The Grace of Humility

Philippians chapter 2, verses 1-11. But in humility, consider others better than yourselves.

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In all athletics, the teams and individuals that consistently win are those that are well trained in the basics.

It's not the team that can pass the ball behind their back the most, or the guy that can hit the trick shots on the golf course that wins consistently.

No, it's those who do the fundamentals the best. When Jack Nicklaus was at the height of his golf career, every year at the beginning of the PGA Tour season, he would go to Jack Grout, who had been his teacher in earlier years.

He'd make an appointment with him, find him out on the driving range, and with his club in his hand, he would come and say, Mr. Grout, would you teach me how to play golf?

Didn't matter how many green jackets he had already won, he never thought himself beyond the need of giving close attention to the basics.

Even the pros can drift and pick up bad habits that need correction. And so it is in the Christian life. We can drift away from the most fundamental things, the things that we learned back in kindergarten, in the Christian life.

And so in this series, we're coming back to basics. Now, we've already seen the most basic thing of all, that it's all about God. We've seen that we are to be building our life on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we do that by building upon his words.

We've seen what the two most important commandments of all are, to love God with all of our heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And now this morning, we see this important grace of humility.

The Christian life cannot be lived without it. You can't love God or neighbor without it. You can't build your life upon this book without it. You can't live in a way that shows that it's all about God without humility.

The importance of humility to God is seen throughout the Scriptures. When the prophet Micah would summarize, what is it that God wants from us?

What is it that the living God requires from us? He says, it's not what you think. It's not more sacrifices. What does the Lord require? Well, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Walk humbly with your God. Isaiah 6 and verse 2, This is the one I esteem, he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word.

This is what catches the eye. This is the one to whom I look. This is the one that draws the attention of the Almighty God. It's the one who is humble. God thinks most of those who think of themselves least.

And that's the very heart in which he makes his own home here on earth. For though he says, I live in a high and holy place, but I also live with him who is contrite and lowly in heart.

It's here that Jesus begins his Beatitudes, as we're memorizing. Matthew 5, 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit. That's where the Beatitudes begin.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So, these are the ones God is drawn toward, to help, to give grace to. How often do we find that key principle of the kingdom of God, mentioned throughout scriptures, that the Lord opposes the proud, but he gives grace to whom?

To the humble. He gives grace to the humble. And so he's drawn toward the humble, to act on their behalf, to help them, to give them grace.

And don't we need grace from God? Then we dare not drift far from humility, because he gives grace to the humble. Now, on the other hand, there are just as many and even more verses that speak of God's hatred and opposition to pride, the opposite of humility.

And we could build a case from that, just how basic humility is. There are six things, even seven, that the Lord hates, things he cannot stand, proud-looking eyes, the very first, haughty eyes.

So there's nothing more attractive to God than humility, and there is nothing more offensive to God than pride. So just with that basic running survey of the scriptures, I trust we're agreed in our first lesson this morning that humility is one of the basics of Christian living.

This is not something at the periphery, but right at the center of what it means to live the Christian life, is to walk humbly with our God. The second lesson on humility this morning is that at conversion, no one escapes humbling.

When the grace of God first comes to us, how does it find us? Humble or proud? Well, he finds us thinking far too much of ourselves.

He finds our heart filled with pride, oozing with arrogance. We had it in the Sunday school, in the adult class, Psalm 10 and verse 4, in his pride, the wicked do not seek him.

I wonder if you've ever considered just how arrogant it is for an unbeliever not to seek the Lord. The Lord comes to us, and he says, seek the Lord while he may be found.

Seek me with all your heart. Come to me. Turn from your sins. Believe on me. And mankind says to him, no, I don't care to.

I don't need you. I don't want you. It's not for me. Later. And remember, it's not their little brother they're talking to.

It's not the snotty-nosed kid across the street they're talking to. It's God their maker. It's God their sustainer, the one who holds their next breath in his hand, and they'll take it if he gives it, and they won't if he doesn't.

It's God their judge. And in his pride, the wicked will not seek God. They have the audacity to ignore him, to reject him, to diss him.

I deserve to be at the center of my life, not you. I think my righteousness and goodness is enough. I don't need yours. That's what our unbelief says to God.

