I was mentioning that God has made this
world to operate according to certain laws.
There are laws in the natural realm, in
this inanimate creation.
There are also laws in our human body.
And when we understand those laws and submit
ourselves to them, we get the benefit of
those laws.
I thought of electricity, for example.
Electricity was something which man did not invent,
but man discovered.
If Adam had known the principle, he could
have had electricity even in his time.
But you know how for thousands of years
man lived without electricity.
And that's one example of how when you
discover a law in the world, you get
the benefit of it.
When you don't discover that law, then you
live without the benefit of it.
It's the same with the human body.
Medical research has discovered foods that are good
for certain sicknesses and foods that are bad.
And when we discover those laws and obey
those laws, our physical life is healthier, we
live longer.
It's all the result of following God's laws.
Now apply that spiritually.
As long as man does not know God's
laws, he does not enjoy the benefit of
them, even spiritually.
Jesus himself said in John chapter 8 verse
32, You shall know the truth.
Or we could say, you will know when
you know the laws of the spirit.
You shall know the truth and the truth
shall set you free.
Jesus also said in John chapter 14 and
John chapter 16 about the Holy Spirit being
the spirit of truth that had come to
guide us into all the truth.
And the more truth we know, the more
we will be set free from bondage.
If Christians are in bondage in any area,
that's certainly not the will of God.
God does not will or wish that any
of his children should be in bondage.
In the Old Testament we have that great
story of the redemption of the Israelites from
Egypt, which is written to show us that
God never desires that his children should be
in bondage.
But when we don't know the truth, when
we don't allow the Holy Spirit to show
us the truths of scripture, then we remain
in bondage.
Or even if the Holy Spirit shows us
certain laws, and we don't follow those laws,
we still remain in bondage.
For example, if you have heart disease in
your body, and medical research has proved that
certain types of foods are not good for
heart disease, you know it, but you don't
follow the instructions your doctor gives.
If you get a heart attack, you've only
got to blame yourself, because you knew, but
you didn't follow it.
There are lots of people like that, who
know but don't follow.
It's exactly the same in the Christian life.
Some don't know.
Some know the laws, but they don't obey
them.
And then they suffer loss.
So it's good for us to understand the
laws of the spiritual life.
Yesterday we were considering the law of wholeheartedness.
I was saying how God has said, you
will seek me and find me only when
you search for me with all your heart.
Only when God becomes the most precious thing
in the world to you.
And when you're willing to sell all that
you have to get Him.
When you're willing to give up everything in
order to have Him.
When you can say to Jesus, I desire
nothing but you.
Then you find Him.
And the Lord says in Proverbs, whoever finds
me finds life.
Now today, I want to talk about another
law.
It's the law of humility.
We read of it in 1 Peter chapter
5.
This is a law that never changes.
It is always true.
And if we obey the law here, we'll
get the benefit of it.
And if we don't obey the law, we
suffer the consequences.
With God there is no partiality.
So we read here in 1 Peter chapter
5 and verse 5.
The last part.
God is opposed to the proud, but gives
grace to the humble.
That's a law.
If you are humble, you get the benefit
of that grace.
If you are proud, God opposes you.
And this is a law that applies equally
to the believer as well as to the
unbeliever.
It's like the law of gravity.
If you jump off the roof of a
building, the law of gravity does not first
find out whether you're a believer or an
unbeliever.
It doesn't make a difference.
The law applies exactly the same whether you're
a believer or an unbeliever.
The law of gravity immediately begins to operate
as soon as you step off the roof.
And it makes no difference who you are.
It's exactly the same here.
If a person is proud, whether he's a
believer or an unbeliever, God will fight against
him.
Now, the devil is already fighting against people.
The lusts in the flesh are fighting against
people.
And on top of that, if God also
fights against people, there is no hope for
such people.
We have the devil fighting against us.
We have our lusts fighting against us.
We have human enemies fighting against us.
Our only hope is if God also doesn't
fight against us.
But you say, does God fight against people?
Well, listen to God's word.
He's opposed to the proud means he fights
against proud people.
Sin came into the universe when an angel
became proud.
Proud of his beauty.
Proud of his intelligence.
