Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, we thank You so much for Your wonderful salvation, for Your wonderful Son, for bringing us into a living relationship with the One who loves us so dearly.
We thank You for Your Word. You have written an amazing Word. You have hidden so many precious things in it for those who love You to find.
Now, as we look into Your Word this morning, we dearly desire to have Your help with it—that You would help us to be able to see, to be able to comprehend this one little matter that You have given to me to speak on. I want You to help us with the understanding of it, with the controversy of it, to see through all of that to Your Son and Your name. Amen.
Some of what I will share with you today is controversial.
I do not shy away from controversy, usually because I am too dumb to recognize it. I am pretty slow, and I am the last one to get the joke. And so, you know, a lot of times I fall into controversy without knowing it.
But the Word of God has a lot of controversy in it, and our habit is to pass over it. That is not a good thing, brothers and sisters.
It is much better, when you find something in the Word of God that is controversial or that you do not understand, to stop and take it to the Lord and say, “Lord, explain this to me.” You never know what He might show you.
And that is how this started. Let me go through just some verses. I am not going to tell you where they are. If I do not tell you where they are, I have all of the references here and I can give them to you later on. But just to let you know, my brother already told you that I am going to be speaking on humility.
When He avenges blood, He remembers them;
He does not forget the cry of the humble.Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear.For You will save the humble people,
But will bring down haughty looks.The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way.The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation.Surely He scorns the scornful,
But gives grace to the humble.For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who is of a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
That is half of them. You get the point.
God reserves very much for the humble. That is a condition, and that is controversial. We spoke this morning of His wonderful love. It does not take away from His love at all.
Our problem is that we do not understand what humility is.
Let us turn to Romans 3, just to set a baseline of where we are to begin with. Romans 3, starting in verse 10.
All of my references will be out of the New King James. It is optional whether or not you want to turn to them. If there is something that I particularly think you need to turn to, I will let you know. I will say something like, “Please turn here.” This one, I think you probably all know.
As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
This is all of us the day we were born. It did not come out of us the day we were born, but it was all there. We were all born the same, of the nature of Adam: entirely, completely self-absorbed.
Self is all there is from Adam. That is the beginning.
Now, I am going to read to you from passages out of 1 Kings. You can follow along if you like. What I want to show you in this remarkable story of King Ahab is God’s view of the importance of humility.
There is this story of his life that, when you see it, becomes unbelievable. I will be starting in 1 Kings 16:29.
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel.
Israel and Judah were separate. Israel was the northern tribe; Judah was the southern tribe. Judah was the one that was more godly. I cannot say very godly, but a little bit more. At least they followed the right God.
And Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.
And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him.
Did you get that? God often says in His Word, “This king was bad and followed in all the sins of Jeroboam.” This king was bad and did not follow in the ways of David. But of this one, He says that was a small thing for him. He did even worse.
Now, the kingdom of Israel, in some of the histories I have read, had one main idol that they worshiped, and it was a golden calf—the same calf that they created at the foot of Mount Horeb.
He departed from worshiping the golden calf to worship Baal, a totally pagan god. Not that the calf was good, but Baal was even worse.
Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image.
Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
This is King Ahab. This is God’s analysis of him, and He knew him completely from the day he was born.
Then we come to chapters 17 and 18. What do we find? Well, this is Mount Carmel. You remember, the prophet came and said, “I am going to call for a drought.” There was a drought for three years, and everyone was starving. There was no water in the land.
Finally, the Lord said, “Come back.” So he came back, and he went up on Mount Carmel, and they had the big contest up there: all the prophets of Baal versus the Lord.
And what did Elijah say to them? There is a famous verse, a famous saying, that he set forth there. Anybody remember it? This is a quiz. If anyone gets it right, you all get it right.
Out of this whole thing of Mount Carmel, there is one thing that Elijah said that should stick with you.
Oh, come on.
Okay, I am going to tell you what it is. If anyone asks you again, then you will know what it is, and I expect you to pass next time, okay?
And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”
Anybody remember that one? Okay, next time, pass it.
