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[0:00] Please take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And we're going to be reading verses 18 through 31.

[0:21] ! 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18 through 31. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

[1:00] 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

[1:34] 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

[2:36] 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

[2:47] 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. So far, there's just two questions on this quiz.

[3:11] You can see that we've left out two words since we've dealt with these first two for a while. So scratch your memory. Don't say anything until we say it together, all right?

[3:25] Are you ready? Let's go. Humility, the great emptier. Faith, the great receiver. I'm out. Okay, good.

[3:38] I'm glad to see you've got those two. Humility empties us of what? Of our trust in ourselves, our own righteousness, our own strength, our own wisdom, so that we can hold out the empty hands of faith and receive all of that and more from Christ our Lord.

[3:57] Love, the great giver, and hope, the great motivator. Now, we're still back on number one.

[4:10] If you've wondered, where are we at in this study? We've not moved off of humility. We've seen its relationship to faith, and later we'll see its relationship to love and hope as well.

[4:21] But hope is the foundational grace. Hope is the soil of the soul in which every other grace grows.

[4:36] So no humility, no faith. No humility, no love. No humility, no hope. And so we're sticking a bit on humility due to its foundational importance.

[4:49] So I want to kind of back up a bit and just ask, what is humility? And to start with, we could say, from the way that Scripture has defined it, it's a lowliness of mind.

[5:03] It's a lowliness of mind, instead of a high-mindedness. It's a right and lowly view of ourselves, instead of an inflated, puffed-up view of ourselves.

[5:17] It's a realistic view of self, rather than an imaginary view of self. It's a true view of self, rather than a deceived view of self.

[5:29] And as important as this grace is, it's not something we're born with. By nature we're proud, and we think way too highly of ourselves. And this pride reigns at the very center of our being, and influences all that we do.

[5:45] So how do proud people become humble people? Well, perhaps several ways to come at that answer, but I want to posit before you that we need to know ourselves as we really are.

[6:04] How do proud people become humble? We get to know the real me. Now here's the problem. It's impossible for me to rightly know myself, without knowing God my maker.

[6:17] Since I've been made in His likeness. And have been made for Him, for relationship with Him. So, I'm lost in this world, as to who am I?

[6:28] And if you ever want to see lost people, just open your eyes and see in our own day. People don't know who they are. They don't know their identity. That's because they don't know God. And you see, we try to form our opinion of self, without God in the picture, we're always going to come up wrong.

[6:49] We cannot know ourselves without knowing God. We see light in His light.

[7:02] And so a sight of God's glory would give us a lowly view of ourselves. A humble view. Proud Saul of Tarsus met the glorified, risen Christ, and right down on his face he went.

[7:19] Thomas Watson put it this way, The stars vanish when the sun appears. So, humor me for a moment, and let's give some personality to these stars.

[7:31] There they are. In the night sky. They're shining. There's Betelgeuse. And he's saying, Look at me. How brightly I'm shining. And Sirius says, Well, look at me.

[7:43] Look at my light. And then, the sun comes up. And all the stars run to hide. They disappear.

[7:56] You can't see them. Why? Because of the surpassing greatness of that fireball in the sky that we call the sun. Our views of self, high as they be, wither in the presence of the God of glory.

[8:21] So, we think we're righteous, and we're doing all right. God will be pleased with me, and let me into heaven. And, like that Pharisee in the temple who was impressed with his own righteousness. As long as he was comparing himself with other sinners, right?

[8:38] But when the sun of righteousness comes into view, and we see the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, who is God, well then suddenly, that self-righteousness of mine, of which I was so proud, it seemed to be the filthy rags that it is.

[9:01] Now, I've been doing my laundry for two years now, and I've got a white wash rag that I wash regularly, and I put it into the washing machine with the detergent to get out all the dirt, and then I throw it into the dryer to fluff it up a bit, and then I fold it twice and take it into the bathroom and open the closet and lay it on top of the other seven wash rags that I've never used.

[9:28] And then I step back and I say, now wait a minute, I thought my wash rag was white, but it looks gray beside these other seven.

[9:44] You see, the point is, we don't know what clean is until we've seen clean. And we don't know what righteousness is until we've seen God's righteousness instead of comparing ourselves with other unrighteous people.

