Address—Stephen Rule
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Good evening, a little housekeeping thing. Want to take care of once so that I don't repeat myself. I'll apologize ahead of time. I realized umm type up there is a little small for some of you. This isn't the program I'm used to working out of, but I couldn't get it to work so I'll do the best I can. When I expand and close outlines, I'll have to close things up a little because it's a little different than the program I'm used to working in.
Umm, with that out of the way.
Let's begin.
Like the thing just one stanza of #257 stanza 4. If someone could start that for us.
Deeply more.
In half a game.
OK, and turn off Christmas and I love you and all the flavours of the rationale.
That's right.
God and our Father, we just ask, because we're together with Thy word, open, that our hearts would be open too, that Thy Spirit would be given freedom to work in each of us, and that the end result would be greater glory for thyself. Lord Jesus, we just ask it and Thy name, Amen.
Like to share with you some lessons that the Lord is in the process of teaching me that I think are applicable to every single age in this room.
And then he's one listening as well. They're lessons that are related to obedience, dependence, and humility. So we'll look at those three different topics tonight. And I just kind of like to link it a little bit with what you heard last night or last night about growing things and adorning the doctrine and having beautiful, figuratively speaking, flowers growing in your life. Tonight I'd like to talk about the soil that that grows in.
I think sometimes in our lives things come up and we wonder where did they come from?
And there's something down underneath. And if it's a weed, there's a root. But we don't always trace it down far enough. And I guess what I'd like to encourage in your life and in mind is the process of always.
Building the soil of your life, if you will, and the building the soil, the life as a person here on this earth is growing in obedience.
It's growing independence and it's growing in humility and we'll look at a lot of different examples and we'll look at how those different.
There we go. We'll look at how those different things grow, but I don't. I very, very much hesitated to include humility in there because who would like to give the ten key pointers on how to gain how I gained humility or whatever? It's not what we're looking for tonight. What I'm looking for is things that promote those.
In the life and looking at it in the life of the Lord Jesus, looking at how he walks, looking at what he was is that perfect man. I don't want to share it together with you as something that I believe helps that every single phase of life, but I think it it touches on so many different areas. I prayed about sharing different examples and I just felt hindered in doing so in part because I think it's hugely.
Individual in your life. So I'm going to give you one at least there's only one in my mind it's.
From last week to pick anyone a number of ones, but last week was meditating on. I think it was humility of these different topics and thoroughly enjoyed the word. Thoroughly enjoyed the meditation and then umm came down to the breakfast table and it was much cooler than average August day and it's beautiful. I got a better than average sleep feeling fair amount of energy. We had a very nice family Bible reading.
Sang a hymn at the end of the family Bible reading. Got in the car, my uh, 97 Ford Escort rust bucket rolled down the window, stuck my elbow out. Which is great to be able to do. And August and Chicago.
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So you're finishing the car anyway, hold to the end of the to our dead end St. out onto the main thing. And there was the light ahead of me and the light ahead of me. I was the longest one on the way to work and hit it just right. And there was a Cadillac late model, very sporty. I don't know cars well at all, but it was late model sporty and it was a Cadillac in the right lane and I was feeling quite energetic and I was in my lane behind.
A a Hyundai and I just made that.
Turn beautifully. It's kinda cleared the edge of the lane just about perfect three feet. Didn't have to slow down at all. So you could. I tried to drive the speed limit, but I love going around curves and stuff because you get the feeling of speed and you're still doing the speed limit and come around that curve beautifully. Made it around that curve and the just up ahead of me that where the Cadillac and the the Hyundai and the Cadillac got boxed out by the Hyundai and completely spontaneous.
Not thinking about it. No one was watching. But you're watching. Umm, my arm was out the window. I said don't get him, Elantra.
Pulled up behind the, uh, Sonata at the light and uh, Cadillac in the next lane. The second longest light on the way to BCP. Very brief pause. Pulled through the light and the Cadillac got boxed out and now he's in behind me. Glancing at him in the rear view mirror and uh, he turned to the next light and continued on. And the race being over, going nicely around the speed limit.
I thought, oh, humility.
Uh, these things touch every single moment of every day. Obedience is going to look very, very different for you tonight, tomorrow morning than it might for me. But the principle of it is the same. So I want to begin there with the first one here on the list. What I meditate when I'm burning Bible reading, I'm reading Mr. Darby's translation. So all these are there, but I'll read them in the Bible in front of me as well. So if you don't see it up there.
