WOL2025 – Proverbs-04
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Transcript
WOL2025 – Proverbs-04 – Submission, Lucifer’s Rebellion, & The Ultimate Sin of Pride
Okay, let’s go to the book of Proverbs. This is our fourth time through. God offers the ever-brighter path of life. Let’s see if this works. It does. Here it is, Proverbs 4:18. The path of the just, and if it’s your first time here, the book of Proverbs uses all types of synonyms for who believers are. They are the wise, they are the just, they are those who God puts His Spirit within them, but what He offers to them is this ever shining brighter unto the perfect day. That’s why the book of Psalms, chapter 92, the 92nd Psalm says, that the older we get, we come into the greatest days of our life, not the healthiest days of our life, not the most comfortable days of our life, but the greatest. Because we know more about God, and we’ve experienced Him more deeply.
In fact, one of the conferees came to me and tell me, they said, tell me about the three or four greatest spiritual experiences in your life. I said I can tell you about, I think it was the first one I told them, I said, I’ll never forget when I was laying there, getting my heart stent. You know how they put this gigantic cord, drill through your wrist, and stick it up and wind it around and somehow get to your heart. I was hoping they were going the right direction on those veins. And you’re conscious for all that. How many of you have had that? A stint? Yeah. You’re conscious for all that. It’s unbelievable. And they look at you and I was laying there looking at the television set, which was much, I think it was probably larger than that screen. I could see all of the veins and arteries in my heart. It looked like the Mississippi Delta, all those fingers, and you could see them fishing around in there. And I thought this is, my life is before my eyes. Do you know what happened to me as I was thinking about that, I thought, I might never wake up from this. They might do something wrong or pull the wrong plug.
The verse that I looked at every day when I was in Bible college with Bonnie was over the drinking fountain in the student, the big classroom building. And right over the drinking fountain. It said, “Therefore, with joy, shall you draw water from the wells of salvation,” right out of the book of Isaiah. And as I laid there, not knowing if I would ever come out of that procedure, I was drawing water from the well of my salvation because the older we get, the weaker we get, the more infirm and sick and medicated we get, the brighter the path gets because we aren’t dreading death. Death is a doorway into the greatest moment of our life, when we get to see Jesus face to face, and then that instant [snap!] we’re glorified to look just like Him. It’s better than going on a cruise. It’s better than going on, you know what I mean? You know how people are crazy about, they’re going to go on this cruise, they’re going to do this, they’re going to go on this vacation. This is the greatest day of our life. So that’s what we have. The way of the wicked isn’t like that. It’s darkness. And they don’t know what’s making them stumble, and it’s sin. So, God’s ever brighter path is for the just, the saved. And by the way, that’s God’s way of salvation. His wise way summarizes the message of the Bible.
The Bible is one integrated message that was inspired by God himself. Breathed out through His Spirit. And what Peter says, which is a fascinating addition to all that, he said, the Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, as they wrote what they didn’t understand, but it was the Spirit of Christ. So, all three parts of the triune God, our eternal infinite God, we’re busily at work. And it’s the Word of God from His mouth. It was breathed out by His Spirit, and it is the Word of Christ. He is the Word. So, it’s for those who are servant hearted, as we saw on Monday, who obey the will of God. And that’s the best life possible.
It’s for the selective we saw yesterday who are not like Solomon. They don’t avoid, I mean, they do avoid the things that will destroy their life like Solomon didn’t do. By the way, I’m so glad, as I said yesterday, for the last two verses of Ecclesiastes, or I would’ve really had a problem with Solomon. After all of his unfaithfulness the Lord. He said, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. Keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment.” And so, he finally came around.
This morning and before we go, we have 31 minutes and 47 seconds. The fourth truth that Proverbs illustrates is: God’s brighter path is for the submissive who guard against the ultimate sin of pride. Sometimes we almost think of pride as just one of a litany of, you know, a laundry list of sins. No. Pride was the first sin. Pride is the worst sin. Pride is what Satan was filled with that began all this. And pride is the most prevalent sin, and especially in our world of this, the social media has revealed how much self-aggrandizement, and curation, and self-promotion really is within. Can you believe how people just want to show pictures of what they’re eating? And it’s just unbelievable the world we live in, and everybody watches it. Okay?
