I want to hear the counsel of God.  I want to hear the wisdom of the multitude.  I don’t know how to finish this race.  I need help; amen?  Lest, in fact, having preached to others, I myself be cast away.  There’s real humility, from a true man of God.  So, we’re entering this day, then, when all of this false doctrine is going to be coming into the churches, infiltrating the churches.  In the last days false teachers are going to arise.  The tragedy is, we talk about people being victims.  These congregations that are not getting pure doctrine and the word of God.  But let me tell you something, the people love to have it so.  Is that what the prophets have said?  They say, “prophesize smooth things to us, tell us what we want to hear.  We want Christianity to be easy,” when in fact it’s a daily cross.

We have a whole nation, here, that’s pursuing easy‑believe-ism, a crossless Christianity.  What I mean by that is not that we don’t want Jesus to visit the cross, we don’t want to visit the cross.  Of which He said, “If you’re going to follow me, you’ve got to die to yourself daily, take up your cross and follow me.  In fact, if you don’t, you’re not worthy of me.”  Powerful statements.  We can acquiesce and mentally say, “Yeah that’s our doctrine, that’s what we believe.”  But let me ask you the question this morning.  Are you any less self‑willed than you have previously been?  Because humility is death to self‑will.  That’s all it is.  It’s the love of God being embraced into our hearts.  A thankfulness for the love of God and the death that Jesus died on our behalf that we would subordinate and recognize His lordship, and love Him with all of our hearts; amen?

But we see from 1 Corinthians 13 as it relates to the Lord, we apply that to one another so often.  But you know love does not demand its own way; amen?  Self‑will does demand its own way.  Whenever we follow self‑will we don’t love God; amen?  That’s all there is to it.  And the flesh, self‑will, carnality, vaunts itself, promotes itself, looks for the recognition of others, looks for ease and comfort.  Every time we choose self and blow off the lordship of Jesus, the very sovereignty of Almighty God and choose our will over His, there is no greater expression of a lack of humility and self‑love. 

This expression revealing the reality that we don’t love God.  We’re to love Him with all of our hearts and with all of our souls with all of our strength.  So, this is what humility is really all about.  It’s the diminishing of self for the glory of God so that He can work that perfect will in us that Philippians talks about.  So don’t think of yourself more highly, don’t have so much confidence in your own understanding, decision‑making, prioritizing in this hour, as we’re preparing ourselves for the soon coming of the Lord Jesus.