[10:07] 1 John 1, 5, God is light. In Him there is no darkness, no none at all. It's one of the few places you have a triple negative in the Bible where three times in one sentence it's saying God is light without any, any, any darkness.

[10:26] He's that clean. He's that pure. He's that white light. And that's the clean we encounter in the Son of God. And only in the light of His clean do we really know ourselves to be unclean.

[10:41] And only in the light of who He is then do we know who we are. And when we see what we are we say, wash me, Savior, and I shall be whiter than snow.

[10:55] Now, you see, we thought we were clean. We thought. Like the rich young ruler, we thought we were doing pretty well with the Ten Commandments. All these I have kept since I was a boy.

[11:07] And then Jesus tells us that God's commandments, the righteousness that God demands from His commandments is not just some outward conformity. Just stay out of bed with your neighbor's wife and you haven't committed adultery.

[11:21] Oh no. Jesus says the law, the righteousness requires, is that it makes demands on your mind and your desires just to lust after her is to commit adultery and break the seventh commandment.

[11:35] You see, the righteousness of the law of God is so high, much higher than what men make of it. It searches our thoughts, our motives, our attitudes, and it condemns us for secret anger.

[11:54] It condemns us for coveting what's not ours, for discontent, for pride, unforgiving attitudes.

[12:06] and that's why Jesus says unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[12:17] You haven't seen white until you've seen the righteousness of God that is the standard for entrance into heaven. Once we see that, we drop all this idea about getting to heaven on our own performance.

[12:31] and we cry at the feet of Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner. And he's ready to have us. We see the man, the God man, humbling himself, being tempted in every way like we are, yet without sin.

[12:49] Being obedient to his father's commandment. Obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross were brought low. That's righteousness.

[13:02] That's obeying all God's commands all the time. We think we're holy until we see something of the holiness of God in Christ that causes sinless angels to cover their faces with two of their wings or two of their hands and to cry incessantly, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.

[13:25] Now that's holiness. That's light. And when Isaiah in vision saw the Lord high and lifted up, His glory, His brilliance, His splendor filling the temple, he went down, down, down in his own estimation.

[13:45] Woe is me. Chapter 5 of Isaiah, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you. Chapter 6, he sees the Lord in His glory. Woe to me, I'm undone.

[13:58] I'm undone. It's not just Israel. I'm undone. I'm unclean. And I show it with an unclean lip. Because what comes out of our lips is what's in our hearts.

[14:09] And I live in the midst of a people who are unclean in lip and heart. And we say, Isaiah, where did you get such a low, humble view of yourself? Because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.

[14:27] I've seen what white is. And I'm not white. And he flies to God for mercy. So what is humility?

[14:38] Well, it's a fitting response to seeing myself in light of who God is. it's a response to this is God and this is me.

[14:50] Oh, okay. There's only one response and it's down here. Not up where it was before I knew God in myself. John Flavio, the English Puritan, said, they that know God will be humble.

[15:05] They that know themselves cannot be proud. They that know God, you see, it covers both. Knowledge of God, knowledge of man. They that know God will be humble.

[15:15] They that know themselves cannot be proud. So humility, true humility is the byproduct of knowing ourselves in the light of who God is. Do you want to grow in humility?

[15:30] Then grow in knowledge of God and of yourself. Without this knowledge, the best we can do is try to act humble. A few things are uglier than pretended humility.

[15:46] You know, a false pretended humility allows us to be proud of our humility. That's not true humility at all. You can't shortcut humility. You don't get to humility directly.

[15:57] You get there as a byproduct of knowing God and knowing yourself. And knowing self in the light of who God is. Ah, I take my place lowly before Him.

[16:09] So let's just take a brief look at God and self to see how this works. How does the knowledge of God and self produce humility?

[16:21] Four points today. First, God is the uncreated creator and we are the created creatures. This is pretty basic, isn't it? In fact, these are two of the first things we learn about God and self right off the bat when we open our Bibles.

[16:39] Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And 26 verses later, we read that He created mankind, male and female, in His own image as well.

[16:55] So we've learned something about God and we've learned something about ourselves. He's the uncreated creator. I'm His creature. And the only fitting response to that is to take my place lowly before Him.

