I was out at breakfast not too long ago with some of our high school seniors. I always enjoy getting the seniors, those that are graduating from our group together, and we take them out to eat. It's just kind of a way of saying, God bless you. and an opportunity to pray with them as they transition in this very important time of life. And they each go around and share what they believe the Lord would have them to do, whether that's work or future schooling and that type of thing. We have a time of prayer and just encourage them to stay faithful to the Lord, to stay faithful. I hear a trinity as they transition. And I was talking with the teens at that breakfast not long ago and a guy walked by. and he had a t-shirt on, and the back of the t-shirt had some type of baseball motif, some type of bat, ball, glove, what have you. So immediately I knew it was some type of a baseball t-shirt. It had three lines of text on it. And I could see the top line of text, I could see the bottom line of text, the middle line I believe was intentionally a smaller font, I couldn't read it, but the top line said, my favorite two baseball teams are, and then skip, I couldn't make out the second line, and the third line said, and whoever is playing the Yankees, okay? My favorite two teams are, I couldn't see the middle line, but the last line, and whoever is playing the Yankees. And with absolutely no hesitation, I immediately said, I know what the middle line says. The middle line would say my two favorite teams are, does anybody want to help me? The, thank you, some of you know, the Boston Red Sox. and who's ever playing the Yankees. I was so interested to find out if I was correct that I went and looked and I was right because if you are a true Boston Red Sox fan, you hate the Yankees. All right. And if you're here tonight and you say, I don't hate the Yankees, you're not a Red Sox fan. That's just the way it is. Now, I'm neither. So please, some of you may be Yankee fans and some may be Red Sox fans. That's not the point. The point is, sometimes you know a person by not only what he loves, but you can know a person by what he hates. What a person loves, And what a person hates tells us a lot about that person. Now, you might be thinking, how does that tie to Proverbs? Well, let's review just for a little bit if we can, and then I think you'll see how that illustration is tied to what we'll be considering tonight. It's been a great blessing to me personally to be working through Proverbs. And the theme that we're using for Proverbs, which I believe would be pleasing to the Lord, is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now, to review just a little bit, when we talk about wisdom, we're not talking about Socrates or Plato or Aristotle. We're not talking about Philosophy 101. And there's nothing wrong with studying that. My guess is some of you enjoy studying the history of the world and how different ideas impact different eras, and it's very interesting. But when the Bible uses the word wisdom, we're talking about something different than an esoteric knowledge. We're talking about practical skill in living. In fact, I can remember in Hebrew class being taught that as a definition for the word wisdom. Skill in living. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You say, okay, what does the fear of the Lord mean? Well, let's review that as well. It doesn't refer to a terror, similar to maybe being out on a flat piece of ground and there's lightning all around, and you're thinking, oh no, the lightning's going to get me. Now, that would be terror, but that's not what this word fear here means. When we have the term, the fear of the Lord, how are we defining it? Well, we're suggesting that the fear of the Lord refers to, first of all, a reverence for God. I fear my God as I show Him proper respect, proper reverence. And we do that, number two, based on a relationship with God. The only way I can show my God proper reverence is if I have a relationship with Him. And so we define the fear of the Lord as a reverence for God based on a relationship with God, not expressed in just any way I want, in a cavalier type of way, but expressed in submission to God. And that's how we've been defining the fear of the Lord. And when I reflect on that, I think you could make a point that the key verse in Proverbs, if you would choose to have a key verse, could possibly be Proverbs 9.10. Because if we look at Proverbs 9.10, then we have a text that tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But notice it goes on to say, the knowledge of the holy is understanding. And as we've reviewed before, in Hebrew poetry, there's not a rhyme of sound. We're used to the rhyme of sound in English. Roses are red, violets are blue, what have you. In Hebrew poetry, there's a rhyme of meaning. So, for example, we would say here that the fear of the Lord is parallel with the knowledge of the holy. When the Bible refers to the knowledge of the Holy, the knowledge of the Holy One, the Lord, it is parallel with the fear of the Lord. You say, what's the point? To fear God is to know God. It's to have a relationship with God. I can't fear the Lord unless I know the Lord. And all of us, by God's grace, must have a personal relationship with God. Jesus defined eternal life that way, right? What is eternal life? That they might know Thee. That they might know Jesus Christ whom God has sent. And so there's nothing more important than having a personal relationship with God. What is Proverbs? Proverbs is a book for people who know God. It is not a book filled with principles that you can follow because they're universally true and regardless of what God you worship or regardless of what type of relationship you have with any God, just follow Him and have a great life. No, this is practical if I could use the term Christianity. Many people would say that it's Christianity in blue jeans and everyday living. That's Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. A little question. If we need to know God, what is God like? If I were to say to you, what is God like? What would you say? One way you could answer that is it would help to know if I knew what God loved and what God hated. because a person is known by what he loves and what he hates. In fact, I have a small booklet at home, actually a pamphlet. It's entitled, Chapel Sayings of Dr. Bob Jones Sr. Some of you are familiar with that, I think. And one of those chapel sayings is, what you love and what you hate reveals what you are. And so my thesis this evening is, if we could know what God loves and what God hates, then we would have a much better idea of what God is truly like. And we could know Him in a better way, serve Him in a more accurate way, and trust Him in a more profound way. With that in mind, I've always been fascinated by Proverbs 6. I invite your attention there first this evening. Proverbs 6. We'll be looking at many different texts. But if you look at Proverbs 6 and verse 16, it says in Proverbs 6, verse 16, there are six things which the Lord hates. Now, that's interesting to me. that there is a specific list of things that the Lord hates. I can remember reading through the Bible after I first came to know Christ many years ago. And if I read, God loves the world, I think, yeah, that makes sense because God is a loving God. But then I come to a text like this and it says, God hates. And I step back a little bit and I think, wait a second, God hates? I mean, I thought God was love. What does it mean, God hates? You know, what comes to your mind when you think of the word hate? Maybe a mother pushing her little child in a shopping cart through the grocery line and that little toddler disobediently reaches out and grabs a candy bar and says, And mom says, no, son, put that back. And he says, no. And mom says, son, put that back or you'll get a spanking. And he says, mine. And mom says, no. And mom takes his little fingers and pries them off the candy bar. And mom takes that candy bar and puts it back on the shelf. And he cries. And he screams, I hate you, mom. Is God that way? Is God a God who every time something doesn't go His way, as it were, He yells, I hate you? Certainly that doesn't seem to be what God would be like. In our history books, the recent history of our country, recent in the big picture at least, I think we've all been troubled to see pictures perhaps of a man or many men in white robes with crowned, pointed hats and disguises, members of the Ku Klux Klan, taking crosses and burning them in front of people's homes simply because those people were of a different pigment of skin. And we would look at these individuals and think, how sad that they would hate other human beings simply because of skin color. That's hate. And then I read that God hates things and I think, well, wait a second, that doesn't sound like my God. Well, certainly there are many ways that we as sinful human beings hate that are not characteristic of God, because God hates with a righteous hatred, with a perfect hatred. You say, what would that mean? Well, one theological dictionary puts it this way, hate is the opposite of love. Whereas love draws and unites, hate separates and keeps distant. You know, think about it. Some of you would maybe say, especially some of our younger ones perhaps, you would say, I'm very much in love with a certain person. You say, what does that cause you to do? That causes you to delight in the other person. and you look forward to going out with her, maybe to taking her out for coffee or ice cream if she's in a different area, sending her little notes and emails, making phone calls, you would say, what? I love this person. I choose to be with this person. I delight to be with this person. What would hate be? The opposite of that. I have something here I choose not to delight in. Something here that I don't pursue. In fact, I think we see that. Turn back to Proverbs 1, please, just to help us understand better what the word hate means. Proverbs 1. In Proverbs 1, in verse 22, wisdom cries out, How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? Naive people love being simple-minded. Now, what does that mean? Well, it's obviously not a term primarily of emotion. Naive people don't sit around and think, oh, I just love being simple-minded. I think I'll send myself an email. You know, it's not that type of affection. It's the idea that they're attracted to being simple-minded. They're content being simple-minded. The verse says, "...and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing." Notice the word love is parallel with the word delight. To love is to delight in something. To delight in something is to love something. And then notice the contrast in the end of verse 22. And fools, here's our word, hate knowledge. What is the word hate? It's the opposite of the word love. What is parallel with the word love? Parallel with the word love is delight. If love is delighting in something, hate is choosing not to delight in something. In fact, hate is simply making a choice that I don't choose you. And thus, we could say, I hate you by not choosing you. And that's exactly what it says in verse 29 of Proverbs 1. Go down to verse 29, please. It refers to a person who turns his back on wisdom. Proverbs 1, verse 29. It says, they hated knowledge. But notice the second half of the text. and did not choose the fear of the Lord." And here we see clearly that the word hate implies not choosing something. So when we read that God hates, we're not thinking of a childish, toddler type of reaction, give me what I want, Mom, or I say I'll hate you. Nor are we thinking of some type of sinfulness that would judge people that are different of somehow being unworthy. It's God saying, this is something that is foreign to Me. I don't choose it. I don't delight in it. I reject it. And if I knew what God hated that way, I'd have a better idea of what my God is like. So let's return now, please, to Proverbs 6. And we'll notice what God hates. And I'd like to focus this evening on the first item that God hates. And the Scripture makes it very clear that the Lord hates pride. In Proverbs 6.16, the text says, there are six things which the Lord hates, yea, seven, which are an abomination to Him. And the first listed hated item in verse 17 is haughty eyes. The King James has a proud look. You say, what's the word haughty mean? It means to be lifted up. Literally, it's used of a person who is tall in Deuteronomy. It's used of the stars being very high in the book of Job in chapter 22. So it can physically mean just something that's high. As an idiom, it can be used as God being high and lifted up. I think many of us are familiar with the text of Isaiah 6. We won't turn there. But Isaiah writes, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high, same word, and lifted up. God is high and lifted up. It's not physical in the sense that God's up there, He's everywhere, but it's giving majesty to our God, which is a wonderful thing. But that same idiom becomes negative when it's used of people. Because if I consider myself high and lifted up, I put myself in the place of God, and I have become a proud person. And thus the same word is used, again we won't turn there, in Deuteronomy chapter 8, where God cautions His people. And He says, beware. that thou keepest My commandments and judgments and statutes which I have commanded thee to stay, lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built good houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then the text says, beware that thine heart be lifted up And now forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." What is God saying through Moses? He's saying, don't let your heart be lifted up. Don't be a person who manifests pride. Who manifests, first of all, haughty eyes. You say, what are haughty eyes? Haughty eyes would be eyes that are high. Eyes that are lifted up in arrogance. It's the idea of you coming up to me and maybe saying something to me. But I count myself so high, so much above you, that I don't really even have time to respond to you. And I just roll my eyes and maybe say whatever and walk away. Because how could I even dare to bring myself down as low as you? Those are haughty eyes. Maybe our young people, I don't hear this as much anymore, but for a while it was somewhat common for our young people to say, somewhat jokingly, but still questionably, to just say, duh, right? Somebody would say something, maybe ask a sincere question. You know, do you know when such and such is taking place? And another young person would reply, duh. And what would that be? A sign of arrogance. And that's exactly what haughty eyes are linked to. The Bible says the Lord hates, Proverbs 6, verse 17, haughty eyes. no less than he hates the attitude of pride, which is arrogance. If we're going to say that haughty eyes are a manifestation of pride, the entire attitude of pride is what the Bible would call arrogance. We see that in Proverbs 8. Proverbs 8, verse 13, where the Bible says, and arrogance and the evil way. God hates the manifestation of pride. That's haughty eyes. God hates the attitude of pride. Arrogance. One author puts it this way, it's a self-confident attitude that throws off God's rule to pursue selfish interests. It's the idea that I have such great confidence in myself. What do I need God for? And why would I care what God thinks about anything? The manifestation of pride. Haughty eyes. The attitude of pride. Arrogance. God hates them both. And thus, we shouldn't be surprised at all that He hates the source of both. Because where does our behavior come from? It comes from the heart. Where does our attitude come from? It comes from the heart. And thus, you shouldn't be surprised at all to see the next point, that the Lord hates the source of our pride, a proud heart. Turn to Proverbs 21, please, in verse 4. Proverbs 21, verse 4, showing that haughty eyes are tied to proud hearts. Proverbs 21, verse 4, Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked is sin. The lamp of the wicked, the idea of whatever goes on in their heart, what governs their lives. The point being that haughty eyes are tied to a proud heart. And the Lord considers both of them sin. But more than merely sin, the Lord hates them