02 Humility is Necessary to Battle Sin.
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Humility is rooted in the accurate assessment of self: that we are nothing, and God is all. Last week we learned that biblical humility is in recognizing that we are nothing without God, and in doing so, we seek to empty ourselves so that He may be everything in our lives.
Last week I said that we need to empty us of us. And this week we’re going to go in-depth as to why.
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There are two master powers on this earth, both of whom are after eternal control of man. Those two powers are of pride and humility.
The master power of pride is that of Satan, who fell from heaven due to his pride. Jesus says in John 10:10 that Satan comes as a thief to steal, kill, and destroy. He seeks for you to spend eternity in hell with him.
Then there is the master power of humility which is that of Jesus Christ, who says that he came to give life and give it in full (John 10:10). He is the one who humbled himself, by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus’ humility to die on the cross is our salvation. And Satan’s pride is the reason behind sin and life deserving of death.
You see no flower can grow except from the seed which was planted. The origin of sin in mankind started with the pride of Satan, who was an angel named Lucifer, who fell from heaven, and influenced Adam and Eve to become prideful and sin by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Pride came before Lucifer’s fall and entered the world through him. Pride came before Adam and Eve’s fall and entered humanity through them.
That is why it is said in Proverbs 16:18 that ‘Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’. Do you see what I’m getting at here? I’m saying that pride is the root of all sin, and that sin entered the world and humanity through pride.
Again, No flower can grow except from the seed which was planted.
And that seed, the seed of humanity, was that of PRIDE!!!!!!
If you were to go to ancestry.com and look at the family tree of all mankind you would find that at the root…at the source…is the pride of man. And because we were born from the seed of pride, that is why we can produce no fruit. The fruit of the flesh is that of pride. It is self-centered, self-seeking, self-fulfilling.
This is why in our best moments we still are deserving of hell because the seed of humanity is that of pride and sin, which God can have none of.
This is also why God sent His son Jesus to die for us, so that we could be born again of His seed, which is that of humility. Jesus’s descension from heaven and descension among men unto death was the greatest act of humility one could ever do. His humility truly is our salvation.
Now this is why humility is necessary to battle sin. It is because sin is rooted in pride, and for us to battle sin and lead a life of righteousness we must battle our pride.
In 1 Peter 2:11 Peter tells us to ‘Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul’.
Essentially he is saying that there are passions that you and I have that are not after your life here on earth but your SOUL. They are after your eternity.
Are you not filled with a sense of urgency to fight those passions after hearing that? YOUR SOUL IS ON THE LINE. YOUR SOUL IS AT STAKE. If we don’t fight the passions of the flesh, if we don’t put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires as Paul says in Romans 13:14, we are going to hell!
That’s right! I said it! If we don’t humble ourselves we are going to hell! But don’t take my word for it, take Jesus’. He says in Matthew 18, verses 8 and 9:
‘And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire’.
Jesus is speaking spiritually here…it is not our physical hands or feet or our eyeballs that cause us to sin, but rather the prideful condition of our heart that motivates those actions.
Jesus is saying that this is a life and death battle. He is saying that we either do battle with our fleshly temptations to sin, or that we will go to hell!
Look again at his words…at the end of verse 8 he says that “It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet TO BE THROWN INTO THE ETERNAL FIRE’ (emphasis mine).
And then at the end of verse 9, Jesus reiterates that point by saying that it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes TO BE THROWN INTO THE HELL OF FIRE (emphasis mine).
Very clearly here, Jesus is saying that if we do not fight sin, which we know to be rooted in pride, we will go to hell. It is his words that if we don’t fight sin we will go to hell.
Now to those reading, I want to challenge you:
Is there anything in Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:8-9 that reflects your life in some way? Are you fighting your flesh and the natural prideful state of your heart? Are you fighting against the passions of your flesh?
Now one point I want to make very clear is this. This is not about losing salvation. Once you are saved you are saved. There is no losing salvation. But this is about proving salvation. When God saves you, He begins a work in your heart through His Spirit, making a sin-killing fighter out of you.
Paul says in Romans 6:18 that those in Christ have been set free from sin, and have become slaves of righteousness.
When God saves you, you become a slave to righteousness. So when we choose to engage in this battle of fighting the passion of the flesh and go to war against our pride, we are proving our salvation.
Humility is necessary for salvation as it is the act of faith by surrendering our life to Christ, but humility is also necessary for sanctification.
We must fight the sin in our life that is rooted in pride with the root of humility that comes from the Holy Spirit inside of us.
So for those of you reading who believe your life does not reflect Matthew 18:8-9 in any way, and that you aren’t fighting the passions of your flesh, there is a chance you are not saved. And I say that out of love and as direct as it can get, because I, just like you, desire to be close with God, free from sin, and abiding with him in Heaven for eternity.
Now to everyone reading, this is why we must fight for humility at all costs. We have to be convinced that humility is our greatest need and that we are desperate for it because OUR SOULS ARE AT STAKE.
If you were convinced that if you didn't get the extra credit for a class you would fail, you would become desperate for it. You would develop a sense of urgency.
If you were convinced that if you didn’t get a new job you that would not be able to provide for your family you would become desperate for it. You would develop a sense of urgency.
Similarly, if you were truly convinced that you would spend eternity in hell if you did not fight your sin rooted in pride with humility found only in Christ you would become desperate for it. You would develop a sense of urgency.
Again, I’m not saying you aren’t saved if you struggle with sin. We all do. We all struggle with sin and we all struggle with pride. However, I am saying that real faith fights.
Real, authentic faith in Jesus Christ goes to war with the flesh and the sin that it produces.
Those with the Holy Spirit are slaves to righteousness and no longer slaves to their sin.
Because we are born of the seed of pride, we must realize that we are naturally prideful and independent of God, and we must see that and acknowledge that in ourselves to do battle with it; to do battle with our pride and our sin.
So if you struggle with sin, you struggle with pride. If you struggle with sin, you struggle with lack of humility. That is why humility is necessary to battle sin. Yet many of us are not desperate for humility!!!! Are we not desperate to be free from our sin?!?!?!
There is no passion of the flesh and no temptation to sin that exists in the climate of humility.
So go after the pride that produces sin with URGENCY!!!!! To those reading right now who feel very convicted, and you’re like, Luke, I am not fighting my flesh, I am giving in to the passions of the flesh that wage war against my soul. I want to encourage you and remind you of God’s grace.
1 Corinthians 12:9 says ‘His grace is sufficient for you, for His power is made perfect in weakness’.
Repent, approach God’s throne and seek His grace, and He will give it to you. He loves you, and there is no better time than right now to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. After all, it is only though Jesus that we even stand a chance to fight. Be reminded of his blood shed for you, and clothe yourself with his Spirit and his Word. There is no better time than right now to, with urgency, start doing battle with your sin.
Next week we're going to talk about how humility is the foundation and the climate for lasting righteousness. We’re going to talk about how it is the soil in which righteousness grows.
Like we learned this week that our sin is rooted in pride, next week we will learn that conversely righteousness is rooted in humility, and we will seek to grow in that.
I love you all!
God bless.