It's a proud thing to not run to the Lord Jesus Christ. So before Jesus enters and pours out the grace of forgiveness in such a heart, he first brings man down from his high horse of pride.

And he humbles him. How does he do it? Well, he brings his own word as the sword that sticks deep in the heart and by his own Holy Spirit that convicts him of his sin.

And pretty soon he starts to see that all that righteousness that I was so proud of that I thought ought to swing open heaven's doors for me, now I see that that's nothing but filthy rags in God's sight.

And I need a Savior who has perfect righteousness to give me. I'm humbled. I'm brought down to beg for mercy. Saul of Tarsus was perched atop his high horse of self-righteousness and God brought him down.

Brought him to plead for mercy. You remember the story that Jesus told in Luke 18 about the two men that went into the temple to pray. There's the Pharisee and there's the tax collector.

There's the one with the highest religious reputation and the lowest religious reputation. And so the Pharisee comes into the temple. He's got a high view of himself and his own good deeds and he compares himself to the tax collector and others way down beneath him.

And he even thinks that God ought to be impressed with him and his own performances and he recites them before the Lord. All the good things that he has done. And he thinks that God ought to receive him into heaven because of his goodness.

He refuses to acknowledge his own sin. He refuses to acknowledge his need of God's mercy as a hell-deserving sinner. He's over here reciting his own goodness.

And then in comes the tax collector. And he doesn't have anything good to say about himself. In fact, he condemns himself.

He stays at a distance. He won't even lift up his eyes to heaven but he beats his breast in self-condemnation and says, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

Jesus says, that man, not the other, went home to his house justified, right with God. And the religious Pharisee went home to his house condemned, on his way to hell.

those who justify themselves will be condemned. Those who humble themselves will be justified and made right with God. You know the punchline to Jesus' parable in Luke 18?

Remember it? For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And so the Pharisee who lifted himself up will be humbled and damned.

And the poor tax-collecting sinner who humbled himself will be exalted and saved. Now that's the way it was for Saul of Tarsus, for the tax collector in the temple, for me and for any of you who are saved, God had to humble us before at our conversion.

That's the second lesson. No one escapes humbling at conversion because God finds us all proud by nature. Now the third lesson is that this first lesson in humility is not our last.

It's not the last lesson we'll have on humility, is it? Rather we find that pride is so strong and dies so slowly and that it resurrects so easily that all through our lives we need further lessons on this basic grace of humility.

Jonathan Edwards said that pride is the most difficult sin to root out. It's like those dandelions and you just pull on them and you didn't get it. You even take your little spade and poke down and you think you've got it but you don't have it.

It'll be back. That's the way pride is. There are some, Edwards says, it's the most hidden sin, it's the most secret sin, it's the most deceitful sin.

There are some diseases that when you get them, you have them for life. You never get over them. Though they may not present the symptoms all the time, those may calm down for a while, yet the disease remains in the body and at any moment it can flare up again.

That's the way it is with our pride. It's in our morrow. And we see it so clearly in Jesus' own disciples.

They had this one really long argument going on among themselves that was never really over. It just went underground for a while and then it would erupt again.

And that argument was fueled by pride. Just pure pride. It was the argument of which one of us, 12, is the greatest. How's that for discussion among the 12 disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Mark 9 tells us they came to Capernaum and when he was in the house, Jesus asked them, what were you arguing about along the way? But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest, they are embarrassed and rightly so.

Disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus arguing about which of them was the greatest. Now, you and I would never do that. I mean, when have you last heard an argument in church over who's the greatest among us?

We know better than that, don't we? So we carry the argument on in our minds and in our thoughts. We're constantly comparing ourselves with others around us and we always put ourselves above the others.

And so sitting down, Jesus called the 12 for a lesson on humility. And he said, if anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all.

Now, that's not what these proud men wanted to hear. How opposite are the rules of God's kingdom than what is found in the heart of man by nature?

He turns the whole definition of greatness right upside down on its head. He says, here's the greatest of all. It's the man who takes the last place, the lowest place, the servant's place, and from that place serves everybody.

And so he takes a little child, he takes him in his arms and says, whoever welcomes one of these little children welcomes me.

