I want to begin this morning by asking a simple and honest question. And I want you to be honest. I'm not looking for you to raise your hand or anything like that, but I certainly do want you to be honest with yourself and be honest with God. How many of you in here struggle with pride? That got us all, didn't it? The Puritan Henry Smith, who lived from 1560 to 1591, He makes these following comments. He says, I may say of pride, many sins have done so wickedly, but thou surmountest them all. For the wrathful man, the prodigal man, the lascivious man, the surfeiting man, the slothful man is rather an enemy to himself than to God. The envious man, the covetous man, the deceitful man, the ungrateful man is rather an enemy to men than to God. But the proud man sets himself against God because he does against His laws. He maketh himself equal with God because he does all without God and craves no help of Him. He exalted himself above God because he will have his own will. We've said a lot of things this morning about dying to self, and this is the reason why. Pride has nothing good to offer. In fact, everything that it offers, it offers baggage with it. And you know what that baggage is? Destruction. The Bible says pride comes before a fall. And I can attest to you in my personal life that that is certainly true. And I know that you can as well. Those words from Henry Smith clearly identify what we're dealing with this morning, and let me say that when you deal with pride, it will not happen without a fight. Just be honest with yourself this morning as you were worshiping. How many times did things come in your mind that would fall into the pride category? I know that these up here struggle with that. Because you are involved in worship and you just settle off for just a minute and you go, that sounds so good. And it did. And it always does. And there's nothing wrong with saying, that sounds good. But what's wrong with it is if it's said in pride. I sound so good. Listen to me sing like angels. Or, listen to me preach. See, there are so many things in our life that build us up in a sense of pride. And we want to conquer that. We want to deal with that. We want to recognize it for what it really is. Let me just say, you cannot be saved from your sin unless pride surrenders itself to the cross. You can't receive the Word of God this morning unless you conquer pride. Because the Bible tells us to receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls. So let me just say in preparation for our time together this morning in the Lord's Supper, I want to address this area of life, this very important area that's many times left uncovered. And I want to address it in four ways. First, I want to begin by defining it. What is pride? Just simply, what is it? There are two passages I want you to turn to. The first is found in Proverbs. Go to chapter 25. In Proverbs 25, beginning at verse 6, it says, Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the King. And do not stand in the place of great men, for it is better that He say to you, Come up here, than that you should be put lower in the presence of the Prince whom your eyes have seen. Would you please underline That word, exalt yourself. He says, do not exalt yourself. And then the second passage is found in verse 27 of the same chapter, and it says simply this. It says, it is not good to eat much honey, so to seek one's own glory is not glory. J. Bernard McGee, he says something good here. He says, a little honey is good, but a lot of honey makes you sick. I was thinking about that yesterday. I ate some pancakes and I just put a lot of syrup on it and it tasted good for a few minutes, but I was sick to my stomach afterward and that was just syrup. He says, for a man to be ambitious for glory, especially in the ministry of God, makes you sick. We see this around us in the church. There is an inordinate ambition among some Christians today, and it makes you sick to see that type of thing. See, both of these passages begin our topic because they both talk about the same thing. One prohibits exalting yourself in the presence of the King, and the other says it's not good to seek one's own glory. John MacArthur writes, in the royal court, as in all of life, self-seeking and pride Bring one down. Do not intrude into such a place for the elevating of the humble is honorable, but the humbling of the proud is disgraceful. You've heard me say this many times and I'll keep saying it because it's a good statement to be repeated. Spurgeon said, you can be humble or you can be humbled. Now, some few years back, I got the message on that. You can choose to humble yourself or you can let God humble you. And let me just say it, folks. You don't want that to happen. I remember sitting across the table with a fellow pastor and just recounting a few things that was going on right then and there. And I could barely even say the words. And I just sat him choking up and I said, I've been humbled. You can be humble or humbled. We can say of this first definition that pride is simply seeking one's own glory. This is what Lucifer did with God. It's what he sought to lead Eve to do in the Garden of Eden. Notice what Lucifer said in Isaiah 14, 13, and I'll make emphasis on what he says. He says, I will ascend into heaven I will exalt My throne above the stars of God. I will also sit in the mount of the congregation on the farther sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High." God had a different message for him. He said, you will be brought down to the pit. He says of Lucifer in Ezekiel 28.15, he says, you were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created till iniquity was found in you. What was that iniquity? It was pride. Paul says it was pride and he identified it as such when he says of a new convert that he shouldn't be an elder in the church. Why? Lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. You don't want a new convert in that place of ministry because he gets feeling good about the responsibilities and the authority that he has and he's going to be lifted up with pride and he's going to be brought down low. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 3. The past few Wednesday nights we've purposely been reading in Genesis just trying to help you to understand that this is the foundation of everything that we hold dear and believe. In the Garden of Eden, we see that Satan left out this part of the story where he tried to be God, and he tried to exalt himself above the angels of God, and he tried to ascend. He left all that out when he was speaking there to Eve and trying to get her to do the same thing. Because essentially, that's what he was doing. Because God told them in chapter 2, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can eat of every tree here in the garden, but the tree that's in the midst of the garden, you can't eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, He says, you will surely die. Eating of that fruit from that tree had a penalty of death. And you know what, folks? I believe that if that was all over again to be repeated today, it certainly would happen again. The same is true about the cross. If Jesus was here today, we'd crucify Him again. That's the wickedness of our hands. That's the wickedness of our hearts. He begins there in chapter 3 and verse 1, and we see here that Satan begins to question It says, now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said? What's he doing here? He's seeking to cast doubt on something that God has said. He says, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. What's the serpent say? He says to the woman, you will not surely die. He says, for God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. In other words, Eve, God's holding out on you. God's holding out on you. God didn't say you're going to surely die. That's not what He meant. What's so interesting about that, we blame our sin on our environment, and she was in a perfect environment. We blame our sin on others, but there was no one else around. First man, first woman. You may be sitting in your universities and these sophisticated professors, which are fools, because they say that there's no God and they say, no, there's a pre-Adamic nation, that there were more people during this time. That is a lie. That's an attack on the Word of God. And you need to understand, there's no gap between Genesis 1 Verse 1 and verse 2. What we see here, God creating the heavens and the earth in six literal 24 hour days, not billions of years. And we don't even believe in theistic evolution. God birthing this pre-middle puddle. The Bible doesn't teach any of that. The Bible says God created. God did this. and the very foundations of everything we believe are attacked. And what you see here in chapter 3, you have a record right here in the Word of God of the fall of man. Because see, she believed the serpent out of everything that she knew. God told them, don't do this. Don't take of this. And it says there in v. 6, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And there was a role reversal. Adam was no longer leading. He was now submitting. There was no longer any headship. Headship was not because of the fall. Headship was what God created in the beginning. The woman was made for the man. And in our day and culture, You got people, you mentioned the word submit and people have a panic attack. You know, and especially if you say, wives, you're to submit to your husbands and they just freak out because our society is breeding that. But folks, if God says to do it, that's what we are to do. The best commentary on God's word is God himself. And if he says, husbands, love your wives, Christ loved the church. If He says to the wives, submit to your husbands, as in to Christ, that's what He meant. It's very simple. So we see here, Eve submitting to what the serpent had to say and ignoring God's specific commands, and that's simply how it is with pride. It says, go ahead, seek your own glory. You deserve it after all. And we have a plethora of commercials that just kind of bring that. You deserve a break today. If you got what you deserved, you'd be in hell right now. So would I. All of us would. We see grace in the book of Genesis because God gave grace the very moment they said he could wipe them all out. Those two, but he did. They did die, they died in two ways that day. Eventually they died physically, but they immediately died spiritually. They became dead in trespasses and sins. They no longer had just heard about evil, they now experienced it. And they had a nature that they couldn't cover up with any fig leaves. See, the same is pride. Pride wants to clothe itself in nice garb. It wants to clothe itself in something very attractive and something shiny, something flashy. Look at me! This is exactly what Satan did. It not only cost him heaven, being there at the throne of God as one of the highest angels, but it will also cost him his life in hell. The Bible says that hell was created for Satan and his angels. Luke 14, 11 says, and you might want to keep this in mind, that whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. That's a promise. Adam and Eve were both humbled. And God passed His judgment on them for their sin and drove them out of the garden. You can read that in Genesis 3. Another great Puritan was William Gurnall. He lived from 1617 to 1679. He makes this statement. He says, pride loves to climb up, not as that he is to see Christ, but to be seen. So if I could give you a second definition for pride, it would be found back in the Proverbs. And you would find in Proverbs 27 and verse 2, It says, let another man praise you, and not your own mouth, a stranger, and not your own lips. See, pride is also praising yourself. Not only seeking one's own glory, but it's also praising you. Look at me. Look how good I am. Look how good I sound. Look how good I dress. Look at the nice car I drive. Look at the nice house I live in. And believe me, some of those things in and of themselves are not wrong. But it's the attitude by which we approach these things. It's the attitude that lies behind them. It's boasting. See, the only boasting that we should boast in is in salvation in Jesus. That's what Paul said. That's what I want to boast in. See, this verse here in Proverbs 27, it highlights what is behind seeking one's own glory. It's right at the heart of the matter See, when you praise yourself, you're no different than Nebuchadnezzar. You know what Nebuchadnezzar did as he was walking through his palace? Listen to what he said. This is