Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 365
“Serving the Lord with all humility of mind.” Acts 20:19. IT is not often that a man may safely speak about his own humility. Humble men are mostly conscious of great pride, while those who are boastful of humility have nothing but false pretense, and really lack and need it. I question whether any of us are at all judges as to our pride or humility; for verily, pride so often assumes the shape of lowliness when it has its own end to serve, and lowliness on the other hand is so perfectly compatible with a heavenly dignity of decision, that it is not easy at all times to discover which is the counterfeit and which is the precious and genuine coin. You will remember that in the case in our text, Paul speaks by Inspiration. If it were not for this fact, I would not have believed even Paul, himself, when he spoke of his own humility. So distrustful do I feel of our judgment upon this point, that if he had not spoken under the Infallible witness and guidance of the Holy Spirit, I would have said that the text was not true. When a man says he serves God with humbleness of mind, speaking merely from his own judgment, there is clear proof before you that he is a proud man! But Paul speaks not to his own commendation, but with the sole motive of clearing his hands of the blood of all men. Led, no doubt, by the Holy Spirit thus to speak—that he might be an example to all coming ages—he becomes the mirror to all the ministers of Christ that we, too, each of us in our degree serving the Lord, may without degree be filled with humility, taking the lowest seat, not esteeming ourselves beyond what we ought to think, but submitting ourselves to men of low estate—emptying out ourselves as He did who emptied Himself of all His Glory, when He came to save our souls. I shall take the text this morning, and shall speak of it as the Lord shall please to help me in my weakness. First, I shall speak of the comprehensiveness of humility. You notice the text says, “Serving the Lord with allhumility.” Secondly, I shall speak upon the trials to which our humility will be subjected; and thirdly, upon the arguments by which we ought to support it, t o generate it, and to sustain it in our souls. And then, fourthly, I shall show forth some practical effects of humility, and urge you to show them forth with me in our daily lives. I. First then, the COMPREHENSIVENESS OF HUMILITY. It is a somewhat striking expression; it is not merely serving the Lord with humility, but serving the Lord with all humility. There are many sorts of pride. Perhaps while I am running over the list, you will be able, by looking at the contrast, to see that there must also be many kinds of humility. There is the pride of the heretic who will utter false doctrines because he thinks his own judgment to be better than the Word of God; never content to sit like a child to believe what he is told, he is a disputant but not a disciple. He will insist upon it that his own reason is to be the well-spring of his own beliefs, and he will receive nothing beyond his own reach. Now Paul never had the heretic’s pride. He could say, “God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” No, so willing was he to sit at the feet of Jesus, that he counted all the learning which he had received before he sat at the feet of Jesus to be of no value! He spoke not with the wisdom of words, nor with human learning, but with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power. There is next the pride of the Roman Catholic, who attaches merit to his own works, and hopes to win Heaven as the reward of his own doings. From this Paul was totally free. He had humility which is the very contrast of it. Often did he say, when speaking of himself, “yet not I, but Christ.” He learned to count his righteousness as filthy rags, and all his former doings were to him but dross and dung that he might win Christ and be found in Him. Next there is the pride of the curious. The man who is not content with simplicities, but must pry into mysteries. He would, if he could, climb to the Eternal Throne, and read between those folded leaves, and break the seven seals of the mysterious book of destiny. You know well our Apostle has many things in his writings which are hard to be understood, yet he uttered them because of the Spirit; you never meet with any attempt in the Apostle’s writing—as you do in the preaching of some ministers, and as you do in the conversation of some professors—to reconcile predestination with free will. He was quite content to preach to men as free agents, and exhort them to repent; quite willing to speak of God as working in us to will and do of His good pleasure, while we also work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Paul was never curious to find out where the lines of Truth met; he was perfectly content to take his Doctrine from his Master’s Spirit, and leave the old wives’ fables, and endless genealogies and disputes, and questionings, to those who had no better guests to entertain. Again—there is the pride of the persecutor; the man who is not content with his own notions, but would hunt to death another; 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 against so great a person as myself! Now, the Apostle acted towards those who differed with him with the greatest wisdom and kindness, and though full often he was beaten with rods, or subjected to false brethren, and hauled before the magistrates, I think he had none of the spirit of Elijah that would bring down fire from Heaven upon any man. He was kind, and had that charity which suffers long and hopes all things, and endures all things, and believes all things. In this, too, you have an instance of allhumility. He had the humility of a man of generous spirit. And there is the pride of the impenitent man who will not yield to God. He says, “I am free; I was never under dominion to any; my neck has never felt the rein, my jaw has never felt the bit.” Not so our Apostle. He was always humble, teachable, and filled even to sorrowfulness with a sense of his own unworthiness. “Oh, wretched man that I am,” he said, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Far enough was he from rebellion against the Most High God; for he would sit at the feet of Christ and learn, yes, and he would lie at the foot of the Throne in dust and ashes, and confess himself to be the very chief of sinners, and less than the least of all the saints! I think you will very soon learn from the contrast I have presented to you, what the Apostle meant when he said, “in allhumility.” There are many sorts of pride. There are many sorts of humility, too. The Apostle had them all, or rather they were blended together in a sweet mixture in his daily preaching and conversation. I hope this morning to give you a clearer view of the comprehensiveness of humility, and so I will put it to you in another shape. Some of the old writers, who like to use terms to sound very much alike, say, There is a proposedhumility, or humility before the service of God; there is an opposed humility, or humility during the service of God which continues under trial; and there is, thirdly, an imposed humility, when the soul, conscious of sin during the