Lesson 34

PRIDE AND HUMILITY PT. 1

(Audio transcript)

Scriptures Cited:
Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 16:18, Ezekiel 16:48-50, Romans 1:18-20, Romans 1:21-32, James 4:6, Matthew 3:7-9. Matthew 21:28-31, Matthew 21:32, Mark 7:5-8, Mark 7:14-23, 1 Timothy 3:2-6, 1 Peter 5:5, 1 John 2:15-17

Good morning. It’s good to be here with you guys again, another Lord’s day. And as we always do, we’re going to go ahead and get into God’s word, and hopefully have a good lesson here and something we can all grow from. The topic I guess I wanted to start on today, is a topic that I guess I began to get some real understanding on – I’d say I guess it’s been 14 years ago when… for myself, I truly came to the Lord according to His will. And this was one of the first – like I said, understandings that He gave me, and it’s on the topic of Pride and Humility.

And if you guys remember, we recently went over some lessons on Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding. And how we saw in a lot of places throughout the scriptures, those three things are kind of linked to each other. Where we’d see knowledge, we’d also see wisdom and understanding. Similarly, in the scripture, where we see pride there’s a lot of teachings that also will show us the flip side: pride and humility. So, what I’d like to do today is basically focus on that first part. So, this would maybe be “Pride and Humility Part 1”. And we’re going to focus mainly in on pride, but over these (hopefully Lord willing) next two weeks, we’ll look at the dangers of pride and also the necessity of humility and being humble.

So, when I was kind of getting some things together for this lesson I went to the internet to try to just get a worldly, if you want to say, or the standard definition of pride. And they didn’t do very good with what the internet had to offer, so I actually looked up what the Biblical definition of pride is. And I’m just going to read one of the ones I found that seemed to be a pretty good definition. So, it said pride was defined as:

• improper and excessive self esteem, known as conceit or arrogance
• pride can be defined as elevating one’s own opinion and thoughts above God’s authoritative word

And I thought that was a pretty good definition of pride from the Biblical point of view. And so what I want to do though, as always is, we’ll let the Bible define for itself what the Bible has to say about pride. And we’re going to start again in the book of Proverbs. We’ll go to Proverbs chapter 6 to start. And like I said, we want to keep in mind today the dangers of pride and we’ll see what the scripture has to say about how pride kind of operates. So, in Proverbs chapter 6 we’re going to start in verse 16. And maybe we’ve all heard of the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ and this is kind of the scripture that, that’s rooted in or where they get that term, the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. So, in Proverbs chapter 6 starting in verse 16, it reads:

Proverbs 6:16-19
¹⁶ These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

¹⁷ A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, ¹⁹ A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

So, like I said this is commonly known as – some people would say, like the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, or as the scripture says, though… It says these are seven things that “are an abomination” unto the Lord. And it’s interesting to note what the very first thing listed is, cause we normally – when we list things we’ll kind of put the most important thing right at the beginning to make sure that you get it… And there you see, the first thing listed is “A proud look”. So, pride we can see is listed as one of the things – not only that God hates, but it’s an abomination to Him.

We can look a little bit further here in the book of Proverbs and flip over to chapter 8. And in verse 13, you know, we did like I mentioned in the lessons on knowledge, wisdom and understanding, and we talked about how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And this was one of the verses that we hit on to explain exactly what the fear of the Lord is. And I just want to go over this one more time in Proverbs chapter 8 verse 13, where it reads and it tells us plainly:

Proverbs 8:13
¹³ The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

So, we see it once again. That right here when it tells us what the fear of the Lord is, “is to hate evil” – and the next thing that it says: and pride, and arrogancy. So, we can see clearly already that pride is something that the Lord is not very fond of, we’ll say it that way.

