Genuine humility, as taught in Luke 14, is not a strategy for self-advancement but a reflection of God's character. The sermon contrasts false humility, exemplified by Uriah Heep's manipulative self-effacement, with true humility, which involves recognizing God's greatness and serving others. This is demonstrated by Jesus washing his disciples' feet, a profound act of service that illustrates the principle that those who humble themselves will be exalted. The core lesson is that true humility is cultivated by submitting to God's mighty hand and by serving others, leading to genuine exaltation in God's timing.
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what true humility is, what false humility is. Just a word concerning Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins, who haven't been out for a while on a Lord's Day morning, I noticed tonight in the night's paper that her sister, who had been in skilled nursing, has passed away. The viewing is tonight at Rich and Thompson from seven to nine and the funeral is tomorrow morning at eleven a graveside service at Union Ridge United Church of Christ Cemetery so anyone who wants to remember Miss Hopkins in one way or another with a card I think it would be appreciated they are up in years they're not doing too well.
Ms. Hopkins has a real problem with water. And I guess you call it congestive heart failure. But she not only has problems in this way, but she's diabetic and it's getting difficult for them to drive. So keep them in your prayers. And I was with Paul Wilkerson this afternoon. Paul got a bad report from Dr. Kenodo concerning his eyes. He's had cataracts removed and now because of his diabetic condition and with a stroke, he has to go to Duke Hospital relative to some kind of a laser treatment for his eyes.
And Paul was pretty low this afternoon. His wife called me at noontime and said, if you can call him, I sure would appreciate it. So remember Paul as well. So before we read the word from Luke, let's just pray together. Our Father, we thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can come into your presence and we can ask and receive because we ask in the name of thy dear son. We thank you that he loves all his children. All the sheep of the Lord are secure in his hand, for none can pluck the sheep out of the hand of the shepherd.
And we rejoice in this truth. But along the way, our Father, thy sheep have many difficulties. Like in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there is one hill difficulty after another. But we thank you for these hymns that we sang tonight in particular. It's like getting in that great story to Bula Land and to see through the glass the beautiful city. The city that have foundations whose builder and maker is God. The city, the new Jerusalem, to which thy people are traveling and which is the home of the redeemed.
We thank you for it. In the meantime, we thank you that you've given us a privilege, not only of calling upon thy name, but addressing our needs to thee. Thy people have needs at thirty as well as at eighty. And we especially pray that you'll comfort the hearts of Mr. and Ms. Hopkins tonight. We think of Paul as he faces this ordeal relative to his eyes, and they burst blood vessel behind the wand. And our Father, we ask for each one on our prayer list, especially those who are laid aside with cancer.
What a difficulty that is. And we ask you to graciously undertake for reach from Roy's father-in-law to Brother Sutton and Mr. Cooper and others. How we thank you, our Father, for thy good hand of blessings. when Brother Sutton can mowl on for a whole day, and a few weeks ago he could just about get around. How gracious you are to your people. And we can ask you to undertake on behalf of your own. We can cast every heartache, every loneliness, every pain, and every care upon you. Then there are those of our young men in our midst who are seeking work, who are unemployed, and would like something permanent are better than something temporary.
We think of John Lindley. We think of Rick Bailey and asked you to graciously undertake. You know the needs. We need not give you information, but we call upon you because we have a care for those who are going through trial. We are as in the trials with them, and we bring them to thee, and ask thee to undertake. In all these trials of life, we pray that we may be like Peter, when we come through that will strengthen our brethren, and that through the trials we shall learn to depend upon thee, the God of all grace.
We thank you for the way you've answered prayers in the past. And we know that thou art the God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we may ask or think. And we ask you for these needs. We bring them to you, not to give you information, but to earnestly plead on behalf of others. And we thank you that You're more interested in us than we are in ourselves. So we cast our burdens upon thee tonight, and we thank you for the sustaining grace that he's always here. We've been praying for Patrick relative to going to China.
And to his disappointment, he wasn't accepted. But we had prayed for your will, and now we're glad he didn't go. So we see how you work, our Father. And we graciously submit to you, for you're far better at controlling our lives than we are ourselves. So we give you thanks for your blessings. And when you say no to us, we realize it's for our good and for thy glory. The Lord indeed, the God of all grace. And it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we give thee our grateful thanks. Amen.
