THE LEAVEN OF PRIDE
Brethren, we continue to examine ourselves and, again, I always think of the model of the Spring Holy Days in which the preparation up to the Holy Days is to look for the leaven in our houses to remove it. Of course, as we prepare, I believe more importantly—spiritually—we look for the spiritual leaven that is in our lives, and we take the steps to remove it as we see it. Again, I think the physical model that we follow closely resembles what we should be doing on a spiritual level.
It’s interesting how certain
sections of the Jews—maybe it’s diligence, maybe it’s overdoing it—are so diligent
to make sure that they get every last crumb of leavening out of their
houses. I have read instructions that
were written on how to do it and part of it is that they are to take feathers,
get down on their hands and knees, and use them to dust out the cracks in the
floors to make sure that there is no leavening remaining. Of course, that was probably before vacuum cleaners
or something. Now you just get out your
trusty
Now, I don’t think, if I use the analogy, that God does that to us. He doesn’t plant things just to make sure that we’re diligent, and I also am not endorsing that. I think that is maybe, perhaps, a little over the top. But, when we take a look not our physical, but our spiritual lives, maybe we do need to be more diligent. If you think about leavening, actually what you see is not the leavening, but the product of leavening. In other words, you see leavened bread, but the leavening itself are microscopic spores of fungus which really cause the starches/carbohydrates to turn to sugars and eventually alcohols and give off carbon dioxide in the process. You can see the product of it, but you really can’t see leavening itself unless you have a microscope and you go around and look for it.
Our spiritual lives are the same way. As we start examining ourselves, sometimes we try to look at the big chunks—maybe those sins that we need to and certainly we should. However, there’s something that caused those sins. Sins don’t just appear. That’s something that we see, but that’s a product of something that is deeper. It’s like leavening—it’s something that you don’t see, but it affects you. I’m sure that David didn’t just wake up one morning and say, “You know, I think I’m going to go commit adultery.” That process, culminating in that sin, consisted of many thoughts and actions that led up to that and, by the time that act was done, it had probably been let go so much that, in a way, it was almost too late.
And that’s what I’m saying we need to do when we’re examining ourselves. Let’s don’t look at the product, but let’s look at, perhaps, the underlying cause. Look over in James the first chapter. Sin doesn’t just happen especially with us who are trying to overcome and to grow away from it. Sometimes, we try to deal with the outcome rather than trying to get at the root of it.
James
Notice he uses the word ‘deceived’ as Mr. Buchanan mentioned in the sermonette. Our hearts are “desperately wicked” and we can’t know it. We can’t. It is, as Mr. Coulter mentioned last week, possible to deceive ourselves. How do you search and start to try to clean out those things in your life when you are blind to yourself? You see, when you’re deceived, it’s impossible to see it, just as it is impossible for a blind person to see. It’s impossible for us to see, spiritually, that we are deceived. That’s something we have to take on faith. And, of course, once God shows it to us, we can understand it. But, remember, being deceived is not something you decide, “I’m going to be deceived.” You don’t know you are.
Over in 2 Corinthians, the fourth chapter. When we approach this, first we need to understand we can’t trust ourselves. We can’t rely on us. This is not a logical process that we can sit down and go through. The understanding and the realization of this has to come from something that’s not inside us. It has to come from God. It has to come from God’s Spirit. It is a spiritual process and it is spiritually discerned.
2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2) But [we] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, [in other words, we have renounced—we don’t want to be deceived. We do not want to be dishonest with ourselves.] not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; [and we’re going to talk about that a little later] but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3) But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; [notice] 4) In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel, who is the image of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Perhaps we say, “Okay, that’s the world—they don’t understand any of this.” But, we’re still human and Satan still has an influence on us and maybe we’re not blinded to everything—maybe we understand the truth. But we still have to understand, we are deceived to ourselves and, when we start to examine ourselves, it’s got to come from something larger than ourselves.
What I want to cover today is one of the root causes of many sins and our problems. It’s something that we don’t overtly commit and, yet, it is something that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, possess. Brethren, our failure to recognize and deal with this character flaw can take us out of God’s church and, perhaps, ultimately, out of God’s family. Today, I’d like to cover this extremely important subject, because this flaw is inherent in every one of us and it is as natural as human nature itself.
