The Lowly Walk, Part 4

Here was a dear man who avoided the temptation to have his strengths turned into sins.

See? To get pushed over the edge with his power of personality or with his ability to communicate or with his logic and his knowledge of philosophy, he backed off. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's one of the greatest, maybe the greatest, temptations that you'll face today, and every day for that matter. I'm talking about the lure of pride, the tendency we all have to think more highly of ourselves than we should. But thankfully, the Bible lays out a clear path to growing in humility. John MacArthur points you to that path today on Grace To You as he looks at how to keep pride from sneaking into your thoughts. It's part of his current series from Ephesians, titled, Getting in Step with the Christian Walk. And with that, let's get to the lesson.

Here's John MacArthur. Take your Bible, if you will, and let's look at Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation to which ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, as I've been saying to you, we are examining what it means to walk worthy. That is the heart of this entire second section of Ephesians.

Look what he says. All lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Listen, he's talking about the cultivation of basic attitudes. The worthy walk is predicated on the right attitudes. And Paul here is talking about you cultivating the right attitudes in the heart. Five keys to a worthy walk, five necessary keys, and they're progressive. You go from humility to meekness, and then meekness produces longsuffering, and then longsuffering produces a forbearing love, and where there's forbearing love, there is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's a beautiful logical progression. Now, we're still at point one, all lowliness. Beloved, it's so hard, isn't it, to be humble?

So hard. It's just something you fight through day after day after day. Well, you know what I've noticed in my Christian life? I'm not humble enough, but I'm humble more often than I used to be, but not nearly enough. But I've seen as my life has grown, I've seen that I've learned to gain the victory over pride, not all the time, but more times than I used to be able to. And I guess it's because I've begun to concentrate in that area. One of the prayers of my heart constantly is, God, teach me true humility.

Teach me true humility. Somebody says to me, doesn't all that stuff go to your head? Don't you get to think, boy, you're really something? Well, I've had that thought.

Then my wife says to me, you never take out the garbage. And I realize I'm not so hot. You know, all you have to do is examine the reality about yourself, and you're not kidding anybody.

Lowliness, what does it mean? Let me show you something. When Jesus, our Lord, came into the world, He had a message to give. His first message was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Come on in the kingdom, get converted. And as soon as He had gathered about Him, a little band of believers, as soon as He had some children of the King, as soon as He had some subjects of the kingdom, He knew He had to tell them the basics of how to live. You know what the first thing He told them was? Look at Matthew chapter 5, and let's find out the bottom line on living like a king's child, the bottom line on being in His kingdom.

Matthew 5, verse 1, and seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them saying. Now He's got them there, and He's going to teach them. What's He going to teach them? They're the ones who've entered the kingdom. They're the ones who've become fellow heirs. They're the ones who are part of what He's doing in the world. They're the children of the King of kings.

What's He going to say? What is the basic principle? What is the basic stance that they must have? Well, notice in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. Listen, beloved, did you ever see such a pitiful bunch in your life as that bunch? Blessed are the poor in spirit. And by the way, Luke says blessed are the poor, period. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they who know they don't have anything, so they hunger after and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers, not the ones who stand up for their rights, but the ones who are concerned that everybody get a fair share. Blessed are they who are persecuted and reviled and accused. Boy, that is a pitiful bunch. But those are the humble, you see, and that's where it all begins.

Boy, I'm telling you people, we live in the day when it's all fouled up. We're so busy in the Christian world exalting people and making superstars out of them and patting them on the back and handing them awards and degrees and notoriety and fame and making something out of them that we have got the whole thing completely reversed. These are the people, Jesus said, these are the people that belong in my kingdom. These are the children of the king.

And there we are in Ephesians 4 with the same thing. Who is it that walks worthy? It's the lowly and the meek and those who suffer long and those who endure with love.

