THE SIN OF PRIDE (2)

Proverbs 13:10 “Only by pride cometh contention: But with the well advised is wisdom.”

Every dispute that arises in a church arises because of pride. Is that not what the Bible says? Contention only comes by pride. It is contention that arises from thinking what I say is more important than what anyone else says and from thinking my way is the best way to go.

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, And an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Galatians 6:3 “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”

God hates the sin of pride. It is pride that is at the root of ALL sin.

It is pride that says it is my way or else. Pride destroys a Christian’s witness, and pride damns a lost person to hell.

Biblically, what is pride?

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Pride)

Undue confidence in and attention to one’s own skills, accomplishments, state, possessions, or position.

It is the opposite of humility, the proper attitude one should have in relation to God. Pride is rebellion against God because it attributes to oneself the honor and glory due to God alone. Proud persons do not think it necessary to ask forgiveness because they do not admit their sinful condition. This attitude toward God finds expression in one’s attitude toward others, often causing people to have a low estimate of the ability and worth of others and therefore to treat them with either contempt or cruelty.

Pride is a terrible, terrible sin, and it is very evident in churches today. If you do not believe me, sit in on the business meetings of many churches and see how much of my way is sought instead of God’s will.

I hope you don’t get mad, but your way is not nearly important as God’s will.

Today, we are going to look at how pride destroys a Christian’s witness and at how pride damns the lost soul to hell.

I. THE EFFECTS OF PRIDE

A. Pride destroys a Christian’s witness.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Did you know the moment that you were saved that your way no longer existed? If you are saved you have been bought with a price. Since you have been bought, you belong to Christ.

Since you have been bought by Christ if you are saved, who should dictate or control your life? Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Too many of us, however, never consider that absolute fact in our daily lives because it is not Christ’s will that we seek, but it is our way that we seek. Everything that you and I do should be for Christ’s glory and for the glory of the church. Before you do anything or make any decision, you should stop, pray, and consider the effects of the choice or decision that you are about to make.

Holman said that pride in a Christian attributes to oneself the glory due to God, and that is exactly what we do as Christians if we do not seek God’s will in everything. I have said this many times lately, and I guess it is because the Lord is trying to hammer home a point. When you got saved, that was the last independent decision that you had the right to make.

You no longer belong to you. You belong to God, and it is He with whom you should consult about everything. God is not the God of some things. He is the God of everything. You cannot be the witness you need to be if God is only allowed to be God in certain areas of your life or in certain decisions you make.

I am going to show you something that most of you probably are not going to like.

Many Christians believe that their rights as Americans outweigh their Christian responsibilities, and dear friend, that is the ultimate definition of pride.

1 Corinthians 10:23–24 “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.”

Romans 14:13 “Let us not therefore judge one another anymore: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”

As a Christian, I have complete liberty . That does not mean, necessarily, that I can exercise that complete liberty. Why? Because I am bound by my responsibility to each one of you that are in the body of Christ and bound by my responsibility to the lost that are looking at my life to see Christ.

Even if I have the right and freedom to do something does not mean, necessarily, that I can do it. If I do something even in my Christian liberty that creates a stumbling-block for others that causes them to sin or to reject Christ, I have sinned, and I have let my pride in the liberty that I have overshadow my responsibilities to others.

Christian responsibility must override American rights. Do you understand what I am saying? The responsibility I have toward others as a Christian trumps my rights as an American, but too many Christians have too much pride in their American rights, and that pride interferes with them seeking God’s will in every decision they make.

I have said this a lot recently, and the reason is that the Lord was preparing me for this message.

If you completely surrender to Christ, you will realize that on occasion exercising your rights and freedoms as an American is not nearly as important as not becoming a stumbling-block. It is a matter of perspective, and it is a matter of God’s Word.

Can I give you two examples of how pride in American rights has the potential to destroy your Christian witness? Now, I am going to go ahead and tell you that some of you are not going to like this because I did not like it as the Lord gave it to me, but I am going to give you the two examples God has laid on my heart. You can do with it what you want but be receptive to the Holy Spirit.

1. Freedom of Speech

Living in America, I have the freedom and liberty to say what I want.

I can say what I want when I want to say it. I can get on Facebook and just let it rip, and I have complete liberty to do it, but as a Christian, before I say anything or post anything on Facebook, my Christian responsibility to others outweighs my American right to say what I want.

Christians get caught up in the mob mentality of social media. Justice is irrelevant. Outcomes should not be determined by law. Outcomes should be determined by public opinion and whoever can speak the loudest the longest must be right. Christians get puffed up with pride in their right to say anything they want to say.

Dear friend, if you fall for that nonsense, you are not upholding your Christian responsibility because you are satisfying you and not seeking God’s will. Yes, you have the right to get on Facebook and say whatever you want about someone, but if you are not making independent decisions but letting Christ guide you in making all decisions, you will not do it because it is not God’s will that you go on a social media witch hunt.

I know of this situation in a local public school where some parents got upset at a teacher, and I do not know if the teacher was guilty of the allegations, but I do know that the teacher is entitled to due process. Parents were coming out of the wood-works executing this teacher publicly on Facebook with even some Christians joining in adding their two cents to the eternal record that is social media. I even had some people asking me about certain ones who joined in the public mockery of justice by asking me if I thought that was Christian behavior.

