Progress Through Humility

This morning in our Scripture reading, we read from two passages of Scripture, Proverbs 14, as well as looking over in Jeremiah chapter 7, and a couple of verses that the Lord gives us there. Looking back in Proverbs 14 this morning, please turn there again with me, Proverbs chapter 14, and I want to read once again verse 12. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.

As we go into the new year, the words… Progress, perhaps the word productive come to mind as we think about what our desires and our prayers are for the new year, that we will be productive Christians, and that we will make progress in our walk with the Lord, and that we will not slide backwards, we will not lose ground in our walk with the Lord.

We have a… Certainly a lot of different ways that progress can be defined in our world and in the understanding of people today. A lot of people define progress as we've got a growing church. We have a lot more members than we had last year. We have a bigger crowd. That could be a definition of progress. We could say that we have a new building project. We're doing well financially. Our health is better. And we certainly thank the Lord. I mentioned Brother Stewart this morning. I was just thanking the Lord that as I look at him, he's doing quite a bit better than he was last January. And we can say that of several individuals this year. And we thank the Lord for that. There may be… Maybe somebody's doing better financially than you were last year at this time. All those things, we could say that we're doing better.

But we've got to be careful that we don't make our feelings, our health, our finances, even what other good brethren may think of us as the standard or the measure of progress in our Christian lives. And we want to be approved unto the Lord. Approved unto God is what we should be looking for in our Christian lives. In fact, how do we know? How do we know what God thinks of our lives? Well, we need to first of all be sure that our life, is lining up with what God's Word says. If we define progress by how we feel or how others feel about us, then we're in a troubled path. We're very subjectively viewing progress by that, if we're viewing it by that metric.

But when we look in God's Word, and we understand that the Christian walk is not one of sight, but it's by… It's by faith, and we are on the right path to progress. We notice that we're very familiar with Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6, where we are told we're not to lean to our own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge Him. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. We hear a lot about that word today, don't we? Faith, faith. Well, faith in what? Faith in the Word of God. My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. My heart is not leaning on my own feelings, or my heart is not leaning on the opinions of others. My heart is leaning on the Word of God, the written Word of God. You can mark it down. If you follow… Follow your own heart, and if that heart is not in line with God's Word, it will lead you astray. It will lead you. It will deceive you. Your own heart, apart from God, will deceive you.

Progress. Jeremiah told us this morning. He gave us a good definition of what backsliding is. He said… Let's look back over there in Jeremiah 7 this morning. Let's look at those words. Jeremiah 7. And let's read the two verses again because I want to make sure we understand verse 23 as well as verse 24, but it's there in verse 23. The Lord commanded them, commanded His people, Israel, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people. The standard that God held them to was one of obedience to His Word. Obey My Word. Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people. And walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you. It kind of reminds us of what He told Joshua. Back over in Joshua 1. Through Moses, we know that the Lord told Joshua that He was not to turn to the right hand. He's not to turn to the left hand. He was to observe, to do according to all that was written in the Word. And here we see, Walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels, and listen to this, and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. There are so many passages, passages we could turn to in the Scriptures today to show that when a man, a people, lean to their own understanding instead of truly heeding God's Word, they will go backward and not forward.

When Samson sought a wife, and he leaned to his own understanding instead of God's will, he ended up with the wrong wife. And he ended up with a lot of, a lot of hurt and heartache, and ended up not accomplishing what God had intended for him to accomplish. When Lot sought with his own eyes what looked good to his own eyes and followed that instead of God's ways, then we see very clearly that he lost everything. We could go even back to the very beginning. In Genesis, we see that Eve, when she said, when she forgot what God's Word said, and instead she saw the fruit, she said, you know, it does look good. It looks like it will be good to partake of this fruit because I feel that it's going to be good. It seems like it's going to be good. What a heartache and what a loss came as a result of that leaning to her own understanding in that matter. And then we see that even Adam, certainly, he disobeyed the Lord because he should have said, honey, dear, wife, remember what God's Word says. We cannot disobey God's Word. It doesn't matter how good it looks, how popular it seems, how it smells, tastes, feels, whatever the case may be. God has told us, and we don't really even know anything whether it's right or good or productive or productive. Progress or whatever word we want to put there unless we know that God has told us because God alone is good. And we must follow His directions. We must follow Him. Otherwise, we will go backward and not forward.

