There are basically two types of evil on this earth - natural evils which include earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, flash floods, etc. Things that take lives and bring devastation to humankind and the rest of creation. And then there are moral evils - evils that people commit, for example mental, emotional, or physical abuse, slander, assassination of character, torture of innocent people, human trafficking, rape, murder, racism, terrorist attacks.
So when you think about these types of moral evils, which evil acts upsets you the most, which ones can you say that you hate the most? What moral evil do you think God hates the most? No doubt God hates all the evils mentioned, but if we look through the scripture, we can see that one of the evils God hates the most is pride.
Prov 8:13 says,
All who fear the LORD will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech.
Last week we spoke about envy and jealousy and as we continue in our Wisdom that Works series today, we have come to the subject of Pride. The writer of Proverbs continually compares the actions, attitudes, and outcomes of fools vs. the wise. Pride is a characteristic used to describe the heart attitude of the fool, the wicked, the mocker, the gossip, the slanderer, contentious, lawless, faithless, and unteachable. Humility, on the other hand, is a characteristic that describes the wise, the righteous, the gentle, and those who are teachable. Pro 11:2 in the amplified version says,
When pride comes [boiling up with an arrogant attitude of self-importance], then comes dishonor and shame, but with the humble [the teachable who have been chiseled by trial and who have learned to walk humbly with God] there is wisdom and soundness of mind.
When I’m talking about pride, I am not talking about the kind of pride we can feel about a job well done or the kind of pride we express over the accomplishment of loved ones but of the negative side of pride of which we all fall victim.
Today we are going to be asking the following questions:
? What is pride?
? Where is it found?
? How is it manifested?
? What is the remedy?
What is pride?
The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines pride as,
an inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one’s own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation in office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others; insolence; rude treatment of others; and insolent exultation.
In the Scriptures, pride almost always carries a negative connotation. The Hebrew words translated “pride” and “haughty” in Proverbs 16:18 both have to do with height, with being lifted up.
The first one to lift himself up against God was Lucifer, otherwise known as Satan (Isa 14; Ezek 28:17). Iniquity was found in the heart of this created, finite being because of his beauty and then he corrupted his wisdom for sake of his own splendor. In other words, he was lifted up with pride.
Who else committed the sin of pride?
Ever since the fall, man has been a proud creature. Indeed, the exercise of pride was one essential part of his fall. Not content with the honor and immortality with which he was crowned, he proudly desired to become as a god, knowing good and evil. The same proud disposition has ever since constituted a principal feature in the character of fallen man.
Pride is rebellion against God because it attributes to self the honor and glory due to God alone. Pride is when we refuse to accept our creatureliness; we refuse to admit that we are limited, frail, fallen and dependent. We will be high and mighty, and we will do whatever it takes to preserve ourselves. We make ourselves the sole source of our identity. Self is at the center of everything we do. Everything is about us.
And as some have arrogantly concluded, we are the master of our own fate. Pride is when we think we know how to handle life better than God, when we become so self-absorbed and believe we have the power to save ourselves and determine our own destiny. Pride says I do not need God because I know better. Which brings me to my second question:
2. Where is pride found?
Pride is found in the heart of each and every human being, and that includes you and me. Because of the Fall, we are born with it - it is part of our human nature. And because of the Fall and personal sin, we do not act or think as we were created to. Sin is humankind’s rebellious, prideful desire to be independent of God. Martin Luther said, “all sin is pride.” We all struggle with pride but most of the time we are not aware of it in ourselves and even if we are made aware of it we often rationalize it away. A practical example is when we try to justify our sin by downplaying it, making it seem harmless, like a little lie, I only stole something once, what I did was not as bad as so and so...
The inner attitude of pride is often linked with parts of the human body (Isaiah 2:11 Isaiah 2:17). There is the pride of the eyes (Psalm 101:5 ; Isa 5:15); of the heart (Ezek 28:2, 5, 17); of the spirit ( Prov 16:18 ; Eccl 7:8 ); and of one's mouth/speech ( 1 Sam 2:3 ).
One pastor said:
Pride is the carbon monoxide of sin, hard to detect and deadly. Pride is like bad breath, everyone but you knows you have it.
Sadly, the outcome of pride is never good. Prov 16:18 says:
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
One puritan preacher said,
To-day, as in the days of old, we must use the present tense and say, “Pride goes.” Pride is not like some monster who lived in pre-historic times ... which is a thing only, and not a living power in the world. Pride has not only lived in ages past in the souls of prophets and apostles, it lives today and has a place and power in the Church, as well as in the world.
Which brings us to the third question...
3. How is pride manifested?
A prideful person:
1. Feels entitled - because of who we are and what we have done we deserve certain honors. We think we deserve people’s love and praise. We think we deserve success, comfort, accolades. We certainly don’t think we deserve suffering, heartbreak, or discipline.
2. Feels angry or hurt if we aren’t appreciated, praised, or recognized (Prov 27:2).
3. Always has to be right even when the facts say otherwise. A proud person can never admit fault or take responsibility when things go wrong.
