This is the Chancellor's Program. At his homegoing in November 1997, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. left a legacy of lifelong ministry to students as Chancellor and former President of Bob Jones University. He also left a wealth of recorded sermons which we now present on the Chancellor's Program. Today we bring you a message delivered during a daily chapel service held on the campus February 10, 1955. Based upon scripture found in Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 49, today's message is titled, Pride, Prosperity, and Idleness. Very interesting verse from the book of Ezekiel, 16th chapter, the 49th verse. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and her daughters. I won't read the rest of the verse. The iniquity of Sodom, the prophet says, was three things—pride, prosperity, and too much idols. Young people, that's one of the things that's wrecking America today. I mean, those same three things—pride. We've got the notion in America we are the greatest nation in the world. Nobody can ever lick us. Nobody need ever try. And we are bundling in our international diplomacy. article about that in the paper this morning. You ought to read the newspaper occasionally. I think at least once a semester. You ought to sort of catch up with what's going on in the world. We put them in the dormitory for that purpose. Somebody tells me that when they throw out the papers, the sport page is well read. But the rest of the paper, except for the comics, shows little sign of reading. Good idea to read the front page. Start at the front of the paper. Do you ever notice how many people start at the back and read from the back to the front? Now, I can understand that folks that are out of work, they want to get to the waterheads as soon as possible. Help wanting. But when you're in school and don't need a job, start at the front and read through, read the news. But one of the things that's wrecking us in America is the fact that we've just sort of a pride and an attitude we've never been licked in a war, and nobody ever can lick us. I wish sometimes when you have time, you'd take your concordance and go through and read what the Bible has to say of pride. We are told in the Scripture that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. 1 Peter, the fifth chapter, I think, is this verse, that we should clothe ourselves with humility. That means we should put on the garment of a servant. Our Lord did that when he took a towel and girded himself, made an apron of a towel before he took the basin to wash the feet of his disciples. Now that's what we need among Christians these days, the attitude of heart that makes a man clothe himself in a garment of service. In other words, a Christian wears his overalls all the time as far as being in heart attitude ready to serve other men. The way down, you've heard many times from this platform, is the way up. He that would be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all. But I don't know any sin that so besets Christian people primarily as this sin that overthrew Sodom, this sin of pride. And in the Bible, if you study the scripture, you'll find pride is always associated with dishonesty, with deceit, with evil, and with naughtiness. Now that word naughtiness is a very interesting word in the King James Version. It's a translation of a term that has become a nursery term in our days. We say to a child, don't be naughty. But in the King James English, naughtiness means more than simple misbehavior. It means the worst sort of vile sin and corruption of heart and life. Naughty is a word that has been weakened in the English language. By the way, the one reason I appreciate the King James version above all others is the fact that this version was made at the time when the English language had some guts in it. Today, the English language has gotten to be a rather weak and effeminate sort of a tongue. But in the days of King James, that English language had real teeth in the language. And that word, naughtiness, in those days had to do with the most wicked corruption of the flesh, scheming, evil, debased mental processes developing into outward practice of all kinds of unclean sin and intrigue and murder and lawlessness. And those things are always associated, in God's word, with pride. I've known pride to wreck the lives of Christian students. We had a student in this school one time, rather attractive girl. She said, I'm going to quit the end of a semester because, she said, I don't have an opportunity to use my talent to reach sinners. And I, if I'm on a program here, I'm only with Christian people. Trouble is, she never was on a program. Now that girl had one trouble with her. She had pride. She had the reputation back home of never having finished any job she ever tackled. A pastor told a member of our organization the year she came here to school, said, that girl's starting into Bob Jones University. I hope she'll get through there. It'll be the first thing she ever started out to do she ever finished. Now that girl had a pride of heart. She wanted to be in the limelight. She was all right as long as the band played and she had the solo part. But she couldn't take the steady routine of hard work and preparation. She wanted to be a general without having first been a private. You've heard it said many times, young folks, I expect your grandmother used to say to you, you'll never learn to give orders until you learn how to take them. My grandmother used to say that to me when I was a kid. It used to seem very illogical to me. I didn't see how taking orders had anything to do with giving them. It seemed to me nobody had to learn to give orders. You could just do that automatically. But you had to learn to take orders. But as I've grown older, I see what that old saw means. You have to learn how to live under discipline before you can ever be in a position where you can live above discipline. No man's ever fit to give orders to a regiment until he knows how to march himself. Until a man knows what all the commands mean from the experience of the ranks, he's not in position to stand up and yell out the commands out of the corner of his mouth like the average sergeant does. You've got to live under discipline before you're fit to be above discipline. And here, girl, nice girl was in school, but she missed her opportunity because she had pride. And the trouble about pride, the Bible says it always goes with deceit. She deceived herself and tried to deceive the Dean of Women and others by saying, the trouble is, I don't have enough opportunity to witness to the unsaved about Christ. What she meant was she wasn't on the Saturday Night Youth for Christ program as a soloist down here. She was taking math and science and doing voice scales and voice exercises and, what do you call that stuff, arpeggios. She was down in the routine of the ABCs. instead of playing the star part in the Grand Opera. That's what was the matter with her. And her pride deceived herself and attempted to deceive other people. It's a rare man who'll ever admit his pride. You remember that story in Dickens about the character who bragged about the fact that he was a very humble person? And somebody questioned his humility, and he was so proud of his humility he blew his top. A traveler in the Middle East told me once about going through a monastery, and there was a monk who showed him around. And the monk kept telling him that he was the humblest monk in the monastery. And he was not only the humblest monk, but he had been the wickedest sinner before he became a monk. And this man going through the monastery just to test him out, knowing human nature, began to tell him what a sinner he was. wasn't, he was a good man, but he just began to tell all the stories he could about himself to try to show the monk that he was a bigger sinner than the monk had bragged about having been. And this monk, who was so proud of his sanctity and his humility, blew his top and got mad and went out and slammed the door and sulked because he met a man who claimed to be a bigger sinner than he had been. That's human nature, isn't it? You know, I sure am proud of the fact I'm humble. Pride. Say, what's your pride? You've got pride of something. There are all kinds. There's pride of face. I don't see anybody here that has any reason for that kind. It's oftentimes the people that don't have the reason for it that develop it. And there's pride of place. That's the man or woman who's proud of the fact that She's in society or she's in a certain position. That's the shallowest kind of pride. And there's pride of race. No man has a right for pride in that position. No man chose how he should come into the world as far as nationality and color of skin is concerned. And then there's pride of grace. May the good Lord deliver us from that. That's the worst of all. The pride of grace. You know, Paul was a proud man before he became Paul, while he was still so. But he boasted of this one thing after he became a Christian. He boasted of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only thing any man has a right to boast in. And when he boasts himself in that, he's exalting the Lord and not speaking in the pride of heart. You've got a good mind? Why be proud of it? God gave it to you. What do you have that you have not received, the Bible says? If you have a good mind, then you take it as a gift from God and accept the responsibilities that go with the good mind. If you have personality and talent and leadership, accept it as from God and recognize that you have a responsibility, because as it's given unto a man, so a man shall give an account unto God. You are judged on the basis of the gifts and talents you have. I never met a great man, and I've known a good many, who was not a humble man. Now that doesn't mean a man doesn't have to know his abilities. You ought to know what you can do. If you have talent, you ought to recognize it. But listen, if you think you have talent and nobody else thinks so, you better recognize the fact you may be wrong about it. I never yet knew a man who had great talent that that talent wasn't quickly recognized. These days, talent is such a rare thing, really great talent. Mental abilities, greatness of character, those are rare commodities these days. Now, you may come to Bob Jones University and you may be shy and quiet and retiring. It may take us a little while to discover what you have, but we specialize around this place in digging up what's under the surface. And if you around here and think you are greatly talented and you feel you are neglected and not appreciated, The chances are you're overestimating yourself. If other folks don't agree with your estimate of you, I'd take the majority opinion on that matter. That's hard to take, I know, but you better take it. If everybody thinks you are conceited, the chances are you are conceited. And that matter of pride can wreck your spiritual life, and it can wreck your whole future as far as happiness is concerned. I never knew a proud man that was happy, because somebody's going to always cross his pride. That's one of the avenues along which Satan comes to tempt us. There's the lust of the flesh, there's the lust of the eye, there's the pride of life. And if you are proud and haughty of spirit, you remember that you've set yourself in a position where God himself hates your characteristics. You say, does God hate a man? Well, God loves all men. But the Bible says, these six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. And it's significant. He begins with a proud look. God puts the proud look ahead of the lying tongue, ahead of the feet that are swift into running into mischief, and the heart that divideth wicked imaginations, the one that stirreth up discord among brethren, and the false witness that speaketh lies. You know why? Because every one of those things will follow. the proudness of look. Man's proud. He's not going to stand the fellow that kind of undermines his pride and doesn't recognize him for what he thinks he's worth, so he has a murderous heart. He'd like to get even with that fellow that doesn't appreciate him. A proud man will lie. He lies to himself. He won't face facts. He won't recognize the situation as it is. He deceives himself, attempts to deceive others. A proud man always makes trouble where he goes. I never knew a man who was proud of heart, stiff-necked and proud, who wasn't a troublemaker. He stirs up discord among brethren. I've known a few people who thought they were great scholars, and I never knew one of them yet that didn't get mean as the devil when somebody questioned his scholarship. I never knew a man yet who was proud of his place and his position and his influence, who, when he suddenly found he was not what he thought he was in the opinion of others, that he didn't get mean, try to stir up trouble. I never knew a man yet who was proud of heart, who didn't hate those who crossed his path. Young folks, I think pride is as bad as sin, and in the sight of God it seems to me from the scripture to be worse than drunkenness and uncleanness and all the rest put together. Sodom, which was such a wicked city, godless, is the chief iniquity of the city pride. Let him that stands take heed lest he fall. And then there's fullness of bread. That's too much prosperity. I've known lots of folks been ruined by prosperity. I'm not going to preach much on that, because most of you are not in danger of being ruined. But I've known a few people who had so much that they were rotten spawn. I'm sorry for a student whose parents give him everything he wants. What does the Bible say about that church in that day? You say, we