...of our Minos, the song number 288.
We begin our 78th service by singing the song number 288.
I am the song, we begin our song number 288.
Sing it out.
I am the song, I am the song.
I am the song.
I am the song, I am the song.
I am the song.
I am the song, I am the song.
We can follow the steps of Jesus' name,
Where they come from.
The way we go,
Dark mountains sing,
We can share.
The world of us,
The first mountains,
The home we call home.
The grants of Jesus,
That make the path we go.
We can follow the steps of Jesus,
Where they come from.
It may be good,
Or holy,
Preaching for good.
The glory holds on you,
And the least in you we know.
The grants of Jesus,
That make the path we go.
We can follow the steps of Jesus,
Where they come from.
In the last little while,
He sees us all journey through.
The new best friends of Jesus,
Here at His home.
The grants of Jesus,
That make the path we go.
We can follow the steps of Jesus,
Where they come from.
The grants of Jesus,
That make the path we go.
We can follow the steps of Jesus,
Here at His home.
We can follow the steps of Jesus,
Here at His home.
We can follow the steps of Jesus,
When pride cometh, then cometh shame.
When pride cometh, then cometh shame. Humiliation.
When we start to lift ourselves up with pride, shame is on its heels.
Why is that? Because God will humble
the proud in heart. Especially among his own children.
Even if proud, unsaved people live their whole lives
in a state of pride and conceit, eventually one day
every knee shall bow
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
That will happen. There will come a time when they, and not because they're being forced
to do it, the angels of that great white throne jubbin aren't going to push them down
on the ground and make them talk. They have their own accord on that day when they see
the glory of God are going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and the glory of the Father.
Every atheist, every unsaved person that's ever existed
is going to confess that. And they can live their life in pride
but shame and humiliation and humility
will come. So obviously that's for the unsaved, but how much more so
for God's people. We as God's children, those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ
who have the sealing and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
we are subject more so, I believe
to being humbled when pride enters in.
To unto whomsoever much is given shall also
much be required. The more you know, the more
you are held accountable for what you know. So when we
understand how much God hates pride, when we understand the value of
humility, we should understand that if we
find ourselves being lifted of pride that shame comes. That's what it says.
When pride cometh, then cometh shame. Why does shame come after pride?
Because somebody comes along, God, circumstances,
individuals, whatever, and humbles you.
And that's done through being shamed often. But
it says with the lowly is wisdom. The lowly person, the humble
person has learned something. They have wisdom. They know better.
They know, hey, I'm no better than anybody else. I'm not going to be
wise in my own conceits. If we're a lowly, humble
person, we have wisdom in knowing that
who we really are, we think soberly about ourselves.
Now, look at Job chapter 41 because there's no greater example
in scripture of pride than Satan himself.
Satan, if you wanted to say one of his, what was
his defining characteristic or is his defining characteristic, I would say it's
pride. He's very lifted up with pride. How proud do you have
to be to think that you could
take on the God of heaven? That you could rebel against God and take your
angels with you and corrupt man. And this is somebody
that has beheld the glory of God. Someone's been in God's
presence. He was the anointed cherub. He was known
as Lucifer before. He was demoted,
cast out, essentially. How proud do you
have to be to think you could take on God and to
undermine God and His will? You have to think you're going to get away with it.
You have to be a pretty proud person. That's
one of the traits of being a proud person is that you
think you're above it all. You think that you can't be touched. You think that this
doesn't apply to me. That's being wise in your own
conceit. Again, that's an
attribute of pride. And you know what? Just like Satan, shame
is going to come. You will be humbled. Look at Proverbs 41
in verse 15, excuse me, in Job 41, where he's
describing Leviathan, which is a beast that existed but is also
symbolic of Satan himself. It says in Job 41 verse 15,
His scales are pride. Shut up together as
with a close seal. One is so near to another that no
air can come between them. They're airtight.
They are joined one to another. They stick together. They cannot be sundered.
They can't be split. They can't be cut asunder. Upon the earth there is none
his like who is made without fear. This beast Leviathan doesn't fear
anybody. He has this protective armor. He has this coat of
scales, as it were, this outer layer that is just
impenetrable. He's impervious to any weapon
that would be brought against him. That's why he's made without fear.
He doesn't feel vulnerable because he isn't. There is none
like him. He beholdeth all things,
all high things. He considers himself his equal to
anything that is high and lifted up, any power that's out there.