Now, what flaw am I referring to? This one has literally brought down principalities, kingdoms, countries, corporations, churches, families, friendships—what am I talking about? Well, this is a strange place to start, but Dante Alighieri, who in the 1200s was a philosopher, wrote something he called The Seven Deadly Sins. The first of the seven deadly sins was “pride”. The sins are pride, avarice and greed, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth. But the first one on the list was pride.
We, as humans, like to categorize sin in stages—some are worse than others. But what I want to talk about today is pride. Look over in 1 John the second chapter. You see, brethren, it is not something I think, as long as we breathe and have life in us, that we can ever put behind us. It’s one of those things just like leavening. You can unleaven your house and let me tell you something, you didn’t get it all out. You might have gotten all the leavened products out, but leavening is in the air—it’s everywhere. You don’t have to leaven bread. You make the bread, you leave it out, and it’s leavened. And it’s the same with us; we are living in this world and you can’t ever come to the point that you’re not going to have these issues. So we need to, as we approach these things, realize none of us are above this. This applies to all of us and we will never overcome this. This is one of the struggles that, as humans, we will spend the rest of our lives with.
1 John
Let’s explore that term “the
pride of life" and what it is. I
always thought the pride of life means you just want to live. I remember back when I was young, there was a
health food guy by the name of Paul Bragg.
Now he was very healthy and,
in his 80s, he was out jogging. To give
him his due, the guy died at 95 years old, in
Is that what the Bible is referring to as the “pride of life”? Just long life and that we desire that? Let me read what Matthew Henry’s Commentary says about the pride of life, because that’s not what it is at all. It says:
“There is the pride of life, a vain mind craves all the grandeur, equipage and pomp of a vainglorious life. This is ambition and thirst after honor and applause. This is, in part, a disease of the ear. It must be flattered with admiration and praise. The object of these appetites must be abandoned and renounced as they engage…”
In other words, he’s saying they’re not of the Father, but the world. You see the pride of life is wanting people to say “You know, you’re okay. You did a good job, you’re up there, you’re great!” It is to want to be recognized and noticed and to have the grandeur of somebody saying, “You know, that guy is something!” That’s the pride of life. It’s not long life, it is wanting to be honored and wanting to be praised and we’ll see where that comes from.
Let me just read it out of the Cassirer [translation]. Sometimes his translation make things more understandable.
1 John
So, you see, it’s somebody saying, “You know you’re okay. Look what you’ve accumulated. Look what you’ve received.” And, of course, I won’t turn there but you remember in the New Testament where it talked about the guy that had the barns who said, “Just look at me, I’ve done good and I’m going to pull these down and I’m going build bigger barns to put my greater possessions in.” And He said that the guy was a fool; that night he died. [Luke 12:16-20] Your life isn’t what you have, it’s what’s inside.
The pride of life is not just one’s possessions; it’s not even physical although it’s included—your talents, your looks, and your skills. These are also, if you think about it, possessions; things that you have. Go over to Ezekiel the 28th chapter. Let’s see where it originated. We’re going to read this out of the NIV. We’ll pick it up in verse 12. It says:
Ezekiel 28:12 Son of man, take up a lament concerning the
king of
Remember that in Romans 8:39, Mr. Buchanan read that scripture that says that there’s nothing—no created thing –- that can separate us from the love of God. Think about this, Satan is a created being and Romans 8:39 said there’s no created thing that can separate us from the love of God. That includes Satan because right here it clearly says he was created. Continuing on in Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 28:14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God [in other words the government]; you walked among the fiery stones. 15) You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness [or the KJV says iniquity] was found in you. 16) Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17) Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
Now think about this in the context of the pride of life that says it desires accolades. It desires to be noticed; to be worshipped. Does that define Satan? Remember when Satan took Christ through that time of temptation and he took Him up and said, ‘Look at all of this, it belongs to me and if you will worship—if you will acknowledge me—if you will worship me, it’s all yours.’ Does Satan want to be worshipped? Look at this world’s religious systems, which he is the author of, and that should tell you. Pride of life is to be noticed and it came from Satan who is the god of this world. Satan thought he had the answers. If everyone would follow him, he would show them the correct way. To this day, I’m convinced he doesn’t think that he’s wrong and that’s why, in my opinion, he can’t repent.
The unpardonable sin takes a person to the state where they can’t repent. The reason is because a person can get into a state, due to pride, where they’re not wrong. “I don’t need to repent, I’m not wrong! You’re wrong or someone else is wrong.” Pride—that is one of the reasons that it is so dangerous because it can put you in a state—because to repent you have to see an error; you have to see that you need to change and pride will prevent that. Go over in Job 41. For the sake of time, I’m just going to read a couple of verses here. This was after God had answered Job and was speaking to him and one of the questions He had to Job was in verse 1.
