A Handful of Pebbles

the book of Ruth, but then I felt committed to it. So I think we will do the book of Esther, just because I really like Esther too. We'll do Ruth another time for a few weeks there. And then from there, we'll see what the Lord has for us. So let's be. begin this morning. I'm just going to read our text, this short paragraph here from the Apostle Peter, again beginning in the second half of verse 5 in the final chapter of the letter. Peter says, close yourselves all of you with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxiety. on him because he cares for you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning for the word that you have brought to us in your providence, Lord. We trust that these words from the Apostle Peter are not just his words, but that they're your words, that they're breathed out by you, authoritative, and therefore helpful for us. God, we do pray that they would have the effect that you aim for them to have in us, that they would humble us under your hand. God, that you would

that you aim for them to have in us, that they would humble us under your hand. God, that you would show us your grace and mercy. We're lost without your grace and mercy. We're all proud people. We're all sinners. And so we ask that you would have mercy on us, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So before we get into this text and dig into it, and this is the kind of text that hopefully you see is, it's the kind of paragraph that in some place should confront all of us, in some place should confront all of this. I want to begin with some good news for you from Pastor Ray Ortland, and I've shared this quote for you specifically if you're keeping track at home on September 23rd, 2018. So if you remember that, I'm sorry. But it's such a good quote. I wanted to bring it out here again. Pastor Ray wrote about the Proverbs, a similar text in Proverbs. He said, here is good news. We do not come to Christ because we're humble. We come to Christ because we are proud, and he receives us and loves us and helps us in our pride. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but the grace of the Lord is the beginning of the fear of the Lord. Jesus said in his parable of the wedding feast, see, I have prepared my dinner, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. So the good news for us this morning,

dinner, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. So the good news for us this morning, even before we get into this command to humility together and are confronted even by our pride, which lives in all of us to some degree, is that if you are in Christ, you are going to be a humble person. That if we are in Christ, then we are going to be a humble people by the time that Jesus is done with us. And not because we're good or because I look out at you or I look in the mirror and say, man, there's a really, really nice looking humble guy. Or there's a strong people. But because when I look in the word, I see that we have a strong Savior who finishes the things that he starts in us, that he's bringing us towards his glory. And he's doing that inexorably, unfailingly, that he's going to actualize humility in his people, meaning that God will not rest for his work in us, if we're in him, until he's finished the project that is us. He's not like us. He doesn't start projects and abandon them when they get hard. Jesus is a finisher, and we're God's good workmanship in Jesus. I'm going to switch mics here because my mic is making strange sounds. He's going to

in Jesus. I'm going to switch mics here because my mic is making strange sounds. He's going to finish the work. And not only that, not only that, but I mean, when it comes to something like humility, if we're honest, all of us are actually, even humanly speaking, probably pretty proud, except for like maybe one of us who thinks he's the least humble in the room. And that's the one proud guy, the one humble guy in the whole room. But even with something that seems as unachievable as actually becoming humble, Jesus is going to do that, and he can do that. And he can do that. And he can even begin that work now in us. He can actually begin to make us a humble people now. And I'm convinced that part of what he aims to use one of the means that Jesus has appointed to actually accomplish that in us is the paragraph that we're taking up this morning in 1st Peter. This is a tool that God aims to bring to bear on the chunk of marble that is you and I in order to make us and bring us towards that green pasture of humility. And so there are three things that we need to see and understand in this text that we read. The first, we need to understand, what humility actually is and not assume proudly that we know what humility is or that our instincts about what humility is are accurate. Because it's likely that all of us, to some degree or

all of you with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you. If that's true, like meaning if God's opposing or giving grace to us is at stake here, because that's just the simple logic. We'll see what Peter's saying here. If that's what's at stake here, then we should work hard to understand what humility actually is. We should work hard to understand what humility actually is. One of the best ways to figure out what something is not, or is to figure out what it's not. You can start to rein it in and say, well, what is humility? Well, I know it doesn't look like this. I know it doesn't look like this. And we can begin to circle in on what the thing actually is by looking at what it's not. And a thing like humility, there are many counterfeits of it out in the world. Any good thing that God has made, the first thing that sin does is it makes lots of counterfeits of it that look really similar to it so that if it can't get you to just pursue pride overtly, it will at least get you to pursue some fake form of humility so that you think you're humble and then you find out later that you're actually not. We don't want that to happen. So we're going to knock down some counterfeits of humility and look at just specifically three of them, three things humility is not. And the first that becomes really