Those are the ones. It isn't the great and the famous and the loud and the boisterous and the prominent and the talented and the rich and the super-duper ones. And yet in Christianity there's so much of that going on. This is the child of the king. Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 5, 5. And you see, he was writing there to people who were in the pastorate, to those who would be the shepherds, to those who would stand out, those who would be the leaders of the flock, those who would get the recognition and get the honor and the love and the attention and the affection. And he says to them this, be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Keep your perspective, he said. Be clothed with humility.

He used a Greek word that was used to speak of the over-garment or the apron that a worker put on to keep that which he wore from getting soiled. And when you take all of your graces and all of that which is true about you, you deck it all over in humility, Peter says. But it's an elusive thing, isn't it? We suggested to you last time there are three keys to humility. One is self-awareness, seeing yourself for who you really are, a sinner and nothing more and worthy of nothing other than judgment.

Honesty dealing with your own sin, honesty dealing with your own weakness, honesty dealing with your own stupidity, dealing with your own inadequacies. We are not sufficient, 2 Corinthians 3, 5 says Paul, to think anything of ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God.

An honest self-awareness. Secondly, we said Christ awareness. Listen, if you follow 2 Corinthians 3 again through to the 18th verse, he says you better gaze on the glory of the Lord. And as you focus on the majesty of Jesus Christ, you'll get a true picture of yourself in relation to Him. Finally, God awareness.

And we read it, didn't we, in Psalm 8, when I consider thy works, the moon and the stars which thou hast made, what is man that thou art mindful of him? When I really am honest to see myself and my sinfulness and my inadequacy, when I really see the majesty of Jesus Christ as I gaze at his glory, when I know what God is like, I come out humble. Those are the perspectives that drive the heart to humility.

You're not going to get humble by sitting in a corner wishing you were. You'll gain humility by sitting in that same corner and reciting before God your sins and your failures and your inadequacies. And you'll gain humility by opening the pages of the Word of God and seeing Jesus Christ and God in all his majesty. And by the way, God may shove you along a little bit if you're not doing too well. But God has some things he uses to help us get humble. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul said that he had so many visions and so many revelations that the Lord had to give him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble.

The Lord may give you that. The Lord may put something in your life that just constantly bugs you. It's just a hurdle you never get over. It's just a reality you constantly face that makes you see yourself for who you really are. It's somebody you can't handle or you can't conquer.

It's a problem you can't solve. It's something about you that you can't seem to get over. And it's there just to keep you in the place where you understand who you really are. Humility. Total humility is the bottom line in the worthy walk.

Now let me talk about it for a minute. I was trying to look at my own heart and say, John, what is it that tempts you in areas of pride? What are the areas that you see people being tempted?

I just want to be practical. This is kind of a word study on the concept of lowliness. Where do we fight to really be humble?

Where does Satan really hit us? And I just listed some things. Let me share them with you.

They're just practical. Where are we tempted to be proud? First of all, I would have to say there's a sense in which we are constantly being tempted to be proud about what we do. Ability pride, let's call it. You know, you're always tempted at the point of your strength, you know, to get pushed over into pride.

Always. I've never been tempted to be proud about my fantastic mathematical ability. I can't do it.

I don't want to tell you what I got in algebra, but it wasn't good. I can't handle that kind of stuff. I am not tempted in that. I have never been tempted to boast about my tremendous musical expertise.

The best I can do is sing the melody line. Well, you know something? You know where I get tempted? I can preach because God has given me a gift. And so Satan says to me, boy, you know, you're really a great preacher. And I say, yeah, that's probably true.

I mean, they all come there and listen. That's how I get it. That's what I get.

And then I go into my office on Monday and there's a letter. I was in your church Sunday and I want you to know, I violently disagree with everything you said. I brought my neighbor who is so-and-so and you offended her.

I'm never coming back again. Well, Lord, thanks for helping me keep the perspective. Or else somebody will come up and this is funny. Somebody said to me once, we came here once to hear you, but we like our pastor better. I love that. See, that's great. Thank you, Lord. I probably wouldn't hear him.