He can behold it. He can look them in the eye.
He is a king over all the children of pride.
He rules over all the children of pride. It's kind of like when
Jesus said of Satan that he is
a liar and the father of it. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own,
for he is a liar and the father of it. He's the father of lies.
Well, in the same way, being someone who's
lifted up with pride, you are exhibiting one of the attributes of Satan himself.
When we lie, we're patterning ourselves after
Satan because he is the father of lies. In the same way,
using Job 41 here, when we're lifted up with pride,
we are exhibiting some of the same attributes as Satan
because he is a king over all the children of pride.
If we're a proud person, if we're lifted up, if we're
wise in our own conceits, you are similar
to Satan in that way. If pride is a satanic attribute
we cannot have any part in our lives. Now, keep something in Job.
I know you were just in Romans. Go back to Romans. We're done there.
When you go back, you can stop bookmarking it. Back to Romans 12.
Keep something in Job. We'll be back there
towards the end there. But again, the subject is
pride this evening. You need to be somebody who is humble.
If you're somebody who's lifted up with pride or you become lifted up with pride,
you are somebody who is going to be humbled. It's inevitable.
Even Satan himself was humbled.
The Bible says in Proverbs 16, pride goeth before destruction.
He said elsewhere, when pride cometh, then cometh shame.
When pride goes before destruction and in a
haughty spirit before a fall. Better is to be of
a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil
with the proud. We should be
with the lowly. We should condescend to men of low estate.
We do not want to be people who are haughty and lifted up with pride because that is going to
bring destruction and shame into our lives. Thinking
sometimes this can enter in people's minds
in a way kind of like Satan. He's got this coat of scales.
He thinks he's undefeatable.
You see this especially in young men. Those of us who got a little older,
we're feeling our age a little bit more. But young men
often, they're the ones that take a lot of chances.
Because they think they're six feet tall and bulletproof. Now I know some of you are like me
and actually are six feet tall. I'm not trying to pick on the tall people in here.
It's just a stain. Just because you're six feet tall or more
I'm not pointing you out. I have to include myself in that. It's just a phrase.
You think you're seven feet tall and bulletproof. There, I changed
it for your sake. You see this a lot.
This isn't just something that's limited to obviously only young men or just men.
Anybody can be guilty of this. Of thinking that they're just kind of impervious
to being hurt. And they do many
foolish things. All the
motorbikes and stuff like that. To me, if you ride a
motorcycle, great. Honestly, I would like to ride one.
To be perfectly honest, I would like a motorcycle just to commute.
Okay, I would even take a scooter at this point. I just
don't want anyone to see me riding a scooter.
You start making that crosstown commute where you're red light to red light
you start to think about how nice it'd be to just cut through traffic and cut your commute in half.
I could see that. But man, some of these guys they get on these bikes and they
go out there and they take chances. Why is that? Because of pride.
Because they think, no, I can control this. I'm so
good on this bike. No one can touch me. In fact, I don't even need my helmet.
Right? And they take foolish chances. And
pride goes before destruction often. That's why I don't think we should tempt
God and take risks and take unnecessary chances.
And tempt God. Because a lot of times that comes out of a heart of pride.
And often that will lead to our own destruction and at the very least our humility.
Right? Or our humiliation. It's a humiliating thing
when, you know, you got road rash and everyone's asking what happened
and your insurance rates go up because you slammed into somebody
or whatever, you know, or you're in the hospital with broken legs or something.
I have to imagine that's a pretty humbling thing to have to go through.
Right? Where did I have you go? Romans 12. Look at verse 3. It says,
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Right?
So obviously when it comes to this thing of humility, you know, we don't want to get the wrong idea either.
We all have to just go around, you know, just abasing ourselves
and just, you know, trying to convince everybody that we're just worthless and that we don't
have any value. You know, that's a false humility. You know, people can almost become
proud of how humble they are. You know, that's kind of ironic. But, you know,
I'm just so proud. I live such an aesthetic life.
You know, that's kind of a pride in and of itself, a source of pride.
But, you know, he's telling us, hey, just think soberly.
Right? Don't think more highly than you ought to think. You know,
don't get lifted up with pride. You know, don't start thinking that we're
something great that, you know, we, you know,
ought to be lifted up or something like that. You know, we need to think soberly, not to think
more highly than we ought to think. And look, this is something that people, even in churches, can go through.
