Chapter 5

The Lost Key

CHAPTER FIVE

Humble YOURSELVES therefore under
the mighty hand of God! 1 Pet. 5:5

IF you have followed me this far - and have agreed with me, we are now at this point: GOD'S GLORY NEVER LEAVES HIS HAND! Thine IS the Glory!! By Glory we mean credit due! Whilst in actual fact man cannot rob God of His Glory or credit he seeks to do so, and so is answerable for that which he attempts to do - therefore man is guilty of stealing the glory! What is the answer? The remedy? This action in man of taking glory is where his heart functions out of order and instead of bowing, rises in self exaltation; this pride! When a man has a revelation of self glory or pride, instead of seeing it, as a great tailoring firm describes it as "pardonable pride" (Luke 16:15) - he sees it as God sees it! That which is highly esteemed amongst men is an ABOMINATION in the sight of God! My thoughts are NOT your thoughts! Pride is now seen to be the treason of the creature against its Creator - more damnable than any sin more vile than any injury I can do to my brother; is this refusal to bow to God - this rebellion of the heart in its uprising seeking to unseat God from the throne. To become a god instead of having a God! As Satan said to Adam and Eve "Ye shall be as gods! " Notice this - Pride is always a lie, is the very nature of the devil the father of all lies (Jn. 8) who abode NOT in the truth! As revelation dawns pride emerges as the many headed monster that would wrest God from His throne; no longer to be dismissed as just the whim of a young girl to look her best as she keeps glancing in the mirror - the fleeting vanities of youth expressed in the tilt of a hat or the style of the hair but the challenger of the very throne of God. The contender on every issue of the right of God to rule His own universe. Compared to the proverbial cat's nine lives pride has nine hundred lives! Pride of race, pride of face, pride of place or - even pride of grace. I need grace for grace (Jn. 1). So subtle that one can see its hideousness and humble on an issue and then finish up by being proud of ones humility! Hardly has the head of this Goliath rolled in the dust ere it is growing again, at the point of the sword that beheaded it! Of all the many angles and faces of pride or man's glory probably spiritual pride is the worst and, what makes it worse for the victim of the disease pride is blind - those who have most, are aware of its ravages least. With polished manners it will Agag-like, walk delicately in the presence of God and at an unsuspected moment bury its bloody dagger in the back of its victim! Notice this - God hates sin but loves the sinner, but never in the Bible does it say that God hates pride but loves the proud.

On the contrary God RESISTS the proud (1 Peter 5:5) and EVERYONE that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 16:5 ). Strong words these - dangerous too, when we recognize that one of the symptoms of the disease is that the victim does not recognize he has it - like bad breath! This produces the situation that any ministry on pride is never, never popular and those who need it most will welcome it least. As someone said to me regarding this ministry "castor oil is all right occasionally in the event of a blockage, but not as a diet". So what? Where do we go from here? Once the disease is diagnosed what is the remedy?

The remedy for sin (the consequence of pride) is the blood of Jesus Christ. The remedy for pride? Humble yourself under the mighty Hand of God! (1 Peter 5:5). If the blood of Christ was effective for man's pride, then would all men be saved but the word of God declares "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the SIN of the world" not the pride of the world. What is it that makes the difference with men? Some receive truth some will not! A refusal to bow! Why will they not bow!

Because of pride which is man's glory - he refuses to humble himself under the mighty hand of his God. Life began when God breathed into the nostrils of Adam, the breath of life - life continues as long as man keeps on breathing - see how long you can live whilst holding your breath! In the same way - the Spirit of God breathed and I was quickened spiritually but that life, for its development and maintenance demands communion - the just shall live by faith, or by his faith - thus man - in the fall, to receive faith, must bow! A constant bowing is as vital, as necessary, as a constant breathing! The Lord Jesus Christ was sinless yet humbled Himself. How much more you and I. Did He not say "How can you believe who receive honor one of another and SEEK NOT the honor that comes from GOD ALONE? How? A question without an answer! You live to man instead of to God your faith will wilt - you will become spiritually asthmatical! So then the remedy for pride is not cleansing but humbling! Now I cannot make the excuse that I cannot humble because my heart was made to bow even as my lungs were made to breathe! Will not - yes, but cannot - never! It is as alien in the divine plan not to bow in my heart as it is not to breathe with my lungs! Man was made to breathe - man was made to bow!

Of course I can hold my breath and die! Will yesterday's breathing suffice for today's living? Will yesterday's bowing release me from today's responsibility to humble? Whilst the iron lung, the kiss of life or artificial respiration may substitute in an emergency - in finality this is NOT God's plan! God may and will abase the creature from without through circumstances but this whilst a pointer of His will is no substitute for me having to humble and bow in my heart! Thorns in the flesh, messengers of Satan, permitted of God as so much ballast, hold me down; the pressure of circumstances like the stake that the young sapling is bound to show me the way I must grow - the compulsory mile precedes the voluntary mile where I humble myself. God will use the whole range, stomach ulcers and leaky taps, an untidy husband or a nagging mother-in-law to hold me down where I ought to BE down: - LEST I SHOULD BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE! His glory is, as it were, thermostatically controlled; and so in the day of measure, man has only been permitted a measure of exaltation - and as soon as he has reached this point in his life, as invisible but as real as the line of the equator, then an inexorable principle swings into operation - what is it? The principle of the glory of God! Is. 42:8 My glory will I NOT give to another!

Oh dear reader, if anything needs indelibly writing on your heart and mine it is this - God WILL NOT give His glory to another! He never, never permits it to leave His hand - you may think like the learner driver that because you have the steering wheel in your hand you are controlling but God's car has dual controls - HE can put the brake on at any time!! He who upholdeth all things by the word of His power can wrestle with Jacob and touch his thigh till it shrinks, speak to the storm and the great fish to deal with the runaway Jonah and owns every caterpillar, canker worm and locust as with one imperious claim He calls them "My great army" (Joel 2:15) which I sent among you! Who made all the brains, hearts, lungs, eyes, ears, kidneys, etc., etc. in the Universe? Who holds you up? OF Him are all things! What an insignificant word is of! Consider it! Put this book down for two minutes and consider OF HIM are ALL THINGS!! Roms. 11:36. So, God has only to lift His little finger, as it were to bring me into line and PUT THE BRAKE ON! He can touch your heart - your nerves, your limbs NOW and use the devil to do it - the messenger of Satan to buffet me - why? Lest I should be exalted - above measure! Do you see this?

You have blamed this one, that one or the devil for your troubles and all the time it has been Father! Why? Why has Father who loves me, permitted in His wisdom what He could keep from me in His power? Well answer it, as a natural father - why do you shape and mould your child's life? Let him have his own way - spit on the floor - throw his gravy in his mother's face - make a bonfire of bank notes in the middle of the bedroom floor if he wants to. Why not? The misfits of society, the hooligans, the murderers of today were the sweet little horrors of yesterday who were left to have their own way! No greater punishment can any man have than to be left to have his own way!

THY WILL be done in earth - this earth - even me as it is in Heaven! As I humble to the truth and yield my will two vital things emerge: - (1) I can only humble UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND! God will show me the place! There is a counter to buy the truth - you don't usually buy cabbages at the news agents or fish and chips at the drapers. I have to humble myself to have truth at the counter indicated by the mighty hand! Confiding to the pastor is no substitute for confessing to the wife! (2) I do not humble to man! I humble BEFORE man but TO GOD! So then the sum of what we have said is: - HUMBLING is a way of life - nay THE way of life, if the sinless Son of God humbled himself so ought you. Let the mind of Christ be in you (Philippines 2). He MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION - HE HUMBLED HIMSELF!

What about you? Where you have exalted yourself - humble yourself! You took the highest seat - now take the lowest! You talked about you, what you had done, where you had been... I... I... I. Now talk about Him! Challenge yourself! Why am I doing this? Why am I saying this? What you do doesn't count with God - it's WHY you do it! A motive for the glory of God will change both your habit and your habits - you will dress differently, talk differently and love differently! You always put yourself in every story as the hero or heroine. YOU are Mary having chosen the better part to sit at Jesus' feet, while your sister is in the back kitchen washing the dishes! Obviously from what Jesus said Martha ought to have "downed tools" and joined Mary but there are a lot of people who think they are Marys who could have a bend and like the Master on another occasion "take a towel". Revelation can come just as easily at the kitchen sink as in the Bible School - maybe more so! He giveth grace to the humble and hides from the wise and prudent!

No wonder they crucified the Truth! I can lustily sing "Where He may lead I will follow!" and then jib at going out ot the coal house to fill the bucket! Bowing from the heart must be like breathing in the lungs - to every issue in life, you have a reaction, as the till in the shop registers the cash received by the pressure of a finger, as the piano responds to the note pressed - as the tape recorder or the camera capture what the eye and the ear for a fleeting moment have witnessed so your heart and mine are registering, registering ALL THE TIME!

The last entry against your name is YOU. As a man thinketh in his heart SO IS HE! One sobering or comforting thought is, that while ever I am in this probationary school of life a past judgment can be erased by a present one. I may own what I am to disown what I am. What is finally on my slate? By an act of humbling to the truth I can say THIS IS ME but I am sorry! Which now brings us to our next chapter which is:

GRACE AND TRUTH