It's quite alright if you don't read to me. This is. If you can't read it up there, I'll read it to you here in my Bible and Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 7.
This is the Lord Jesus quoted from the Old Testament speaking in prophecy of what his life would be. And he says then said, I hello, I come the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy will.
Oh, God, like this is one of the most challenging and beautiful verses in the Bible. There are many. So I'll just put it in the category of challenging and beautiful. You know how it worked back then, right? They didn't have a bound volume with leaves in front of them. They had scrolls. And so the scrolls sat in these little cubicles like you may have seen from an old post office or something. They've got a whole bunch of these little cubicles, the scrolls that inside each one and.
The person could pull it out of the synagogue. The rabbi could pull it out of the synagogue.
And unroll it. But on the outside of that scroll there was often a summary of its contents. You can imagine flipping through something like the word of God. A big book and pages are pretty handy. That's why we use them. Imagine unrolling a scroll to try to get to the right spot and finding you're in the wrong scroll. And so this one is written on the outside.
The summary of its contents written on the outside of the light.
The Son of God become man. Are these words.
I come.
To do thy will hold on.
It summarized everything that he did.
Just about everything in the world around us is going to push for self-reliance.
And all kinds of things that are built on self getting to what self needs and what self wants.
But written on the pages of the every single page of every single moment of the life of the Lord Jesus as a man in this world.
Were those words, I come to do thy will.
Oh my God.
And death, he cries out to his God, and he says, when he's being made sin, my God, my God, nothing broken in his heart. And the relationship that he had with his God, obedience into and through and beyond death.
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If we're going to live our lives, it would be a wonderful thing to cultivate.
That same desire, that same spirit.
And God works to cultivate that spirit in our lives. And one of the things that he does, what he uses is His word and.
I'm going to have to hide it quickly. In fact, since the outline doesn't work here properly, I think I snuck ahead and threw it in with some question marks. The book of Deuteronomy. It's a wonderful book. I I would challenge you to read the book of Deuteronomy if you've been encouraged in prophecy in this week.
Read the book of Deuteronomy and then read through the prophets, and as you go, try to look at all the linkages in my electronic Bible I went through and I underlined through the book of Deuteronomy after I'd gone through the prophets. I guess I did it in the opposite order. And you'll find a tremendous number of links because God is calling His people back to something that He'd already given to them. He wanted to establish a relationship with them. That's something beautiful in that book.
There's an expression that comes, and Moses uses it in his writing. An expression is Jehovah thy God.
Moses wrote five books, and Jehovah Thy God occurs more than anywhere else in the book of Deuteronomy, but it's used in some of the other books.
Don't feel uncomfortable not knowing the answer to this question. I couldn't have told it to you a month ago.
If you have any guests, how many times he says Jehovah thy God and say.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers.
It's actually very important, so I want you to pause and just think about the actual numbers. Not important, the frequency is.
The idea genesis wild guess approximation never occurs once.
Looking back to this expression.
No one wants to hazard a guess. That's fine. 9 times numbers and Leviticus 0.
Deuteronomy.
It's beautiful. I'm going to show you in the book of Deuteronomy, and I want to come back to here. Here are the occurrences. You don't have to read a single one of them. The point is watching me scroll here.
OK, here we go. I'll expand it. There's your list. There's Genesis. You've got one.
Here's Exodus. You've got your nine. You come to.
Numbers in Leviticus missing. Here's pseudonym. Watch it.
Fired yet?
We're not halfway through the book yet.
And, and in fact, if I can save you, I will. No, I guess I can't. Sorry about that. Here you go. I can't get my off my mouse to find the down arrow. I'll go back up.
234 times.
Moses uses Jehovah thy God 244 times total in this writings. 234 of them are in Deuteronomy. Why? Why is it so often in that book? Why does it come up over and over and over and over again? And I believe that there are two things that come up over and over and over again in the book. One is obedience and the other is the relationship that God wants with you.
He wants a relationship with you. And something I didn't even notice this afternoon suddenly occurred to me. Whoops, I didn't get them all. Jehovah thy God. You know, it says Jehovah your God in the book of Deuteronomy as well. And Moses uses that knowledge, right? About half of them are in Deuteronomy. Jehovah your God. There's around 40 of them. And again, I maybe it's a small detail, but I want you to catch it because I think it's beautiful.
