Participants: Pr. Stephen Bohr
Series Code: LLD
Program Code: LLD000001
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00:37 Shall we bow our heads for prayer.
00:41 Father in heaven, thank You so much for the privilege 00:43 of being in Your house. 00:46 We thank You for Your holy Sabbath. 00:49 We thank You for the message which You have given 00:52 to Your church. 00:54 We ask, Father, that as we open Your holy Word this morning 00:57 that You will help us to handle it with reverence. 01:01 Open our minds and our hearts so that we might discern Your will, 01:06 and give us the power to make it a part of our lives. 01:10 And we thank You, Father, for hearing our prayer. 01:13 For we ask it in the precious name 01:16 of Your beloved Son, Jesus, amen. 01:22 The Bible mentions two great mysteries. 01:30 And the subject of our study for today is 01:35 the mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity, 01:42 and the principles which are involved in each one 01:45 of these mysteries. 01:48 Let's take a look at the first mystery; 01:52 the mystery of godliness. 01:55 We find this mystery described in 1 Timothy chapter 3 02:01 and verse 16. 02:03 So I invite you to go with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3 02:07 and verse 16. 02:10 And I want you to notice in this passage 02:13 that you have a clear distinction between 02:18 downward mobility and upward mobility. 02:23 You're going to see in a moment what I mean by 02:26 downward mobility and upward mobility. 02:30 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16. 02:34 There's a clear sequence of events in this specific 02:39 verse of Scripture. 02:42 The apostle Paul says this... 03:02 You see the downward mobility there? 03:04 "God was manifested in the flesh." 03:08 In other words, God came down. 03:12 And then you have the process of upward mobility. 03:16 He came down, and then notice the sequence. 03:23 That's a reference to the resurrection of Jesus. 03:26 If you notice 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18, 03:31 He was made alive in the Spirit. 03:34 So you have the incarnation of Jesus, 03:37 "Justified in the Spirit" is His resurrection. 03:41 "Seen by angels" is a reference to His ascension. 03:47 "Preached among the Gentiles." 03:50 That's acts of the apostles. 03:53 "Believed on in the world." 03:55 That's the result of the apostolic preaching. 03:59 And then the last phrase says, "Received up in glory." 04:05 Or as most modern versions say, "Taken up in glory." 04:11 And I believe that's referring to the final glorification 04:16 of Jesus in heaven when He is crowned as King of kings 04:22 and Lord of lords upon His return to heaven 04:25 after His second coming. 04:28 So you have this downward mobility and upward mobility. 04:32 God was manifested in flesh, then He resurrected 04:36 justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, ascends. 04:40 And meanwhile, the gospel is preached in all of the world. 04:43 And then Jesus is taken up in glory. 04:48 He's glorified. 04:49 He came down and then He went up. 04:54 The mystery of iniquity is the other great mystery 04:57 which is mentioned in Scripture. 05:00 This mystery works in the opposite direction. 05:04 It is a mystery which works from down up. 05:09 In other words, you have first of all upward mobility 05:12 and then you have downward mobility. 05:16 Notice this mystery as it's described in 2 Thessalonians 05:19 chapter 2 and verses 3 and 4. 05:24 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verses 3 and 4. 05:30 Here, the apostle Paul is speaking about the 05:33 spirit of the antichrist. 05:35 Which is the opposite of the mystery of godliness. 05:39 And it says there... 05:44 "That Day" is the Day of the coming of Jesus. 06:08 So you have the man of sin who "exalts himself 06:12 above all that is called God or that is worshiped..." 06:28 So you have this mere man who actually has this 06:32 upward mobility. 