of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28, ESV). This is God’s reverse economy of greatness. The sons of Zebedee’s re- quest to sit at the right and left falls right after the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). The Master of the vineyard goes out to hire labor- ers throughout the day. When the sun sets, he begins by paying the last same as the last hired and are angry with the master. We fall into the same sin when we think of a person being redeemed at 80 years old and getting to go to heaven. When we should be thankful that we did not have to go 80 years without the fellowship of Christ and His people, however, we can only see this if we have properly studied the metaphysical soul mirror, which reveals we are not, nor can we ever be, the story’s hero.
Under the Old Covenant, God made two things abundantly clear: 1. Man was a vile and loathsome object worthy of eternal wrath. 2. No matter what they did, they could not change it. The problem we are trying to con- quer is the crushing truth that we are fallen, broken, lost, dead in our tres- passes, creatures. We are so utterly broken that nothing on this earth could put a single molecule in proper alignment. The laws of nature and physics were rewritten with the fall of man. The entire creation, the heav- ens, and the earth were broken to the point that God would not allow them to endure forever. One day the entire universe will burn on the great and terrifying day of the Lord. But do not be crestfallen over this truth, for there is a way you can still be a favorite. Our father in the faith, Ebenezer Erskine, preached a sermon at Orwell on July 27, 1721. The sermon was ti- tled, “The Humble Soul the Particular Favourite of Heaven.” He began with Psalm 138.
“For though the Lord is high, He re- gards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar.” (Psalm 138:6, ESV).
January/February 2023
While the entire sermon is excel- lent and should be studied by all who wish to live a favored life, a few points will be covered here to help begin the journey. The starting point is to gaze deeper into the mirror that shows us our souls. This mirror is found only in God’s Word in fellowship with His people. It can be a daunting and even painful process to learn to read God’s act of attempting to put the living word into our dead minds. However, the effort will always be blessed as the Word washes our minds and re- news our passions for the Lord and His people. Erskine argued for believers to become students of the law. He rea- soned that it is in the pursuit of the law, that the creature will discover many things about themselves. Chief among them; they are but dust, frail and feeble, sinful and loathsome, im- potent and lost, variable, changeable and inconsistent. And then they will come to understand the truth that Da- vid discovered when he proclaimed, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.” (Psalm 22:6) Under- standing this truth is proportional to our appreciation, admiration, and worship of God. From this explora- pursue Christ. From this place of hu- mility, the reigning power of Christ will be all we can ever desire for our hearts. From this understanding, the redeemed see the glorious power of God as He rules His creation. Erskine also gave the people of Orwell markers to determine if they were touching upon the humil- ity commanded in scripture. Some of these include: if you are ashamed to look up to heaven under your sense of vileness, and unworthiness; if you have ever wondered why God has not destroyed you; If you are undone when you receive His mercies and see His work of His hands; If you see yourself condemned by the covenant and the law of God; if you have high thoughts of Christ and strive to keep His law; If you look at your sin as a
burden; If you value yourself least and others more; if you are thankful for a little and do not despise the day of small things, and if you are content with whatever the Lord wills. This world will see these things as wrong, but God’s Word speaks of these things as the beginning of salvation. Therefore, training ourselves in humility will give us a glimpse into the person of Christ. What He accom- plished began with His humiliation. He has not called us to endure any- thing He Himself has not done. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any par- ticipation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, be- ing in full accord and of one mind. Do but in humility count others more sig- look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equal- ity with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philip- pians 2:1-11).
God does not have a wallet with your picture in it. God has a Book, and if you have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then your name was inscribed in His Book before the foundation of the world. Therefore, humble yourself, and He will lift you up. He is the hero, and in His journey of redemption, we were the villains whom the hero turned and redeemed to be His humble companions. Let us run swiftly to His adventure.
Rev. Stephen Jordan is the pastor of Rowan ARP Church in Lugoff, SC.
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