Right? You know, they, people clean up their lives and they start living right
and they can actually start looking down on other people. And they'll even
start looking down on other people that aren't even as wicked as they were, once were.
It's crazy, but it happens all the time. You see it all the time.
You know, people have a, you know, a checkered past. They get saved.
Praise God for that. You know, that should never be thrown in their face or held over their head.
You know, we all have things in our past, I'm sure, that we're ashamed of.
All the kids are trying to like, well, you know, don't worry.
You don't even have to try. You know, something will happen. Right?
But you know, those of us maybe that are older got saved later on in life, you know, we can probably
look back on some things that we'd just rather not remember. Some things that we
just wish had never happened. Okay? And those things should never be brought up
or thrown in our face. But you know, at the same time, we need to think soberly and not
start to look down on other people. Right? Let our, you know, our newfound
righteousness and our newfound clean living become a source of pride
when we start to look down on other people who aren't even sometimes as wicked
as we once were. He says, not to think more highly than himself
to think, but to think soberly according as God had dealt to every man
the measure of faith. If you would, go to Galatians chapter number 6. Galatians chapter number 6.
The Bible says in Proverbs 14, in the mouth of the foolish
is a rod of pride. It's such an interesting verse that
in the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride. You know, a foolish person
you know, they just say things, it's like a rod of pride.
The things they say are hard, the things that they say are just
you know, full of arrogance, they're just full of conceit, they're just full of
pride. It's like a rod. It almost hurts your ear, it almost hurts you to hear it.
Right? When you hear these things come out, that's kind of like how it's a rod. You're almost like, you ever just like
you hear somebody say something, you kind of ahh, you wince, you know, what's the word?
It's cringe. Is that the proper use of cringe? It's very cringe, man.
You know, right? These people that have a rod
of pride in their mouth, you know, it's cringe. It makes you go ahh.
You're embarrassed for them, right? You know, I remember hearing
somebody say this once, someone who had visited the church and they were asking about
soul winning and I was telling them what we do and they go, well you know, I'd probably be a really good soul winner.
You know, I'm really good at talking to people. They'd never, you know, this is a first time visitor,
never, had never darkened the door before, just met them.
And they're just like, you know, I would probably be really good at that. I'm just like,
no you wouldn't. You'd probably, you know, people you talk to
would probably be thinking the same thing I'm thinking right now, that you're a jerk.
That you're a proud, arrogant jerk is probably what they think at the door and want nothing to do with you.
Right? Because people can sense that. People can pick up on that. You know, but
when you hear things, and I had to like control my face to keep it from contorting
and being like ahh, you know, just like letting it show, right? Because it's just like
ahh, man, I instantly just wanted to get away from this person.
Because in the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride. And we hear things
come out of people who are filled with pride. The things that come out of their mouth, it's just like
all the bragging and just the boasting
it's cringe, man. Right? And it's proud,
and it's like you wonder, you sit there and you say, can you not hear yourself?
Do you not realize how you sound? Like how can,
and that's why they're foolish. Because fools can't see it.
That's what makes them such a fool. They can't even see their own pride. You know, pride
has a very blinding effect on us. You know, we become legends in our
own mind. Right? That's why it says here in Galatians,
if you look at verse 6, it says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are
spiritual restored, such one the spirit of meekness, considering thyself
as though also be tempted, bearing one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinketh himself to be
something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. You know, that's such a
powerful verse. You know, when we think that we're something,
when we're really nothing, and let me just go ahead and tell you, all of us
are nothing. You know, and look, I'm not saying that
to value people. I don't want to go overboard on that. You know, and just
be one of these guys, these preachers, you know, like I've heard in the past that are just
like, you know, you're replaceable. You're, you know, you're,
you know, God doesn't need you. You know, look, God needs us. And yes, we
are replaceable. I understand that. We have value. But,
you know, really, well, if you want to just get down to it, we, you know,
we are just a worm and not a man. Right?
We are less than nothing. We really aren't
anything. We're just dust. You know, that's, you know,
that's what the Bible says, that God remembers our frame, that we are but dust. We're as the flower
of the field, which riseth up and is withered away.
You know, our life is but a vapor. You know, one of the great ways
to humble yourself is to dwell upon the Lord. Right?