in Daniel 4, verse 30. He says, is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my great power and for the honor of my majesty? It says, while the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. And they shall drive you from men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He chooses." That very hour, the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. For he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws." Isn't that devastating? You say, well, that's appropriate. And it's very easy in your pride to cast judgment on someone else, isn't it? That's pride. That's how it works. And it's so deceptive. So deceptive. You think you've got a channel on it and it creeps in and it pulls you down. I remember, and this wasn't very long ago, so I just want you to know I'm not that old, but I was at a skating rink in a pair of skates. Now, this sounds like it's old, because I don't like rollerblades. They hurt my ankles. I was in these roller skates, okay? And my niece was messing with me, and she went zooming by, and I'm like, I'll get you! And when I took off, that wheel went up, and it's like the roadrunner program. You know, when he runs off, the coyote runs off the side of the mountain, and there's a bit of a pause before he goes down. That's what it felt like. I was up, and it was like a pause. And I came right down on my back, and I jumped right back up, because my pride wouldn't let me lay there. And you jump up and you go, anybody see me? To me, that was the best illustration of pride. And you know what came with it too? Shame. I was so ashamed. And it wasn't so much for, you know, that I fell. The fact was, I was in pride when I started. Oh, you mess with me? I'll get you. I can still skate. No, you can't. See, Paul said that this attitude, it isn't wise. Again, look at what it did to Nebuchadnezzar. Pride has brought down many good men. Come with me to 2 Corinthians and look at chapter 10. We quote a lot from this chapter Talk about how the weapons of our warfare are mighty unto God for pulling down strongholds. But do we keep on reading? Because he says in verse 7, do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ, even so we are Christ. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed, lest I seem to terrify you by letters, for His letters, they say, are weighty and powerful, but His bodily presence is weak and His speech contemptible. Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present." What a good way to practice your life. Don't say one thing and do something else. Be consistent. He says, we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. We're not in that camp. People talk about cliques in the church. Listen, this is a clique. People over there praising themselves. You know, we're the praise me camp. And we don't see it. We don't look at it because pride has put disguisers on. And he says, but they, measuring themselves by themselves, comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us, a sphere which especially includes you. But we are not extending ourselves beyond our sphere, thus not reaching you. For it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ. Not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men's labors. We don't go around saying, listen, we led you to the Lord and forget about other people that maybe have labored in that process. Look at this one that's my child in the faith. Listen, I might have been the one on the third end of it that got to be a part of the harvest. What about that one that sowed and the other one that came back and watered? and going back to that person over and over and over with the gospel. The false teachers were coming in and doing these things and they were saying, listen, they were comparing themselves. And then, of course, the mess that was occurring in the Corinthian church, suing one another, getting drunk at the Lord's table, forgetting the poor. Did you imagine the risks that were in that fellowship? Could you imagine the contention and the strife and the division? That's the way Paul starts out 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10. He says, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it. He goes on to say, not boasting of things beyond measure, that and other men's labors, but having hope that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's sphere of accomplishment. Here's a good principle. But he who glories, let him glory in the Lord." See, pride says, glory in me. It doesn't say glory in the Lord. Somebody compliments you and says, praise Jesus. Praise Him. Thank you for your kind word that I give it to Him. And you say, well, that's pride too. Well, it can turn into that too. You can sound pious and spiritual and, you know, the guy walking around with the spiritual dictionary. J. Bernie McGee again says, Paul here is injecting a little note of humor. A great many folk compare themselves among themselves, which is the reason that many people in our churches think that they have arrived. They feel that they are really fine, outstanding spiritual Christians because they compare themselves with other Christians in their group. That's not the yardstick we are to use, my friend. This is one of the tragedies of the hour. A person can be in a cold church and grow cold himself and yet not be conscious of it because he compares himself with the cold Christians around him. So Paul says we don't have anything to do with anything like this because it's foolish. It's not wise. Verse 18, he says, for not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. See, glory in the Lord, and He'll commend that. But He won't commend it if you're going around comparing yourself with one another and you're saying, man, I must be doing pretty good. I'm here all the time. Well, you know, there are people that struggle to get here, but they may be further than you spiritually. And just because someone doesn't arrive at a certain time, don't put them all in the same camp. You don't know what's going on. See, in other words here, the Lord is the standard, not anyone, not anything, And we must measure ourselves by that standard, not by any other. See, this is the truth, but pride doesn't want it to be so. It continues to cause you to want to praise yourself, measuring your life on the life of others. Warren Wiersbe makes a good point. He says in his personal examination of the seven churches named in Revelation 2 and 3, he said the Lord Jesus measured them far differently than they measured themselves. The church that thought it was poor, he considered it to be rich. And the church that boasted of its wealth, he declared to be poor. He said some people measure ministry only by statistics. While it is true that the early church did take note of numbers, it is also true that uniting with the church at that time was a much more difficult and dangerous thing. He said some years ago, one of America's largest denominations had its theme, a million more in 64 and everyone a tither. He said, I heard one of their leading preachers comment, he said, if we get a million more like the last million, God help us. Wiersbe says quantity is no guarantee of quality. The Judaizers were great on measuring their ministry because a religion of external activities is much easier to measure than one of internal transformation. See what happens when you live your life like this. You'll begin to despise others who do not meet up to your standard. Go with me to Luke chapter 18. I want you to notice a parable that Jesus gives. It's interesting how Luke records this parable. Because he says there in verse 9 that he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Jesus says, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. What's he doing? Comparing himself. extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes at all that I possess. He sounds pretty spiritual, doesn't he? He didn't think about the fact that God told him to take care of his parents. And he said, what I have, I've given it to God. God said you should have taken care of your family. It says in the Tax Collector, standing afar off, he would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He wasn't touting his accomplishments. He wasn't touting his spiritual accolades. He just said, God, I'm a sinner. What is Jesus' evaluation of these two men? He says in verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted. You know, as I read that, I think of Paul. Because before Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, he was just like that man. I mean, you can go to Philippians chapter three and he talks about it. He talks about that we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And then he plays off of that phrase, no confidence in the flesh, because he says in verse 4, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks that he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Listen. Listen to his accolades. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Well, you might not understand all of that. It sounded good in that day. He says in verse 7, "...but what things were gained in me, these I have counted loss for Christ. But indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung." You know what dung is? We've said some pretty graphic things in this fellowship many times, so this shouldn't surprise you. It's manure. It's not a pretty sight, but he says, listen, I don't count all of these things as gain to me. I count them as poop. And it stinks. Because see, when he compares it to Christ, everything is loss. And that's the way you come to Christ. You lose everything. You say, well, do I have to give my car away, give my house away, give my money away? If Jesus says to, yeah, do it. Because that's what He said to the rich young ruler, didn't He? He said, take what you have, sell it, give it to the poor, and come follow Me. And you'll have treasure in heaven. See, because the God of his life was his money. And so what God wants to strip from you is whatever it is, it's the God of your life. It might be a car. It might be a house. It might be family. He wants to strip you of that because He will not share His glory with another. He is to be first. And it will cost you to follow Him in that manner. But that is the way we follow Jesus. You hear preachers today, they just say, pray a prayer, walk an aisle, and you're saved. You're in! There are going to be many people waking up in hell that follow that. That logic right there, that statement, those phrases. Get in the baptistry, baptize, get baptized, because that's going to bring you into the kingdom of heaven. But Peter says it doesn't save you. But you were counting on it that it does. Or you were counting on church membership, being into the denomination or the club or whatever you think of. I mean, I've noticed in churches, the longer people are there and they become cold and hardened, they feel like they're shareholders in a corporation. And every time they give, they've got an attachment to that. I give so I can tell everybody what to do. Or I won't give. Go somewhere else. We don't need that. Let me give you a third definition. And this one builds on the first two. What are the first two? It's seeking one's own glory. It's praising yourself. The third definition is forgetting God and His grace. forgetting God and His grace. And you might ask yourself, how can I forget God? I mean, I'm around the things of God all the time. You know, you can be listening to a message and totally tune it out. Some of you are doing that right now. You're listening to the Word and you tune it out. Or you sit there and say, man, I wish he would hurry. I mean, that's part of it. Thomas Manton said that this is certainly pride, for it is a lifting up of the heart above God and against God and without God. And a good illustration of this is in Deuteronomy chapter 8. Notice what he says in Deuteronomy chapter 8, beginning at verse 11. In fact, let's back up. This here is the chapter where Moses is given the law to the second generation. You know, this is the generation that actually did go and possess the land because their parents didn't. They were complainers, and so they wandered in the wilderness until they died. And he says there in chapter 8, verse 1, every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. So you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and big trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity. in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments and His statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the rock of Flint, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you to do good in the end. Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of My hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day. then it shall be if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God." I think that was pretty clear to them. Many things the Lord said was very clear, as He does today in His Word. And folks, we have a choice. Obey or disobey. Do what He says or do what we want. So seeking one's own glory, praising yourself, forgetting God and His grace, these are all good reasons for dealing with the sin of pride. Would you agree? Let me give you the greatest definition, I believe, of pride. And it's found back in Proverbs. And it's found in chapter 21. It says there in verse 4, a haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are, say it with me, sin. It's sin. Pride is sin. These two qualities here that are found in this verse are two attitudes. They're literally lifting up of the eyes, that is haughtiness or pride. And extensive of heart, that's an idiomatic expression for arrogance. So what do you have here? You have pride or haughtiness or a lifting of the eyes and you have arrogance. John Gill says that the man that looks above others with disdain upon them shows that pride reigns in him and swells his mind with a vain opinion of himself. So you must understand that pride is sin, no matter how you look at it, whether it be in a haughty look or a proud heart. And it's also a sin that will not go unpunished. It says in Psalm 101, verse 5, that whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure." And so that leads me now to the dangers of pride. What are those dangers? Well, first you need to understand what pride does in the heart. Because pride is seeking one's own glory, praising yourself and forgetting God in His grace. What's this danger? Well, what will it do if all that's in your heart? It will do this. It will stir up strife. and contention. It says in Proverbs 28, 25, he who is of a proud heart stirs up strife. And then in chapter 13, verse 10 of Proverbs, it says by pride comes nothing but strife. What is strife? It's contention. It's discord. It's division. John Gilligan says, the one with a proud heart could refer to one with a large heart or has an enlarged one, not with useful knowledge and understanding as Solomon had, not a heart enlarged with love and affection to the souls of men as the Apostle Paul had, but either has a covetous one who enlarges its desire as hell and is never satisfied with what he has and so is continually contending with his neighbors, engaging in lawsuits for their property or unwilling to pay his lawful debts, or of a proud spirit and despises all around him, and cannot bear opposition and contradiction, and is of a wrathful and revengeable spirit, and always at variance with his neighbors and quarreling with them." So if you're stirring up strife, recognize that it's coming from the pride in your heart. And that pride is sin. And let me remind you that that's also a work of the flesh. Galatians chapter 5 Paul tells us about the works of the flesh in verse 19. He says, these are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, adultery, or rather, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, and here it is, selfish ambitions. That's how pride is defined in the New Testament. Selfish ambitions. Well, notice the second danger. If pride causes strife and contention, then what does it hinder? It doesn't seek God. Pride doesn't seek God. You can't seek God in your pride. You have to be stripped of that pride. You say, wait a minute, I came to Christ. Think about it again. Did you come or did God draw you? Did you believe or did God give you faith? Did you repent or did God give that to you? Psalm 10 verse 4 says this, the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. But I came, I walked, I did it. No, you didn't. You didn't do it. God did it in you. See, I believe that's a blow to the seeker sensitive movement. He says the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. Why? Because God is in none of his thoughts. Just like Romans 3.11, there's none who seeks after God. See, the only way one can seek after God is if you have been sought after by God. You can't seek Him until He seeks you. Because pride won't let you. Your pride won't let you. You've heard many people you've talked to. I'm not ready to come to Christ. I'm not ready to follow. It's their pride. You press them for a deeper discussion of that and it boils up to pride. I don't want to give up my life. Well, then you can't have Christ. I don't want to give up all the fun that I have. Well, then you just go have fun because it won't be fun in hell. This is all you will have is this life. So the dangers of pride are it stirs up strife and contention and it doesn't seek God. The third danger It leads to the worship of idols. It leads to destruction. It leads to disobedience. You say, well, that's very interesting. You say, how can we worship idols today? Well, listen, 1 John closes by simply saying this, little children, keep yourself from idols. And just because you don't erect the statue of that day, you can worship idols. You know what those idols are? They're very contemporary. They're very modern. You know, your idol may be that car. It may be that house. It may be that lawn that you're keeping plush to make it look like carpet or a golf course, you know. All your time spent right there, that's your God. That's your idol. Less time in the Word? You can find out a person's priorities. How much time are you in the Word? See, because if you're in the Word a lot and you've got the Word being put in you through tapes and CDs and sharing Christ with others, memorizing, meditating on the Word, listen, that tells us what your priorities are. But if your priority is you, God gets put on the back shelf. You go home, you sit the Bible right there and it stays there all week. Or maybe you don't even have your Bible today. You couldn't find it from under all the clutter. All the dust in the house. I know sometimes we go to certain chapters. I'm just being foolish. And you see the dust fly. Never saw that in the Bible. It's pride. Again, Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 19. Just to remind you what he says. You don't need to turn there. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish." You say, but I gave my life to Christ. I'm a follower. I'm a member. Look at my ring. That doesn't guarantee anything. A changed life guarantees everything. Did Jesus change you? Or did you come in another way? Did you come through the shepherd? Through the sheep gate? Or did you climb in like a thief and a robber? See, just saying you're a Christian doesn't make you a Christian. I can say I'm a hamburger and it doesn't make me a hamburger. Say you're a chicken. Many of us might agree. It doesn't matter what you say. Because see, words alone could be to your own ruin. It could be to your own damnation. Jesus said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord. And then they'll go touting all of their things that they've done, supposedly for Him. And He says, I will declare unto them, I never knew you. Why? He tells them why. You were a worker of iniquity. You practiced sin. That's what you did. Sin, sin, sin. And this whole area is called Sin City. Sin City is everywhere. Not just here. Perfect place for a church. Go to 1 John with me. Chapter 1. Why don't you look at three verses in chapter 1 real quickly. He says in verse 6, If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Did you hear that? You say this, but you do this, you are a liar. That's what the Bible said. And get mad at me. God said that through John. Look at verse 8. He says it again. If we say that we have no sin, now you're denying the presence of sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. I don't have any sin. I remember sitting in seminary and hearing a professor say that. I was shocked. I was like, well, I'm getting out of here. I know I sinned. And one more, verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. What Jesus does in your life, He makes your words in your life consistent. See, James even hits on that. Back up just a couple books. He gives all kinds of illustrations throughout this. Chapter 2 gives the illustration of a man coming into the assembly. Two men actually come in. One's a poor man, one's a rich man. And the whole church gives favoritism to the rich man. They're like, here, sit here, right here, take my chair. And they say to the poor man, it's good to sit over there. Rich man, he's got all the rings. They used to rent rings to make you have the appearance of being wealthy. He had his shiny clothes on. The poor man, well, that's what he wants. He was poor. Dirty, shabby, smelly. Homeless man walks in. And we treat the rich man better because of what the rich man has. And James calls this the sin of partiality. So he rebukes that. And he tells them in verse 14, after he's rebuked them and he's showed them the law, he says, you want to say you're a doer of the law, then okay, you're going to be judged by the law. This is what the law says. It says in verse 12, so speak and so do, as those who will be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. For mercy triumphs over judgment. Then he says, what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have words? Can faith save him? In other words, can that kind of faith save him? And then he says, if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food. And one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warm, be filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does that profit? And in its context, what does that kind of faith profit? It's not faith at all. That's what he says in verse 17, "...thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, it is dead." He said, someone will say, you have faith and I have works. James says, show me your faith without your works, which you can't do. And I will show you my faith by my works. You say you believe in God, then let's see it. Let's see it in a changed life. You say, well, I'm kind of backsliding today. Well, repent. I mean, you've got one step that's in the right direction. You're here. You're under the Word. You're being confronted. The Spirit of God is confronting you. And don't sit there in your pride and go, how dare he say that to me? I'm a pillar in the community. Well, cut the pillar down. Because that's what God's going to do, you know. You're a wooden pillar. And God's going to put the axe right there. That's what the Pharisees were. That's what the scribes were. Pharisees walked around. They made their garments longer. They enlarged the tassels on their garments. They wore the rabbi garments. They enlarged the little phylacteries that they carried the law in. They did all that for the show of men. It was pride. It was all pride. So you can see why there's dangers. Danger of pride. It stirs up strife and contention. It does not seek God. It leads you to worship of idols. Destruction and disobedience? Listen, God does not tolerate it. Why? Because He hates it. That's just like a subject that most people don't want to talk about, and that's divorce. God allows divorce under certain circumstances, but you know, all in all, it says He hates it. Even though He would allow it in certain circumstances, He still hates it. Do we understand that? Our God is even very graceful. It says in Psalm 101, verse 5, we read it earlier. It says, whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy. The one who has a halty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. Have you heard this? Proverbs 6, 16. These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven, are an abomination to Him. What is it? A proud look. God hates it. It is an abomination. And you know what? That falls in the same category of other abominations in Scripture. You know, homosexuality is an abomination. Lesbianism is an abomination. The Bible specifically says that. And He puts pride right there in the same category. So God will not endure him who has a halty look or a proud heart because he considers this to be an abomination. He hates pride. He hates all that's associated with it because it's a sin that destroys lives. And that's why we can see that the culmination of the dangers of pride is in this last one. What's it say? God resist those who are proud. You sit there this morning, you say, I'm OK, everything's fine. If you're not willing to humble yourself, don't take up the Lord's table when we do it in just a few moments. Because you're taking the table in an unworthy manner. And you're going to bring judgment on yourself. If you're truly a believer, God will chasten you. He does that with trials. He does that through pain. I call it the divine spanking. You know, your best bet is to repent. Your best bet is to confess it to God and cry out for His mercy. Say, Father, I've sinned against You. Please forgive me. I mean, that's the best response. That's the best remedy to any pride. There are two verses in the New Testament that speak directly to this. James 4, v. 6 says he gives more grace, therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The word resist here means to oppose. He stands against the proud. And what is the proud? The word he uses here, haughty, one who thinks above and beyond. that which is proper, that which is arrogant. You know, Paul specifically says we're not to do this. How does he say that? Romans 12.3. He says, for I say through the grace that's given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Stop doing that, he says. Yeah, that's like the guy that has a lot of knowledge, but he doesn't know how to apply it. And he says knowledge is not applied. What does it do? It puffs up. Second passage is in 1 Peter 5, after Peter humbled the elders there by telling them what they are to focus on, not lording over the fellowship, but shepherding that church of God, doing it by an example. He tells the rest in verse 5, likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. See, that is the remedy. So we looked at the definition of pride, the dangers of pride, the destruction of pride. What is that destruction? Very simply, Proverbs 16, 18, I quoted it earlier, pride goes before destruction and a halting spirit before a fall. Just as I fell on my backside in my pride, so will all of us fall. See, pride brings with it destruction. It comes with baggage. It pulls us on U-Haul. Adam Clarke says, here pride is personified. It walks alone and it has destruction in its train. John Gill says, as did in the angels that sinned, who through pride fell into condemnation, not being able to bear the thought that the human nature in the person of the Son of God should be advanced above theirs. And as it did in our first parents, who not content with their present state and circumstances, and ambitious of being as gods, knowing good and evil, ruined themselves in all their posterity. And as it has done in many of their sons, as in Haman, Nebuchadnezzar, and others. I like what this one writer says. He says, pride and shame, you'd never know that they are sisters. They appear so different. Pride puffs out her chest. Shame hangs her head. Pride boasts shame. Pride seeks to be seen. Shame seeks to be avoided. But don't be fooled. These emotions have the same parentage. And the emotions have the same impact. They keep you from your Father. Pride says you're too good for Him. Shame says you're too bad for Him. Pride drives you away. Shame keeps you away. If pride is what goes before a fall, then shame is what keeps you from getting up after one. Folks, pride will be destroyed. It will be destroyed. It is sin. It is something that you and I have to be stripped of daily. Listen to what David actually sings in Psalm 52. But you see the inscriptions that are falling under the psalm, and then you have verse 1. Actually, in the Hebrew Bible, that inscription is verse 1. And it would say, "...to the chief musician, a contemplation of David, when Dio the Edomite went and told Saul and said to him, David has gone to the house of Abimelech." That's part of the verse. That's actually verse 1. And David sings this. Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor working deceitfully. You love evil more than good and lying rather than speaking righteousness. And then you hear this pause. Selah. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy you forever. He shall take you away and pluck you out of your dwelling place and uproot you from the land of the living, Selah. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him, saying, Here is the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever because You have done it. And in the presence of Your saints, I will wait on Your name, for it is good." That is praising God above everyone and everything. See, that's how you can be stripped of pride. You constantly put Jesus first. Constantly. When someone praises you, give it to Jesus right then. Constantly give it back to Him. Because pride is going to be destroyed. It says in Proverbs 15, 25, the Lord will destroy the house of the proud. He will do this. So we have, what's the definition of pride? It's seeking one's own glory. It's praising yourself. It's forgetting God and His grace. It's sin. What are the dangers of pride? It stirs up strife and contention. It does not seek God. It leads to the worship of idols, destruction and disobedience. And God does not tolerate it because He hates it. God resists those who are proud. What's the destruction of pride? Well, pride brings with it destruction and pride shall be destroyed. So let me get very practical with you as we prepare ourselves to receive the Lord's table this morning. How are you to deal with pride? Very practical. Look with me at Proverbs 30. Proverbs 30. And it says in verse 32, if you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth. Isn't that very practical? If you're running around exalting yourself with your mouth, do this. Stop. Stop doing that. For as the churning of milk produces butter, and a ringing of the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife." Cover your mouth. Don't let this be uttered. Don't exalt yourself. Don't be a part of that. It's foolish. It's devising evil. Secondly, Proverbs 28. Back up two chapters. Proverbs 28. It says in verse 13, he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. We've already established that pride is sin, so you need to confess it as sin. Sometimes we are not willing to rid ourselves of certain things in our life because we don't see them as sin. But you can believe us that we'll certainly call it for what it is. So how do you deal with pride? Put your hand on your mouth. Confess it as sin. and then humble yourself. James 4.10 says, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. So as you prepare yourself to participate in the Lord's Supper this morning, I want you to ask yourself, am I seeking my own glory? Am I praising myself? Am I exalting myself? Have I forgotten about God and His grace? If you have, it's sin. And you need to ask God to forgive you. You need to repent. If you're having trouble answering the first three questions due to pride, then consider these questions. Am I causing strife and contention in my life? The life of my brothers and sisters? In my home? Have I stopped seeking after God and His Word? Remember, if you're lost, you can't seek Him. But if you're saved, you can. Because He sought you. Am I following after that which will bring about my own destruction? See, folks, one of the hardest things to be rid of is pride. And don't think that just because you got saved, that pride's gone now. Satan always looks for an opportunity for a foothold in your life. And the very moment you let down your guard, He comes in. You know when we're the most weakest is when we've just finished battle. Wrestling in a trial. Wrestling with sin. And I can attest to you, just personally, when you're physically tired, you let your guard down. I know when I'm physically tired, I get sick. Physically get sick. I got sick this week because I got physically tired and I didn't get the sleep I needed. And I don't sleep long, believe me. I get up all through the night. And it's like, well, ok. But just think about that spiritually. Do you sleep through the Word? Do you let other things take the priority in your heart? I know that you want what I want. And I know that you want to work as hard as you can to have that. So it calls for dying. You've got to die to have it. It's painful. It hurts. The same way you come to Christ is the same way you maintain. You keep dying. Chip asked me, let's do something like this this morning. And I said, no, no, let's not do this. I didn't die to self. You ask one another something, or you want to do something, and there's nothing wrong with it. And you get a lot of contention, a lot of response for it. You know what? Someone didn't die to self. How about it, husbands? Your wife asks you something? You've got this attitude? She just says, can't you just take the trash out? You can if you die to self. You can climb on the roof. You can clean out gutters. You can do anything. All for the glory of Jesus. So, I just want to encourage you. I notice the more and more time we're together, the more and more dear you come to my heart. Wednesday night was just... I don't like it when we're not together. You know, we weren't together last Sunday. And I just keep plugging along in my study. I think I can use that time to get ahead, and it just doesn't work like that. I just keep thinking it. But when we got here Wednesday night, I was just like, Lord, this is great. I'm going to spend all eternity with people in this room. We're going to worship Jesus perfectly, and we're going to keep working on that now. You know? And when we worship, Yeah, lately I've just been coming up here in the front, just so I didn't have to look at you, and so I could just think about Him, you know? And I can just tune out what's behind me. Because I just want Him. You say, do you imagine God? No, I don't imagine anything. Because that would be idolatry. I don't think of any form. God is Spirit. A lot of times when I close my eyes, I just pray, God, strip this from my heart. Strip pride from me. Take my sin. You know, or confess. I mean, that's what Chip was saying. Don't wait for walking an aisle or something to respond to God. You respond the very moment you're in here. The very moment the Word is shared. And the Word has been shared, not just by this time, it's been shared all morning. So, I just want to encourage you. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We praise You for Your Word today. We love Your Word. Lord, I know that physically we fight with the flesh because we get weary sitting in a metal chair and our body sends signals and we have to fight with that, Lord. Lord, help us to say, I got to bring my body in submission to Jesus. Just what Paul said, he said he would beat his body to bring it into submission. Help us, Lord, not to listen to the flesh. but to listen to Your Spirit. Help us, Lord, to long for the Word, the wonderful Word of Your grace. And I pray right now, Lord God, as we prepare in taking the table together, God, I pray that we'll remember what Jesus has done for each one of us. And I pray, Lord, that there's that one sitting in here that's not willing to confess their sin, God. Lord, don't let them take up the table. bring this condemnation on themselves, Lord, this chastening on themselves. Lord, I pray, strip us from pride. Pride won't even let us pray and confess it. So, Lord, as we share together, God, strip us of these things and cause us, Lord God, to just acknowledge You in every single way in every moment of this. You shed Your blood for us. You gave Your life for us. You turned our life around. I am no longer the person I used to be. I don't even think the way I used to think, Lord, and that's only because of You and Your Word. Lord, I want Your Word on my thoughts every single moment of the day. And I don't want any glory for me, I want it all for You. So God, I pray that for all of us. Call us this morning as we remember Your death, Your burial, Your resurrection, to acknowledge You, to praise You, to worship You, to say we're doing all this for You, not for us. We don't do any of this to be seen by men or praised by men. We do this for the glory of Jesus, for Him and Him alone, because He is worthy. And Lord, in that day when we stand before You, we stand before the throne and before the 24 elders and before the four living creatures, and we hear, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come, we'll fall down with them in worship. And we'll cry out in that new song of the redeemed, Salvation Belongs, to our God and to the Lamb who sits on the throne. Jesus, I pray right now, strip all of us of our pride and strip especially that one that's in here this morning that doesn't know You. And in their pride, they don't want to humble themselves and bow their knee to Your Lordship. I pray, God, strip them of that right now. Humble them. Humble us. We pray that in Your name.