Micah's Message for Today 2
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I believe that when a man goes back he gets proud, and I am persuaded that when a man advances he gets humbler, and that it is a part of the advance to walk more and more and more humbly. For this the Lord tries many of us, for this he visits us in the night, and chastens us, that we may be qualified to have more grace, and get to higher attainments, by being more humble, "for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble." If you will climb the mountain-side, you shall be thirsty among the barren crags; but if you will descend into the valleys, where the red deer wander, and the brooks flow among the meadows, you shall drink to your full. Does not the dear pant for the water-brooks? Do you pant for them? They flow in the valley of humiliation. The Lord bring us all there!
Next, the humility here prescribed implies constancy: "Walk humbly with your God." Not sometimes be humble; but ever walk humbly with your God. If we were always what we are sometimes, what Christians we should be! I have heard you say, I think, and I have said the same myself, "I felt very broken down, and lay very low at my Master’s feet." Were you so the next day? And the day after did you continue so? Is it not very possible for us to be one day, because of our great debt to our Master, begging that he would not be hard with us, and is it not possible tomorrow to be taking our brother by the throat? I do not say that God’s people would do that; but I do feel that the spirit that is in them may lead them to think of doing it, one day acknowledging your Father’s authority, and doing his will, and another day standing outside the door, and refusing to go in because the prodigal son has come home. "You never gave me a calf, that I might make merry with my friends; I have been a consistent believer, yet I never have any high joys; but as soon as this your son was come, which has devoured your living with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf. Here is a wretched sinner only just saved, and he is in an ecstacy of delight. How can this be right?" O elder son, O elder brother, walk humbly with your Father! Always be so under any circumstances. It is all very fine to have a lot of humility packed away in a box with which to perfume your prayers, and then to come out, and to be "My lord," and some very great one in the midst of the church and in the world. This will never do. It is not said, "Bow humbly before God now and then;" but as a regular, constant thing, "Walk humbly with your God." It is not, "Bow your head like the bulrush under some conscious fault which you can not deny," but, in the brightness of your purity, and the clearness of your holiness, still keep your heart in lowly reverence bowing before the throne.
Once more only, and then we will quit this part of the subject, the humility that is here prescribed includes delightful confidence. Do let me read the text to you, "Walk humbly with God." No, no, we must not maul the passage that way, "Walk humbly with your God." Do not think that it is humility to doubt your interest in Christ; that is unbelief. Do not think that it is humility to think that he is another man’s God, and not yours; "Walk humbly with your God." Know that he is your God, be sure of it, come up from the wilderness loaning upon your Beloved. Have no doubt, nor even the shadow of a doubt, that you are your Beloved’s, and that he is yours. Rest not for a moment if there is any question upon this blessed subject. He gives himself to you; take him to be yours by a covenant of salt that never shall be broken; and give yourself to him, saying, "I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine." "Walk humbly with your God." Let not anything draw you away from that confidence; but then, in comes the humility. This is all of grace; this is all the result of divine election; therefore, be humble. You have not chosen Christ, but he has chosen you. This is all the effect of redeeming love; therefore, be humble. You are not your own, you are bought with a price, so you can have no room to glory. This is all the work of the Spirit. "Then give all the glory to his holy name, To him all the glory belongs."
"Walk humbly with your God." I lie at his feet as one unworthy, and cry, "Why is this mercy given to me? I am not worthy of the least of the mercies that you hast made to pass before me." I think this is the humility prescribed in the text. May the Spirit of God work it in us!
II. And now, secondly, with great brevity upon many points, I have to answer the question, WHEREIN DOES THIS HUMILITY SHOW ITSELF?
I have what might be a long task; a Puritan would want an hour and a half more for the second part of the subject. Our Puritan forefathers preached, you know, by a glass, an hour-glass which stood by them, and sometimes, when they had let one glass run out at the end of the hour, they would say to the people, "Let us have another glass," and they turned it over again, and went on for another hour. But I am not going to do that, I do not wish to weary you, and I would rather send you away longing than loathing.
Wherein, then, does this humility show itself? It ought to show itself in every act of life. I would not advise any of you to try to be humble, but to be humble. As to acting humbly, when a man forces himself to it, that is poor stuff. When a man talks a great deal about his humility, when he is very humble to everybody, he is generally a canting hypocrite.
