The Destructive Power of Pride

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Turn with me this morning for a scripture reading to Genesis 3. I would like to read just a little bit here at the beginning. But I think there's some real life lessons in this short passage here, The Fall of Man. [00:00:32] I'm going to be reading chapter 3, verse 1 to 7 here. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [00:01:11] And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. What was really motivating her to take that fruit? What was the motivation behind that? It's what I would like to look at this morning. I believe it was pride to some extent. And I don't know, maybe you'll disagree with me, but I've titled this message, The Destructive Power of Pride. [00:01:46] What was she looking for? What was Eve looking for in this? You know what I think she wanted? She wanted an elevated position. The serpent said, your eyes shall be open and you shall be as God's, knowing good and evil. She wanted an elevated position. And if you are familiar with the German, and you read the German, German reads a little different, has a little bit different connotation, but it says, it gives the idea that they would be like God. [00:02:22] Now I don't know what that tells you, but to me it says that she at least was thinking, the thought process was there. Somehow, Satan wrongly convinced her that she would have an elevated position if she took it. She wanted to be like God. Isn't that what pride is always doing? Looking for an elevated position. A position of control. A position where I call the shots. And I decide what I want to do. [00:02:52] While I was studying this, I became keenly aware of one thing that pride always does. It's always looking for that feeling of superiority. It's always trying to elevate oneself. In fact, the dictionary has one definition that at least says this. It is a haughty attitude shown by someone or somebody who believes often unjustifiably that he or she is better. It has been said that pride is the sin of sins. [00:03:30] And I don't know, I don't think we can express this morning the misery that people have been through because of pride. Horrible sins. Pride has brought horrible sins to mankind. And I don't think we have any idea how many churches or families or communities or youth groups that have been split. Because of pride. And I know this is nothing new. But I think we would agree this morning that if pride is left unchecked, it will lead to destruction. It leads to a wrong estimation of myself and to each one of us if we don't deal with that pride in our heart. [00:04:13] When we have pride in our heart, our humanistic way of thinking, we have a wrong view of ourselves, I believe. It can lead to that at least. Pride is the inner voice that whispers that my way is the best way, my way. And it was the first sin that Solomon mentioned in his list of things that God hates. I think I'm going to, well, let's just say this. Where did pride come from? Why is it so abominable to God? I think you remember that pride comes from heaven. Satan was in heaven. Let's look at that in Isaiah. I think I'm going to turn to that. I think that's in Isaiah 14. [00:05:03] It's a familiar passage, but I would like to notice several things here. There's something. Why is it that Satan was cast out of heaven because of pride? Why is it that when he wants to mislead people, that's the tool that he seems to use the most often? Or it's the root of many sins. Let's read here, Isaiah 14, verse 12 to 15 here. [00:05:34] How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit At least five times he says, I will, I will [00:06:07] It's that feeling of superiority And you know what? What happened there? An angel turned into a devil because of pride Think about it, an angel He was God's anointed And we could do some more research And we could see that he was, how do I say it, one of the best angels, but pride got the best of him. If we allow pride to rule in our hearts or to have one piece of our heart, we'll never make it to heaven. [00:06:42] In that battle between God and Satan, God was victorious. And that's why we have a God to worship this morning. And that sin will never enter heaven again. You know, well maybe I'll just leave it for now. No, we can try to hide pride in our hearts, but we cannot hide from God. And Proverbs 16.5 says this, Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. [00:07:14] Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. We can be sure that we'll never enter if there's any trace of pride in our hearts. Let's turn to Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks a little bit about the pride of Judah. And I don't know how this fits in, but I noticed this as I was studying. Jeremiah 13, verse 9 and 10. Maybe I'll start in verse 8 of Jeremiah 13. Read a couple verses here. Therefore the word of God says, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thus saith the Lord after this manner, I will mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem, this evil people which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle which is good for nothing. [00:08:08] Are we in essence good for nothing in God's eyes if we allow pride in our hearts is the question that I would have. I don't know. And that's not for me to say. God knows my heart. God knows each one of your hearts this morning. And he knows your struggle, your temptation. He understands us. And then further down in verse 15 and 16, he goes, Jeremiah goes on speaking here. Hear ye and give ear, be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. And while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness. [00:08:55] But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away. We see that there were consequences while the person was still living. [00:09:35] There were consequences that these people faced. They were carried away captive because of their pride. Well, pride was probably the root sin that caused them to be carried away. Okay, but let me say this to you. We may not be punished in this life, but our destination is marked out, is set before us if we continue on the path of pride. If we have pride in our hearts and we refuse to repent, there's two destinations and there's only one that we're headed for if we have pride in our heart. [00:10:10] we may not be punished here immediately next I'd like to look at Daniel 4.29 this is the story about Nebuchadnezzar this is nothing new the other thing that I noticed about pride is pride and humility a lot of times are contrasted if you look at it through scripture There's a huge contrast. Daniel chapter 4, I'm going to start reading in verse 29, I believe. [00:10:47] And this is the story of Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. At the end of 12 months, he walked into the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? And while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. [00:11:18] The same thing. My kingdom, I have built, my power. Isn't that just what appeals to me? It's my company. It's my beautiful house. It's my nice car. You know, well, let's just leave it there for now. I don't have a kingdom to boast about. But you don't have to be a king to boast or to feel pride in your heart. At least that's not been my experience. [00:11:51] But let's see what he says further. And then it goes on to say what happened. And this is familiar. I don't even have to. I wouldn't have to read this. But let me just note here, drop down to verse 34 and read a couple more verses here. And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High. And I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is everlasting, is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. [00:12:28] and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand nor say unto him what doest thou. At the same time my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me and my counselors and my Lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. [00:13:08] There's something that I notice here that's interesting. His reason returned when humility returned. And I think we need to take note of that. If we are to be reasonable, or if we are to have understanding, we need humility. I don't know how else to state it or to put it. And finally, he just notices that God in heaven is able to abase those that walk in pride. [00:13:48] Have we forgotten the sovereignty of God in every area of our life? If we allow ourselves to become proud, pride is something that runs through the whole scripture. And I couldn't just come up with one passage that just had specific teaching on pride, but there's so many that talk about it. Think about the Pharisees, and we talked about it in our Sunday school lesson, probably got off the course a little bit, but what made the Pharisees accuse Jesus of the things that they did? [00:14:30] Wasn't he going directly against them? And that caused them to be, they were a proud people, and they were not going to, in their mind, they were going to make sure that this doesn't continue. Pride Wasn't pride the sin of the church at Laodicea that caused them to become blind to their own what they wanted to do? Pride is the root of many different sins. [00:15:01] It's so elusive. You know, in my life, as I was studying for this and I was thinking about this, I could only remember one time that I ever heard a person make a confession and actually admit, yes, it was pride that made me do this. And I don't know, I have, I'm not talking down on that person. I respect that highly if we are able to see myself. Because so many times when I think about where I have been and what I have done, what was motivating? [00:15:40] Pride is the root of many sins. It keeps us from accepting help when I need help because I'm too proud to accept help. And by the same token, it keeps us from helping people that need help. Pride keeps us from having a stable lifestyle. It just does that. If we have pride in our hearts, we go from one fad or one notion to the next and we try to follow fads and styles and it's just, we're looking for that elevated position that our flesh is craving and it's just not a stable, there's no peace and there's no stability about our lives. [00:16:27] But I believe when a person is born again and walking in the Spirit, there is a stableness because there is the Holy Spirit bringing guidance. And there is something about humility. We can always expect the same thing coming forth out of humility when there is a stableness there. Now, I've just made some observations and I'm just going to be talking here, mentioning some things briefly about pride. From now to the end of this. [00:17:02] Brother David made an observation here some time ago in our Sunday school when we were still studying in Galatians. If you think about the works of the flesh, why isn't pride mentioned in that? And he just said this, isn't pride the root of many of those sins? Isn't that what's guiding many of those sins? And I believe, maybe not all, but a lot of them, that's true. Pride is the root of anger, I believe, at least in part. [00:17:35] You know, how do I respond when someone approaches me about something in my life? Something that I may, something that I do, maybe the clothes I wear, or how I conduct my home, or you could, there could be a whole list. How do I respond to that? You know, the issue is not really if it's the truth or not, but my response to that. You know, my response is, really, how do you dare say that to me? [00:18:10] I wonder if I shouldn't check my heart. You know, it's so easy to just feel above that approach, or if someone does approach us, I think we're all well aware that pride destroys unity and it destroys relationships. Proverbs 13.10 says this, Only by pride cometh contention, but with the advised, I think it should say the well-advised is wisdom. [00:18:41] I don't have the exact wording for that. But isn't pride the root of discord? What is it about pride that sows discord? Maybe I should ask the question. What is it that makes me say something about a brother or sister in the church? or in my family or extended family or in the youth group that is less than ideal. That would make someone else think less of that person. [00:19:14] There's something that happens when people do that. And I know we have to recognize sin. We have to stand on our feet. I understand that. But when I do it for personal gain, to lift myself up, isn't that pride motivating that? And it just, it splits churches and it separates families and it gets to the point where people will not speak to each other for years and maybe for generations. [00:19:46] It's horrible what pride can do. Humility, on the other hand, doesn't do that. It just doesn't take that. There's another word for it. I guess you could call it slandering someone. When we slander someone, we have that wrong motive coming out of our heart. One of the greatest challenges I believe that we face in our circles, in our day, and I don't know, maybe you disagree with me about this, [00:20:18] But we struggle, or it seems that we struggle, with an individualistic spirit that wants to say this. The idea, and I'm not sure, maybe some of us would say it's a Protestant idea. The idea is that I answer to God. I don't answer to my brothers and sisters in church. I answer to God. And I don't know. We do answer to God. I will agree to that. [00:20:53] But look at 1 Peter 5. In part, it says this, Yea, all of you be subject one to another. And I think there's another verse in Ephesians that I just noticed this morning, and I'm not going to look it up now, but it has kind of the same idea. But when I decide that I know what I can wear, And I will decide how I will conduct my life. Isn't it coming right back to that spirit that Satan had when he was cast out of heaven? I decide. It's my decision. And I'll just answer to God. [00:21:31] You know, when we get to that point, it's the power of pride is ruling in our lives. And I have decided that I'll do it this way. We're no longer allowing God to guide us with a humble spirit. You know, we can even have pride shows up in so many different areas. We can even have pride in our spirituality. and maybe this is something I shouldn't say here because I don't know if we struggle with this or not [00:22:03] but I will say this it is highly unlikely that we will reach a lost and dying world if we have a haughty spirit about our own experience I doubt if we will be very effective in evangelizing I think one of the most effective ways of reaching our neighbors reaching the world around us is a spirit of humility How do you feel? How do you relate to a person that has a haughty spirit? And I thought about this, and maybe you'll correct me on this, but I can relate so easy, so well with a person that has a humble spirit, a humble attitude about their experience. [00:22:44] And I don't know if you, but allow me to look at one thing here. Luke 18, the prayer of the public in there, maybe it wasn't, yes, I think it was, there was a Pharisee at least. It says this in Luke 18, verse 10. You're well aware of this, I'm sure. Two men went up into the temple to pray, and one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. [00:23:18] I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. and the public in standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. It's true. I don't know, I don't think that any of us would openly brag about our spirituality. [00:23:53] But have we ever gotten to the point where we kind of pull our clothes in and we say, well, hey, we're not like this church down the street. We've got things together. Or, I would never allow that in my home. How are we in any position to help someone if we have that kind of a spirit? And I know I am talking. I struggle with these things. I have struggled with these things. But by the grace of God, we can be aware and we can take steps. We are hardly in a position to even help a weak brother or sister if we have a haughty spirit about our own lives. [00:24:32] I think we need to check our motives. There's a verse in the Bible, I don't have a reference, but it says somewhere, Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There's something, I think you find it in Corinthians somewhere, I'm not sure, but I thought of that this morning. You know, sometimes I think we need the brotherhood to keep ourselves in check. We need the Spirit of God. It is only the grace of God, it's only by the grace of God that we're even able to help our fellow man. [00:25:11] And we need to be careful. We need humility. When we have a humble spirit about the people around us, then we have compassion. Then we have a willing heart, a heart that wants to serve, a heart that wants to reach out. And I need to grow in that. I need to remember that. There's another thing that I noticed, and this is not news again, but I think all people struggle with pride on different levels. [00:25:45] I think the homeless man in some sense struggles with pride. But what about the ministry? You know, there's a reason that Paul wrote to Timothy, or in 1 Timothy, he said, Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into condemnation. What if someone in the ministry is a proud person? And I know this is not a preordination meeting, I understand that, but it just spoke to me. [00:26:16] You know, Satan makes no difference who he gets in this thing. it doesn't matter if it's a lay brother or a minister but if it's a leader, if it's someone that people look up to doesn't even have to be a minister and there's pride ruling in that heart many people can be deceived in that way we've already covered part of this but I think pride is often the root of disobedience and I don't know if I have [00:26:46] But maybe I'll just look at 1 Samuel 15. Look at the life of Saul. Do a little study on the life of Saul. The King Saul I'm talking about here. And I don't think I'm going to read. Well, maybe I'll just read 1 Samuel 15, 17 to 26 maybe or so. I'll just read it. I think we have time to read it. I'm not going to make a whole lot of comment, but we understand what happened here when Saul went to battle and he was supposed to be destroying everything. [00:27:22] Verse 17, And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel. Maybe I'll just stop. Maybe I'll just kind of pick and choose out of this. Note what Samuel said to Saul when you were little in your own eyes. And I know maybe I'm interpreting this wrong, but Saul had an image to uphold. Look at verse 21. [00:27:54] But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, [00:28:32] The Lord and thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. There's some things that I would like to notice here about Saul. We noticed the first one already. [00:29:06] When he was small in his own eyes, he was a usable vessel for God. He was usable. He had humility. But in his heart, he was a disobedient and rebellious and proud person. He was the type of king that decided, this is what they told me, but this is what I will do. And you know, it cost him dearly. And he was even willing to make confession, but he was unwilling to get rid of that proud heart. [00:29:40] He said, he begged, and he confessed. He said, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord. Pride does things to us, I think. We're even willing to say that, well, maybe I didn't do it just right, but we're unwilling to get rid of the proud heart that's within us. There's something that's been going through my mind here. We are reading in Luke for our family devotions, and this is not necessarily all in my notes here, but when we're reading about the crucifixion and when Jesus was in front of Pilate. [00:30:14] Now, if you want, if you desire to study about humility, Jesus was the perfect example of humility and contrast Jesus and Pilate. Pilate was concerned about his reputation. He was concerned about his status and he was afraid if he didn't listen to the crowd, he would lose that. But you know what Jesus did? He was obedient to the very last. And when they spit in his face and they hit him, well, we all know what happened. He just committed it to his father. He was a humble. He was trying to think of the word. He embodied humility. That's what we need to do. And that brings obedience. Obedience to God. [00:31:04] Now how do we deal with pride? Jeremiah 17.9 says this, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You know sometimes it's just hard to even, if you sit down and you think about this thing, it's hard to see my own heart. You know we, pride takes on so many different forms, or I'm not sure how to express myself here, I think, even in the way sometimes I just, I just, we can't fail on something. We have an image to uphold. As fathers, as mothers, as youth, we have certain clothes we have to wear. It's hard to understand, it's hard to know our heart. [00:31:55] but there's one thing that I thought of you know if we pray to God and we ask him to reveal our hearts to us I am certain that he will and he will allow us to see that part and take care of it effectively God is looking for fruit in our lives and he wants he wants visible evidence that something has happened here and if we don't strive to get rid of the pride in our hearts we will go down in defeat spiritually we will be defeated spiritually in closing I would like to notice I've already quoted part of this in first Peter chapter 5 verse 5 and 6 yay all of you be subject one to another [00:32:53] and be clothed in humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth more grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. I don't know if you've ever felt God resisting you in your life or not. But as I was sitting there in the living room last night and thinking back over my own life, I can think of many times that I've been resisted by God because I was so sure I was going to do things my way [00:33:28] and I wasn't willing to give up and give everything to God and just open up and let Him do whatever He wanted. There have been several times, and I don't think it's a once and done deal. It isn't for me anyway. I'll just put it this way. It's not a once and done deal. Sometimes it seems like it's daily, just allowing God to do with me or us whatever he wants to do. But I would like to say this. I remember, and it hasn't been very long ago, when I finally gave up myself and I just said, God, whatever you want to do, that's all right. [00:34:10] there's something about that there's something there's something about humility there's something about submitting to God that brings peace it's so beautiful when we can just allow God to do His work when we surrender completely to God there's peace there's power we can go forward I can't hardly preach this message without ending with this verse in 2 Chronicles 7.14 [00:34:45] If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land, their church, their home, their school, their family. May God help us to deal with the pride in our hearts. Let's kneel in prayer.