The Spurgeon Blog

If it is a fact as Habakkuk 2:4 teaches that the proud heart is the opposite of true faith, then it is clear that pride and faith are opposites and faith cannot dwell with pride. But on the other hand, it takes humility to receive grace and even more it is the job of faith to receive grace. So as pride and faith are opposites, so humility is necessary for true faith. Humility, which is the emptiness of self, is necessary in order for the soul to trust in Christ alone. Now if those things are true, it is clear that there is no way to save sinners other than to be saved from pride. Until a person has been saved from pride, that person does not have faith and so does not have Christ. The soul must be delivered from pride and to humility if the soul is to be saved by grace alone and Christ alone.

Now if the soul must be saved from pride, then we can see the necessity of the Gospel of being saved by a humble Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ was from eternity and was very God of very God and yet He humbled Himself to take human flesh to Himself. While in that flesh He humbled Himself and learned obedience and then humbled Himself and went to the cross. It is only fitting that proud sinners can only be saved by a humble Savior. In fact, Jesus tells us in Matthew 11 to “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS” (vv. 28-29). It is in coming to Jesus who is gentle and humble in heart that proud souls find rest for their souls. There is no rest for the wicked (or proud), but instead they (the wicked) “are like the tossing sea, For it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud” (Isaiah 57:20) The proud in heart are tossed around by the waves and desires of self and never find rest until they find it in the humble Savior.

But the promise of the New Covenant is that God would put His laws in their (believers) minds and write them on their hearts. How does this fit with humility? When we consider the promise of the New Covenant it points to the glory of Christ being the life of the believer (Gal 2:20; Col 3:1-11). Christ, the humble Lamb of God who humbled Himself to go to the cross, is now the life of His people. The life that a believer has in him or her must be Christ or there is not spiritual life at all. The life that is in the believer, therefore, must be a humble life or it is not the life of Christ in that person. There is no way for a believer to have the life of Christ in him or her without this life working in the believer humility, since Christ Himself was and is perfectly humble.

As we think through Scripture we can tell that there is no approach to God apart from humility. There can be not approach to God apart from Christ who is humble so there is no approach to God apart from humility. There is no approach to God apart from grace and God only gives grace to the humble. Isaiah 2:12 tells us that “the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased.” This verse should strike the proud in heart with feat, but many times those who are proud are blinded to their pride by their pride. James 4:6 goes on to say that “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” So it should be manifestly clear that there is no approach to God apart from humility. Only the humble have the life of Christ in them and only the humble receive grace.

We must consider humility in the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is grace to the lover of Christ and to those who have died to self and the flesh (Gal 5:19-24). We must never think that we can earn the fruit of the Spirit which is really the greatness and glory of the grace of God in working His own character in the hearts, lives, and loves of His children. Since God opposes the proud and yet gives grace to the humble, we must know that He does not communicate Himself to the proud by the Spirit but instead on gives Himself to believers by the fruit of the Spirit to those that are humble. There can be now working of the Holy Spirit in the souls of people who are proud, and it is only to the degree that people have been emptied of self and are humble that they receive the fruit of the Spirit. We cannot imagine that the work of the Holy Spirit in sharing His fruit in the human soul is anything but grace.

As we look back on the landscape of the work of God and the nature of the human soul, it is so obvious that grace is only given to the humble. Pride is at the very heart of sin and is opposed to faith, grace, the New Covenant, the humble Savior, and the fruit of the Spirit. The truth of humility as the emptiness of self must ring with clarity across the land again or those who are full of pride and self will continue to bring the wrath of God down upon the professing Church and the nation. We must seek humility if we are to seek God in truth and reality and if we are to look to a humble Savior for grace. We will only find this on our faces and in emptiness of self.

The following quotes are taken from A History of the 1859 Ulster Revival, Volume 1.

The moment in this immediate neighborhood has assumed the startling character of unexpected and instantaneous ‘conversions,’ accompanied by the physical and spiritual operations of some overwhelming power upon the minds and bodies of the parties so converted…A spirit of genuine religion appeared to have fallen upon many of the people; and the work was regarded as the power of godliness upon the human heart. Men of irregular habits became suddenly and permanently changed; institutions for prayer were established throughout the parish, and very numerously attended; drunkards became peaceable, sober, and religious members of society; houses, once the habitations of wickedness, became sanctuaries of praise, and roofs that formerly echoed with sounds of obscenity, now cover altars of family worship, and resound with the anthems of the royal psalmist….