[17:15] It's He who has made us and not we ourselves. So we're His. His to love and take care of. Yes. We sang that.

[17:26] Glorious reality. His to inform and teach. His to command. We're His to be commanded. We're His. That He might require obedience of us and require exclusive worship from us.

[17:41] I'm His and therefore I'm not my own. I'm not my own to choose my own way. But His to command in His way. Not my own to complain about His commands or to complain about His providence and trials in my life that He's assigned for me.

[18:00] No, I'm His. I'm His. He's the creator and the preacher. And right out of the gate then, that requires humility, doesn't it?

[18:12] It requires humility to bow our will to His as a rightful King, Lord and lawgiver and judge. The one who made us, who owns us, who has potter rights over us to do with the play as He pleases.

[18:27] Jesus. Now, you notice God doesn't start out trying to prove His existence to us. It just says, in the beginning, God.

[18:45] Before the universe had its beginning, I was already there. The eternally existing God, the uncreated creator of all things, including you. That's who I am.

[18:55] That's who you are. He's not trying to prove His existence to us. He's just stating it. That's who I am. And He teaches us who He is.

[19:07] And He teaches us who we are. And He expects us to believe it. Now, I wasn't there when the universe was created. But He was. And He's telling me how He did it.

[19:19] I've never seen God. I've never seen anything made out of nothing. I've never seen someone speak and suddenly things pop into existence. Let there be light and there's light.

[19:33] He speaks a word and sun and moon and stars all find their place in the whole universe by the billions of billions. I've never seen that.

[19:46] And I say this cannot be. These things just don't happen in our world. And what have I done? Well, I put myself above God's word. And now truth is up to what I think.

[20:01] I'm the arbiter of truth. I'm the judge of what's reality and unreality. I'm the judge of whatever is real. And if something that God's word says doesn't make sense to my big brain, well then it's wrong, it's false, it's not true.

[20:20] And you see right from the beginning, Genesis 1-1, what is God demanding? He's demanding that we put our brains under his word.

[20:32] That's humility. It's to find a place. Where is our place? What's down here? It's not judging him, it's letting his word judge me. And so we see that in the Bible.

[20:44] The way it starts right off, it's a demand for humility. Why? Just because he's God and I'm man, he's creature. John Calvin said, the beginning of faith is humility by which we yield our senses as captives to God.

[21:02] That's what pastor was talking about as we came to read the scriptures and to have them preached. Before we even hear what God is going to say to us, we come and we say, speak Lord, your servant is listening.

[21:13] I will do, I will believe whatever you say. That's how the Bible starts. A demand for us to submit our minds, to put our minds below his.

[21:26] You know, the New Testament starts the very same way. You say, well let's go to the New Testament. How does the Gospels begin? Matthew and Luke, they start with this amazing claim that Jesus was born of a virgin.

[21:40] Those things don't happen. That's scientifically impossible. And right away, we're being confronted. Your mind must go under, John.

[21:51] And if you refuse to bow, you will never understand who this baby in the manger is. That he's God, who's existed forever in the Father and the Spirit. You'll never understand why he's come to save sinners.

[22:04] You'll never understand how you can be saved by him. You've got to bow. I'm the creator, you're the creature. So it's a call to bow not only our wills to God, but to bow our very mind, our judgment, to what his word says about him and about us.

[22:28] And when we do that, and we see what he says about himself and what he says about us, well, what room is there for pride? We humble ourselves before him.

[22:43] Well, humility then. Just a fitting response to who God is and who we are. God is creator. We're creatures.

[22:54] The second humbling truth about God himself, God is self-sufficient in need of nothing. I am totally dependent in need of everything.

[23:05] Okay. one of God's names is I am. I am that I am.

[23:19] I exist in myself, the only independent being in the universe with no needs outside of myself. What I am, I am and will ever be.

[23:32] I do not change. Acts 17, 24, and 25, the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth.

[23:45] He's not served by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. So the creator God doesn't need us.

[23:58] He doesn't need anything. whereas we, on the other hand, desperately need him for everything. Do you know we can't even keep ourselves alive?

[24:14] Don't care how healthy you eat. Don't care how carefully you drive. We can't keep ourselves alive.

[24:27] We can only take our next breath if he gives it. We can only take the next bite of food if he opens his hand and gives it. We need him because he gives life and breath and everything else.