So, we’re going to stay here in the book of Proverbs and we’re going to look at one more place. Let’s go to Proverbs chapter 16. And this is a fairly famous verse, I guess. We’ve probably all heard this one before. In Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 18, and it reads:

Proverbs 16:18
¹⁸ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

There we see it again, that’s one of the warnings and the dangers of pride – is because pride comes before destruction. And normally when we think of pride nowadays, it’s kind of gotten a ‘rebranding’ even in a worse way than what the Bible says. And the association that we have with pride today is with certain activities, and we know certain people that represent themselves with the alphabet. And I wanted to look at one thing though, that it says about that because a lot of times we’ll hear people connecting that lifestyle with Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I wanted to turn over into the book of Ezekiel in chapter 16. There’s something interesting there that really ties it all together in scripture. In Ezekiel chapter 16, this is – Ezekiel was giving a warning or rebuke to the children of Israel and to Jerusalem in particular. And in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49 – actually, we’ll go back to 48. What he’s doing is he’s going to compare Israel or Jerusalem as a daughter, and then he calls Sodom and I believe it’s Syria – as her ‘sisters’. And we’ll see what the prophet Ezekiel has to say to them in their rebuke from the Lord. So, in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 48, it reads:

Ezekiel 16:48-50
⁴⁸ As I live, saith the LORD GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

Note: So, He’s comparing Jerusalem and the children of Israel to Sodom. And then in verse 49 He’s going to tell us what the sin of Sodom was. It says:

⁴⁹ Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,

Note: So, there it is.

^{49 cont’d} fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

So, there we see right there the connection between (we know what Sodom is famous for) and we see that connection between that lifestyle and pride here, and what the result of it was, just like we read in Proverbs – that pride goes before a fall. And here we see that He took them away (or pride goes before destruction) and that’s what happened to the folks in Sodom.

So, we could look at a lot of examples in the Old Testament and we won’t really go into all of these, but a few that came to mind was Nebuchadnezzar who was the King of Babylon. And… I’m debating if I want to go there or not, I’m sorry. I always do like to look at these scriptures that I’m referencing, but nevertheless – Nebuchadnezzar… Daniel, in his rebuke to him (and also his son Belshazzar) let them know that it was their pride, that was the problem. They had a haughty spirit and were prideful before the Lord. And that’s why God brought them down. And with Nebuchadnezzar in particular, it says He gave him a heart of a beast and humbled him to the point where when it was all said and down, he gave praise and honor to God, saying ‘yes – no, God is the one that needs to be exalted.’

And another example is the King of Tyre… we read about that in Isaiah. And in that discourse, as He’s saying that about him, He also starts to allude to Lucifer – He refers to him as Lucifer and talks about that pride for wanting to be exalted above the Throne of Heaven, and that for that, God was going to bring him down low. And so, we see like lots of examples there.

And one thing to note with those too (and we’ll see it as we get into some of the New Testament), teachings and examples about pride… is that in Nebuchadnezzar’s situation, he was kind of lucky. God brought him down; He just humbled him. But then there is another extreme, where – not only does God humble you, but He actually will begin to resist you or to… even worse, destroy you. So, we’re kind of going to see a few examples of both of these.

But keeping in mind like we were saying about pride today and the way we see it, we’re going to go to Romans chapter 1. And this is a passage of scriptures that Paul gives, where he directly addresses the pride and the results that can come from that type of pride. And we are seeing it today. So, in Romans chapter 1 we are going to start in verse 18 and we’re going to read all the way down to verse 32. Romans chapter 1 verse 18 says:

Romans 1:18-32
¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. ²⁰ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, ²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

²⁴ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: ²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

²⁶ For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: ²⁷ And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

²⁸ And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

²⁹ Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, ³⁰ Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹ Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

³² Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

So, in that whole passage of scripture, he lays it out pretty clearly that when they were doing these things that were unnatural and turning their lusts men for men and women for women, that God gave them over. And then when he lists all of the wickedness and evilness, you’ll see right in there that pride (or he said they would be ‘proud’) is listed right along with all the rest of them. You know, with murder and envy and deceit – you see pride listed there as well.

So, the dangers of having pride… We can see it clearly when we look around the world today, we see that extreme pride and what these people are doing almost in the face of God. But, you know, what we really need to worry about for ourselves, is pride in ourselves. We can see it clearly when others exhibit it in an extreme way. But what about the pride that we have in our own hearts? It’s just as dangerous as the pride that we see out there, so we need to be mindful.

