THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

Pride Goes Before Destruction

Various Proverbs

Pride Goes Before Destruction

Pride is perhaps the chief of all vices. There is no sin that you can commit that does not involve pride.

C. S. Lewis said this about pride: “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.” (Mere Christianity, p.109)

Pride Goes Before Destruction

Today we will look at: What Pride Is Not What Pride Is What Pride Will Do to You What You Need to Do About Pride

What Pride Is Not We must be careful not to confuse

pride with confidence. Pride can result in overconfidence,

but someone can be confident without being sinfully proud.

What Pride Is Not For example, when Saul questioned whether

David was fit to battle Goliath, David said: But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep

sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God." And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you!" (1Sam 17:34-37)

What Pride Is Not The Bible sometimes uses the word

“pride” to describe a warm hearted admiration that someone feels toward another person. Children's children are a crown to the aged,

and parents are the pride of their children. (17:6 - NIV)

I [Paul] am acting with great boldness toward you [Corinthians]; I have great pride in you… (2Cor 7:4a)

Such an admiration is normally not sinful, but virtuous.

What Pride Is Pride is thinking more highly of

ourselves (and therefore lower of others) than we ought to think (Romans 12:3). Pride is the need to feel superior to

other people (Keller) Pride is self-obsession, a preoccupation

with ourselves. A proud person puts his own desires

and interests above God and is therefore unwilling to trust God

What Pride IsPride is the need to feel superior to other people A proud person looks down on other

people in order to feel better about himself: There are … those who are pure in their own eyes

and yet are not cleansed of their filth; those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful. (30:12-13 - NIV)

A proud person will criticize others to make themselves look better by comparison: Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a

man of understanding remains silent. (11:12 )

What Pride IsPride is the need to feel superior to other people Pride gets no pleasure out of having

something, only having more of it than the next guy.

C.S Lewis points out that, pride is competitive in a way that other vices are not: The sexual impulse may drive two men into

competition if they both want the same girl… But a proud man will take your girl from you, not because he wants her, but just to prove to himself that he is a better man than you. (Mere Christianity, p.110)

What Pride IsPride is self-obsession, a preoccupation with ourselves: The proud person is constantly aware of

himself, always thinking about how I’m doing, how I’m being treated, etc.

A proud person will “pat themselves on the back” for something good they’ve done; realize that they’re being proud and confess it to God; and then turn around and be proud of the fact that they are so good at repenting of pride!

What we call “low self esteem” is often just another form of pride. Someone with low self esteem is feeling sorry for themselves, but they are still focusing on themselves!

What Pride IsA proud person puts his own desires and interests above God and is therefore unwilling to trust God The devil successfully convinced our first parents to

sin by appealing to their pride and distrust of God: But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of [the forbidden tree] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Gen 3:4-6)

We follow in their footsteps every time we, in our pride, fail to obey God and trust him: "I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are

afraid of man… (Isa 51:12)

What Pride Is Humility is the opposite of pride. To

be humble is recognize that you are a created being who is: Dependent upon God Accountable to God Called by God to:

Put him first in your life Love and serve others more than

yourself

What Pride Will Do to You Pride puts you in direct opposition to

God: [The LORD] mocks proud mockers but gives

grace to the humble. (3:34 - NIV cf. Jas 4:16; 1Pet 5:5)

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes… (6:16-17a)

[Lady Wisdom says:] I hate pride and arrogance… (8:13b)

The LORD tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow's boundaries. (15:25)

What Pride Will Do to You Pride will often cause you to inappropriately

exalt yourself, only to be humiliated later: Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not

claim a place among great men; it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman. (25:6-7 - NIV)

Now [Jesus] told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. (Luke 14:7-9)

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. (11:2)

What Pride Will Do to You Pride will keep you from being able to

receive good advice. When someone tries to help you by

giving you good advice, you’ll often be so busy being offended, you won’t be able to hear what they’re telling you and all you’ll be able to do is argue with them and try to show them how wrong they are! Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is

found in those who take advice. (13:10 - NIV) The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a

wise man listens to advice. (12:15)

What Pride Will Do to You Just as Satan will often disguise himself

as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14), so pride will often disguise itself as a virtue:

Pride can often be used to beat down simpler vices… Many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity – that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you become chaste and brave and self-controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride – just as he would be quite content to see your [minor skin inflammation] cured if he were allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For pride is spiritual cancer. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.112)

What Pride Will Do to You Pride will distort your entire view of

the world. The “lamp” that guides a proud

person through life is his sinful, misplaced self-confidence! Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of

the wicked, are sin! (21:4)

What Pride Will Do to You In the end, pride will utterly destroy

you: Pride goes before destruction, a haughty

spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. (16:18-19)

The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. (16:5)

What You Need to Do About Pride

Two Part Solution*: You’ve got to get the glory that only

comes to the humble You’ve got to use the joy of the gospel

to erode your pride for the rest of your life

*Taken from Tim Keller’s sermon on Pride in his series on the book of Proverbs

What You Need to Do About Pride

Get the glory that only comes to the humble: The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom,

and humility comes before honor. (15:33) The reward for humility and fear of the LORD

is riches and honor and life. (22:4) One's pride will bring him low, but he who is

lowly in spirit will obtain honor. (29:23) Paradoxically, the person who is

not seeking glory before God is, in the end, crowned with honor and wisdom

What You Need to Do About Pride

Use the joy of the gospel to erode your pride for the rest of your life: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ

Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! (Phil 2:5-8 - NIV)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2 - NIV)