Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 11:2 (Pride Goes Before a Fall) (Part 38)

We come again to a text and subject for consideration in this time of exhortation, which fits right into the season of the year, even though that may not have been what we were planning or what you might have been thinking of when you look at this topic. This happened last Lord's Day as well. You may recall when we looked at Ephesians, the fourth chapter, and how God has given gifts to the church. God is the one who has set the example of the Christmas spirit. He's given the gift, for instance, of leaders and elders and pastors in the church. Last week we talked about a matter that was very important, the perfecting of the saints and how God makes provision for that. And those of you who might not have been with us because of vacation or illness or whatever reason might want to get your hands on a copy of that tape. It would be good, I think, for our whole congregation to consider that subject. It was directed to us all. I need to say that, because I think some people were afraid that I might have been preaching right at them, but it was right at all of you, so you might look into that. But this morning, again, we come to a Christmas theme. Without knowing it. We look at the subject of pride, in particular, how pride goes before a fall. And our text is Proverbs, the 11th chapter, verse 2. Hear now God's word at Proverbs 11, 2. When pride cometh, then cometh shame. But with the lowly is wisdom. And thus far the reading of God's word. I suppose the most extraordinarily aggravating human characteristic ever to be found is that of pride in other people. Pride is a terrible, terrible thing. If we were to speak in horticultural terms, I think we would have to liken it to a weed. If you've done much work with plants, I don't do much anymore. I learned my limits. But if you've done much work with plants, you know, there are certain plants that grow in certain kinds of soil and certain types of plants that grow in certain kinds of climates, and certain types of plants that grow when they have the right kind of shade or the right kind of sun or the right kind of fertilizer, the right kind of watering technique. And there are plants you can expect to grow to a certain height, and then they just stay at that height. And other plants you can expect to grow and just keep right on growing. There are some that are annual plants, perennials, and there are some plants that just are going to show themselves one season, and then you're going to have to replant if you want to see them, all sorts of plants. Weeds aren't like that, though. Weeds grow anywhere. And when it comes to human characteristics, we have to work very, I think, difficultly to produce things like the fruit of the spirit. But there are weeds that correspond to many of those fruit, fruits of the spirit that will grow just anywhere. And pride is the biggest one of all. Pride doesn't take much of an. It takes probably just a human personality. And pride can grow there and does, and it can very easily get out of hand. And the Bible would have us consider this subject, it seems to me, because it says so much about it. If you were to look up humility and pride in your Bible dictionary or your concordance, if you were to study this out, I think you'd be surprised at how much of the Scripture focuses on this particular subject. And we have in our own day, one of the few examples of a proverb from the Bible that has come into our own language and into our own culture. We say pride goes before a fall. And that comes right out of Proverbs. In fact, Proverbs 11:2 hints at that. We're going to see later In Proverbs, the 16th chapter, the direct statement, statement of that. That is one of those proverbs that has lasted through the centuries and our own culture still uses it. It's interesting, many of the sayings we use in our American idiom, in our culture today don't stem from the Bible, but they have such an aura of authority and respect and tradition about them that we just assume they're biblical. I mean, all that glitters is not gold, right? We think that's a good biblical maxim, comes right out of Shakespeare, not out of the Bible, but one that does have a traditional sounding ring, a note of authority to it that is truly biblical is this one, that pride goes before a fall. I want to begin our consideration this morning by pointing out that pride is tested and your entire character is tested when there is an opportunity for you to be praised either by yourself or by others. If you look at Proverbs, the 27th chapter, verse 21, you see one of my favorite literary proverbs. The way in which this is expressed, I think is notable. The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, and a man by his praise. Now, just about all of you will have some words inserted into that last clause. Because it's a broken clause in Hebrew, you're expected to be able to supply the analogy, to carry it through yourself. Well, then, what is a refining pot for when it comes to silver. Well, of course, it's the crucible that tries the silver and sees of what worth it is and what is the furnace for when it comes to gold, the same thing it is to burn off the impurities, to refine the gold. And likewise, praise is to a man, a crucible, a refining experience. We tend to think of praise as kind of the end of the line, the final evaluation. Now we know what a man is like when we look at the kind of praise he receives. Proverbs takes us a step further and says, no, you don't really know what a man is like until you see how he responds to the praise he receives. Because that praise is a testing for him and his true character. That praise is an opportunity to see whether he knows his place, this God made