06:34 In other words, he wants to move up. 06:37 He exalts himself, according to this. 06:41 And by the way, this is called a mystery because 06:45 a little later on in this chapter, we find 06:48 the expression, "For the mystery of lawlessness 06:53 is already at work." 06:57 So you have one mystery where God, who is up here, 07:02 comes down and becomes flesh. 07:05 And then He moves up and He is finally glorified. 07:10 In this second mystery, you have one who is down here 07:14 who has upward mobility and wants to exalt himself 07:18 to the point of sitting in the temple of God. 07:21 And 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 says that he will be destroyed 07:26 by the breath of the mouth of God and by the brightness 07:30 of the coming of Jesus. 07:32 In other words, he will be cast down. 07:35 So you have these two mysteries that are 07:37 mentioned in holy Scripture. 07:39 The mystery of godliness where God comes down 07:42 and then He is exalted, He goes up. 07:44 You have on the other hand the mystery of iniquity 07:47 where one who is down here wants to move and occupy 07:51 the high position, and then he is thrown down 07:53 and destroyed by the brightness of the coming of Jesus. 08:00 The whole world is characterized mainly by the mystery 08:05 of iniquity. 08:07 There are very few individuals in this world 08:10 who have experienced in their lives the principles 08:15 of the mystery of godliness. 08:18 I'd like us to go back to the times of Jesus. 08:22 Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23 08:27 and we're going to read verses 1 through 12. 08:31 You see, this mystery of iniquity 08:34 and this mystery of godliness are actually contagious. 08:40 And everyone in this world is grasped by either one 08:45 or the other of these mysteries. 08:47 And what I would like us to look at now is a group of individuals 08:51 in the days of Jesus who were controlled by the principles 08:56 of the mystery of iniquity. 09:00 Jesus here is presenting His woes against the scribes 09:05 and the Pharisees. 09:07 Verse 1... 09:20 That sounds very similar to 2 Thessalonians 2. 09:24 For it says that he would "sit in the temple of God." 09:27 By the way, Moses' seat was a sign of position, of power, 09:33 of prestige, of authority. 09:35 The Pharisees thought that this gave them authorization 09:38 to control the people and to dictate what the 09:40 people should believe. 09:43 Notice verse 3, "Therefore whatever they tell you 09:47 to observe, that observe and do..." 10:06 In other words, they want everybody to serve them, 10:08 but they want to serve no one. 10:12 But it gets worse. 10:13 Notice what we find in verse 5. 10:27 Phylacteries were kind of little boxes with pieces of parchment 10:32 with Scripture. 10:33 And they would actually paste these to their foreheads 10:36 to show how pious they were. 10:40 And so it says, "They make their phylacteries broad 10:43 and enlarge the borders of their garments..." 10:49 Do you see the upward mobility here? 11:06 And then Jesus says to His disciples... 11:26 It doesn't mean that we can't call our 11:28 earthly fathers, "father," and our teachers, "teacher." 11:31 What Jesus is saying is that we should not do this 11:34 in a prideful way. 11:37 That's the context. 11:39 "Oh, I'm a teacher." "I'm a Rabbi." 11:41 "I'm a doctor." "I'm your father." 11:45 What principle governed the minds of the 11:49 scribes and the Pharisees? 11:51 It was the principle of the mystery of iniquity. 11:54 In fact, notice what we find in verse 11. 11:58 Jesus is reaching the conclusion of the 12:00 first portion of His argument. 12:02 He says... 12:08 "God was manifested in flesh." 12:10 He's not asking for something that He didn't do before. 12:14 And then notice the conclusion in verse 12. 12:18 It says there... 12:25 Who does the exalting? 12:29 I do. 12:37 Who does the humbling? 12:41 I do the exalting. 12:43 Somebody else does the humbling because it's passive. 12:46 "...will be humbled..." 12:48 So if I exalt myself, someone else is going to what? 12:53 Humble me. 12:55 But then there's the other side of the equation. 