I like him better too, you know. We're tempted to exalt ourselves in our own abilities. Let me give you an illustration of that. 1 Corinthians 2. You know, Paul was a well-educated man. He had so much going for him. Man, he'd been studying at the feet of Gamaliel. He was trained in the rabbinic traditions. He knew the Old Testament. I mean, he had so much that he could really rely on. He could have...and philosophical, he had a mind, a philosophical mind like a steel trap.

He could go right to the moment and capture the prey. Tremendous. Look at what he says.

I love this. 1 Corinthians 2, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Oh, I like that. He said, I didn't lay any of that philosophical stuff on you.

I didn't come in here with that logical wisdom from the human realm. And you know something else about Paul? He not only didn't use that, but you know, he had a lot of personal pizazz. The guy was a dynamo.

We know that because before he was a preacher, he was a Christian killer. I mean, the guy was an intense, fiery guy. And he had tremendous courage. I mean, you've got to have a lot of courage to be chasing around capturing Christians.

I mean, you've got to have a lot of boldness. He was sort of like a spiritual bounty hunter. I mean, this guy was a tough customer. Well, he could have come through his ministry like a bulldog, but I love it what he says in verse 3. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. You know, and then he could have preached all this philosophy, these big, long words and he could have come on so grandiose. But no, in verse 4, and my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Here was a dear man who avoided the temptation to have his strengths turned into sins. See? To get pushed over the edge with his power of personality or with his ability to communicate or with his logic and his knowledge of philosophy.

He backed off. And later on, you know, as I mentioned earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he says to these same people, he says, oh, he says, I really rejoice in my infirmities because when I'm weak, then I'm what? Strong. You know, we're all tempted like that. We're tempted where we have some strength to abuse it. We're tempted where we have some ability to want to flaunt it, to want to make a big thing out of it. You know, if we can do something well, we want everybody to know we do it well.

We want to sort of parade that thing. That's an area of temptation. Let's call it ability pride. It's kind of hard to stay humble about that. I guess the key is to remember that whatever you do, you do it because God gave you the ability to start with, right? Any gift, any talent useful to God is a gift of the Holy Spirit who divided through every man severally as he will. There's nothing to be proud about. It's all a gift of God.

Let's go to another area. Economic pride. You know, especially in our society, I couldn't preach this message in some places in the world, places where I've been. I couldn't talk about economic pride. They wouldn't even know what I was talking about.

I've stood in some places of the world on a mud floor with mud walls and a mud roof with sticks, and this wouldn't even relate. But in America, this is a problem. Economic pride. This is the boasting and the bragging and the parading and the throwing around of our riches, displaying them, trusting in them, exalting ourselves and our accomplishment by parading what we've gained. That's pride. This is the pride that says, look what I have.

I must be somebody to have what it takes to have this. See? Now we all get in that game. Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 8 for a minute and see an illustration of this. Deuteronomy verse 11.

Very vivid one. Beware, Moses talking to the people of Israel, beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I command thee this day. Now watch. Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold are multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up. I'll stop there for a minute. Moses says you're going to go and you're going to inherit all these wonderful things in the promised land. God's going to give you so much. You're going to have goodly houses. You're going to have herds and flocks and silver and gold.

And you know what's going to be the tendency? You're going to forget where you got it. See? And you're going to think you did it with your ability. You're going to think you're the self-made man.

See? You did it. And your heart will be lifted up in the next line and you will forget the Lord your God who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, that he might test thee to do thee good at thy latter end. You see, God had all this good stuff in mind. But you'll forget, He says, the day will come when you'll forget what He took you out of and you'll think you did this and you'll forget what you went through and you'll forget how for 40 years God made you absolutely dependent on Him and showed you that every good thing you ever had was from Him. Every meal you ever ate was from Him.

Every drop of water you ever drank was from Him. But the day will come, you'll get your goodly house and you'll get your fancy clothes and you'll have your gold and you'll have your silver and you'll forget the source of it all. And the point is you'll get indulgent and it'll be hard to remember God and you'll be lifted up and proud and you'll want to parade those things and say, look what I have done.

And it'll be out of perspective. And thou say in thy heart, verse 17, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. Look well what I've done. Check out what I've got and you'll know I'm successful. Look what I've done.