We don't want that to happen. So we're going to knock down some counterfeits of humility and look at just specifically three of them, three things humility is not. And the first that becomes really clear in verse five is that humility is not a mere feeling. Humility is not a mere feeling. Humility is not a mere feeling. Humility doesn't just live in the world of my head or in my emotions. Humility is a lived thing. It's a humility. Peter says, I'm getting this because he says, clothe yourselves all of you with humility towards one another. Clothe yourselves all of you with humility towards one another, meaning that this humility necessarily comes out of our fingertips and comes out of our mouth in a way that is visibly towards one another. It's not just in my mind. It's not just me thinking lowly thoughts of myself or lowly thoughts generally in my mind. It actually has to live somewhere out in the world, which honestly should not be a surprise for us. If you go to Galatians and you read the list of the fruit of the spirit, you find out that every fruit of the spirit is real, which is like a character trait, a goodness, a glory that God produces in us.

a goodness, a glory that God produces in us. His grace, every one of those things is like this. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Can love just be an abstract thing that lives in our hearts? Not if it's real. Not if it's actually love. Can gentleness be a feeling? I feel gentle today. Congratulations, I guess. No. Gentleness is a description of activity. It's not just a description of what I feel. Can goodness, kindness, kindness, self-control, joy, peace, patience. Can any of those things exist just, just. like in the emotional ether somewhere. And the answer is no. All of these things have to begin in the heart if they're to be authentic, right? Jesus warned us about that in Luke 18, where there's a Pharisee. We had a preaching cohort yesterday, and one of our pastors preached on this text for like five of us sitting out here, and it was a lot of fun. And this text came to mind yesterday, again, from the sermon that the short sermon that he gave, that there's a Pharisee who fasted and gave tithes, who looked really good outwardly. But Jesus says that he went home condemned by God, while this sinful tax collector, who just simply cast himself on the mercy of God, went home justified before God. The Pharisee had good works. He had some things that looked like fruits of the Spirit, maybe. But they weren't real. They were plastic. They were like imitation fruit sitting on the bowl in the

But they weren't real. They were plastic. They were like imitation fruit sitting on the bowl in the middle of a table. Why? Because they did not come out of a new heart. So we need new hearts. We need hearts. We need hearts of flesh with the law written on it, with the spirit in it. We need new birth, not just better works. But once that is there, we don't see an authentic fruit of the spirit. We don't see real humility, real gentleness, real love until it overflows out of this new heart, out of my fingertips, out of my mouth, and into the real world towards one another. And the reality is, for those of us who are new creations in Christ, who by faith have been forgiven of sin, raised spiritually with Christ, indwelling with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus says, abiding in him the true vine, what does he say? If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. Fruit is not something that lives in the heart of the plant. You wouldn't go up to an apple tree and say, hey, it's harvest time. Where's the apples? And it said, I'm sorry, the apples are in my heart. you'd say, and you just, you just became a glorious apple hardwood for my smoker for next season. Tree? No, it doesn't just live in the heart. Fruit is something that is out there. You can see it if it's authentic fruit. And Peter makes that clear. This is a lived humility towards one another.

Moses. I'm just kidding. Jesus. Jesus is the most humble man who ever lived. Who was the most competent man who ever lived? Jesus. Okay, here's his resume. God, that's enough. There you go. Created the heavens in the earth. So I know particle physics and carpentry. Like Jesus was the most competent, humble man who ever lived. So a feigned incompetence, and you know that you're seeing this counterfeit of humility when someone can't receive an encouragement or a compliment without launching into a five-minute soliloquy on how they are a worm and not a man and how, no, I have nothing good in me except for grace in me. And it's like immediately, you say, all I said was that dinner was good tonight, calm down. It's like, what is that? Well, holding up a big bright neon sign that shines, look at how humble I am. I can't even take a compliment. That's not really humility, feigned incompetence. This is important. This might seem like a small point. This is important. Because if we mistake humility, for something that's even just close to it, but not quite, we're going to miss the heart of this text. Often, that is just pride in disguise. The last thing that humility is not, and again, this is very clear in this text, and we'll see by the end especially, that humility is not the avoidance

text. Often, that is just pride in disguise. The last thing that humility is not, and again, this is very clear in this text, and we'll see by the end especially, that humility is not the avoidance of glory. And maybe that's how you think about. What is humility? It's the avoidance. It's the avoidance of glory. I don't want glory. There's a right way that that could be said. There is a way of saying that that is absolutely correct. But biblically, it might surprise you that that's maybe not the best way to define it. Would you be surprised if I told you, and if you've read the New Testament lately, this won't surprise you. But maybe you'd be surprised if I told you that the scriptures don't rebuke human beings for the seeking of glory, or that the scriptures more often than not, as we see in this very text, actually motivate us to kill our pride and pursue humility, not to avoid glory, but to actually attain glory. Doesn't that sound wrong? Doesn't that just sound completely backward? If you were writing a Bible passage on humility, and you were saying, look, look, if you're humble, this is what will happen. on the other side of it. Would you say, if you're humble enough, God will exalt you?

on the other side of it. Would you say, if you're humble enough, God will exalt you? You probably wouldn't reach there over and over and over again. That's where Jesus reaches. That's where Peter reaches. That's where James reaches. Over and over in scripture, we see that humility is not glory avoidance, but it's rather the pursuit of the correct glory. It's not glory avoidance. It's the pursuit of the correct glory. When Jesus rebukes people for the pursuit of glory, it's because they pursued the glory that comes from man and not the glory that comes from God. Because as an image bearer of God, you were made to bear to image the weighty goodness of God. The glory of a man or a woman right with God and living for the glory of God. And I think particularly, this is important for men to hear. Not that it's not important for women to hear, but there is a masculine urge at the heart of masculinity that wants to pursue glory. It's like, this is why Braveheart is such a good movie. This is why competitions of sports are so disproportionately enjoyed by men. It's like when Kauai,

This is why competitions of sports are so disproportionately enjoyed by men. It's like when Kauai, Leonard pursues the glory of dethroning the Golden State Warriors. Hallelujah. You know, it's the pursuit of glory. When you say, we're going for glory, there's this masculine urge to pursue a glorious mission that if I were to succeed in it, would be a glorious accomplishment. That is a deep, deep desire of humanity, specifically a deep, deep desire of masculinity. And the scripture doesn't come along and say, sit down. you're worthless. The scriptures come along and they say, don't dare to pursue the wrong glory or it will destroy you, the glory that comes for man being liked by everybody, being praised by people. That is a bad glory to pursue. But also don't dare not to live for glory. Don't dare not to live for the correct glory, for the glory of God. And so the scriptures would tell us over and over and over to run hard after the things that God has set before us, to die to the make-believe glories of self, to die to our own little towers of Babel that we build to the glory of our names that turn out just to be worthless, but to actually join in and get to work building and joining with God to build his eternal kingdom. The scriptures say, unless the Lord labors, then we build in vain.