4. Has contempt for others' opinions and is contentious if they do not get their way (Prov 13:10).
5. Has the right to hold grudges. They erect walls between themselves & anyone who crosses them.
6. Withholds forgiveness until satisfied that the other person has truly shown they are sorry.
7. Thinks they are better than others and refuses to accept advice or correction (Prov 13:10).
8. Breaks off relationships when wronged or slighted.
9. Talks about him or herself incessantly.
Unfortunately, pride is easier to see in others than in ourselves because of the deceitfulness of our own hearts. As Tim Keller said, it is hard to detect and the danger of not being aware of our own pride is that it is deadly. When we see a person who is full of himself and drawing attention to himself, what do we feel inside? Don’t we want to cut him or her down to size, at least a little? No one is immune to pride, and as the puritan writer said, it lived in ages past and lives today, even in the church.
For example John the apostle mentioned in his third letter about Diotrephes, a self seeking individual : “ I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us.” 3 John 9 Pride can kill a church, when there is divisiveness, criticism and competition.
Have you ever thought:
1. Boy, I wish so and so was here to hear this sermon. That’s pride - this message is for all of us.
2. I don’t need to learn, study, grow in knowledge of God or myself, my prayer life is enough to teach me what I need to know. Pride is unteachable, satisfied with its own mediocrity.
3. I’ve served long enough in the church, time for me to sit back and let others do it.
4. Am I impatient with others?
5. I’m not coming to church until a certain situation or person changes.
Most of us have had and will have painful experiences in our church. At some point, we all have felt used, burned, judged wrongly by fellow Christians. Sometimes we think of other Christians as our enemy but in reality our own pride is our greatest enemy.
Tim Keller wrote:
Within one being of the triune God there are three
persons loving and glorifying one another through
eternity (John 17:1-6), an “other-orientation” of love.
If you are scrambling for glory and recognition for yourself rather than giving it and serving others,
you are going against the grain of the universe.Meaning this is how God originally designed us, to give Him glory. So how do we break the power of pride? In other words,
4. What is the remedy for pride?
In one word: Humility. How do we humble ourselves? Through a healthy fear of the Lord. Humility is having an honest appraisal of our capacities and limitations against the standard of an all-knowing, infinitely intelligent, all-powerful, all-wise God.
Prov 22:4 AMP says,
The reward of humility [that is, having a realistic view of one’s importance] and the [reverent, worshipful] fear of the LORD, is riches, honor, and life.
The best interpretation of this verse, according to Keil & Delitzsch, is: the reward of humility is the fear of God. They assert that the fear of God brings humility with it and that the fear of God is the consequence of humility. In order to have the fear of the Lord, you have to humble yourself. Humility leads us to having a healthy fear of the Lord.
Pride deceives us into thinking we can “do life” on our own—we’re capable, independent, unstoppable, self-reliant. We think that we don’t need God, except maybe in an emergency. Pride makes us believe we don’t need His help, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and hope. Pride blinds us from seeing our true condition before God.
We break the power of pride through humility. Humility is the polar-opposite of pride. Just as light dispels darkness so humility dispels pride. However, we cannot become more humble by focusing on humility, as it becomes a source of pride when we believe we have achieved it. C. S Lewis described humility not as thinking less of ourselves, but as thinking of ourselves less.
Believers may not often realize it, but even as believers we are either centered on man or centered on God. There is no alternative. Either God is the center of our universe and we have become rightly adjusted to him, or we have made ourselves the center and are attempting to make all else orbit around us and for us.
Humility means shifting our focus from self as the center of the universe to focusing on God and making Him the center of our lives. It means trusting in God and not ourselves. We know that we are limited, frail, fallen and have nothing to give God but our sinful selves. Humility is realizing there is no way we can do life on our own, we do not have the answers to or even have control over life.
Humility is understanding that with all of our diligence, planning, talents, beauty, brains, accomplishments, we cannot guarantee the resources we will need for our welfare or our future. Wisdom is being humble enough to admit that, and then submitting yourself to God and wise counsel.
Therefore, we take our focus off self, and we look to Jesus. Jesus is Immanuel - God with us, who humbled himself to live among His own creation and to die for humanity. The God-man who was entitled to the highest honor among all honors and glory gave it all up for us. He not only left heaven's splendor to save us from hell and eternal separation from God but provided us with an eternal inheritance. And while He was on the earth, He humbled himself as a servant, didn’t use His title or authority, endured the disdain and derision of the religious crowd, spent time with and healed the despised of society, blessed little children, wept over His people, washed the dirty feet of his followers, did everything His Father asked of Him, forgave those who crucified Him. He was kind and lowly. Does this kind of humility characterize our lives?
Humility means God comes first in everything. Not me, not people but God.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord begins by getting to know God, his moral beauty, purity, kindness, his eternal grandeur, His infinite power, and wisdom. When we see Him for who He truly is, we are awed by Him, eager to please Him, longing to follow Him, humbled to be taught by him (Prov 15:33).
A clearer interpretation of Job 28:28 is “The fear of the Lord is the willingness to turn from evil and change.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it is the wisest place to begin. Why? Because Prov 19:23 says - it always leads to life. We see God for who he is- He is immeasurably superior to anyone on this earth. He is the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. He is to be feared. We need to constantly remind ourselves that we have been made alive in Christ, we are dead to the life of pride we used to live. (Eph 2)
While Pride will promise you the promotion of a lifetime it will always guarantee our downfall, the rewards for humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life.