If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal is god, follow him. Follow the truth.
I could drop some other names here. If Allah is God, follow him. Find out who God is and follow Him.
What happened on Mount Carmel? Who won? The Lord won. Why? Because He proved that He was the real God.
Fire came down from heaven. It consumed the altar, it consumed the stones, it consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the water around it—the whole thing. He said, without a shadow of a doubt, to everyone there, including Ahab the king, “I am God.”
So you skip forward two more chapters. Ahab is reigning, and the Syrians come against him.
There is a lot of history in the first bit of the chapter there, but it finally comes down to this: the Syrians are really after him now, and he does not have enough forces to oppose them. I mean, they are flooding into his country.
And a prophet shows up out of the blue. Ahab does not ask for him. He did not ask God for help—nothing. This prophet just shows up. And what does he say?
Thus says the Lord: “Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Did they defeat the Syrians? Yes, they did. A great slaughter drove them back. But then the prophet says, “Wait a minute. It is not over yet. They are going to come back next year. Get ready. They will be back next year.”
Sure enough, the Syrians come back again the next year. They used the excuse, “You know, they defeated us in the hills. Their god is the god of the hills. We will attack them in the plains, and then we will win.”
So they are back the next year. The prophet shows up again, out of the blue. There is no acknowledgment of God by Ahab, no asking for help when they show up again—nothing.
Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,” therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’”
How many times is that that the Lord has proved to Ahab who the Lord is? Three times.
You would think that Ahab would get the picture, would you not? Did he get the picture? No. He never acknowledged Him.
So then you come to 1 Kings 21. Chapter 21 begins with the story of Naboth, who had a vineyard that Ahab wanted.
So Ahab went to Naboth and said, “I like your vineyard. I will give you another, better one outside the city somewhere, or I will pay you money for it—whichever you want.”
And Naboth said, “I am sorry, this is the inheritance of my family. This is precious to me, not just as a vineyard, but because it is the possession the Lord allotted to my family. No, I will not give it to you.”
So Ahab goes back, and he is sullen, and he lies down in his bed. Everyone asks him, “What is the problem?” He says, “Oh, Naboth will not give me his vineyard.”
Finally, his wife comes in. She says, “What is the problem?” He says, “Naboth will not sell me his vineyard.” And she says, “Do not let it bother you. I will take care of everything.”
She goes and sends letters in the king’s name to all of the leading people of that town and says, “Go and proclaim a fast, bring him, set him down, and bring some scoundrels to lie about him. Then take him out and stone him.”
So they do it, and Naboth is murdered. His wife comes in and tells Ahab, “Naboth is dead.” So what does Ahab do? “Wait, wait. How did he die? What happened here?” I mean—no. Nothing. He gets up and goes to the vineyard of Naboth to take possession of it.
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who lives in Samaria. There he is, in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it.
“You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?”’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.”’”
The day of your death has come before Me, and I, the God that you refuse to acknowledge, am going to take your life.
Then the Holy Spirit writes His justification of God’s judgment. It is either a justification or an epitaph; I am not really sure which. But this is what He says.
But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up.
And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
Okay. Deserving? Yes.
God said it: “I am going to take your life.” The Holy Spirit has set His seal on it. It is a done deal—as done as a deal can be done.
So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.
And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”
What is it that could possibly cause God to go back on His word, that was so completely right, and spare this man’s life?
It says he humbled himself, and that is it. He did not even acknowledge God. It does not even say he cried out to God. He put on sackcloth.
Further, when we look into the next chapter, we find that that humility was only skin deep. It was not even genuine.
In the next chapter, three years later, he has a controversy with the Syrians, and he is going to go out. He has brought Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, up with him, and they are conferring together. He is trying to convince Jehoshaphat to go out with him to fight.
Essentially, the exact same thing happens again. He has all the prophets of Baal lying to him, and the other king says, “Is there not a real prophet of the Lord here?” “Yeah, but I do not listen to him.” “Well, go get him.”
