Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. The Bible clearly reveals pride to be offensive to God. This podcast series continues today, highlighting the importance of humility and the life of the believer. That does not seek to exalt itself, parade itself, assert itself, vaunt up itself, prideful arrogance. All of this is absolutely totally opposite from a lowliness of mind, which simply means this, that we have the right, balanced, proper, Godly view of ourselves. You see, one of the reasons that people are not interested in humility is because they have a wrong conception of it. Their idea of humility is that if you have a humble spirit, you are what? What are you if you have a humble spirit?
You're weak. That's what people think that, well, humility means weakness. Humility does not mean weakness because Jesus was certainly a humble man.
So it's not a matter of being weak at all. That is a misconception of what humility is all about. Now, let's look at some passages of Scripture. What did Jesus teach about all this? Let's begin in probably one of the most familiar passages. Let's look, if you will, in Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. This is His wonderful, beautiful invitation to all of us and to those who are lost, but more to others also. Look at this, if you will. Matthew 11, chapter 11, verse 28.
Come to me, Jesus said. All of you who are weary, you're tired, you're worn out, you think I can't go another step further. I'm just going to hang it up. And they're heavy laden. You're burdened down.
In fact, you think you'll just scream. You just absolutely can't handle anymore. Weary and heavy laden. He says, come to me and I'll give you rest. That is, I'm a servant and I want to help you. I understand where you are. I have compassion for you. I care for you. I want to do whatever I can to give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.
And you see, in those days, the Pharisees, they yoked everybody with laws and regulations and rules and legalism that made people despise them and wonder about God. He says, take my yoke upon you. That is my learning, my teaching.
Here's what you'll find. He says that I am gentle in heart. I am gentle and humble in heart. Jesus said of himself, I am gentle and humble in heart. You'll find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus said about himself, I'm humble in spirit. I'm gentle in spirit. You don't have to worry about coming to me. I'm not going to put some other yoke on you. I'm not going to burden you down. I'm not going to cause you to be weary. I'm not going to wear you out.
I'm not going to end your life. I want to be what you need me to be. Jesus said, I come to you as a servant.
Come to me and let me help you. That's one of the things he said. Now, I want you to look at another passage, if you will, that is also very interesting. I want you to look, if you will, at Matthew chapter 18 for a moment. Matthew 18, verse 1. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Now, more than likely, according to some other passages of Scripture, they sort of had themselves in mind. Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? You know, he had to get on the case two or three times about, Well, now, I cannot be on your right hand. I want to be on your right hand. Real humility.
Somebody else on your left hand. Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Listen to what Jesus said, and I'm sure he absolutely shocked them. He said, He called a child to Himself and said before them, said Him before them. And He said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Did you hear that? Unless you humble yourself like a little child. Now, watch this. More than likely, that child had their mind on something else, maybe to rub it in the sand or whatever it might be, or looking around. He called this child Himself. The child didn't hesitate.
Came right there. The child submitted. The child humbled his own will to the will of the Lord Jesus and came to Him. He said, Now, unless you become like a little child, He says you will not be converted. You will not enter the kingdom of heaven, which simply says this. You cannot get into heaven until, first of all, you submit. You humble yourself before the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge your sinfulness.
You're not going to get in no matter what anybody tells you. They can take the scriptures and tell you all kind of things. But I'm telling you, that verse is a statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He says, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. That is, there has to be a change in your life.
What's that change? That is deflating your ego of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and acknowledging that you are a sinner before God. Now watch this. Verse four. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Now, what does that mean? He's simply saying this, that in heaven, humility is an attribute of great honor. It is recognized as a heavenly attribute.
It is an attribute God wants to find in every single one of us. So He sets this child before Him and He says, whoever then humbles himself as this child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. That is, if you want to know what heaven's all about and you know what the Spirit is, certainly the only person who will have honor and glory and all the rest in heaven will be God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
We will be His servants, living in great joy and great indescribable bliss, serving Him and honoring Him for all eternity in the ways in which He will put us to work serving Him. Well, let me give you a couple of illustrations of how Jesus taught this whole idea. For example, look, if you will, in Luke chapter eighteen.
There are two passages in the Luke chapter eighteen. And you recall this is the parable of the two men who went up to pray. And Jesus was teaching humility in lots of different ways. And so I've given you a different ways here.
Look at this. Verse nine, He said, He told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Now He's talking about humility and pride. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now, the publicans, the tax collectors, the other Jews hated them because they were traitors to Israel.
They were collecting taxes for Rome and usually collected more than they should have because they put in their own pocket. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other people. Swindlers, unjust adulterers are even like this tax collector over here.
I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me. The sinner, not just a sinner, the sinner looking upon himself is just horrible. Jesus said, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
You know what that says? If we're lifting up ourselves, if it's self-exaltation, it's not of God. If it's self-exaltation, it can't be of God.
We're to glorify Him and honor Him, and we're to live the kind of life that exalts the Son, not ourselves. And he says two men went up to pray, and God never even heard the other one. He might as well have just been saying it in the dirt.
Why? Because all he did is parade his own self-righteousness. You've heard people say, well, you know, I'm not the worst person in the world. Well, anybody might be able to say that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say I'm to compare myself with somebody else. I'm to compare myself with the holy standard of Jesus Christ, which always be way down here somewhere.
And some people have personalities that maybe you don't like. Does that mean that they're worthless? No. We're all the children of God, but we have no right to claim self-righteousness because remember this, the only righteousness.