universe, if he knows where he stands before the Creator of all things, if he knows who he is and why he is, what he's become or has accomplished, what he has. In First Corinthians, the tenth chapter, verse 12, Paul says, Let him who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. For you see, it's just at the point that we receive praise, when we receive what seems to us that assurance from ourselves or others that we are doing just fine, that we're ready to go over into the ditch. Take heed if you think that you stand, perhaps you do, and praise God if you do. But take heed, because in that very moment that you think everything's fine, when men are praising you, or you feel that nothing could go wrong in your life, it's at that point that the danger of falling is before you. And in Galatians 5:26, I find it interesting that after Paul has recounted for us the fruit of the Spirit as well as the deeds of the flesh, he immediately says, let us not be desirous of vainglory. Don't become vainglorious. Paul says, be extremely careful when it comes to this matter of pride. Because, you see, pride goes before a fall. It's because pride goes before a fall that a man is tested by his praise. It's because pride goes before a fall that when a man thinks he's standing, he'd better be careful. He'd better take heed. Don't become vainglorious. In the book of Proverbs, we're going to see this morning that pride is described and characterized in ways which I think will probably be indicting for all of us, unless we've already begun to deceive our own hearts and think that this Sermon is against all those other proud people in this congregation who need to hear it. Pride is described and characterized, and then pride's evil effects are laid out for us as well. I'd like to look at each part of this sermon, then first of all, the description of pride as we see it in in the book of Proverbs. Turn with me in proverbs to the 21st chapter, verse 24, and we begin to find the self important manner of the person who is proud. The self important manner, Proverbs 21:24. The proud and haughty man, Scoffer is his name. He worketh in the arrogance of pride. Well, this verse really piles it on. We see here that the person who is proud conducts himself or herself in a manner which is self important. You know, there are people who may have learned that in terms of social relations, they dare not use their mouths to promote themselves. They dare not speak in such a way as to give people the idea that they are proud or conceited. But their manner gives them away anyway. The Bible says that those who are proud act in a self important way haughty. They act in a scoffing fashion, they act in an arrogant fashion. And another description of the manner of the proud person is found in Proverbs 30:13. There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up. There is that proud generation, that arrogant generation characterized by the uplifted eye, by those who like to perhaps roll their eyes, what others say or think that they are so good, that they're always, you see, with a kind of a turned up expression, we might say, with their nose in the air, their eyes lifted up. And so the book of Proverbs recognizes down to the most painful detail how the sin of pride, that weed, gets hold of our lives and characterizes our very manner when we act in a self important way, either scoffing at others, conducting ourselves, and carrying ourselves in an arrogant fashion with an uplifted eye. The book of Proverbs characterizes pride in two ways. In particular, the person who is proud is wise in his own conceit. Turn to Proverbs 26:12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. You see, that self important manner that we talked about a moment ago really comes down to something inside you, and that is being wise in your own conceit, literally in the Hebrew, wise in your own eyes. When you think of yourself so well, when you think that you've really got things wired, if you will. You've really got things understood, your life is in order, everything's fine about you when you were wise in your own eyes. And the Bible says, be careful because there's more hope for a fool than of him. Take that seriously. How much hope is there for a fool in the Book of Proverbs? We probably remember a few sermons where we learned that fools are on the bottom of the ladder when it comes to evaluation in the Book of Proverbs. And here we say, a person who is wise in his own eyes has less hope than a fool, and a fool has none. And so where do you stand if when you look at yourself you say, I'm doing pretty well, I'm pretty alright guy, I'm pretty intelligent, I'm pretty talented, I'm pretty popular, I've got it made wise in your own eyes. In Proverbs 28:11 we're reminded that those who are wise in their own eyes will be seen through by those who have true understanding. Proverbs 28:11 used the example of a rich man who has this problem. The rich man is wise in his own conceit, but the poor man who has understanding searches him out. You may have a man that has power, wealth, fame in this world, and he's proud of himself and he's wise in his own eyes. But you take that lowly poor man who has true understanding and he sees right through him. There's really something to that story about the little boy who said the king has no clothes. In certain societies, or in sub societies, subgroups of our own culture, you see, people get together and they expect that they're going to parade themselves or their accomplishments or their children or whatever. There may be those who are wealthy who go to their glittering parties and so forth, and everyone is supposed to look upon everyone else as being so need. I'm all right, you're all right. Isn't that true? And then you have this poor person who