Jehovah.
Your God. For years and years I could never keep straight these eyes vow your Which one's plural? Which one's singular? So somebody finally told me, are singular. So if you say it right, the Zion's our singular and you won't forget it. At least I haven't seen.
Jehovah thy God, the singular Moses is talking to this crowd of people. They're in the plains of Moab. They're about to enter the land. And what does he say to them? 40 times is Jehovah your God? It's plural, it's to the group. But 234 times he addresses them in the individual. When it comes to obedience, your relationship individually to your God is vital.
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It's absolutely essential.
That when you obey God, you are obeying a person in whom with whom you're in relationship. You know, they were brought into the land. And just to touch on Deuteronomy a number of times, they showed clearly that they didn't have in themselves the ability to obey. And you and I have been given that life, the life of Christ that delights to obey, the life that will enjoy a little bit in the life of the Lord Jesus himself and a couple of these other examples.
Not life delights to obey. We have the Spirit of God. That's the power to carry it out.
But the principle of it is throughout this book, your moms and dads in this room, and some of you are going to become moms and dads. You want obedience in those children, God's children, He establishes relationship with them and then he calls for that obedience. Now the child, we had the verse earlier and very clearly, and rightly so, a child doesn't say, well, mom and dad, you know, our relationship hasn't been that good lately.
You've been a little bit busy and so I'm going to act up.
And you can't say anything about it because you blew it doesn't work that way. When it's quoted in Ephesians, it's quoted clearly children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. The child can't claim that as an excuse to not obey, nor should the parent pass over it as Oh well, we'll throw this one out. But this is what I want to emphasize.
You have that child. God with his children establishes an individual 1 to one relationship with everyone.
234 times in this book, almost seven times per chapter, he says, Jehovah thy God.
Want to establish a relationship with a child? Each one is an individual. We only have one child, very much an individual, but everyone tells me when you have two, they've got two individuals. When you have three or three individuals, and so on. Each with their own unique twist, maybe some more like the other and some a little bit more different than the rest, but each truly unique.
And God establishes that unique relationship, and He calls to obedience in that relationship.
Move to the.
Third one.
Kind of had to guess that this was coming I suppose, but if you look.
At Temptations, I suspect most of you know it.
But I'll have to flap those outlines again.
For time, the Lord answers and the temptation of Luke, the answers from isn't that beautiful? Do you have the answers from the word of God? There are many, many things We're not going to go through the temptations and all that we can learn from them. There's so much to learn there, but I think it's beautiful that the Lord when the answer says answered from the word of God and the answer from in every case, the book of Deuteronomy.
He walks and that absolutely perfect relationship.
With his God and the word of God, you could say, I suppose put it this way, saturated him and there was absolutely perfect obedience. And so even in the way that the Lord quotes and if the answer is Satan and the temptations, the answer is beautifully and in obedience. And I just want to call your attention to a couple of the points here.
Umm.
I have to make that. Well, I'll turn to read it.
And Deuteronomy chapter 8 think it that we're familiar with the first temptation relating to mana.
I just want you to notice something that had to be said to the.
Two, but the Lord didn't need to quote.
Verse 3, Deuteronomy, verse three. And he humbled thee separately to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not. We're going to get into dependence here in a little bit. We're going to get into humbling a little bit. They're both here in this verse. Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man. And now the Lord picks up.
This, as he quotes it, Man does not live by bread alone only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
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And we take in the Word of God that promotes obedience. And the Lord quotes the Scripture. Why didn't he quote the first part of the verse?
For the Lord need to be humbled.
Lord humbled himself, didn't he? Lord didn't have anything that needed humbling. We'll look at what's humbling ourselves means in a little while. But he didn't need anything that needed humbling. But he goes and he perfectly responds to that temptation. Let's go over the middle one and I want to look at this.
And look for.
Look for in verse 12.
Time I'll read it. And Jesus answering said to him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Notice if you go back and you look at that temptation.
What were they asking?
It says that temptation is given in umm Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16. You should not attempt voting for Mr. Darby, Jehovah, you're God, as he tempted him in Masa or in Meribah. That's an Exodus 1717. You go back to Exodus 17.
And you look at it, what were they asking?