So, God’s message in Proverbs is God’s way is the way of wisdom. Now this morning, it’s the way of humility. It’s the way of those who humble themselves, of those who fear and resist Satan’s programming in us, our fallenness. Remember what Jesus said when He was speaking to the religious elites of His day? He looked at them, He said, you are of your father the Devil. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there’s no truth in him. He speaks a lie because he speaks of his own. For he is the father of lies. That is the one that God says we’re supposed to, if we’re saved, have His wisdom and resist. But the world doesn’t. Man’s way, the way I was wired at birth, because my father, I’m of my father, the Devil. At birth was a way of damnation going my own way and it’s foolishness.
So, submission is what God wants. Lucifer’s rebellion is what the Scriptures say is the warning to us about pride. And we should look for what Proverbs illustrates about the ultimate pervasive sin of pride. Okay.
God uses four different Hebrew words for pride. When you look at the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew language, which is an Eastern language, and it’s a picturesque language, it’s fascinating how the Bible was reduced to English. I’m glad it was because I speak English and it’s the most prevalent version of the Bible in the world. It’s the English version. It was most widespread and everything else, but there are four different words in Hebrew for pride that is translated in English by one word, pride. Isn’t that interesting?
You want to know another one? There are ten different Hebrew words for prayer that are reduced to one English word, prayer. Ten different Hebrew words. Do you see the benefit of the Bible Institute and Bible study and for all of you? I have in my pocket, when Bonnie and I in 2017 were commissioned by the last church that, the church we’re still a member of, but the last church I pastored, which was Calvary Bible Church. When they sent me out from being the Senior Pastor to being their missionary that they fully supported in one month, they raised all of our support and launched us. It was just the most amazing thing. And we’ve been just traveling and teaching everywhere since. Do you know what they gave me? My whole library is inside my phone. All seven thousand books, and you know what is on there? Everything Greek and Hebrew, numbered, and so the benefit of Bible study is that nowadays it can be in your pocket. You can have everything, every index, every concordance, everything classifying all this. But there are four different Hebrew words for pride that are translated by one English word, pride. And look. Let’s just read them.
Proverbs 8:13. And if you want to do a quick study on pride, these are the illustrations God wants us to think about. Proverbs 8:13, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil, fear of the LORD.” Another synonym for the saved people and how you know they’re saved, they hate evil. They don’t want anything to do with it. Kind of like we talked about two days ago. Joseph said to Potiphar’s wife, how can I do this wickedness and sin against God? And she didn’t know where God was and he was constantly aware of God. So, chapter 8, verse 13. But look at the second half, “pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth.” God says, “I hate.” We should never be comfortable around what God says He hates.
Okay, the second one, 11:2. “When pride comes, then comes shame.” But with the humble is wisdom. See, it’s a constant contrast all the way through the book of Proverbs. 13:10. “By pride comes nothing but strife.” Pride is at the root of all conflict, all disagreements, all fights, all, you know. Half of the deeds of the flesh that are in Galatians. Remember, the fruit of the Spirit is in Galatians 5 and also the works of the flesh? Half of them are interpersonal relationship problems. Do you understand that? And pride, as it says in Proverbs, and illustrates is what prompts that. “By pride,” Proverbs 13, “comes nothing but strife. But with the well-advised is wisdom.”
The well-advised? If you watch TV and your TV knows your age, it’s constantly giving you ads, you know about the best plan that you can sign up for, or the best financial planner, or the best medical, or the best insurance. Isn’t it interesting? The TV knows how old we are and they’re just pitching those things that through where our server’s from that are age specific. Do you know what they all want? They want to advise us about our health, or insurance, or our medical coverage, or whatever, our finances. God says, if you’re well-advised, you have My wisdom from above. He says, I want to be Your advisor. I want to be Your guide. And it only comes through humility.
Proverbs 14:3. “The mouth of a fool is a rod of pride.” That a foolish, unsaved person, their mouth, their words, becomes a rod that strikes people, and Proverbs illustrates that. Some of them are flattering words, and some of them are cutting words. And the New Testament talks about that. When it talks about that we should be careful about not having speech, Paul calls it corrupt communication. And that corrupt communication, there are two ways you can take that word. One is corrupt chicken or something in the trash that is in the sun, and the dumpster hasn’t, or the garbage truck hasn’t taken away and it starts to smell. That’s corruption. The other form of that word is cutting, and corrupt communication is both. And the rod of pride coming out of the mouth, especially of the foolish, can either be corrupting us and it’s stinky or it can be cutting us. And you know what the Scriptures say, that’s the mouth of the fool, “but the lips,” Proverbs 14:3, “of the wise preserve them.” What does that mean? What did Jesus say? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth, what? Speaks. Now think of that verse, “but the lips of the wise will preserve them.” If our heart is filled with God’s truth, then what comes out of our mouth preserves us because it’s a reflection of the character of God. That’s why Jesus said our words are so important, and we’re going to answer for all of them. Proverbs 16:18. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Wow.
Proverbs 21:24, “A proud and haughty man, scoffer is his name. He acts with arrogant pride.” Proverbs is so picturesque, illustrative. “A man’s pride will bring him low,” 29:23, “but the humble in spirit will retain honor.” So those four different Hebrew words are all translated by pride in our English Bible, but God wants to make me humble.
But humility is not a fruit of the Spirit. You understand that it’s a choice. That’s why every time humility’s talked about, it talks about, it’s a response. We have to choose to clothe ourselves with humility to do what reflects Christ in that situation. So, pride goes before destruction, but a haughty spirit before the fall.
There are 10 plus illustrations of pride described in Proverbs. So, let’s look at the illustrations. Let’s see how God… Proverbs is a, kind of like the catalog, it’s like the online, going through the pictures, looking for something you want to buy, or some, I remember I was trying to find a screw. You lose a screw, one of those tiny ones, and boy, there are a lot of shapes and sizes, and you just keep looking at them and they illustrate all that they have. How does God illustrate pride?
Number one, He said pride is revealed when someone is deceitful by covering up their sins, their faults, and their mistakes. We already read Proverbs 11:2, pride comes, comes shame. But look at 28:13, “Whoever covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy”. So, the foolish person, the proud person, hides their sins, their mistakes, their faults. But the Scripture says the humble person doesn’t. See, that’s why I was talking to someone before the service this morning, and they said that yesterday or the day before, they went to visit their old church that’s somewhere else here in Florida, and they met with about twenty people, and they said it was so wonderful. You know why? That’s a group of people that grew close. In Christ and they did what? Hebrews 10:24-25 says they didn’t forsake the assembling themselves together, but they exhorted one another and so much the more seeing the day approaching. See, we’re supposed to be surrounded by people that know us so well, they exhort us. Do you know how you exhort people? You go up to them and say, what verses are you memorizing these days in the Bible? And you wait and they say Proverbs 3:5-6. Oh, great. What does it say? Trust in the Lord with… good, good, good, good! You see them next week and say, what verses is you working on?
I, as a youth pastor, I did that for years. I was a youth pastor at Bob Jones University for five years. They gave me all their high school students that had to live on campus on the 260 acre, half square mile campus. And I had all the high school boys, about a hundred and some of them, and I made a deal with them the very first day. I said, I am your youth pastor. We live on this 260-acre little plot here, and every time I see you, anywhere on any of the miles of sidewalks in this school with 7,200 students, I’m going to walk toward you and I’m going to ask you where you were in the Scriptures today. What you read, and I’ll ask you about it, and what verse you’re currently meditating on for God to change your life. And if you stand there long enough, I’m going to ask you, when’s the last time you verbally shared the Gospel with someone? So, I would walk down the sidewalks. They were everywhere. I’d see one of my guys and I would target him and walk straight toward him. [Dr. Barnett makes a sound effect of zipping], he would go that way. There are a lot of diagonals and whatever, perpendicular. And he would take a side road. So, I would keep looking and I’d look. There’d be another one, and I’d go straight toward him. Do you know what would happen four or five hours later? I’d be strolling along between classes or my office. And that guy that, took the shortcut away from me would be coming straight toward me like this, and I’d just walk, and smile and they’d come up to me and they’d go, I wouldn’t say anything. They’d go, ask me! What? Whew. They said, aren’t you going to ask me? I said, ask you what? See, they were reminded that every time we come, I was going to stir them up to love and good works. And I was going to check on where they were reading what they were memorizing and whether they’re sharing the Gospel, and they knew they weren’t. And so, they went away and spent some time with the Lord, and they couldn’t wait to share it.
Do you have a group of people like that in your life? I don’t mean are you obnoxious and you stop everybody. You know when they’re carrying their laundry and talk to them for 20 minutes about where they’re reading in the Bible and they have to set it down, on the dirt of the parking lot, and they like this. I’m not talking about obnoxious, obtrusive life. I’m talking about loving someone so much that you want to ask them how they are feeding on what Jesus said, man, humanity, humans cannot live by bread alone, just by the physical sustenance, but by every word that precedes from the mouth of God. You know what Proverbs says? These Proverbs, several times, it says, come from the mouth of God. And I know you can’t live. I know I can’t live without words from the mouth of God. We can’t live without that. And so, if we’re going to exhort one another, there has to be a group of people that we’re close enough to that it is natural in our everyday life to say. Where are you right now in, in the listening to God? What are you listening to, and how is it touching your life? Wow, that’s good. And how are you doing on those verses about fearfulness? Because that’s what, their besetting sin is fear, or how are you doing about those verses, on materialism, because you sometimes get envious of the people that have the new cars and the, all the glitzy trips on Facebook that they are always blabbing about, or how are you doing on whatever it is? How, and then you tell them, boy, I found a great verse on this or that. See that is, we aren’t covering up our sins and struggles, and at what we are so easily tripped up by, our faults and our mistakes. We’re confessing and forsaking them, and we want others to be a part of it. Not having close relationships.
Proverbs 18:1-2. It says, “The man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment. A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.” See they don’t want these close relationships that Hebrews 10:24-25 says. They don’t want to be exhorted that today is approaching. They just want to talk about themselves and a lack of admitting when you’re wrong. I was told when I was being counseled to marry Bonnie by a wise and godly pastor, you know what he said to me? The nine greatest words of your marriage are, I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me. He said, those are the nine greatest words of your marriage. I have repeated those words so many times. The problem I have is, in fact, it happened again last night. I woke up at one o’clock and I went like this real quietly raised up, and I looked over to Bonnie’s side of the bed to see if her wings come out at night because she’s an angel, because she has rarely had to say those nine words to me, per capita of how many times I have to say him to her. But be thankful for the joy of admitting when you’re wrong to grow close together as a couple.
Another illustration of pride and Proverbs is talking too much. This is in Proverbs 20:19. In the multitude of words. There is many, there are many occasions for sin. Be careful. The more you talk, the more trouble you can get in. Be careful about talking too much about yourself. It says Proverbs 27:2, “Let another man praise you, not your own mouth, a stranger, not your own lips.” How rare is that? You get a group round the table eating a meal and yeah. You know what I just did? And it’s just, it’s so, we’re waiting. It’s like jump rope. We want to jump in and get our self-promotion. No. Let another one, don’t talk too much, and especially about yourself. Being devastated or angered by criticism. A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a scoffer won’t listen to rebuke. Scoffer is a foolish person is an unsaved person, or a Christian who’s behaving like an unsaved person. See, Proverbs is really good because you know what you can do? You can identify the believers who are not cooperating with sanctification, because they’re acting like an unsaved person. They talk too much. They talk about themself all the time, and they’re devastated if you even think of correcting them in any way.
Okay, here’s another Proverbs, illustration being unteachable. Proverbs 19:20 says, listen to council, receive instruction that you may be wise in your latter days. Oh, see, the whole game plan God has is that it gets brighter and brighter, and greater and greater, and closer and closer. And the greatest moment in our life is when we, our body, no longer physically can go on and it releases our Spirit and Jesus is standing right there because He makes an appointment with us to walk us through the valley of the shadow of death. Death never gets us. Jesus comes when its shadows coming across us because He said, whoever lives and believes in me will never what? Die. So, we’re never going to be hit with a truck of death. We’ll see its shadow coming. And in that moment, Jesus, that voice, we recognize those hands that are scarred because they were pierced through for us, on the cross when He took our sins. He’s going to reach out for us, and it says in Revelation 3:5, He walks us from home or the car wreck, or the hospital room, or the hospice, whatever, and walks us from that instance straight up and declares our name to His Father. That’s the greatest moment of our life. The brightest day is what we’re looking forward to. We have an appointment. Jesus knows exactly when it is, and it corresponds with us when our room is ready, and He introduces our name to the Father, and puts that new robe on us and then shows us our room in our Father’s house. Who wouldn’t look forward to that? Huh? A lot of believers.
Randy Alcorn wrote a book, The Treasure Principle, and he describes Christians this way. This is the world, that’s Heaven. A tractor beam of salvation is pulling them toward Heaven. And they’re going, all my stuff is here. He said, sanctification is supposed to do this. And we’re going, we just can’t wait for the greatest day of our life! Wow. Okay. I’m meddling, I can tell.
Being sarcastic, hurtful, or degrading is another illustration, all the way through the book of Proverbs, being defensive or blame shifting. How do you like Genesis 3:12? God looks down at Adam and Eve and says, Eve, what are you doing? She says, Adam, what are you doing? He says, the woman gave it to me, and God looked at Eve. She said, the snake gave it to me. Blame shifting. Nobody was willing. And that’s the sign of pride. We just shove it. Isn’t that what’s going on in our country? Everything is blamed on someone else. Nobody takes responsibility for anything. It’s just so common.
A lack of asking forgiveness. Proverbs 28:13, “He who covers his sin will not prosper. Whoever confesses,” says I was wrong, I’m sorry, please forgive me, and forsakes them will have mercy. Jesus said if you bring your gift to the altar and there, remember your brother has something against you, not you have something against him, he has something against you. Leave your gift before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother. And yet, I’ve pastored churches for forty years where there were people that sat on this side because they never wanted to ever get near people on that side. And we were inside the church, and they were polarized, or they went to first service because that family goes to second service, or they switched services so they wouldn’t ever intersect them. A lack of asking forgiveness. And then resisting authority or being disrespectful.
Respectful. Remember what Peter said? Peter said, we should be very cautious about criticizing those who are in authority. Do you know in America right now, the Christians are very vocally critical? Not since November, or January 20th or not. Oh, we’re supposed to be the most respectful. Peter said it, you’re supposed to give honor to the king who is the king. He was talking about a Sodomite. That’s who Nero was. Nero was a murderer, hateful, killed everybody close to him, crushed to death his own wife with his army sandals. Horrible. And then he castrated his favorite slave, named him Floris and married his favorite slave Floris, as his wife. And Peter said, honor him. Don’t speak evil of him. Boy, that is forgotten in the 21st century by people that have the Scriptures.
Pride makes me number one, resentful when someone corrects me, hurt when I get disappointed, impatient, when my plan is hindered. Greedy. Do you remember? It doesn’t stop with kids. You put a plate of cookies, and the child looks for the biggest one with the most chocolate chips. It never changes. Never changes. We are greedy when choosing. Remember, Lot wanted the well-watered green, lush pasture. Critical when we speak of our rivals. You talk about some, well, I have some questions about them. I’m not sure. We always can try and lessen them, so it can promote us. Jealous when we see others advancing. Untruthful when confronted. Pride makes me pause and, make sure that I say the best thing about myself. And distant when slighted on the other side of the church. It’s amazing.
Pride was the first sin, as Lucifer challenged God. Pride is the ultimate sin. All conflicts, we already read this in Proverbs, fights and troubles flow downward from pride.
Now look at this. This is a visual illustration in the English language of something. Okay? There’s Lucifer, there’s pride, there’s sin. What do they all have in common?
Now look how it goes, “How you are fallen from Heaven, oh, Lucifer, son of morning!” This, by the way, the book of Isaiah. I love teaching the book of Isaiah at Word of Life. It’s amazing. It’s the furthest reaching book of the Bible. It goes back to before Creation right here. This is the fall of Lucifer, which is before Creation, because he was causing problems, after that point. So, this is going on uh, how you have, were cut down to the ground. “You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart…” Look at this, “I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of congregation in the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.” And now the end of verse 14 there, the fifth one, for me it’s one of the greatest proofs of the inspiration of Scripture. If humans were imagining and writing this account of how evil came into the world, they would not say that fifth statement. They would not. Lucifer, what he said was, “I will be like the Most High.”
Do you know what the humans would’ve said? I will be greater. That’s what a proud person would say. This is the truth. This is reality. This is what happened. Lucifer was the greatest, most powerful, most intelligent, most everything, created being in the universe. He was the top, but he knew he was created, and he just wanted to be like God. He couldn’t even in his warped, and twisted, nefarious mind, imagine being greater than God. God is greater than the sum of all that He created. Exponentially. Lucifer knows that. So at least, even though he is proud and even know cursed, he’s honest on the inside. At least he said something honest right there. I can’t be greater than God. I’ll be like the Most High. And God says, “Yet you should be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.”
Before we go, in 3 minutes and 40 seconds, how do we cure the my way? “All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We’ve turned, every one, to his own way. The my way. Pride, with the I problem.
The book of James, and you notice, I always keep going back to that because James is most reflective of two things. The book of James, 108 verses with 54 imperatives, is so reflective of both the Proverbs, and the Sermon on the Mount. Because he was pastoring those people. A lot of them knew Jesus and were in that day of Pentecost event and all that. And so, he’s so reflective, and he’s so practical, and he’s full of commands.
This is what he says. How does pride rot me if allowed to seep through my life? Now, that’s how I title the first six verses of James chapter 4. So, if you go to James chapter 4, this is what it says. “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” The book of Proverbs would call that pride. We already saw that. “You lust and do not have. You murder and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive,” verse three, “because you ask amiss,” because you want to “spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us…'”
Now, there’s the answer to the question so many people ask. They say he can’t possibly be talking to Christians! “Or do you think the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?” What is he talking about? He is talking about how horrible it is when Christians act like unbelievers, and how it grieves and quenches. Greek word, sbennumi. The Spirit of God is quenched. Like that plane, that crashed in Toronto and flipped over and then burst into flames. And that wonderful firetruck came right out of nowhere, just doused the thing with that forever chemical retardant foam, you know the stuff that’s PFOA’s that are killing everybody, but it works on fire. It hurts the human body. So, if we don’t douse pride in our lives, what happens?
What does pride do? James says, pride will poison your relationships. As a believer, you won’t be able to get close to people. You won’t have that accountable relationship. You won’t have anybody exhorting you in so much, the more as you see that Day approaching. It’ll pollute your life. Worse than forever chemicals and all that bad stuff in our water. Pride produces anxiety in my life. It plunders my prayers of being… You meet someone that’s like Anna the prophetess who prayed all the time because she couldn’t sleep and fasted all the time because she wasn’t hungry. And you say, I don’t understand that. That’s because your prayers are plundered. You don’t have that relationship with the Lord that makes prayer so sweet. Pride provokes God’s enmity, whoever’s a friend of the world produces- God is their enemy. It provokes God to be their enemy. It prevents me from growing spiritually.
So, what’s the answer? How do we resist pride? That’s what a great way to end. “But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: ‘God resists the proud,'” He’ll resist every form of pride in my life and in your life. But He will give “grace to the humble.” Wow. He is, the Greek tenses are beautiful in this verse, He is constantly resisting pride. He is constantly giving grace. It isn’t a one-time thing. It’s never ending. God says, I will resist pride in every form it comes into your life, and I will douse you with grace every time you say, I don’t want to be that way. I’m sorry for the 10000th time. I repent.
How do we resist pride? Humility prompts the grace of God. I just read it. Humility provides a deliverance of God. “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Why does the devil all of a sudden get introduced in chapter 4? Because Satan and his demons are drawn to pride. It’s the ultimate sin. It’s rebelling, it’s resisting, it’s not submitting to God, and they’re drawn to that. That’s their realm. And so that’s why Christendom has so many scandals, because when we have people that are not submitted to God that are in Christendom, they do terrible things.
Humility, prospers, intimacy with God. What does it say? Draw nigh to God. That’s an interesting tense. Just one time. Go like this to God. Slide over on the couch toward Him, and you know what the next verse says? He will never stop drawing near to you. Wow. He’ll be all over us. Humility promotes cleansing from God. “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep!” All those verses and humility prompts God’s success. God will bless us.
The only medication that defeats pride is grace. Notice it says that in verse 6. The only pathway that grace gives is to, the only pathway to that grace is submissiveness. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, he’ll flee from you. Grace enables us to clothe ourself with humility. The evidence of the grace of submission is when we submit humbly to one another.
Bonnie and I had the thrill, in 1989, of being sent out from Grace Community Church of the Valley to a church in New England. Where they were renowned for their business meetings. I think that some of the Revolutionary War orators were still alive in that church. They would orate in the business meetings like, I don’t know what and would fight. You could see veins necks, you could see faces the color of lobsters when you throw them in the lobster pot, bright red. The evidence of the grace of submission is when we submit humbly to fellow saved sinners and don’t expect perfection of them because we know we’re not perfect. That’s what humility does. Only in Christ is the true relief found. His mind is that of a bond servant.
In fact, what Jesus said in John 4:34, my food is to do the will of Him who sent Me. Jesus was God of God, light of, He was co-equal, co-eternal with God. But He said, I want to do His will, not My own. 5:30. I can’t do anything of myself. As I hear, I judge. My judgment is righteous because I don’t seek my own will I seek the will of my Father. John 6:38. I’ve come down from Heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 3:30 is our attitude. Remember what John the Baptist’s attitude was? “He must increase. I must decrease.” That’s clothing yourself with humility. I would like to decrease. I would like to learn to not introduce myself, in every conversation. I want to not always be promoting. I want to promote Christ. That’s the attitude.
How do you do it? Colossians 3:12. “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and long suffering.” And then the last one, my favorite, 1 Peter 5:7. I don’t think anybody quite knew the problem of putting their foot in their mouth like Peter. He did it over and over. He was the apostle with the foot shaped mouth, and what does he say the action should be in 1 Peter 5? Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you. Be submissive to one another and be, now here’s the key. This is why I love the Greek language “clothed with humility.” Now, this is what I wrote in my Bible, clothed, egkomboomai is the Greek word, it speaks of the white apron wore by slaves as they served.
Do you remember the foot washing at the last Supper? Peter never forgot it. They all had smelly feet and hard hearts. So, Jesus got up and egkomboomai’d. He took the apron that a slave tied around their waist. He knelt at each of the apostles feet. He put their feet into the bowl. He dipped them, washed them, and then He lifted them up and with the towel around Him, He dried their feet off and He moved to the next one. That word of picking up the white towel, apron, tying it around and getting down and becoming the lowliest slave with the dirty, stinky feet, is how Peter portrayed what the greatest humble servants of the Lord look like.
Now, is that what we have in America, in our great Christendom? No. We have phalanxes of security guards that are guarding our Christian luminaries because they’re wealthy and they jet around. You know what I mean, you’ve seen all this. But the great servant is the one that, like Christ, clothes himself with humility, bows, does the menial thing and says, I want to have the attitude of Christ and the actions of Christ. And that’s another step on the ever-brighter path, and that’s how we submit to one another as we guard against the ultimate sin of pride that’s trying to seep in every part of our life.
Let’s bow for word of prayer before we go. Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You that it’s quick and powerful. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. It’s sharper than the surgeon’s scalpel and it pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and Spirit, joints and marrow, and it’s a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart. I pray that in any way You’ve revealed to us that we need to change, to humble ourselves and have that attitude and to start taking those actions that will reflect You, oh Christ. I pray that right now. We’d say, that’s what I want, Lord. That’s what I want. I want, again, I want more. I want to reflect You. I want my path getting brighter and brighter every day. I can’t wait until I awaken in Your likeness. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, and all God’s people saidā¦