So, what I want to do is go to actually the book of James, in chapter 4 verse 6. And we’ll search and get into some of the principles and we’ll see the dangers of that pride. In James chapter 4, and in verse 6 we read:

James 4:6
⁶ But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

And that verse there, I don’t know why when I, like I said, 14 years ago – that verse stood out to me, because I never wanted to have God resisting me. I never wanted to be God’s enemy. And it says here though, if we have a proud heart – if we have pride in us, that God will resist us. And that is a frightening thing to think of. It’s bad enough if we’re against God but He’s on our side and helping us along… But to get to a point where we are against God because of our own pride and now He’s against us… that pretty much puts us in a hopeless state. And like we saw there in Romans, when that happens, God is liable to turn you over to your own prideful ways. It’s almost like He says ‘Okay, if you think you know best, I will just let you go on your own way.’ He will resist you from being able to come to Him, even. He will resist you.

So, what I want to do here is we’re going to go into a few places where we’ll see some examples and teachings, starting with some of the things that Jesus said. You know, some of these are examples, some teachings – and when it comes to the examples, it’s normally the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were the greatest examples of the pride that we need to be concerned about – thinking that we know better. As the definition said, ‘putting our thoughts and opinions above God’s authoritative word’. So, let’s go to Matthew chapter 3 and we will see here Jesus …in Matthew chapter 3, verses – we’re going to read 7 through 9. This is actually John the Baptist dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees, and then next we’ll see Jesus dealing with the same group. But in verse 7 of chapter 3 of Matthew, it says:

Matthew 3:7-9
⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

⁹ And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

The reason I wanted to go to this example here is when John the Baptist came preaching repentance and preaching the baptism that he was commanded of God, he was dealing with these people who were the Pharisees and Sadducees. They knew the law, they knew what the scriptures said. But they boasted in Abraham, they boasted in their heritage. Rather than… like we read here, they put their own thoughts and opinions above what God was telling them. They needed to repent. And – but they said ‘No, we have Abraham’. They were trusting in something other than what God said, or what they thought they knew.

So, we’ll go over now to Matthew chapter 21 and we’re going to see Jesus dealing with a similar thing here in Matthew chapter 21, starting in verse 28. Jesus is going to give a teaching of one of His parables. And verse 28, it reads:

Matthew 21: 28-32
²⁸ But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. ²⁹ He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

³⁰ And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.

³¹ Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

Note: Verse 32…

³² For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

So here He is, Jesus is referencing what we just read that John the Baptist was dealing with – that the religious and Pharisees and Sadducees would not, as it says here – would not enter into the kingdom, but the harlots and the publicans did. And using that example of the father going to his two sons, asking them to do something and one saying with their mouth ‘Yes, I’ll do your will, father’, but then not going… versus the one that said ‘No I won’t’, but then he repented – he had to humble himself and repent and say ‘Yes, I will do what the father is asking me to do’. So, that’s like an example and a teaching, I suppose, on how pride can operate… and the pride of thinking that we know, can prevent us from actually doing the will of God. That’s the danger, is when our pride prevents us from actually doing the will.

So, we’re going to stay in the gospels here. Let’s go over to Mark chapter 7, and we’re going to read another example that Jesus has given us. In Mark chapter 7, this is when the – once again the same group, the Pharisees and all those guys – came to Jesus and they noticed that His disciples weren’t washing their hands before they would eat, or they were getting food and they didn’t wash their hands and the Pharisees had this question. I’ll just go ahead and read it. Mark chapter 7, starting at verse 5:

Mark 7:5-8
⁵ Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

⁶ He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁷ Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. ⁸ For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

So, there we see Jesus, like I said, dealing with these Pharisees once again. And they are actually coming to Jesus and trying to catch Him doing something wrong. And He’s letting them know that they are missing the commandments of God, keeping to their own traditions – the traditions of men. And they just totally didn’t understand it. And then He is going to further get into the explanation of this if we stay in this chapter and go over to verse 14. It reads:

Mark 7:14-23
¹⁴ And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: ¹⁵ There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. ¹⁶ If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁷ And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. ¹⁸ And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; ¹⁹ Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

²⁰ And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

²¹ For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ²² Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: ²³ All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

And so, if we can see there once again almost similar to what Paul did in Romans, where he lists this huge list of wickedness and evilness that come from out of the man – and right there listed is pride, right along with the rest.