The parade is on. Everything we have, God gave us. Have we forgotten that? Are we parading it as if we got it? Are we parading it as if we created ourselves with the ability to gain it?

If we created ourselves in this country where we could earn it rather than someplace in the world where no matter how smart you were, no matter how clever you were, no matter how creative you were, the best you could do would be to have a two-room mud hut. Are you kidding yourself about who is the source of it all? Are you parading it as if you are? We all get tempted in that way.

It's so difficult to resist it. In Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 8, we read this, woe unto them who join house to house, who lay field to field till there is no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth. In other words, woe unto the person who just buys more and more and more until he's crowded people so far out of his life that there's nobody around.

He's just adding it to himself for his own ends. I guess it isn't stretching the point to say it was this kind of people who existed in the church at Laodicea because this is what our Lord said to them in Revelation 3 17. Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And the sin comes first of all in the boastfulness, second of all in the thought that you did it, and third of all in the wastefulness that parades riches rather than investing them in God's kingdom.

We're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, as he continues his study from Ephesians chapter 4 titled, Getting in Step with a Christian Walk. Now John, today you talked about how possessions and even our own strengths and abilities can tempt us away from a proper attitude of humility. And of course, when you think about what it is that can drive a person towards humility, an obvious answer is trials, times of great difficulty. And of course, when you're in the middle of a trial and life is upside down, it's not easy to see that trial as something good. But at that point, you're exactly where you need to be to live by faith and not by sight. This is what it means to trust God. It means to believe that he has a predetermined positive outcome for your good and his glory, even in the midst of the deepest trouble.

That is exactly what the Scriptures say. You are in God's care, and he is so serious about doing his work in you that he will cause trials to come into your life because they tend to do the most refining work. So you want to welcome those trials. And if you've lived long enough walking with the Lord as I have, you do embrace those trials, because it's exactly when you don't know the answer, you don't know the way out, you don't know the outcome, and you can't control it, that you're in the perfect place to have to trust the Lord and wait on his hand. And then when he does what he has planned to do to his honor and his glory and your spiritual good, you can rejoice and you can give him all the credit, and that is the whole point, isn't it, that all glory goes to him. I want to take a moment to remind you about our latest study guide, Benefiting from Life's Trials.

This is free to anyone who has never contacted us before. And the study guides give an outline of the sermon, put the entire context of the sermon into written form. There are about 15 to 20 pages devoted to each sermon in the study guide. And at the end of each sermon, we give you some helpful questions to prompt further study and lunch, even discussions in a small group setting. The latest volume is based on James chapter 1, titled Benefiting from Life's Trials. And since all of us are going to face them, and the Lord has a plan for us to benefit from them, you need to know how that works.

So here's the good news. If you have never contacted us before, we will send you a free copy of the brand new Benefiting from Life Trials study guide if you simply let us know you want it. Request your free copy right away, and we're hoping to get it to you so you can use the study guide next month when we air Benefiting from Life Trials on this broadcast. Take advantage of the free offer if you've never been in touch with us before.

Yes, do that, friend. This study guide will help you get all you can from what James chapter 1 teaches us about finding peace and even joy in the midst of our trials. Again, we'll send you Benefiting from Life's Trials for free if you've never contacted us before. Get in touch today.

Our number here is 855grace and our website, gty.org. This book will help you endure trials in a way that honors God, and it will show you how God uses suffering to strengthen you and make you more like Christ. The study guide Benefiting from Life's Trials is our gift to you if you've never contacted us before.

If you've been in touch before, it's available for a reasonable price. To pick up a copy, call 855grace or go to gty.org. Also our current study, Getting in Step with the Christian Walk, is worth reviewing again if you'd like to review it at your own pace. You can download these messages free of charge at our website. I would also encourage you to download the free Grace to You app. It gives you access to any of John's sermons on your smartphone or your tablet, the MP3s and the app, and a wide range of other free Bible study tools are all available at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Join us tomorrow when John looks at how the world tempts you to be proud and how you can win the battle against those temptations. That's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.