We will go backward. It may seem for a time that we're doing well, but in reality, we're not doing well at all. We have to remember that we can easily deceive ourselves into thinking that all is well. I feel like everything's okay. Everything's kind of going along all right. No, we cannot take that approach as Christians even as we're going into this new year. We have to say, Lord, what would you have me to do? What does your Word tell me to do? We must be open to the Holy Spirit to take that Word and to say, Lord, show us right where we are and illuminate our understanding. How would you have me to approach this new year, biblically speaking? How would you have me to approach it from a scriptural standpoint? In my life, where I am now, I'm the husband of one wife and have four children. And these children range in age from four, almost five years old up to 11 years old. Lord, what's your will for me this year, scripturally speaking? There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things we can do. You know, you may be a widow or a widower. You may be living alone. You may have grandchildren. You know, we're all in different places in life. What are God's directions for us? What is God's Word saying to us this year?

I was quoted from Fanny Crosby on I believe that's… No, no, I'm sorry. Not Fanny Crosby. It was Francis Habergle, I believe it was. Forgive me if I got the wrong hymn writer, but the point was that she wrote Take My Life and Let It Be and then later on she said, Take my silver and my gold. Not a mite would I withhold. And she wrote that at an earlier age and then later on in years, I forgot how old she was, 60, 70 years old, somewhere in there, and later on she says, this has come to me, this has come to me with new meaning this year and I see that the Lord wants me to give this. To give this to the work of the mission house. I want to donate these things. The Lord has shown me that I need to do this. And, you know, I'm probably not preaching anything that you have never heard before this morning, but we are in a different place in our lives than we were perhaps the last time we read these words of Scripture. We're in a different year. We're in a different position in life. We're not in the same place we were in 2020 or 2015 or 2010 or whatever the year was. But God's Word is the same. And His Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is good and will lead us in that Word for this coming year.

So, turn with me to Romans chapter 2, if you will, this morning. Romans chapter 2 and verse 17. Romans chapter 2 and verse number 17. We notice that it's, it says something important to us here. You know, Israel didn't think themselves to be that bad because though they were backsliding, they were and they didn't hearken to God's voice as Jeremiah told them that they had not done. Yet they drew near with their mouths. They had a form of godliness. They consoled themselves with just enough religious religiosity or religion to make themselves feel like they were okay. But look in Romans chapter 2. We see Paul is here speaking to such an attitude and such a heart. In Romans 2 verse 17 we read, Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will very knowledgeable and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law. And listen to this. And are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth or of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself.

Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal. Thou that sayest, a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written, for circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. It's evident that the Jew typically rested in rested in the appearance of godliness. He rested in the appearance of progress, the appearance of the appearance of religion. But not in the heart of it. Not in the heart. Only you and I know, by God's grace, only you and I in our own individual hearts can know, am I going on with the Lord? Am I making progress with the Lord? Only between you and I. We can fool people, at least for a time. We can fool people and say, look, he looks really, looks like he's doing real well. You know, that church is doing real well over there. The problem with the Jew was they were so focused on the presentation of the image of what people thought of them and yet they were not, the word was not mixed with faith in their hearts.

They abhorred, certainly they abhorred the terrible and barbaric practices of the Gentiles. But the very things they condemned outwardly were the realities of their inward hearts. The very realities of their inward hearts, they were full of hypocrisy, which is a form of stealing because it's, lying is taking or robbing the truth from those who should know the truth. Hatred, they hated. There was a, they hated the Gentiles, frankly. They thought themselves to be superior to those that were without the gospel, without the truth, and yet, the Lord had intended for them to be a light, to be a beacon to the nations. And yet, in fact, because of their backsliding and their turning their back on God, they actually didn't receive the one who came to save his people from their sins.