doesn't have all of those learned contrivances, all of the social mannerisms and so forth, who comes in and looks around and says, I'm not missing anything. I see right through all of this. The book of Proverbs says that's true. A person who is wise in his own eyes, you see, has made it impossible for himself to see what he really is. But others who have wisdom, others, others who have maturity, and they have that whether they're wealthy or not, they see right through him. So just think about that. Are there times when you are Conducting yourself so self importantly, when you think you're doing so well, you're so wise in your own eyes, you don't even realize that other people look at you and they know you inside and out. They search out the manner they know you. The third way in which the book of Proverbs describes and characterizes pride. In addition to the self important manner and the being wise in your own conceits fashion, a third way in which it's described is a matter of self promotion. Self promotion. In Proverbs 25:14 we see one example of self promotion. There the author says, as clouds and wind without rain, so is he that boasts himself of his gifts falsely. Oh, be careful now, when you're thinking of some illustrations of this verse, look in the mirror too. You know what it's like to expect rain. You know, the wind's coming up, you see the clouds. You expect we're finally going to get that relief we need from the scorching sun. And then nothing just passes on. We get a lot of that in Southern California because of our coastal clouds, I guess, but. And I notice that people who come to this area from other parts of the country that really, it's almost aggravating, you know, you're so used to seeing the clouds roll in like this in the afternoon, but then nothing. That's what a man is like who talks about his gifts, talks about what he's got going for him, talks about his talents or his accomplishments or his money or his fame or his power, what have you, but does so falsely. We have a braggart here who has nothing to back up what he's saying. He promotes himself. Look at verse 27 of the same chapter. It is not good to eat much honey. So for men to search out their own glory is grievous. This is pretty down to earth. What's it like to eat a lot of honey? Have you ever reached that point, whether it's honey or some other sugared product, what have you, where you've had so much maple syrup on your pancakes or something, you're just sick of sweet stuff. The Bible says it's not good to eat much honey. I mean, you get to that point where you just almost want to vomit because you just can't stand all that sweetness. And so it is grievous for men to search out their own glory. You get to the point where you almost want to vomit, right? The people who are looking for their own praise and for people to commend them and they're searching out didn't I do well here, ain't I great? The Bible says self promotion, empty boasting and self praise is characteristic of the proud person. The answer to this is found in Proverbs 27:2 very nicely. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth, a stranger, and not thine own lips. Where there's a rule for you to follow, don't ever say anything good about yourself. Let others. Then it'll count, then it'll be genuine, then it will have an air of objectivity about it. I mean, even if it's your mother who is doing it, who's not entirely objective, it's better to let your mother praise you than for you to go about doing it yourself. If you find your own lips talking about yourself and about those things which are good about you, then you better take a warning here from the book of Proverbs, you're a proud person. And here it doesn't say if you're praising yourself falsely. The first illustration was the braggart who doesn't have anything to back it up. I assume that here the person is praising himself or herself with good reason. But the Bible says that's bad form. Even if there's substance behind it, you shouldn't be the one drawing attention to yourself. Let others do it. Let a stranger do it, then it will count. And then finally, Proverbs 25, 6, 7 tells us that we shouldn't put ourselves Forward socially. Proverbs 25, 6, 7. Put not thyself forward in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men, for better is it that it be said unto thee, come up hither than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen. It's a pretty embarrassing experience, isn't it, to walk into a social setting, you know, and maybe you think you're going to sit at the head table. You're up there, you know, ready with everybody else to sit down. And then the host comes and says, oh, by the way, we have you seated down here, you know, and you're way down the table at the end. You're not there with the great men, with the king and prince, or the people of repute. After all, the Bible says, be careful, don't put yourself forward. Don't be suggesting that you should stand in the place of great people. Now, Jesus makes use of this proverb in Luke the 14th chapter, verses 7 to 11. There will be some here who remember that I preached a sermon on that when we went through The Gospel of Luke a few years ago. Jesus talks about true humility, and that's his illustration. He says, when you go to a banquet, don't go sit up at the front, at the head of the table. He says, rather, take the lowest place. And then if you really aren't the lowest person on the social ladder, the host will come and say, oh, come up, come up. No, don't sit down here. And you'll have someone else praise you, someone else who will honestly give you the position you deserve. But if you take it upon yourself to promote yourself, you know what's going to happen. Undoubtedly, you're going to be told to move down the table. You're not that important. And so pride is described and characterized with a kind of sharpness that wounds us, doesn't it? Like an arrow that goes right through our hearts. Because who among us can say that? We've never conducted ourselves or carried ourselves in a self important way. You've never held your head up in a way which indicated that you were really proud of yourself. You've never scoffed, never been arrogant, never been haughty, never thought yourself wise in your own eyes. Never have you boasted in an empty way or praised yourself. You've always let others do that, and you've never promoted yourself. You see, we just can't find that among ourselves. Pride is a weed that gets in us and grows and flourishes. We don't even have to pay much attention to it. And the book of Proverbs tells us about the evil effects of pride as well, through three of which I'd like to look at this morning. First of all, pride is abominable before God. You need to begin intellectually to understand that whatever you may think of yourself, your thinking that of yourself may be abominable before God. Proverbs 8. Well, verse 13 at the end, Proverbs 8:13. Having read that the fear of Jehovah is to hate evil, we now come across these pride and arrogancy in the evil way and the perverse mouth. Do I hate. God hates pride. Look at Proverbs 16, 5. Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to Jehovah. Not only does he hate it, it is detestable in his sight. And Proverbs 21:4 tells us, A high look and a proud heart. Even the lamp of the wicked is sin. It makes no difference what the wicked man is doing, whether he's lighting his lamp, conducting his life. The fact of the matter is that proud heart that he has makes him sinful. In the eyes of God. And so when we are self important, when we're wise in our own conceits, and when we promote ourselves socially, the Bible says we may gain the praise of men. We certainly have gained the praise of ourselves, but we do not ever gain the praise of God. Far from being praised, the person who promotes himself or herself is, is detestable in the eyes of God. Would you remember that the next time you're put into the crucible of praise? When the opportunity comes for you to respond to someone praising you, remember God will detest it if you don't respond with the kind of humility that the Bible commends. Secondly, the book of Proverbs tells us that pride leads to shame. This is our Bible verse for this morning, the text that we began with. Proverbs 11:2. When pride comes, then comes shame. But with the lowly is wisdom. You need to understand that these things, well they, they travel about in pairs. And when you have pride, you're always going to get its corresponding member. You're always going to get the pair that goes with it. And what is it that pairs up with pride? Keep thinking this way. What pairs up with pride? Shame. See, the very opposite of what pride is supposed to be about. We're proud because we think we have nothing to be ashamed of. The Bible says. But your being proud carries shame right with it. They go hand in hand. That's what the Bible says. When pride comes, shame comes. That's a nice little ditty. It would be a good one to memorize. Sing it to yourself. When pride comes, shame comes. When pride comes, shame comes. They go together. And that's why wisdom demonstrates a lowly mind. A person who's not self important. A person who understands his or her place before God. Proverbs 15:33 tells us that if it's honor that you desire, and you should, it will not come unless you are humble. Proverbs 15:33. The fear of Jehovah is the instruction of wisdom. And before honor goes humility. Now I said we have this little ditty, this pairing that you can have. When pride comes, shame comes. See, that's going to be in your sermon and review this week. So you want to get that down. When pride comes, shame comes. But what comes with humility? What pairs with humility? Going the other direction. When you act humbly, what happens? You'll be honored. The fear of Jehovah is the instruction of wisdom. So now get this. Before honor goes humility. Proverbs 22, verse 4. The reward of Humility and the fear of Jehovah is riches and honor and life. One of those paradoxes, one of those spiritual paradoxes found in God's Word that we just cannot escape. That if you make yourself low, then you will be exalted. If you humble yourself, you'll be honored. If you make yourself high, if you promote yourself, if you are proud, you'll be brought low. You'll be humbled, you'll be abased. And this brings us to the direct statement of our idiom, even here in American parlance, that pride goes before a fall. Proverbs 16:18. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. And so if you are proud, what does the Bible promise you in the Book of Proverbs? That you'll be detestable to God. Secondly, that that will lead to shame. When pride comes, shame comes. And then thirdly, when pride comes, it's, you see, the last thing before destruction, a fall or being brought low. Proverbs 16:18. Again, pride goes before destruction. You see, it's the recipe for bringing yourself down. You want to make sure that you lose out. You want to make sure that you're brought low. Then pursue things in a proud manner, because that is the final step. Before you tumble over into destruction, you'll be brought very low. Pride goes before a fall. Proverbs 18:12 says, before destruction, the heart of man is haughty. But before honor goes humility. In Proverbs 29, verse 23, A man's pride shall bring him low. But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor. Again, you see the paradox. Pride brings you low. If you are low, you'll be exalted. Honor goes with humility, but with pride comes shame. And not just shame, but a destructiveness, a being brought low that amounts to a fall for you, a coming very, very low and being destroyed. You know, when the Book of Proverbs has that many verses on this subject, then we not only learn, this is a real problem for human nature. It needs to be repeated, needs to be approached from many angles, said in a lot of different ways. The various facets need to be brought out so we can get hold of this truth. We can learn from it and be changed. But I think there's something far more to it here, too. Pride goes before a fall. Well, it certainly does. I want you to think back to the original fall of mankind. This is biblical to think in these terms, that pride is what led, you see, to the original fall. In First Timothy 3. 6, there's an interesting expression. You can look it up later if you will. It says that when you choose a man to be an elder or shepherd, you must make sure he's not a novice, not someone who's just recently converted, lest he fall into the snare of the devil. What did I leave out of that verse that explains what the snare of the devil is, lest he be puffed up and he fall into the snare of the devil? For you see, that's what the original sin, the heart sin of the devil was and what he encouraged in our first parents, Adam and Eve. The sin of pride, being puffed up. You see, God had created a garden and a beautiful one, one that would have been a great place for us to live. A place where Adam and Eve could pursue their dignity and their proper calling and bring glory to God and enjoyment to themselves. But Satan showed up and he said, God doesn't really care for you. God's trying to keep the best from you. He doesn't want you to become like him. And you can almost see the cogs turning now in Eve's head. Become like God, you mean? That's one of the things that's on the menu of life. We could choose to become like God? Well, of course you could. Satan says all you have to do is eat that fruit. Didn't he tell you that if you eat the fruit that you'll know good and evil? He doesn't want you to know these things. He's trying to keep this from you. And now Eve and Adam with her, by the way, he may have been standing right there for all I know, and not exercising his headship as a husband to protect his wife from that temptation. But the fact is, whatever she did, she turned around and offered it to Adam and he willingly took it too. Both Adam and Eve were in a position where Satan said one thing and they knew God had said another. And they decided that it would be their place to determine who was right. And in a very real sense, before Adam or Eve took the first bite out of that persimmons or apple, whatever it was, before they took the first bite, they had already committed themselves to their own fall because they had brought themselves in a puffed up way to the position of judging God's word. God says this, Satan says that. Obviously any rational person, any mature adult will have to make that decision for himself or herself. You can't just from the outset say, well, if God said it, that settles it. No, no, no, we have much more dignity than that. We're educated People, Adam and Eve may not have had any universities to grant them PhDs, but they thought they were in a position that, that no one else could tell them. God has an idea. And of course, since God's done a lot of good things, he made this garden, I guess we ought to listen and give it some consideration. But not automatic submission. Not automatically saying, it is not my place to question God. It is not my place to listen to Satan. It's not my place to put myself forward as the one who determines good and evil. And so the book of Proverbs, I think has a real historical ring about it. It says, pride goes before a fall. And so those of you who, like myself, have been wounded this morning because you know that pride is not something you've got control over, that it still rears its ugly head in your life. Those of you who know that that initial sin of Adam and Eve still lives on in your life, those of you who have often been self important or promoted yourselves or boasted in a way which is not appropriate and therefore have become detestable before God, what can you do? I'm going to give you two prophylactics against pride this morning. Two things that you can do. They're very important and that will work. First of all, Proverbs 30, 32 tells us, if thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. It's almost embarrassing how blunt the book of Proverbs is, isn't it? If you found yourself foolishly lifting yourself up, just put your hand over your mouth, restrain your mouth. Isn't it true that for the most part people that don't talk too much, people who are rather silent, relatively speaking, if you think about those you know who are quiet, people who don't talk a lot, it's hard to find one that's really proud. It's not impossible. I suppose some people are quiet because they think they're too good to talk to us. That's one of the possibilities of sin too. But the Bible says that if your heart lifts itself up, if your mouth tends to flatter yourself, then close it. And if that won't work, put your hand over it, don't talk about it, keep it to yourself. There's something that happens when you stifle pride. It tends to destroy itself. Because pride, in order to thrive as a weed, needs to get out into the oxygen, needs to get out there into the open. You need to either say it to yourself or to others. You need to get you see others paying attention to you. And so the Bible says, put your hand over your mouth, just cut it off right there. Restrain your mouth and you'll find that you'll learn to control your pride. And as a step to the second recommendation this morning, as a prophylactic against, I would remind you that in Galatians 6:14, Paul