act, imposes upon itself the task of bending before God, and offering repentance for its sin. Not caring much for these terms, because I think that old writers went out of their way to make them, I will be content with the substance. There is humility before serving God. When a man lacks this, he proposes to himself his own honor, and his own esteem in serving God. How easy is it for us to preach a sermon, having our eyes upon our hearers, hoping that they will be satisfied with us, and will say, “He spoke right well—the man is an orator: he is eloquent.” Yes, and how easy it is to propose to please yourself so that you may be able to say as you come down from the rostrum, “I have not failed today in my own judgment, and I am satisfied with myself.” This is pride before service, and it will mar everything! If we do not come to God’s altar humbly, we cannot come acceptably. Whether we preach or pray, or give alms, or whatever we do, it is necessary that we bend exceedingly low before we enter upon the work; for if not, self-seeking and self-glorifying will lie at the bottom of all, and God neither can nor will accept us. Look at too many Christians! How little of that humility before service they have. They will pick that position in the Church which will give them the most honor; and if there is work to do which will confer no position upon them, they leave that to others. If you require a man to occupy an honorable position in the Church, you can find scores; but if you need one who shall be a menial in the House of God—who shall be the least in God’s heritage—how difficult to find one! We are so pleased with the glitter of publicity, and the glory of man’s esteem, that I doubt not that in us all there is time of choosing our position for the honor’s sake, rather than for God’s sake! But it was never so with the Apostle Paul. I think I see him now, working long past midnight making his tents, taking stitch after stitch with his needle through the hard canvas, working away to provide for his own individual needs, because an ungracious people held back the laborer’s reward. Then I see that tent maker going into the pulpit with his hands all blistered with his hard work, as rough as a laborer’s hands. You would say of him at once, in getting up to speak, that man never proposes to himself the praises of his hearers! He is not like the Grecian orator who will go anywhere to get applause, turn aside to tell any tale, or to preach anything if he can but excite his audience to say, “He is an orator! Let us write him down among the great names; let us put the crown upon his head, and celebrate him through the midst of Greece as being the golden-mouthed man who can speak right mightily, as if the bees of Hybla had hived their honey upon his lips!” Never could you see that in Paul; you could discover at once that his solitary aim was to win souls, and so to glorify Christ. Let us labor after this as a part of allhumility. But again—there is in the next place humility during the act. When a man finds that God is with him, he may be base enough to glorify himself. He may have been very humble, indeed, when he began the battle, but there is one enemy there at his feet, and another has just been dashed down by a blow from his right hand. The Evil One whispers in his ear, “You have done well; you are doing well.” And then pride comes in and spoils all! That is a splendid Psalm which begins, “Not unto us.” David thought it necessary to say it twice. “Not unto us, O Lord! Not unto us.” Then he deals the deathblow with the other sentence, “but unto Your name be all the Glory.” To sing that song when you are trampling on your foes; to sing that song when you are reaping the great harvest; to sing that song when God’s people are fed under your ministry; to sing that when you are going on from strength to strength, conquering and to conquer, will prove a healthy state of heart! Nothing but the most extraordinary Grace can keep us in our right position while we are serving God and God is honoring us. We are so inclined to steal His jewels from the crown, to put them on our own breasts; if we would not steal the diadem itself, yet we look with longing eyes upon it as if we would like to wear it if but a single moment. I have thought, sometimes, how many Christians are like the son of Henry the Fourth, who when his father lies asleep, puts the crown on his head. You and I have done the same; we have forgotten God; He was to us as One who sleeps, and we began to put the crown on our own head. Oh, fools that we were! Our time for crown-wearing has not come. We do but anger our Father, and bring grief into our spirits when we think of crowning ourselves, instead of crowning Him; worshipping our own image instead of bending before the Lord God Jehovah. Christian men and women and especially you, O my own Soul, let us take heed that while serving God, we serve Him as the angels do who cover their faces, and cover their feet while they fly upon His errands! Then there is another kind of humility to make up all humility—humility after the service is done. In looking back upon success achieved, upon heights attained, upon efforts which have been blest, it is so easy to say, “My right hand and my mighty arm have gotten me the victory.” Men generally allow their fellow creatures some little congratulation. Can a man congratulate you without admitting that you may congratulate yourself? Now there is respect and honor to be given to the man of God who has served his race and his Master. By all manner of means, let the names of Luther and Calvin and Zwingli be held in honor. Has not God Himself said it?—“The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” It were wrong in us if we did not honor God’s servants, for it would seem as if we dishonored the Master. But it will never do for the servant of God to honor himself! After his work is done he must lay his head upon his death pillow, saying, “I am not worthy of the least of all Your mercies! What am I, and what is my father’s house, that You have brought me here? I am, having done all, but an unprofitable servant; I have not even done as much as it was my duty to have done.” Sunday school teachers, tract distributors, visitors of the sick, you that feed the hungry and clothe the naked—especially you deacons and elders, ministers of the church—see to it that you never, when your work is done, speak of yourselves or of your work. No; your brethren, even if you speak in apparently humble terms, will soon find, when you talk much of what you do, that you are proud of it. You may think that you have misled them, but you certainly have not; much less have you deceived your God! Take care that you put your finger on your own beauty. When you are painting another man, imitate Apelles, who drew Alexander with his finger upon the scar; but when you are painting yourself, put your finger over your choice beauty, for depend upon it that the hiding finger of your modesty will be more beautiful than the beauty you conceal! Labor, then, for God’s sake, for the Church’s sake, for your own sake, to serve the Lord with all humility—humility before the act, humility duringthe service, and humility when all is done—“Serving the Lord with all humility of mind.”