Job 41:1 Can you draw out leviathan with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord? 2) Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3) Will he make many supplications to you? Or will he speak to you in soft words? 4) Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him for a servant forever? 5) Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your maidens? [You know who he was talking about. He was talking to Job because Job wanted an answer from God, but He was talking to Job about Satan. Verse] 15) His strong scales are his pride, shut up as with a tight seal. [In other words, he’s withdrawn into himself. He’s closed. Verse] 33) Nothing on earth is like him, one made without fear. 34) He looks on everything that is high, he is king over all the sons of pride.
Again, brethren, the reason Satan rebelled and went to take God’s place was he thought he had the answers. He knew better than God; he could do it right and, as I mentioned, the problem—the reason that pride is so deadly, and brethren we all have it, is because it puts us in a position where we can’t repent, because we don’t see the need to. When a person is filled with pride, they can’t be humble. It’s like the laws of physics where two obstacles can’t be in the same place at the same time. You can’t take two pieces of wood or whatever and put them in the same place. Pride and humility are just like that. They are mutually exclusive. What was that country and western song? O Lord, It’s Hard to be Humble, When You’re Perfect in Every Way or something. You know, I think that sort of tells it. You can’t have pride and humility. Look over in James 4. Satan is the father and king of the proud as we read in Job. God is the Father of humility; of the humble.
James 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6) But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 6) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, [notice he talks about pride and humility and then he says submit to God and resist the devil] and he will flee from you. [You see, Satan’s hook is pride. That’s the hook that he uses; pride. That’s the one and if we can resist that, he doesn’t have a hook.] 8) Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.
Remember the prophecies of Christ’s first coming that were prophesied to Zechariah were to set us an example. Look over in Zechariah 9. This is a prophecy that was even repeated in the New Testament. I’m going to read out of the New American Standard. It says:
Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of
You see, Christ came in humility. He was humble. When you look at His life, remember He said, “I came to set you an example”. He was humble and that’s what He brought. Brethren, the lesson that we need to learn, that we’re living out and, hopefully, that we in God’s church with God’s Spirit, are asking God to show our deceitful hearts is to show us what we really are. The lesson is we don’t have the answers. God has the answers but we don’t. The best we can come up with, and you see it around you today, is misery and death. Look over in Genesis 3, the beginning of this. Remember, we’re not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices. Let’s look at them, because he has a fairly narrow repertoire, but it’s effective. You don’t need to change if you’ve got a winning team. If he’s got the hook that works, there’s no need for him to change. Let’s see how he deals with humans.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle [the NKJ says ‘cunning’ and the NAS says ‘crafty’] than any beast of the field which the [Eternal] God had made.
That Hebrew word, I looked it up, is aruwm and it means “subtle, shrewd, crafty, sly and there’s another word—sensible”. That Hebrew word can also mean sensible. Now that doesn’t seem to fit, but let me just read what sensible means. I’m reading this out of the 1913 Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Here’s what sensible means:
“Capable of being perceived by the senses, apprehensible through the body organs.”
So, in other words, if you’ll remember what Mr. Armstrong used to say, the world—humans—apart from God, what do we know? Only what we know from the senses; our sight, our taste, our hearing. That is what we perceive. That’s how we understand.
“Perceiving or having perception, either by the senses or the mind, cognizant, having moral perception, capable of being affected by moral good or evil, [is sensible and, notice this] possessing or containing sense or reason, gifted with, characterized by good or common sense.”
In other words, logical. You’re able to be logical, you’re able to think your way through a process. You see, sensible—as crafty or cunning—is also the same word that says you’re logical. Brethren, if we try to be logical about God it’s not going to work because, you see, God isn’t. I mean there is a quantum difference between what we can sense with our own senses and what we can feel. We can’t go through the logical process that will allow us to become humble. The world says, ‘You gotta get out there and you gotta grab it and you gotta get them before they get you and you gotta do it/get it while the gettin’s good!’ You see, the logic doesn’t say to be humble, to be meek, to do the right thing all of the time. I just found it interesting because, as I thought about it, the way Satan approached Eve was sensible because he was appealing to her reason and her logic. Hold your finger in Genesis, and we’ll come right back and let’s go over to 1 Corinthians 2:11.