[24:45] Things we can't exist without. A proud man doesn't like to admit that. That he's poor and needy. And so he says, I have need of nothing.

[24:55] I'm self-sufficient. I can do for myself. Our children learn those words very early in life. Do myself. Don't need you dad. Don't need you mom. We like to cling to this proud dream that we're self-sufficient.

[25:11] But it's a lie as sickness and death are daily proving. So God is self-sufficient. I am totally dependent. And what's true in the physical realm is just as true of the spiritual realm.

[25:24] I came into this world as spiritual stillborn. Spiritually dead. Alive physically, but dead spiritually.

[25:36] Unresponsive toward God. Dead in sin. I can't make myself alive to God. I'm very alive to my sin.

[25:47] But I can't make myself alive to God as a dead man, spiritually. I have to be born again. I have to be given new birth into this spiritual life by the Holy Spirit.

[26:03] And even once I'm alive spiritually, I can't keep myself alive spiritually. All spiritual life is in the Son. He who has the Son has life.

[26:15] And all spiritual life is in Christ the vine, the fruitful vine. and I only remain alive as a branch by remaining in Him.

[26:31] So I can't make myself alive spiritually. I can't keep myself alive spiritually. Again, He is the self-sufficient one in need of nothing.

[26:42] I am the totally dependent one in need of all things. And knowing this about God and about myself is meant to humble me. It is to make me humbly thankful for everything I have.

[26:57] Because it has been given to me. It is to bring me continually to Him confessing I am a poor and needy sinner and I need everything from you.

[27:09] And to hold out the hands of faith to receive from me. I need you every hour. Every hour I need you. Oh, bless me now, my Savior.

[27:21] I come to Thee. Don't find it in myself. And so empty I come to Thee. God is totally self-sufficient.

[27:33] We're dependent. The third thing we learn is that God is holy. We are sinful. We've talked about this. God is holy. Isaiah saw that in Isaiah chapter 6.

[27:43] But we're sinful. He's untainted with sin. Not the slightest bit of evil or impurity or injustice. We're shot through with sin and evil. The Bible teaches there's no part of us that isn't polluted by evil.

[27:58] Our minds as it thinks, our affections as they desire, and love and hate, and our will as it chooses, it's all been polluted by sin. So far, we haven't heard of any of us in Grace Fellowship Church being infected with the coronavirus.

[28:18] And for that we thank the Lord. Amen. But every one of us has been infected with sin. We're born sinners, which is to say every one of us is infected with the disease of pride.

[28:36] Because there's nothing more proud than sin. Let me say that again. There's nothing more proud than sin. Sin is against the Holy One, God our Creator.

[28:49] It's breaking His laws. It's foaming His authority. It's refusing to do His holy will. It's disagreeing with Him. It's exalting self above Him. So when we sin, we're saying, what I think is more important than what you say.

[29:09] I know better than you what's best for me. That's arrogance, isn't it, for a preacher to say to fear. When I sin, I say what I want right now is more important than what you want.

[29:21] You say don't, and I say I will if I want. And you say do, and I say I won't if I don't want. that is oozing pride, isn't it? My pleasure being served is more important than your pleasure being served right now.

[29:40] Who do we think we are? Back to first things. We're creatures of this holy God. And we're not just saying these things to the neighbor who's telling us what to do.

[29:53] we're saying that to our holy creator, lawgiver, king, and judge. Nothing more proud than sin. And we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we all like sheep have gone astray and we've chosen our way instead of his life.

[30:10] We're sinful. Have you dissected that word sinful? We're full of sin. And God is holy. Full of holiness through and through.

[30:24] And being holy means he hates sin. He hates evil. He hates injustice. He hates pride and prejudice. And so sin is obnoxious to him.

[30:36] And he's determined to punish it wherever he finds it. And his determination is so great that even when ours was placed upon his son, he still punished his own son as well. That's just how holy he is.

[30:50] His holiness instinctively recoils against sin with wrath. His wrath is as great as the fear that is due him. So what are we? He's holy.

[31:00] We are wrath-provoking sinners. Just a breath away from hell. So what's you doing? Well, it's the fitting response to knowing that about God and about myself.