Proud of his position.
Do you think believers cannot be tempted to
be proud of their physical beauty?
Their spiritual beauty?
Do you think believers cannot become proud of
their mental intelligence?
Their knowledge of God's word?
Do you think believers cannot become proud of
their position, either in the world or in
Christian organizations or in a church?
Christendom is full of people who are proud
of some of these things.
Proud of their accomplishments.
Boasting of many, many things.
And do you wonder why such Christians don't
make spiritual progress?
Do you wonder why such Christians don't draw
close to God?
Do you wonder why such Christians don't know
God?
Do you wonder why when such Christians get
up to speak, their messages are boring and
dead, because they don't know God.
They are not close to Him.
There is no fire in their life, because
fire comes only from God.
And what's the reason?
They are proud of something or the other.
Why is it so many Christians do not
receive grace?
It's very simple.
God gives His grace only to the humble.
And we could also say God always gives
His grace to the humble.
It's a law which cannot be changed.
It's like saying water always flows down to
the lowest place.
If you want to collect water, make sure
you are in the lowest place.
You will get it first.
That's a law.
It doesn't change.
Grace always flows down to the humblest person.
Always.
And therefore, it says in verse 6, since
this law is true, therefore Peter says, Humble
yourself under the mighty hand of God, that
He may exalt you at the proper time.
Now, how do you understand God exalting you?
You see, our understanding of the Bible depends
on how our mind is oriented.
Oriented means which way we are looking, which
direction we are facing.
If I am worldly in my thinking, I
will read this verse as God exalting me
in a worldly way, making me a leader,
making me an elder, putting me over people,
giving me authority over people.
That means if I humble myself for a
little while, one day God will give me
authority over people.
I am sorry to disappoint you, because that's
not what this verse is speaking about at
all.
It's speaking about God exalting you over sin.
Where sin comes under your feet, not people.
I am not interested in having people under
my feet, under me.
Not at all.
I am called to be a servant.
A slave.
I don't want people under me, but I
want sin under my feet.
God will exalt you over the devil.
I want the devil under my feet.
And if you are a serious Christian, you
will be far more interested in having sin
and Satan under your feet than people.
The trouble with a lot of Christian leaders
today is that they have people under them,
but sin is not under them.
The devil is not under them.
The devil runs rampant in their organizations.
Sin overcomes these people in their life.
But if you humble yourself, God will exalt
you.
Spiritually.
It's got nothing to do with leadership.
It's got nothing to do with authority.
It's got to do with overcoming sin, the
lust in our flesh, and Satan.
Everybody in the world has got sin sitting
on top of their head.
The devil is sitting on top of their
head.
But the one who humbles himself, God gives
him grace.
And grace exalts him over the things that
were sitting on his head.
Sin and Satan.
And they come under his feet.
Romans 16.20 says, The God of peace
will crush Satan under your feet.
He's not only going to be under my
feet.
He's going to be crushed under my feet.
He was already defeated on Calvary 2,000
years ago.
And Romans 16 was written 30 years after
Calvary.
And 30 years after Calvary, the Holy Spirit
says, through the Apostle Paul to the Christians
in Rome, The God of peace will crush
Satan under your feet.
He was already defeated by Jesus on Calvary.
But he's still been permitted to attack God's
people.
So that God's people can have the joy
of crushing Satan under their feet.
There is an example of this in the
Old Testament.
Where when Joshua went with the children of
Israel into Canaan.
When he defeated some kings, he brought those
kings and made them bow down.
And he got the leaders of Israel to
put their legs, their feet on top of
the necks of these kings.
And the leaders of Israel stood with their
feet on top of the necks of these
kings.
And Joshua said, Thus will the Lord do
to all the kings of the Canaanites.
And that's what the Lord says to his
people.
If you will humble yourself under my mighty
hand, I will give you such grace that
Satan will never have any more power over
you.
He will be under your feet.
Satan will not have power in your home.
Satan will not have power in your church.
He'll be under your feet.
Every demon will be under your feet.
Sin will not rule over you.
There is a promise like that in Romans
chapter 6.
Romans 6 verse 14 says, Sin shall not
be master over you, because, and here is
the reason, you are not under law, but
under grace.