Luke chapter fourteen. And we want to begin our reading at verse seven, where we read, And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose off the chief rooms, saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest the more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bad thee, and him come and say unto thee, Give this man place, and I'll begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art forbidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that thad thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher, then shalt thou have worshiped in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Then, said he also to him that that him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friend, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest the feast, call the poor, the maim, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee. For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the judge. How may the Lord bless the reading of his word?
Humility, genuine humility. The word of God has much to say about humility. There is a true humility as well as a false. To many that are in the world today, they say, Now to make a way here, if you want to be recognized, You want to make a way and you want to get preferment. You have to be humble. So a lot of people work at this matter of being humble at the right time and under the right circumstance. And some people take this parable or parable that we read tonight and they say, well, listen intently. Always pay attention to what the other fellow says, which I think is good, by the way.
Be quiet and unassuming. Smile at your enemies. Did not Jesus say take the low seat if you're bidden to a feast? Avoid taking the head seat. Remember, someone will reward your lowliness by taking you forward in due time. And if you're reading on how to get ahead and how to influence people, that becomes what we would call not biblical humility. It's humility of a kind, but it's a false kind. This is a kind that is pictured in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield in that famous character, Uriah Heath.
Do you recall his lean and hungry look, his shallow complexion, his clammy handshake, his slick black hair? I'm always amazed when I think of this fellow, Uriah Heath, because Charles Dickens could certainly Paint a picture of a fellow with words. You can just see Uriah Heath. He was always going around begging everyone's pardon. You know I'm a very humble man Mr. Copperfield. I'm a very humble man Mr. Copperfield. But underneath that cloak of humility those hands of his reached out like the talons on an eagle. And they grabbed everything that was advantageous to Uriah Heath.
I'm just a humble man. Mr. Copperfield. Now, the Uriah heap kind of humility is not the kind that Peter talks about in First Peter chapter five. I'm going to invite you to turn next to First Peter chapter five. First Peter five, and we want to read verses five and six. He's speaking here to the younger. In the opening four verses, he's speaking to the elders of the churches to which he had written. The elders which are among you, I exhort, he says. Well, when we come to verse five, he says, Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Peter is talking about genuine, godly humility. Peter gives us two commands, one in verse five and one in verse six. In verse five he says, clothe yourself.
with humility, be clothed with humility one toward another. In verse six he says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. Now these are two sides of the same coin. The first command commands humility in our dealings with our fellow man. This is how we should be one toward another. we should be clothed with humility. The second command of the Lord commands humility in our dealings, in our worship, under the mighty hand of God.
In both of these relationships, humility takes on a healthy, robust character which is hard to see in the proper remarks that need to be made about this virtue. They're hard to see when people talk about humility. Now we want to notice this virtue of humility. Someone said to Augustine, which is the first Christian virtue? He said virtue. He said humility. Then they said what is the second? He said humility. What is the third? He said humility. If we have humility, then The virtues that are genuinely Christian will flow forth.
In Matthew eleven, verses twenty eight through thirty, our Lord said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. When our Lord said... I am meek and lowly in heart. That word lowly is the word that Peter uses here for the word humility. Be clothed with lowliness. When Paul writes to the saints at Ephesus in chapter four in verse one, where he beseeches them to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called, he says that they should walk in lowliness.
clothe yourselves with humility one toward another it suggests a tie in the service of God that we bear one toward another now here in our context in first Peter five we have the tie that exists between the elders of the church and the others in the church it is like the tie that our Lord uses in Matthew eleven where he says take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Humility is nurtured by a recognition of the greatness of God. For he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
Humble yourselves. The greater and the more I examine how great God is, the more it behooves me to seek the low place in His presence. It is a result of worship rather than service. We can be so busy running here and there and doing this and doing that. But if we can just get a picture of the greatness of God. How great is God? And we need to read passages like Isaiah chapter forty where God asked the question, to whom will you like and need?
Where is my equal? And then he begins to speak of himself. He needed out the heavens with a span. He measured the dust of the earth with a scale and he weighed the mountains in a balance. The waters are in the hollow of his hands. And when we think of the greatness of God, we see how little Man is and how little we are. In those two closing verses of Isaiah chapter forty, it says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. This is genuine worship.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Now that word for wait in the original, They that wait upon the Lord shall at AT&T for the past six or seven or eight weeks. I've been dealing with Abraham on how to wait or faith teaching us what it means to wait upon God. Waiting on the Lord. It's a difficult thing to do. Abraham, instead of waiting on the Lord, he went and ate an ishmael.