Humble interest in little children, serving everyone, children included. Now, that was not the kind of duty that these important guys were jockeying for.

That's where Jesus says, you can find greatness. They take the servant's place and serve everyone, children included. So there, they had their lesson from Jesus on humility.

They got it and went on. Not quite. Perhaps for a while they were humbled. But it's not long. Just one chapter later, Mark says in chapter 10, that as the 12 along with Jesus are going up to Jerusalem, that James and John sneak up to him and catch him alone and say, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.

And Jesus wisely says, well, you tell me first, what is it that you want? Well, let one of us sit at your right hand and one of us sit on your left hand in your glory.

You see, in their minds, the argument was over. They two, these two brothers, James and John, they were the greatest. And so, just put us in those greatest, those most important seats.

And Jesus says, those seats are not mine to give, but my Father's in heaven. My Father in heavens. And when the other ten disciples found out about it, the scriptures say they were indignant.

They were in a rage. How dare James and John conclude that they were the greatest. We didn't even have a shot at it. Trying to do this behind our back.

And their anger reveals their own selfish ambition and pride. So once again, Jesus calls them together for a huddle and another lesson on humility.

He says, the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over the people under them, but not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.

And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. Men, hear me again, the way up is down. True greatness.

The competition for greatness is who can stoop the lowest and serve the most. On your mark, get set, go. stoop the lowest, serve the most.

And then the hammer to clench the nail. Jesus says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

So, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the greatest of all, came as a servant. He who deserved to be served by the angels in heaven and all mankind everywhere, came rather to serve.

And He would not flinch at the most costly service to men. Even giving His own life, if that by giving it, many others might receive eternal life.

true greatness was standing before them in their humble Lord. But it's barely a week that passes when they're again alone with Jesus, this time in the upper room, to have their final Passover meal with Christ.

And they found the room fully furnished, just as Jesus said they would. There was the pitcher of water, the basin, and the towel, but there was no servant to do the dirty work of washing the feet.

Here's another opportunity for the disciples to exercise true greatness. I wonder if we recognize them when they arrive in our lives.

It's often the menial, low task that nobody else wants to do. There's the opportunity for greatness. So Jesus waits long enough for these men to show that they're paralyzed by their pride.

they can't get down and wash feet. Remember, they're thinking how great they are. And so Jesus, after waiting, then gets up himself from the meal, takes off his outer clothing, wraps the towel around his waist, pours the water into the basin, and proceeds to go around the table washing his own disciples' feet.

Then he returns back to his place at the table, and he says, you call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am.

Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I've set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

And so, another, yet another lesson in humility, this time with words reinforced with example, right in front of their eyes.

It's just a few minutes later that Jesus sadly says to them, one of you will betray me. And they began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

I mean, who would stoop so low as to betray our master? Surely not I. Not I.

I couldn't stoop that low. I'm better than that. That's beneath me. And Luke tells us that also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest.

Now isn't that interesting? On this night, in this place, they're at it again. It's never far from arguing over who's the worst to arguing over who's the greatest.

I'm not the worst. What is that saying? I'm greater than some of these other low lifers. And so they were putting themselves up and they soon started arguing again about who is the greatest among them.

And so again, Jesus gives them a needed lesson on humility. You're not to be like the world's leaders. Be like me. Don't mimic their leadership styles of lording it over others and making others serve them.

Rather, mimic me because I am among you as one who serves. Leading on my knees, stooping low to lift others high.

Get it through your heads, man. Get it into your bloodstream so that it affects everything that you do in life. Now, I say we can see how basic this grace of humility is just by observing the tenacity of Jesus in the way he keeps drumming it into his disciples' hearts over and over again.

If it's a small matter, parents, what do you do? You teach at once. It's a small thing. Well, we've got to pick our battles and you move on. But if it's something that's important, you are going to plant your flag there and you're going to stay, you're going to keep drumming it in.

And that's what we find Jesus doing with this lesson on humility. The Lord's Old Testament people were no quicker to learn.

Deuteronomy chapter 8 says, remember how the Lord, this is Moses talking to them as they're ready to go into the promised land. Remember how the Lord, your God, led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you.

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known. Have you thought about that?

Manna was a daily lesson in humility for 40 years. you do the math and that's something like 14,600 consecutive days, the same lesson to humble them.