Dear friend, it is not Christian behavior, and if you engage in that kind of activity, and it damages your personal witness and the witness of this church, you have ignored the One who bought you in order to let your opinion be known, and I hate to say this, but your opinion does not matter one bit when it comes to how you are supposed to conduct yourself as a Christian as someone who has been bought with a price.

Do you know what you should do in that situation? Before you do anything, you need to pray. You should pray and seek solutions in God’s Word and not join in a public execution on social media. You should seek God’s will, but your pride leads you to the adoration of men instead of pleasing God.

Here is what the Bible says about it.

1 Peter 1:14–16 “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

Before you post anything or join in any nonsense on social media, consider those words written by Peter. In all manner of conversation, we must be holy . In all things, we are to be holy, and God means all things, but in our pride, we value what we have to say more than we value God’s will.

2. Freedom to carry a gun

Now, I do not want any of you to go out of here saying that I said you should not practice free speech or that you should not own a gun. I am not saying that, but I am saying you seek God’s will before you exercise either right.

I have the right to own a gun, and in Tennessee, I can carry a gun almost anywhere I want.

If I wanted to do so, I could strut up to this pulpit every service with two six-shooters strapped to my side, but as a Christian bought by God, it is not His will that I do so, and if I do so in deference to His will, I have sinned the sin of pride because what I want would be more important than what God willed.

I know this church where the ushers were taking up the offering with guns strapped to their sides. I guess they were trying to build up the offering. The preacher and the deacons asked them to conceal their weapons, and they did. The preacher and the deacons told them that openly displaying those firearms in church had the potential to be a stumbling-block for some lost soul looking for the love of Christ that is supposed to be found within the body of Christ, the church.

I am not telling you not to wear or to bring a gun. It is your right as an American citizen, but more important in the eternal scheme of things is your responsibility to be Christlike toward all of those with whom you come into contact, and too many people arrogantly glorify wearing a gun with no consideration of God’s will in the manner.

Is that pride or is it not? Absolutely, it is pride.

In everything, we are to glorify Christ and the body of Christ.

Maybe I am naive, but I believe that we should seek God’s will in everything, in every decision we make, and if we do not, it is because in our pride, we only want God to be God over some things and not everything.

Here is what the Bible teaches, and once again I am not preaching against guns or free speech. I am just showing how pride in those American rights could get in God’s way. Can I share a verse?

Proverbs 16:4 “The Lord hath made all things for himself: Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

I have come to the full understanding of this in my life. I am not perfect by no means. I am probably the greatest sinner in this church this morning, but I know I was saved. I know I was saved for a purpose, and I know God is going to protect me until His purpose for me is complete in my life, and though there may be evil all around me so are God’s protecting angels too.

Psalm 91:11–12 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”

God is going to protect me until His purpose for me is complete, and when His purpose for me is complete, He is going to bring me home. I cannot die until God gives the okay to come home. You do know that right?

Revelation 1:18 “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Because He lives, Jesus Christ has the keys to death and the grave. It is pride on my part to think that I could keep my death from happening when it is Jesus Christ who has the keys to death and the grave. I hope you understand what I am saying.

Do you remember what happened to King Ahab? God had declared how he was going to die, and Ahab thought he could cheat death, but as he was attempting to escape death and the battlefield, an enemy soldier just shot an arrow in the sky celebrating victory, and that arrow pierced Ahab where he had no armor, and he bled to death in the chariot that he was pridefully using to escape God’s will.

Once again, I am not preaching against guns. I am glad that some of you are comfortable enough to carry one, but you can never let pride in that right as an American to become a stumbling block before others just as I should not let my speech or behavior become a stumbling block before others, and I know you that carry a gun will not because of your concern for others and because of the concern you have for your witness.

1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

I am to seek God’s will in every decision. I could go on and on listing ways that we allow pride to destroy our Christian witness. Those were just the two the Lord laid on my heart, and I hope you listen to the Holy Spirit and not the Devil. The Devil will emphasize your rights. The Holy Spirit will stress your responsibilities.

B. Pride damns a lost soul to hell.

Every person who dies and goes to hell will do so in their pride.

Make no mistake about it. You are going to either die in your pride and go to hell or in your humility you are going to surrender your life to Christ and go to heaven. There are some of you here this morning that are lost. Let me assure you of this. The Bible says in Romans 1:20 that you have no excuses.

Let me quickly show you how your pride is damning you to hell.

In your pride, you think you have all the time in the world to be saved. Wrong!

Proverbs 27:1 “Boast not thyself of to morrow; For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”

James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

Luke 12:20 “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

You are not guaranteed the next breath, but your pride tells you that you have all the time in the world.

In your pride, you think you are a good person.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Romans 3:10–12 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

In your pride, you think your good deeds will save you.

James 2:8–9 “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.”

Matthew 7:22–23“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

In your pride, you doubt God’s judgment.

Revelation 20:15 “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

As you can see, pride will damn your lost soul to hell. Now, you do not have to go to hell. God wants you to go to Heaven, but God is a jealous God. You must get to Heaven by the way God has declared. What is that way?

That way runs through Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

To get to Heaven, you must admit that you are a sinner and turn from your sinful lifestyle, believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who died for your sins and was resurrected on the third day, and confess that decision before man, and God has said you will be saved.

I know there is at least one person here and maybe more that needs to set pride aside and come to Jesus. There might be some Christians here this morning that would like to lay their pride on the altar. The choice is will be determined by who you are listening too. Are you listening to Devil who is telling you everything is okay? Or will you answer the Holy Spirit who is telling you exactly what you need to do this morning?