They were full of pride. Pride is actually stealing the glory that is due to God. Taking it for our own, the glory for ourselves. Envy and complaining. And we certainly read here in this passage, thou that sayest that a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery in your private heart and life? The Lord would say, if you look upon a woman with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. If you hate your brother in your heart, it's like committing murder. You've omitted the weightier matters of the law, but you've focused on the externals to the neglect of the reality that should be before God in your heart, because he sees all things and you should, you cannot go forward as a nation or an individual unless you acknowledge God and obey his word from the heart.

I was talking with one of you this past week, and I won't say the name, but it struck me as we were speaking in the conversation that you mentioned about the heart. Many people have the knowledge, but what about the heart? The heart of that knowledge. And that's so true. We've got to have the heart of the knowledge. Not just the knowledge, but it has to enter into our hearts. Well, not only did Israel not fulfill the commandment to love their neighbor as themselves, but they failed to fulfill the commandment to love God with all of their heart. To love God with all of their heart. They did not bring glory to God. Instead, they went backward, deceiving their own selves because they had gone about to establish their own righteousness, but not the righteousness which comes by faith. And you and I, if we sow to our selfish flesh, we'll steal from God and rob from God that which we owe to Him and to others. We will, we could continue to come to church and continue to maybe even open our Bibles in the morning and read through those, but it's just the externals.

We may do a number of good things, and yet if it's not from the heart as unto the Lord, out of gratitude and love for all that He's done for us, if we're not growing on with God, there's no other option but that we're sliding backwards. We're sliding backwards. You know, and it's easier now than ever to live a double life. It's easier now than ever to live a double life. We have so, the devil has many forms, and I think about the digital world in which we live where we could be, and I've read several Christians talking about this recently. I heard pastors preaching on it, but you know, we've got to be careful about the internet and the phones and the social media and all that kind of thing because we can continue to do the outward things, but if in our hearts, are we lusting after things we may see on the internet? Are we wanting, are we, are we filling up our time and allowing the Word of God to become choked in our lives and we know what the Word of God says, but we're not actually obeying it? We're allowing other things to come in and choke and crowd out and squeeze out that Word, but you know, we can go for a while and look like everything is going well on the outside, but are we really making progress?

Are we making priorities priorities? Are we making God's Word the priority of our lives, or are we putting other things before Him? In our hearts, as I mentioned in the Sunday School Hour this morning, we know the information, don't we? We have the information. We have been taught well God's Word, but are we living and walking in the things we've been taught and growing in those things? I'm saying that to myself this morning, not each one of us. We need to consider these things as we go into the new year. Not can we pray a public prayer, but do we have a prayer life? Do we have a prayer life with the Lord? In the bulletin this morning, I've put some quotes in there. Take time to read those if you haven't already, but those are very important quotes, I believe, on how we cannot make progress without prayer. We cannot proceed and grow if we're not giving prayer. To our Christian life. We can do charitable things, you know? Actions that look good, but is it based in as unto the Lord? Are we doing it as unto the Lord from the heart? I will just say this, that we can only move forward on our knees.

We can only move forward on our knees, and I know I'm not the first one to have said that. I think it was C.T. Studd, something, I believe he was one that said, made a quote like, that, we have to have the spirit of the publican, not the spirit of the Pharisee. The spirit of the publican was God be merciful to me. It was a great humility, a great lowliness. Lord, show me what you want me to do. Teach me. Forgive me, and lead me in the way. That's the spirit we need before God. I read this week, and I don't know who read it. It was just an unknown, unattributed quote, but I really liked it. It said, humility is that precious quality that makes us feel smaller as we grow greater. Humility is that precious quality that makes us feel smaller as we grow greater. We know that pride goes before a fall. Pride goes before a fall, but we can move forward through humble, prayer, and obedience to God's Word. Pastor Peacock often said, we cannot improve on the Word of God and prayer being the building blocks of the Christian life. You cannot improve on that.