They were asking, is the Lord among us or not? That was the question, is the Lord among us or not?
And so most of strikes the rock, they get water in that story, but.
Afraid they can't bring it out clearly enough, briefly.
But here's the thought. The Lord Jesus had a relationship with his God that was absolutely perfect, didn't need to test it, and he didn't need to question it. When we're walking with the Lord in obedience every moment of every day, when he sends those circumstances that are difficult, when he sends those circumstances that we can't make sense of.
When there's that disease, when there's that illness, when there's that difficulty that comes up.
If we're walking in that relationship with perfect obedience in it, when that happens.
There's no need to try to test to see whether the Lord is still there or whether he left. That was the Lord's walk in perfect obedience. I'm not saying that I walk in that way. I'm saying the pathway of obedience and happiness, even in trial, is possible when we know in our hearts day-to-day.
Through obedience, really, that the Lord is there and for us. Maybe I should go back and pick up one detail because it was important here and I skipped it earlier.
Go back to the Lord thy God. I did summarize at the top, rather than going through all 234 the kinds of expressions that come with that statement. The Lord thy God, look at them. Half given, given, half blessed, cares for frothy out of Egypt, will choose, will bless, will raise up, half cut off the nation's love thee.
Redeem the when he establishes that relationship with each one of us, he proves it to us and the Lord is proving to you and to me every single day that he loves us and he spoke to us last night. Among many other things of contentment and contentment is a can be built. It grows as we watch what God does. Thankfulness is another way that it fills as we watch what God does and it enhances and makes the obedience.
That much easier and so when we come into the trial it becomes much easier to go through.
I'm going to step forward and.
Skip over Saul's missed opportunity if you want to look at it. I'm happy to send these and I I have.
Dozens, if not hundreds more verses that didn't make the cut. They're on a different list. I'm happy to send them to you via e-mail. You don't have to capture them all. I want to go to Daniel 4 to give you just a little quick one last one on obedience.
Daniel, his face will never Nebuchadnezzar, and he finds that he has to interpret a dream that's going to cause him to say something that Nebuchadnezzar that no prideful human walking in arrogant arrogance see, like Nebuchadnezzar that's about to be judged wants to hear.
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And it says that Daniel was quiet, I think it says for about the space of one hour now when he answers him.
He answers him, and he comes to the end of the answer. He interprets the dream in Daniel chapter 4 and look at this, He says in verse 27, Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins.
By righteousness, thine iniquities, by showing mercy to the poor. And I want to pause there to share with you something that I've enjoyed. You can test it out for yourself. You're going to have to look into it for yourself. But throughout that book of Deuteronomy again.
There's righteousness and there's mercy. Over and over and over again. It mentions the Father, the widowless, the stranger, the Levite. There's not just righteousness, there's righteousness and mercy. I want to suggest to you that Daniel is now outside his land. He's outside where he can enjoy the relationship that God wanted to bring him into in that land. He can't enjoy it the way.
That God meant it to be.
But Daniel's heart is there. We know he read the word and he quotes Jeremiah. Later on. He was reading Jeremiah. Here he is, and he has, if you want to call Nehemiah's prayer, where he paused and he gave answer to the king. This is Daniel's moment from his Bible readings. He's ingested the whole book of Deuteronomy, and he wants to say something to this man, this powerful man, about government. What does he give him? He gives them the essence of the book.
In the essence of the person who wrote it, go back and meditate on it for yourself. I believe this is a beautiful example of someone who did ingested the word of God, taking it in for himself. Couldn't live in the fullness of it because he's been taken out of that land. But he loved the God who'd given it to him. And in that moment he gives the absolute perfect advice to that king about how to rule, and he gives it from God himself.
The essence of the book.
Distilled into those two words righteousness and mercy.
Let's move on. So the next one dependence.
Let me switch the order here. I'm going to go to the second one.
Before I do.
Many of you have ever heard a child say something like the following? This expression I've heard exactly. Maybe your child has said something similar older brother later earlier in their life and your parents quoted maybe a younger sibling Child says I do it myself.
Maybe I heard something similar to that for the action.
Isn't that part of us and it's part of natural growth. I'm not taking anything away from this wonderful. You know, if you had a child who's now 15 who's still wanting to sit in the high chair and be spoon fed, you've got problems. I'm talking about, well, there's developmental disabilities and so on. I'm not meaning that at all. I'm just talking about the fact that there's natural, proper development. So there's nothing wrong. Children need to learn.