1 Corinthians
In other words, the logic. That’s not what we’re talking to you about; it’s the things that you can reason through. If anyone told, as Mr. Buchanan read, those that were about to be killed by being torn apart by lions that they were doing the right thing, how could you reason through that? How could you know that you were about to die or that you were about to undergo something and say “this is the right thing to do”? You can’t come up with that humanly speaking . That is not logical. You can only do that with God’s Spirit saying, “this is the right way.”
13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15) But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged [by] no man. 16) For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct? But we have the mind of Christ.
You see, if we have God’s Spirit, we have the mind of Christ. Okay, go back to Genesis 3. Again, what we’re dealing with is not something that is sensible, not something that we can reason through. Satan wants it to be that way. Notice verse 1.
Genesis 3:1 …And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2) And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. [So he said, ‘look did God tell you that you couldn’t eat of every one of those? She said, ‘well, sure, we could eat them’] 3) But of the fruit of the tree of the which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, [or you’re going to die. Notice what he said because he was appealing to the logic—‘wait a minute!’] 4) …ye shall not surely die: 5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [In other words, you’re going to understand it yourself. You see, it’s logical. That’s what Satan was doing, was appealing to human reasoning and it was logical.] 6) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [again, the lust of the flesh], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [the lust of the eyes], and a tree to be desired to make one wise [the pride of life, remember? It’s to have wisdom; it’s to be looked up to.], she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.
When God put us on this earth, He put us here with the intention of giving us the answers. Remember, He said “the tree of life you can freely eat”’ and, if you think about that, that was the one with all the answers. Satan came along and, through pride and through reasoning, caused us to believe that we can get the answers on our own. Pride tells us that we know better, that the answers are within ourselves and we really don’t need anyone else. They, in fact, need us.
Let’s do a case study. As you know, I like to do case studies. This one is a little bit different. Let’s go over to Daniel the second chapter. This shows pride and how God reacts to it. I will tell you that one of my favorite
Biblical personalities is Daniel. The
reason is Daniel, of course, was an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar in
We were able to go in there because of who we were with and but, also, just about three or four miles from Shushan was Daniel’s tomb and, in fact, it’s called Sush Daniel. And to this day—when I say to this day, this was 1967—to that day, the French (and I don’t why, but it was a well-known site and visitors went to it) were the ones that maintained it. The Persians to this day (back then) had a very high regard for Daniel. I guess to just be over there and walk the steps that you know Daniel has walked and to look off—it’s right off the Tigris River and another river called the Karen River which runs right beside Shushan which is where the palace and all of the ruins are — to just stand there and say, ‘Did Daniel stand here, did he look out there?’ is amazing. Of course, you know that area is very rich in Biblical history because Nehemiah (who was a contemporary with Daniel) was also in that area as well as Queen Esther. And, of course, that was the area where her palace was. So, just having that picture in my mind when I read through Daniel is always kind of special to me to think about. It’s an area that you remember—any time you’ve gone to a place you always have a mental picture of how it looks geographically, although the ruins don’t look anything now like they used to. It’s, as you can imagine, just a few tunnels, steps and a few stones with glyphs are on them. It’s nothing like the majesty it once was.
Daniel 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar [if you think about that from school, he was a “sophomore”; he was fairly new at being the king], Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep brake from him.
So he had this dream and, of course, he went to all of his seers and said, “Tell me the meaning of this dream.” And, of course, they said, “Okay, tell us the dream.” And he said, “Now wait a minute, if you’re really a seer, you can tell me what the dream was.” Of course their lives weren’t going to be very long and Daniel came forward and—God went to Daniel or Daniel heard about it—and he went to the king and let’s pick it up in verse 29. Daniel went before the king, Nebuchadnezzar, and said:
Daniel
And, of course, to sit in the gate means more than just being in a chair in a gate. That implies that you’re there as a judge. In other words, you are hearing matters and you are passing judgments on those matters. Now notice how Nebuchadnezzar, and it doesn’t say how much time went on, but notice how Nebuchadnezzar responded after having this dream of this great image. He decides to build one. Down in Daniel 3:1, notice:
Daniel 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold,
whose height was threescore cubits [in other words 60 cubits high and, by any
measurement of a cubit—whether it was 18 inches or 26 for the royal cubit or
whatever—this was a big statue. It was 100 feet high or something. I find this interesting], and the breadth
thereof six cubits [so it was six six, which is the number of man, it was sixty
high and six wide]; he set it up in the plain of Dura in the
I find it interesting, and maybe I’ve already mentioned this once before, but there’s just something in that particular region. Remember what Saddam Hussein did? The first thing he wanted to do was put up all these monuments to himself. He wanted these statues of things and, of course, that’s in that same Mesopotamian basin right there—it’s in the same area. There’s just something about human nature. Anyway, down in Daniel 4 verse 13, because Nebuchadnezzar after he did this, of course thinking he was something, had another dream and Daniel was going to have to go tell him about this dream.
