What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something, but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight, you do not have because you do not ask. You do not ask God. And when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think the scripture says without reason that the spirit he calls to live in us tends towards envy? But he gives us more grace. That is why the scripture says God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. This is the Word of God. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. One of the greatest hindrances to revival is pride. I've heard Christians declare, I only want what God wants. The Scriptures declare that our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. And that after we have done all, we should admit that we are but unprofitable servants. Yet these individuals would have us believe that their motives and intentions are pure as the driven snow, completely sanctified, and they only want what God wants. The Word of God categorically states, there is none righteous, not one. There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none of this good, no, not one. That is the word of God in Romans 3. But when you go onto the streets and you do evangelism, you ask people, may I ask you a question? Would you consider yourself to be a good person? The answer you get from the overwhelming majority of people is, yes, I'm a very good person. They're not just a good person, they're a very good person. And then you ask, May I ask you some questions to see if this is true? And everyone's always very happy to do that because we love to be self-justifying. Have you ever told a lie? Yes. What do you call a person who tells a lie? A liar. Have you ever stolen anything? No. Now come now, just admit it that you've lied. OK, when I was very small, something very, very small when I was very young. Now isn't that another lie? OK, yes, I have stolen. Have you ever borrowed something that didn't belong to you? Yes. Have you failed to return it? Yes. What does that make you? Sinful. Have you ever taken God's name in vain? In fact, by now, somebody's normally taken God's name in vain. Anyway, and you say, well that's blasphemy, that's taking God's name in vain. That's extremely serious. God gave you life. And you respond by using his name like a swear word? An expression of disgust? Have you ever killed someone? Phew, lost something I haven't looked. No. Have you ever hated someone? Yes. Jesus said if you hate someone it's like committing murder in your heart. Have you ever committed adultery? Now most would have to say yes, but some say no. And then you say, have you ever looked with lust? Yes. Jesus said, if you look with lust, it's like committing adultery in your heart. Now, according to your own admission, you're a lying, thieving, blasphemous, murderous, adulterous heart. And that's just five of the ten commands. There's another five. Tell me again why you think he's such a very good person? When a very famous politician, Bill Clinton, had been exposed in his numerous unbelievable scandals, he met with a group of pastors and he declared to them, my heart is good. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ taught no one is good except God alone. And Jesus taught that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Jesus taught that people's hearts are bad. But Bill Clinton who claims to be a Christian says, my heart is good. Shortly after my conversion, I was running the youth group and Back to our church came a theological graduate. He had spent five years studying theology, and here he was. And I was so excited, I ran along to him and asked if he could speak at a youth group. And he responded with disdain. Oh no, I didn't study five years of theological culture and waste my time in a youth group. I asked him if he could speak to our Bible class. I have a Sunday school class for teenagers on Sunday morning. He reacted with scorn. When we had some evangelistic outreach planned and literature distribution door-to-door in the community, we again went to this theological graduate to ask if he'd like to join us. And he made quite clear that this was all quite beneath him. He sat in our church for a year waiting for a call. But during that time, he couldn't lower himself to engage in door-to-door evangelism, street evangelism, personal evangelism, ministering to the youth group. or teaching in the Sunday school. I was shocked and I could only think of the scripture in Galatians 6, but if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. When I had my military service, We had in second phase an opportunity for compass work, map work. They dropped us, who knows how far away from base, and with just a map and compass we had to find our way back to base. Well, a few of us had gotten back in time for the chaplains' service, the midweek chaplains' service. You'd have your denominational gatherings on weekends, they'd truck you into town, you could go to free churches, reformed churches, charismatic churches, Anglican, whichever was your particular denominational grouping. But midweek you met as a company, A company, B company, C company, for an interdenominational chaplain's period. Well this week, because only 80 of us had come back, most of the rest were still, who knows where, trying to find their way back to base on the map and compass, the chaplain walked in to the hall And he turned around in disgust and he said, I'm not going to waste my time with just a few people. And he walked away. And I was stunned to think that a minister of the gospel would think 80 people was beneath him. Did the Lord Jesus not give some of his best messages to one person? To the woman at the well, to Nicodemus. Our Lord Jesus was not beneath giving his best to one. And here's this man scorning 80 of us. Well, because at that stage you were not allowed to go anywhere except by running, we were never allowed to walk in our base. You had to run