To do it themselves.
But encapsulated in that is a spirit we carry throughout our life. We don't like others to have to do it for us. And somewhere deep inside all of us, I suggest, there's a desire to do it myself.
I want to read a verse from Luke chapter 2.
I think it's beautiful.
We capture the spirit that's here.
To keep us from so many difficulties.
So that would only give one personal example. I'll stick with it. This is one of the Lord's working very hard on me on at the moment in Luke chapter 2.
I'm going to.
Save myself a moment and umm.
Myself the reference.
For six.
So it was while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered and she brought forth her first born son. This is the phrase I want you to look at and wrap them in swaddling clothes and laid them.
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Look at the Manger in the end for the moment. Just want to focus on the middle part of that verse. She wrapped them in swaddling clothes. Laid them.
Let's get those hands do.
What could those feet do?
The perfect Son of man, the one who never sins, entered this world. And the moment he enters, the angels, praise the heavens, erupts. The shepherds come to look. So what are they looking at? They're looking at a man who would be absolutely dependent for moment one.
So the moment of his death.
And it symbolized for us and hands that can't move and feet that can't move, and a child that must be lifted and carried and laid in that Manger that is our Savior, that's our Lord, an absolute perfect dependence. And how did he exit this world?
He exited this world and the symbol is the same. His hands were nailed to the cross.
The feet were nailed to the cross and then the hands and feet aren't carrying out the actions.
Of a man and when he's taken down from the cross, what happens?
You know the expression and having taken it down, wrapped it.
Placed a minute to virtually the same two exact expressions, wrapped and placed or laid in that tune from beginning to end. The book ends of his life here. Absolute dependence. Yes, as he walked through this world, he did many, many things with those hands and feet, but he did them. And I believe it's the symbolism of it.
An absolute dependence. The bookends from end to end, perfectly dependent on his God throughout. You want to see absolute, amazing, incredible dependence, read Psalm 22. Just read that word, those words from the cross, from that man, as he asked, with absolute obedience and absolute dependence, while those nails, hands, and those nailed feet didn't move.
Let's look at another figure of it.
When they entered the land.
People entered the land.
Read it from.
Five or many of you have in your hands Deuteronomy Chapter 11, verse 10. For the land whither thou goes into possess it is not as the land of Egypt from when she came out where thou sowest thy seed and water sit with thy foot as a garden of herbs.
Egypt.
Vast majority of, you know, just a refresher, I guess he just has that big river that flows down to the middle of it, the Nile. It brings all that silks from all the way along its way until it gets down to lower to Egypt near the Mediterranean. And then it dumps that rich silk out in the delta there in Egypt. And that's where the land of Goshen was. That's where the children of this world were placed. That's what they were familiar with, and there was water.
365 days a year. As far as I know in recorded history, the Nile has never run dry.
And so to get water on your crop, they had a little water wheel and I had a foot pedal. And you can find them in the ancient monuments, the drawings of them or the sketches of them in the ancient monuments. And there they have that foot wheel. And they watered the land with their foot little hamster wheel.
Little paddle wheel and you could get your steps. Didn't need to buy your Peloton, Just get on your wheel and water your crop. The work of your feet. That's the land they've been in as long as any of these people could remember, That's the land they've been in and now they're about to leave it and they're going to go to a place that's totally different.
And so Moses is preparing him for it. Verse 11. But the land where there you go to possess it is as a land of the hills and valleys.
And drink a water the reign of heaven.
The land which the Lord thy God careth, for the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year.
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Soak that one up for a moment.
Many of you here are.
Work on or near grain farms.
With no irrigation.
Don't have any?
Everybody here has irrigation. How many of you depend on a good rain at the right moment to get the quality crop you'd like to see?
A few.
If you're dependent on the rain from heaven and you're Jews standing on the hillside and you have your crop there, what can you do about it?
You can talk to the one that makes it.
You can talk to the one who says that he has his eye on that land and he sends the rain, but you're utterly dependent. They're going from where they could work for it to where they had to receive it.
Utterly dependent on the blessing from their God. And you know you and I in our lives for all those things. You're a parent in the home, you're cultivating a work and your child, you're saturating them with the word of God. You're building that relationship with them.