Let's go back and look in Proverbs 14 this morning, in Proverbs 14 where we have read from this portion of Scripture this morning. Let's return to that. In Proverbs chapter 4, 14, we want to look back. We read in verse number 12 beginning, and we went through verse number 14 this morning. And it was there in verse 12 that we read there is a way, which we've been talking about, which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. This is the way the world goes, isn't it? How does the world think? The world doesn't think biblically, doesn't think scripturally, doesn't think humbly. They do what's right in their own eyes. They're wise in their own eyes, and they think, as long as I'm popular, as long as I feel good, as long as I you know, I have money in the bank, as long as I have good health, everything's fine. I'm making good progress. We can't afford to think that way as Christians, can we? We can't afford to think that way because we're not any longer part of the course of this world, right? We used to walk according to that way. We cannot, we must not, think the way the world thinks. We must walk by faith. We must not walk by sight. We must not walk as Eve. We must not walk as Lot. We must not walk as these different ones we've mentioned this morning. We must instead, we must instead trust in the Lord with all of our heart.

And in verse 13, and I know these Proverbs can stand alone, but I think there's a connection here. Even in laughter, verse 13, it says, the heart is sorrowful. Whose laughter? Whose laughter? Well, I think those that do that which seems right unto themselves get an enjoyment out of life to a certain extent. David described it this way. He talked about the time when their corn and their wine is increased. In fact, in Psalm 4, one of my favorite psalms, he said, thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased. In other words, everything's going well. Remember that little song? Have you ever heard it before? Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful, wonderful feeling. Everything's going my way, right? Well, everything is going good, right? But as Christians, we should be making progress in our Christian lives, whether or not everything's going good and going well according to sight. Well, this looks like a good way. No. This shows us the good way. Here is the way. Walk ye in it.

God's Word will guide our steps and light, give light for our path. We must not lean to our own understanding. The proud appear to be happy. The Bible tells us, very clearly, that there is no peace to the wicked. There's no peace. Oh, they may prosper for a time, but there's no peace in their hearts. Joy, peace, those are only, those only come by the fruit of the Spirit to us. They only come as we obey God's Word and words. There is a great heaviness that comes along with pride. Even though there's laughter, there's great heaviness. There's no lightness of heart. There's no clarity of vision. There's no joy, really, real joy that accompanies the heart. We might say, even of the backslider, the one who is slidden backwards, they may be surrounded by many things. They may console themselves and make themselves feel good, but they know deep down in their heart something is not right. I'm not walking with the Lord. I'm not growing in the Lord as I should. Well, there's a great heaviness that we see here. Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.

The backslider in heart, verse 14, shall be filled with his own ways. How true is that? Not filled with God's grace, but filled with his own ways. And a good man, what is a good man? What does the Bible define as a good man? The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And he delighteth in his way. That could be said truly both ways. The Lord delights in him, he delights in the Lord, but the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Are our steps going to be ordered by the Lord and by his word this year, or are they going to be ordered according to what seems right unto us at any given moment? We've got to make the choice. As we go forward, I'm not just talking about we have the memory of what God's word has told us, but no, are our steps actually being ordered by the Lord?

Are we being directed by him? And the only way your steps can be ordered by the Lord is you've got to be humble and prayerful. That's the only way. You cannot be, the Lord will not bless and order and direct the steps of a man or woman, or a girl who leans to their own understanding. It's just as simple as that. You cannot have the direction of the Lord in your life. He will not bless that. Israel complained in the wilderness. Do we see the Lord directing them in the wilderness? No, they were just going around in circles and they were wandering. There was not any direction out there, was it? The Lord had been merciful in delivering them from Egypt, but there was no clear direction. They wandered from pillar to post. Is our new year going to be a wilderness experience, or is it going to be directed of the Lord?

Psalm 106, verse 15. Let's turn there together. Psalm 106, verse 15. And we notice there that it says in verse 15, Psalm 106, verse 15, this excerpt from the context is talking about how the Lord really blessed Israel in spite of their unfaithfulness. He was merciful to them. And even when they cried out for food, He filled them with a lot of the quail and everything out in the wilderness. But we notice it says here in Psalm 106, verse 15 that, let's go back to verse 14 just so we can come into this verse. But lusted, they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request. But look at this. He sent leanness into their soul. He gave them the quail and He gave them the man, He gave them these, provided for their sustenance, but He sent leanness into their soul. God forbid that we have a materially plentiful year, but a spiritually dry year, dearth this year. It would be terrible to come to the end of this year and say, well, we just had a lean soul this year. We had a dryness, we had a leanness because we just really were more concerned about the things of sight than we were about the walk of faith in our life. Oh, we were in church. We picked up our Bible and we read it. But we just really didn't have a hunger and thirst after the things of God. And it showed in our lives. We kind of wandered around through the year. Didn't have any real direction. May that not be said of us. May that not be said of me this year.

In Psalm 4, verse 7, we already, I quoted this, but let's look there. Psalm 4, verse 7. Thou, the Lord, has put gladness in my heart. More than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. If we are to have gladness, not sorrow and heaviness, only the Lord can give that to us and it will come when we trust in the Lord with all of our heart. Lean not to our own understanding. All the days, Proverbs 15. Let's look at Proverbs 15, verse 15. Proverbs 15, verse 15 says, all the days of the afflicted, are evil. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart, hath a continual feast. We can have a continual feast in the Lord, in our hearts, but it has to be, it has to be, it will only come as we seek Him. As we hunger after Him.

He does not fill the, the, the, He only fills the hungry with good things. He does not fill the heart, and the soul of those that lust after, exceedingly after the things of the material things and the earthly things and put that as their priority in their life. He does not fill those souls with good things. In fact, Mary tells us in her Magnificat, look in Luke 1, 53. Look at Luke chapter 1, verse 53. You know, you probably can quote it already before I even get there. Luke chapter 1, verse 53. It says, He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich reminds us of Laodicea, doesn't it? The church at Laodicea, the rich and increased with goods have need of nothing. The rich he hath sent empty away. But here's the positive side of that coin. He hath filled the hungry with good things.

If we are if we would look at Lucifer, if we would look at the example of Lucifer, it was through pride that he fell, right? It was through pride and looking at himself and his own beauty that not only did he not make any progress, but he fell from the very honored position that he had. May we not through pride, this year, not only may we not through pride may we not lose what God has blessed us with already because we are selfish and prideful but may we be humble and hungry and truly asking Lord daily order my steps according to thy word. I want a plentiful year. I want to be to know thy blessing and to be a blessing this year. That will only come from the heart that we've shown in God's word this morning. A heart of humility before him and of dependence upon him. That's the only way that God can bless. May we may we desire this with all of our heart this year as we go forward. May we not go backward and not forward. As Jeremiah said of Israel, they went backward and not forward. Why did they do that? Because they didn't hearken to God. They followed their own understanding. May we not be like that. May we not be like the children of Israel in the wilderness. Wandering around is kind of existing and just sort of making it. No, may we may we have may we have a desire that God would show us the path he would have us to walk in. In his presence is fullness of joy. In his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we think on your word this morning and as we think about these proverbs that we've read and we've reviewed Israel and their response, their poor response to your merciful commands and directives that you gave to them, Lord, we pray that we will not I guess we can really say Father that we have a responsibility to respond rightly because we have so many examples not only of good examples, but we have also the negative examples that we can look at in your word and we can we don't have any excuse for spiritual failure and backsliding. We have every reason to be more than conquerors. We have every reason to have good success and progress this year. We have every reason to go forward and go onward with our Lord and Savior and it will not be because of any goodness or any ability in ourselves. It will be because we have full confidence and dependence upon and hunger after the one who is altogether lovely and able and capable of these things that we've read of this morning.

We pray, Lord, that we would not be filled with this sorrow and heaviness this year, but we would be filled with joy and peace and with the fruit of the Spirit, Father. Help us to put off those things that would hinder us. Help us to lay aside every weight that would beset us, Lord, and help us to run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Bless each and every one gathered here today. Lord, you know what our individual needs are. You know exactly where we are in our Christian walk. You know those that are among us today that may not be Christians, that have not placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would place a burden upon any heart that does not know you to settle that matter, Lord, and so that this can truly be a happy, a truly happy new year. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.