are and the poor kids are. Yeah, right! They all get out--one gets out in a '76 Chevy Capri and the other one gets out of a Mercedes and they have their uniforms on so you won't know who the rich kids are. We're ugly, aren't we? And we hide it all kinds of different ways, either trying to be the servant and serve everybody, and we get self-worth out of that, or we boast in ourselves like this Pharisee that we were just talking about. It's an inward gratification, "I'm satisfied by the fact that I'm the giver not the taker of all that stuff." It's all pride.

So how do we get rid of this, really? We saw that the disciples early on were arguing among themselves who was the greatest and Jesus put the little child in their midst and He said, "He that becomes as a little child, this is the greatest among you, the innocent the one who's dependent." You get little kids together and they're not all taken up with what people are thinking, they're just having fun. Very few of those little children are worried about how the stock market's doing. You know, not one of your children have been uptight a bit about the increase of gasoline prices, they just get in the car and go for a ride. It doesn't matter to them whether gasoline is 25 cents a gallon or five bucks a gallon. "That's your problem, Dad!" Why don't you get that way with your dad? "That's your problem, Dad; that's not my problem, let's go!" "Go where?" "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." "Let's go!" Childlike faith; I'm living for the kingdom. I'm here as a representative of God. He's going to get me where He wants me, He's going to sustain me, He's going to protect me; no weapon formed against me can prosper. He's going to open doors that no man can close, praise God! My steps are ordered. Every place I go prospers. His glory's my rear guard. We live in that kind of an environment and that's humility. We don't see ourselves as having to bail ourselves out, provide, sustain; we just rest. We labor to crucify self that we can enter into the rest of selflessness, of total dependence upon God, which that is of course, biblical humility.

The Lord is calling us into these particular areas. You know what's kind of interesting? Go over to Luke 22 for just a moment. You know< you would think that we would learn, wouldn't you? Now< in the midst of Jesus having lived this example before them, bringing them instruction, reproof, in the midst of Jesus' greatest hour of need, the Scripture says that the disciples had another agenda. Verse 24, "And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that does serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth." Jesus in the context of all this--let me give you an idea of everything that's going on here. We have the institution of the Lord's Supper; we have the foot washing that's taking place in here. We have the Lord enduring Gethsemane. We have Peter's denial that's getting ready to take place and all of that's happening in this time frame that we're talking about here. Jesus is setting a standard for them when He washed their feet. You see, they walked into the room, all of them--of course the tradition of the day was that having journeyed through that dusty Palestinian environment there, their feet would get dirty, and so they would come in, and the servants would then come and wash the feet of those that were of a higher order, and it was expected. And they came into the room and they're there for the purpose of the Last Supper. Jesus' hour was upon Him. Jesus should have been the focal point. He's the one who in just a few moments, literally, His heart is going to bust because of your sin and mine. He's going to cry the agony of the cross, "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?" He's going to wrestle with Satan and sweat drops of blood and say, "Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will but your will be done." In the midst of all of this, they're arguing who's the greatest. And because they all had that attitude of their own worth and they walked into the room and they go, "What! There's nobody in here to wash our feet? What kind of a joint is this? Where are the servants? Where're the lowly people around here? We're hanging out with the King of Kings, man; we're apostles, we're prophets!"

You know, what's interesting is, I don't see anything in the story--if I read carefully, and I have read through there at least once about these guys--I don't see anything in there that indicates this, do you? I don't see anything that reveals this about these guys. What do I see about these guys? I see guys that are diligently following the Lord, doing what they're told, casting out devils, healing the sick, preaching the gospel--this must be something inward. It must not be very observable. In the midst of all of their work for the kingdom, it must not be readily observable. I don't see it. I don't see them showing themselves as being people that were haughty. You can see some indications of it. We can see the ambition as we did through Mrs. Zebedee, and we can see the sons of thunder, and we can see them rebuking people, and trying to keep them away from Jesus, and Him saying, "No, suffer the little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God." We can see little glimpses of separation and a little bit of an understanding that we're here about kingdom business, but not a lot. You'd have to give these guys a pretty high grade, I would anyway. But now all of a sudden we begin to see a few things being revealed here that are interesting, things that are deep rooted. In the midst of this now we're sitting in this room and what's wrong? There's nobody here to wash feet. "We've been working hard for the Lord man, and there's nobody here to wash our feet?" "I've been serving my husband. I've been a good wife. I've been a good mother. This is Mother's Day!" "There's nobody here to wash my feet?" One person among them had the proper value.