You're bringing in discipline where it's needed, correction where it's needed, but you're waiting on the Lord, totally dependent really on the Lord to do that work in the heart. Utterly dependent. We also recognize that at every moment of every day, just like these Israelites needed to recognize them. Their blessing came from above. We could look into the detail if there were time. You know, the Elijah prayed and closed the heavens because of their.
Three. Let's look at a different one.
Umm, just going to go down the last two quotes you could search out for yourself. In the book of Luke there are many examples of prayer, but I want to look at two specific ones as an encouragement. Believe prayer is something that cultivates dependence. Spend time in the Lord's presence and it cultivates dependence. We wait on them and look. Chapter 9, verse 28.
Says.
And it came to pass about an 8 days after these things he took Peter and joint John and James and went up into a mountain.
Right. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, as Raymond was white and glittering. The other two gospels that give the count of the Transfiguration, Matthew and Mark, don't give this part of the account. They don't tell us about prayer.
But Luke that presents the perfect dependent man in his life here in this earth, presents prayer. Just want you to notice the circumstances of this prayer.
This are rough moments in life. Lord was going through a real difficulty here at this stage and so we pray.
Context again is the Transfiguration. His glory is going to be on display to His disciples.
I think what the Lord is showing us here is this. They're not always difficulties in our lives. Sometimes there's some really encouraging things. Sometimes there's some really happy moments. Just naturally speaking, they're joyful. We have the happiness and obedience that were spoken to last night, and that's cultivated as we obey. But there are other natural joys and we enter into them. Maybe there's praise and it's.
Well meant.
Perhaps in one sense deserved.
It's a tendency of our heart. It's not independent.
To take that moment and kind of revel in it and say, well, OK.
Maybe I deserve that one. That's kind of nice. I'll take some more. So Lord, entering into this moment of glory, where is he? He's on his knees.
The Apostle Paul had to learn how to be a base, yes, but he also had to learn how to abound.
Those beautiful moments he had to learn to enter into, learn how to go through in perfect dependence. Second example was an encouragement I hope in Luke Chapter 11.
Came to pass first one, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord.
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See just to pray as John also taught his disciples. So I encourage you with this.
If you live a life of dependence, and you live it because you're living that life independent, knowing your relationship to the God who gives, your hands are open to receive. As I understand, lifting up holy hands simply meant that in the New Testament, the hands were open. Palm up wasn't lifting up holy hands and waving around so that others noticed you. It was.
Fully hands open and ready to receive the blessing that God gave. Utter dependence on God to give. Wonderful figure, wonderful symbol. And as that is practiced in our lives, others come along and say, I want that too. Others that have the Spirit of God in them. Here the disciples come to Lord and say teach us to pray. Maybe they.
John and his disciples, maybe there's a little envy in their hearts, they don't know, but I like the fact that it occurs when they saw him praying that they come to him and actually ask the question. And so in our lives, when we walk in simple dependence on the Lord, it will be an encouragement to others.
Let's go on and I'll leave the other couple multiple examples here. Let's go on to humility and.
So start with this one here. So the most well known but I, I.
Just because they're well known.
Doesn't mean they're deeply valuable. I'm just going to read the verses with very little comment. I think they speak for themselves.
Perhaps make them remark or two, but Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5.
You read the whole epistle, it's pretty clear that stripes have come in, pretty clear that there was an issue with humility, and before it's gotten to in the 4th chapter, these verses come in and other examples.
But this might be and you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.
And took upon him the form of a servant. Just hold that in your mind. We'll come to that later in other verses. Took upon him the form of a servant. Was made in the likeness of men.
Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
I want to extend on it here, but just hang on to those words. Humbled himself.
Took upon him the form of a servant. Let's go to the next one.
And Peter?
Peter, Chapter 5.
I'm going to read it from what I have up on the screen.
There's something there that I want to draw out, and I don't know the memory to memory, remember many of the references, let alone the extra that I have there. So I'm going to read it. Likewise, the younger be subject, It's a verb. It's in a Greek tense called. The heiress will come to it in a moment to the elder, and all of you bind on humility.
Bind on. It's in the same Greek tense, the heiress towards one another. For God sets the present, tends himself against the proud.
But to the humble gives present tense grace humble.
Theorists yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt to the ARS.
In the due time, having cast Heiress all your care upon him, for he cares the present tense about you.
Not a Greek scholar and I suspect there aren't any world renowned Greek scholars in the room. Umm, so double check me, I don't want to make an error here on this.
But I'll give you my understanding of it. The tense has basically the sense of do it once and be done with it, be in the state going forward of having done it. It's something that where there's a verb, we don't have an exact equivalent in English. So the actions done.
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The results continue live in the results.
And so it says, buying on humility.
You know what that is? It's putting on the servants cloak. He took upon him the form of a servant. He took on him the form of a servant and he's going to serve you and me forever. There is no end to eternity. But people, we, we borrow words from time to try to express what really we can't comprehend. And so if you look to the end of eternity and then beyond because there is no end.
To that man.
We'll serve you and me forever, but now it's your and my opportunity to bind on humility towards one another.
You and I, when we interact with one another, have.
This life.
To not put ourselves above one another, the act and service and care and love for one another.
This is your opportunity in mind in this life. He's going to do it forever. And you know it says God sets himself against the proud. He'll do it, but to the humble gives grace. And then it says humble, do it once, be done with it yourself, be done with the action but the value of it continuing yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.
I'd like to suggest to you that means this.
Humbling ourselves doesn't mean talking about ourselves doesn't mean saying negative things about ourselves doesn't mean sliding down in our chairs so that people don't notice us, or hiding behind others so nobody thinks we're trying to be something special. I believe the sense of humbling yourself before God is simply being in the presence of God without anybody else there.
In our thoughts, they're not there.
For the presence of God, you know, if we measure ourselves against anyone else, we might kind of keep looking and looking and looking until we find whatever aspect we're measuring. We're in our finite mind. We think, well, at least I'm a little better than them. There's 99 more that are better than me, but OK, I'm a little better than them. Or maybe we'll say there's a hundred better and I'm last.
So we're sitting here, we're still thinking about ourselves, we're still comparing ourselves among ourselves.
But humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God is sitting down in the mighty, majestic, awesome presence of that person in His Word. It could be in creation. Maybe we need booster shots at Sierra's tents here. Well, I just get done with it and live our whole lives there. But some of us need booster shots.
Maybe more than one.
Say they wouldn't hurt.
But when we enter via His word, it could be via the creation too. Really. You're in the presence of that one, and you pause and you think about it and you think about Him. There can't be any greatness that we put on ourselves. We're humbled in His presence. We don't need to be humbled. Remember the children of Israel, they needed to be humble. That is, they hadn't sat down in His presence.
They didn't know their relationship to him and who he was relative to them, so they needed to be humble in the wilderness. Provided that. Sometimes we need to be be humbled because we're looking at ourselves in reference to one another.
But if we humble ourselves before God is simply we recognize in His presence the mighty God that we have to do with.
I had a hard time reading because it's just hard to believe.
But it says that he may exalt you in due time.
And that's in the heiress too, because he's going to do it and it will remain amazing, isn't it? You and I have a future associated with Christ where we share with Him in glory. It's a shocking thing. It's something that will be done and have lasting benefit forever, and it's His work. The point is not see if you can get more humble so that it'll exalt you now. It's not really the point of it getting this presence.
God to be God.
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The day is coming when it is infinite grace. It's going to take each one of us that belongs to them and allow us to sit down and enjoy eternity with this Son to reign over this earth for 1000 years. He will exalt in a way that never needs to be changed, but it's His work, not ours.
Time for one more.
Just going to give to you in Luke 9 brief summary, the disciples were arguing which of them should be the greatest.
And so the Lord answers. It's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all of them. I will only read to you the two verses from Luke Chapter 9.
And verse 47.
And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name, received with me, whosoever shall receive me.
Receiveth him that sent me, for he that is least among you all the same shall be great. I'm going to read the accounts in Matthew and Mark, but I want you to enjoy with me for a moment.
Little bit that comes in from Matthew and Mark.
Start there with the one that's at the top of the screen.
If you take all three accounts, we're going to find all these things that these children did.
Says he called them to to him in that case.
It came when called.
You've been sitting in one of the meetings in this week.
And you've heard the call of the Lord for whatever it is. So it was something last night, perhaps in one of the earlier meetings. And you've heard that call. Simple humility as a child comes when called.
They were held in the Lord's arms. What actions did the children take in the story once they reached the Lord? It says.