So, let’s now go to just a few teachings. We’ve got three other spots to go really quickly. We’ll go to three teachings in the epistles that will show us something about pride. The first one is in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verses 2 through 6. 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 2 through 6, and this is a teaching that Paul was giving to Timothy about elders and about – as it said here, the bishops and some of the qualifications. And you’ll notice when we start in verse 2, it says:

1 Timothy 3:2-6
² A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; ³ Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

⁴ One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; ⁵ (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) ⁶ Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

So, there we can see – even for an elder or a leader in the church in that qualification given, there’s that warning about the danger of pride. And that he must keep himself – even though he is in a leadership position, he must keep himself humble, lest if he be lifted up with pride. It says he will ‘fall into the condemnation of the devil’. Just like we read in Proverbs, that pride comes before a fall. And so we see it here even given in the warnings to the leaders of the church.

And if we go over to 1 Peter chapter 5… and in verse 5 we’re going to read something that I like. As you guys know, I like to have many witnesses of the things that the Bible says. And here we have Peter in chapter 5, verse 5 of 1 Peter. It says:

1 Peter 5:5
⁵ Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

And if you remember, that’s exactly the same thing that we read in the book of James. So, I believe that God is – or we are like God in that, when we want to get a point across about something, we will repeat it. We’ll say it over and over, you know, just like you would tell your children. You don’t tell them just once. And here we see it again, it’s repeated: that God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

Hopefully we’ll, like I said Lord willing – next week, we’re going to get into really what I want to get into – the humility aspect of it. And when we see the benefits of it and the necessity of humility in our relationship with God, that is truly the only way we can come to Him properly – is in humility. Because when we’re proud, you could almost say, we get in our own way. Instead of just being humble and letting Him just be the Father, and us be the children. So the last place we’re going to go is in 1 John chapter 2, and we’ll close off this little exposition here on pride. And 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15 through 17. And it reads, verse 15:

1 John 2:15-17
¹⁵ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

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

Note: So, we see it there again listed, is the things that are not of the Father… is the pride of life right there listed along with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. And then verse 17 says…

¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

And I think that’s where I want to leave it, is that… it’s the one who does the will of the Father that will abide. And we can see in all these different places how pride can get in the way of doing that will. When we think, like the Pharisees said – you know, ‘Well we have Abraham or we have this, or we have this reason not to do it’… As the definition said, putting our own thoughts and opinions above God’s authoritative word.

So, we just want to be mindful not to have that type of pride, and to humble ourselves not only to God but to His word. And if His word says it, then let’s humble ourselves and just be in agreement with His word. Like it says, ‘how can two walk together lest they be agreed?’ We have to humble ourselves before God and His authoritative word and do what it says.

And we see it clearly throughout the book of Acts, what the word of God is – what His will is for us. The people were told in the book of Acts, what the will of God is for them. Just like Paul says it, he says he calls all men everywhere to repent. And we saw Peter saying the same thing on the day of Pentecost – ‘repent everyone of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ That is God’s will for us. That is what He told the people and those who have humbled themselves and obeyed it – they received that promise.

And so with that today, we’ll leave it there. Like I said Lord willing we will get into the humility aspect of it and we’ll see the benefits of coming to God with that humility and how He gives grace – it goes to the humble, and the humble are those that will obey Him. So with that, we’ll go ahead and if you did have any spiritual needs, whether it be obeying the gospel according to scripture, or if you’re one that has fallen away or you feel like you need to be restored to the Lord; you just want to make sure that your relationship is right… whatever your situation is, we’ll meet you where you are as together we stand and sing.