The Integrity of True Humility, Part 1

Notoriously, Jesus flipped our expectations upside down. For instance, when the disciples were elbowing their way to the front of the line, Jesus described a world that was driven not by personal ambition, but by humility. He said, among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader must be your servant.

That's certainly not the way of our world. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll describes one of the finest models of this virtue. He was esteemed by Jesus.

Can you guess his name? Chuck titled his message, The Integrity of True Humility. It was the late Donald Gray Barnhouse who once said, love that reaches up is adoration. Love that reaches out is affection. But love that stoops is grace. We're here because love stooped and reached people like us, we who are so undeserving. We live our lives realizing that if it were not for grace, we wouldn't have a direction in life. We wouldn't have a purpose.

It would be no sense of fulfillment. You realize that grace is what God does for us who do not deserve it, who cannot ever earn it, and will never be able to repay it. It comes from his heart and reaches ours at the cross.

For that, we are eternally grateful. We're involved in an interesting series on integrity, walking with integrity in days of adversity. We've looked through a number of Old Testament examples of those who have done that. And now we turn into the New Testament and we find another who is an example of a rare trait, integrity of true humility. His name is John, John the Baptizer. We meet him in John chapter 1 and other parts of the Gospels, but today it's John 1 along with John chapter 3. So locate in your Bibles the first chapter of John. We'll momentarily look past the first five verses and we'll begin at verse 6 down through verse 8. Then we'll move over to verse 19 and we'll read through verse 23 and then a section out of chapter 3. First John 1 verse 6.

I'm reading from the New Living Translation. God sent a man, John, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light. He was simply a witness to tell about the light.

Verse 19. This was John's testimony when the Jewish leader sent priests and temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, who are you? He came right out and said, I am not the Messiah. Well then, who are you?

They asked. Are you Elijah? No, he replied. Are you the prophet we are expecting?

No. Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us.

What do you have to say about yourself? John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah, I am a voice shouting in the wilderness. Clear the way for the Lord's coming. Now turn please to chapter 3 locate verse 25.

325. A debate broke out between John's disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing. So John's disciples came to him and said, Rabbi, the man who you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people and everybody is going to him instead of coming to us. John replied, no one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you I am not the Messiah. I'm only here to prepare the way for him.

It is the bridegroom who marries the bride and the bridegroom's friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I'm filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater. And I must become less and less. You won't read that anywhere in today's literature, outside the Bible. You won't hear that philosophy promoted.

And tragically, you will rarely see it modeled. So today's message is overdue. Nothing is more Christian than walking humbly with our God. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To search the scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. Chuck titled his message, The Integrity of True Humility. It is so rare to find great giftedness and enormous celebrity along with true humility. How rarely do the rich and famous walk humbly with their God, if they even acknowledge there is a God.

You question that stuff and think about any film star who has been awarded top honors or some well-paid professional athlete who has made it to the top ranks of his or her particular sport, who have remained people with a servant heart, who truly care about others, to whom life does not revolve around themselves. A reporter was interviewing Marian Anderson, the accomplished American contralto, who had by then won worldwide acclaim as a concert soloist. The reporter was impressed to find Miss Anderson had not only simply grown great, she had grown great simply. Before him stood this musical celebrity who remained calmly poised and completely unimpressed with herself and with her many accomplishments. He asked her to name the greatest moment in her life. She'd had many great moments by then and her fans who packed the room where the reporter and Marian Anderson stood close together were at a loss to know which one of those great achievements she would name. For example, there was that night that conductor Arturo Toscanini announced, a voice like hers comes once in a century, but she didn't name that moment.

Furthermore, in 1955 she became the first African-American to be invited by the Metropolitan Opera Company to sing on their stage in New York. She didn't name that moment either. The following year she became the author of a bestseller, My Lord, What a Morning was titled and remained a bestseller for months. She didn't name that book. In 1958 she was appointed as United States delegate to the United Nations. There was that memorable evening she'd been invited to the White House for a private concert with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt alongside the King and Queen of England, but she didn't name either of those great achievements. Her hometown Philadelphia had not long ago awarded her the Buck Award and with it came a $10,000 gift for the recipient in honor of how much she had meant to their city. She didn't name that event. In 1968 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and to top it all off there was that Easter Sunday when she stood beneath the Lincoln statue before 75,000 people and sang her heart out.

Before so many who applauded her and the crowd included all the cabinet members, every Supreme Court justice, and most from Congress. She named none of that as her greatest moment. Which of these would she name?

None of them. Ms. Anderson quietly told the reporter the greatest moment of my life was the day I was able to go home and tell my mama she didn't have to take in washing anymore. Unlike most she made no attempt to hide her humble roots. She was in the words of many in that day raised on the other side of the tracks. Her roots portrayed her as a mere human being who had been greatly blessed of God and she never forgot that.

Her life was an example of my opening words, great giftedness, great celebrity alongside true humility. I searched the scriptures carefully for quite some time to find just the right example. They're rare even in the Bible. I was drawn first to a statement Jesus made about this man in Matthew 11. Of all those who have ever lived none was greater than John the baptizer. Jesus said that.

Of all who have ever lived none is greater. And yet he's just a man. In fact that's the way his biography begins. Literally there was a man sent from God, John.

I'm impressed that it's just anthropos, just man. As my father used to say and yours as well, he had to put his britches on one leg at a time. He needed sleep like everybody else. He got tired. He knew what it was to bleed when he was cut and to bruise when he was struck. He was a man.

Just a man. What stands out about him is what it doesn't say. According to John 1041 he never once performed a miracle. So it wasn't miracles that drew people into the wilderness to follow John. He certainly wasn't physically attractive.

Either his garb or his presence or his diet attracted no one. He's just, I say again, a man. And the reason I emphasize that is because the first five verses highlight one who was the God-man, the Lord Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.

Not John. This is Jesus. He created all things. Many people do not realize it was Jesus in the beginning who created all things. And it was not anything created that was created that he did not create. And he gave to all creation life. John didn't create and John gave no one life.

He's just a man. And it was that light that Jesus emanated that sent brilliance into darkness. John didn't emanate light, if I may. Jesus was like the sun. Shining forth light, John is like the moon.

The moon has no light. All of his light is reflected light. That's John. He's just a man. And he never forgot that. I love that about John. You never ever read even once of envy or jealousy, even when his congregation is lessened because of Messiah's congregation growing.

We'll see that in a few moments. So let's keep John off the pedestal. He doesn't fit there.

Neither do any of us. He was sent by God. That's true. That's what the scripture says. He had a calling.

He didn't just strike out and do what he felt like doing. He was sent by God. One purpose. To be the witness, to tell the truth regarding the one who was to come right after him. We call that the forerunner, but it quickly reads in his biography, he was not that light. He introduced the light. So this brings up the first of four characteristics of humility that I find in John that are worth emulating in our lives by the grace of God and by the Spirit of God.

Here's the first. Accepting our God-given role, including our limitations. He accepted the fact that he had been sent by God. He also accepted the fact that he was not the light. He was not the Messiah. He was not Elijah. He was not the prophet. He knew who he was.

Never tried to be someone else. It's beautiful to see how this emerges. When you look at verse 19 and following, you read of it's this interview between John and those who came from Jerusalem to report his identity. When anyone draws a crowd, it draws the interest of people who are in authority for whatever reason. They want to find out who is this person? Who's that individual out there in the wilderness drawing a crowd?

So they sent these individuals who are not named to talk to John about who he was and their question is pretty simple. Who are you? Just tell us who you are.

Did you notice the first answer? I am not. He doesn't tell them who he is. He begins by telling them who he's not.

Don't make any mistake. You've read about Messiah. You know he's coming. I'm not him. I'm not the Messiah. So he understood his limitations. He understood what he wasn't.

Let's read on. Down in verse 23, John replied in the words of the prophet, Isaiah, I'm a voice. I'm a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord's coming. I'm a voice. He's the word. I'm just a voice. He's the light. I'm just a lamp.

His words lingers, I'll soon be forgotten. In fact, John, in our words, we would say he was prematurely martyred for an unjust cause. Never a complaint because he was never important to John and they want to know who he is and he tells them who he's not and he still hasn't told them who he is except I'm just a voice in the wilderness.

That doesn't satisfy. I'm not Elijah. And he says, furthermore, I baptize with water right here in the crowd and someone you do not recognize though his ministry follows mine. I'm not even worthy. Look at these words in verse 27. I'm not even worthy to be his slave to untie the straps of his sandals. That's not false humility.

He believed that. So the second characteristic I find is giving full effort to resist the total subtle temptation to be someone we're not. The first is accepting our God-given role including our limitations and the second is giving full effort to resist even subtle temptations to be someone we're not. I call for repentance. He takes away the sins of the world.

I'm only a man. He's the Lamb of God. I'm a voice in the wilderness. He's the eternal word. I point you to the way. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

I'm none of the above. When we get over to chapter 3, something interesting happens. Along the same line of thought, a little time has passed and so there's a debate that breaks out over ceremonial cleansing according to verse 25. And then John's disciples, don't miss that. John has a following.

They really love John. They really believe in his message and they've repented and they've lined up alongside him and they're a part of his team, if you will. They're his disciples. They're learning from him. So these who gathered around him and are jealous for him came to him and they said, Rabbi, now look closely.

You're gonna see a whole lot of humanity emerging. Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, understand Jesus is unknown. This is right at the beginning when he's starting his ministry. He's another Jewish man, for all everyone knew, until John goes, that's the Lamb of God. He came to be baptized. John was reluctant to do it, but the voice came, this is my son, my beloved one.

Hear ye him, and the dove came. It was clear to John, this is the Messiah. And so they refer to him. You know, the one you identified as Messiah, you know, John, he's now baptizing people. He's doing what you've been doing. Furthermore, everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.

I love John's response. Look at this, verse 27, no one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. So everything we have is a gift, that's grace.

Now read on, you yourselves know how plainly I told you I am not the Messiah. Well, we're midway through a brand new message from Chuck Swindoll. This is Insight for Living, and Chuck titled today's study, The Integrity of True Humility. And if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, this message is the ninth in a brand new teaching series from Chuck.

It's titled, Walking with Integrity in Times of Adversity. And we'd like to invite you to deepen your engagement with these daily studies through the interactive study notes provided online. We've called this resource Searching the Scriptures, and we think you'll be impressed with the format of this online resource because it's designed to help you hear God's voice as He speaks to you through His Word.

Plus, you can either enter your own observations into the digital document or print out the PDF and share it with friends. You'll find this and more when you go to insight.org. And then as God prompts you to support this nonprofit ministry, we invite you to call us right now. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Or to give a contribution today online, visit insight.org slash donate. We're grateful to those who've been listening and supporting Insight for Living for many years. Some can trace their listening back 10, 20, 30 years and more. What began on a handful of stations in 1979 has now grown to more than 2,000 stations worldwide.

And the program is translated into multiple languages as well. And it's because people like you have stood by our side. We believe the best days are yet ahead as we deepen our friendship with partners like you. Again, you can also partner with us by giving us a phone call.

If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Or give online at insight.org slash donate. Join us when Chuck Swindoll describes what he calls the integrity of true humility, Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Integrity of True Humility, was copyrighted in 2021 and 2022. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.