That's why, you know, the king in the Old Testament Israel
commanded to write a handwritten copy of the law,
you know, the five books of Moses, the Old Testament. He was to write that out
and to have it with him and to read therein all the days of their life. And one of the reasons
why he was commanded to do that is so that his heart would not be lifted up
above his brethren. You know, if we read our Bibles and pray and think about
God, you know what we're going to realize? We're nothing. You know,
that it's our privilege to serve God to whatever capacity.
And we should never get lifted up with pride about the manner in which
we serve God or to what degree we serve God or because
at the end of the day, all of us are nothing compared to him.
No flesh should glory in his presence. Everything that we do should be done
to the glory of God. What's there to be proud about?
And I love how he says, if a man thinketh himself to be something,
when he is nothing, right, he
comes with himself. Everybody else sees it. Everyone's like, this guy thinks
he's really something and he's nothing, right? The only person
that the proud person fools is himself, right? They become
that legend of their own mind. They think, man, I'm really something.
Everyone else is like, no, you're really not, right?
And look, it's a humiliating thing when we have to come to that realization on our own
or when someone else helps us with that. It can be humiliating to be humbled.
The message this evening is just be humbled. Just be the lowly in spirit,
condescend to men of low estate. Don't be wise in your own conceits. Just go ahead.
Don't mind high things. Just be a humble person and you won't have to be humbled.
You know, don't think you're something when in fact none of us are
anything. Verse four, but let every man
prove his own work and then he shall rejoice in himself alone and not another
for every man should bear his own burdens. Go to Proverbs 18. Proverbs
chapter number 18. I won't take a whole lot of time this evening and I'm just talking about pride
because this is something, again, that the Bible, like I'm just scratching the surface.
There's so many scriptures on pride, being proud,
haughty, lifted up, arrogant, conceited. I mean, this
is a topic that God just hammers over and over and over in the scripture.
There's so much warning on it. Why? Because we're all susceptible to it. It's something that
if we are not on guard on against our lives, it will creep in
because it's just there. It's just, pride is just always there
ready to just spring up in our lives and to lift us up
and bring, you know, and cause us to suffer the consequences.
The shame, the fall that comes with being lifted up with pride.
Proverbs 29, look at verse, well, you're going to Proverbs 18
or eight, excuse me. I'll read to you Proverbs 29, verse 23. It says
a man's pride shall bring him low. Shall bring
him low, right? So again, pride in Proverbs is
constantly associated with, you know, shame
and destruction and falling, right, and being
brought low. And, you know, it's kind of
it's counterintuitive, right?
Because a lot of times you're like, oh, you know, if someone takes pride in their work or whatever, you know, they're going to
lift them up, right? Because that's what pride is. It's being lifted up. It's being
puffed up. It's being haughty, right? And that's actually what ends up
bringing a person low. Being somebody who minds
high things and is conceited will bring you low. But honor
shall uphold the humble in spirit. Look at Proverbs 8, verse 12.
I wisdom dwell with prudence, OK? Now, wisdom
in the book of Proverbs is often personified as a woman, but obviously
it's referring to the Lord. The Lord is wisdom, OK?
I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride
and arrogance and the evil way and the forward mouth do I
hate. You know, if we're going to fear God, then we're going to hate certain
things, OK? And look, it's not necessarily we're going to hate it in other people.
We need to learn to hate these things in our own hearts and in our
own minds and in our own mouths because these things are in us.
And if we're not on guard against it, it will show up and it will bring
us low. It will lead to our fall. It will
lead to our destruction. At the very least, it will lead to humiliation,
right? Because that's how you get to humility often is through being humiliated,
OK? So we don't want to go through that. So we need to learn
to fear God and to hate these things. God hates these things. He said, I hate
these things. Do I hate, as he says at the end, hate evil, right?
And he kind of sums up what he considers evil here, at least
in this in this passage, pride and arrogance.
Right. Those are the same thing, basically, pride and
arrogance. They're there, you know, God's being redundant
on purpose. He's trying to get across the point that he really
hates pride, he hates arrogance, he hates it
when people think that they're better than somebody else, when they're lifted up, when they're
hotty, God hates that, OK? And the evil way
and the froward mouth do I hate. You know, people who just, it's like the rod
of pride again, who just say things, you know, they have a very froward mouth, they have no filter,
they just, they brag, they boast,
they put other people down, they have a very froward mouth, they have no
filter, they have no control over their tongue. God hates that, right?
Because a lot of times, you know, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So if we're proud in
our heart, that's going to come out of our mouths. If we have pride and arrogance within us, you know,
it's going to show up in our speech. It's going to show up.
And God hates it. It goes on and says
in verse 14, counsel is mine, sound wisdom,
I am understanding, I have strength. By me kings rule, and princes
decree justices. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges
of the earth. I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall
find me. Riches in honor are with me, yea, durable riches in righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold, than my revenue, than choice silver.
I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the past of judgment, that it may cause
those that love me to inherit in substance, and I will fill their treasures.
You know, God is the one that has the power to bless,
to lift up, and to bring low. He's the one that can make kings rule
and princes, and he can bring other people low.
If you would, go to James chapter number 4.
The Bible says in Proverbs 15, the fear
of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor
is humility. Before honor is humility.
You know, obviously there are people that we
would esteem highly in our lives. Like, we might look to other people and say,
you know, we have a lot of respect for them, respect for the stands that they take,
the life that they live. You know, we would consider their conversation
the end of their faith, and we would follow their faith, right?
You know, the Bible tells us when it comes to certain people, you know, we should consider
the end of their faith, their conversation, whose faith follow.
You know, we should have examples in our lives, but what we have to understand is, like, a lot of times
those people that are in those positions are often the most humble
of people. You know, they should be honored, you know, because before honor
is humility. You know, it's not wrong for you to
you know, people to be honored, right, when they're worthy of it.
But that honor is not something we take upon ourselves.
That honor is not something you can self ascribe. Honor and respect and esteem
is something that is attributed to you through having earned it.
Right? And that's often bestowed upon people who
have a real, genuine sense of humility.
Not a contrived one, not a fake one, not a showy
you know, false sense of
display of humility, but a real sense of humility. Because a lot of times, you know, people get that confused.
And they don't even know what humility even looks like, right?
But before honor is humility.
You know, if we want to be honored, if we want to be somebody that is worthy
of esteem, you know, then you have to be a humble person.
It has to happen. Look at James chapter 4 verse 6,
I know we just looked at this recently, but he said,
He sayeth, God resisted the proud and giveth grace unto the humble.
You know, it's not, you know, if you're proud, it's not
that God's just going to lead, well, God's just not going to bless me. No, God is going to
actively resist you, right? That's why all those proverbs we looked at
talks about how before pride, you know,
a man is haughty, right? But that shame follows pride and that
you know, pride will bring a man low. Why is that? Because God
resists the proud. God's not going to let us get away with
being proud people. He will humble us.
So the question is tonight, do you want to be humble? Or do you want to be humbled?
You know, I'm all for the first category.
You know, I've been humbled, you know,
I don't want to sound too proud. You know, I've had my share of
humility, or humiliation rather, okay?
I've done been humbled and it's not a fun experience, okay?
But again, you know, we have to all be on guard against this in our lives,
self included. Verse 7, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil,
he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, look at verse 10,
humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.
So who is it that, you know, you really have to work on being humble?
Is God. You know, people can put on a show of
spirituality, they can put on a show of humility, but God
knows the truth, okay? And again, as I was saying
earlier, if you want to have humility in your life, you know, the best
way to get that is through prayer, Bible reading,
and serving other people, and honestly having a real walk
that's a very humbling thing. You know, we looked at it the other night,
the angels that are in the presence of God who just, you know,
just cry holy, holy, holy, right? When we come in the presence of God,
you know, the attention is not on us.
You know, all of that leaves. Pride will leave us.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 20, actually no, just go to Job 40. I'm not going to take the time
to read through all of Ezekiel 28. Just go back to Job and
we'll wrap up here. But again, the warning
again in Proverbs 18 is before destruction, the heart
of man is haughty. You know, and that's what's so
concerning when you see people being lifted up with pride. Because
if you know your Bible and you've heard the preaching of it, you know what's coming.
I mean, how many verses have we looked at where God is just like warning us
about the dangers of pride, right?
When pride cometh, then cometh shame. Pride goeth before destruction.
The mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride. A man's pride shall
bring him low. Before destruction, the heart of man
is haughty. God's just like warning us repeatedly. If we get lifted up with pride,
if it creeps into our lives, it's going to be to our detriment.
It's going to bring us low in one way or another.
Either through just being foolish and thinking we're untouchable
or taking chances or just having a proud, arrogant, conceited
attitude that looks down on others or thinks we're better than people,
then God might get involved too and say, well, let me tank you down a couple
notches.
Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty. Before honor, again, is
humility. That's the exact same phrase that verse 33 in
chapter 15 ended with. Before honor is humility. Repeats itself again in Proverbs
as well. Before honor is humility.
Obviously, we should want to be people that are esteemed,
that are looked upon and considered as wise,
understanding people that have wisdom to impart that can be
looked at as examples and can be looked at as somebody
whose faith should be followed, especially if we're in leadership.
We need to make sure that we are exemplifying
good Christian conduct.
That's done by humility. That's why
humility is so important. You have to have humility.
I had to go to Job. I'll read one more time in Proverbs 16.
He says in verse 5, everyone that is proud in heart is an
abomination to the Lord.
Are you seeing how serious pride is tonight?
Such a serious sin.
Obviously, all sin is wicked. God hates a lot of things.
God doesn't call everything an abomination.
Not every sin is an abomination to God.
Abomination is like God has a strong
loathing of this. It's not just that it's offensive.
It's not that it's breaking his commandments. Think about it. There's some sins
that are definitely sin, but that God even makes
stipulations. Even in the Old Testament.
When would multiply wives?
God hated that. God said, don't do that.
God told him, you're not to have a multiplicity of wives. One man, one woman,
that's it. He said, but, man being what he is,
you kings, if you multiply wives, you're not
going to have to diminish the substance of the first wife.
You're not going to despise your first wife because you took on a second.
You're going to treat her just as well. Is that God putting his stamp
on having multiple wives? No.
He's not approving polygamy, obviously.
I'm just using an example to show you that there's some things that God considers sin, but
it's not an abomination. He doesn't want us doing it.
He says, since you're going to do it anyway,
here's how you do it. Just to make sure that
people aren't treated poorly in the process of
people doing things that God doesn't want them to do. You see my point?
There's some things that God looks at and sees
in people and says, that's an abomination to me.
It's like foods. There's certain things. It's hard for me.
I'm trying to think. Is there anything I don't like?
I'll say black olives, but I ate black olives on a sandwich yesterday.
I don't like black olives, but I'll eat them.
If they're on the sandwich, if someone orders a pizza
and says, hey, there's black olives on it, I'll say, okay.
Pick them off and be that person. Just shut up and eat it.
If I'd been thinking when I ordered the sandwich, I'd say, hold the
black olives, which is what I'll do next time. An irony of
irony is my wife loves black olives. Opposites attract.
If you ever want to get her a good gift, get her a can
of black olives.
Here's the thing. I don't loathe. I don't
look at black olives and go, abomination. It's an abomination to me.
There are probably some things that you could put on a plate
and try to offer me this food that I would get disgusted over.
I would even flip the table and get mad at you and be like, what are you trying to serve me?
You put excrement
on a plate and say, hey. I'm not going to go, I don't like it.
It's not what I would have ordered. I'm going to say, that's an abomination.
Get that out of my face. I'm going to get mad.
There's a huge difference between not liking something or
not preferring that or disliking it and then calling something an abomination.
That's not abomination or calling something abominable. That's not a term
God just throws around loosely in the Bible. So when it comes up
when you see God saying this is an abomination,
alarms should go off, bells should go off in our mind. Let's take special note of that.
There's certain things that God really, really
hates that he calls an abomination. Let's not be guilty of that.
Let's try not to be guilty of any of these things that God calls a
sin. But when he's calling it an abomination, that's when we should take special note
and say, well, if I'm going to be guilty of something, it's not going to be
something. It's not going to be that. Because God hates that.
And you say, well, what's an example of that? Pride.
God hates pride so much he calls it
an abomination in his sight.
Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.
And isn't it interesting, I'm just on a roll
since Thursday and Genesis 19 is still on the horizon.
Isn't it interesting that the people who define themselves as
proud, the pride committee out there,
the Fruit Loop people, the alphabet group,
that's one of their defining characteristics. Pride.
They declare their pride as Sodom. Isn't it interesting that God calls that an abomination?
It isn't interesting that those same people who are so proud about it
commit acts that God considers an abomination.
But you know what? If you're proud in heart, you're
an abomination too. Think about that. It's so easy to go, oh, these
people out there. And look, they are. They're an abomination.
These fags, these queers, these homos. It's an abomination.
It's an abomination before God.
But so is being proud in heart. Let that sink in.
And when we find pride in our own lives,
we need to get it out. We should root out pride in our lives.
We should learn to hate pride, hate arrogance, hate conceit
because God considers it an abomination.