[31:15] I want to bring me low. It ought to just knock the wind right out of my pride. I want to annihilate it and bring me begging for mercy where mercy is to be found.

[31:28] In God's sight and God's savior. And that brings us to the last point. Four things that we're looking at that show us God and show us ourselves and the byproduct should be humility.

[31:38] The fourth thing is the gospel. God's way of salvation. And what it teaches us about God and about ourselves. And there's many passages about the gospel.

[31:49] I've chosen one that's probably familiar to all of you. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. I want you to be looking. What does it teach me about God? What is the gospel?

[32:01] This way of salvation. Teach me about God and teach me about myself. For it's by grace that you've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourself.

[32:11] It's the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. So the gospel. Let's start right from the top. It's by grace. You have been saved. This is the way of salvation.

[32:23] It's the way of grace. It means it's totally undeserved by us. You haven't done anything at all to earn it. Because the truth is you couldn't do anything at all to earn it.

[32:35] You remember once we've sinned against this God, it goes on our record in heaven. And we've done it more than once. So there's that record.

[32:47] What could we do to remove our sin from God's record book? There's nothing. You could do good works the rest of your life.

[32:58] It would take one of your sins off of his record book because you owe him good works. That's why he created you. You see, we're helpless.

[33:08] We can't save ourselves. We can't remove our guilt and condemnation before him. And it's good news to know that salvation is all of grace. All of grace.

[33:21] It's by grace that you've been saved. Secondly, it's through faith that you've been saved. By grace through faith. And faith is not some meritorious work that God says, wow, he's now earned salvation.

[33:34] He's got faith. No, faith is just the empty hands that we bring to receive Christ and all of his benefits of salvation. his righteousness, his atonement, his forgiveness, justification, sanctification, redemption, glorification.

[33:51] We come with empty hands. That's what faith is. It's the instrument of receiving Christ and salvation in him. And as we're learning, faith is the great receiver.

[34:05] And you were saved by grace through faith. furthermore, we're told that this salvation by grace through faith is not from yourselves.

[34:17] It's the gift of God not by works. I want you to notice the double negatives surrounding one positive statement. The two negatives, not from yourselves.

[34:29] This salvation is not from yourselves. You're not the source of it. The second negative, not by your works. Did you know that?

[34:40] Salvation has nothing to do with your works. Your works already condemned you, so they're not even in the picture when we start talking about salvation. He's looking at something else, and it's not your works.

[34:53] So there's the two negatives, not from yourselves, not by your works, but positively, salvation is the gift of God. Now gifts aren't earned, they're given. salvation is not an award to be achieved, but a free gift to be received.

[35:10] Toby Bala told us that when he gave his testimony. Salvation, not an award achieved, but a gift received.

[35:25] That's what he's saying to us. Salvation has never been given as a reward to someone for doing good. it's only ever been given an undeserving people as a pure gift of grace.

[35:39] A staggering gift it is when wrath was all we deserved. So what's the conclusion? There's the gospel in a nutshell, as Paul gives it to the Ephesian church.

[35:50] What's the conclusion drawn about salvation by grace through faith that's not of yourselves and is not by works, but it's a free gift of God? Well, it's so that no one can boast.

[36:07] Isn't it? That's how the verse ends. So that no one can boast. This takes boasting right out of our mouths. We can't boast if we've understood the gospel.

[36:19] If you get done with the gospel and think, well, I'm a little to be praised here in this and what I contributed, you haven't understood the gospel. Because the gospel is so designed by God intentionally that it leaves no room for boasting.

[36:33] There's absolutely nothing, zilch, zero about the way of salvation that leaves any ground for a man to boast before God about anything of himself.

[36:46] At every single point, the gospel cuts the feet right out from under us. It's a gift by grace through faith so that no one can boast.

[36:59] You'd think that men had a problem with boasting. Well, we do. And that's why the gospel is so devastating to our pride.

[37:13] So, consider the gospel just from beginning to end. Where did our salvation begin? Chosen in him before the creation of the world.

[37:26] Ephesians 1, 4. He chose to save you. Now, what is there to boast about that? Had nothing to do with any good words of your own. Unconditionally chose you out of the pool of sins to save you.