The old covenant was symbolized by the word
law.
The new covenant is represented by the word
grace.
Moses came down from heaven and brought the
law.
Jesus went up to...
Moses came down from the mountain and brought
the law.
Jesus went up to heaven and sent the
Holy Spirit, who brought grace.
But that grace is not available for everyone.
There is a law.
There is a law of humility.
God gives His grace to the humble.
He forgives everybody's sins when they come to
Him and repent.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us.
1 John 1.9 And to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
So if you want only forgiveness of sins,
well, I really don't have anything to tell
you.
Because even in the Old Testament they had
forgiveness of sins.
In Psalm 103, David could stand in the
temple and say, in the tabernacle and say,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives
all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases,
who blesses your life with good things, so
that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
You know what all they had in the
Old Testament?
Forgiveness of sins, who forgives all your iniquities,
who heals all your diseases, healing, material prosperity.
A gospel which preaches forgiveness of sins, healing
from sickness, and material prosperity is a Psalm
103 gospel.
It's an Old Testament gospel.
It's a gospel, sure.
All I say is, it's a gospel that's
been preached for 3,000 years, was preached
3,000 years ago.
What is the thing that Jesus brought, which
David could not thank the Lord for?
When David said, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and forget not all his benefits, who
forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your
diseases, who crowns your life with good things,
there was one thing he could not say.
He could not say, Bless the Lord who
gives me victory over sin, so that sin
does not rule over me.
He could never say that.
Because he was not under grace.
So when a believer also stops where David
stops, Bless the Lord who forgives all my
sins, who heals all my diseases, and who
has blessed me materially, he has not got
even as far as Calvary.
He is living in 1,000 B.C.
He has not understood what grace can do.
Romans 6.14 says, When you come under
grace, you get something more than David had.
David could not come under grace.
Sin comes under your feet.
Sin that was ruling you, comes under your
feet.
That violent temper that you have, comes under
your feet.
Anger does not rule you anymore.
It comes under your feet.
Bitterness.
Your heart is no longer bitter with people.
It comes under your feet.
You are no longer jealous of somebody who
has more than you, or who is better
than you.
It comes under your feet.
Dirty thoughts, which rule the minds of so
many people, stop ruling the mind.
It comes under your feet.
You need grace.
And God gives His grace to the humble.
Grace is a tremendous power.
Grace is power.
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of
Grace.
And when you turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
12, you see there very clearly that God
speaks of His grace as His power.
You know when the Apostle Paul is giving
his personal testimony there, how he sought the
Lord to remove a thorn from his flesh,
the Lord did not grant his prayer.
But the Lord said to him in 2
Corinthians 12, in verse 9, My grace is
sufficient for you, because My power is made
perfect in your weakness.
So there in that one sentence, we see
grace, God's grace, equals God's power.
And I'll show you one more verse.
That's Hebrews chapter 13.
It says in verse 9, Don't be carried
away by varied and strange teachings.
There are so many doctrines that people preach,
even today.
And in Paul's time when he's writing this,
he's talking about people who preach all types
of strange doctrines.
He says don't get carried away by them.
Because the main thing is that the heart
should be strengthened by grace.
Do you know what grace does?
It strengthens my heart, my heart's defenses, so
that the enemy cannot come in.
When the heart is not strengthened by grace,
temptation comes knocking at the door of my
heart and comes right in.
Whether it's anger, or dirty thoughts, or bitterness,
or jealousy, or the love of money, or
anything.
It finds easy entrance into a person's heart.
Because it is not strengthened by grace.
And so it says don't be carried away
by strange teachings.
There are so many teachings in Christianity today.
There are thousands of denominations in Protestant Christianity,
each preaching from the same Bible, each saying
that we are the ones whom God has
chosen, each saying that we are the only
ones who got the truth.
But they are all defeated by lies.
What's the use?
All these varied and strange teachings, thousands of
teachings, what is the use?
There are people who say they are infants,
who are baptized as infants, and there are
people who say that's wrong, we must be
baptized as adults.
But if both are defeated by dirty thoughts,
and both are defeated by the love of
money, what difference does it make to the
new God?