both. Go back to Proverbs 16, please. And I direct your attention to Proverbs 16, verse 5. And we'll see that word hate perhaps with a little bit of a different emphasis. Because here it says in Proverbs 16, verse 5, everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Assuredly, he will not go unpunished. An abomination to the Lord. That which God finds completely and totally repulsive. A word that is used in the Old Testament for child sacrifice, for idol worship, and for gross sexual sin. That is God's view of a proud heart, which leads to an attitude of arrogance and is expressed in the behavior of haughty eyes. Guys, whether we're talking about the behavior of the haughty eyes, whether we're talking about the overall attitude of arrogance, whether we're talking about what causes both of them inside me, my heart, God hates it all. hates pride. You say, do you think everyone struggles with pride? And I suggest the answer is yes. It's part of the human condition. It's part of living in this sin-cursed world. It's part of us struggling against our base nature, if you will. All of us infected with pride. You say, Greg, you think maybe some people struggle with it more than others. Maybe so. You know, my Bible tells me that knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. You say, what does that mean? Knowledge makes arrogant. Well, it's the idea that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. People that really love the way Jesus loved. You know what they're into? They're into building other people up. But sometimes when you have a lot of knowledge, it's tempted to be puffed up. We have an educated church. There's a lot of people in this room that have academic degrees. Knowledgeable people. I'm talking about us, not you. There are people that may not have the formal academic degrees, but gain knowledge in other ways, simply by reading, by spending their time doing things that are worthwhile, gaining knowledge, which is wonderful. But the Bible says knowledge puffs up, it makes arrogant. And is it not true that if you would put yourself in the class of an individual that's been gifted with knowledge, that you especially must guard your heart against the sin of pride. It may be you're well-educated. It may be that you're talented, perhaps in sports, perhaps in music, perhaps in business. Would it not be good for all who would consider themselves talented to be reminded of the fact that every good gift is just that. It's a gift. And if there's anything good in your life, and if there's anything good in my life, neither one of us can take credit for it. It all comes from God. And to do anything except thank Him and praise Him for it would be pride. You know, it's often been interesting to me, now remember, I've been saved later in life, that many people would consider Christians to be some of the most proud people. See, I've lived on both sides of the fence long enough to have clear memories of what I thought of Christians before I came to know Christ. Specifically, born-again Christians, evangelical Christians, conservative evangelical born-again Christians, fundamentalist born-again evangelical Christians. And I'd be the first one to tell you in my small world that my experience was not incredibly positive. And that what I heard was frequently negative. And I think most of you are aware of the fact that if you take the average person and ask him, what do you think of fundamental Christianity? Probably the first words that come out of their mouth would not be gentle. Kind. Loving. But it should be. You say, why is that? Well, no doubt there's many reasons. But you know, I think it's easy for us to fall into the sin of pride. Because we have the truth. We know the God of truth. I mean, I believe with all my heart the book that I'm preaching from this evening is God's Word. It's the truth. And whatever it says is so. And I make no apology for that. I realize that to many people that sounds arrogant and that sounds proud. Now, if that's why people think we're proud, well, then so be it. But I think sometimes we make an error. And we begin to think that somehow we are worthy of knowing the truth, and of having the truth, and of worshiping the God of truth. And I have many memories of coming to Christ and being amazed after I came to Christ, to say that more clearly, of watching myself, just sitting back and watching the other Christians I was interacting with at the Bible study, interacting with in my college days, going down the street, going down high streets. on a weekend where everybody's drunk and everybody's partying and we'd be driving down the road and I'd be with believers who would laugh and make comments about the people we would drive by. Look at that guy, he's so drunk he's falling in the street. Laughter. And I would always wonder, why do you laugh? Is it to your credit that you know Christ? Why do you act so proud as if it's your cortex, your intelligence that caused you to choose Christ? Why do you deny the grace of God so blatantly and so openly? If I know Christ, it's not to my credit. It's all God's grace. We know that. But I think we forget and we become proud. And yes, we have the truth and we make no apology for it, but we forget that it's not to our credit. And then sometimes, I fear, we become so comfortable with the truth that we believe that we sometimes forget to draw a clear line between what the Scriptures teach and what I believe to be so. And this is something as a preacher of the Gospel that I fear in my own life, because I have many opinions on many topics. I would like to think that most of my opinions are good opinions. I'm sure you have the same opinion of your own opinion. And yet it's easy for me to get confused between, thus saith the Lord and thus thinketh Greg. And once I lift up my opinion to the level of what God says is true and begin preaching my opinion, then I have become proud. And those of you that have been around for a while have been embarrassed more than once by good men by well-meaning men who have stood up and preached the grace of God with great power, and then turned right around and preached something like, and it's a sin to..." Whatever illustration you'd like to use. For a woman to wear pants. For a man to have facial hair. For college students to drink soda. And yes, I've heard that preached. And we think, what is wrong? It's called pride. It's assuming that what I personally believe is just as valid as what this wonderful book teaches. It's assuming that I am worthy of receiving what this wonderful book teaches. And I simply remind all of us that God hates pride. Now, I am fully aware that we're a fundamental church. I know that. And I am fully aware, if I could guess, that there's even people in this room thinking, man, I don't even believe he just said that. He's preaching against the sin in fundamentalism and he's a fundamentalist. I understand that. In my mind, that would not be an odd thing to do. I preached at a men's fellowship yesterday. my topic was not women, submit to your husbands. I would have got a lot of amens, okay? But if I'm addressing a group of men, why would I make my applications towards women? That would not really seem to be an efficient use of time. And if for some reason I had the privilege of addressing a group of ladies, I certainly wouldn't preach on husbands love your wives. No doubt I would get amens. But would it not be the proper thing to take the Scripture and make application to your audience? And so, I say this with love. We must be careful that we don't allow pride to be part of our lives and our ministries. Because God hates pride. He hates it so much that he resists proud people. That's our second point. Number one, the Lord hates pride. Number two, the Lord resists the proud. You say, what do you mean? I was in a social setting. Again, a baseball illustration. I'll kind of build on the first. I thought it was interesting because there were two people there and I didn't really know either one well. One I was casually acquainted with. One had a New York Yankees t-shirt on. This was recently. The other, I believe, had a Boston Red Sox t-shirt on. And I thought to myself, if these guys get together, something's going to happen. And so I noticed that one of the gentlemen, he was sitting in a chair off in the corner, and he had the Yankee shirt on. The gentleman with the Red Sox shirt started going in his direction. And so I watched, because I wanted to see. And I wasn't disappointed. The Red Sox fan, good-naturedly, teasing, not viciously, The Red Sox fan teased the Yankees fan about the Yankees' recent demise. They haven't been playing good baseball recently. And he began to tease him about that. The Yankees fan was unflustered by it and said with mock sincerity, you know, it's kind of nice that Boston can finally win for a change. All of those penance, frankly, were becoming quite boring. And that was the end of the conversation. Now you say, well, what's the point? Why would you bring that up? Because when you really hate a certain team, you resist the fans of that team. And here are two guys who, the best I know, don't even know one another. But just because they had different baseball teams that they hated, and hopefully in a good-natured way, they resisted the fan of the other team. Thus, we shouldn't be surprised at all that since the Lord hates pride, He resists proud people. I invite your attention to Proverbs 15, verse 25, where we'll see that the Lord opposes the proud. Proverbs 15. In verse 25, the Lord will tear down the house of the proud. Wow! You say, what does that mean? It means He tears their house down. I mean, certainly that would be a statement of opposition. You would never tear the house down of a person that you liked, of a person that you were supporting or encouraging. Here is God saying, I am opposed to you. and I'll tear your house down." Maybe not that different from Proverbs 16, verse 5. Look maybe on the same page of Proverbs 16, please, in verse 5. And here's our abomination word again. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Assuredly, he will not go unpunished. God will make sure the proud person is punished. Why? Because God opposes the proud. Why? Because the Lord hates pride. The psalmist says it this way, talking to God. You save an afflicted people, but haughty eyes you bring down. 2 Samuel 22-28 puts it this way, the afflicted people thou wilt save. But thine eyes, speaking of God, are upon the haughty that thou mayest bring them down. In our sports jargon, sometimes when guys are playing ball or what have you, someone will say to a person on the other team, buddy, you're going down. And we say that kind of jokingly. But I don't think these texts are said jokingly. You know what God says? God says if you're proud, you're going down. That's how much He hates pride. I think we're familiar