The word of ‘conversion,’ as it is called, here assumed the form of a supernatural intervention and miraculous agency. Men were suddenly ’struck’ with an overwhelming and terrifying conviction of their sin and danger, and directly thrown into a state of intense bodily excitement, and mental phrenzy -in short, they became, as it were, ‘possessed.’ In this state the whole frame is shaken by some species of uncontrollable convulsion; every muscle quivers, and the entire nervous system is completely deranged. The party so affected feels impelled to by some irresistible influence to pray-and does pray, loudly, unceasingly, and with desperate earnestness-for pardon of sin and acceptance by the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. In this extraordinary agitation of mind and body, the penitent continues to struggle for an indefinite period-generally less than two days; and finally becomes impressed with a gladdening sense of peace and grace, quite as suddenly as he had previously been impressed with fear.

In revival things are different. This is to be expected in many ways, though when revival comes to a church the intensity and power of the presence of God takes prayer and worship to a different level. One pastor spoke of the Spirit coming to a group of people in a room praying while he was not present. When he went to the room and saw the people acting strangely, he rebuked them. But then the Spirit came while he was there and He saw that God changes things. When a soul is being worked on by the living God that there are bodily reactions and things don’t always go according to the rules manners of men. The presence of God shakes things up and changes things. We have biblical testimony to the fact that the soul must be strengthened by the Spirit so that Christ may dwell in it (Ephesians 3:16-17). Christ cannot dwell in a soul unless it is strengthened by supernatural power.

When this power comes upon a soul the body will display certain behaviors that are not in accordance with good manners and civil religion. But in true revival the overwhelming power of God is what comes upon the souls of human beings. Scripture tells us of all kinds of reactions to the presence of God as well. We have people falling on their faces as if dead. The sense of the holy brings sensations to the soul and body that leaves the body without strength. Daniel lay before an angel as if dead. In the book of Revelation we have John falling as if dead. When Jesus stilled the storm the disciples were even more afraid of Him than they were of the storm. Isaiah (ch 6) was in agony when he saw the Lord in the glory of His holiness. A holy God is terrifying to unholy souls.

When human beings come into the presence of holiness they see their sin and they cry out to God for forgiveness of sin and their prayers are real and are from souls with an inner fire. The desire to pray is irresistible because the inner fire is burning with a conviction of sin brought on by the Holy Spirit or by a joy so deep the body cannot handle it. A soul in the presence of a holy God must pray and it will pray. Souls in the presence of the fire of God don’t act the same way they do as when they are cold and hard. In revival prayer flows from souls with an intensity because they have an intense awareness of God. In revival the very entertainment of people is prayer. In times of coldness it is hard to pray and prayer meetings are sparsely attended. Do our churches desperately need hundreds of visitors? What we really need is for the Lord to give us hearts to pray so He will visit our churches. Revive us oh Lord!

One of the great puzzles that thinking on humility and pride brings is how religion can express a proud heart in ways that God seems to hate more than the openly sinful heart. When we see this, it shows the utter necessity of the soul having humility for salvation and then for sanctification. It seems as if God was more wrathful on the Israelites than He was on openly sinful nations. He would use openly wicked nations to punish the Israelites. Habakkuk 1:5 records the words of the Lord to the prophet about the Israelites: “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days– You would not believe if you were told. 6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.” Habakkuk had been praying about the sinfulness of the nation of Israel just before, but this answer from God shocked his sensibilities beyond his ability to understand.

Habakkuk’s answer showed how he could not believe what he was hearing: “12 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?” He could not believe that God would punish the Israelites with a people that he judged to be worse than the Israelites. He could no believe that God could and would do this. It was in the context of Habakkuk waiting on the Lord for a reply that the words of 2:4 are given us: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.”

God hates pride. When a person with pride tries to use the things of God to further his own pride and selfish heart, it appears to be a sin that is worse than other sins. Even the unforgivable sin seems to be something that only very religious people can commit. It was the Pharisees that Jesus warned about committing the unforgivable sin. The Pharisees also received the strongest and harshest words from Jesus for their religious activities done from a proud heart. We can see how God hates pride in Proverbs 8:13 and its clear teaching: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.” God is determined to fight the proud and to bring them down in His way and His time. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 13:9). So it is clear from Scripture that God hates pride and there is an especial hatred of it in people who practice religion. The things of God, when in the hands of those who is proud in heart, are things that arouse His anger more because they are closer to Him than other things. It is the heart of a person who would dare use the things that He has especially made to be used to magnify the glory of His grace and people use them to try to earn something, bring Him under their control, or to earn merit from Him. It is a heinous sin that is directly against God in a closer way than even open sin. We must beware.

We must ask a tough question in light of God’s opposition to pride. Can a soul be redeemed from if it has not been delivered from pride? We tend to think of salvation in terms of eternity, but a soul is saved in this life and then enters eternity. If pride and self are the sin or perhaps the sin of the heart that is most opposed to God and He is most opposed to, can we really say that a person has been converted if that person has not been delivered from pride and has the life of humility? Habakkuk 2:4 tells us very clearly that the proud person does not have a right soul in him. Jesus tells us that unless a person is turned to become as a little child that person will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The proud heart must be broken or the religious person will remain under the wrath of God and even more of the wrath of God than the open sinner. We must beware of pride in the heart all the while knowing that pride in the heart hides our own pride to us. Apart from that pride being broken our use of the things of God will do nothing but bring more and more condemnation upon our souls. Apart from our souls being broken from pride all the religious things we do is treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath as set out in Romans 2:4-5.

But let us remember that we must hear the Word of God if we are going to have true faith. So we must not run from the things of God out of fear that they will increase our condemnation. Instead we must learn to use them correctly. They are only used correctly when with humility we seek God Himself in them. We must read the Word of God with humility asking Him to teach us spiritual wisdom. We must humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. We must know that the things of God are meant to teach us about God and to teach us to seek His face for His glory rather than things for our own purposes and pride. It is hard to imagine how a person can be saved if s/he has not been delivered from pride and self-sufficiency. After all, we are to trust and rest in Christ alone.

In praying for revival each person that prays has some idea of God that drives him or her and some reason for wanting revival to occur. The question, however, is whether our idea of God is correct and whether our desire for revival accurately reflects the nature of God. If we think of God as essentially mean, sour, and severe then we think He would be reluctant to send revival. That is a different idea of God than One who lives in perfect pleasure within the Trinity and loves to see His glory manifested. That would bring the issue back to our own hearts. Perhaps human beings have to be conformed to His image for Him to send revival through us. Perhaps revival is not something that God is reluctant to send, but perhaps we are not like Him “enough” for Him to work His true glory through.

Isaiah 66:4 tells us that it is sin to choose that which God does not delight in: “So I will choose their punishments And will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight And chose that in which I did not delight.” On the other hand, Psalm 37:4 commands us to “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” We are commanded here and in many places to rejoice in Him and delight ourselves in Him. Are we to rejoice in a God who has no capacity for rejoicing in Himself? Can we really delight ourselves in God if He is morose and sullen Himself?

We must come to understand that God is a God that does as He pleases (Psa 115:3). In the context of the text this is what it means to be God. Not only does He do all that He wants, but He does all He is pleased to do. If God does all He is pleased to do, then He is pleased with all that He does. He tells us that part of His glory is to be gracious to whom He will be gracious (Exodus 33:18-4:7). He shows grace and saves sinners to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-14). God will send revival when it is His pleasure to do so. While the Lord hides behind frowning providences at times, our faith must learn to pierce the dark clouds and rest in the God who does all for His own pleasure. Scripture tells us that God has delight and pleasure in His Beloved Son (Mat 3:17), that the Son is the tabernacle of His glory (John 1:14), and is the shining forth of His glory (Heb 1:3). It is the very pleasure of God to shine forth His glory in Christ Jesus because He loves the Son who is the shining forth of His glory. Therefore, God will not be pleased to send revival until His people learn to seek Him for the emptiness of self needed to preach Christ crucified rather than themselves. He will not send a revival of His pleasure and glory until His people are humbled so that Christ will shine forth in them. That is His work of pleasure in them.

Until souls are praying with a true desire for His glory in the face of Christ (II Cor 4:4-6) they will not be praying out of love for the Gospel. Until souls love God enough that they want Him to be pleased and for His pleasure to be done, they will not be praying for revival with a heart that has the same reason that God will send revival. When we pray for revival we are to pray for what is the pleasure of God. It is not that God hates revival and it is not that He is neutral about the things we pray for. Rather than that, it is His pleasure to shine forth His glory in Jesus Christ and it is His pleasure to save souls to the praise of the glory of His grace.

We are told that whatever we do we are to do to the glory of God (I Cor 10:31) which is to say that we are to live to the pleasure of God. Instead of finding pleasure in the world, we are to find pleasure in His pleasure. This means we should seek revival simply because we seek His pleasure in Christ. We are to deny the sinful self in order to seek the pleasure of God which should be the pleasure of our spiritual self. If our spiritual self is what receives all from Him and is like Him, then we should have our greatest delight in spiritual things. Revival is God shining forth His glory in Christ and so spiritual things become the true delights of His people. Prayer is no longer a burden but a delight because it is a joy to seek those things which please the Father. Longer prayer becomes more joy. Colossians 1:19 tells us that it was “the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Galatians 2:20 says Christ is our life. Psalm 149:4 tells us that “the LORD takes pleasure in His people.” Philippians 2:13 says that “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” When God begins to work in His people to truly pray and seek revival, His good pleasure is working in them. When God shines out and manifests His glory in Christ to the delight and pleasure of His people, revival will be close if not here. Let us pray to hasten that day.