Alright, well it's great to be here at Faith Forward Baptist Church Los Angeles and I want
to first, I always get nervous when I preach, I'm not sure if it looks like that.
So I always forget to thank people when they give me an opportunity to preach.
So I want to make sure I do that.
I want to really thank Pastor Anderson for the opportunity to preach tonight and
all the opportunities he's given me through the years and just everybody here being hospitable
and we had a great time soloing, we got to see somebody saved just about an hour ago and
this church is doing big things and we're at Verity Baptist Church, we're very excited
about this church.
We're praying for you guys as I know you guys are for us and I just really am appreciative
of this opportunity to preach here.
Now we see Obadiah and we read that to open up and you might think, man are we
preaching a sermon on prophecy?
Well we just had the prophecy conference so honestly I'm not preaching on prophecy tonight.
But this sermon is going to kind of have two parts, we're going to start with basically
like a 10 minute Bible study.
So I want you to bear with me, we're going to kind of go in deep a little bit because
we need to know the Word of God and we live in a day with very shallow Christianity
where people don't memorize the Bible, people don't read the Bible, people don't
know the Bible.
This is not one of those churches.
This is the sort of church where you're going to learn the Word of God.
We're going to do that for about 10 minutes before we get into the four point sermon.
Now keep your finger in Obadiah and turn to Jeremiah 49.
Now I would say that if there's one part of the Bible that's really neglected it's
probably the Minor Prophets because obviously prophecy is kind of complex.
Sometimes during prophecy we're talking about something in the past, sometimes in the present,
sometimes in the future and it bounces around so you really have to dig in to understand
what's being said.
And I think especially during the Minor Prophets you can kind of skim over them and think
oh you know what am I going to really understand here?
And Obadiah is the shortest book of the Old Testament.
It's the only book that is only one chapter long.
But I'm going to prove to you right now that this is a very important chapter in the
Word of God because this is actually not just mentioned once.
Obadiah is actually parallel with Jeremiah 49 verses 7 through 22.
Whenever God brings something up twice it's because it's important.
You look at 2 Peter 2 in the book of Jude where it's talking about false prophets.
That's an important topic that we need to be aware of.
And so God brings it up multiple times.
You see the Gospel is how things are brought up several times over and over again.
So I want you to look at Jeremiah 49 but like I said keep your finger in Obadiah.
I just want to prove to you right now that these are parallel chapters.
I'm going to just show you two verses here that are parallel to each other.
Look at verse number 9 in Jeremiah 49.
The Bible reads,
If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
If thieves by night they will destroy till they have enough.
So you notice it's talking about grape-gatherers leaving some grapes, thieves by night,
they will destroy till they have enough.
Now turn back to Obadiah and you're going to basically see the same exact verse just
worded a little bit differently.
It says in Obadiah chapter 1 verse 5,
If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, how art thou cut off,
would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If the grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?
And there's many verses that are basically direct parallels to one another.
It's kind of interesting because the order is kind of in a different order in Obadiah
and Jeremiah 49.
It's really interesting if you want to dig in there and study that.
But notice in verse 5 in Obadiah chapter 1 how it says,
How art thou cut off?
Okay, now the phrase cut off basically means to be killed or to be destroyed.
What God is showing us is that Edom was completely destroyed.
That's what we're talking about in the book of Obadiah.
We're talking about this country of Edom that was cut off,
that was completely destroyed, that is gone today.
You know one verse that proves us that in Daniel chapter 9 verse 26 the Bible reads,
And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.
What it's saying is the Messiah is going to be killed.
So when it's saying cut off, it's saying as a country Edom was completely destroyed.
They're completely wiped out.
They're not around today.
Edom was destroyed.
Now turn to Genesis chapter 36.
Genesis 36.
You know about a month and a half ago I was going soul winning and I knocked on this door
and you know I said,
Hi, my name is Matthew from Verity Baptist Church.
I just wanted to give you an invitation out to church.
And I said, do you go to church anywhere?
And this guy responds to me,
I don't want to have anything to do with that Edomite stuff.
That's the first thing that he said out of his mouth and I was like, what?
And he's like, you don't know what Edom is?
And I said, I know what Edom is but I don't know what you're talking about.
And he said, what is Edom?
And I said, Esau is Edom.
I said the Bible says that over and over again in Genesis 36.
It was interesting because I had written this sermon literally like a couple days
before this encounter happened.
It's kind of amazing how you study something in the Word of God
and then God gives you a very strange opportunity to actually kind of use it.
But I said in Genesis 36 it says Esau is Edom.
We'll see that here in Genesis 36.
Look at verse number one.
Genesis 36 verse one.
Now these are the generations of Esau who is Edom.
Look at verse eight.
Thus dwelt Esau and Mount Seir.
Esau is Edom.
Look at verse number 19.
These are the sons of Esau who is Edom and these are their dukes.
So we see very clearly that Esau is Edom.
God's very repetitive.
He tells us over and over and over again Esau is Edom.
Not only that but look at verse number nine.
We also see that the lineage of Esau are called the Edomites, not the Esauites.
They're called the Edomites.
Look at verse number nine.
And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir.
Now look down at verse number 43.
Duke Magdiel, Duke Eram.
These be the dukes of Edom according to their habitations in the land of their possession.
He is Esau, the father of the Edomites.
So God is very repetitive to tell us that Esau is Edom.
He wants us to know that.
You know when we read Obadiah we see the name Esau mentioned and Edom.
Now we know what that is.
The Bible tells us in Genesis 36.
But if God didn't tell us what that is we could be confused and not know the difference.
And you say why is God so repetitive?
Well you know God actually wants us to know this book.
