A. One day a certain preacher began to pride-fully muse about what a fine preacher he had become.
1. So he said to his wife, “How many really great preachers do you think there are?”
2. His wife thought for a minute and said, “Well, I don’t know how many really great preachers there are, but there is probably one less than you think.”
3. That probably stung, but she was right on target.
B. Back in 1993, MTV aired a special news report on “The Seven Deadly Sins.”
1. The program was advertised as interviews with celebrities and ordinary teens talking about the seven deadly sins: lust, pride, anger, envy, sloth, greed, and gluttony.
2. The show turned out to be very revealing about the contemporary attitudes toward sin.
3. Rap musician Ice-T glared at the camera and said, “Lust isn’t a sin…These are all dumb.”
4. One young man on the street thought that sloth was taking a break at work.
5. Perhaps the most difficult sin for the MTV crowd to grasp was pride.
6. Actress Kirstie Alley, who rose to fame during the hit sitcom Cheers, said: “I don’t think pride is a sin, and I think some idiot made that up.”
7. I wonder if it has dawned on Kirstie Alley whom that person is who “made that up,” whom she called an “idiot.” Could it be God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?
C. Let’s talk about Bernie Madoff for a minute. Do you remember him?
1. When Bernie wasn’t flying his private 24 million dollar jet across the Atlantic or watching sunsets from the deck of one of his yachts (one costing 7 million dollars), he was living a life of luxury inside his ten-thousand-square-foot penthouse in New York City.
2. Bernie and his wife denied themselves nothing – a home in France, a beach home on both coasts, boats, cars, furs, Wedgewood china, silver and gold – you get the picture.
3. Everyone wanted to know Bernie – people stood in line to shake his hand – including people like Steven Spielberg and Larry King.
4. He was considered an investment superstar until it all came crashing down on Dec. 10, 2008.
5. That’s when Bernie Madoff sat down with his wife and two sons and confessed that he was running a “giant Ponzi scheme” and that it was all “just one big lie.”
6. Over the next days, weeks, and months, the staggering details became public knowledge.
7. Madoff had masterminded a 22-year-long shell game, the largest financial crime in US history.
8. Madoff had swindled people out of billions of dollars.
9. His collapse was of biblical proportions – he went from the top of the heap to the very bottom.
10. He lost it all – his family, his fortune, and his future.
11. At 71 years-old, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.
12. No doubt he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
D. But why did Bernie Madoff do it?
1. What makes a man live a lie for decades? What was the trade-off for Madoff?
2. According to one biographer is was “status” – “As a kid, he was spurned and humiliated for what was perceived to be his inferior intellect…he was rejected by one girl after another…he was regulated to lesser classes and lesser schools…but he excelled at making money, and with it came the stature that once had eluded him.” (Andrew Kirtzman, Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff, Harper, 2010)
3. And so Madoff became addicted to adulation and was hooked on recognition.
4. He wanted the applause of people and money was his way of earning it.
5. Madoff had clawed and cheated his way to the top of the mountain only to discover the Biblical truth that “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall” (Pr. 16:18).
6. If only he had known this promise: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5b).
E. Bernie Madoff is a modern example of someone whose pride and selfishness got him into trouble, but if you want to see an even more dramatic picture of the downfall of pride, just look at the story of Nebuchadnezzar.
1. Madoff’s “riches to rags” story is small potatoes compared to the vast power, and possessions, and drastic free fall of the king of Babylon.
2. The Babylonian Empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem in 605 BC.
a. Nebuchadnezzar transported many Jewish captives back to Babylon, including four young men whose names you will recognize: Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
3. Years later, Nebuchadnezzar built a 90 foot-tall golden statue in his honor and commanded everyone to bow down before it.
a. As you likely remember, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down.
b. The King heated the furnace 7 times hotter than usual and had them thrown into the fire.
c. When the three Hebrew young men came out unsinged, the King was amazed.
d. The King acknowledged that the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was able to rescue like no other God, and that no one should say anything offensive about their God.
e. So King Nebuchadnezzar tipped his hat toward God, but he didn’t kneel down to God.