There are some people who say speaking in
tongues is of the devil, there are others
who say that is the only mark of
the Holy Spirit.
But what difference does it make if both
these people are defeated by lust and the
love of money, and all these things?
It doesn't make any difference.
This is all varied and strange teachings.
The main thing is your heart must be
strengthened by grace.
If your heart is not strengthened by grace,
it doesn't make one bit of difference which
way you are baptized or whether you speak
in tongues or not.
Now I know there is only one right
way of baptism, that speaking in tongues if
it's genuine is not from the devil.
But what I say is, that is not
the mark of grace.
Romans 6.14 is very clear, when you
come under grace, sin will not rule over
you.
I want to say that.
Take it seriously.
Don't be carried away by varied and strange
teachings.
And it goes on to say, it's good
for the heart to be strengthened by grace
and not by, he uses a parable there
or an illustration, foods which have not benefited
those who are occupied with them or those
who have eaten them.
He is talking about doctrines.
He talks of certain doctrines like foods.
He says it's good that the heart be
strengthened by grace and not by doctrines that
have not benefited the people who are preaching
them.
That's no use.
Jesus, don't let the devil lead you to
be occupied with unimportant things in the Christian
life.
He always, the devil's one of his major
tactics is to make us major on minor
issues.
And to glory in the fact that we've
got the right doctrine on some trivial minor
issue in scripture.
Which is not the main thing.
What is the most major issue?
Let's ask ourselves, why did Jesus come?
Do you know what is the first promise
in the New Testament?
It's the word which the angel told Joseph
in Matthew chapter 1 verse 21.
You must call his name Jesus when this
baby is born, he told Joseph.
You must call his name Jesus and here
is the first promise in the New Testament.
He shall save his people from their sins.
Not that he will forgive their sins, that
is in Psalm 103.
He will save his people from their sins.
And there is a lot of difference between
saving people and forgiving them.
I use this illustration to make it clear.
If I have a little child and I
tell him be careful, don't go outside the
road, they are digging the road there and
there is a deep pit, you may fall
into it.
And he doesn't listen.
And he goes and falls into that pit.
8 feet or 10 feet deep.
And he cries out saying daddy.
And I come there and I ask him,
son what happened?
He said I am sorry dad, I disobeyed
you.
I came near the pit and I fell
in.
Please forgive me.
And if I say ok son, I have
forgiven you, goodbye.
What have I done?
Have I forgiven him?
Yes or no?
Have I saved him?
No.
You shall call his name Jesus because he
will save his people from their sins.
When Moses said that God had come to
save them from the Egyptians what did it
mean?
It meant only one thing, the Egyptians would
not rule over them anymore.
That is the distinctive feature of the New
Testament.
And so whenever I am defeated by any
sin and I believe that Romans 6.14
is true I must say that's because in
that moment I did not get grace.
I want to say to all of you
married people every single time you shout at
your wife or your husband it's because you
did not get grace at that moment.
I don't care which way you are baptized
and I don't care which tongue you speak.
The tongue you speak to your wife and
husband is pretty clear at that moment.
In your mother tongue.
Forget other tongues.
It's clear.
It's amazing.
I have seen people who say the Holy
Spirit gives me other tongues but he cannot
control my mother tongue.
What sort of spirit?
What sort of spirit is that?
It's not the spirit of grace.
The spirit of grace can give other tongues
and control my mom 24 hours a day.
That's the spirit I received.
That's the spirit that delivered me from getting
angry with my wife.
If he doesn't deliver you I don't know
which spirit you got.
The spirit of God brings sin under our
feet.
It's the spirit of grace.
Dear brothers and sisters it's because you have
not followed the law of humility that you
have not got it.
There is no partiality with God.
All people are the same.
And I want to say to you if
there is a single person here and you
don't have to wait till you are 40
-50 years old you can be 15 years
old and you seek God.
Humble yourself.
God's laws are the same.
I told you the law of gravity.
When somebody jumps off the roof of a
building gravity does not question is it a
believer?
Is it an unbeliever?
How old is he?
Is he 15?
Is he 50?
It makes no difference.
It just operates immediately.
God gives grace to the humble.