Humility Must Be in the Heart, and Then it Will Come out Spontaneously as the Outflow of Life in Every Act That a Man Performs.
But now, specially, walk humbly with God when your graces are strong and vigorous, when there has been a very clear display of them, when you have been very patient, when you have been very bold, when you have been very prayerful, when the Scriptures have opened themselves up to you, when you have enjoyed a grand season of searching the Word, and especially when the Lord gives you success in his service, when there are more souls than usual brought to Christ, when God has made you a leader among his people, and has laid his hand upon you, and said, "Go in this your might." Then, "Walk humbly with your God." The devil will tell you when you have preached a good sermon; perhaps you will not have preached a good one when he tells you that you have, for he is a great liar; but you may go home wonderfully pleased with a sermon with which God is not pleased, and you may go home wonderfully humble about a sermon that God means to bless. But when there really does seem to be something that the evil one tempts you to glory in, then hear this word, "Walk humbly with your God."
Next, when you have a great deal of work to do, and the Lord is calling you to it, then, before you go to it, walk humbly with God. Do you ask, How? By feeling that you are quite unfit for it, for you are unfit in yourself; and by feeling that you have no strength, for you have not Any. When You Are Weak, by Owning Your Weakness You Will Grow Strong. Lean hard upon your God, cry to him in prayer. Do not open your own mouth, but from your heart pray, "Open you my lips, and my mouth shall speak forth your praise." Be intensely subservient to the Spirit of God, yield yourself up to be worked upon by him, that you may work upon others. Oh, there is such a difference between a sermon preached by our own power and a sermon preached in the power of the Holy Spirit! If you do not feel the difference, my brother, your people will soon find it out. "Oh, to be nothing, nothing! Only to lie at his feet!" Then it is, when walking humbly with God in service, that he will fill us, and make us strong.
Next, walk humbly with God in all your aims. When you are seeking after anything, mind what your motive is. Even if it be the best thing, seek it only for God. If any man, or any woman either, tries to work in the Sunday-school, or if anyone preaches in the open-air, or in the house of God, with a view of being somebody, with the idea of being thought to be a very admirable, zealous brother or sister, then let this word come into your ear, "Walk humbly with your God." There is a word which Jeremiah spoke to Baruch which we need to have said to ourselves sometimes- "Do you seek great things for yourself? seek them not." You young men of the College, do not be always hunting up big places; be willing to go to small places to preach the gospel to poor people. Never mind if the Lord sends you right down to the lowest shim; but go, and let your aim always be this, "I do not desire for myself anything great except the greatest thing of all, that I may glorify God." "Walk humbly with your God." You are the kind of man who will be promoted in due time if you are willing to go down. In the true Church of Christ, the way to the top is downstairs; sink yourself into the highest place. I say not this that even in sinking you may think of the rising; think only of your Lord’s glory. "Walk humbly with your God."
Walk humbly with God, also, in studying his Word, and in believing his truth. We have a number of men, nowadays, who are critics of the Bible; the Bible stands bound at their bar, nay, worse than that, it lies on their table to be dissected, and they have no feeling of decency towards it; they will cut out its very heart, they will rend asunder its tenderest parts, even the precious Song of Solomon, or the beloved apostle’s Gospel, or the Book of the Apocalypse, is not sacred in their eyes. They shrink from nothing, their scalpel, their knife, cuts through everything. They are the judges of what the Bible ought to be, and it is deposed from its throne.
God save us from that evil spirit! I desire ever to sit at the feet of God in the Scriptures. I do not believe that, from one cover to the other, there is no mistake in it of any sort whatever, either upon natural or physical science, or upon history or anything whatever. I am prepared to believe whatever it says, and to take it believing it to be the Word of God; for if it is not all true, it is not worth one solitary penny to me. It may be to the man who is so wise that he can pick out the true from the false; but I am such a fool that I could not do that. If I do not have a guide here that is infallible, I would as soon guide myself, for I shall have to do so after all; I shall have to be correcting the blunders of my guide perpetually, but I am not qualified to do that, and so I am worse off than if I had not any guide at all. Sit down, Reason, and let Faith rise up. If the Lord has said it, let God be true, and every man a liar. If science contradicts Scripture, so much the worse for science; the Scripture is true, whatever the theories of men may be. "Ah!" you say, "you are an old-fashioned fogy." Yes, I am; I will not disclaim any compliment which you choose to pass upon me; and I will stand or fall by this blessed Book. This was the mighty weapon of the Reformation; it smote the Papacy, and I shall not throw it down, whoever does. Stand you still, my brother, and listen to the voice of the Lord, and walk humbly with your God" as to his truth.
Walk humbly with God, next, as to mercies received. You were ill a little while ago; and now you are getting well. Do not lot pride come in because you feel that you can lift so many pounds. You are getting on in business; you wear a much better coat than you used to come here in; but do not begin to think yourself a mighty fine gentleman. Now you are into very good society, you say; but do not be ashamed to come to the prayer- meeting along with the Lord’s poor, and to sit next to one who has not had a new coat for many a day. "Walk humbly with your God," or else it may be that he will take you down a notch or two, and bring you back to your old poverty; and then what will you say to yourself for your folly?
Next, walk humbly with God under great trials. When you are brought very low, do not kick against the goads. When wave after wave comes, do not begin to complain. That is pride; murmur not, but bow low. Say, "Lord, if you smite me, I deserve more than you lay upon me. You have not dealt with me according to my sin. I accept the chastisement." Let not the rebellious spirit rise when a child is taken away, or when the wife is taken from your bosom, or the husband from the head of the house. Oh, no; say, "It is the Lord; let him do what seems him good."
And next, walk humbly with God in your devotions, as between yourself and God in your chamber. Do you read? Read humbly. You you pray? Pray humbly. Do you sing? Sing joyfully, but sing humbly. Do take care, when your God and yourself are together, and none besides, that there you show to him your humble heart, with deep humility that it is no more humble than it is.
And then, next, walk humbly as between yourself and your brethren. Ask not to be head choir-master; desire not to be the principal man in the church. Be lowly. The Best Man in the Church is the man who is willing to be a doormat for all to wipe their boots on, the brother who does not mind what happens to him at all so long as God is glorified. I have heard brethren say, "Well, but you must stand up for your dignity." I lost mine a long time ago, and I never thought it was worth while to look for it. As to the dignity of the pastor, the dignity of the minister, if we have no dignity of character, the other is a piece of rag. We must try to earn our position in the Church of God by being willing to take the lowest room; and if we will do so, our brethren will take care that before long they will say to as, "Go up higher." In your dealings with weak Christians, with feeble Christians, do not always scold. Remember that, if you are strong now, you may very soon be as weak as your brethren are.
And in dealing with lost sinners, "walk humbly with your God." Do not stand a long way off, as if you loved them so much that distance lent enchantment to the view. Do you not think that, sometimes, we deal with sinners as if we would like to pluck them from the burning if there was a pair of tongs handy; but we do not care to do it if our own dainty fingers would be smutted by the brands? Ah, beloved, we must come down from all lofty places, and feel a deep and tender pity towards the lost, and so walk humbly with God!
Now, I have not time to go through all this subject as to your circumstances. If you are poor, if you are obscure, do not be pining after a higher place; walk humbly with your God, take what he gives you. Inlooking back, rejoice in all his mercy; and walk humbly at the recollection of all your stumbles. In looking forward, anticipate the future with delight, but do not be proudly imagining how great you will yet be made. "Walk humbly with your God." In all your thoughts of holy things, be humble; thoughts of God should lay you low, thoughts of Christ should bring you to his feet, thoughts of the Holy Spirit should make you grieve for having vexed him. Thoughts of every covenant blessing should make you wonder that such privileges ever came to you. Thoughts of heaven should make you marvel that you should ever be found among the seraphim. Thoughts of hell should make you humble, — "For were it not for grace divine, That fate so dreadful had been your."
Oh, brethren, the Lord help us to walk humbly with God! This will keep us right. True humility is thinking rightly of yourself, not lowly. When you have found out what you really are, you will be humble, for you are nothing to boast of. To be humble will make you safe. To be humble will make you happy. To be humble will make music in your heart when you go to bed. To be humble here will make you wake up in the likeness of your Master by-and-by. The Lord bless this word, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.
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