Daniel 4:13 I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven; 14) He cried aloud and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit; let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from its branches. 15) Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 16) Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. 17) This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. [You see, Daniel was going to have to go tell Nebuchadnezzar this had been decreed for him.] 18) This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now thou, O Belteshazzar…
We won’t turn there, but in chapter 1 and verse 7 the king’s aide had renamed Daniel and also the three Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I don’t remember their names now, but he had given them names. And, of course, Belteshazzar means “Beltes protect the king”. Now Beltes is the feminine form of Baal. Nebuchadnezzar’s son was called Belshazzer which means “Baal protect the king”. I don’t know the ages of them, but Belteshazzar, who was Daniel, was the feminine form of “Baal to protect the king”. How would you like to go through life with a pagan name about you? Continuing on...
Daniel 4:18 …declare the interpretation
thereof forasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known
unto me the interpretation: but thou art able; for the spirit of the holy gods
is in thee. 19) Then Daniel, whose name
was Belteshazzar, was astonished for one hour, and his thoughts troubled
him. The king spake, and said,
Belteshazzar, let not the dream, or the interpretation thereof, trouble
thee. Belteshazzar answered and said, My
lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation thereof to
thine enemies. [In other words, I don’t
want this to be for you—let it be for your enemies.] 20) The tree thou sawest, which grew, and was
strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the
earth; 21) Whose leaves were fair, and
the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of
the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their
habitation. 22) It is you, O king, that art grown and become strong; for thy
greatness is grown, and reacheth unto the heaven, and thy dominion to the end
of the earth. 23) And whereas the king
saw a watch and a holy one come down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree
down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth,
even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and let
it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the
field, till seven times pass over him.
24) This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the
most High, which is come upon my lord the king.
25) That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling place shall be
with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,
and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over
thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and
giveth it to whomsoever He will. 26) And
whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall
be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do
rule. 27) Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be
acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, [notice what he
said; he said, ‘Look, quit sinning. This is what God has decreed, but quit doing
it!’ and notice] and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if it may
be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
[In other words, if you’ll quit doing it, perhaps God will let you have
enjoyment for a longer time. But he said
quit your sins. And we’ll see, one of
his biggest sins was pride.] 28) All
this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
[notice] 29) At the end of twelve
months [and this is a year after, apparently, that this was delivered] he
walked in the palace of the
Now, at this point in the account, it switches from the third person. Notice now it switches to the first person. In other words, here it was talking about Nebuchadnezzar (he). Notice in verse 34, this is autobiographical. These are Nebuchadnezzar’s thoughts.
Daniel 4:34 And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. 35) And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: [In that seven years, with what happened to him, notice what happened] and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What [do You do]? [This was a king that, seven years before said, ‘Look what I’ve done. Look at my majesty, look at what I have.’] 36) At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me; and my counselors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. 37) Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, His ways judgment: and those [notice] that walk in pride He is able to abase.
Look at the lesson that he learned. Those that walk in pride—with that in mind, go over to Job 40 in verse six. This is when God started to talk to Job.
Job 40:6 Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said; 7) gird up thy loins now like a man; I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto Me. 8) Wilt thou also disannul My judgment? Wilt thou condemn Me, that thou may be righteous? 9) Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? 10) Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. 11) Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him. [See, God said, “Job, can you do that? Can you abase those that are proud?”] 12) Look on every one that is proud and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place. 13) Hide them in the dust together and bind their faces in secret. 14) Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee. [So He says, ‘If you can do that, then I will tell you your hand can save you; it can deliver you.] 15) Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. 16) Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
So, in other words, he's walking on all fours. God says, “Look, can you do that? Can you bring the proud down?” You see, brethren, pride is the very antithesis of God the Father. Look over in Isaiah the second chapter.