And God will bring the proud low.
You're in Job. Look at Job chapter 40.
In verse 6. It says in verse 6,
Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Gird up thy loins now like a man, and I will demand of thee,
and declare thou unto me. Will thou also
disannul my judgment? Will thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Hast thou an arm like God?
Or canst thou consider, excuse me, or canst thou thunder
with a voice like him? He's saying, Are you like me?
Obviously no, right? He said,
Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency.
That's a whole other page of notes. Oh, great.
And array thyself with glory and beauty.
Cast abroad thy rage of thy wrath, and behold,
everyone that is proud, and abase him.
Right? Because we started out the story, or the sermon rather,
you know, talking about Leviathan.
Right? How he's the king over all the children of pride. And how he thinks
he's untouchable. Right? And proud people, this is what
they think. People who get lifted up with pride, they think that they're just above it all somehow.
Nothing's going to get them. Right?
And here's the thing, even if we, as human beings, we can't humble somebody else,
if we can't convince somebody that they're proud and arrogant,
God can. And God will. You know, that's why
it's so scary when you see somebody being lifted up with pride.
Because it's like, if they don't get the message from us,
if they don't hear it from the word of God, it's like, well, what's God going to do?
Because there's nobody that's above that, above God.
They can't cast a bra of their rage. They don't have an arm like God.
And you know, God is humbling Job and his friends here. He's showing up at a whirlwind.
He's saying, look, you're nothing like me.
And he's saying, I can abase everyone that is proud.
You think you're so great and so powerful, why don't you go and abase everyone that is proud?
Because I can. That's what God's saying. I can abase him.
Look on, verse 12, look on everyone that is proud and bring him low.
And tread down the wicked in their place.
I mean, this is God, this is how he's trying to express
the magnitude of his power to Job. He's like, I have the ability to
bring down the proud, the haughty, and abase them.
Hide them in the dust altogether and bind their faces in secret. Then I will also confess unto thee
that thine own right hand can save thee. Look, no one
is above God. No one can go through this life
proud and arrogant and not have it come back on their heads.
There's no getting away with it. So, again,
go to 1 Peter, we're done. 1 Peter 5.
So the question is, what do you want to be tonight? Do you want to be somebody
who is lowly in spirit? Who is
meek and humble and can condescend to men of
low estates? Or do you want to be somebody that has to be humbled?
Do you want to be somebody who gets lifted up with pride and then God has to bring low?
Why don't we just beat God to the punch on this one?
Why don't we just admit that we're nothing and think soberly about
ourselves according to the measure of faith that God has given to every man.
Not to think more highly than ourselves, not to mind high things, not to be wise
in our own conceits. Let's just beat God to the punch so that he doesn't have to
humble us. Because I'm telling you, God will humble
the proud and God can humble the proud.
You know, it's really interesting how pride and humility are
in the word of God described as like a covering, right?
Again, I'll just remind you in Job 41 when it was talking about Leviathan, it said that his
scales are his pride. That's the outward showing.
You can just look at him and go like, wow, this guy is formidable, right?
He's proud of it. He's proud of his exterior, but he
rejects the power that he projects. But you know, we are to be clothed
with humility. That's what it says in 1 Peter 5 and verse 5.
Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject
one to another and be clothed with humility.
You know, obviously there's a, you know, a pecking order.
There's an authority structure within a local church. But at the end of the day,
we should all be humble enough to be subject one to another.
You know, if somebody comes to me and says, hey, consider this, think about
that, you know, I don't just go, you know, you better go through the proper channels,
you know. Like, who you are, just walk right up
to me and think, you know what I mean? Like, that's pride, okay?
And a lot of times people will bring things to my attention like, well, you know, I have to consider that, you know?
And sometimes I'm even wrong about things, right? I know it's rare,
but it does happen, okay?
My wife has a list as long as her arms, she can tell you. I'm just kidding.
You know, but we should be, that's humility, be able to be subject one to
another. You know, and that makes a great ministry, but you know,
you have to be clothed with humility in order to do that.
I mean, humility should be just something that we're just draped in.
It should just be our covering. We don't want to be like Leviathan and have
these scales of pride and think we're hardened and above it all
and nothing can touch us. You know, we need to be clothed with humility.
For God, why? What's the reasoning? Why does
He say do this? Why does He say be subject to one to another? Condescend
to men of low estate. Don't be wise in your own conceits. Don't think that you're
better than somebody else because you're not.