Jesus rises up and He girds himself with a towel and He begins to wash their feet. Peter says, "You aren't washing my feet man, everybody else in here can because I know I'm better than everybody else. But Jesus, you're not washing my feet!" He says "If I don't wash your feet, you can't have any part with Me." In the context as you read on in a couple of verses He said, "Peter, Satan desires to sift you but I've prayed for you." Peter had that tendency to be a little self-reliant, didn't he? Great worker, do anything for the Lord in his own strength. What do you do to get a man emptied of himself? You give him a glimpse. "Though everybody else forsakes you Lord, you can count on me." What a revelation that was coming to this man and every one of us in this room, in one way or another, gets to make that decision that Peter made. Humility is coming to grips with who we really are; the pride, the ugliness, the sin, and crying out for mercy, and saying, "Lord if you can use this for your glory, here am I. Not my will, thy will be done."

Jesus, coming in the fashion of a man, the Scripture says, humbled Himself, even to obedience, the obedience of the cross (Philippians 2:8). Humility is evidenced in obedience unto death. That's humility. It's seen in that phrase of Philippians. What are you facing this morning that you have to choose to die to? You know we are not--and I shared--we're moved by these stories, of Jesus washing the disciples' feet, of His agony on the cross and in Gethsemane, and we're touched, and we're pricked by these things, or we should be anyway. But I want to tell you something. We are not what our emotions express, and we are not at all what our intentions are, and we are not what we know. We are what we will, and are you willing to make God all, and self nothing? That's humility.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning, and as we look at these examples of the disciples, we'd like to think that we don't think we're better than anybody else this morning. Would we wash everyone's feet here this morning and if so, would it be because of the biblical example, and therefore we're obligated? Might it be that we would gain some personal worth from the role of servant? Could it possibly be that we would do it because it needed to be done, somebody has to do it, or would it be for the glory of God? What will bring the most honor to God? What would Jesus do? People wear those little bracelets, WWJD, that's a great reminder, and if you need a bracelet, wear it, tie a string on your finger. That is the real issue, what would Jesus do, because it's no longer I that lives, but Christ that liveth in me, and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20). What is it in us? Do I have to have the best? Do I have to have it a certain way? Do I have to have it my way? Nothing but my way's acceptable. Oh, I'm willing to serve my way. I'm willing to give everything, my way. Are you at perfect peace this morning, that you're where God wants you, how He wants you for the moment, that you are totally available to His eternal purposes, and can say with all total confidence of the purity because of the grace given, "Not my will, thy will be done"? Then we're beginning to embrace that which makes us great in the kingdom.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning and it's so good in a world of discontentment to be satisfied, praise God, in a world of fear to be at peace, in a world of ambition to be without an agenda, in an atmosphere of men-pleasers to seek only the praise of God. I've not seen such great faith in all Israel. What's going on inside? If inside of you this morning you feel you know--I just--when I'm faced with the pressure, I want more. I want that which makes me feel good. I want that which makes me look good. I want that which gratifies. I do think I deserve that. If that's in you, welcome to the club. This whole teaching is not about that going away; it's never going to go away. The teaching is about making a choice to despise that, hate that, recognize it as the lie it is, and choose to be obedient to the death of the cross. That's the choice we need to make on a momentary basis. As Gary plays for us this morning, let's just honor the Lord and thank Him for His presence in our life. We battle. We want to be the big shot on the job. We want to have the nicest home. The ladies--we want to have the nicest furnishings and draperies, and we want successful husbands, we want our kids to be obedient. We teach them manners so it will reflect well on us. "Look at me." "I'm special." "We're special." "Look at me." "I'm so much better than you that I can present myself in a way that I look less." What are you battling with this morning? Where God is all, self is nothing. I just want to know You a little more, Lord. I just need a glimpse of you this morning. I just need one still small word and that will be sufficient for the day, it will get me through, praise God. It will help me become more like You. Left to myself I'm going to make a mess, but just that free gift of grace, it's given to every man to do the right thing, to say the right thing, to bring my members under, to reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto Christ, to present my body a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God, just the grace Lord, sufficient. I need it today that You might be glorified. That's what we're looking for. Let's sing it together and worship Him. Oh thank you, Jesus! We delight in You, Lord. Hallelujah! It is our heart's desire, Father, and we just ask that it would satisfy us, true worship, the great gift of making us aware of Yourself, and being able to honor You, to bless You. The Psalmist cried out, "O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together." When God's lifted up, the Psalmist goes on to say, "The humble shall hear thereof and be glad" (Psalm 34:2-3). Does God's worship satisfy you? The fact that God's being worshipped, that He's being honored, does that make you glad? That's humility, praise God, when what makes your day is God being exalted. Make it real we ask, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "God resists the proud!" Amen! Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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