[37:41] The only thing we have contributed in salvation, as R.C. Spohr used to say, is the sin that makes it necessary. That's all we brought to the table. Our sin. We do all the same, and God does all the same.

[37:56] Our lostness is all our fault. Our salvation is all his fault. And the only way we could be saved from suffering the wrath of God for eternity is if the one qualified sacrifice would be made for us.

[38:16] It's if God's own son, the only sacrifice that could atone for our sins, if he would send him to become a man and to become sin for us and then him to punish him with his wrath, then we could escape that wrath.

[38:39] But would he do that? Would he give his son, the son he's loved for all eternity to come and die for stinking proud rebels that thumbed him?

[38:55] He did. He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. What about this? What about the son of God? Would he obey the father?

[39:06] Would he come willingly? Oh, he has. He's laid down his life for his sheep voluntarily. Now, what is there to be proud about?

[39:19] That's what secured my salvation. That's what one justification, righteousness, standing before God, relationship, reconciliation. It was there on Calvary.

[39:32] When Christ was made sin and bore the sins of his people, when his father laid on him the iniquities of us all and then punished him for those iniquities by pouring out his wrath upon him, the punishment that brought us peace was on him.

[39:50] And by his stripes were healed. What's there to brag about that? We couldn't do the first thing that's worth saving ourselves.

[40:02] You could tell me until you're blue in the face. John, you're a sinner. You need to turn from your sin and come to Jesus. You need to come and ask Jesus to save you from your sin.

[40:13] Now, I love my sin. You did too. And our love for our sin was so strong the Bible says it has. It owned us.

[40:24] We were enslaved. It wouldn't let us go. And we couldn't shake it. We loved our sin. We'd never come to Jesus and say, save me from my sin. Or we might say, save me from hell.

[40:36] But never save me from my sin. Not unless God first sent his spirit to my heart to bring me to life, to change that heart so that I love what I ought to love and hate what I ought to hate.

[40:51] So that I would come and say, Jesus, save me from my sin. Make me your child. What's there to brag about the new birth?

[41:06] Any holiness, any good that's now in my life is because God made me a new creation and is now at work in me, both giving me the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

[41:18] Every holy thought, every righteous act, every good deed, he's the author, he's worked in me to will and to do it. What is there to brag about?

[41:30] My response to this so great salvation is so lacking. I'd have been servant, son, ready to do the Father's will morning to night, whatever he asks of me and I find my will still bristling at some of the things he asks in some of his commandments.

[41:52] I'm much to confess. What is there to brag about? I live by grace. And so we have to never persevere in holiness to the end.

[42:06] Not unless he holds me. Not unless he keeps me, confonds me. Not unless he defends me and strengthens me.

[42:18] He goes on saving me. myself. Salvation is the work that he began. And it's the work that he will continue until the day of Jesus Christ when he will complete it.

[42:33] How will he complete it? How will I be perfected? I'll see Jesus as he is and I'll be made like him. That's his work. Begun in time, but planned from eternity.

[42:50] Carried on in time, all by God, finished by God. What is there to boast about? Well, there isn't.

[43:01] And that's why the song in heaven is all worthy as the lamb. Slain. there's no worthy as me for having been smarter than other people to decide for Jesus.

[43:15] No. When, when, Lord, did you see me feeding the hungry, caring for the prisoner?

[43:29] When did you see me? I'm not coming to heaven with my tickle of good, good works ready to receive some reward. When, when? He'll say, when you did it unto me, you did it to the least of these.

[43:41] When you did it to the least of these, my brother, you did it to me. Tell me to it. Oh, oh, why am I on the right hand of the Lord Jesus in that day?

[43:54] You're not on the left hand. There's people more moral than me on the left hand of Jesus. They're going to hell because they never came to Christ. Why am I the right hand of the Lord? Grace, grace unto him.

[44:09] Come, you were blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world, before the creation of the world. You're blessed by my Father. It's all blessing, it's all grace, it's all gift.

[44:24] And that's why 1 Corinthians 1 ends as it did in passage retro, as Paul traces through salvation, and how Christ chooses to save ignoble nobodies.

[44:38] Why does he do it? Well, to humble the proud, to humble the wise, to humble the strong, so that, so that, no one may boast before him.

