Hello, friend! I’m Mack Lyon. The program’s “In Search of the Lord’s Way.” Oh say, it’s so good to have you with us today. Did your dear mother ever say to you as a child, “You’re not near as big as you think you are?” Well, mine had to and I’m glad she did. Well, she tried to teach us, that in spite of our skills, our achievements, and all of that nobody wants to hear us boast about them; leave that to other people. That’s the thought for our program today.
Warmest greetings to you, friend! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for joining us “In Search of the Lord’s Way” to become a Christian and to live like Jesus taught us to live. His way to become a Christian and His way to live are detailed in the Bible, so, ours is a Bible study. I’m sure you know, the Lord’s way is the best way to live life that has ever been introduced to the family of man. Don’t deny it, if you haven’t tried it.
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It was reported in 1945 when, on the death of President Roosevelt and Vice President Harry Truman suddenly became President of the United States, that a close personal friend of his, Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, took him aside and said to him, “Now Harry, from here on out, you’re going to have lots of people around you. And they’ll try to put a wall around you and cut you off from any ideas but their own. And they’ll tell you what a great man you are, Harry. You know and I both know you ain’t.” What a wise friend that Sam Rayburn was. It seems he knew what God said thousands of years before: “A man’s pride will bring him low. But the humble in spirit will retain honor.” That’s Proverbs 29:23. Well, that’s our study today. After the hymn, I’ll be back and we’ll read James, chapter 4, verses 1 to 6. And Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as he usually does in a hymn.
We’re reading from the book of James, chapter 4, beginning at verse 1. “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desire for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not ask because, you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And it is from that last passage that we take the title of our text, God Gives Grace to the Humble. Let us pray. Holy Father, we are thankful to You for all of the good things that we enjoy in life because we come, we know that they come from You. And we thank you, our Father, for this program and all that You have done with it; and we realize that it is the working of Your hands. Bless us now as we study together from Your word that we may be edified and grow thereby. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
In the text we read awhile ago, there’s a quote from the book of God’s Proverbs. It doesn’t surprise us, does it, that God has a book of Proverbs? Proverbs are very common in much of the Eastern religious literature. So, no, it doesn’t surprise us to find a book of Proverbs in the Bible. Proverbs are usually pithy, right to the point and require little, if any, explanation. Sometimes some of ours are regional and sometimes they’re traditional. You remember some of the proverbs, don’t you, that your parents recited or repeated at the dinner table? Well, “proverbs” is not our subject today so we’ll continue with the study.
However, I’ve been engaged in the most enjoyable, and the most profitable, reading of the book of Proverbs that I believe I ever did in all my years. And I guess I just got “caught up” in what it says about pride and humility. I’ve not counted the number of times there appears a proverb about “humility” as compared to, well, with the number of times there appears one about “wisdom” or “anger” or “laziness” or “strong drink” or something else. But, it seems that Inspiration has much more to say about “pride and humility” than anything else. I’m sure there’s a reason for that. Probably the most embarrassing moment in anyone’s life was that moment when it became obvious to everyone in the room that he was really not as great as he thought he was. And that reminds me of a modern proverb, while it isn’t inspired, I have an idea most of us are familiar with it. It says, “It is better to keep quiet and let everybody think you don’t have all your marbles in one basket than to do all the talking and assure them of it.”
Well, our text in James 4 and 6 quotes Proverbs 3 and 36 that, “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” Proverbs 6:16 says, “These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him.” And look what tops the list of things that God hates; in the first place is “A proud look.” Then follows: “a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” Oh me! That’s a pretty sorry bunch or company that for a proud person to run with, don’t you think? “Surely (God) scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34). Then, Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; (then follows) pride and arrogance and evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” “When pride comes, then comes shame: but with the humble is wisdom” (Prov. 11 and 2). “By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well advised is wisdom” (Prov. 13:10). “In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them” (Prov. 14:3). “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor is humility” (Prov. 15:33). “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5). Oh! Here’s one, too. It says: “Pride goes before destruction; and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” That’s Proverbs 16, verses 18 and 19. “He who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; when he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive” (Prov. 17, verses 27-28). “It is not good to eat much honey; so to seek one’s own glory is not glory” (Prov. 25:27). “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Prov. 26:12). “Let another man praise you and not your own mouth; a stranger and not your own lips” (Prov. 27:2). “A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor” (Prov. 29:23). “If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth. For as the churning of milk produces butter, and wringing the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife” (Prov. 30:32 and 33). Well, that gives us an idea of what God thinks about “pride” and “humility,” doesn’t it?