4. Many years passed, and King Nebuchadnezzar was enjoying a time of peace and prosperity.
a. His enemies were under control and his wealth was secure.
b. Yet in the midst of his time of ease, he had a bad dream that troubled him.
c. None of his fortune tellers could explain the meaning of his dream, but the king told his dream to Daniel: “There was a tree in the middle of the earth, and it was very tall. The tree grew large and strong; its top reached to the sky, and it was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit was abundant, and on it was food for all. Wild animals found shelter under it, the birds of the sky lived in its branches, and every creature was fed from it” (Daniel 4:10-12).
d. Nebuchadnezzar went on to describe how the tree was cut down by a messenger from heaven and how its branches were trimmed and its fruit scattered. Only a stump remained.
e. The voice from heaven then made a pronouncement: “Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share the plants of the earth with the animals. Let his mind be changed from that of a human, and let him be given the mind of an animal for seven periods of time” (Daniel 4:15-16).
f. I’m sure that as Daniel listened to the dream and God supplied him the insight into it, he gulped and shivered, being astonished by what would take place to the king.
5. Keep in mind that at this point in history, Nebuchadnezzar had no peers – he was the uncontested ruler of the world.
a. The great city of Babylon over which he reigned, rose out of the desert plains like a Manhattan skyline.
b. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which he built for his wife, were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
c. The walls of his royal palace were 320 feet high and 80 feet thick – 2 four-horse chariots could ride on top of the wall side by side.
d. During Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Babylon’s population reached as high as half a million.
6. But all of that was about to end and Daniel had to deliver the sobering news.
a. Daniel said to the king: that tree is you, Your Majesty. For you have become great and strong: your greatness has grown and even reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to the ends of the earth…You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants. As for the command to leave the tree’s stump with its roots, your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that Heaven rules” (Daniel 4:22, 25-26).
b. Nebuchadnezzar thought, as many us do, that he was in control of his life.
c. Nebuchadnezzar thought that he was in charge of not only his life, but the whole world, but he was wrong.
d. Daniel urged the king to repent: “Therefore, may my advice seem good to you my king. Separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right, and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity” (Daniel 4:27).
7. Did King Nebuchadnezzar follow Daniel’s advice? He did not.
a. The very next verses in the story say: All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?” (Daniel 4:28-30)
b. God graciously gave the king a whole year to humble himself and climb down from his pompous throne, but he never did.
c. Did you notice Nebuchadnezzar’s prideful inflation of himself in the proliferation of personal pronouns? “I have built,” “my vast power,” “my majestic glory”?
d. The king was all about the king, and truly worshiped himself.
8. God had sent King Nebuchadnezzar at least three messages in an attempt to help him correct his thinking and his life.
a. God sent the message of the fiery furnace – Jehovah God is greater than fire.
b. God sent the message of the dream – Jehovah God can make today’s massive tree tomorrow’s ugly stump.
c. And God sent the warning of Daniel – Humble yourself before it is too late.
9. But Nebuchadnezzar refused to heed the warning and humble himself.
a. The Bible says: While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you. You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants.” (Daniel 4:31-32)
b. The king became an ancient version of Howard Hughes with cork-screw fingernails, and animal like hair.
c. The Bible reports: At that moment the message against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people. He ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky, until his hair grew like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws (Daniel 4:33).
10. The old saying is true: “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”
a. When the mighty fall, the fall is mighty!
b. One minute he’s on top and thinks he’s in charge, and the next minute he’s on the bottom and is helpless.
F. God has a lesson for Nebuchadnezzar and for all of us and the lesson is: God hates pride.
1. Scripture is clear about this truth.
2. Proverbs 26:12: Do you see a person who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
3. Isaiah 5:21: Woe to those who consider themselves wise and judge themselves clever.
4. Proverbs 16:5: Everyone with a proud heart is detestable to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
5. Proverbs 8:13: I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.
6. Proverbs 11:2: When arrogance comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.
G. Why does God use such strong language and stand so strongly against pride and arrogance?
1. Max Lucado writes: God resists the proud because the proud resist God. Arrogance stiffens the knee so it will not kneel, hardens the heart so it will not admit to sin. The heart of pride never confesses, never repents, never asks for forgiveness. Indeed, the arrogant never feel the need for forgiveness. Pride is the hidden reef that shipwrecks the soul.”
