DOWN UNDER Abounding in the grace of Humility

(Part 2)

What’s Wrong With Pride?

James 4:3-6

³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. ⁴ Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? ⁶ But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

I.                   BEFORE THE TREE

1.     Pride’s Beginning.

Isaiah 14:12-16

¹² “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! ¹³      For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; ¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ ¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. ¹⁶ “Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms.

2.     Pride at the Tree

Genesis 3:2-6

² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; ³ but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” ⁴ Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

1 John 2:16

¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world

3.     Pride Forfeits Salvation

Luke 18:9-14

⁹ Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortions, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ ¹³ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

4.     Pride is sin.

Proverbs 21:4

A haughty look, a proud heart, And the plowing of the wicked are sin.

II.                WHY RESIST PRIDE

1.     Pride blinds us leading to destruction

Proverbs 16:18-19

¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. ¹⁹ Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Proverbs 18:12

¹² Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, And before honor is humility.

2.     It makes God Your Opponent.

James 4:6

⁶ But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:” God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.”

3.     You’re Playing on Satan’s Playground.

1 Timothy 3:6

⁶  Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

4.     You will be humbled. 

Proverbs 29:23

                        A man’s pride shall bring him low: But honor shall uphold the humble in

                        spirit.

5.     God will be forced to design tailor made pain for us

  2 Corinthians 12:7-10

⁷ And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. ⁸ For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. ⁹ And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

III.             HOW DOES PRIDE SHOW UP

1.     In Strife.

Proverbs 13:10

¹⁰ By pride comes nothing but strife, But with the well-advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 28:25.

²⁵ He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered.

2.     In Abundant Self- Praise. 

Proverbs 27:2

² Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips

                       

                        Echoing Truth is Not Pride

                        In Place and Position Seeking

Luke 14:7-11

⁷ So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: ⁸ “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; ⁹ and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. ¹¹ For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

3.     Always having to be right is Pride. 

2 Samuel 17:23

²³ And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.

4.     Boasting About the Future  

James 4:13-17

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.