So he brings him in, and he tells him what is going on. After a little bit of banter, he says, “The Lord is sending a spirit into all these other prophets to try to convince you to go out to this war so that you will die.”
He has already promised not to take your life, so He is not going to do it. He is going to convince you to go after this battle and take your own life.
So did Ahab put on sackcloth and ashes? No. What did he do?
“Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.”
The humility that he showed three years earlier is nowhere to be found. If it had been genuine, it would still be there.
He had a false humility, and on the basis of a false humility, God reprieved the day of his death. How important is humility to God?
It is life out of death, brothers and sisters. It is incredibly important.
It is so important that, knowing the end of this story, He still reprieved this man’s life and put up with him for three years, and tried to teach him humility. Because that is what three years stands for: the time of teaching, the time of trying to be taught something, the time of the Lord trying to teach something to you—knowing that he would not accept it.
But to try to say something to us: this matter of humility is exceedingly important.
Now, I have got to deviate from my notes a little bit. I will take them out of order, because I think it is important to do this. Here are some very common Scriptures.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death.
Outward humility—humility in body, humility in His walk. He died on that cross, an act of humility.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Inward humility.
The Son of God is humble. He is humble inside, and He is humble in action.
Now, I could accept that. I had a little bit of a controversy with it when I first looked at that and considered it. When He cleansed the temple with that whip, was He humble? Maybe it is, you know, set aside at the right time. I do not know. That is kind of hard to deal with, is it not?
But how about this one?
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
“I and My Father are one.”
God is humble.
Oh, now wait a minute. I am studying the Word of God, reading the Word of God, and it brings that to mind, and it is like, controversy—you know, the bells ring. What does that mean? How can that be?
The God of glory, the God who is so terrible that if you look on Him, it is all over—He is humble? What does it mean? It does not even compute.
But this is the Word of God. So I continued to pray and to consider it, and He deepened the controversy for me. I am going to deepen it for you. You ready?
Oh, nobody says yes.
Brother read this morning out of Ephesians 2, and he read this verse:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Not of works, lest anyone should boast.
By grace you have been saved through faith. It was not the faith; it was the grace of God. Your faith, which itself is the product of the grace of God, enabled Him, inspired Him, to save you by His grace.
We are saved by grace upon grace. It was grace that allowed Him to offer faith to you, and when you accepted that faith, that faith caused Him to save you by grace.
That is nice. We all—that is no controversy at all, right? Love that one.
God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.
James 4:6.
He is against the proud. He gives grace to the humble.
Well, does that not say that humility is necessary for salvation? He gives grace to the humble, and it is grace upon grace by which you are saved.
Now, that is controversial.
Our problem, our controversy, is that we do not understand humility. And understandably so.
If I asked you to show me in the Word of God some good lesson on love, where would you go? Where would you send me?
John 3:16? Yeah, that is the controversy with this one, by the way, brother. First Corinthians 13. You all win. You passed the test.
Love is this; love is not that. Love is this; love is not that. So where do we go for humility?
I have searched, using a computer and a search engine multiple times, and I can tell you that I never found it.
There is not a chapter that I can find that is equivalent to 1 Corinthians 13 about love. How can something so important to Him not have its own chapter? How can it be that He would leave it like this?
Well, there is a chapter, brothers, but it is a little difficult. Turn with me, please, to Isaiah 58.
We are over half done. You can take a deep breath.
I finish pretty suddenly. I apologize for that. Before you know it, you will say, “Wait, wait a minute. You cannot be done already.” Oh, yes.
Isaiah 58. Let us start in verse 3. This is a conversation between God and the Jews.
“Why have we fasted,” they say, “and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?”
“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers.
Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high.“Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Now, when you read the Word of God, you need to really read it. What is this chapter supposed to be talking about? Fasting. What is fasting? Not eating, right?
So how come most of the stuff He is talking about in here has nothing to do with not eating? In fact, He does not even mention it, if what He is talking about is fasting.
Fasting is an outward act. “Afflicting your soul” is the phrase that He uses to describe it: “a day for a man to