or you had to draw in a squat. There was no walking. Most of the men there were not interested in going back to the intense routine of second phase of a hectic training schedule, so they shouted to me, their resident religious fanatic, the soul tippy, they asked me to come and present a sermon. Hammond, Jesus freak, come, you give us a sermon. Well I was just a rifleman training like the rest of them, hair shaven off, brown uniform, no rank. But I thought yes, this is a good opportunity and I stood up and I through the gospel at them. They were, of course, thinking this was quite funny and jeering, and it was speaking to a kind of semi-hostile audience. And I stood up and I said, I know you put words, you put names to us Christians, we put names to you too. You're pagans, you're heathens, you're lost, you're damned. And I started shouting and I said, I know that you scorn the black people, you call them cappers. Let me tell you, you're the cappers because you're unbelievers. That's what the name means. So the black people are going to get into heaven ahead of you because they fear God and they're receiving the gospel. You think that your white skin is going to save you and get you in heaven. It's not. You're lost, you're damned, you're like a drop of water on a wave. You're going to be tossed up and down here and there. You're like a piece of chaff in the wind. You're blown this way and that. I know we're angry and I was throwing insults at them. But nobody slept. It was about a 40 minute session of throwing insults at them and argh, they were so outraged. Speaking about it, of course, you're in the barracks, you know their sins, you know what they're talking about, you know how some people would be bragging about all the people that they've slept with and all the girls they've used and abused and all that they're going to do and a lot of it's lies and nonsense and imagination. But all the same, a man speaks what his heart is full of. And we, I exposed these things and brought the scriptures and people were squirming and they were shouting, but they listened. And I gladly seized this opportunity that this chaplain had just scorned. Now often when speaking on missions of different churches, I've had some individuals approach me and declare, when I was young I made myself available to the Lord. I said, Lord I will go wherever you want, I'm available. I will do whatever you want, I'll go wherever you send me, but nothing. God never guided them. I was willing to go, I was ready, but I didn't get a green light from God. Now, frankly, I find these test fairs completely unbelievable. By their account, their motives were pure, their hearts were fully surrendered to God, they were eager and they were willing, but the only problem was God. God neglected to use these pure, sanctified vessels, eager and willing for His service. God slipped up. He dropped the ball. There's no fault on their side, only faults on God's side. It's simply incredible to suggest that their hearts, minds and souls were perfect, surrendered, willing and available, but somehow God dropped the ball. Unbelievable. I can't accept it. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright to them, but the just shall live by faith, the prophet Habakkuk said. Another phrase that I've frequently heard which indicates spiritual pride is, I won't do anything unless God guides me. I won't do anything unless God guides me. The scripture teaches that the humble he guides in justice, the humble he teaches his way, all the powers of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenants and his testimonies. There is no doubt that God gives the very best to those who leave the choice to him. The will of God will never lead us, for the grace of God cannot keep us. But the question is, am I humble? Am I teachable? Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. The best way to know the will of God is to know the word of God. God guides us first and foremost through His word, the Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. for correction, for reproof, for doctrine, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is our priority to ensure that we are not conformed to the world, but we transform by the renewing of our minds. Not the removal of our minds, the renewing of our minds. And we need to be able to prove, to test what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. When we get our priorities straight, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, that everything tends to follow after that. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. The will of God is not a mystery for you and I to discover. Give me this will abundantly clear in the Bible. If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching, Jesus said. It is God's will that we do restitution. That we return the things that we stole. That we return the things that we borrowed. That we repair the things that we've broken. That we repair or replace items that we have mislaid or damaged. That we make right for people that we've wronged. That we forgive people who've wronged us. This is God's will. Woe to those who are right in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. But the super-spiritual wants specific guidance for every aspect of life. When you invite them to an evangelistic outreach, they say, I must pray about it. When you invite them to a prayer vigil, they also say they've got to pray about it. Generally, these people don't feel led to do what the Bible commands them to do. They don't turn up at the prayer ritual, they don't turn up at the outreach. These are things commanded in the Bible. Woe to those who are wise in their own sight. Nobody can be consistent with the position of saying that I refuse to do anything unless God guides me. Do you need to receive guidance from God to go to the shops? Do you need guidance from God to cook? a meal tonight? Do you need guidance to eat your food? Do you need guidance from