Exalting Not Ourselves

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Introduction: The 4H principle:

• Haughtiness leads to Humiliation: Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
• Humility leads to Honor: 1Peter 5:6 – Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

I.          PRESUMPTION 

A.       Trusting in his Power to Stand (1Corinthians 10:12) 

B.        Justifying Self Before Men (Luke 16:15) 

C.       Solution: No Confidence in the Flesh (Philippians 3:3) 

II.        PRIDE 

A.       Thinking Highly of Yourself (Romans 12:3) 

B.        Wise in Your Own Conceits (Proverbs 26:12) 

C.       Solution: I Must Decrease (John 3:30) 

Victory over Sin by Crucifixion – “God’s way of victory over sin is not through the suppression of sinful desires, nor through the eradication of the old nature, nor yet through the cleansing of inbred sin. God’s way of victory is through crucifixion—deliverance is only through death… Each time I come up against some particular sin, let me there say: I died to that in Christ. If it be a worldly attraction: I am crucified to the world and the world unto me [Galatians 6:16]. If it be proud, haughty self, again let me reckon: One died for all, all died. Then I should not, and need not, live unto myself—I am dead to my selfish pride and conceit and haughtiness [2Corinthians 5:14-15]. Let me do as the two young women who replied to an invitation to attend a ball: ‘We are very sorry, but it will be impossible for us to attend. We died last week. We are Christians.’ They had declared their testimony in baptism the previous week, as dead, buried, risen, and henceforth Christ-ones only.” –from Born Crucified by L. E. Maxwell. 

III.     PRETENSE 

A.       Striving to be Seen of Men (Matthew 23:5) 

B.        Claiming the Perks of Importance (Matthew 23:6-10) 

C.       Solution: Sit in the Lowest Room (Luke 14:7-11) 

Seeking Recognition – “Even in our most devoted service, what a seeking there is, perhaps unconsciously, to be something in the estimation of others: some secret desire, some undetected wish, even by our very service to be greater here. The very gifts of God and the power of His Spirit are sought the better to give us a place in this world. Thus are our very graces used to obtain for us glory, not of God, but of those around us. Surely this is one of the reasons why God can trust us with so little, for with His gifts we build up our own name, instead of His name. But how unlike all this to our Master; yea, how unlike even to His apostles! ‘Neither of men,’ says Paul, ‘sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others” (1Thessalonians 2:6). This is our calling, not only to be nothing in the world, but to be willing to be nothing even among our brethren; to take the nearest place to Him who has indeed taken the lowest.” –from The Law of the Offerings by Andrew Jukes (p.96-97).  

IV.     AMBITION 

A.       Seeking Great Things for Yourself (Jeremiah 45:5) 

B.        Loving to have the Preeminence (3John 1:9) 

Ambition’s Sad Ending – “Take the four greatest rulers, perhaps, that ever sat upon a throne. Alexander, when he had so completely subdued the nations that he wept because there were no more to conquer, at last set fire to a city, and died in a scene of debauch. Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the slaughtered knights, died at last by poison administered by his own hand, unwept and unknown, in a foreign land. Caesar, having conquered eight hundred cities, and dyed his garments with the blood of one million of his foes, was stabbed by his best friends in the very place which had been the scene of his greatest triumph. Napoleon, after being the scourge of Europe, and the desolator of his country, died in banishment, conquered and a captive.” –from New Encyclopedia of Prose Illustrations (p.22). See Job 20:6-7; Obadiah 1:3-4. 

C.       Solution: Be the Servant of Others (Matthew 20:25-28) 

Conclusion: I Expect God Will – In the early 1800’s, Robert Morrison served as an early English missionary to China. He ostensively worked in Canton as a mercantile clerk and interpreter while translating the Bible into Chinese—a work that would certainly have brought death to himself and his Chinese helpers had the real nature of his work been discovered. In 1807, Morrison had been in Boston arranging passage for China since the East India Company had refused to take any missionaries to the Orient. When the owner of the ship on which he set sail discovered his purpose, he commented, “And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese empire.” To which he replied, “No, sir; I expect God will.” –from To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson by Courtney Anderson (p.52-53).