Why does He say be clothed with humility? Why? Because God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble.
You know why you should clothe yourself in humility and root out pride
in your life? Because then God won't have to resist you.
Because God does resist the proud and God does give grace to the humble.
Verse 6, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God that He may lift you up in due time.
Right? And notice, I love verse 6, it's humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God. And I know I kind of just, I already preached this and this is kind of
a little part of another sermon, but again
it's that imagery of like humble yourselves on the mighty hand of God because God's just up
in heaven ready to smack down the proud. You know what we need to do is
look up and just recognize that hand is there. And if I get lifted
up with pride, you know, it's going to come down on me. So again, let's just
beat God to the punch. God doesn't have to drop the hammer on us.
You know, we can just humble ourselves under that mighty
hand before some crushing blow of
humiliation brings us low. We can just
say, you know what God? No need. Go smack someone else that needs it.
Message received. I'm going to humble myself
and you know what? Then God lifts us up.
And again, that's why before
honor is humility. God will
lift up the humble. I mean think about Moses.
Great man of God.
Delivered the people of Israel. God wrought such
amazing miracles. You know, probably the
greatest prophet in the Old Testament. Probably ever.
I mean there's not been a prophet like Moses.
But you know what the Bible also says about him? That he was the meekest man in all
God's hand. You know, God does not use the proud. God does not use the
arrogant. God does not use those that are lifted up with pride and
arrogance that think more highly of themselves than they ought to. God does not lift up
and use people that are wise in their own conceit.
That people that are not clothed with humility.
Because then God doesn't get the glory for it.
God uses humble people because those people know like, hey this isn't me that's
God's hand that's lifting me up. That's God
that's using me. That's God that's giving me this ability. That's God
that's helped me develop this skill. That's God that's given me this wisdom. It's God that's given me this
understanding. It's God that's done all these good things for me. It's God's hand
that's underneath me lifting me up. Give glory to him.
So the question is tonight, you know, does God
look, when he looks at us, what does he see?
You know, and we might be able to fool other people, but what does God see when he looks at us?
Does he see the scales of pride in our lives? Or does he
see us clothed with humility? Hopefully it's the latter.
You know, and maybe if we find ourselves kind of, you know,
scales popping up here or popping up there, you know, maybe we need to go
and tear that thing out. You know, what does God see?
Does he see pride or does he see humility when he looks at us?
Well, it ought to be humility.
Because, you know, if it's not, God has a way of stripping us
bare and putting the right garment on us.
If he sees the scales of pride, he'll deal with it. They can be
airtight, you know, they can be like Leviathan scales. God'll crush it
under his hand and he'll say, okay, now we can get you
dressed up and dolled up the way you ought to be and get some humility on you.
All I'm saying tonight is like, let's just go ahead and don that garment.
Let's just go to the spiritual closet, you know, let's just open up
the doors of God's word and let's pick out humility. Let's just read it
and pray and put it on and live our lives as
humble people with godly sincerity, with real genuine
humility and not lift up ourselves above our brethren.
Because then God doesn't have to do it. Be humble or be
humble. Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for
Lord, how great you are. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to understand that everything
that we do should be done to the glory of God. That, Lord, that
no flesh is to glory in your presence. That anything that we achieve
in this life is simply because you've given us the ability to do it.
Whatever strengths, whatever talents, whatever abilities we have, Lord,
it's because of you. And Lord, I pray you'd help us to use
these abilities, these gifts, these talents that we have to honor you
in all that we say, think, and do in our lives. And Lord, help us to not be lifted up with pride.
Help us not look down on other people, whether it's within our church or
outside the walls of this church, that Lord, we should help us
to condescend a man of low estate and to consider the meek of the earth,
Lord. And Lord, we pray that you would just, again, help
us to root out pride in our lives. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.
We're going to sing one more song before we go.
All right, if you could please open up your songbooks to song number 64.
We'll sing you a song number 64, shall we?
We'll sing you a song number 64.
Yes, you have every feeling,
A beautiful, beautiful feeling,
There in the states and in the cities,
Let it cool down from the cold.
All the way!
Still in the trees we shall be free,
To our confidential seas,
To our happy times,
To our happy memories.
Yes, we'll gather at the river,
A beautiful, beautiful river,
Gather in the states at the river,
Let it cool down from the cold.
Thank you for watching!