What difference does it make whether that humble
person is 10 years old or 100 years
old?
God opposes the proud.
It doesn't matter whether that proud person is
7 years old or 70 years old.
Whether he is believer, unbeliever so called spiritual
believer it makes absolutely no difference.
Is he proud?
God will fight against him.
Is he humble?
God will give him grace.
And so whenever I am defeated by any
sin when person says Oh, this wretched, these
dirty thoughts they enslave me, enslave me I
try, I try and I fall and I
fall and I fall and I fall What's
the reason?
Be honest.
Is God's word true or not?
Before we come to Romans 6.14 Do
you know there is a verse in Romans
3.3 which says let God be true
and every man a liar.
So I say let God's word be true
and every man a liar.
God's word is true.
Heaven and earth will pass away that word
will not pass away.
God's sin shall not rule over you when
you are under grace.
I believe that with all my heart.
I remember the years when I was defeated
by sin in my life.
As a believer born again, tongue speaking, spirit
baptized, believer defeated by sin.
Is it possible for a born again, water
baptized, spirit baptized, tongue speaking, believer to be
defeated by sin?
I was and so are many other people
I know.
And I looked at that verse and I
saw sin will not rule over me when
I am under grace and I said Lord
I am baptized in water the correct way.
I am baptized in the Holy Spirit, speak
in tongues.
I have no doubt about that.
I have a gift.
But I haven't come under grace when it
comes to many areas in my life.
You know I believe one of the first
things we need is honesty.
And humility and honesty are very closely connected.
They are like twins.
They are twins.
Humility and honesty.
The humble man is always honest.
He will not pretend that he has something
which he doesn't have.
The proud man is dishonest.
You know there are different groups that have
preached holiness through the centuries.
And if you do a little research into
this you discover there were certain people who
preached a doctrine of entire sanctification.
They thought that God does such a work
that he burns up the flesh and the
person is entirely sanctified and he cannot sin
again.
But some of these people sinned after that.
They didn't know what to do.
Because they had already testified that they were
entirely sanctified.
So you know what they did?
The human mind is very clever and the
devil is always there to assist them.
And they didn't know what to do.
Because they had already testified that they were
entirely sanctified.
So you know what they did?
The human mind is very clever and the
devil is always there to assist them.
They called their failure mistakes.
So when they slipped up, they called it
a mistake.
But the unfortunate thing is the blood of
Jesus does not cleanse mistakes.
It only cleanses sin.
So they had to remain with their sin
calling it mistake and they became backsliders and
some of them fell into adultery.
Why?
Because they were dishonest.
When they sinned, they gave it some other
name.
Don't give sin any other name.
Because if you give it any other name,
you'll never be cleansed from it.
The blood of Jesus cleanses sin.
If you confess your sin as sin, the
blood of Jesus will cleanse you.
But if you are dishonest and call it
by some other name, it won't cleanse you.
Be honest.
And let me tell you this.
The Apostle John says in 1 John 2
These things have I written unto you that
you may not sin but if any man
sin and he also says in 1 John
1.8 If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves.
He includes himself.
So I am not saying that we can
come to a life where it is impossible
for us to sin.
Such a life does not exist on this
earth.
For that we have to wait till we
go to heaven.
But what I say is that we can
have victory so that falling becomes a rare
event.
None of us can say today that I
will and let's take the physical realm you
cannot say I will never fall down.
You may just go outside here and fall
down the steps.
It can happen to any of us.
But there is a difference between you falling
and that eleven month old child falling.
There is a lot of difference.
Once upon a time you were eleven month
old child and you were trying to walk
and you fell and got up and fell
and got up perhaps five hundred times a
day.
There is a difference between that now your
falls are rare.
You still cannot say I will never fall.
But it is so rare.
You have learned to walk and that is
what the Bible teaches.
We can learn to walk in victory.
Grace is given so that we overcome sin.
And so when I fall into sin, when
I lose my temper or I have a
dirty thought or I have bitterness or jealousy
or anything all I need to ask myself
is Lord, I don't need to ask myself
anything other than this one question.
Lord where was I proud?
That's all.
Where was I proud?
Because in this moment, a few seconds ago
you didn't give me grace.
That's clear.
And you automatically give grace to every humble
person.
In this moment when I was tempted you
did not support me.
You left me alone.
Why?
Where was I proud?
Don't ask why.
No need to ask why.
It's because you were proud.
Just ask God where was I proud?
And God may show you.
We can be strong in ourselves.
A strength that comes through our confidence in
ourselves and God has to make us weak
before he can give us grace.
That was the case with the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul, you know, was a very
strong personality.
He was the type of person who would
tell the high priest, God will smite you,
you whitewashed wall.
He was the type of person who would
stand on his convictions, if I say no
to John Mark once, don't ask me about
it again.
That's all.
He was a very strong person, but he
was a very radical, wholehearted person too.
And he was a man who had tremendous
experiences with God.
He was caught up to the third heaven.
He raised the dead.
He wrote scripture.
He established churches.
He was an Apostle, elder to many elders
and God saw that this man is in
danger of becoming proud because of what all,
the way I'm using him and the moment
he becomes proud, even if he is the
Apostle Paul, I'll have to fight against him
and I don't want to fight against him
because he's the Apostle Paul, because he's such
a good brother.
How can I help him?
And God saw there was only one way
to help him.
Give him a thorn in the flesh.
And that thorn in the flesh, we don't
know what it was.
It could have been a sickness that kept
him weak, weak physically all the time.
It could have been some Jewish man who
was following him wherever he went, harassing him,
troubling him, getting him taken to court or
something like that and speaking evil about him
to the elders of the synagogues wherever he
went.
There was some, it was either a sickness
or a person that kept on harassing Paul
wherever he went.
And he prayed.
Naturally we pray and we should pray when
we are sick or when people harass us
like that.
Lord, finish with this.
Get rid of this thorn in the flesh
and we know that God is almighty.
He can do it.
No answer.
He prayed a second time.
No answer.
He prayed a third time and if he
didn't get an answer the third time, he'd
have prayed a fourth time and a thirtieth
time and a four hundredth time because Paul
was radical.
He was a person who would persist until
he got an answer.
He got an answer and the answer was,
I'm not going to remove that thorn in
the flesh.
That fellow is going to harass you till
the end of your life.
That sickness is going to remain with you
till the end of your life.
But, that fellow will not hinder your ministry.
That sickness will not hinder your ministry.
That thorn is necessary to keep you humble
because it's only when you're humble that I
can give you grace.
Paul, that's the reason.
And when Paul discovered that, he says in
2nd Corinthians and chapter 12, he says Oh,
if that's the case verse 10, verse 9,
last part, then I will boast about my
weaknesses.
I'm perfectly content he says in verse 10,
with weakness, insult, distress, persecution, difficulties.
Are you content with difficulties?
Paul was.
Most people, when they have difficulties, they say,
Lord, get rid of them.
Yeah, it's good to pray like that.
But, there may be some situations where God
does not remove those difficulties, He does not
remove those persecutions, He does not remove those
distresses, insults and even those weaknesses, physical weaknesses.
Because these things serve to keep us humble.
And particularly if God is using you, anointing
you and loves you.
He never wants to become your enemy.
That's why He gives you weakness, physical weakness
in your body.
That's why He allows people to insult you
left, right and center.
That's why He allows you to go through
many distresses.
That's why He allows you to be persecuted.
And that's why He allows you to face
difficulties.
For Christ's sake.
Because, Paul says, when I am weak, then
I am strong.
This is the law of humility.
In the Christian life, it's when I am
weak, that I am strong.
And that's why, we read in 1 Corinthians
in chapter 1, Paul says, in verse 26,
onwards, Consider your calling, my brothers, that among
you there are not many wise people according
to the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to shame the wise.
God has chosen the weak things of the
world to shame the things which are strong.
The base things, the despised things.
God has chosen the things that are nothing
so that He might nullify the things that
are.
And what is the purpose of all this?
Here is the purpose.
It's very important for us to understand.
Verse 29.
So that, no man will be able to
boast before God.
You know, there is a lot of boasting
in Christian circles.
Those are the people who don't get grace.
Those are the people whom God opposes.
You know, you can have God on one
of two sides.
You can either have God in front of
you, facing you, pushing you backwards, backwards, backwards.
Or, you can have God behind you, pushing
you forwards, forwards, forwards.
Which do you want?
I hope you know the answer.
And you are the one who is going
to determine whether God is going to be
in front of you, pushing you backwards, or
behind you, pushing you forwards.
It's not God who determines that.
You determine that.
The moment you become puffed up, you may
have been a humble brother, sister for 10
years.
And then one day you look back over
your accomplishments for 10 years, and you begin
to think, boy, I've really done something for
the Lord, compared to some of these other
fellows.
Immediately, God moves around from the back to
the front, and begins to push you back.
Even if you've been faithful for 30 years.
The law of gravity does not respect how
many years you've been faithful.
The moment you step off, you fall down.
And the law of humility works the same
way.
It's day by day.
And so, that is the reason why those
whom God loves, and those who have surrendered
themselves totally to the Lord, to allow Him
to do anything with them.
If you have come to God and said,
Lord, do anything with me, but don't let
me lose your anointing.
Don't let me lose your grace upon my
life.
Then He will watch over you, my brother,
sister, with a very jealous care.
You know, like a husband watching over his
weak wife with a very jealous care.
Jesus will watch over you with a very
jealous care, protecting you from the things that
will prevent you from losing grace.
He won't prevent you from losing money.
Sometimes He may allow you to lose money
so that you don't lose grace.
He won't protect you from losing your health.
Sometimes He may allow you to lose your
health so that you don't lose grace.
God's not so interested in health and money
as all these health and wealth preachers are
today.
Don't believe all those, that type of gospel.
God is interested in your overcoming sin, in
your getting grace in your life, for your
life and for your ministry.
That's what God is interested in.
God wants you to live such a useful
life on earth, where your life is saturated
with the grace of God, that you live
in victory over sin, lead others to victory
over sin, that your ministry leads to people
being delivered from bondage, your ministry leads to
the building of believers together as the body
of Christ, in the midst of an adulterous
Christendom.
That is God's will for you.
But whether it will be fulfilled in your
life or not, I don't know.
That depends entirely on you.
It does not depend on God.
There is no partiality with God.
He gives grace to the humble.
That's why the Bible says humble yourself under
the mighty hand of God.
What is this mighty hand of God?
In Paul's case, it was this thorn in
the flesh.
As I said, that could have been a
sickness, it could have been a man who
was harassing him, some enemy of the gospel,
somebody who didn't like Paul, possibly a fellow
Jew.
I don't know, but whatever it was, that
was the mighty hand of God.
That sickness was the mighty hand of God.
That Jew who was an enemy of the
gospel was the mighty hand of God crushing
Paul, making him small, making him weak so
that in his weakness God could manifest his
strength, and when God did something through a
weak man like Paul, Paul would never be
able to boast about it, as though I
accomplished something for God.
No, he didn't.
He was weak.
You know, whenever we think we have accomplished
something for God, that shows we are strong,
because it says in 1 Corinthians 1.29
that no man will be able to boast
before God.
You tell me honestly, my brother, sister, have
you ever sat down and thought about what
all the Lord has done in your life
in such a way that you take the
credit for it, where you don't give God
the glory for it?
Publicly of course you will give the glory
to God.
Whenever you give a testimony about your life,
you give the glory to God.
Whenever you give a testimony about your ministry,
publicly you give the glory to God.
I say what we say publicly very often
is not true.
That is only to show people that we
are very humble people.
What you really think about yourself may be
something quite different.
You know, there are people who get up
and say in their testimony, well, I'm a
good for nothing sinner, but Jesus saved me.
But one day they hear that somebody said
about that person that so and so is
a good for nothing fellow, and he gets
angry.
Why does he get angry?
That's the very thing he said in his
testimony, that he was a good for nothing
person.
And now when somebody said that about him
behind his back, he gets upset, which shows
that he was an absolute liar with this
mock humility, saying, oh, I'm just a humble
good for nothing person.
He doesn't really believe it at all.
If he believed it, he would not be
upset if somebody said that behind his back.
So I'm not talking about what we say
publicly.
I'm asking whether when you're alone, what do
you think about your life and your work?
Do you really believe it is God Almighty
who made you what you are, who did
whatever he did through you, and that you
cannot take one bit of the credit for
it at all?
If we had lived in that place, perhaps
God could have done more through us.
Do you know why it is so difficult
for God to give us victory over sin?
So many people have come to me.
I have preached victory over sin for more
than 20 years.
And I've been called a heretic, a false
teacher.
If, on the other hand, I had kept
on preaching that you will sin, you will
sin, then I would have been probably called
a true teacher.
That's the tragedy.
It says when Joshua and Caleb stood up
in Israel and said, we can kill these
giants and get into Canaan, they called them
false teachers and wanted to stone them to
death.
You read that in Numbers 13 and Numbers
14.
And all the other fellows who said, no,
no, no, no, we can't overcome these giants,
we can't overcome these sins, we have to
be defeated by them.
Yeah, yeah, these are the true teachers.
It's the same thing happening today.
600,000 people said Joshua and Caleb are
false teachers because they preached victory over the
giants.
We can put the giants under our feet,
they said.
God will help us.
But those are the only two who got
in.
Many people have asked me through the years,
Brother Zach, why can't I get victory?
I really believe what you teach and I
really want victory in my life.
And I say, you know, God wants to
give you victory with humility.
A victory without humility is a useless victory.
The primary mark of genuine holiness is humility.
A really holy man will be humble.
We can think of anger or lustful thoughts
as, say, a 100 foot pit.
Maybe you're in that 100 foot pit and
you're praying to God, Oh God, deliver me
from this 100 foot pit.
Now here's another 1000 foot pit called spiritual
pride.
Supposing God delivers you from this 100 foot
pit of dirty thoughts or anger and you
fall into the 1000 foot pit of spiritual
pride.
What's that?
Is that victory?
That's not victory at all.
That's why God allows us to be defeated,
defeated, defeated until we are convinced we can
never get victory.
And when we are convinced we can never
get victory, then the Lord comes and delivers
us.
And we cannot boast because we were convinced
we could never make it.
We were like those disciples who went fishing,
fishing, fishing, fishing and didn't catch anything.
And then Jesus came and filled their boats
with fish.
So brothers and sisters, that's why God allows
us to be defeated.
To humble us so that, and God knows
the point of time where we have been
so thoroughly defeated.
That's how it was in my life.
I was defeated, defeated but I confessed my
hope that sin, one of these days, sin
will not rule over me.
And I said, Lord, I don't care how
long it takes.
I want to come to that life under
grace where sin does not rule over me.
And it came.
And it can come in your life too.
If you persist.
Be honest.
Don't call sin by any other name.
When you have fallen, say, I have fallen.
Humble yourself.
Go down and say, Lord, I have fallen.
Forgive me.
But I believe that grace will come upon
my life one of these days and sin
will come under my feet.
God gives his grace to the humble.
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
All the circumstances God sends into your life.
Humble yourself.
The difficult people God sends into your life,
like thorns in your flesh.
Don't fight against those circumstances.
Don't fight against God.
Say, Lord, these are necessary for me.
To humble me.
I go down under them.
I accept them.
And you will find one day God exalts
you.
It's up to us whether we get the
benefit of this law of humility or whether
we find God opposing us.
Let's choose wisely.
Let's pray.
While our heads are bowed in prayer, I
want to ask you, my dear brothers and
sisters, if God has spoken to your heart
this evening, I want to invite you to
respond wholeheartedly.
Don't glory in anything.
And least of all in your doctrine.
In the correctness of your doctrines.
Don't glory in your experiences.
Don't glory in the denomination you belong to.
Say, Lord, all these things still leave me
as a defeated Christian.
I want to be a Christian who's under
the grace of God.
I want to walk humbling myself under your
mighty hand every day of my life so
that grace can come upon me and sin
and Satan can come under my feet.
God loves honest people and if you're one
of those honest people here tonight, I can
assure you, God will meet with you.
Heavenly Father, apply these truths to every life
here so that there will be some transformed
lives who have experienced the riches of your
grace in the coming days.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.