have no need of anything. And God says, you know not, you are naked and poor. The man who has everything he wants is in a place of danger. One of the hardest things in the world is to continue spiritually when you're prosperous. Prosperity has ruined more schools than adversity. As God blesses this institution, our daily prayer around here is that God will never let us get to the place where we don't need something else. Whenever you get to the place where you have everything you want and anything you want you can have, you're in a state of danger spiritually. Abundance of bread, too much. That's why we don't serve T-bone steak twice a day around here. We don't want you folks to get to the place where you can have what you want to eat all the time. It's a good idea to eat cornbread and turnip greens. It's good for you spiritually as well as physically. Fullness of bread. Too much of a good thing will ruin you. Happy the young preacher that starts off in a church that needs a new roof and hasn't got any money in it. I'll tell you preachers, whenever your church gets to the place where you haven't got a debt on you, you can look out for trouble. The saints, I put that in quotes, the saints will begin to look around for something to occupy their time. And usually the pastor will be the target of their activity. If you have trouble in your church, you need two things. You need revival and a debt. You ask God to send a revival, you do something to start a debt in the church. Give them something to work for. I heard about an old woman who went to a young preacher. She was a godly woman. The young preacher was having trouble in his first church. He went to this dear old saint, and he said, Grandmother, what ought we to do around here? She says, Put a new roof on. He says, We just had a roof on two or three years ago. We don't need a new roof. She says, No, but we need the dance. Put the new roof on. It'll give the board something to work toward paying it off. Increase your missionary budget. Do something. But whenever you get to the place where everything's easy, you are in the place of the fall. And the third thing, The old saying is, an idle brain's the devil's workshop. If you have more than an hour off every day, you better sign up for another course. The man who has nothing to do is the man who'll have something done to him of the devil. The way to stay happy is to stay busy. I saw a television program late last night. One of the best and one of the few good shows I ever see on television. Psychopathic murders, drunkenness, bar scenes, gangsters. There's nothing gonna damn us as quick in America as the modern television program. I don't know which is worse, the comedians or the murderers. Personally, I think the murderers are nicer people than some of the comedians. I just despise the average television comedian. They work so hard at being funny that you sweat with them for fear that jokes won't go across. And some of the average television prank is aimed at the five-year-old mind. But most of the plays are terrible things. This was an interesting story about a fellow, a young man out of the army, out of a Korean war camp. who'd come home, found his wife dead, eleven months old baby, and who'd taken to drinking despondency. And how he came in contact with a nurse out in the house in a storm where a little boy had an appendectomy and he happened to wander in. They thought they were going to have to do the operation themselves. The child was about to have a ruptured appendix and the doctor finally got somebody to bring him there in a boat. And this fellow was feeling sorry for himself, practically crying on the shoulder of the nurse. He found out afterwards from the doctor that the nurse, who was so well established in personality, had a husband who was a major, who was a doctor, who died in a Korean camp. And the shock of it caused the death of a baby. She went out and became a nurse, kept herself busy, and occupied, and got over a grief. And here was a fellow whose child was still alive. who'd come home at least with something of a family there, who felt so sorry for himself. And the doctor said, one thing about staying busy, you don't have time to feel sorry for yourself. And the difference between being drowning your sorrows in work and drowning your sorrows in drink is the fact that you never find a place and you never find yourself in a spot where there's not some work to do. The boy was all upset because he was in a house where he couldn't get a drink of liquor, see. People didn't drink that house, bless their hearts. Didn't have any stuff there, even for medicine. And the doctor said, one thing about work, you never find yourself in a place where there's not something to do. You may find yourself if you try to drown your sorrows and drink where you can't get a drink. But there's always a place where there's a job to do. And I said, that Program they talked about the Lord in it too, and what God could do in the heart of a man I was amazed that it didn't go as far as I'd like to have seen it go, but it at least it started in the right direction And I got to thinking about this verse. I think that's what started me off on this line of thought last night When you haven't something to do you better ask God to Send you where there's a job Who was the great preacher that prayed at the hour of his death? Lord, give me life beyond this life and give me something to do. Pride, fullness of bread, idols. Pride of heart, too much prosperity, and not enough to keep you busy. From all such, good Lord, deliver us. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray Thee for these young people. We pray Thee to keep them humble of heart. Bless the faculty and administration. May we each be conscious of the fact that Thy hand is upon us and that at best we are altogether unprofitable servants. We pray Thee to keep us humble of spirit. We pray Thee to keep us busy. May we never get to a place in this institution where we do not have to trust Thee because we feel we have all we need in the bank and in buildings and in prosperity. We pray Thee, Lord, not that we shall prosper but that thy works shall prosper through us, that men shall be blessed, come to know Christ through our lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You've heard a sermon by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., who for many years before his homegoing served as chancellor of Bob Jones University. Dr. Jones delivered this message titled Pride, Prosperity and Idleness at a daily chapel service, February 10th, 1955. You can order a cassette copy from the campus store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Please enclose a check for $5.13. This message is also available online at wmuu.com. Listen each week at this time for the Chancellor's Program, sponsored by Bob Jones University.