The Sin of Pride
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Introduction
Introduction
Most of you have probably heard that pride is the root of all sin. Pride of self, or we think so much of ourselves that pride is the root of all sin. Let’s read a story from the Bible where pride is fully on display.
Luke 18:
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up 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, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The Pharisee in this picture who shows how righteous he is. All of his works. Prayer. Fasting. Everyone sees how much he tithes. On the outside he is the righteous of the righteous. He is the man.
But this picture shows us a story of pride. A man so prideful that in the eyes of God it is disgusting. And it can be easy to point out this pride.
It is easy to point out pride in others, but what about in your own life?
Can you point to where you are prideful?
Today we are not looking at pride in general. Rather we will look at some specific issues of pride and it is those issues of pride that we are calling our respectable sins.
The pride of moral self-righteousness
The pride of correct doctrine
the pride of achievement, and the pride of an independent spirit.
The pride of achievement
The pride of an independent spirit
All of these we will be taking a closer look that we may all be guilty of in some way, but these are respectable sins because we look at them less harshly. These sins we may see in our friends and will not call them out on it as quickly as others. Sins that on the surface may be less consequential than if you murdered someone.
Moral Self-Righteousness
Moral Self-Righteousness
The story we read about the Phariseee would fit in this category. He put himself above everyone else. He prayed. fasted. Tithe. He did everything he was commanded to do and made sure everyone around him saw that.
This type of pride can be found anywhere. Christians are not the only one guitly of this. Politicians. Your fellow workers wherever you have a job. Anyone you come in contact with can be guilty of being morally superior.
You can get on the news or twitter or anywhere where people can have a voice calling out or supporting choices. Whether that is being pro life, pro gun, pro trump, pro democrat, pro immigration. People can support a view or a policy, and then be attacked and while they are attacked the other side makes themselves look morally superior.
It was in the news, I am not sure how far back but Trump was being attacked because he had committed adultery with a porn star while he had a 4 month son at home. I use this example because i would assume that all of us in here would say that is horrible, but we can feel morally superior and look at his actions with disdain and we commit the pride of moral superiority.
We can do this with any sin such as divorce, homosexuality, abortion, drunkeness, drug use. We can look at any of those sins and start playing the comparison game “I am not commiting those sins. I am better off than they are.”
This sin. Sin of pride of moral superiority may be second to ungodliness in this book. It is such widespread in our society.
How do we fight this pride. What steps can we take.
1. We have to be humble. We must seek a attitude of humility in our life.
There are believers in this room, in this church, and in this world that live morally upright. They read, they pray, they obey the commands God has laid out in His Word and they seek the Lord’s will. They are not perfect, but they try but they recoginze that all of it is by the grace of God.
Instead of feeling morally superior, they give thanks to God that by His grace he has kept them from those sins. Or they give thanks because they rescued them from that lifestyle. There are plenty of men and women in this church who have gone through struggles such as drugs, alcohol, and many other different lifestyles of sin that they will credit the grace of God from rescuing them out of that sin.
Give thanks to God that his grace is sustaining you in this fallen world.
2. We seek to be humble, but we also identify with this fallen society.
10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
He was one of the godliest men of the people of Israel at this time. His life was committed to the Lord. Yet even his life being committed to the Lord was surrounded by brokenness. surrounded by people turning their back on God. Turning to everything else but God. But hear Ezra’s prayer.
6 saying:
“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
You see that 1st person plural pronoun “our.” Ezra who was an upright man identified with the sins of God’s people. We can identify with the sins in our society to keep us from self-righteous pride.
Pride of Correct Doctrine
Pride of Correct Doctrine
This sin can be dangerous in the church world. Everyone has a theology. The way you live your life is you living your theology out. And the danger is that whatever your beliefs are they are the correct beliefs.
We should all care about doctrine. We have heard David quote someone and I have no idea who said this but I know David does all the time “right doctrine leads to right living”
The pride of correct doctrine can be played out in many ways. We can think that our beliefs are right and we are so convinced of that. The problem then is that we look at other peoples’ beliefs with arrogance. We look down at them. May even think they are stupid for this belief.
Paul addresses pride of this manner in
1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
Paul in this chapter discusses that some have a weaker conscious than others. When Jesus died and fulfilled the law, eating and not eating of certain foods went away. The Jews could not eat pork, but after Jesus died they could eat pork. The Gentiles did eat pork, but the Jews even though they could and it not be a sin they felt as if they were sinning. They sinned against their conscious.
And this was Paul’s response.
10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
So let’s take a modern day example.
Tattoos
Dancing
Music with bass
Worship music with drums
Many different issues that Christian Liberty can cover. But Paul’s point is that your knowledge. When you strive to grow in knowledge. When you are studying your Bible and picking up on golden nuggets. Things you have never seen before. That growth in knowledge can puff you up if there is no love. Your growth in knowledge then makes you become doctrinally superior to those who hodl other views then you have doctrinal pride.
When you a Calvinist decide that no one holds to the authority of Scripture like you do, then you have doctrinal pride.
When you who is not charismatic decides to demean someone who believes in spiritual gifts.
When you treat someone lower than you because they believe differently than you it is doctrinal pride.
Now does that mean we hold our convictions any less. Absolutely not! But we must hold them with humility. Many godly, theologically studied, Bible believing people hold to different convictions.
Pride of Achievement
Pride of Achievement
Scripture shows a cause and effect relationship between hard work and success
4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
We accomplish something and we feel good about it. Whether we graduated school. We got a new job. Promoted in our job. Sports whatever it may be.
But what we forget is that any success we may have is under the sovereign control of God.
7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low and he exalts.
2 People in the same degree, same classes, same everything in school. Same work ethic. Same hard work and one gets an A and one barely gets a C. We ask why the difference. The ability to achieve and have success in anything comes from God.
We looked at the last chapter about giving thanks. We give thanks ultimately because it is God who gives us the power to succeed.
The truth is that nothing you have. No skill. No gift. No ability that ultimately does not come from God. Your health. Any opportunities to succeed comes from God.
So how do we get prideful in this. We ultimately do not acknowledge God where our success came from.
We can be those people who are successful at something and someone will ask what is your secret?
And you may be that person that says “hard work” “knowing people” “my family” and many other reasons. Yet none of the reasons you say is “It is all becaue of God that I have the success that I have.
Failure to acknowledge God when we are successful promotes the pride of achievement and it does not honor God.
How do we fight against this sin.
10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
When we did something well. When we achieve at our jobs. Maybe having a joy filled life. Serving faithfully at church. Your repsonse is “I only did my duty”
2. We should also recognize that everything comes from God. All is grace. I deserve nothing, and all I do receive is grace.
Pride of Independent Spirit
Pride of Independent Spirit
So this sin rests in mainly two areas.
Resistance to authority
unteachable attitude
When we are young, we can tend to think we know everything. We think we know better than our parents. our leaders.
Our pride of independent spirit will cause us to resist authority and be unteachable. We want to be teachable. As we go and make disciples among the nations, people have to be teachable. Some of you in here have grown up in church or have been Christians for years and you know what it takes to be a follower of Jesus. Some may be starting their journey. But those who are more wise and are trying to make disciples of younger newer believers, they must be teachable. We must submit to authority.
1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
1 Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
Now submitting to authority is submitting to someone who has your best interests in their heart. Someone who is more mature than you and can help you grow.
You may have pride this morning. And leaving here today, I encourage you to pray and ask God to help you see where there is pride in your life.
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