God before you brush your teeth or wash your bodies each day? Do you need guidance from God as to whether to go to work? I don't feel called to go to work today. Do you need guidance from God to fulfill your obligations as a daughter, or a son, or a husband, or a wife, or a mother, or a father? No! Your duties are God's will. You must do your duties wholeheartedly. Biblical commands and personal responsibilities do not need specific guidance. You don't need confirmations that Angel Gabriel does not have to be sent from the throne of the Father with a gold tablet saying, do what the Bible already told you to do anyway. These super spiritual people are those spoken of in Proverbs 28. He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord shall be prospered. Spiritual pride is also seen in the phrase that you hear from some people, I only read the Bible. Now I've done a lot of evangelistic work and literature distribution on the streets. Remember some time ago I was on West Street just reading gospel tracts and one lady said, oh no, I only read the Bible. Well at this I had to turn around and follow her. I followed her a long way down West Street saying, really, you only read the Bible? You never read any magazines? You never read the newspaper? No, of course I read the newspaper and magazines, but I mean, I only read the Bible when it comes to spiritual things. Really, do you ever watch TV? Yes, I watch TV, what's that got to do with anything? But you don't read Christian books, you don't read... Christian makes sense. No, I only read the Bible. Well, of course we must be Bible-based Christians. We must be soaked in the Scripture, we must be saturated in the Scripture. We need to be like the Bereans, who were more noble than the rest, studying the Word of God daily to see if these things are true. Yes. In that they received the Word of God with readiness, they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. But to refuse to read Christian books, to refuse to read discipleship manuals and Bible study aids, is actually to stifle our spiritual growth. Job 15 verse 8 says, Have you heard the counsel of God? Do not limit your wisdom to yourself. It is extreme pride to assume that we can understand more of the Bible than the Church Fathers and the Reformers and the faithful students of God's Word who have gone before us. There are others who have more diligently studied the languages of the Scripture than we have, who know the Hebrew and the Greek, who know the cultures and the histories and the geography of the Bible lands, it's extremely unlikely that any of us will understand the Word of God better on our own than we will as part of the worldwide Church of God through all the ages. For the expenditure of but a few hours, we can benefit from a lifetime of study from some of the greatest Bible teachers in church history. Why would you want to deprive yourself of biblical insights, of faithful servants of God like Augustine? And Martin Luther, and William Tyndale, and John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Heinrich Bollinger, John of Leibniz, Charles Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and many, many others. Why would we be so proud as to do that? Imagine a soldier in the army saying to a corporal who gives them instruction, I don't give instruction for anyone but the commander-in-chief. Commander-in-chief's got to come to me in person. You can't operate an army like that. If you won't listen to the NCO or the officer, you are on charge. In fact, in a war situation, you can be shot for refusing to obey a direct order. To disobey God's command structure is just as serious, if not more, than to disobey the command structure in the military. You can't say that the commander-in-chief must come to you personally. He has delegated a whole lot of people. He can't do his job if he's personally got to go to everyone in the entire army. God has appointed apostles, teachers, prophets, pastors, evangelists, deacons, elders, older women, younger women. There are many people in the church who've got a gift and a calling to counsel us and to advise and to admonish and to correct and rebuke. How dare we cut ourselves off from what God can say to others? These super-spirituals who claim that they only want what God wants and their heart is pure And they only read the Bible. They won't do anything unless God guides them. Let's call it what it is. It's pride and it's foolishness. A haughty look, a proud heart and the ploughing of the wicked are sin. We read in Proverbs 21 verse 4. A haughty look, a proud heart and the ploughing of the wicked. These are sinful in God's sight. The Lord Jesus warns us of theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. Pride and foolishness go together with a lot of other heinous sins. There's a lot of examples in scripture of pride. There's the pride of Pharaoh. The Pharaoh of Egypt was proud. Who is the Lord that I should hear his voice? I don't know the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. The arrogance of Pharaoh spelt disaster for the Egyptian Empire. Egypt was the superpower of the world, the greatest civilization of the ancient world. But the pride of Pharaoh led to a complete economic collapse. The ten plagues that God unleashed on Egypt destroyed Egypt's economy destroyed their society, wiped out the firstborn of Egypt, and annihilated the elite of the Egyptian army, the charioteers in the Red Sea. After God had judged Egypt, the superpower of the world was crippled and never fully recovered. And Egypt today is a long way from being a superpower, and they've still got troubles. Everyone that is proud and hot is an abomination to the Lord, we read in Proverbs 16, 5. What about King Nebuchadnezzar? When King Nebuchadnezzar boasted, is not this Babylon? That I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty. But God rebuked his pride and Nebuchadnezzar was driven out from men and he lived amongst animals in the fields until he acknowledged and honored the greatness of Almighty God the Creator and Eternal Judge. A man's pride will bring him low King Belshazzar offended God by his blasphemous abuse of the elements, the consecrated items from the temple in Jerusalem that he had looted for a drunken feast. The hand of God wrote judgment on the wall and Daniel explained it. You have lifted yourself up against the Lord of Heaven, the God who holds your breath in His hands and who owns all your ways. You have not glorified Him. Many, many tekel parcel. Number, number, weight, divisions. God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. You have been weighed in the balances. You have been found wanting. You are too light. Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. And that very night, King Belshazzar of the Chaldeans was slain and his kingdom was conquered by the Medes and by the Persians. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Belshazzar had a very dramatic, catastrophic fall. And King Herod arrayed himself in royal apparel and sat on his throne. And the people kept shouting, the voice of God and not of man, the voice of God and not of man. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms. and he died. Even so the tongue is a little member and it boasts great things. See how great a forest is consumed by a little fire. The pride of your heart has deceived you, we read. In the book of Esther we also read of the catastrophic destruction brought on the wicked hayman and on his family and descendants because of his pride. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. It was because of Haman's extreme pride that his plot unravelled and he ended up hanged on his own gallows that he had built for Mordecai. This is a reversal of fortunes, a dramatic reversal of fortunes, showing exactly what happens, that what you sow is what you reap. Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what tomorrow will bring. We also read in the scripts of Naaman from Syria, having his pride offended when the prophet did not come out and speak to him personally to heal him of his leprosy. And when King Uzziah was strong in his heart and was lifted up to his destruction, he transgressed the law of his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. He was a king. He was to hold the sword of justice. He was meant to carry out a ministry of justice. The ministry of grace was for the priests to carry out, and the priests were not to do the work of the king, and the king was not to do the work of the priest, and he transgressed in this. And in his arrogance, the king, King Hezekiah, literally went out into, King Uzziah went, and he did the job of priest. offering, did incense burning in the temple, and he suffered as a result. Of King Hezekiah, the scripture says, his heart was lifted up. Therefore a wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. You see, personal pride can lead to national catastrophe. Clearly, personal pride in national leaders can have nationally catastrophic consequences. Our Lord Jesus Christ warned of the danger of pride when he gave the parable of the Pharisee. who dared to come into his house, the temple, and pray, I thank you God, I'm not like other men. What arrogance to do that. The Lord Jesus condemned the church of Laodicea. You say that you are rich, but you do not know that you are poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked. The church of Laodicea was proud, and God condemned it. You can go to Turkey today and find ruins where the church of Laodicea once stood. The Lord has snatched away their candlestick. Now some are puffed up, we read, in 1 Corinthians 4, and indeed you can imagine us puffed up, full of hot air, really. In 2 Chronicles 10 we read of the catastrophic consequences of the pride of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the son of Solomon. Solomon was a very wise king. Rehoboam was foolish. The people of Israel petitioned the king, your father made our yoke heavy, therefore lighten the burdensome service to your father and this heavy yoke that he placed on us and we will serve you. The elders who had stood before his father Solomon counseled, if you are kind to these people and release them and please them and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever. But he rejected the advice of the older counsellors. And he consulted the young men who had grown up with him, and his wisdom and counselors, but especially wisdom and counselors older and wiser than us. But Rehoboam ignored the counsel of the older men and chose the counsel of his peers. Often youngsters are just sharing their ignorance. You often get these youth group type advice where it's just sharing one's ignorance about a subject, and he's just the blind leading the blind, and they're going to run into things. How would they learn? This is where the older people have gone, this path before, and they know. This pitfall, that danger, this trap, this snare, this trick of the devil. We need to know these things. But the king then answered to them roughly. And King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father chastens you with whips, but I will chasten you with scorpions and scourges. Now as a result of this arrogant reply, disdaining the wise counsel of the elders, the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled against Rehoboam and divided the people of Israel forever, and Rehoboam had to flee in haste. That's just one of the examples of pride. The whole nation of Israel divided irrevocably from that point. The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge. If we are understanding and wise, we will seek knowledge. We don't have all the knowledge in our own head and heart. A fool despises his father's instruction, but he who receives correction is prudent. How many times have you been sharing a message, especially in Hollywood films? Trust in your heart. Follow your heart. You know what Proverbs 28 verse 26 says? He who trusts in his own heart is A fool. That's so against the gospel of Hollywood. Let's read it again. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. So what Hollywood's telling us to do, and what so many people keep repeating, the gospel according to Disney, follow your heart, trust in your heart. God says you're a fool if you trust in your own heart. A book was written by James Dobson. Emotions, can you trust them? And his answer was, no. You cannot trust your emotions. Your emotions can really deceive you. There's many a time when a mother may not exactly feel like doing her duties and a father may not feel like doing his duties. But you do your duties whether you feel like it or not. It might be three in the morning and a baby might be crying. You don't follow your heart. You follow your duties. Do what you've got to do. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. See to it then that you work circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. C.S. Lewis wrote about pride and mere Christianity, one of his great books. And this is what C.S. Lewis said, There is one vice of which no man in the world is free, and everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in somebody else, and of which hardly any people except Christians even imagine themselves to be guilty of. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and there is no fault of which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. You might have heard of the man who was given a medal for humility. They had to take it away when he wore it. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Pride is the only disease known to men which makes everybody sick except the person who has it. Pride is the ground in which other sins grow. No one is so empty as those who are full of themselves. An eager twist to somebody who is always knee-deep in conversation. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Pride is the very image of the devil. The sin that caused Lucifer to fall from heaven, to rebel against God, was pride. He wanted to exalt himself above the throne of God. The devil himself used to be an archangel, used to be chief angel leading the worship in heaven. But pride lifted him up. And pride cast him down. And Lucifer, the light bearer, became the devil, Satan, foul and condemned, beast and evil, the father of all lies. In fact, pride is the national religion of hell, you could say. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father, but it's of the world. Pride is the idolatrous worship of ourselves. It's idolatry with an I as the idol, me. What is the middle letter of sin? I. Selfishness and pride is at the heart of all sin. The middle letter of pride is also I. The middle letter of reason is also I. Interesting, just an anomaly of the English language. But I is at the heart of pride and lie. I is also the middle end of lie. Pride thrust Lucifer out of heaven. Pride cast Adam out of paradise. Pride cast Nebuchadnezzar out of men's society. Pride cast Saul out of his kingdom. And Haman out of the royal court in Persia. The first step towards hell is pride. The first step towards heaven is humility. You boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil, we read in the Gospels. Saint Augustine wrote men ought to be ashamed of being proud, seeing that God was humble for our sakes. God chose to be born in a humble stable amongst animals. He could have chosen to be born in a temple or in a palace. He chose to be born in a humble carpenter's family, in a stable amongst animals, because there's no room for him in the inn. He chose the steps of humility. He walked. He could have had chariots driving him around, but he walked. And he washed his disciples' feet. Our Lord was humble. We should be ashamed of being proud. Those who think too much of themselves don't think enough. God sends no one away who are empty except those who are full of themselves, said Dale Moody. Now there are three tests to evaluate how much pride we have to repent of. Oswald Saunders recommended these three tests. The first is the test of precedence. How do you react when someone else is selected for the assignment you expected? How do you react when someone is given the office that you coveted? How do you react when somebody else is promoted and you are overlooked? How do you react when someone else outshines you in gifts and accomplishments? That's a hard one. That's a test of presence. Here's a second test. The test of sincerity. In your moments of honest self-criticism, you will admit things about yourself to yourself that you would not admit to others. But how do you feel when others say exactly the same things about you that you would say about yourself with the quietness of your heart and your repentance before God? You might pray to the Lord, Lord forgive me for deceiving, forgive me for having a proud heart, Lord forgive me for being a hypocrite, Lord forgive me for being a coward, on that occasion. But if someone was to say to you, you were cowardly or hypocritical on this occasion, how do we react? How can you say that? But you said about yourself. But if somebody else says it, how do you react? Third test, test of criticism. Does criticism arise hostility and resentment in your heart? Does criticism cause you to fly into immediate self-justification? There is nothing that human pride resents so much as to be humbled. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. The folly of the fools is deceit. And the trouble is, when we are proud, we deceive ourselves. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It is written, He captures the wise in their own craftiness. How often we don't set a trap for ourselves in our own mouths. We are tripped up by our own words. Maybe you've read the book Pride and Prejudice, one of the greatest novels in history, written by Jane Austen. Written in 1813, almost 200 years ago. Written as one of the greatest novels. The title is Pride and Prejudice, and the question is, is it Elizabeth Benti who's prejudiced, and Fitzwilliam Darcy who's proud? You would immediately think so. A writer of the depth and the complexity and subtlety of Jane Austen does not create one-dimensional characters. The further you go in the book, you realise, ah, these characters are more complex, more compelling, more ambiguous than you would have at first expected. You see, the pride and prejudice of the type applies equally both to Elizabeth Bennet and to Fitzwilliam Darcy. Darcy's proud of his rank, proud of his fortune, and he's prejudiced as well. He's prejudiced against Elizabeth's family. and against her foolish mother, who makes very embarrassing comments. Elizabeth is also proud. She takes pride in her independence. And she's prejudiced also. She's prejudiced against what she sees as dastardly self-importance and snobbery. And in this classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, you can see the faults in others, pride and prejudice, which we often blind turn ourselves. But a good novel causes you, after you've recognised it in others, to begin to recognise the same faults in ourselves. A good novel aims to make us better people. Flattery doesn't help us. Criticism can help. The kisses of an enemy are to be scorned, but the wounds of a friend can actually heal and help. The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honour. Humility comes before honour, but pride comes before destruction. As a young Krishna, I remember being most surprised and impressed at seeing the elderly evangelist Roger Voke straightening out hundreds of chairs after an evening's evangelistic rally. It was 1980, I was in the military, I'd organised an evangelistic crusade, invited the greatest evangelist that I knew in South Africa, Roger Voke, organised music and drama team from St James, we had Reverend Harold Peaslee training us in EEE. It was a great, spectacular, 10-day evangelistic mission. And Reverend Roger Vogt was the main speaker. We had well over 2,000 people every night in the transport hangar to hear the Gospel. And during the day, they were out having meetings. In fact, when Roger Vogt saw the schedule, he said, Peter, you want to kill me? I thought that was a compliment. I didn't realise that actually, if I thought packing a schedule, packed full, is exactly what he'd want. But this man is about three times my age and I was probably overdoing it. Speaking in different schools, chaplains, periods, lunches with the NCOs mess, lunch with message at the officers mess. kinds of meetings, from the hospitals through to every school in town and so on, and every evening evangelistic crusades and a rally in the transport hangar. Well, we'd been at the end of a very, very busy day. Ninety-nine people had come forward to the first evangelistic challenge. Now we only had thirty-four counsellors trained in EE that were counselling, so each of us had to counsel three people. And there we were, it was the end of a long day, I was busy. with the third person for me to counsel, and I suddenly looked over my shoulder and what did I see but Roger Burke, the elderly grey-haired evangelist, straightening out the hundreds of chairs, which of course were in chaos and disarray after the soldiers had been dismissed, and you can imagine how much of these sort of chairs to rearrange in a hall that big. Well, most of the young men who were Christians in the base, who had done the council already, were at the coffee bar. But those of us who hadn't raced off to the coffee bar felt suitably chastened that an elder man was busy doing a job we should have been doing. If anyone deserved to have gone off for a well-deserved rest and to prepare his message, the next step was him. And we quickly threw ourselves into straightening the chairs. so that he could go off and do something else. And as a young missionary, I was only 26 years old at the time, I was fresh from Mozambique and I was invited to minister at the Kwesi Sabanta Mission by Reverend Erlo Stegen. And I was mortified when my hosts, Uncle Erlo Stegen and Auntie Kay Stegen, they gave me their bedroom to stay in. And I protested, I said, I'm used to rolling out my sleeping bag on the ground. I'm happy with a mattress put in a corner somewhere, but they wouldn't hear of it. And they insisted that I, the most junior person there, should stay in their room, and who knows where they were sleeping at night. Now I wish they hadn't done it, but it certainly taught me something about humility. And I have discovered at the Cross of Untermission many a time that the principle of Scripture, in honour, preferring one another, is practised in daily life there. We need to take our pride to the cross and nail it there. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And when we evangelize, we need to give law to the proud, and the gospel to the humble. While people are still justifying themselves and saying, I'm a good person, we need to keep giving the law of God. You don't give the gospel to a proud person. They're not ready for the gospel. You give the law of God, the Ten Commandments, to the proud, self-justifying Christian. Because the Lord, the Lord is perfect, converts the soul. The Lord, the Lord is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. In the words of Isaac Watts' hymn, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches gain, I count but loss, and I pour contempt on all my pride. Let us pray. Lord God, we want to thank and praise you for your wondrous cross. And we do pour contempt on all our pride. Lord have mercy on us. Forgive us that we think so much of ourselves. Forgive us, Lord God, where we have tolerated pride in our lives. Lord, forgive us where we are proud of being humble. Lord, we pray that you would help us to be those who humble ourselves before you so that you can lift us up in due time. We pray this in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen.