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And now let us open to Proverbs
chapter 13 to look into the Word of God. Proverbs chapter 13. My special message, my message,
not special this evening from the Word of God is based on verse
10. I am bringing this message to
you because I was doing a study on this particular verse to give
a report to some organization who asked for it, based on the
Hebrew version of it. So let me read verse 10, and
we can see few things from this word of God. Verse 10, only by
pride comes contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom. As you see, this is very, very
amazing work. And this Proverbs, you can see
this chapter has several verses, as my brother Pastor read it,
up to verse 25. There are some verses which are
presented as a contrast. For example, if you see verse
one, It says, a wise son hears his father's instruction, but
a contrast, a scorner hears not rebuke. So there are some of
them which are presented as a contrast. Of course, when you see the Hebrew
writing, in Hebrew writing there is a common thing known as parallelism. So Hebrew is rich in parallelism. writing and some of the parallels
are positive parallels. One is explaining the second
line is explaining the first line but some of them have a
contrast. The second line is contrasting
the first line in the idea that is written in the first line.
So here in verse 10 you can see Only by pride comes contention,
but with the well advised is wisdom. So two lines are set
aside by the inspiration of our God in order for the second line
is contrasting the first line because there is but. This Hebrew
parallelism is a special way of writing the word of God only
designed by himself, by God himself. It's not human wisdom, it is
the wisdom of God and God is communicating his messages and
his word in this way of contrasting ideas and parallel ideas and
so on. So my text, my subject or my
title for this evening message because of this study is Source
and Remedy of Contention. So there is a source and remedy
of contention from this particular verse. If people understood this
verse, And if we really understand what God is designing through
the use of this particular verse, we can be really spared from
so many human relationships in our society and in the entire
world. person-to-person relationship
and human relationship is affected by so many things, but the cause,
the cause, the source of that contention is mentioned here
as designed by God. So you can see in verse 10, only
by pride the word of God says comes contention. So pride is
mentioned and pride is dangerous and pride is the source of contention
and so many evil things in the entire history of human society. So we have to understand what
evil things is coming from pride. So let me first describe what
pride means. I'm sure you know the meaning
of pride, but from the Hebrew perspective I want to explain
what pride means. Pride can be described or is
actually described in the Hebrew word meaning by two important
aspects of the meaning of this word. One is physical. Physical. When something is boiling
in a boiling pan or in a boiling pot, the word that is described
for boiling up is this pride word. For example, you may recall
when Esau was visiting his brother Jacob, Jacob was boiling up that
lentil sauce. And that particular boiling up,
making a lentil sauce, is mentioned by this particular word. So physically
it means boiling up. or burning down or simmering
up in a kind of instrument that you are using for boiling some
things. But morally, it has a different
meaning with respect to people. It means to act proudly. To act presumptuously, it means
presumption and acting presumptuously. And also it means to act rebelliously. So if people are acting against
each other rebelliously or presumptuously or proudly, this is the word
that is used in the Bible. So proud and being pride is being
rebellious. And being proud is being presumptuous. And being proud is actually acting
proudly. So these are the root meaning
from which we can understand this particular word. But there
are always three words which are attached whenever it is translated
into English. The first one, as I have said,
presumption. And the second one, insolence. And the third one, overconfidence. When people are overconfident
by themselves, disregarding that God is the source of life and
everything, that they are acting proudly. So overconfidence, insolence,
and presumption is closely the deep and root meaning of this
particular word, pride. But all of them are deep-rooted
in an improper view of ourselves. So whenever we are viewing ourselves
improperly, you know, people are viewing themselves properly
according to the revealed truth, and there are so many people
that are viewing themselves improperly against the revealed truth that
is found in the Bible. So this improper view of self
is deeply rooted from the beginning of sin. When Adam and Eve were
sinning, have sinned, they were acting improperly against the
authority that is delegated to them. The authority delegated
to them was to not eat that particular fruit of the particular tree,
but they presumptuously go forward and they act against delegation,
delegated to them by the design of God. So whenever anyone is
acting against the design of God, he is acting out of pride. and out of presumption, out of
insolence, really, and is in rebellious nature. So the desire
that is against the desire of God or the design of God is deeply
rooted in the life of proud people. So if you are proud, you are
in danger. If there is something pride in
you, in whatever way, you are in danger. There is a danger
in pride because the Bible tells us clearly, without fear of anyone
and anybody, it says only by pride comes contention. So pride is dangerous. It brings something, the Bible
says. It brings and it has a result.
So the result of this particular word, pride, if you clearly see
it, is contention. Whenever there is contention,
in the heart of people, in the family of people, or in the workplace,
wherever there is contention, always there is something behind
that is described by our gracious God, and which is clearly seen,
pride. If there is a contention between
husband and wife, if there is a contention between son and
father, if there is a contention between mother and daughter,
The reason behind this, pride. This is clearly described here. So the gracious God says, only
by pride comes contention. So if contention is there, it
is only because of what? Because of pride. So we have
to be really careful in our life. So this pride, by being self-focused,
by being presumptuous, by being rebellious, resulted in contention. So when you study the history
of this world or the history of humanity, all fight and all
enmity, all hatred comes from pride. There are fightings in
many parts of the world. And there is a fighting in my
country of birth. There has been a fighting for
two, almost over two years. And the killing of people and
the hatred and the cruelty of people is amazing. This is all
comes from pride. the enemy of humanity, the enemy
of our soul, the enemy of our fellowship, and the enemy of
our love, this pride. If there is contention, it is
always being fueled by pride. So pride is the fuel of contention. One godly man said like this. He said, contention is God's
sign. He said, God's design. in order to single out or to
signal, if you like, there is something in the heart of the
people that are in the midst of contention. If people are
in contention, God is singling out or signaling out to us that
this is all by pride. So there is someone who is acting
by pride. If there is contention, there
is someone who is acting by pride. So it is a warning really. Contention
can be a signal for us to review our behavior and to examine our
heart and our action. and to come back to the presence
of the Lord, asking forgiveness and get rid of this deeply rooted
pride because of the sinful nature of humanity. This pride, which
resulted in contention, also comes from inaccurate evaluation
of ourselves. When people inaccurately evaluate
themselves, they always put themselves on a higher level than the others. Then that brings a difference
between them and others, and then resulted in contention,
in disagreement, and in fighting. and in so many things. So let
me go to my next point in this particular paint. But why? What is the reason? should be
asked, what is the reason to have pride that brings contention? The only outcome and the only
result of pride is contention and fighting and disagreement.
You can continue adding so many things, but why? I want to mention
about four things about this. The first one is our sinful nature.
that we got from Adam and Eve. And the second one is ignorance. When we are in ignorance of the
revealed truth, the revealed truth is in the Bible, and the
revealed truth has never been hidden from humanity. But when
we disregard the revealed truth and when we are acting in ignorance,
We are going to the way of pride, and we will miss the mark of
righteousness. And of course, we are always
entangled in it, unless we are saved by the grace of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the other point about the
reason of prideful life is putting self-image higher than God. You
know, this may not be about each one of us here, but in general,
humanity in general is putting or going in order to bring self-image
above any other, and even to the extent of above God, when
we are thinking our self-image higher than God. and higher than
others. We are always in danger of pride
and we are actually in pride. And the result of pride would
come along the way when we are like that. And the last one I
would mention about why is this? Lack of interest to the solution. There is one solution for pride.
There is one clear-cut solution. That is salvation. If we come
and repent our sins of pride, and if we trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Savior, there is no doubt that we can be free
of doubt, and we will receive a humble life, meekness. As the
Lord Jesus Christ said, if you come to him, you can get patience
and meekness of life. He said, I am patience. patient inside of me and there
is meekness in me, you can take that meekness and patient life
from the Lord Jesus Christ. But when you are in lack of this
interest, seeking Him, and following what He said, and coming to Him,
repenting and trusting Him, and visited by the power of the Holy
Spirit, you will remain on your salvus, on your previous nature,
that is Adamic, sinful nature, and you will be always living
in that difficult and enemy of souls situation and life style. So this particular verse is really
amazing and we need to study it privately and also learn from
it in order to get rid of this dangerous thing that can be in
the life of anyone so the lord said by only by pride comes contention
the contrast when i come to the next point i want to mention
contrasting parallel message this contrasting parallel message
as you see started by Bert. This is known as an adversative
contrast, very, very strong contrast. But with the well-advised is
wisdom. So let me show you how the parallel
is set according to the Word of God. The first one, only by
pride comes contention. And you can put Bert in the middle
of it. Then, by well-advised, is wisdom. So by pride, pride is contrasted
with well-advised and contention is contrasted with wisdom. So
this is the way that God designed this particular parallel, and
I found it very, very amazing and instructive. So with the
well-advised, what does it mean, well-advised? It's wonderful
to be well-advised. Well-advised is the idea or the
message is for those who are instructed from the word of God. And God's instruction, teaching,
learning from the Word of God is mentioned by the well-advised. These well-advised are those
who are eager to listen, eager to hear, and always wanting to
learn from the pastor, from the church, from whosoever the Lord
puts on the pulpit. So if you are eager to learn,
you are well advised people. You want to learn, you want to
be instructed, you want to be taught, you want to be guided,
and this is amazing. But the thing that is mentioned
here is, with the well-advised, we need to understand the grammatical
construction here. The well-advised are some people
who are passively indicated here. It is a passive voice, it is
not an active voice. They are not teaching themselves
by themselves. Of course we can teach ourselves
by ourselves, but here these are some people who are taught
by some other teachers. God designed to have teachers,
pastors, and instructors in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the time of the apostles and from the time of the old
time, you can mention, Ezra, the priest and a scribe, and
Nehemia and prophets were appointed by the Lord to teach. and to
instruct people to come back from their rebellious nature
and rebellious life. So this is how it is presented
here. With the well-advised with those
who are hearing instruction from their fathers at home, and from
their pastors at church, and from their Sunday school teachers
at church, and you can continue like that. These well-advised
are well instructed. They are eager, according to
the design of God, to learn and to be instructed, to be guided
by God's appointed way. These are different people. They are not pride. They are
not proud people. The proud people never want to
learn. You can see many people, they
don't want to learn. They may come to church and they
can just distract themselves by so many ways. Proud people
are not keen to be instructed. And because of presumption, They
say, we know it all. We know it. And we don't want
somebody to teach us. We don't want somebody to preach
to us. We don't want somebody to guide us, instruct us, is
the motive of pride people. That is the danger. But these
well-advised people are ready to listen, to be instructed,
and to hear the word of God. Even in secret, they pray, Lord,
Teach me when I'm going to church. Use pastor to teach me, to instruct
me in their prayer when they come to church. You see them
when they come to church, just bowing down their head in order
to pray before the Lord for themselves and for others. This is the well-advised
people. Passive voice. and they are eager
here to learn and to study the Word of God. What is the end
result? You see, in the parallel presentation
of this particular verse, by pride comes contention, but with
the well-advised, with those people who want us to learn,
to study, and to be instructed, there is something that is wisdom. They will get wisdom. I think
this is my second time when I'm talking about wisdom. Last time,
I think I preached from Daniel chapter two. Here, I think Daniel
chapter two, verse 20, when Daniel declared that wisdom and power
belongs to God. This wisdom and power, belong
to God and he can give it to those who are praying for wisdom
and power. Because Daniel said, we prayed
to you and you gave me wisdom and power. So wisdom and power
can be given. So I'm not overemphasizing the
importance of wisdom. It should never be very much
emphasized, but we need wisdom. Here, the Word of God is saying,
with the well-advised, there is something. coming to happen
in their life. That is wisdom. They got understanding. They can discern between things
and they cannot be fooled by the world. They cannot be misguided
by so many misguiding teachings and ideas that is surrounding
our life and our area, or this entire world. So, by way of advice,
by those who seek instruction and learning and teaching from
the Word of God, there is a wonderful thing happening in them. That
is, they are going to have wisdom. The wisdom that is from Abbas. When the second half-brother
of the Lord Jesus Christ, James, the second pastor of the Jerusalem
church, wrote his message, he said, wisdom from Abbas is wonderful. And there is wisdom from down
earth, wisdom of this world, and wisdom of the devil, and
wisdom of self. But wisdom from Abba is quite
different. It comes from God, and it guides
us. It gives us discernment, and
it matures us in our life, and it makes us to follow the footsteps
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it makes us to be
instruments of the Lord as we live in this world. So dear brothers
and sisters this evening, from this particular word, I would
encourage and exhort you, for some of you who lack wisdom,
you need to be people who love instruction. You need to come
to church always to be instructed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
and to be instructed here from the pastor. And you need to be
well-advised people. This well-advised is in the Hebrew. If you see, it is enduring activity. This is not just a one-time activity. It is an enduring, lifelong lifestyle
that should be in the life of the people of God. Always the
people of God wants to learn. to be instructed, to be taught
by the Lord in his house of prayer and in his house of instruction. So I would encourage everyone
here to do North Miss Church services. And I want to challenge
some people here. Is there pride in your heart
and in your mind? Pride can be in so many ways.
Some people are proud of their education. Some people are proud
of their race. And some people are proud of
even their danger, their gender, I mean their gender. And some
people are proud of their cultural background. Some people are proud
of, there are so many things people are being proud. But if
you really and truly see yourselves that you are created by a supreme
creator, the Lord our God, there is nothing to be proud of. There
is nothing. in this entire universe to be
proud of. Everything belongs to God, and
we are also of God. Whether we are believers or not,
we are created by God. We do not put ourselves into
being, so God is the one who brought us to live. So if we
come before the Lord, and if we repent our sins of pride,
and the Lord will lift up that sin of pride, and will give us
free grace. And he will remove that dangerous
thing that can bring contention. You may be tired of contention.
You may be tired of fighting with other people because of
pride. So you will be relieved if you come back to the Lord
and if you repent the sins of pride. So I would love to leave
these two important things before you. Only by pride comes contention. So as that man, godly man said,
contention can be a signal for somebody is acting proudfully. It is a signal, a sign. So we
need to repent. We need to trust God for everything
that comes to our life. And if we are well advised, continuously
taught and instructed from the word of God, Oh, brothers and
sisters, there is so many blessing which is coming to you, wisdom,
discernment, understanding, and following the footstep of God,
which is wonderful and peaceful and full of joy in the Lord Jesus
Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord bless you.
And we hope me and my wife to see you in future and to Again,
see you. My wife is really, was eager
to come and to meet you all, so she is here. And my dear brothers
and sisters also visiting from America here, and we are really
happy. Thank you, Pastor, for this time.
And let us close in prayer, and I'll pass it to Pastor. Let us
pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you
for your great kindness and mercy And we thank you for the word
we opened this evening, your word and your design for the
life of your people. Pride is dangerous, is not good
for humanity. And by pride, there comes only
contention, fighting, disagreement. Many people are affected even
without knowing that they are in the life of pride. Oh Lord
our God, help us to examine our heart and our mind and our souls
and help us to search for this evil thing from our heart and
help us to repent it and to receive forgiveness by your grace and
from your grace and from your kindness and have peaceful, joyous
and harmonious life and relationship that is designed by you for us. Oh our God, we also ask you to
be well-advised people according to your gracious design that
is presented before us. We need wisdom, but wisdom comes
from being well-advised and help us to respect others, teachers,
our pastors and our Sunday school teachers, our parents who are
desiring always to instruct us according to your great purpose
and kindness and help each one of us to take in what you are
giving us and help us to grow in it and to grow in discernment
and peace and joy. May you bless this church, increase
his instrumentality in this area, bringing yet again many, many
to be converted here, to be instructed, and to be baptized by your great
kindness and wonderful work of grace. Bless pastor and leaders,
bless each one of us, and O Lord we pray, help us to meet up again
before your presence. We ask this in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory, Amen.
The Source And Remedy of Contention
Divine wisdom concludes that all instances of contention have pride at their root. By contrast, the well-advised are those who are open to counsel and who obtain wisdom. Also includes an update on Pastor Haile's work on the Amharic Scriptures.
| Sermon ID | 528231323401151 |
| Duration | 32:33 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 13:10 |
| Language | English |
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