Isaiah 2:12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, [notice that] and upon every one that is lifted up and he shall be brought low: 13) And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan 14) And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15) and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall. 16) And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17) And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Brethren, remember what the
pride of life is? It’s wanting the
praise of men—to be looked up to as a leader, to be considered as one that is
wise. Now, how does that relate to
us? We’re not kings—we don’t have a
In other words, if you look at the general epistles, what were the latter ones that were written by John about? They were warning people about Gnosticism There was a strong warning to the church because Gnosticism means “we know”. An agnostic means “I don’t know”. Gnostic means knowledge or we know. The reason this is dangerous for us, brethren, is that pride is something that the longer we’re around, the more susceptible we are to it.
Remember when you were new in the church and you knew you didn’t know anything? But the longer you’ve been around, the more you accumulate knowledge. Pride is not a sin usually at the beginning; it’s a sin as you get older and as you’ve been around longer. It’s a sin of maturity, because just as the New Testament church experienced Gnosticism creeping in, it is also a danger to us. And the root of that is pride. As the New Testament church grew, it started maturing and falling into that trap that is brought on by pride.
Look over in John the 12th chapter. Starting in verse 37:
John
You see Christ, on this earth, didn’t consider that He had any strength or any power. He was there to deliver the words of the Father. He realized that the Father provided everything for Him. You don’t have to turn there, I’ll read it, remember when Christ said:
John 8: 28 …When they lifted up the Son of Man then you shall know that I am He and that I [can] do nothing of Myself, but as my Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.
Never forget brethren, pride squeezes out the most precious characteristic we can possess and that is humility. In the church there is, I think, a potential for the growing of Gnosticism. If you look at what we’re faced with—in the latter day church—the big issues now (and I think Mr. Buchanan mentioned this before) seem to be: where and when? The calendars issue and when are we going to meet and which group or what are we going to be a part of? When, in fact, the right answers, the right things we should be looking at are who and how. The New Testament is silent on where and when. It’s who and how—it’s how to worship God. It’s who to worship. Those are the right questions. One of the ways that pride can and is getting to us now is for us to think, ‘Hey, you know what? I realize we’ve been doing this all wrong before and I’ve got it figured out—I went through this and I’ve got it figured out.” And we’ve been, (take your pick) meeting on the wrong day or we need to be doing this or that differently. That’s pride to think that we have the answers. It can trip us up and it can get us.
The humility that we should possess, that God wants us to possess, understands that we don’t have the answers. It understands that God has the answers and we need to go to Him. Go over in 1 Corinthians the 13th chapter, the important thing—the humility, brethren, is for us to understand that we can deceive ourselves. We need to believe to the depth of our being that, of ourselves, we can do nothing. We are nothing other than the clay that God is working with. We are the works of God’s hands. We should want what God wants to make of us and if we become brittle and hard, because of pride, just like the potter that discards the clay, God can’t work with us. We are no longer moldable. Our job is to trust our Father to know what He’s doing, to know that He knows what He’s doing, and that He’s going to finish that.
1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2) If I have the gift of prophecy, and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, [so he’s presenting this and says ‘suppose I knew everything and I had it all figured out’] and I have faith that I could move mountains. [And, you know what, how many of us would say ‘Boy, if I could do those three things, I’d love to be able to move a mountain’, or ‘I’d like to be able to understand’. And Paul is saying, ‘If I could do all of those’] but have not love, I am nothing. [The important thing is not to do that today, it’s to develop the love that comes from [God]]. 3) If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4) Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud [notice that, love is not proud], it’s not rude, it’s not self-seeking, 5) it’s not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. 6) Love doesn’t delight in evil but it rejoices in the truth. 7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8) Love never fails. But where there are prophecies they will cease, where there are tongues they will be stilled, where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
You know, brethren, when
somebody stands up and says, “Listen, I have the answers, follow
The title of today’s sermon is The Leaven of Pride. Brethren, as we approach the Passover and we start looking at the leaven, we need to understand not just the sins that we have to look at but what’s behind them—what is causing them. And one of the big factors is pride. We all have it to some degree or another and none of us can see it in ourselves. We need to ask God to show it to us. We need to ask God to help root it out. We need to ask God to give us the humility. With that, and if we can do that, we can approach the Passover with a clean heart, ready to accept that sacrifice, ready to continue our growth as a Christian and, ultimately, to be a bride to Jesus Christ at His return.
Transcribed by kdo April,
2004