What's the deal? Is pride that strong? Is pride that stubborn and relentless? Is it that slow to die and quick to resurrect that I not only get the lesson today but I'm going to need it again tomorrow and the next day?

14,600 days. Now here the pride problem was not so much who is the greatest though they had that as well didn't they in challenging the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

But here in the manna issue the pride was that of self-sufficiency. Very early on children learned to say do myself and they push away the offered help don't they?

Now there's a part of that that's a virtue and we and we want to encourage we don't want to be tying our children's shoes when they're 30. So we want to encourage them to learn to do things on their own.

But, but, there's a nasty taproot of pride that is never far away from the virtue of independence in a proper sense.

And it's the pride that wants us to think that we are self sufficient. I can handle that. I know that already. I can provide for myself.

I don't need help. Help is for the weak and I am not one of those. And then suddenly we're in the wilderness where there is no food to be found. And all the props that we were leaning on to support us and didn't realize are suddenly knocked out from under us and we're left all on our own.

And our imagined self-sufficiency just evaporates and our weakness is exposed. And what was true all along is now keenly felt that we don't have what it takes and we are utterly dependent upon God for everything.

And so for 40 years the Israelites were kept in daily dependence for their food. They were made daily beggars for their daily bread. There was no stocking up the cupboard for tomorrow.

Only enough for today. Tomorrow we must depend all over again on God. But our self-sufficient pride doesn't like being so dependent.

And we can see it in those guys who gathered twice as much manna and stored up some extra for tomorrow so they wouldn't have to feel dependent on God for the next day. And when they woke up in the morning that manna was stinking and full of maggots.

The pride of self-sufficiency dies a slow death. It resurrects so easily. And we have to be humbled by afflictions.

Some of you who suffered the loss of jobs and work know what the Israelites in the desert must have felt. It's a humbling thing to not be able to provide for yourself and your families.

And in the wilderness there was no unemployment benefits. They were shut up to the Lord. If the Lord didn't give they didn't have. And so every day for 40 years he did that to humble them he says.

To humble them. So it may be through financial problems that we have these lessons in humility. It may be through health problems that the Lord is teaching us and maintaining humility.

It may be family problems that expose our weaknesses and show just how much we need God. We're not the hotshot parents that we thought we were that could look down our noses so easily at other parents who had problem children.

And dear Christian have you not lived long enough to see how God knows perfectly how to humble you? Just look back look back in your life at the humblings that you have encountered from the Lord.

I don't need to look far this very week last week he knows just where to hit us. He knows just what prop to knock out from under us so that we're just left by ourselves to see how far we can get on our own strength.

Brethren, it's not far is it? Before we are affirming what our Lord Jesus said, I am the vine, you're the branch, and apart from me you can do nothing.

I'm utterly dependent upon you Lord. Do we understand what he's up to in these afflictions in our life? What is he after? Well he's out to create and maintain something of the beauty of Christ's humility in us.

And it is our pride alone that makes him work so hard in this area. But if God did not continually humble us what monsters of pride we would be.

I am convinced of it. What self-sufficient arrogant men and women, boys and girls we would be. How unfit and useless to the kingdom of God.

How ruinous to ourselves and dangerous to each other. And so God comes along and does us the greatest kindness in keeping us humble, keeping us dependent.

judgment. So there's Peter and he thinks he's so strong and so self-sufficient, so incapable of denying his Lord. He thinks he's so better than the rest of these guys that even if they should forsake you, Lord, never I.

And so the Lord says, well, let's put it to the test. And he leaves him to himself to teach him just what he's made of. And down he goes, not just once, twice, three times, sinning in ways he never thought he would or could.

And in that way he learned humility. Thomas Watson says, better is the sin that humbles me than the duty that makes me proud.

And it's a humble Peter who writes in his first letter, chapter 5, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand so that he may lift you up.

Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand. Afflictions are the mighty hand of God that comes upon us. And what is the desired response that he's looking for?

That he may lift us up. It is to humble ourselves. To put ourselves low before him. Not to chafe against his affliction and his suffering hand.

But to say, not my will, but yours be done. Samuel Rutherford was a godly Scottish minister in the 1600s.

And he loved the church of Christ. But even in his prime, he was taken away from his church. And slammed into a prison cell for years where he eventually would die awaiting trial.

And he who knew so much about affliction wrote to a friend and he said, humility is a strange flower. It grows best in winter weather and under storms of affliction.

God has been working through the winter weather to rot the pride, through the storms of affliction to fertilize this beautiful flower called humility.

I know this, that my repeated lessons in humility have never been unnecessary. They've always been needful. And if I haven't seen the reason why, I still need them.

I need them to keep me low and dependent upon the Lord. How kind a Savior to save me from my self-destructive pride? That's the third lesson.

The first lesson in humility will not be the last, but all throughout our lives we have this need for learning. And then very briefly, number four, none but the humble profit from God's word.

Psalms 25 9 says he guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Who does he teach his way? The humble. So Augustine says for those who would learn God's way, humility is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing.

You don't need to know Hebrew, Greek, or go to seminary, but you do need to humble yourself. Because he teaches the humble his way. So James tells us, humbly accept the word which is planted in you, which is able to save you.

So here comes the word of God. It may be in your reading the Bible on your own devotions. It may be at family worship, where a father's reading. It may be in the Sunday school, the preacher, but the word of God is coming to you.

How do you receive it? James says, humbly accept the word. Humbly accept it. Humility is the sweet teachableness that makes you ready to learn.

Like Nicholas with his club in his hand, Mr. Grout, will you teach me how to play golf? And so we come to the Lord Jesus with our Bible in hand and we say, will you teach me how to live?

Will you teach me how to think? Lord, I don't even know how to think. Your thoughts are higher than mine and my thoughts are where they shouldn't be much of the time. Would you teach me how to speak? I find my foot in my mouth and I find myself saying things that destroy others rather than refresh them.

Would you teach me to pray? I'm not very good at that either. Would you teach me to suffer? I have a hard time with suffering, Lord. Would you teach me? Here, teach me. Teach me how to be a better husband, how to be a better parent, a better teenager.

Teach me how to work, how to study, how to prioritize my life, how to spend my money. Teach me to deny myself, to love my neighbor as myself, to serve. I'm not very good, Lord, would you come and teach me?

Would you just teach me how to be a Christian today? That's the humility of accepting humbly the word as it comes to you.

And that's why Proverbs says, with humility comes wisdom. Because you're humble enough to receive instruction, humble enough to receive discipline, and to be better off for it, and to be truly wise.

But do you see a man who's wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him. Why so? Because he's too proud to be taught wisdom.

He's too proud to be taught anything. To have anyone tell him what to do, so the instruction and correction and rebuke and training and righteousness that comes from the word of God, it won't happen here.

I know, I know, is his quick rebuff, so full of himself that wisdom cannot enter. And so he remains a fool, for lack of humility. His pride holds him captive to his own ignorance and folly.

And it's not just a teenage disease. But with humility comes wisdom because he teaches the humble his ways.

Fifth lesson, harmony in relationships won't happen without humility. Harmony, unity, won't happen without humility. The New Testament's full of instructions on relationships and how to maintain harmony and unity.

And what you won't find is the discussion going on for long before humility shows up in the discussion. Ephesians 4, 1-3, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received.

Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love, and make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. in this matter of unity, you can't even get to first base unless you're completely humble.

Philippians 2-3, Paul's pleading for unity in the church there, and he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Peter says in 1 Peter 3-8, finally all of you, all of you, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brethren, be compassionate and humble.

Can't finish off talking about harmonious living without humility. 1 Peter 5-5, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.

Someone said most would freeze if they were only dressed in their humility. You are to clothe yourself, it's to cover all that you are. Humility. You can mark it down, harmony in relationships won't happen without humility.

Relationships go bad because of pride. Search it out. You have a breakdown in a relationship? Just like a dog on a trail, search it out and somewhere at the bottom you'll find pride.

Pride, a breakdown in humility. So how many problems in churches? How many problems in families, in schools, in teams, in work, in neighbors are driven by this lack of humility?

How many of these problems would just shrivel up and go away if only someone was humble enough to let the other one have the last word? To let the other one go first, have their way, have the most.

Just humble enough to take the short end of the stick, to bear with offenses without being offended. To be humble enough to initiate reconciliation with, I was wrong, and I'm sorry, will you please forgive me?

To be humble enough to say, I do forgive you and I don't keep a record of wrongs. To be humble enough to not care who gets the credit. What is it that keeps all of those things from happening?

Just one thing, it's pride. But where humility reigns, all those things are present and more, and the sweet result is harmony and peace.

And so, I trust that we can see that humility is basic to the whole Christian life. What do we need to live the Christian life? What do you need to live the Christian life?

Well, you say, I need grace, I need supernatural power from God. Well, he's the kind of God who gives grace to the humble. May we humble ourselves before the Lord.

And receive that grace that we need for life. So, what is humility? Kind of funny that we would end on this note after talking so long about what is humility?

I'll tell you what it's not. It's not acting humble when you really are proud. Pretended humility is the most ugly of all. Pride. But you know, that's the very best I can do on my own.

That's the very best. I can act humble in front of you. That's not humility. Humility is a state of the heart. It's a condition of the heart that comes from a right estimate of myself.

Just pure honesty with reality. It's more of a reaction or a result that comes from knowing who I am.

But John Calvin makes the point clear in his Institutes that you can't truly know yourself unless you know God. God. For a true view of yourself is not to be had by comparing yourself to others around you but a true view of yourself comes by comparing yourself to God who is over you.

when was it that Isaiah saw himself for what he was? Isaiah 6 it was when he saw the Lord high and lifted up in holiness that he saw how sinful he was.

He saw himself as he really was and cried woe is me. So John Owen as well says there's two things that are suited to humble the souls of men. A due consideration of God and then of ourselves.

It's only in beholding God that we begin to see ourselves as we truly are. You don't know yourself until you've seen God for who he is and that's one of the reasons we need to be in this book every day.

Because we're learning who God is and we're seeing ourselves for what we really are and that creates humility of heart.

So when you feel pride rising the very first stirrings of pride in your heart. You need to improve your thoughts of God.

You need to fill your mind with who he is. Flavel says they that know God will be humble. They that know themselves cannot be proud.

And we get to know God best in the Lord Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh and in seeing him we are seeing the father and in seeing him we are seeing perfect humanity and we're learning in him what humility is who says take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I am meek and humble in heart.

So when Paul would stir up the Philippian church to greater unity to greater humility he takes them to the Lord Jesus who being God became man stooped so low to become a servant to be made in our likeness and then humbled himself further and became obedient to death even to death on a cross.

So he who was in the highest place humbled himself to the lowest place. place the cursed place the place where sin is cursed that's where he went to the cross.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. That's the lesson. Carl Henry was a theologian that many admired for his brilliant mind but even more for his humility of heart.

When asked about it one time he said how can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross? And Isaac Watts said hundreds of years before him when I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride.

What I see on the cross makes pride look stinking ugly. I pour contempt on it. Oh then we need to spend more time in the pride suffocating atmosphere of Calvary.

If you had been there that day you would have seen above each of the three crosses a notice board hammered above the heads of the ones dying there and on that board was listed the crimes for which they were being crucified.

But as we weren't there that day we're here and as we look back upon that scene with New Testament eyes the Apostle Paul says read closely on that notice board and what you will find is the record of your sins that need to be punished and he took that record of debt and nailed it to his cross and you'll see there on that record board your sins and your pride that pride that seems to have its hand in all your sins and there you see it put upon your Savior and he dies in your place and takes the damnation that you deserve for it and never does pride look more ugly than there on the middle cross and never does humility look more awesome than there in my Savior who dies for my pride are you trusting in him oh survey the wondrous cross again let's turn to it in our hymnal 186 and while we survey it you cry out to the

Lord for mercy and you learn again from the Savior this beautiful flower of humility and ask him to produce it more and more in your life Lord Jesus that is our heart's cry we are the proud sinners and had you not humbled yourself to die for us there would be no song on our lips this morning thank you for what you've shown us of your your humility thank you for showing us our pride and once again stirring up something of a hatred for it and a desire to be made like our Savior so we look to you and we come to you Jesus and ask again for forgiveness of our pride and ask that you create in us that beautiful flower of humility all to the praise of your own name amen may may may