with the New Testament text of 1 Peter 5 where it says God is opposed to the proud. You say, you really think it happens? I do. Do you know the name Nebuchadnezzar? A great king? who had all kinds of wonderful stuff and incredible rulers recorded in Daniel 4. Again, we won't turn there. But one day, Nebuchadnezzar was walking out at the roof looking at all the gardens, just filled with pride over everything he did. And basically, Almighty God looked down at this proud king and says, you know what? You think you're somebody. I'm going to teach you, you're nobody. You're coming down." You say, what happened? You know the story. The next thing you know, he's walking around on all fours with hair as thick as feathers, with nails long like eagles' claws, drinking water out of puddles on the ground. We would say a madman in the vernacular. You say, how did the story end? Finally, Nebuchadnezzar repented of his sin. Specifically, the sin of pride. And what happened? God restored him. In fact, at the end of this event, Nebuchadnezzar states, and I read from Daniel 4.37, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of Heaven. For all His works are true and His ways just. And listen to this. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride. That's Nebuchadnezzar's commentary. You don't believe that God can knock down proud people. Just come and talk to me. I've experienced it. God is able to humble those who walk in pride. The Lord opposes the proud. And thus, we can be certain that the proud will be humbled. And that's what the Proverbs teach. that the proud will be humbled." Proverbs 16, please. And look at verse 18. I think many of us are familiar with this text. It's repeated frequently and that is good. It's a good reminder for all of us that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. I can't help but think, especially as I watch sports, of all, if I could use a football illustration, of all of the guys who dance in the end zone. All of the guys who dance across home plate. All of the guys who backpedal down the court with their fist pounding their chest. I can't help but think, I wonder what's in the future. Because God hates proud people. And He promises that the proud will be humbled I think it's a testimony to God's grace, God's common grace, we say, that still, even in some athletes, we still see a respect for God. I was watching basketball recently, and I think most of you, many of you know I'm from Cleveland, and the illustration I use in no way is suggesting that this gentleman would be a believer. But I was watching one of Cleveland's basketball games in the playoffs, and LeBron just played what some would say is the greatest game ever played in basketball playoff history. And you could debate that. But after he single-handedly beat Detroit, it was basically five on one. The other four guys stayed back. It was LeBron on five. And he beat him. I was interested to know what he would say at the end of the game. And they said, LeBron, you beat Detroit single-handedly. This is perhaps the greatest playoff game ever. What do you have to say? And I thought, oh no, here it comes again. Pride. And LeBron, who's not a Christian, looked in the television camera and said, I thank God every day for giving me the ability to play basketball. And I thought, wow, is that a refreshing change. Now, I don't hold him up as a role model because I'm familiar with his life. He's not a believer. But at least an acknowledgement that even from an unsaved, wicked man, that there is a God. And that's become rare today in our society. You say, what will the result be? The proud will be humbled. Turn to Proverbs 11, please, and look at verse 2. Proverbs 11, verse 2. The text says, Proverbs 11, 2, When pride comes, then comes dishonor. Dishonor will follow pride. Turn to Proverbs 29. There are many different places we can go, but Proverbs 29. In verse 23, we're reminded yet again that the proud will be humbled. Where it says, a man's pride will bring him low. God has set things up this way. God resists the proud. You say, why? Because He hates pride. And when you hate pride, It's only natural that you would resist proud people. The psalmist puts it this way, whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure. I've been thinking about this message for some time on pride. And I've been thinking about it as I've read in the last two weeks a book on the history of the 8th Air Force, the United States 8th Air Force that was stationed in World War II in England. I came across that book and I read of these brave young men that were flying these B-17s and for actually a couple of different reasons, I thought I must read this book One, because some of you are familiar with a man who flew on that type of aircraft, and God supernaturally brought him through that so that he could come to know Christ late in life. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to read, that I could understand what this brother of mine went through. I read of the B-17 and its ten-man crew, the pilot and the co-pilot in the cockpit of the plane, the navigator and the bombardier in the nose below, a plexiglass nose. You say plexiglass, right? One bullet, it's gone. The flight engineer behind them, he would also man one of the guns on top. Right behind him, the radio operator controlled the smaller caliber machine gun, two waist gunners, one on each side of the plane, the ball turret gunner on the bottom, that's that little round item, and then finally the tail gunner all alone in the back, frequently the first guy to go. You say, what was the plan? Well, this is when the Germans had occupied France. Our troops were basically in England waiting for the alleged D-Day invasion. Eventually, as you know from your history, eventually we first of all invaded Africa. And then we're planning the D-Day invasion. But there were some United States leaders that thought we'll never have to invade France. because we can pound the Germans into submission with the B-17 bomber because this is a self-defending bomber. And you take these bombers and you send them into German-occupied France and there's nothing the Germans can do to stop them. In fact, these bombers will fly into Germany in the daylight and there is nothing that can be done to stop them. And so, even though some people said, this is crazy to send bombers unescorted into Germany. You say, what do you mean unescorted? We had fighter planes. But we had no fighter that had the ability to go all the way from England across the Channel into deep France or Germany. They just didn't have the fuel capacity to go that far. And some guys said, we need fighters before we send the bombers that far. And people said, no way. These B-17s can handle it. They are self-defending bombers. That's pride. That's arrogance. And we soon learned that the hard way. You say, what happened? Well, the Germans obviously knew what they were doing. Their fighters just stayed back and waited for our fighters to peel off and go back home. They couldn't go any farther. And then they would go in clusters and focus on parts of our formations and basically destroy our B-17s at will, at will, on their daytime bombing missions. Some of them would instead charge our B-17s head-on because the gun in the front was a very low caliber and those German pilots would come head-on and from a mere few hundred feet would shoot a few rounds and take them down as the pilot and co-pilot would instantly be killed. Then the German engineers came up with self-fused rockets and missiles. So their fighters could stay at a safe distance away from our bombers, shoot missiles into our formations where they would blow up. And our machine guns on these B-17s couldn't reach the fighters. You say, what are you saying? Our men were told that if they would fly 25 combat missions, they would be retired. Less than 25% were able to fly 25 combat missions. 2 out of 3 were killed or captured. 17% seriously wounded or taken out of the planes because of severe mental problems. Because when you watch your best friend to your left and his bomber goes down, and you watch your best friend to the right and his bomber goes down, and then you get back to England and you find out out of the eight bombers in your group, you're the only one that made it back, it does something to you. Of the initial crew that began with the 8th Air Force in May of 1943 in England, Fourteen percent of our young men survived. Fourteen percent survived. You say, why? Because pride goes before destruction. And for whatever reason, there were men in their arrogance who thought, hey, there's no one who can touch us. And they found out different. The 8th Air Force lost 26,000 men, more than the total number of Marines lost in that war because of pride. And finally, some key people humbled themselves and said we were wrong. Let's make some American fighters that can go the distance to escort the bombers all the way into Germany and back. And then things quickly changed. And that was eventually how we established their power, which led successfully to the D-Day invasion. You say, what's your point? Pride leads to destruction. You say, if God hates pride this much, if He resists proud people, then what do we do? Well, obviously, we have to find the answer to pride. And Proverbs gives it to us. The antidote to pride. I think we're familiar with this. humility. If I were to ask most people in this room, what is the opposite of pride? I think most of us would know. We might not practice it, but at least by God's grace we know it and seek to practice it. The opposite of pride is humility. We see that in Proverbs chapter 11 in verse 2. Proverbs 11 in verse 2. We'll look at a text or two just to make clear what I think most of us know. That the opposite of pride is humility. Proverbs 11, 2, when pride comes, then comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom. Again, remember, it's a poetry. It's parallelism. What's the opposite of pride? It's antithetical to the humble. With pride comes... when pride comes, there comes dishonor. But with the humble, there is wisdom. Turn over to Proverbs 15, and we'll see the same thing. In Proverbs 15, verse 25, it says, the Lord will tear down the house of the proud, but He will establish the boundary of the widow. Now, you might say, well, why the word widow there? Interesting. The orphan and the widow is often described in the Old Testament as being humble. The very opposite of proud. You say, what is the antidote to pride? It's humility. Because humility is the opposite of pride. You say, well, give me a definition of humility. Well, we did do that a while ago, but if I could briefly just review. The New Testament word for humility is the word lowly. To be a humble person is to be a lowly person. You say, well, what would that mean? Again, not original with me, but the best definition I've come across that seems to help me grasp the concept. Humility is having a low opinion of your own opinion. As long as I'm convinced that my opinion is better than your opinion, that means I'm convinced that I'm a better person than you. And that means I'm proud. I'm arrogant. And I am putting myself in a place where God may resist me. Remember, we're not talking about absolute truth. There's a place for standing absolutely for absolute truth. But when we get out of the Word, If we start talking about what I think about politics or sports or whatever, then we're talking about opinion. Humility. A low opinion of your own opinion. Humility not only being the opposite of pride. Humility being better than pride. And the Bible makes that very clear. Chapter 16. You may be open there to verse 19. In Proverbs 16, 19 it says, it is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly. than to divide the spoil with the proud. It's better to have just a little bit of stuff and be humble than to have a whole bunch of stuff and be proud. You say, why? Because if I'm proud, then God resists me. But if I'm humble, then I know that I have a promise. You say, what kind of a promise? The promise of Proverbs 15 and verse 33. In Proverbs 15.33, the fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom. And before honor comes humility. Who does God honor? God honors the humble person. Which is perhaps why James wrote in 4.10, humble yourselves in the presence of God, that He will exalt you. What do we see in Scripture? We see that God hates pride. Not just a little bit. He hates it a lot. You want to know how much he hates it? He resists proud people. You say, well, then what are we supposed to do? That's a good question. And so let's close this evening with just a few, let's call them practical applications on fighting the sin of pride. Something I must do. Something you must do. Something everyone in this room must do. You say, what would that include? First of all, confessing as sin the pride in your life People, let's be honest. Pride is a sin that we all struggle with. I mean, I could put it this way. How many of you struggle with pride? And maybe many would raise your hands, and you'd be the only ones who perhaps struggle a little bit, because at least you're humble enough to raise your hand, right? It'd be the ones who didn't raise their hands that we'd be going, wow! They're not even willing to admit they struggle with it. That's the real pride. We need to confess that we struggle with this universal sin of pride. A horrible sin. It steals glory from God. Here I am taking credit for something good in my life. It gives the wrong opinion of God. Because my God is not haughty and arrogant. And it hinders our ministry for God. Let's make sure that we confess the sin of pride. But we need to go beyond that. Number two, let's make sure we repent before the cross of Christ. Not just confessing as sin. You know that word, to say the same thing that God says. Lord, I'm sinful. I'm proud. But to take it to the next step. And I think most of us know the word repent. What does it mean? It means to turn. Repent before the cross of Christ. Right? Not trusting in my own ability. Not trusting in my own way. Not certainly seeking my own recognition. It's repenting before the cross of Christ. If I know God, it's not to my credit. If I have truth, it's not to my credit. Even if my biblical worldview is better than the next guy's, it's not to my credit. And when I fall into the sin of pride, and begin thinking that maybe I'm someone, I need to repent and realize it's only God's grace that has saved me. God's grace that has given me this wonderful word. God's grace through the God's Spirit that allows me to understand it. And not only confess the pride, pride as a sin, and repent before the cross of Christ, but finally to pursue the virtue of humility, the antidote to pride. You say, how would that happen? Certainly one way would be to make sure that by God's grace we give thanks to God for every good thing in our lives. Never bragging. Never taking credit for something good that happens to us. But always giving thanks to God. Trusting in Him. Not relying on ourselves. Having a low opinion of our own opinion. Contending for truth. Yes. but without being contentious and prayerfully being open to the godly criticism of others. God hates pride. And the more we become like Christ, the more we'll hate pride too. I think for most of us, it's easy to hate it when we see it in someone else. It's time to start hating it when we see it in us. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You would give us the privilege of knowing You. That You would record in Your Word not only what You love, but that You would record in Your Word what You hate. Father, we thank You that we can open up Your Word And we can, by Your grace, get to know You better. So that again, by Your grace, we can become more closely conformed to the image of Your wonderful Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that You would actively be at work in our lives. That You, Lord, would graciously point out the pride in our lives That You would give us the grace we need to confess sin as needed. That You would give us the grace we need to repent of the sin we confess. And Father, that You would give us the grace to desire the pursuit of humility. That our lives would please You. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.