A Learned Sermon Of The Nature Of Pride

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For you have said in your heart, I will ascend in heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the side of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Basically Satan , who this is, did not intend to acknowledge any to be superior to him in all of heaven and earth. He regarded himself alone as being supreme, and he was filled to the brim with self-pride. See brethren, Satan is the father of pride, and he knows how to use it, and he knows how to infect us with it. Now what do we take pride in?

He could probably give a much better list than what I have here, but in Ecclesiastes it talks about young people. It says, "Rejoice O young men and young women in your youth. Many young men rejoice in lifting weights, in their skills in sports, and in mechanics and in computers. Hopefully their hobbies will lead them toward a good manhood. Of course girls rejoice in growing up and having grace and a feminine figure, and relishing in their abilities in sports and talents and achievements and learning skills that will help them in becoming an adult.

Now God intended this to be an extremely wonderful time for young people—a time to grow physically and a time to grow mentally. And so God says in those verses that young people are to enjoy their youth. You young people are to enjoy your youth and your beauty and your power. He says let your eyes do what they want, and your skills, but do not be foolish in using your strength and aptitudes and beauty in the wrong way. Do not be foolish. He said do not use those skills to intimidate others, to attract others for selfish purposes, to put others down, or to get your own way.

He said "Don't do that. He concludes it by admonishing us to remember the days of our youth and act accordingly, because as the days progress, all the things that we were so proud of then tend to just sort of fade away as you get older. At least the muscles do, and all the important things that seem to be there. He said that difficult times will come. And then as we go into adulthood, and into the workplace, or into our own homes, we can be proud of our position, of our talents, of our abilities, our homes, our neighborhood, our families, the car, our salaries, our clothes, our intellect, and our success.

This can all go to our head, and we can start to inflate. If we are not careful we can begin to think that we did it all, that we had all the talents that we had, and that we accomplished everything, and we can forget to be thankful to God and think that we accomplished everything we have. Let us go to Daniel chapter 4.

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This is the story of Nebuchadnezzar and the dream that he had about the tree, and that the tree was going to be cut down and how it fed the entire earth. That they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times [seven years] shall pass over you, till you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will.

And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; your kingdom shall be sure unto you, after that you shall have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of your tranquillity.

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spoke, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? And then came the promise.

And what have you that you did not receive? He said that you have been given talents. In this society we have some people that are gifted at mechanics. Some people are gifted in working with electricity. Some with stocks and bonds. He said "Why would you be puffed up over that? So this is the point. Now I have a question here. Does this mean that we can never take pride in a job well done, and say, "Ah, that wasn't me. This is not what that means. It means that we should truly realize where our abilities and our skills come from, and based on that not allow ourselves to become puffed up, but to be deeply grateful and appreciative to God for what He has given us.

This is what we should be acting like, and this is the attitude we should take when we are successful, and when we blossom, and when we have things that we can do. Now brethren, where does pride reside? It resides in our heart—in the very innermost part of our being. We will do everything in our power to be viewed as correct in all we think and do and say.

Pride is at the very center of our nature, pushing us for this. This next scripture is one that I do not think anybody likes, because it keeps pointing out to us that we just might not be perfect, and that we might have a flaw. I am going to read you comments by three commentators on this.

The first one is from F. If a man is so blessed who trusts in God, what is the reason men so generously rely on their own ways? It is because man's heart is incapable of seeing things in a straightforward manner, but is full of shrewd guile, and is ever seeking to overreach others," [or to put others down, or to be on top]. Adam Clarke has some things to say here that I think will really surprise you.

It even hides itself from itself. He goes on to say, "A corrupt heart is the worst enemy one can have. It is full of evil devices of deceit, following an ambition, and its owner knows not what is in him until it broils over often passed remedy before the evil can be perceived. I can say that that is happened to me personally.

Therefore, trust not in man whose purposes are continually changing and who is actuated only by motives of self interest. Why is it that the blessed are not more numerous than the cursed? The answer lies in the innate and depravity of the human heart. The source of all difficulty is the human heart. In Old Testament usage the heart signifies the total inner being, and includes reason.

The human heart is more deceptive, torturous, crooked than anything else. It is desperately corrupt, and humanly speaking, incurable. Who on earth can plumb its steps? Who on earth can plumb the depth of the heart's corruption and sickness? Even its owner does not know it. This is the nature that we find in us. I know this is hard to believe, but I will touch on some more things here. Brethren, this pride that we do not know we even have is called "self-righteousness.

You see, this is why God hates pride so much, because we are going our own way, which has caused all the problems on the face of this earth. Now none of us wants to admit that we have self-pride. I am just going to read a few things that I have just written down here. This is God who is putting this in the Bible, and David, a man after God's own heart, that God loved, in Psalm 51 said. He said that sin was in his very nature. He said it was part of him.

David took one look at Bathsheba, and it was, "Forget what God said. See, that is the heart. This was a man after God's own heart. These are painful things to hear. These are the things which defile a man. We learned from Romans 8: Here lies the problem. Our heart, our human nature, does not want to be subject to the law of God. Therefore the pride that is in us will do all it can to provide the heart with what it wants.

When David saw Bathsheba, he wanted Bathsheba, and his pride and his heart said, "Just go get her," and he just did not think. And even though we have been baptized, brethren, our old human nature still fights against us. We have help from God through His Spirit to strengthen us in overcoming, but He does not take our human nature away because He expects us to fight and overcome it. He is going to help us, but it is that human nature that pushes our pride. Now remembering that pride will fight, that it will not listen to God, that it will always defend itself, that it will make excuses, that it will deceive, that it will greatly resist doing right, I made up a couple of examples here to show you how that works.

It does not pertain to anyone in the church, so do not anyone get offended, please. A man came home from work every night and he'd drink a six-pack of beer. This went on for months, and his wife started to become concerned. She said, "Honey, I think you're becoming an alcoholic, and you're drinking in excess and a large amount of beer. You're setting a bad example for the children, and a bad example for the church. I think you have a real problem.

Now if his answer would be: I find I can't seem to put it down. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't bring anymore beer into the house and sort of help me fight this, and let me see if I can't put this drinking down. A young woman wears very short skirts and very tight, low-cut blouses, and her mother notices that cars are driving off the street when the young woman walks by, and the cars drive into lawns and into trash cans.

So she calls her daughter in and says, "Sweetheart, I can tell by the way that you're dressing that you're causing men to sin. They want to get you into bed. You're causing men to commit adultery with their mind. Now humility's answer would be: I want to represent God correctly and I don't want to cause any man to sin with his mind, so I'll start to develop a better wardrobe. You can probably guess what pride's answer is. We have all seen brethren leave the Church of the Great God and other organizations because of their pride, and discoveries of new moons or postponements, or of the Passover and how to keep it, because they have had pride in those subjects.

Their study has been oriented as to what satisfies their pride. They have become technically oriented, and then they shut themselves off from the weightier matters that God wants us to study—overcoming and conversion. See, they have to prove themselves right, and so they miss the point of the calling. They miss it, in that we are to be humble and yielded, and that we are to love each other with all of our heart.

They miss it because of pride. Pride affects the other side of the coin as well, because people have come to the conclusion in their own pride that we do not have to obey the laws of God, because all we have to do is to love, and then God's laws are not important if we love, and they have not gone to God and asked Him how God wanted them to live. Pride works against marriages as well. Couples cannot have a good or lasting marriage when pride is a big problem. God says, "Submit yourself. Almost everything we see, or that we read about, or that we hear, displays the attitude of man doing things his own way, with no concern for God, for God's laws, for the rights of others, or for common decencies.

Brethren, it is in this environment of self-will and self-centeredness that we live in, that we are supposed to put our pride away, our way of doing things, and humbly come before God for His instruction on how to live. The world understands the attitude that pride displays, and from Webster's List of Related Words I am going to read these to you. I have found a few that fit me from time to time. Feeling of superiority toward others. Do any of these fit you? Well, they fit me from time to time.

Something that we are to understand is that we should not have these attitudes in us, if we look at other people. Brethren, God will not accept this nation or us as individuals if we are filled with pride. That is an honest fact. God says that when you think you are "big time," you had better take a good look around, because you are about to have the stool go out from under you.

Turn now to Proverbs 8. This is interesting because at the Feast we were told that we go to the Feast to learn to fear God. Now here is the definition of "fearing the Eternal. Though people try to save him, try to hang onto him, try to help him, the proud man is going to be punished. Let us go to Jeremiah I think we will see the full import of this. This pertains to the nation of Judah. And the word of the L ORD came unto me the second time, saying, take the girdle that you have got, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

And it came to pass after many days, that the L ORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, [doing it their way] and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says the L ORD ; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: You see, we have been called, brethren, to be a praise and a glory to God. We have been called to do it God's way, that He can point to us with pride— His pride—and say, "These are My people, and they've obeyed Me.

Then shall you say unto them, Thus says the L ORD , Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: Give glory to the L ORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the L ORD 'S flock is carried away captive. See brethren, just as with Israel in the past, God is going to humble Israel today, and He will humble the entire world. The world is no good to God at all until they are humble. As for those who are called, God will work to humble us if we insist upon going our own way, that we might not miss out on the call that we have been given.

He will do whatever is necessary to make us turn from the way that we are going, and seek His instruction. It could be job loss to bring your attention to Him immediately. It could be family difficulties. It could be divorce. It could be trials of all types. It could be illness. I was impressed the way that God handled Job, and I just learned something here from Elihu. Please turn to Job Certainly not everybody that gets ill has a problem with pride. That is not what is being said here. That is just one of the tools that God will use occasionally when He has to get through.

In this case Job had a great deal to learn here.

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This is Elihu speaking. He is the one that wasn't condemned with the other three at the end of the story with Job. I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me. He puts my feet in the stocks, he marks all my paths. I will answer you, that God is greater than man. Why do you strive against him for he gives not account of any of his matters.

For God speaks once, yes twice, yet man perceives it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. What he is saying here is that the reason why God brings the affliction is because all the means of reclaiming or restoring men fail.

He communicates to them at night through dreams and visions, and of course today in sermons and counselings, and He warns them of the error of their ways, and it is all ineffectual. He brings affliction upon them, whether it be job loss or family difficulty, but in this case He put Job in bed. He lays them down on their bed that they might repent , that there is hope that they might be reclaimed.

He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yes, his soul draws near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness [and he repents]: Then he is gracious unto him, and says, deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found an atonement.

His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned [I have been proud], and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. Lo, all these things works God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living. We read that God does punish to bring back. Every Passover season we read this in I Corinthians But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Now brethren, how can we judge ourselves and repent of pride? I tend to think in rather simple fashions. I have come up with two tests. Self judging is a difficult thing to do, by the reason that pride does not want to be judged. One of the most helpful tasks we can take is how we view and treat others. The second test is how we obey God.

The two tests we can take: This is a toughie, but it is a good way to judge. He said do not do anything through vainglory. That just simply means vanity, or pride. Do not take advantage of anyone else because of your birth, your property, your wealth, or of your intellect. He said this does not enter into it. He said, "but in lowliness, [in humbleness of mind, and a mind that is opposite of the type of mind that wants to control everything—just an open, honest, gentle mind], let each esteem others better than themselves. This is the test.

Who are the "others" that you and I esteem better than ourselves? Everyone we meet is going to be a member of the God Family someday, and have a position, and be God's son. Now whom do we esteem better? Is it those that are at work with us maybe, with the exception of those that are hard to get along with? Is it our neighbors?

Or for the most difficult category, is it those in our homes? Do we esteem our children better than ourselves, knowing that God gave them to us to raise, to eventually be His sons and daughters? Do we husbands esteem our wives better than ourselves, and treat them with honor and deep love and respect, knowing that it can be difficult to be a submissive wife, to be in that role? Do wives esteem their husbands better them themselves, considering the fact that they have to work on behalf of the family, and the difficulty that it is to work today in the workplace, and the difficulty it is to lead a home in this society?

Or does pride, not wanting to do it God's way, stop us from submitting and esteeming others better than ourselves? If it does, then there is pride, and it must be gotten rid of. We are not just to live for "our" self, unconscious of the needs of others, but to be concerned about their needs. And then in verse 5 he tells us the type of mind that Jesus Christ had. In other words, Jesus Christ esteemed others very highly. This is just what we read in Philippians 2.

This is the instruction of God by the way, and if we do not do these things, then pride has placed us in rebellion against God's instruction. How well do we receive instruction? Well, humility is the opposite of the "I know it all" attitude. Those who are humble are teachable. This is why humility is so important. Why is that the case? It is the case because the humble do not listen to themselves.

They realize that they are just like the man in Luke 18 who said, "Father, forgive me. They realize that they are empty inside and that they have to be filled by God. You see, God wants us to be receptive to His teaching and to put down our own opinions and ideas—our ways of living—and to have the attitude of David. Let us look at Psalm David had the right attitude. David realized that God was his salvation, and he had to have the mind of God to be saved. And so with a humble heart he said, "Please teach me Your ways, and the paths that I should be on. Now brethren, I think we can use this as part of our test if we are disregarding any of God's commandments or not keeping them to the full.

If we do not keep the Sabbath correctly, if we are not fully tithing, or doing a good day's work for our employer, or not working to have genuine love in our homes, if we are not doing this, then we have a problem with stubbornness and self-will and pride, and God cannot accept that. Are they the result of sin?

Is it good or bad that there are separate, independent political states that are often in conflict? What does God think of a monolithic super-state? Will he prevent one?

The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ

Will the world end with one? And personally, what is your own root sin, and what does God think of it? What has he done to rescue you from it? All of that and more flows out of this text. But careful readers of Genesis notice that in chapter 10 the peoples and languages are described already before the tower of Babel in Genesis For example, look at Genesis He has not forgotten in The solution is to recognize that the author has not put these two stories in chronological order.

He first describes the spread of the peoples and languages in chapter 10 and then he describes the origin of that diversity in Genesis Sometimes, when you have something shocking to say about why an event happens, you put it at the beginning of the event, and sometimes you wait and put it at the end of the event. After the flood, God had said to Noah in Genesis 9: It was happening as peoples and languages multiplied. It looked like obedience.

God came down and shattered their disobedience and made their clustering impossible. He confused their language and broke humanity into many peoples and languages. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. The key statements are in verse 4: The first two of these correspond to the second two.

Building a city is the way one avoids being dispersed over the whole earth. And building a tower into the heavens is the way one makes a name for oneself. So the city and tower are the outward expressions of the inward sins. His will is not that we find our security in cities but in God whom we gladly obey.

So the spectacular sin of man is that even after the flood, which was a thunderclap of warning against sin for Noah and his descendants, it turns out that we are no better after the flood than we were before. The human condition is just like it was with Adam and Eve. They will decide for themselves what is best. They think they can even rise up and claim the place of God. This is the story of mankind to this very day apart from redeeming grace. Two things in Genesis The sinful nature of Adam goes on in his descendants — including you and me. The author mocks the tower by saying that God had to come down to see it.

Of course, God can see everything everywhere. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Notice what God says in verse 6: He is about to multiply languages and peoples. So his response to the presumption and arrogance of man was to make it harder for man to communicate and thus to unite in God-belittling global plans. God has built into the world a system by which the pride of different groups of people restrains the pride of other groups of people.

God knows the immense potential of human beings created in his own image. And he has given them amazing liberty to exalt themselves and design their own security systems without trusting him. But there are limits. Thousands of languages around the world and thousands of different peoples limit the global aspirations of arrogant mankind. Keep in mind the principle we have leaned on repeatedly: When God permits a thing he does so for a reason.