Christ also had something powerful to say about “pride” and “humility.” When His disciples asked Him about who is greatest, He “called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, Assuredly, I say to you, unless you be converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1 to 5). Well, He pretty well summed it all up then, didn’t He, or for anyone else that might, well these things when He pronounced woes upon the Scribes and the Pharisees. “Whoever (and this is in Matthew chapter 23) whoever exalts himself,” He said, “will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” That’s verse 12. Oh, He taught much more about “humility” and “pride,” but His most powerful lesson about these things is found in His life, the example that He set when He washed His disciples’ feet. It’s recorded for us and for our learning in John chapter 13, verses 1 to 17. “When He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, if I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, (Jesus said) blessed are you if you do them.”
Well, we must hurry on. The Holy Spirit teaches us a lot about “humility,” too. Paul, one of only 13 men who “turned the world upside down” according to Acts 17 and 6, an apostle specially chosen out of due time, a truly great man of God, the man God chose to write more of the New Testament than any other person, the one who evangelized more of the Gentile world than any other person, the one person more than any other who has been my personal example and inspiration, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he said of himself, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 5 to 7). Well, in the 15th chapter he also said that, “I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (verses 9, 10, and 11).
Well, there’s also the proverb that we read in our text, and as quoted by James: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Then, in the next verse James adds the thought: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” It’s quoted again by Peter in his first epistle, chapter 5, verse 6. And Peter adds, “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Although, there’s much, much more teaching in God’s word about being humble, we must close. And we do it with the thought that is in Romans chapter 12, verse 3. “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Shall we pray? Holy Father, we are so thankful for Your mighty hand that You have put us in the position of teaching millions of people around the world today. But especially, we have conversed with some people in their homes today that may be blessed by this message, and we pray it is so. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
My friend, who was it that said, “Great men seldom know they’re great?” I once knew who said that, but I can’t remember. Will somebody write and tell me? Certainly, truly great people don’t go round, honking about their greatness or demonstrating their greatness, do they now? President Lincoln once told the story of an Eastern monarch who charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, which would be true and appropriate any time or on any occasion. They came up with the words, “And this, too, shall pass away.” How appropriate in the hour of pride, “This, too, shall pass away.” Well, there’s wisdom in knowing when to be silent as well as when to speak. Someone has observed that, “Just as an empty kettle clangs the loudest, so an empty head rattles on and on.” And, “He who must resort to selling himself markets a pitiably poor product.”
Well, it’s likely that “pride” is the one thing more than anything else, that hinders people from becoming Christians. Some people are too proud to believe that God created man with the “freedom of will,” and then will punish him eternally for exercising that freedom. Others are too prideful of their own way of thinking to believe what the Bible says clearly about the Lord’s way of salvation. Many people are too “proud” of their inherited religion even to be approachable with the gospel of Christ.
“Ah, you know, Papa and Mamma would flip in their graves if I were to be immersed for the remission of sins!” I’ve been blessed to have baptized many people in a baptistery in a church building with the whole church assembled. However, I baptized many others in ponds and streams before churches had baptisteries. I was baptizing in the Gila River in Arizona in 1945, when a commotion broke out among the folks on the riverside. A man whose wife was being baptized shouted at that moment, “I would die and go to hell before I’d do that!” However, the Lord’s way of salvation is to confess with your mouth before men what you believe in your heart about Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God (Romans 10:8 and 9). And then be saved, a person must change his heart about his lifestyle, and stop doing whatever sin, or sins which he seeks forgiveness for. Some people are too proud to admit to sin. But the Bible requires it and calls it “repentance.” Finally, to have the “remission,” of sins, all those past sins, a person must be baptized (Acts chapter 2, verse 38). It is in the act of baptism that a person comes to the cross for forgiveness. It is in the act of baptism that a person passes from out of Christ to “in to Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27). If we can assist you with this in becoming a Christian, please don’t be too proud to call on us.
My friend, if you would like a free printed copy, an audio cassette tape or a CD of this program or any other that you’ve heard on our programs, our broadcasts, request it. Our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. Our address is In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. We’re glad that you were with us today. Be with us next time. God bless you; we love you.
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