12:57 The equation says, "...and he who humbles himself..." 13:01 Whose task is it to humble? 13:04 Ours. 13:05 Whoever humbles himself. 13:07 If you choose to humble yourself, 13:09 what's going to happen? 13:11 "...will be exalted." 13:13 Somebody else does the exalting. 13:16 Did you catch what Jesus is saying in this verse? 13:18 If I choose to exalt myself, someone else 13:22 is going to humble me. 13:23 If I choose to humble myself, someone else is going to what? 13:28 Is going to exalt me. 13:32 The two principles, the two mysteries that are spoken of 13:36 in Scripture are contained in this one short verse. 13:39 In fact, Ellen White tells us in Desire Of Ages that 13:42 the essence of the teachings of Jesus is, being emptied of self. 13:49 Now where did this idea of upward mobility take place? 13:57 Where was it established originally? 14:01 Go with me to Isaiah 14 verses 12 through 15. 14:04 I want you to remember the upward and downward mobility. 14:07 He who exalts himself will be humbled. 14:08 He who humbles himself will be exalted. 14:11 Now notice Isaiah 14 and verses 12 through 15. 14:16 This is speaking about the original rebel who established 14:20 the mystery of iniquity. 14:22 And I want you to notice the movement in these verses. 14:26 It says here... 14:32 What kind of mobility is that? 14:34 That's downward mobility, yes. 14:36 But was there upward mobility before the downward mobility? 14:39 Let's continue reading. 14:44 Did he fall from heaven on his own 14:46 like a ripe fruit from a tree? 14:49 No. 14:50 Was he cast out? 14:51 He sure was. 14:59 What kind of mobility is that? 15:01 "Cut down," downward movement. 15:08 Now why did this happen? 15:13 Now we're going to talk about the upward mobility 15:15 that came before the downward mobility. 15:24 What mobility is that? Upward. 15:51 North is up. 15:52 In other words, the highest point in heaven. 15:59 Do you see the upward mobility, the language that's used here? 16:14 I think this individual had a serious problem 16:17 with upward mobility. 16:20 I think his big problem was he had an eye disease, Earl. 16:27 It's called myopia. 16:29 He was nearsighted. 16:31 He could only see himself. 16:34 He wanted to go up. 16:36 And so God says, "Because you want to go up, you're fallen. 16:39 I cut you down." 16:40 He who exalts himself will be what? Humbled. 16:44 Notice the last part of this passage. 16:48 "Yet you shall be brought down to sheol." 16:56 That's the grave, by the way. 16:57 To the lowest depths of the pit. 17:00 "You wanted to occupy the highest place in heaven? 17:03 You're going to go to the lowest place in the pit." 17:06 He who exalts himself will be humbled. 17:13 Another description of this we find in Ezekiel 28. 17:16 The same being, he's called the covering cherub there 17:19 in Ezekiel chapter 28. 17:21 Let's go and read there verses 14 through 20 of Ezekiel 28. 17:28 You tell me if we have this same phenomenon 17:31 of the mystery of iniquity, one who wanted upward mobility. 17:34 And as a result had downward mobility. 17:38 It says there... 17:47 Your heart was what? 17:49 Lifted up. 17:51 What kind of mobility is that? 17:53 Upward. 17:59 Later on in this series, I'm going to preach a sermon titled, 18:02 The Four Sins of Pride. 18:06 Beauty is one of those dangers. 18:16 But because he was lifted up, notice what God says. 18:24 What kind of mobility is that? 18:26 Downward mobility. 18:43 What kind of mobility is that? 18:46 Definitely downward. 18:48 He became dust, he's going to become dust, in other words. 19:03 What does the mystery of iniquity do? 19:05 It destroys. 19:08 It ultimately disintegrates. 19:15 On the other hand, we have the other mystery. 19:18 The mystery of godliness. 19:21 Let's go to Philippians chapter 2 19:23 and verses 5 through 11. 19:25 And I want you to notice once again the upward and the 19:27 downward mobility in this passage. 19:29 Philippians chapter 2 and verses 5 through 11. 19:33 This is a very well known passage. 19:35 Many of you might have it almost memorized. 