[44:54] it's because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. Have you ever wondered why am I a branch in the vine? It's because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

[45:11] Therefore, as it's written, let him boast, boast in the Lord. Oh, how the gospel humbles proud sinners. What a proud Pharisee, what a holier-than-thou Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus was.

[45:24] Just ask him how righteous he was. He would have told you, Philippians chapter 2, faultless. That's how righteous I was. Faultless.

[45:36] Then the gospel came in power to his heart. Before he's laid down to die, he's described himself as the least, less than the least of all the saints.

[45:55] So find the most, the weakest, most worldly true Christian in the world. Paul says, I'm less than the least.

[46:06] I'm less than the least. He says, line up the worst sinners, and he says, I'm the chief of sinners. Is this the same guy that said he was flawless?

[46:19] Yeah, same guy. only in one sense the old guy died and the new guy lives. He's been made new. He's a new creature. He's met Jesus. He's seen true righteousness, true glory, and he's found his rightful place at his feet.

[46:38] He's found mercy from the Lord. There's nothing like the gospel to show us who God is and who we are, to show us the enormity of our sins against him.

[46:51] And if he was mean, we might have some kind of excuse that he's so good, he's so kind, he's so great, and yeah, it was him, this loving God that we sinned against so often.

[47:06] And so the gospel, it brings us well to where we only beg, God be merciful to me, a sinner. But it's also through the gospel that we need the living Lord, Jesus Christ, and come to know him.

[47:20] And one of the most striking things about Jesus is his humility. That he was very God, she stooped so low to save his proud enemies. And it's in the gospel that he calls us to himself, he says to us, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[47:38] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble, lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.

[47:50] You see, the gospel invites us to Jesus. Jesus himself in the gospel invites us to come to him, and he's humble. And when we stick our neck in the yoke with this humble, lowly Jesus, we learn from him.

[48:08] We learn humility from him. And never does our humility appear more ugly, and when we look at the other side of the yoke and we see what Jesus is doing.

[48:22] I know what I'd be doing in that situation, but look what he's doing. The humble, lowly Jesus. I'm learning from him.

[48:33] I'm learning what it is to humble myself before God. I learn from Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. next to him, our pride never feels more out of place.

[48:50] So one of the most beautifying things about the gospel, the way it makes proud sinners humble, makes them to bear the stamp of their Savior and Lord. Have you been humbled by the gospel of Jesus Christ?

[49:05] Have you found your rightful place in his feet? Are you being humbled by the gospel of Jesus Christ? Are you still finding your place? That's why the gospel is for saints as well.

[49:18] We constantly need to remember who he is and who we are. They that know God will be humble. They that know themselves cannot be proud.

[49:32] Pride only thrives in the atmosphere where God and self are not known or are forgotten. and let's choke out pride by walking with God in the scriptures and putting our neck in the yoke with Jesus.

[49:48] Walking with Christ, morning, sun up to sundown. Let's walk with him, let's live with him, let's learn from him and let him teach us who he is and who we really are.

[50:02] Don't you feel that surely there's enough about God in me that is about to make me humble? It's what caused Robert Murray McShane, that Scottish preacher that did more before he died at 29 than most of us ever do in a lifetime.

[50:21] He said, oh, for true, unfeigned humility. Oh, for true, unfeigned humility. I know I have cause to be humble, yet I do not know half of that cause.

[50:35] which is to say we need God himself to teach us these things in a way that we humble us. Remember we're looking at the graces of the Christian life.

[50:49] Humility is a grace. It's the work of God in our hearts. It's not, is it not itself humbling to know that we cannot by ourselves make ourselves home.

[51:07] Well, let it empty us there and bring us to Christ for humility. Let's go together. We come, Lord Jesus, because you invite us to come.

[51:23] We come blushing because we are proud and you are not. that even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

[51:40] so we confess. Forgive us our sin. Forgive us our pride. And give us more of this true grace of humility that we not just act humble but that we know you and we know ourselves better.

[51:58] And the result is that we walk humbly before you. so reveal more of yourself to us. Reveal more of ourselves to us in such a way that we would be kept low before you and that we would be more thankful for your amazing grace.

[52:20] And we would be more joyful at your great salvation and we would be more quick to give you all the glory. We ask it in your precious name, Jesus.

[52:32]  Amen. Amen.