says with utter seriousness, God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You want to say anything that sounds like boasting. If you want to say anything that glories at all, Paul says, God forbid that it be anything except the cross of Christ. And of course that's very ironic because you might say, God forbid that I should boast in anything except my Savior, Jesus Christ. And of course, there's so many things to boast about. He is the Creator of the world. He's in sovereign control of all things. He came into this world. He died on the cross and rose from the dead, has ascended on high. He answers our prayers. He's coming again. He's the King. We can say all these good things, but Paul says, God forbid that I should boast and in some way forget that it's the cross of Christ that is my true glory. The cross. No, Paul, that's the low point. Paul says, no, that's the high point. You see, Greeks in all of their philosophical wisdom despise the idea of a dying savior. And the Jews, in all of their anticipation of a mighty deliverer who would come, they reject the idea of a dying savior. And. And Paul says, God forbid that I should boast except in that cross. And so restrain your mouth if you want to get rid of pride. And if anything's going to come out at all that has the character of glorying about it. If there's to be any boast at all, then let people know I follow a man who died like a criminal. God forbid that I should boast except in Christ's cross. And that does lead us to the second point. If you want a prophylactic against pride this morning, not only restrain your mouth, but remember the Christmas spirit. I told you this was really a Christmas message this morning, and it really is, if you remember. The cross of Christ is the point of our boasting to get rid of pride. You'll remember that that's the very reason he came into this world, is to go to the cross. The Christmas spirit is found In Philippians the second chapter, verses 3, 3, 8. And I'd like to close with this this morning Philippians the second chapter, verses three to eight. Paul tells us, do nothing through faction or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Each count the other better than himself, not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, counted, not being on an equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant being made in the likeness of men. There's the Incarnation, there's Christmas Day. He took on the form of a servant being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death. Yes, the death of a cross. The Christmas spirit is the spirit of self emptying, of humbling oneself. Remember, the model of true humility is found nowhere in history except in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Mankind's prideful fall into sin can only be reversed by the humble work of Christ. Pride got us into our trouble and only humility will get us out. And it's in the example of Christ's humility that we redemptively see how it is that honor goes with humility. Because Philippians 2 tells us, Because Christ humbled Himself, verse 9. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave unto him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It's in the humility of Christ that we see how honor comes with humility. Because that humble Savior was raised from the dead. He has ascended on high, and God is now working so that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess his true dignity as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. Are you agitated this morning because you know you're sinful and pray proud? Would you like to put that to death and get that weed pulled out of your life finally? Then learn of the Savior. Take his yoke upon you. Because you see he was lowly of spirit. He was truly humble. And the thing that really is shocking about that is that of all those who have ever lived, he was the only one who didn't need to be, but he was. Learn of me and you will find rest for your souls. A Prophylactic against pride. Restrain your mouth and really remember the Christmas Spirit. That there was one who had all the glory of the Father from all eternity, who emptied himself and became a man and humbled himself to the point of death. God forbid that we should ever boast in anything except in the humility of our Savior who went to the cross for us. Let's die, Father. We do pray that we would die. That you would put us out. That all of our ambition, all of our self importance and all of our pride might be crucified. Indeed, we pray that this day we might be crucified with Christ nevertheless. That we might live. That Christ Christ might live in us. And his Spirit might so control us and occupy us and direct us. That it would be evident that his mind is in us. That we put others above ourselves even as he put our needs above his own. That we look upon others in such a way not to exalt ourselves, but to be humble and to serve them even as Jesus served us. Lord, we pray that you would help us to use our hands to cover our mouths whenever we are tempted to show forth that deadly sinful character in us. And when pride starts to raise its ugly expressions. Father, take away all boasting. Take away all false bravado. Take away all seeking of our own glory. Take away our own promoting of ourselves socially and replace them with the true character of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We pray that we would truly learn of him, the one who is low, who is of a meek spirit. The one who demonstrated genuine humility. That our honor would come not for ourselves, but our honor would be that of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ. Because our one and only boast in life will be that he died for us. We thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen.