Humility

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Acts 20:18-19

And when they were come to him, he said to them, You know, from the first day that I came into Asia…

I. ITS COMPREHENSIVENESS. Serving the Lord not only with humility, but with all humility.

1. There are many sorts of pride, and you will be able, by looking at the contrast, to see that there must be also many kinds of humility. There is the pride of —

(1) The heretic, who will utter false doctrines, because he thinks his own judgment to be better than the Word of God; he is a disputant but not a disciple. Now Paul never had this. So willing was he to sit at the feet of Jesus that he counted all the learning which he had received at the feet of Gamaliel to be of no value in itself, but became a fool that he might be wise.

(2) The Papist, who attaches merit to his own works, and hopes to win heaven by them. From this Paul was totally free. He learnt to count his righteousness as filthy rags.

(3) The curious. He would if he could climb to the Eternal Throne, and break the seven seals of the book of destiny. Paul was never curious; he was perfectly content to take his doctrine from his Master's spirit, and leave endless genealogies and questionings to those who had no better guests to entertain.

(4) The persecutor. The pride which suggests that I am infallible, and that if any man should differ from me, the stake and the rack would be the due deserts of so great a sin. But Paul had the humility of a man of generous spirit.

(5) The impenitent man who will not yield to God. Not so our apostle. He was ever filled with a sense of his own unworthiness.

2. To give you a clearer view of this comprehensiveness I will put it in another shape. There is humility —

(1) Before serving God. When a man lacks this he proposes to himself his own honour and esteem in serving God. How little too many Christians have of that humility. They will pick that position in the Church which will give them most honour. But it never was so with the apostle. I think I see him now, working long past midnight making his tents. Then I see that tent maker going into the pulpit with his hands all blistered with his hard work. You would say of him at once, "That man never proposes to himself the praises of his hearers."(2) During the act. That is a splendid psalm which begins, "Not unto us." David thought it needful to say it twice. Then he deals the death blow with the other sentence, "But unto Thy Name be all the glory." To sing that song when you are reaping the great harvest, when you are going on from strength to strength, will prove a healthy state of heart.

(3) After the service is done. In looking back upon success achieved, upon heights attained, it is so easy to say, "My right hand and my mighty arm hath gotten me the victory." Christian workers, see to it that never when your work is done you speak of yourselves or of your work.

II. ITS TRIALS, or the dangers through which it has to pass.

1. The possession of great ability. When a man hath seven talents he must recollect that he hath seven burdens of responsibility; and therefore he should be bowed down. Let a man feel that he possesses more power than another, more learning, and he is so apt to say, "I am somebody in the Church." It is so ridiculous; for the more we have the more we owe, and how can there be any ground for boasting there? Great talents make it hard for a man to maintain humility. Yet little talents have precisely the same effect. "There," says one, "I have but a trifle in the world, I must make a flare with it. I have but one ring, and I will always put the finger that wears that outwards so that it may be seen." If you have little talents, do not swell and burst with envy. The frog was never contemptible as a frog, but when he tried to blow himself out to the size of the ox then he was contemptible indeed. It is just as easy for a man to be proud in his rags as my Lord Mayor in his gold chain. There is many a costermonger riding in his little cart, quite as vain as my lord who rides in a gilded coach. You may be a king and yet be humble; you may be a beggar and yet be proud.

2. Success. Great success is like a full cup it is hard to hold it with a steady hand. It is swimming in deep waters, and there is always a fear of being drowned there. But want of success has just the same tendency. Have you not seen the man who could not get a good congregation, and who insisted upon it, that it was because he was a better preacher than the man who did?

3. Long enjoyment of the Master's presence. To walk all day in the sunlight brings us in danger of a sunstroke. If we have nothing but full assurance, we may come to be presumptuous. When you have long-continued joys, fear and tremble for all the goodness of God. But long-continued doubts also will breed pride. When a man has long been doubting his God, and mistrusting His promise, what is that but pride? He wants to be somebody and something. He is not willing to believe his God in the dark; he thinks he always ought to have joy and satisfaction, and so it comes to pass that his doubts and fears are as ready parents of pride as assurance could have been. There is not a position in the world where a man cannot be humble if he have grace; there is not a station under heaven where a man will not be proud if left to himself.

III. THE ARGUMENTS BY WHICH WE OUGHT TO BE PROVOKED TO IT.

1. From ourselves. What am I that I should be proud? I am a man. An angel — how much he surpasseth me, and yet the Lord charged His angels with folly. How much less, then, should the son of man exalt himself? Verily, man at his best estate is altogether vanity. But there is a yet stronger argument. What are you but depraved creatures? When the child of God is at his best he is no better than a sinner at his worst, except so far as God has made him to differ. "There goes John Bradford — but for the grace of God." A sinner saved by grace and yet proud! Out on such impudence!

2. In Christ. Our Master was never exalted above measure. He condescended to men of low estate, but in such a way that there was not the appearance of stooping. "And shall the servant be above his Master, or the disciple above his Lord?" Ye that are purse proud, or talent proud, or beauty proud, I beseech you, think how unlike you are to the Master. "He made Himself of no reputation," etc. Look at that strange sight, and never be proud again.

3. In God's goodness towards us. What was there in you that Christ should buy you with His precious blood? What in you that you should be made the temple of the Holy Ghost? What is there in you that you should be brought to heaven?

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