The Humiliation of the Proud
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What basis do we as human beings have for pride?
What do we have that we were not given?
Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace to the afflicted.
Prov
Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
pr 16
“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And I find knowledge and discretion. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.
Judges
Last week it was Gideon and the Midianites. Now we have moved to the Philistines.
God would raise up a deliverer through Manoah who was from the tribe of Dan.
I. Impulsiveness Leads to Living Carelessly
I. Impulsiveness Leads to Living Carelessly
Judges 14:
Judges
Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.”
Sin as Selfishness: When we sin, we are acting out of a selfish attitude and mind-set that assumes our action will lead us to more happiness than if we were to obey God.
This raises the question, “what makes us happy?” God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
“Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.
Samson was in direct defiance of God’s commandment! It does not matter that she is not right in God’s eyes, she is right in my eyes. It does not matter that this does not please God, what matters is that it pleases ME!
What are some examples you have seen exactly this situation played out in the church?
Affairs
Unbiblical divorce
Homosexuality
Abortion
Rejecting certain claims of Scripture
When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
Judges
Some suggest that Samson violated his Nazarite vow by touching the body of a dead animal. There is clearly something wrong in Samson’s act because the author (Samuel?) points out that he kept that little detail from his parents.
Who among the NT disciples had a proclivity toward impulsiveness?
Peter earned a scathing rebuke from Christ because of his own impulsive behavior. He was also the one who jumped out of the boat at the spur of the moment to walk on water.
What are some other problems with being impulsive?
Financial
Immediate gratification
Lack of disciple
What about the fact that impulsive tendencies can be antithetical to biblical submission?
Samson did not stop to ask if taking this pagan wife was honoring God or not. She was the kind of woman that tripped his trigger and that is all that mattered to him. God was not a consideration.
There is a serious matter with which Christians must grapple when we read and compare it to .
However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
Samson is being moved by divine providence even though divine command forbids the marriage between Israelites and Philistines.
What are we to make of this?
II. Pride Leads to Behaving Irresponsibly
II. Pride Leads to Behaving Irresponsibly
After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and see where his great strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Seven fresh cords: nope.
New ropes: nope.
The hair weave with web and pen: nope.
It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
Why did Samson tell Delilah the truth?
It was a moment of weak faith! Samson didn’t actually believe it at the moment either.
Samson may have thought 1) that he was doing this in his own strength; 2) that God wouldn’t really forsake him after all.
Weak faith often leads to arrogance. God can’t or won’t do it, but I can and will. REMEMBER, GOD HATES ARROGANCE.
16
It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
III. Humiliation Leads to Relying on God
III. Humiliation Leads to Relying on God
Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.
Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.
it isn’t
What idea in American culture has done more than any other to convince us that we should think more highly of ourselves than we do?
There have been few ideas in American culture that are more antithetical and more detrimental to the faith and growth of believers than the self-esteem movement.
God loves me and wants me to be happy. That’s the kind of God I will serve. The Christianity that tells me I am a sinner, unworthy of God’s love is the product of mentally deranged people who have a psychological disorder and should be avoided.
Christian became Americanized and turned into little more than a spiritual self-help system laced with an external morality but inside is filled with millions of rotting corpses whose eternal damnation is inevitable.
What is a more biblical way for Christians to view themselves?
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. God made me and said that it was very good.
I have nothing that I have not been given by God.
I have sinned against my Creator in more ways than I can count.
I have earned every ounce of God’s wrath.
I can do nothing to earn God’s love and favor.
All that I have, I have because of Christ.