You see. He couldn't wait, but he learned to wait. God dealt with him till he did. They that wait upon the Lord, that word for wait there in the Hebrew, it comes from the word or the idea of rope making. Did you ever take a rope apart? All those little strands of rope. We used to have a thick bull rope. It's the kind that you'd use if you were tying a bull up so that he wouldn't break it. And we had one hanging in our barn at home. And of course, we'd climb up this bull rope, you know. Now any one of those strands is easily broken.
Ever take a rope apart and how thin those strands are, you just take it and it'll snap. But when those strands are woven together, you have a rope that you can't break. And that's the idea. They that wait upon the Lord. God gives me the opportunity time and again awaiting on him. And finding that his promises are yea and amen to them who are in Christ Jesus, who are called of God by his matchless grace. And God wants to teach me that he can be trusted in every area of life. So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
How do I do it? I can't do it by saying now from the day on I'm going to be humble. And you notice how humble I'm going to be. You know what's going to happen, don't you? I'm not going to be humble at all. I'm going to start measuring myself by others. And I'm going to be proud of my humility. We don't humble ourselves that way. We humble ourselves before our brethren by being humbled under the mighty hand of God. in genuine worship. If there's anything that John Weisinger's ministry did for us last week, it showed us how great God is and how little man is.
And man has nothing to boast of. He that glorieth let him glory in the warm. You see, the interdependence of Christian service and the dependence of God-fearing worship on who God is. That sets the stage for the display of humility. Am I humble? You see, the Greeks never enthroned humility. They never wanted to be tied to a world in order to redeem it. To the Greeks and the Greek philosophers, the world was an evil, and it was something that needed to be escaped.
But I read in John chapter three in verse seventeen these words, God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world to him might be saved. He that believeth is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten son of God. And God puts his great noblemen on display. and his great nobleman is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one in whom we find perfect humility. The disciples, they were arguing with each other and fighting continually over who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom.
And I was listening to a certain preacher on WHPE Monday afternoon as I was going to Greensboro. And it was Jack Wilson. And they were opening a new Word of Life camp in Florida. And he said, why, to read. To read who we're going to have is like reading the who's who in Christianity. I didn't know that Christianity had a who's who. I do know that they have a what's this. Because every time I look in the mirror, I see a what's this.
that belong to Christ, whom he is changing and making like his son. But when I listen to this, it amazed me. No wonder the Lord says, they that are first shall be left. It amazes me when these statements are made. The disciples did that very thing. The disciples, when they were arguing over who would be the greatest, our Lord said, if you want to be great, then you serve others. That's exactly what we have in First Peter five.
Be closed with humility once one another. Now, in case they missed the point, in John chapter thirteen, and I invite you to turn to this, in John chapter thirteen, when they were really arguing and wouldn't serve one another, our Lord did something. He did something in order to demonstrate what Peter taught later. Now he's teaching it here. Now lest they miss the point, he removed his outer garment. For we read, In verse three, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he rises from supper.
He laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel where with he was girded. So you notice. In case they missed the point, that he who would be great let him serve, he removed his outer garment. Then he clothed himself with humility, the towel of a servant. Then he stooped a little lower. He washed the disciples' feet. And then, lest they miss the point, verse twelve, we read, So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you.
Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say, Well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet. It takes a true servant to wash another's feet. For I have given you an example. that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Neither he that he sent greater than he that sent him. And that last verse, verse seventeen, if you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
If you know these things, happy are ye if you preach them. Doesn't say that. If you know these things, happy are ye if you think about them. Doesn't say that. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. The Greeks would have looked at Christ and they did with disgust. But you see, our Lord began with an idea. His idea was that men like Peter, James, and John should be lifted from their lowest state. Their lowest state was they wanted to be great.
And if they're going to be lifted from their lowest state, they have to come down and be a servant. And that's what he says to you and to me tonight. If you want to be lifted from your lowest state, be willing. to serve others that's why the scripture says he emptied himself Philippians chapter two and he took the form of a sermon here's the Lord of Glory the servant who is lifting up men because he knew that if he didn't lift them up they would never He lifted.
Which way is up? The way to up is down. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. How do we do it? We recognize how great God is. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. We can't lift ourselves up. He must lift us up. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand, and he will exalt you when? In due season. What a message. What a message from the Lord. I must recognize who God is.
The biggest problem in Christendom today is we're so man-centered instead of being God-centered. If you know these things. Happy are you if you do them. May the Lord bless you.