Now watch this. It's very important. The only righteousness which you and I have, that is the only real true good within us, that is the righteousness which we have, which God has declared that his children are righteous, is the righteousness that has been accrued to our account, that has been placed by our name, that has been given to us, that indwells us, that with which we are clothed, the Bible says, which is the gift from God. And we are clothed with righteousness which came through the death of Jesus Christ, whose perfect righteousness paid our sin debt in full and made it possible for us to be righteous. Not righteous in our own merits and behavior, but righteous because it is a gift from God. And that in itself should help us to understand that apart from his righteousness we're nothing. You take Jesus out of any one of our lives for a few moments and listen, every single one of us would be shocked probably at what we might do.
If you take God totally out of our lives. He said people who pray like that, exalt themselves like that, he said God doesn't hear that. Look at the 20th chapter for a moment. Just go over one chapter there, 20th chapter of Luke.
Listen to what he says. Another simple lesson in what humility is all about, 20th chapter. And look if you will in, let's start down here in verse 45. And while all the people were listening, he said to the disciples, beware of the scribes who like, listen to this, who love to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings. Hello, Rabbi. Happy to see you this morning, Rabbi. Greetings to you, Rabbi.
In the marketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses and for appearance sake offer long prayers, these will receive greater condemnation. It isn't enough to be religious. It is a matter of having Jesus as our Savior, Lord and Master, and walking in submission to His will and to His way, which is the only right way. Now, let's go to one last passage. Go, if you will, to John chapter 13.
The absolute essentiality of humility in our life. Now, remember what's happening here. This is the night before Jesus is crucified. He's sitting around the table with His disciples. And I want you to begin in chapter 13, verse three. This is very important.
Watch this. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God. Jesus knew exactly who He was. He knew exactly what was happening. He knew where He was in this time of His life. He knew what had happened, where He came from.
He knew exactly where He was going, and He knew that it was going to be soon. So here He is now, sitting there talking with His disciples. And He said, the Bible says, Now, here's what I want you to see.
Here is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Lord of glory whose majesty and brilliance and radiance and power and honor and dominion is absolutely unequaled, unexcelled by anything and anybody who has ever excelled in the face of this earth about anything. And here He is sitting among them. He gets up, the living God gets up, and with His bowl of water and towel, He begins to wash their feet.
Now, that's one thing, but I want you to think about this for a moment. Here is the ultimate in humility until we get to the cross. He comes to the treasurer of the group whose name is Judas. And He kneels before Judas, whom He loved, to whom He'd given Himself, to whom He'd been loyal.
And here is Judas. And He kneels before Judas and begins to wash the feet of the man who will betray Him for thirty pieces of silver, the man who will give Him a counterfeit kiss in the garden, who will identify Him as the enemy, the man who will turn Him over to His enemies. And Jesus washes His feet. One time a friend came to me and he said to me, he said, God has told me to wash your feet.
I said, no. He said, God told me to wash your feet. He kneels down in front of me and the next thing I know, He's untying my shoes.
He takes off my shoes, takes off my socks and washes my feet and He dries them with a towel that He brought with Him. How do you think I felt? I'll tell you how I felt. I felt humiliated because you know what the real problem was? Pride in my heart. You washed my feet. You shouldn't be washing my feet. Why are you going to wash my feet?
I know why. But you see, there must have been a streak of pride in me that to have someone kneel down before me and take off my shoes and my socks and wash my feet in the name of Jesus Christ, I saw something inside of me that I knew I had to deal with. It was just pure, ugly pride.
That's what it was. You know what He did to me? He humbled me.
He humiliated me, but He humbled me because I had to get in the prayer room after He left and cry out to God, please, please, please take out of my life anything that looks like that kind of awful, ugly pride. I wonder what would happen if somebody came to you and said the same thing. Would you say yes?
Or would you hesitate? And you may hesitate like I did, and I could give all kinds of reasons, well, you know, this is not convenience in my study, and somebody may walk and they won't understand. None of that had anything to do with it. The problem was pride. And I simply want you to see that in this whole message, a subject that most people don't even, they're not even interested in. They don't even think it's important. It's the heart of the Christian life. It's the prerequisite to salvation. It's the prerequisite to answered prayer. It's the prerequisite to God's blessings and contentment and joy and peace and happiness in our life. Because what it says is, it says, I've laid down my way. It says, God, I have decided to do it Your way, have it Your way, yield to You, submit to You, surrender to You, whatever You want, God, that's what I want. That's what humility is all about. It's about a servant spirit. It's about obeying God.
It's about laying down my reservations and my inhibitions and my own desires and plans and dreams and hopes and saying, God, I want what You want. Is that easy to do? No. Does it come easy and quickly? No. Is it worth it? Yes.
Is it something You do once in life? No. No.
But the issue is this. Are we going to be followers of Jesus? If we are, we will have to submit to Him. And that submission, when it becomes voluntary, and when you can rejoice in your heart that you want His way no matter what, at least you'll know you've cracked the door of understanding what humility is all about.
And let me simply say this to you. Maybe that you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You're not saved. You know you're not. You've got lots of reasons for not being. But let me give you the real primary reason.
I wouldn't tell you anything but the truth, as best I know. The only reason you've not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior is pride. You say, well, now, that's not true of me. Yes, it is, and I'm going to tell you why. Because if you haven't, you've said, I'm going to make it without Him. That is egotism of the highest calling.
I'm not really all that bad. That is pride in its zenith. Well, somehow, one of these days, when I get ready, that is rebellion at the heart of it. And you could just go right down the list.
The reason you haven't is because you have chosen, whatever your reason, not to do it because you don't need Him at this point in your life or you're not willing to submit. That's pride. You see, the real bottom line is this. Humility is at the heart of it all. He's the ruler. We're the servants.
We obey Him and know we'll always be blessed every single time. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of The Pattern. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. .