19:38 It says here... 19:47 What kind of mind do we need to have? 19:50 The mind of Lucifer or the mind of Jesus? 19:53 The mind of Jesus. 19:54 Now what was the mind of Jesus? 19:55 Notice... 19:59 Where was Jesus? 20:01 Way up there in the form of God. 20:08 And the New King James says, "Did not consider it robbery 20:11 to be equal with God." 20:12 The modern versions have a much better rendering of this, 20:16 "Did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped." 20:22 Or, "as something to be hung on to." 20:26 In other words, Jesus, even though He was God, 20:28 He did not hang on to His rights as God. 20:31 He did not demand His rights as God. 20:34 What did He do instead? 20:38 It says there, "But made," now notice this, 20:41 "made Himself..." 20:44 Who did it? 20:45 Did God say, "Jesus, You go down there and redeem those people." 20:51 No. 20:52 Even though Jesus could have stayed in heaven, 20:54 He could have demanded His rights, 20:56 the passage tells us that He made Himself. 21:00 This was a choice of His own. 21:02 "He made himself of no reputation." 21:06 Actually, a better translation is, "He emptied Himself." 21:12 "Not I but My Father." 21:16 "He emptied himself..." 21:18 Now notice His descent. 21:23 From God to what? 21:25 To a bondservant. 21:26 He's coming down. 21:31 The great God has come down. Now He's a man. 21:33 But He's going to go even further down. 21:43 Is this related to what we read in Matthew 23 verse 12? 21:47 "He who humbles himself..." 21:50 Absolutely. 21:51 "He humbled Himself..." 21:53 He did it Himself. 21:59 In other words, Jesus went down, down, down. 22:05 But he who humbles himself is going to be what? 22:07 Exalted. 22:08 Now notice the rest of this passage. 22:12 What does that word, "therefore," indicate? 22:15 Because He did this other, because He humbled Himself. 22:31 Who did the exalting? 22:34 God. 22:35 "He who humbles himself will be exalted." 22:39 Jesus humbled Himself. 22:41 Did somebody else exalt Him? 22:43 Yes, absolutely. 22:45 Or did Jesus come back to heaven and say, 22:49 "I gained the victory. 22:51 I want My throne back. 22:54 And I want a name; the name of a conqueror, 22:56 the name of the victor. 22:59 I want the reverence of the angels for what I've done." 23:01 Jesus doesn't do that. 23:03 He humbles Himself and He let's His Father do the exalting. 23:09 And notice what it continues saying. 23:12 "God also has highly exalted Him..." 23:17 Notice the upward mobility. 23:18 "...highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above..." 23:25 See, "above;" there you have the upward mobility. 23:27 "...above every name, that at the name of Jesus 23:31 every knee should bow, of those in heaven..." 23:45 Lucifer said, "I'm going up." 23:47 God says, "No, you're going down." 23:50 Jesus says, "I'm going down." 23:52 The Father says, "No, You're going up." 23:54 This is the difference between the mystery of godliness 23:57 and the mystery of iniquity. 23:59 The mystery of iniquity is when a mere human being 24:02 wants to ascend to the heights. 24:05 It wants to be recognized. 24:06 It wants a position of power. 24:10 It wants a position of rank. 24:11 It wants to be recognized. 24:15 The mystery of godliness, on the other hand, 24:17 is a person who occupies the position that God has 24:22 for him or her willingly and joyfully. 24:28 You know, it's interesting that all nature 24:32 teaches this great lesson. 24:36 The coming down and giving is the principle of life. 24:43 Right outside these windows, which you can't see through, 24:49 we have the majestic Sierra Nevada. 24:54 Most of the time, you can't even see the 24:56 Sierra Nevada from outside. 25:00 But you know, we have a great lesson to learn 25:03 from the Sierra Nevada. 25:04 You say, what is the lesson? 25:07 The fact is, folks, that the fluffy beautiful clouds 25:11 in the winter time give their snow to the mountains. 25:18 In the spring time, the mountains give their snow 25:24 in the form of water to the brooks. 25:28 And the brooks give their water to the streams. 25:31 And the streams give their water to the rivers. 25:34 And the rivers give their water to the ocean. 25:38 And then the ocean once again gives its waters 25:42 to the clouds. 25:44 It's called, the cycle of water. 25:47 Give, give, give. 25:51 What if the clouds at some point should say, 25:54 if I can personalize the clouds for a few moments, 25:56 what if they should say, "Oh, we're so beautiful and 25:59 fluffy up here. 26:01 Everybody enjoys seeing these beautiful and fluffy clouds. 26:05 We're not going to give anything to anyone. 26:08 We're going to keep our fluffiness." 26:11 Everything in the San Joaquin Valley would die. 26:15 What if the mountains, once they got the snow, 26:18 said, "Oh, everybody admires us. 26:20 Everybody loves to come and ski on us. 26:24 And we're not going to give our snow to anyone. 26:27 Because if we do, we're going to look jagged and ugly. 26:31 So we're going to hang on to our snow." 26:34 Everything in the San Joaquin Valley would die. 26:40 Because the principle of life, the principle of the mystery 26:44 of godliness, is to come down and give and serve. 26:52 You see, it's interesting that the water that comes down 26:56 goes up again. 26:59 Have you ever noticed that? 27:01 The water comes down from the clouds 27:02 and goes up to the clouds. 27:03 Comes down, goes up. 27:05 If it didn't come down, it couldn't go up. 27:08 There you have the principle of the mystery 27:10 of godliness illustrated. 27:11 You come down to go up. 27:14 And God will place you at the heights. 27:18 The secret of life is giving. 27:20 The secret of death is hording. 27:26 I've had the privilege of visiting Israel once 27:31 and visiting also the country of Jordon several years ago 27:36 with Sarkis Kinablein and Al Brown. 27:41 And you know, the Dead Sea has greatly fascinated me. 27:45 I've had the privilege of swimming in the Dead Sea 27:48 on both sides; on the Jordanian side and on the Israeli side. 27:53 I don't know whether you're aware, but the Dead Sea 27:56 actually originates way up in the northern sector 28:00 beyond the borders of Israel. 28:04 Actually, the Dead Sea originates on Mount Herman 28:10 which is snowcapped a good share of the year. 28:13 And what happens in the spring, the snow on Mount Herman melts. 28:18 And the snow becomes water and it rushes down like a torrent, 28:24 it rushes down the side of the mountain. 28:26 In fact, the name Jordan means, the descender. 28:32 And that's where the Jordan River originates. 28:34 The water comes down like a rushing torrent from 28:37 Mount Herman and it forms the riverbed of the Jordan River. 28:45 And interestingly enough, the Jordan River then 28:48 serpentines its way, it flows south. 28:52 And on the northern side, it enters the Sea of Galilee. 28:57 I've been to the Sea of Galilee. 28:59 It's bubbling with life. 29:01 In fact, we stayed at Tiberius when we were there in Israel. 29:07 The lake, because it's really a lake, the sea is full of fish. 29:12 All around the lake, you have greenery. 29:16 You know, on the northern edge near Capernaum 29:19 is where Jesus gave the beatitudes. 29:22 Beautiful setting, according to the spirit of prophecy 29:24 where Jesus gave the beatitudes. 29:25 He actually pointed to the lily. 29:27 Many of the things He mentioned in the sermon on the mount 29:29 He was actually pointing to live as He was 29:32 speaking to the multitudes. 29:35 Lots of birds in the air. 29:38 Bubbling with life. 29:42 But then what happens is that from the southern tip 29:46 of the Sea of Galilee the water continues moving 29:50 south in the Jordan River. 29:51 Because the Jordan enters on the north and the 29:53 Jordan exits on the south. 29:56 The water continues flowing south. 30:00 And it finally ends up in the Dead Sea. 30:06 You see, the Sea of Galilee receives water to give. 30:10 It's bubbling with life because it receives to give. 30:14 The Dead Sea gives its water to nobody. 