He wants us to understand the Bible.
It wasn't written in a very vague way where we can't understand anything.
Yes there's deep things in the Bible.
You know with prophecy we have deep things.
But the Bible is written in a way so we can understand it.
God wants us to know the word of God.
You don't have to study this book for 25 years to find out if God wants you to spank your kids.
I mean God makes it very clear.
You don't have to study this book you know for 25 years to find out well
is salvation by works or by grace through faith.
I'm still trying to figure it out.
No I mean the Bible is very clear.
God wants us to know this book.
And so he wants us to understand very clearly that Esau is Edom.
Turn back to Obadiah.
And you know I told this guy that you know Esau is Edom.
And he's like come on man.
He's like everybody knows that.
And I said well that's the question you asked me you know.
I mean if you ask me what's two plus seven brother Stuckey I'm going to tell you nine.
Yes I understand everybody knows that.
That's still the answer to the question.
Because the most clear answer to that question in the Bible.
The answer would be Esau is Edom.
If you want what is Edom?
Esau is Edom.
And I said well Edom was a country that was destroyed thousands of years ago.
And he said well why was it destroyed?
Well look at Obadiah chapter 1 verse 3.
The Bible says in Obadiah chapter 1 verse 3.
The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.
Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high that saith in his heart
who shall bring me down to the ground.
Now we see the rest of this chapter in Obadiah and you can read Jeremiah 49.
Lots of events take place but the root cause of the destruction of Edom was pride.
That is what the Bible teaches us.
It says the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.
I told this person I said the reason why Edom was destroyed was because of pride.
The name of this sermon is the pride of Edom.
The pride of Edom.
We are going to dig into this topic of pride here tonight.
We are going to see four points from the book of Obadiah.
We are going to go to other places as well.
And we are going to see what the Bible teaches us about pride.
What we can learn from this country Edom.
You see the book of Obadiah, a lot of it is about prophecy and there are a lot
of interesting things, things you have to really dig in and study.
But even with all the minor prophets there is a lot of great information on the surface.
We are going to look at this surface understanding here of what the Bible says about pride.
So look at Obadiah chapter 1 verse 3.
The Bible reads in Obadiah chapter 1 verse 3.
The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.
The first point we have tonight is this.
The deception of pride.
You know pride is a very deceiving thing.
Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 15.
You know it is amazing when you see people that are lifted up full of pride.
They have no idea that they are lifted up full of pride.
You see Christians who used to be humble people that were serving God.
They get lifted up full of pride.
They have no idea that they are lifted up full of pride.
They are deceived by their own pride.
They have no idea that they are prideful and they are arrogant.
And it is funny because anybody could listen to what they say and they could tell they
are arrogant.
They could tell they are lifted up.
They could tell that they come back from soul winning making big points saying,
hey man I got three saved.
Anybody else get that many today?
They make a big point to try to be arrogant.
Everybody else can see it.
But they can't see it.
And honestly any one of us could be that person that is a Christian, that we are a
humble person just trying to serve the Lord.
And you slowly get lifted up with pride and you are deceived by your own pride.
We see the deception of pride.
1 Samuel 15 we are going to see that King Saul was a man who was deceived by his own
pride.
We will go to says in verse 13.
1 Samuel 15 verse 13.
And Samuel came to Saul and said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
And Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
So basically Samuel walks up to Saul and Saul basically just says, look at me.
I did what God wanted me to do.
Now think about this.
There were plenty of other people in that camp that did not walk up to Samuel and
say, hey I did what God wanted me to do.
He is making it a big point to say, hey I did what God said.
Blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
You know it is an arrogant statement because honestly when you do what God wants you
to do you don't have to just toot a horn about it.
Let everybody know about it.
You know just silently serve the Lord.
You don't have to let every single person know that you went soloing.
You know that's great you went soloing.
That's great that you're reading the Bible.
You don't have to tell everybody, hey guess what?
I read through the Bible cover to cover in two months.
You don't have to tell people that.
That's great if you do it, but you don't have to tell people about that.
But here's what's funny about this.
Saul didn't do the commandment of the Lord.
He's going up saying how great he is and how he did the commandment of the Lord.
But he's wrong about it.
He didn't.
And notice what Samuel says.
And Samuel said what meaneth then this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of
the oxen which I hear.
And Saul said they have brought them from the Amalekites.
For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the
Lord thy God and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
So Saul basically says, hey I did the commandment of God.
I just changed it a little bit because my way is a little bit better than God's.
But you know I did the commandment of God.
You know we decided not to sacrifice all of them like you told me to.
But we're going to keep the best and make them an offering.
And that's not what God told him to do.
He disobeyed God's commandment.
Notice what Samuel says.
Now it's funny because Samuel is trying to rebuke Saul.
And Saul doesn't get it.
You know Samuel's basically saying, you know, you're backslidden.
You're not right with God.
He's like, you know, stay and I'll tell you what God says.
You know I haven't done anything wrong.
You know Saul has no idea.
And notice what Samuel says in verse 17.
You see when Saul started he was as humble as you could possibly get.
If you remember the story of King Saul, you know, he was embarrassed for people to know
that he was a king.
He wasn't trying to lift himself up.
He wasn't arrogant.
He was a very humble person when he started.
He wasn't just a little bit humble.
King Saul was extremely humble when he started.
And Samuel says that.
He says when thou wast little in thine own sight.
Samuel said, you know, God lifted you up to a position of prominence, King Saul,
when you were humble.
But see now King Saul's become arrogant.
And Saul is completely bewildered to the fact that he's lifted up full of pride.
He's completely deceived.
He's bewildered to this point that he's deceived with his own pride.
He doesn't realize he's prideful.
Turn to Daniel chapter 4.
And so kind of three sub points of this idea of being deceived by pride,
the deception of pride.
One is the bewilderment of this.
You see, people that are lifted up full of pride,
they have no idea whatsoever.
That's one way you're deceived.
And honestly, if you get one thing in this sermon,
that's probably the most important point.
Because if you start getting lifted up full of pride,
it's going to be too late for you in six months.
I mean the steps are going to happen.
Eventually you're going to drop out of soul winning.
Eventually you're going to quit reading the Bible.
Eventually you're going to quit church.
But it's all going to go back to the beginning point
where you started to get lifted up full of pride.
That's what we saw with King Saul.
You know, once you get lifted up full of pride,
it's not going to be destruction just overnight.
But eventually that's what's going to happen.
And people are going to wonder,
what happened to this person?
Well, you can trace that back to when they got lifted up full of pride.
In Daniel 4, we see the story of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Not only do you see the bewilderment to the deception of pride,
but you also see too much belief in your own flesh.
King Nebuchadnezzar trusted in his flesh too much.
He had too much belief in his own flesh.
Look at what he says in Daniel 4, verse 30.
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?
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.
You know, King Nebuchadnezzar says,
The kingdom that I have built.
Now, when you read the Bible,
it doesn't really seem like King Nebuchadnezzar
became the most powerful man by his own choosing.
It seemed like God delivered everybody into his hands.
You see, it's not that King Nebuchadnezzar was so smart
and so talented that he built this empire.
God delivered it right into his hands.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And so King Nebuchadnezzar,
he had far too much belief in his own flesh.
Kind of a more modern-day example
is a guy by the name of Lance Armstrong.
I grew up a very big sports fan,
so I used to watch every sport that was on TV.
And I remember growing up
when Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France.
You know, in 1999 is when he first won the Tour de France.
You know, I think I was about 14 at the time.
But it was such a cool story at the time
because this is a man who had cancer,
and he overcame cancer, he overcame the odds,
you know, and he won the Tour de France and everything.
I couldn't find the direct quote I was looking for.
I'll read you what it says here, though.
But someone talked to Lance Armstrong
about the idea of whether or not there was a God.
And he said,
If there was indeed a God at the end of my days,
this is Lance Armstrong talking,
I hoped he didn't say,
but you are never a Christian,
so you're going the other way from heaven.
So Lance Armstrong said,
you know, if there actually is a God,
I hope he's not going to say,
well, you're not going to heaven
because, you know, you don't believe in me.
But this is what it says.
If so, I was going to reply,
you know what, you're right, fine.
So Lance Armstrong out of his own mouth said,
you know what, fine, if I get sent to hell,
no big deal, you know.
And, you know, a lot of foolish people
say things like this,
but when they spend forever in hell,
they're not going to think that anymore.
Doesn't the Bible say every knee shall bow?
I mean, these arrogant Stephen Hawkings
and Richard Dawkins,
they can mock the Bible all they want,
but they are going to spend forever in hell
and they're going to cry out for mercy
and there's going to be none.
The quote that I could not find is,
a long time ago I read this,
but I remember Lance Armstrong
being asked about the idea of there being a God,
and he basically just said,
you know what, I did this all on my own.
I didn't have any help from God.
I won the Tour de France on my own.
And, you know, it's understandable
that some athlete that's lifted up might think that,
but to actually say that to me,
and I wasn't even saved in the time,
but I was like, whoa,
I was like, I'm not a fan of this guy anymore.
I mean, that's a pretty, you know,
arrogant callous statement to make.
Basically said, I just did it all on my own.
I didn't have any help from God.
You know, another guy you could think of is Muhammad Ali.
There was a guy who was extremely arrogant
and lifted up that split hell wide open
about a year ago when he died.
Yeah, he won matches in boxing
and he used to mock the God of the Bible.
He used to mock it and say,
you know what, Allah is the better God
than the God of the Bible.
That's what he used to say.
Well, you know what, I wonder what he thinks right now.
And you see all these athletes and these movie stars,
they're all lifted up full of pride.
You know, kids that are here,
they're not to be your hero.
And I had those heroes growing up.
I had the Michael Jordan poster on my door growing up.
Yeah, but that's not the sort of guy
that should be your hero.
And you should look at the people of the Bible,
people that go soul winning,
or even modern day people that go soul winning,
preach the word of God with boldness.
Those are people that you should aspire to try to be like.
Not like these athletes that make millions of dollars,
don't care about God at all.
You know, another example where this could apply to us
having too much belief in our own flesh.
What about if you work at an office job
and, you know, everyone starts leaving at the end of the day
and all of a sudden you're the only one left there
along with some other woman.
Now is that the sort of position God wants you to be in?
No.
You know, I remember a couple of times at my old job,
you know, I used to work at an office all day on a computer.
And I remember a couple of times when I was working late
and then all of a sudden everyone started going home
and all of a sudden it was just me and another woman.
It was like, well, I guess I'm going to come into work
really early tomorrow because, you know,
I'm not going to put myself in a stupid position.
And, you know, somebody would say,
well, I would never do anything.
But, you know, the smart person wouldn't put himself in that position.
That's a foolish position.
And if you have too much confidence in your own flesh,
it can be your undoing.
Turn to Nahum chapter one.
I'm forcing you guys to understand
where all the minor prophets are tonight, all right?
Nahum, we're going to be in all the other ones tonight.
Nahum chapter one.
My wife and I oftentimes like to watch documentaries on various things,
especially on natural disasters.
And we're watching one on a tsunami that happened in Japan
that wiped out a lot of people.
And, you know, you were listening to the people before it happened,
you know, people that had built these buildings by the water.
And they basically said, you know, our buildings are tsunami-proof.
They said nothing can take down these buildings.
It was kind of funny like looking, well, not really funny,
but I mean like looking back, you know, knowing what actually happened.
But out of their own mouth they're saying, you know,
these buildings are tsunami-proof.
And if you know anything about Japan, that's a very atheistic culture.
And they thought, you know, we've designed these mathematically,
scientifically, nothing can take them down.
But, you know, this is what the Bible says in Nahum chapter one, verse three.
And I only have part of the quote,
but the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
And God has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.
God can make anything happen.
To suggest that your buildings are tsunami-proof is ridiculous,
because God could wipe those buildings out like that.
And, you know, what people do is they belittle the power of God
when they're deceived by pride.
You know, they're bewildered by their deception, by their pride.
They have too much belief in their flesh and they belittle the power of God.
But, you know, the Bible says, is anything too hard for the Lord?
Nothing is too hard for God.
Turn back to Obadiah.
And so the first point we see tonight is this, the deception of pride.
But I also want to look at this, the doubtless fall due to pride.
You see, if you get lifted up,
it's not a possibility you're going to come down.
It's a guarantee.
It's doubtless.
There's no question about it.
You will come down if you get lifted up full of pride.
Notice what it says in Obadiah chapter one, verse three.
The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.
Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock,
whose habitation is high,
that sayeth in his heart,
Who shall bring me down to the ground?
Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle,
and though thou set thy nest amongst the stars,
thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.
So there's a couple examples given here.
One of them is that it says that thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock.
You know, you think about the clefts of the rock,
that would seem like a pretty safe position to be in.
You know, if you think about trying to drag someone outside of a rock
and throw them down to the ground,
no one's going to do that.
It seems like a pretty safe position.
They feel pretty secure.
Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock.
You know, another example it says is,
though thou exalt thyself as an eagle.
Turn to Isaiah 40.
Isaiah chapter 40.
And to hit one rabbit trail before you go back in the sermon,
to finish that story of that sort of soul-winning conversation
I had about a month and a half ago.
So basically what this guy believed,
I didn't look it up online
because I didn't know what he was talking about.
This ties into the Black Hebrew Israelite movement though.
And basically, Edom is the white man.
That's what he believed.
You know, he didn't tell that to me,
but when I looked online, it's like, okay.
Now actually Obadiah chapter 1 is one of the big proofs that they go to.
And some of their big proofs are this.
It says, well, exalted like an eagle.
It said, well, in America, the bald eagle is the symbol of America.
And you know, most people in America,
they start out pretty much everybody was white.
And then they said, you know,
one of the other big examples he had,
because they believed that Jacob was black and Esau was white.
And they said when Esau came out,
he was, you know, red all over and hairy.
And I was reading people say, you know,
most babies that are black are not hairy.
That's what this guy said in this one website.
And he said he was red all over.
And it's like, well, what do you call white people?
You call them rednecks.
You know, that's what, when you look on there.
But it's like, here's what's funny about that.
You know, I'm from West Virginia, okay.
And you know, pretty much everybody in West Virginia is white.
But you know, you don't call everybody who's white a redneck.
You know, it's like you have no idea what that term means, okay.
You need to go down to West Virginia to get some learning, you know.
But what's interesting here in Isaiah chapter 40,
and that just shows that any belief that you have,
if you come to the Bible with a preconceived idea,
you can find something to support it.
I mean, it's ridiculous, except the preacher rapture maybe.
You're going to find some verse that seems to support it.
But this example being exalted like an eagle is very interesting, okay.
Look at Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31.
The Bible reads in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31,
because God is really trying to tell us something with this example of an eagle.
It says,
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
So in Isaiah chapter 40, the context is talking about people
that are basically growing weary in the Christian life, you know.
Everybody gets weary from time to time.
But he uses the example of an eagle as an animal that won't get weary and won't faint.
You know, it's interesting.
You could go on YouTube to check this out for yourself.
But they say about eagles that eagles fly pretty much effortlessly through the air.
Pretty much it doesn't take any effort or any energy at all for them to fly.
They basically exalt themselves really easily.
And then if you watch them flying, they just kind of glide through the air.
It doesn't even look like they're doing any work whatsoever.
So basically, you know, this example going back to Obadiah,
chapter one, if you want to turn there,
when he says,
Though thou exalt thyself as an eagle,
he's saying even if you lift yourself up a couple miles in the air
and you're just effortlessly going through the air,
nothing can take you down.
But God's saying, I can still take you down.
No matter how effortless it is,
no matter how safe you are up there,
I can take you down.
So he uses the example of an eagle.
And he also uses the example of
though thou set thy nest amongst the stars.
You know, if I had on the stars, you know, a nest or a home,
I'd feel pretty safe.
I wouldn't expect somebody to come up there and just like take me down from there.
You know, you would feel pretty secure.
God's given some pretty extreme examples.
But what God's saying is,
it doesn't matter, you know, how safe of a position you are.
You can still be brought down to nothing.
And you might say, well, man, I have lots of money.
You know, God can bring that down to nothing overnight.
You look at the story of Job.
You say, man, I own like 5,000 bitcoins.
You know, God can make that be worth nothing overnight.
You know, it doesn't matter how much money you have.
It doesn't matter whatever it is,
how great of a job you have.
God can make it nothing overnight.
There's a doubtless fall due to pride.
Turn to Genesis chapter 11.
And in Genesis 11, I want to show you a story where God makes the impossible possible.
Okay.
We look at this, you know, after it's already happened.
But you have to understand in Genesis 11, when this happened,
that all these people spoke the same language.
This is when God scatters the Tower of Babel.
This is pretty much an impossible event at that time.
You know, look what it says in verse 4.
And they said,
Go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach onto heaven,
and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
So basically, they have a backup plan.
You know, they say, in case we get scattered, let's have a name.
Now, I don't know, but this might indicate they realized they were doing something wrong.
You know, that they're coming up with a backup plan in case they get scattered.
But they said, you know, let us have a name in case we get scattered,
so nothing could possibly destroy this plot.
Then it says in verse 5,
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language.
And this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them,
which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language,
that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth,
and they left off to build the city.
In this story, this is impossible what happens at that time.
Logically, this could not have happened,
because everybody was speaking the same language.
You know, if you were to tell them,
we're going to make you all speak different languages,
so you can't understand one another,
wouldn't have made sense to them.
But God scatters it, and he makes the impossible possible.
You know, the Bible says with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.
And see, it doesn't matter how much money you have,
it doesn't matter how safe of a position you have,
it doesn't matter how great you are,
there is a doubtless fall due to pride.
If you get lifted up, you will come down.
It's a guarantee.
And if you're in this room,
and you realize that you have a pride issue,
that you're a little bit lifted up,
you have to realize you will come down.
And you might say, well, just, you know, I'm okay,
it's not that big of a deal.
You're going to regret it when you come down.
Because there's a guarantee.
God uses examples of bringing an eagle down,
you know, or someone who has their nest among the stars.
God is saying, you know, you will come down.
There's a guarantee that it's going to happen.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 14.
And so the first thing we saw here tonight was this.
We saw the deception of pride.
Pride is a very deceiving thing.
We saw the doubtless fall due to pride.
But I also want you to see the direct relationship with pride.
What I mean by the direct relationship is this.
You know, if you lift yourself up 20 feet in the air,
when you fall, how far are you going to go to hit the ground?
20 feet, right?
What if you lifted yourself up 50 feet in the air?
How far are you going to fall?
50 feet.
See, there's a direct relationship.
The higher you lift yourself up,
the farther you're going to fall.
The farther you fall,
the faster you're going to be going when you hit the ground.
The faster you're going to be going,
the more it's going to hurt, right?
And so you have to understand something.
The more you get lifted, you're going to come down hard.
There is a direct relationship.
And we looked at a few different people tonight.
We looked at Nebuchadnezzar.
I think we talked about him.
Nebuchadnezzar was a man who lifted himself up very high.
He basically said,
I made myself the most powerful man in the world.
And then God brought him down very far.
You look at the life of Nebuchadnezzar,
it's pretty embarrassing when you read that.
You know, God had to bring him down that far
to get him to end up believing.
I believe he believed on the true God and I believe he's in heaven, you know.
But he lifted up himself and he had a strong fall.
You think of a character like Haman.
Haman lifted himself up really high.
Haman was number two in the kingdom and it wasn't good enough.
Isn't that ridiculous?
You're number two in the entire kingdom and it's not good enough for you.
Haman lifted himself up really high.
And man, did he come down pretty far.
But you know, think about a guy who humbled himself pretty far.
Mordecai was very humble.
Guess what?
Mordecai humbled himself and he was lifted.
Haman lifted himself, you know, and he was humble.
That's what the Bible talks about.
You know, you look at Luke 18 with the publican and the Pharisee,
the Bible talks about that the ones that exalt themselves are going to be a base.
Those that humble themselves are going to be exalted.
That's what the Bible teaches.
But think in the Bible.
What character of the Bible lifted themselves up more than anybody else?
The devil, right?
Turn to Isaiah 14.
And in Isaiah 14, this is what it reads in verse number 12.
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 set 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 and 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.
It's not just that the devil's going to hell.
He will burn more than anybody.
Because he lifted himself up more than anybody.
Nobody is going to burn in hell more than the devil.
You know, it's ridiculous.
You see, you know, cartoons or whatever on TV that they think the devil, you know,
is controlling hell.
And he created it.
I mean, when you look at that logic.
So I guess if you become really arrogant, you get to just own this little world.
That doesn't make any sense.
You know, he lifted himself up.
He's guaranteed to come down.
And he will burn in hell more than anybody.
But then you think about someone, turn to Philippians 2.
You think about Jesus Christ.
Who humbled themselves more than Jesus Christ?
Nobody.
Who's going to be exalted more than Jesus Christ?
Nobody.
See, there's a direct relationship with pride.
The higher you lift yourself in this life, you know, the farther you're going to fall.
And the people that really lift themselves up in this life,
people might think, man, that's such a good Christian.
But you know, in reality, they're not going to get as many rewards as the person
that's just humbly serving God in church and doesn't tell everybody about it
and sound a trumpet every time they do something.
You know, this guy who got kicked out of our church several months back,
he used to tell people all the time that he was going soul winning.
So a lot of people thought he went soul winning like all the time.
And I was thinking, man, he didn't really go that much.
You know, but he made it.
People thought that because he always talked about it.
You know how, hey, I went soul winning this day.
Every time he went, he told people about it.
And you know, here's the thing about this.
You don't have to lift yourself up.
Allow God to do that if he's going to choose to lift you up.
Look at Philippians chapter two in verse number five.
The Bible reads,
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men.
You look at Jesus Christ, who made himself of no reputation.
But who has a better reputation than Jesus Christ?
Pretty much everybody beside the Jews have very positive opinions about Jesus Christ.
You know, obviously the Hindus and the Muslims don't understand who Jesus was.
But nobody says anything bad about Jesus Christ.
Pretty much everyone says, man, he was such a great guy.
You know, who has a better reputation than Jesus Christ?
You know, he was sinless.
He was flawless.
He made himself of no reputation, and yet he has the best reputation.
Verse eight,
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
See, all these arrogant people that lift themselves up,
they will humble themselves, and they will beg to God for mercy.
They're going to bow down on their knees and ask God and plead to God for mercy.
And you know what?
There's going to be none for that person.
Because they lifted themselves up so high in the air,
there was a guarantee that they're going to come down.
Turn to John 15.
I don't have this in my notes, but I want to show you something.
Because Jesus talks here about how he became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
And that is a great way how he showed that he humbled himself.
Let me just really quickly show you one way we can humble ourselves.
The Bible says in the same way.
Now, I'm probably not going to die on a cross.
You know, I probably won't be martyred.
But you know, the Bible still says, look at John 15.
Look at verse 12.
It says,
This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Now, we know looking back that Jesus did lay down his life for his friends.
He laid down his life for the sins of the world.
And the Bible says that we can do the same thing.
Now, basically what it's saying is when you put other people before yourself
and you lay down your life, you become a servant unto all.
That is what's going to make you exalted one day.
Becoming a servant to everybody, humbling yourself.
You think about the role of a pastor.
You know, the role of a pastor is to serve.
You know, honestly, pastors have tough jobs.
You know, they serve and they study the Word of God
and they don't always get credit for what they do.
But honestly, you know, if you get all your credit in this life,
you're not going to get that many rewards in the afterlife.
You're not going to get many rewards in heaven.
And so that is what we can do.
We can lay down our lives.
Basically, you know what?
If you don't feel like going so-and-you, you still go so-and-you.
You know, if you don't feel like helping somebody out, you still do it.
Because that's what God commands us to do.
Lay down our life for everybody.
Lay down your life for fellow Christians and fellow church members.
Don't live your life for yourself, but live your life for someone else.
And honestly, you know, if you do that,
that is what's going to bring you happiness in this life.
Just living for yourself is not going to make you happy.
You know, when you think of this example of falling from the air,
you know, when a person falls out of a plane, let's say,
you know, not counting in air resistance,
basically you accelerate at 9.8 meters per second squared.
Okay?
Now, it only takes about 12 seconds for you to reach a point
that's called terminal velocity.
Okay?
Terminal velocity basically means you can no longer gain any more speed.
You accelerate and accelerate and accelerate,
and then you gain a maximum amount.
Now for a human, you're never going to get 100% of what terminal velocity is
because there's going to be air resistance.
But basically, a free-falling object, it takes about 12 seconds,
and they reach a point of 122 miles per hour, approximately.
122 miles per hour is basically your terminal velocity.
You'll never go faster than that, basically.
And when you think about it, and it only is at the height of 1,500 feet,
you reach that point of going 122 miles per hour.
Now think about this.
If I fell from 20 feet in the air, that would probably hurt, right?
I could possibly, you know, hurt my, you know, break a leg or something like that.
You fall from 50 feet, now it's really dangerous, right?
You fall from 100 feet, you're probably going to die if you fall from 100 feet.
What if you fell from 1,500 feet in the air?
That's almost a third of a mile.
122 miles per hour.
Do you think that if you fell going 122 miles per hour and smashed into the ground,
do you think you'd live or die?
You would die, right?
Unless a miracle happens, it's a guaranteed death.
Well, think about the example that God had of exalting yourself as an eagle.
You realize that eagles fly two miles in the air?
That's about 10,000, I think 560 feet.
It's more than 10,000 feet.
It's only 1,500 feet for you to reach terminal velocity.
Now you exalt yourself like six to seven times what terminal velocity height is,
there's a guarantee you're going down.
And the examples that are given with Edom,
man, Edom really lifted themselves up high in the air.
You exalt yourself as an eagle or you set your nest amongst the stars.
I don't even know how high that is.
But you fall from that distance, there's a guaranteed death.
And when we think about the applications God's trying to give us,
because he's trying to teach us a lot here in the book of Obadiah,
what God is showing you is that if you really lift yourself up,
it's going to be a really hard fall.
And eventually, if you lift yourself up high enough,
it's not just that you're going to come down,
you're going to be completely destroyed.
And see, the fourth point we have is the destruction that results from pride.
We saw the deception of pride, we saw the doubtless fall due to pride,
we saw the direct relationship, and now we see the destruction.
Turn to Jeremiah 49.
See, if you lift yourself high enough,
you have to understand you will be completely destroyed in this life.
Everything about your life is going to be wrecked.
I mean, pride destroyed an entire country.
Do you really think that you as an individual can escape this if it destroyed a country?
We see in Jeremiah 49, I want you to notice what it says in verse 17.
It says in Jeremiah 49, verse 17,
Also, Edom shall be a desolation.
Everyone that goeth by it shall be astonished,
and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
See, Edom became nothing and everyone was astonished.
What happened to Edom?
But look at verse 18, this is interesting.
As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof saith the Lord,
no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
So the Bible actually kind of compares Edom with Sodom and Gomorrah.
And when you think about this, what caused Sodom to be destroyed?
Now we know that God destroyed Sodom because of the Sodomites,
but you know, that wasn't the root cause.
Something happened before that.
Obviously they were destroyed because they were extremely wicked.
A bunch of queers and pedophiles and perverts.
But before that, something started.
Because you don't become a pedophile overnight.
You don't just go from being a normal person to being a pedophile.
That's not what happens.
You know, there's a root cause and it gets worse and worse and worse.
Turn to Ezekiel chapter 16.
And we're going to see what the Bible says about Sodom.
Because the Bible compares Edom with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, Edom was destroyed.
Now we saw Edom was destroyed due to pride.
That was the root cause.
Well, let's look at Sodom.
Let's look at what it says in Ezekiel 16 verse 46.
And thine elder sister is Samaria,
and she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand,
and thy younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand,
is Sodom and her daughters.
Yet hast thou not walked after their ways,
nor done after their abominations,
but as if that were a little thing.
Now that was corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
As I live, saith the Lord God,
Sodom thy sister hath not done,
she nor her daughters,
as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom.
Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness,
was in her and in her daughters.
Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
See, the root cause of Sodom's destruction
is started with pride's the first thing mentioned,
and a couple other things.
But pride was the root cause.
Now eventually they became a really wicked society,
probably the most wicked that's ever been around.
But it originated due to pride.
And see, when Edom developed pride,
that led to a lot of wickedness.
Us in our lives, if you become a prideful person,
you will end up becoming a really bad person.
Even if you're saved,
you're going to become someone
that nobody wants to be around.
If you get pride in your heart,
all of your flesh is going to come out.
And honestly, you know, when you're the spiritual man,
I've been saved for, I think, 14 years.
And honestly, I mean,
I was a much different person when I got saved.
I had a lot of things,
and I'm still working on a lot now.
But honestly, you guys probably wouldn't like me that much
if it was the old me.
You know, it'd be like,
what's wrong with this guy brother Stuckey, you know?
And we have to understand
that if you get lifted up full of pride,
all of a sudden that old man
is going to become more and more powerful.
And the new man that goes soul winning
and talks about the Bible all the time
is going to start talking about sports
and about music and about movies.
And look, I don't want to be around people
that talk about sports and music and movies
because that's not what I'm interested in anymore.
And you have to understand,
you get lifted up full of pride,
you're going to eventually become
a much different person.
Turn back to the book of Obadiah.
And it's interesting some of the examples
that God gives here in the book of Obadiah
in Obadiah chapter one, verse five.
Notice what he says here.
If thieves came to thee,
if robbers by night,
how art thou cut off?
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
So what the Bible is saying here is this,
that let's say a robber breaks into your house
into the middle of the night, okay?
Is he going to take every single thing from your house?
Is he going to take the pillows?
Is he going to take the toothpaste in the bathroom?
He's not going to take everything.
Wouldn't that be pretty weird if you come home
and every single thing in your house was gone?
No robber is going to do that.
You know what they're going to do?
They're going to take it until they have enough, right?
They're not going to take every single thing.
They're going to take anything valuable they can find,
they're going to get out of there.
They're not going to take everything.
But see, the Bible's using this example
because he's saying, you know what?
You're different, Edom,
because there's nothing that's going to be left of you.
You know, it's like a thief that comes in
and takes everything.
The pillowcases are going to be taken.
Everything, the shower curtain.
You know, the old dirty shower curtain,
that's going to be taken.
Every single thing is going to be taken from your house.
And then he says, if the grape gatherers came to thee,
would they not leave some grapes?
You think about what the Bible says,
when grape gatherers go out there,
they weren't supposed to gather everything.
They were supposed to leave some of those grapes.
And honestly, it would be pretty hard to see
every single grape if you're going in the field.
But he's basically saying,
every single grape from you, Edom, is gone.
Everything about Edom's gone.
They're completely desolate.
They're destroyed.
They're gone.
They're history.
And that's what God's telling him.
Then he says in verse 6,
how are the things of Esau searched out?
How are his hidden things sought up?
Think about this.
In your house, you might have certain things
that are very valuable to you.
You know, you might have a safe
with something really valuable, right?
Maybe you have, you know, guns that are worth a lot of money.
You have gold.
You have silver.
You know, you have whatever.
Anything that's really valuable,
you're not just going to have that right by the front door
where someone can walk in and take it, right?
You're going to hide it into a place where no one can get it.
You're going to have a code that's impossible to break.
You know, that you can't really remember hardly yourself.
You're going to make sure there's no way
anybody could come in here and steal it.
Can you imagine though, somebody robs your house, okay?
Somebody comes in in the middle of the night
and a bunch of stuff's gone.
Then all of a sudden you quickly go to your safe
and you're just double checking
and all of a sudden you open it up.
The money's gone.
You know, the guns, the gold, the silver.
You'd be like, what in the world?
You know, how in the world did they do that?
But see, that's what the Bible is saying here in verse 6.
How are the things of Esau searched out?
You know, it's like a robber coming in
and they're able to find those things.
They're able to search out those things.
Everything's taken.
How are the things of Esau searched out?
How are his hidden things sought up?
So God's basically saying everything's going to be taken.
He's using extreme examples.
See, Edom lifted themselves up so high in the air
and they're completely destroyed.
Turn to one last place tonight.
Turn to Exodus chapter 10.
Because honestly, this is pretty significant
because a lot of countries have been very wicked in history
but most of them weren't completely destroyed.
You know, there haven't been that many
that have been completely destroyed.
You know, the one country that was really wicked
in the Bible was Egypt.
Now is Egypt around today?
Egypt's around today, isn't it?
Now you think back to the story of Pharaoh.
They made a statement that almost says that it's destroyed
but look at what it says in Exodus 10 verse 7.
And Pharaoh's servant said unto him,
how long shall this man be a snare unto us?
Let the men go that they may serve the Lord their God.
Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
So the followers of Pharaoh are basically saying,
man, we're completely destroyed.
But they were not completely 100% destroyed.
You know, they were brought down pretty low
because they lifted themselves up pretty high
and became very wicked.
But you know, Egypt is still around today
but see, Edom is not around.
Egypt was destroyed.
They're completely annihilated.
Why?
Because they lifted themselves up so high.
See, that is what it is with pride.
If we lift ourselves up that high,
we are going to come down.
Now there's four things I want you to consider
in conclusion tonight about this sermon.
One thing I want you to consider is the country.
I'm not talking about the country of Edom though.
I'm talking about the country we live in,
the United States of America.
Now in this room, I'm sure there's differing opinions
on politics, on the police force,
on the military and various different things, libertarianism.
But I would hope that we could all agree
that America is very arrogant.
America is extremely prideful.
And in my opinion, if Edom lifted itself up
two miles in the air,
I believe that we lifted ourselves
another two miles in the air.
I believe we're like an eagle
that's another two miles in the air
looking down mocking the one of Edom
that's only two miles in the air.
You know, America has lifted themselves up
so high in the air.
We think we can do no wrong.
And it's an attitude that's permeated
to most people in our country.
Now in our movement, it's not really like that.
Most people in our movement aren't attached
to this country, the United States.
But we as God's people,
we shouldn't be attached to a country.
You know, I've been to churches
where before the service, you know,
you salute the flag and everything like that.
And it was just like, man,
maybe like 60 years ago
it wouldn't have seemed that weird.
But when you see what's going on now,
it's like, how in the world
are you gonna salute and praise the flag?
You know, praise this country.
Praise it for what?
You know, we are an arrogant
and prideful country that causes
bloodshed around the world.
And here's the thing.
There's a guarantee we're going
to be destroyed one day.
It's not just a possibility.
It's a guarantee 100%
because we have lifted ourselves
so far past the point
of what terminal velocity would be
that when we come down,
our country is gonna be destroyed.
We gotta consider the country here tonight.
But I also want you
to consider the congregation.
Consider this local congregation.
You know, this church
is doing great things already.
Now you guys have great preaching.
Sunday morning, Sunday night,
every Thursday night,
everyone who preaches.
There's great soul winning going on.
People here love the Lord.
They're reading the Bible.
They're excited for the things of God,
especially with kind of a newer church.
You're excited because it's kind of new.
It's fresh.
But you know what could end up
destroying this church?
Is if this church,
if this congregation got lifted up
full of pride.
And you know, in our movement,
one of the things we gotta watch
for as churches is not try to compare
ourselves with other churches
that are in our movement.
It's not a competition
between Verity Baptist and FWBCLA.
What's the best church in California?
I mean, if you guys are running 500 next year
and everyone's going soul winning,
hey, that's great.
You know, it's not a competition.
And here's the thing though,
once you start getting success,
that's when you can possibly get prideful.
You know, and that's something
you gotta watch for.
Because if this church grows
and flourishes more than any other church,
you gotta make sure
that you don't get lifted up
and try to compare yourself
with other churches or other pastors
or other soul winners comparing numbers.
It's not a competition between us.
And we gotta make sure
that we're not getting lifted up full of pride
trying to compare each other and say,
man, well, our church is the best at this.
Our church is the best at that.
You know, yeah, they're good at that,
but we're better.
We shouldn't have that attitude.
And as a congregation,
you must stay humble.
Do not get lifted up full of pride
because you're having great success.
And honestly, this church is doing big things.
We're excited for the work
you guys are doing here,
but you gotta make sure you stay humble.
Consider the country.
Consider the congregation.
Consider the caution to you personally.
I mean, if a country can be destroyed due to pride,
any one of us,
if we get lifted up full of pride,
will come down.
And I know people in my life
that were good soul winners and good people
that got lifted up full of pride,
and what are they doing today?
You know, if you get lifted up full of pride,
no matter who you are in this room,
you will come down.
But the last thing is consider the comfort.
Believe it or not,
I just preached you one of the most
comforting sermons you're ever gonna hear in your life.
Okay?
And I'll explain to you why.
Because when you have a church like this
that is doing something for God,
you are gonna have enemies one day.
Enemies from without and from within
will come in to a church like this.
When you're living for God,
you're gonna have enemies from without and within.
The ungodly, unsaved world,
they're gonna hate you,
but you know,
your family members are probably gonna reject you.
It's always funny.
I say this in sermons,
but it's always kind of interesting to me
that when someone first gets on fire for God,
and they kind of tell you their story
about how their family rejected them,
they don't want to talk to them anymore,
and they're persecuting them,
their friends don't want to talk to them,
they always tell this story,
you know, thinking that it's just them.
That this hasn't happened to anybody else.
And they're telling you that story,
and it's like,
yeah, you know,
that pretty much happened to all of us.
You know?
And sadly, once that happens,
most people kind of turn away.
But honestly, you know,
the attacks are gonna come.
But here's what you have to understand.
Whether it's saved or unsaved people attacking you,
because both of those will attack you,
you have to understand that the common thread
between those two people is that they're very prideful.
The people that attack our movement,
they're upset at the works that we're doing.
People that are going to attack you for living for God,
they are very prideful and lifted up people.
If they're an unsaved person,
we have to realize those people are going to come down hard,
and they're going to burn really badly in hell.
And if it's a saved person,
you know,
we should probably pray that they'll get restored,
because if they get lifted up full of pride,
they're going to be done.
And sadly,
there's probably going to be people in this room one day,
they get lifted up full of pride.
We need to make sure we do everything we can
to personally not allow pride to get a hold of us.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here tonight
in this great new church, God, that started.
And I ask you to help all of us,
including myself, God,
to apply this to our lives,
to try our best not to be lifted up full of pride,
not to become arrogant or conceited, God,
and realize how dangerous of a thing this is, God.
I ask you to continue to bless this church,
the great work they're doing here in Los Angeles.
God, we pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.