humility? If it's not feigned incompetent, it's not just being really bad at stuff, if it's not, if it's not the avoidance of glory, what is it? Again, three marks to see. And we see this over and over in lots of different ways in the scriptures. And it's that humility begins with rightly assessing yourself. Humility begins by understanding who it is that you are, what it is that you are, therefore what it is that you're for? What do I exist for? And to do that, we have to go to the right place. Where do I go to figure out who I am? Do I go on a backpacking trip through Europe? No, actually. I'm sorry, you don't. You're not going to find yourself in Europe. You'll take yourself there, but you won't find yourself there. Do you go like deeper and deeper into the linty caverns of your own navel and just navel gaze. Who am I? Who am I? I? I need to reach deeper. Get up every morning and look in the mirror and say, you are beautiful. You are worthy. No, you're not going to find it there. You just don't find who you are by staring more at you. You need perspective out of you. Where do we go? We go to Scripture. We go to God. We go to the person who actually made humanity. He's going to be able to tell us who we are, what we are, and therefore what we're for. And authentic humility has to start with knowledge of and submission to who it is that we are. The creation of God.

going to be able to tell us who we are, what we are, and therefore what we're for. And authentic humility has to start with knowledge of and submission to who it is that we are. The creation of God. In Romans 12.3, Paul said, by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Here's humility talk. But to think, to think, with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God assigned. This is one of many scriptures where we're encouraged. You okay, bud? It's okay. We love kids. I thought it was mine. Encouraged. Don't think more highly of yourself than you're right. Assess yourself soberly. That's with sobriety, like not drunkenly. Don't assess yourself as a drunk person does with their musical ability in the middle of a crowd. I think I should give a solo on top of a table right now. That's unsoberly. No, soberly assess yourself. How do we do that? Who am I? What am I? I? I work it out from

That's unsoberly. No, soberly assess yourself. How do we do that? Who am I? What am I? I? I work it out from scripture. I ask God and what do we find? Well, here's a thread to follow. There are more, there's more we could say, but here's a thread that we could tug on about who I am. I'm a created being. I'm dependent not only on the God who knit me together in my mother's womb, Psalm 139, 13. But I'm dependent moment by moment. on that same God, that same Jesus, who is upholding and holding all things together, Colossians 117. So I'm dependent in that way. For my mere existence, I'm dependent. I have, 1 Corinthians 4.7 teaches me not even a solitary thing that I did not receive, which follows from that first thing. If I'm created and dependent moment by moment for my very existence, then how could there be even one thing that I have that's not a gift somehow from outside of me. Okay, 1 Corinthians 7th. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights James teaches us. So 1st Peter 318 taught us as well that we were made for God, but that we were fallen sinners, Romans 323, and that we're wholly dependent on the work of Jesus on the cross to forgive us our sin and to do what we were made for, which is to be reconciled to God.

and to do what we were made for, which is to be reconciled to God. just for the unjust. He died so that he could bring us to God. First Peter 318 taught us. So we're dependent. We're dependent. We're created. We have not one thing that we didn't receive and that even our very restoration to what we were made for must be a received thing that we get, not by works, but by grace from God through Christ, the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God. We could go on and on and on and on in scripture about Him. who we are. But that sums up the foundation of it. And so humility has to start by soberly looking at myself as I stand in relation to God among created things. I have to start by assessing that properly. And what do I find? Well, I'm not God. We'll clear that up. And neither is any other created things standing next to me below me. Nothing else. So that clears up a lot. I'm dependent on him, I'm created by him. I then begin to start in the path of humility by believing that what God has told me about myself is true and living in light of it. This is why Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, including humility. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of that.

Humility is not just rightly assessing yourself. It's then giving your rightly assessed self away. It has to start with rightly assessing yourself, but you can rightly assess yourself and then do that in the service of pride and vain glory, which is a much cooler word for pride. And foolishness to humble yourself is to live in accordance with reality with a true measure of yourself, but it's also to live with charity, the giving away of the self to others for the sake of others. And so what I'm saying is that you don't just figure out who you are so that you can establish a right pecking order and look down on everything below you, that's also not authentic humility. It's not what humility is at all. Humility begins with knowing itself, but then it gives itself away. And we see this at the heart of the gospel. At the heart of the gospel, there's a person. His name is Jesus, the God man, true God, true man. And in Philippians, two, three, through eight, Paul writes this. He says, here's the command to Christians. Do nothing from ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourself. So, see, there's not just rightly assessing myself. It's counting others as more significant in myself. Then he moves on to that. Why? Well, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among you. He's going to give us the reason for all of this