2. Pride not only gets in the way of our relationship with God, it destroys our relationships with others.
3. How many marriages have collapsed beneath the weight of foolish pride?
4. How many friendships have died because a lack of humility kept the apology from being said?
H. The bad news is pride comes at a very high price, but the good news is humility changes all that.
1. Rather than experience God’s punishment for pride, let’s choose instead to receive God’s offer of grace.
2. James 4:6 says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)
3. To the degree that God hates arrogance, God loves humility (let me say it again!).
4. Max Lucado writes: “Humility is happy to do what pride will not. The humble heart is quick to acknowledge the need for God, eager to confess sin, willing to kneel before heaven’s mighty hand.”
5. Psalm 138:6 says: Though the Lord is exalted, he takes note of the humble; but he knows the haughty from a distance.
6. Isaiah 57:15 says: For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.”
7. God truly has a special place in His heart for the humble and lowly.
8. Wonderful blessings and freedoms are found in the forest of humility.
I. God gives grace to the humble because the humble are hungry for God’s grace because they know they need it.
1. Humility is so healthy and so helpful because it puts everything in the right perspective.
2. Michael W. Smith got to meet the famous evangelist, Billy Graham, when Graham was 94 years-old.
3. As they visited, Graham’s thoughts turned to what might be said about him at his funeral.
a. Graham told Michael W. Smith that he hoped his name would not even be mentioned at his funeral.
b. Surprised and shocked, Michael asked him what he meant.
c. Graham said, “I hope only that the name of the Lord Jesus be lifted up.”
4. Billy Graham, who had preached to 215 million people in person, and hundreds of millions of others through the media, who had advised every US president from Truman to Obama, who was consistently near the top of every “most-admired” list, didn’t want his name mentioned at his own funeral!
5. One of the best antidotes for pride is a clear understanding of God’s greatness.
a. When we realize how big God is, then we finally understand how small we are.
b. Those who walk in pride God is able to humble and will humble at the judgment, if not before.
c. But those who walk in humility, don’t need to be humbled by God, and can be used by God.
6. Corrie ten Boom, who became famous after her Dutch Christian family helped many Jews escape the Holocaust, and who herself survived Ravensbruck concentration camp, was asked if it was difficult to remain humble, said: “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments on the road, singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him? If I can be that donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give Him all the praise and honor.”
7. Someone else said it this way: “If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that he uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The ax cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. Oh that I may never lose sight of this.”
J. It took seven long years, but Nebuchadnezzar finally learned this lesson.
1. The Bible says: But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned to me. Then I praised the Most High and honored and glorified him who lives forever: For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
At that time my sanity returned to me, and my majesty and splendor returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and my nobles sought me out, I was reestablished over my kingdom, and even more greatness came to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all his works are true and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (Daniel 4:34-37)
2. You and I might want to underline and put stars next to that last sentence in verse 37: God is able to humble those who walk in pride!
3. The sooner we learn to humble ourselves before God the better off we will be.
4. It is much better to humble ourselves rather than to wait for God to humble us.
K. And I like what Jonathan Edwards said about humility: “Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil’s reach as humility.”
1. And so humility has many benefits.
2. It keeps us out of the devil’s reach, and it puts us into God’s gracious hands.
3. God’s promise to us is “The humble will receive My grace, I promise.”
L. And isn’t that what happened in the story that Jesus told in Luke 18?
1. Jesus said: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ ” (Luke 18:10-12)
a. How’s that for a good, bad example of what pride and arrogance looks like?
2. Jesus continued: “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ” Jesus concluded, “I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:13-14)
3. So there we have the promise in Jesus’ own words: The person who exalts himself will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted.
4. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
5. Do you need God’s grace? I know I do!
6. God promises to give it to the humble, so I hope all of us will humbly bow ourselves and our lives to God.
7. And I hope that all of us will cling to God’s mercy and grace for salvation and for everything we need.
8. Let’s humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, because when we do, we receive His grace and He lifts us up!
Resources: Unshakable Hope, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 2018