He took them in his arms. I don't read anything else of what they did. At least I don't remember.
They were in total dependence.
They were silent. The Lord did all the speaking.
Spend my desire and prayer this evening that in your heart.
You would hear not my voice, the Lords, and as a child depended on him and on his spirit, that the voice that you're hearing at the moment, that the voice of God speaking to you properly when we're serving as the Lord was teaching his disciples.
What were they? The children were silent. They were used in blessing for others with no credit to themselves.
Many churches have you passed that, said St. Child of the Lord's Arms.
And see Saint Philip the Apostle in the town where I live. And so on. You've got Saint Matthew in Saint Mark and Saint Luke.
Maybe there is one. This is not quite as popular as the others, and my point is simply this. They didn't get any glory out of it, but they were used in tremendous blessing to those disciples.
They were used publicly. They were set in the midst without any glory for themselves. They received not glory, but himself.
If we're going to walk as the Lord wants us to walk, we won't look for any of those other things. We'll be content to be what the Lord taught those disciples to be children. Children who are silent, who come when calls to allow the Lord to have the glory. And yet as a result.
On the deepest, most personal, nearest possible relationship to that one that they love. You can't lose when you walk in dependence. You can't lose when you walk in obedience. You can't lose when you walk with only God before you. Which is true humility.
Want to conclude with one?
I very much enjoy. There's a couple ones already been referred to last night.
You can find obedience, dependence on humility beautifully and Mary at Jesus feet. Enjoy it. Uh, look it up for yourself. Let me share one with you, uh, that I've enjoyed recently to conclude.
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I'm an encouragement in these things.
Let's have a cup and the moments that are left. I just want to share with you a couple of details that hopefully will put one single point before you. The book of Deuteronomy. They were to walk in relationship and in obedience.
And they would enjoy the fruit of the Lamb. The Lord promises them in Deuteronomy chapter 8, and they're again in Deuteronomy chapter 30, at least six things. There's actually more, but there's six that pop up on how to have a cut. Chapter three, He promises them that if they were faithful, they would have a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees, also oil, olive, and herds and flocks.
Which are those six you get without rain?
By keeping your cattle if you don't have rain for a long time.
Start keeping your flock for a long time. Or if there's not rain and it's the rain that comes from heaven, they're dependent on God for every one of these six things, or dependent on that rain from heaven for all of them. And as a nation, they fail. As a nation, they've given it all up. And in the book of Habakkuk, in the first chapter they're talk to, Habakkuk is talking to the Lord. He has a lot to say and he's wondering why. Why is this county incoming? He's not racist. He's not going to do the right thing. He's not.
Going to be fair, these are your people. And eventually in the course of the three chapters of that book, Habakkuk quiet down, he pauses and he listens and he hears what God has to say. And at the end of the third chapter, which is the end of the book, he makes these statements. For those think trees shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, The labor of the olive tree shall fail in the fields shall yield no food.
The flock shall be cut off from the fold and there should be no herds and stalls.
Notice this? He didn't say my with any one of those.
The nation was being cut off. God had said it was coming. What he's doing here because he's accepting what God said. He's taking where God had placed him and he's saying yes, but he's come to know the God that's there, that's speaking to him. And so in his circumstances, he can say yes, I there's where he says aye.
Yeah, I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my there's my salvation. Jehovah the Lord is my strength and he maketh my feet like Hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. We live at the end of the day of grace. We live in a moment when the public testimony.
The Candlestick is about to be removed.
There's failure everywhere you look.
But Habakkuk isn't looking at that failure here. He acknowledges it, and he acknowledges that the righteous judgment of God is coming. But then what does he say? The God that I've gotten to know, the individual of obedience, the individual of dependence, and the one before whom I walk as an individual, that one I know.
And I will rejoice in him. You cannot be put in a circumstance in your life.
For the circumstance, we'll cut you off from God.
You cannot go there. God will not put you there. And if we walk nurturing that soil of obedience through the word, dependence in prayer and humility by simply sitting down in His presence.
We will joy in that one. Let's thank him. Dear Lord Jesus, we just ask for these things would be made practically good in our lives every single day.
Let's just ask Lord that we would each grow.
In these.
Characters.
Without a show while I was here, Lord Jesus just asked that we would become more likely. We ask it in thy name, Amen.