30:18 And that's the reason why it's called the Dead Sea. 30:21 Because that's exactly what it is. 30:23 It is dead. 30:26 Listen, there are no fish in the Dead Sea. 30:29 I can guarantee it. 30:30 No risk that you're going to be eaten by a shark. 30:32 But sharks don't live in lakes anyway. 30:35 But there's no risk that any animal is going to eat you up. 30:38 Any marine creature. 30:40 Because everything is dead. 30:41 There are not even micro organisms in the Dead Sea. 30:46 In fact, there's no birds. 30:48 Everything is dry and arid. 30:52 In fact, there's so much mineral content in the 30:55 Dead Sea that you couldn't even drown if you tried to. 31:01 You actually float. 31:04 And beware about shaving in the morning before you go 31:08 to swim in the Dead Sea. 31:10 Because your face is going to burn like crazy. 31:15 It's dead. 31:18 It receives, and it does not give. 31:24 That's the principle of the mystery of iniquity. 31:26 Wanting to ascent, wanting to be served, 31:30 wanting to be at the top. 31:33 And not being willing to come down and serve 31:36 and help others in their need. 31:43 Dare I say that we live in a world today 31:46 where the mystery of iniquity greatly predominates? 31:52 Just look at Wall Street. 31:55 The survival of the fittest. 31:58 The desire to accumulate. 32:01 And in the process, you have to trample on other people. 32:06 There's no idea about using the money to benefit and help 32:10 those in need. 32:11 I think, for example, of the great oil conglomerates 32:15 in the United States. 32:17 Making billions and billions of dollars. 32:22 And always wanting more. 32:25 And people in the world starving. 32:29 Very sad. 32:31 But we don't have to go outside the church. 32:33 We can come right inside the church. 32:37 Allow me to address one little touchy issue. 32:41 The issue of Women's Ordination. 32:46 And I'm not going to take a position right now. 32:48 You know what my position is. 32:49 But I'd just like to throw out a question. 32:52 Do we want to ordain women because they will render 32:56 greater and more effective service in the church? 33:01 Because they will be more efficient in helping others 33:08 and working for others? 33:10 Or is it a matter of power, position, and rights? 33:19 Remember that the first individual to want to 33:21 occupy a position because of recognition, power, position, 33:25 rank, and rights was the one who established originally 33:29 the mystery of iniquity. 33:34 And then I'd like to think about the time when we're in 33:36 nominating committee. 33:38 See, we have two problems at nominating committee time. 33:43 The first problem is with people who are not elected to the 33:47 position they feel they should be elected to 33:51 and somebody else is elected. 33:53 "How does he rate?" 33:55 "How does she rate?" 33:56 "I can do that job as well or better." 34:00 "That position is mine by divine right." 34:04 That's one side of the problem. 34:05 The other side of the problem is getting anyone 34:09 to occupy a position. 34:14 Like the position of Head Deacon. 34:16 It's been very difficult. 34:17 We're in the nominating process now. 34:19 It should not be so. 34:21 Church should be our first priority. 34:24 The kingdom of God should be our first priority. 34:26 When we're called and asked to do something in the church, 34:29 if we feel the Lord has qualified us to do this 34:34 and He calls us to do it, is to say yes. 34:37 We can't say, "I don't have time." 34:41 That's a terrible indictment against ourselves 34:44 to say, "I don't have time." 34:45 You don't have time for the things of God? 34:49 Wow, that's a self indictment. 34:51 You're condemning yourself. 34:53 In other words, when we get to the heavenly throne 34:55 and we have to give an account for our lives, 34:57 and God says, "I called you to serve My cause at 35:02 Fresno Central Church as Head Deacon. 35:06 What was your reason for saying no?" 35:09 "Well Lord, I didn't have the time." 35:13 Talk about self incrimination in a court of law. 35:19 Maybe I'm waxing a little bit too bold. 35:22 But I feel, folks, that we need to dedicate our talents 35:25 and our gifts to the service of God in the church. 35:33 You know, folks, we need to occupy the position that 35:35 God gives us, not aspire to positions that He has 35:38 not given us. 35:41 You know, there's this verse that we read a little while ago 35:44 with which I would like to bring our study today 35:47 to a conclusion. 35:50 Philippians 2, we read the whole passage 35:53 where it speaks about that even though Jesus was 35:55 in the position of God, He didn't hang on to that. 35:58 He didn't demand His rights. 36:01 He came down, He made Himself of no reputation, 36:04 He emptied Himself, and He became a bondservant. 36:09 Then He descended even more; death of the cross. 36:13 And therefore, God has highly exalted Jesus. 36:15 Do you know that there are very few passages in Scripture 36:19 that have caused a greater debate among theologians 36:24 than this passage. 36:26 You ought to see the fights that theologians 36:28 get in over this passage. 36:30 "What did Jesus leave in heaven? 36:33 What did He empty Himself of? 36:35 Did He empty Himself of His divinity? 36:37 Did He empty Himself of some of His attributes? 36:40 You know, what did He empty Himself of?" 36:42 And so they debate and they argue about this passage. 36:47 But the purpose of the passage is not to debate what Jesus 36:51 emptied Himself of. 36:53 The purpose of the passage, folks, is simply to inspire us 37:00 to follow the example of Jesus. 37:03 Notice Philippians 2 and verse 5. 37:05 At the very beginning of this passage, we find 37:10 this statement. 37:24 Is the apostle Paul waxing very practically? 37:29 He most certainly is. 37:31 Saying, "Don't argue about what the kenosis is, 37:36 what the emptying is." 37:37 He says, "What I want you to do is, I want you to 37:39 follow the example of Jesus. 37:41 If you're up here, come down to help and to serve. 37:46 And then God eventually will glorify you and exalt you." 37:52 Notice James chapter 4 and verse 10. 37:57 This is the counsel that God gives us, as we draw 38:01 our study to a close this morning. 38:04 Listen to this. 38:06 "Humble yourselves..." 38:11 "Humble yourselves..." 38:13 Who's suppose to do the humbling? 38:17 We are. 38:18 "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, 38:24 and He will lift you up." 38:32 Is that powerful? 38:34 That's the mystery of godliness in a nutshell. 38:39 And the mystery of iniquity is just the opposite. 38:43 I'd like to conclude by reminding you about the 38:46 story of Nebuchadnezzar. 38:47 He goes out one day on the balcony of the palace 38:51 and he says, "Isn't this great Babylon that I made 38:55 with my great power and my great wisdom 38:58 and my great ability." 39:01 And God is there, He says, "Oh yeah? 39:04 How much would you do if I didn't give you 39:06 the pearl of reason?" 39:10 And so God says to Nebuchadnezzar, 39:13 "You're going to go out and I'm going to make you a vegetarian 39:17 for seven years." 39:20 And he goes out and he behaves like an animal. 39:22 He exalted himself, and what did God do? 39:25 God humbled him. 39:27 And after seven years God returns the pearl of wisdom, 39:32 the pearl of reason, to Nebuchadnezzar. 39:36 And you can read at the end of Daniel chapter 4, 39:39 Nebuchadnezzar says, "Now I exalt and glorify 39:43 the God of heaven. 39:45 Because He is able to humble those who are 39:49 filled with pride." 39:52 So he learned that whoever exalts himself would be humbled. 39:56 And he also learned that now he should humble himself, 40:00 and God would exalt him. 40:02 And that's exactly what God did with Nebuchadnezzar. 40:08 I pray to God that we will learn this lesson today. 40:12 That what we've studied today will remain with us 40:14 throughout the course of this week and throughout the 40:16 course of our lives. 40:17 The highest position that we can aspire to 40:20 is the position which God gives us; to serve others 40:25 and reach others with the love and service of Jesus Christ. |
Revised 2014-12-17