Then he moves on to that. Why? Well, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among you. He's going to give us the reason for all of this humility, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Humility is. Humility is. a vital part of your salvation. Humility is a vital part. It's at the beating heart of the gospel. It's at the beating heart of what saves us. Part of what saves us is that Jesus didn't merely soberly assess himself and find that he was God and then judge, but Jesus soberly assessed himself found that he was able to save and then gave himself away. That Jesus submitted himself to humili humiliation so that people who were proud could be saved and come to exaltation with him. Jesus, Jesus gave away his strength and his ability and poured those things out in humility. That is in love. And so the question for us is actually simple. If we're going to move this again back

That is in love. And so the question for us is actually simple. If we're going to move this again back to that practical command to clothe ourselves with humility, well, humility is not just understanding who I am, before God and that I'm dependent and humble and that I'm a creature just by the nature of my own nature. But then giving myself away, the question is simple. It's what am I clinging to? He said, you did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he humbled himself and he lowered himself. What are we grasping in our fists trying to protect from everybody else? Like my time, my money, my stuff, my house, by trying to protect. to myself or am I trying to use myself for others? Am I trying to keep and preserve and hoard or am I trying, even in risk, there is no such thing as love without great risk and great harm to yourself on some level. Am I giving myself away? This is so practical. Like, in my home, with my kids, am I protecting my time? Daddy needs to read another book, kids. I'm sorry. I can't read to you that book for the thousandth time. To my wife, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't read to you that book. I'm, I'm sorry. I need some me time. Maybe you are worn out. Jesus was crucified.

I'm sorry. I need some me time. Maybe you are worn out. Jesus was crucified. Humiliation. Humble, humble, lowering. What would you feel like you would die if you lost? What would you feel like you would die if you lost? Humility says, what is most precious to me, I will give because I love you. Humility says, I didn't earn, remember who am I? I'm a dependent creature. What do I have that I didn't receive? I didn't earn any of the things I have that I can give away in the first place. I'm playing with house money. What do I have that I didn't receive? It says, I didn't earn even my own time and my own strength. Humility says the strength I have, I was given to give away. This is at the heart of humility. It's again, not just lowly thoughts. It's not just lowly thoughts. It's not just rightly assessing myself. It's giving my rightly assessed self away warmly for love. When we sin and cling and fight God and fall short. And that serpent of pride coils up in our heart. And I know that feeling. You're like, I know that you know that feeling. I know that feeling. When you feel that, even more than that, what pride wants you to do is to then protect yourself by not, by protecting your image. No, I'm not proud. I'm a really humble guy.

Instead of humility, pride rises up in anxiety. This is why, this is no, no mistake that Peter immediately connects humility with casting our anxieties on Jesus. He says, humble yourselves, therefore, into the mighty hand of God, dot, dot, dot, dot, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. I'm not a doctor. I'm not trying to diagnose clinical anxiety disorders from the pulpit. I believe there is such a thing here, but there is a kind of chronic anxiety that is a very proud thing. There's a kind of chronic anxiety that is a very proud thing. If God has commanded us, and this is a command, verse 7 is a command, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for him. That's a part, he says, of humility. Humble yourselves, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for us. If God has commanded us to take all of our worries and all of our anxieties and all of our tremblings and all of our doubts and all of our fears and all the things that we stay up late into the night worrying over in our minds, like when there's a circumstance of your life, it's like a rock being worn down in a stream as it turns over and over and over and over and over and over and over. I was talking with a friend this week about that we've both had this experience before, that moment when you wake up in the middle of the night or you're trying to fall asleep and you're just, all of a sudden, it's there.

