Bible Study Notes
3-12-16 work session

Humility

Chapter 2

Highlighted=quote from book

Pray

Recap last lesson

God Created us to show & share His goodness

Pride interferes w/ the great blessings God wants to give us & empower us to give to others

We must be restored to full humility to regain that connection to the full blessedness that God offers

Jesus is the way we obtain that restoration

Hard to do, but possible w/ God’s help:

                  Seek His help

                  Trust  that God will get you there in the interim difficulties

Intentional action

Overview of this week

This week we will look at the ultimate sources of pride & humility and what they mean for our efforts to grow in humility

Pride comes from outside of us & God—from the Devil

“Pride has its root and strength in a terrible spiritual power, outside of us as well as within us; as needful as it is that we confess and deplore it as our very own, is to know it in its Satanic origin.”

Pride was not originally part of man, life was therefore good

Genesis 2: 8-9, 15-7, 25

8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

***

15 The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. 16 The Lord God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden 17 except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die.

***

25 The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

God created us & the world in a way that demonstrates how humility works:

         God selflessly & generously provided & directed

We accepted, participated, in His plan & obeyed His direction

The world & our lives in it were wonderful

How did that change?

Genesis 3:1-8

1 Now the snake was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden’?” 2 The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die.’” 4 But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! 5 God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Pride was interjected by a third party—the snake/Satan

God did not will/create that in us

The Devil’s actions were the opposite of humility

-       Raising doubts about the nature—and the very the goodness—of God’s design

-       Push back against God’s plan=Pride

We accepted and the results were devastating & long lasting:

Genesis 3:8-10, 16-19

8 When they heard the sound of the Lord God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 The Lord God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.

***

16 To the woman he said: I will intensify your toil in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

17 To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you! In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of your life. 18 Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you, and you shall eat the grass of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

“[Eve’s] life and the life of the race that sprang from her became corrupted to its very root with that most terrible of all sins and all curses, the poison of Satan's own pride.”

“The power that Satan brought from hell, and cast into man's life, is working daily, hourly, with mighty power throughout the world.”

“All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all its ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own, or that of others, has brought us.”

Because of pride’s supernatural origins, we need a supernatural antidote to it—Jesus.

We as mere humans cannot shake pride ourselves because it has supernatural origins

-       Like someone with a chronic disease that we can’t shake on our own

-       It’s just too much for us on our own

-       We need a savior

Romans 7:19-25  

19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Ephesians 6:10-13

10 Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power. 11 Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks. 12 For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. 13 So put on God's armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.

We need a doctor, and those same passages identify that doctor

Romans 7:19-25  

19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Ephesians 6:10-13

10 Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power. 11 Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks. 12 For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. 13 So put on God's armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.

 Deliverance only comes from “accepting a power and a life outside of ourselves too, even the humility of heaven as brought down and brought nigh by the Lamb of God, to cast out Satan and his pride”

Jesus is “that supernatural power in which alone our deliverance is to be found”

A.   Murray, Humility, chapter 2, excerpt 1

“There can be but one answer: it is His humility. What is the incarnation but His heavenly humility, His emptying Himself?”

“What is His life on earth but humility; His taking the form of a servant?”

“What is His atonement but humility? "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death."

“What is His ascension and His glory, but humility exalted to the throne and crowned with glory? "He humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted Him."

“Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us.”

We must focus on, learn about, Jesus’ humility; look at the gospel with the goal of seeing how Jesus executed/displayed humility

“we need to know well the Second Adam [Jesus] and His power to give within us a life of humility as real and abiding and overmastering as has been that of pride”

“Our one need is to study and know and trust the life that has been revealed in Christ”

“study the humility of Jesus.”

Matthew 11:28-29

28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart…

Sirach 14:22-27

22 Go after Wisdom like a hunter looking for game. 23 Look into her windows and listen at her doors. 24 Camp as close to her house as you can get, 25 and you will have a fine place to live. 26-27 Build your home there, safe beneath her protecting branches, and shaded from the heat.

We Must actively seek to follow Jesus’ example of humility & actively pray for humility

Hebrews 12:2

2 Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.

Philippians 2:3-5

3 Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. 4 And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. 5 The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:

“We are to walk ‘rooted in Him’"

“If this be the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit.”

“consent to [it] gain[ing] possession and mastery of our whole being.”

“Sink down into it deeper day by day”

“pause and ask whether he sees much of the spirit of the meek and lowly Lamb of God in those who are called by His name”

We must ask—and keep asking—for God’s help

“the cry of our whole heart, night and day, ought not to be, O for the humility of Jesus in myself and all around me!”

Luke 11:9-13

9 'So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake? 12 Or if he asked for an egg, hand him a scorpion? 13 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

“Believe with your whole heart that this Christ, whom God has given you, even as His divine humility wrought the work for you, will enter in to dwell and work within you too, and make you what the Father would have you be”