that moment when you wake up in the middle of the night or you're trying to fall asleep and you're just, all of a sudden, it's there. Some issue, some circumstance, some thing you didn't do, some mistake you made, some insult that you're having to bear, something just comes into your mind and you're just awake. Late into the night, worrying it over, worrying it over, worrying it over. Why does Peter connect casting that anxiety on Christ with humility? Because my chronic treasuring of anxiety of anxiety is a very proud thing. It's an insistency on self-sufficiency. It's an insistency on self-sufficiency. It implies that I trust my own strength that if I don't carry this thing, if I don't figure this thing out, if I don't worry this thing out, if I don't use my energy to continually live in anxiety about this thing, then it's not going to get taken care of. It's not going to get taken care of. It looks at God and it says this is actually up to me. God, why don't you sleep for a little bit? I'm going to figure this thing out. That's pride. And this is why some of the hardest words of Jesus are actually the greatest medicine for us, like Matthew 626. He asks this great question, 627, sorry, he asked this great question. He says, which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your

are actually the greatest medicine for us, like Matthew 626. He asks this great question, 627, sorry, he asked this great question. He says, which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your span of life? And some of us are like, oh, if I could, I would be immortal. I would be immortal. They would truly be among the undead, you know? Which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to your span of life? He's like, you're trying to weave a cloth out of the air. That's what you're trying to do, being anxious, because you don't actually, you don't actually have the power to do it, to handle it. You actually can't handle it. You actually can't handle it. Grace. When Jesus walks into the room and says, you actually are insufficient, what sounds like an insult is actually great grace. It's actually a part of his love. He's loving us when he confronts our anxiety and our pride and says, stop, cast it to me. I care for you. Can you believe that the Lord of the universe that God omnipotent would tell you, I care for you? This is in the same context in Matthew where Jesus talks about how he clothes the flowers of the field and how he feeds the birds of the air and not even a sparrow falls to the ground except that I know it. It's like, are you not

the air and not even a sparrow falls to the ground except that I know it. It's like, are you not have more value than they? You say to his people, look, I love you. So pride is therefore a very anxious thing. Peter would have a sea. Pride is an anxious thing. It's continually anxious because it believes it's God somewhere where it's depending on a bad God somewhere. Pride is a very anxious thing. Humility is therefore a very confident thing. When I say confident, I'm using it in in the most early version of what that word meant. It came to English from the Latin confide, which means with faith. So when you say I'm confident, you're saying I'm living with faith. if you're confident of, you know, that a chair is going to hold you and you sit down with confidence, you're living with faith that you were correct in your assumption about the chair and its ability to uphold you. Living with confidence, humility lives with confidence with faith in the promises of God and the God of the promises with faith that, with confidence, with faith, that if God says cast your anxieties, I mean, because I care for you, that he's actually going to do something about it. That that's not just like a mental trick. It's not like a counseling trick where someone's really dealing with anxiety. We just give them an imaginary bucket to go put all their anxieties and hopefully that'll deal with it. That's not what we're doing here. There's actually a person there who actually cares and actually says whether it's a small thing or a huge thing. It's

day, ironically, as I'm about to preach this passage, I was just feeling eaten up by a kind of anxiety. And lots of things, and I won't, this isn't a counseling session, so I won't lay down on a couch and confess all my deepest problems to you. All kinds of things. There's, and there was specifically there's one thing where I had, you know, you know, when you hear like this person said about you, that sort of thing, like the gossip comes back to you about yourself. I heard something. And I was like, that's not true. And I was offended. And I was angry and frustrated. And I know that that anxiety that I was wrestling with just wearing it over and over in my mind, trying to figure out what I would say, how I would, you know, own that person in a debate, which I was having in my mind, and all the, you know, the things that you've probably done to, or maybe it's just me. And I'm doing all of this. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, Pastor Brian, you remember that verse you're preaching on tomorrow? You know, preaching like where you stand up and tell everybody how to obey it. Oh, yeah. And it was like a rebuke, but it was good. It was medicine. It was good. It was God's saying, you're what you think of as righteous anger. That's actually just pride. Your anxious, righteous, righteous anger. It's just pride. Is vengeance yours? Is your reputation yours? Is whatever, all these things, are you, who among you by being anxious can fix a

pride. Your anxious, righteous, righteous anger. It's just pride. Is vengeance yours? Is your reputation yours? Is whatever, all these things, are you, who among you by being anxious can fix a single problem that you have? And he's, no. Cast it on. And this is something that you continually do over and over because we're human, we're weak, things continue to come back. And this is like a, continue casting. Keep casting. Keep turning it back. Keep returning it back. Keep returning it to Jesus. Don't turn it over. Don't figure it out. Okay, I'm going to move on. So that's part of humility in verse five. There's more we could say. Knowing who I am, I'm not God, I'm dependent, giving myself away in love for others, not counting myself as more significant, then my brother or my sister or my neighbor. But giving myself away in love, that's humility, and it's living in confident faith that as you do that, even though it feels like lost, sometimes to give yourself away all the time, it feels like loss on some level. Living with faith, living with confidence, that Jesus is good for his promises, and that he can handle it. That's what humility is. That's what commanded to put on. He gives a warning and a reward connected to it. We won't spend as much time in the rest of the passage, so don't worry. But he gives a warning and a reward.

That's what humility is. That's what commanded to put on. He gives a warning and a reward connected to it. We won't spend as much time in the rest of the passage, so don't worry. But he gives a warning and a reward. He basically says, I'm telling you to be humble, telling you to put this on like clothes, meaning it's something that's not always on, put it on. And then you might say, why? Why should I? Nana and a boo-boo I don't want to. And Peter says, here's why. And he gets a warning and a reward. Verse six, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. For, or because God opposes the proud. Terrifying. God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that at the proper time, he may exalt you. There's a promise of divine opposition or divine exaltation at stake here. Divine opposition or divine exaltation. Why should I humble myself under the mighty hand of God? Peter says, because it is that mighty hand that will oppose you if you don't. This is not God being petty. Okay? This is not God being petty. Pride is serious. Pride is at the root of sin. Because pride, all pride, even the tiniest particle of pride, is like the seed form of cosmic treason. It's like the seed form of a coup d'etat where you, you go and overthrow God's rule and say,

sin. Because pride, all pride, even the tiniest particle of pride, is like the seed form of cosmic treason. It's like the seed form of a coup d'etat where you, you go and overthrow God's rule and say, that's my throne. I belong there. You don't. Get off of my throne, God. All pride, somewhere down the line, is that in seed form. All of it. This is what led Satan to sin. It's what. It's what led us to sin, you will be like God. It's the original lie. All sin, all pride, is cosmic rebellion in Coet. Pride says God isn't God, I'm God. And so God in his love opposes proud people. God in his love opposes proud people does not let them have their own way. And I'm saying that God opposing you if you're proud is part of God's love for you. And you might go, that actually sounds like the opposite of love. God being for me sounds like love. Well, God is being for you by opposing you, by opposing you, by opposing your ability to succeed and your attempt at cosmic treasonous rebellion. if pride and see, if pride is just the seed form of trying to remove God from his throne so that you can sit on his throne. And is that attempt at dethroning God and sitting there yourself will always result in the destruction of an image bearer because that is not what he was created for.

opposing you. He is not letting you succeed in love, not letting you succeed. Not letting you succeed. And then there's an ultimate way. I'm talking about God's people. There's an ultimate way as well that if in pride and rebellion, you refuse to bend the knee to the kingship of Jesus and confess sin and receive mercy, then God cosmically opposes you and will bring eternal judgment on you because What you're doing is you are blaspheming and saying that you are God and not he. And he cannot because he's righteous. Let that stand. God opposes the proud. On the other side, God promises grace and glory for the humble. If we understand the shape of the gospel, this should not be a surprise. That text in Philippians, two, three through eight is what we read. Jesus didn't consider quality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. humbled himself, even a cross, even a crucifixion, he humbled himself. You know what verses 9 through 11 say? Therefore, or because of his great crossbearing humility, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Pride goeth before the fall, but humility go

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Pride goeth before the fall, but humility go both before exaltation. Jesus is the pattern for that. I am not saying that you, in every respect, are going to follow that pattern. No, you will not become a tiny God. I'm so sorry, but I'm not sorry at all. And you shouldn't be either. That's not what you were made to be. You were not made to be a tiny God, get your own planet, or anything like that. No, you were made to be an image bearer of God, at peace with him, worshiping him, forever a created dependent thing, and that's glorious. That's what exaltation looks like. a created dependent image bearer. It looks like in union with Christ being brought through the same shape of death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. It looks like you being made the most eweiest you that could possibly exist, the most perfected, glorified, immortal you. This is what C.S. Lewis is talking about when he says that you've never seen a mere mortal. And that if any of us were to see the other in the final state of glory, even the lowliest person, even the lowliest saint that you've never been tempted to think much of. If you were to see them in glory, you might be tempted to worship them the same way that men are tempted to worship angels when they see them. Because when God is finished with his people, the only word that can describe the

you might be tempted to worship them the same way that men are tempted to worship angels when they see them. Because when God is finished with his people, the only word that can describe the process biblically is glorification. That is the proper end of humility. It's people who have refused to glorify themselves and instead died with Christ. And God raises them up with Christ and glorifies them. That is not my interpretation. Those are verses of the Bible. Not my interpretation, verses of the Bible. And so I'm saying that Jesus went through humiliation to exaltation in order to bring proud people through humiliation and death with him and through to the other side of resurrection and glorification. So we come to the end of our time this morning in the Word, I want to point out that it is not a mistake that this instruction to universal humility in the body of Christ. That's what this is. He's talking about elders and members. And he says, and here, clothe yourselves all of you with humility towards one another. It's not a mistake that this comes, the heart of Peter's instructions for the life of the local church includes this deep call to humility. Why? Because humility is the secret sauce of local church health. Humility is the secret sauce of local church health.

church includes this deep call to humility. Why? Because humility is the secret sauce of local church health. Humility is the secret sauce of local church health. humility is one of the first fruits that grows from the seed of love. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 13, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels, and if I have all the power of the prophet, if I have all knowledge, I'm the theologian par excellence, and I have all of these things, and I have not love, I'm just noise. You could write a similar chapter about humility. If I have all of these things, but I have not humility, not only do I not have love, but I have nothing. I have nothing. If I have all competence, but I have not humility to give myself away, then I am useless. I have rendered myself useless. So here's the glimpse of the green pastor that our good shepherd is taking us to as a local church. He's saying, here's the green pastor I'm taking you to, a place where every sinner that's been made a saint by Jesus, progressively, haltingly, confessing sinningly, confessing sin along the way, is clothed in humility. towards one another so that this thing can work, so that a whole lot of different people who would not be likely to get along or like each other, all of a sudden, cover offenses,

empty before you pour in wine. God first empties a man of himself before he pours in the precious wine of his grace. To where poor in spirit, Christ can never be precious. And so to quote Gandalf, God is not trying to rob you. He is trying to help you. When he says be humble, he's not trying to rob you. He's trying to help you. He's trying to take the pebbles out of your hand to give you something better. He's not trying to take from you. God doesn't need anything from you. God has no lack. He doesn't want to steal from you. He wants to give to you. For his glory, he wants to give to you. And that is what the call to humility is. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Father of lights. says you are the Father from whom every good and perfect gift comes down. And so we thank you for your word, this great part of that gift to us. We thank you for an antidote to the poison of pride for the grace that abounds in Jesus Christ and his shed blood. Lord, we know that thankfulness smothers pride. And so, God, we ask that you would give our hearts overflowing thankfulness, that we look out into the fields of our lives and we would see your benevolent, overflowing goodness towards us in 10,000 ways that you've smiled down on us.

overflowing goodness towards us in 10,000 ways that you've smiled down on us. Lord, guard us in thankfulness, guard us in humility, humble us under your mighty hand, so that at the proper time, when you finish this thing, we can be exalted with Christ. Protect us from our hearts that want to be little God's and tyrants and make us contented creatures. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

God's and tyrants and make us contented creatures. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.