7 Pride - Humility
1Peter 5:5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to {your} elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
All virtue is based on truth, we can have no humility until we discover our constant and continual need to be led by Jesus Christ. The entrance of humility into our lives is the discovery that we can truly do nothing good in this life, apart from abiding in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 15:5). The one who rightly feels and lives in this sense of his needy condition, lives in humility. Whenever you have the feeling “I can handle it” you have re-entered the life of pride!
Let's look at the proud-hearted person, if others knew all of the secrets of his or her internal life that he or she knows, nothing would appear more dreadful than to have their heart fully discovered to the eyes of all that looked upon it. The life of the intensely proud person is filled with worry and concern, the main problem for them is to keep all the true workings of their heart a secret to others that they come in contact with, this they must do on a continual basis. Very few people in this world would not rather choose to die, than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their pretense, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, their uneasiness, hatred, envies, and the secret sins which they have done become known to the world.
Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, the true state of our heart is enough to shame us when we become aware of it. There never was, nor ever will be, but only one true humility in this world, and that is the one humility of Jesus Christ, which no man, ever since the fall of Adam, could have any degree of but only that portion which he has received from Christ.
Pride and self have all of man, until man has his all from Christ. It is a fact that every son of Adam is in the service of pride and self, regardless of what he is doing, until a humility that comes only from heaven becomes his redeemer.
He alone fights the good fight of faith, whose strife is with his own self-idolatrous nature, which he inherited from Adam. The real fight or strife is bringing to death all of the pride in our lives by the supernatural humility of Jesus Christ, the meek and humble lamb of God.
Is it possible for pride to dwell in a heart conscious of its own miserable behavior? Shall a creature in such a condition that he could not support himself if his shame ever became known to the world, could he possibly, be so vain and proud of himself? Do not ever forget that all of your shame and wrong doing is known to God, and to His holy angels that are constantly looking down upon your life of pride, from Heaven!.
The apostate self-idolatrous nature of the old man must be put off, or there can be no new creature in Christ. The reason why this must always be, is because all that you have or do, will either have the glory of God manifested in it, or the power of hell in full possession of it! This is always true, we are really slaves in this life, the only choice we have is to whom we will be enslaved. We will serve the living, Holy, and loving God or we will be serving our self-idolatrous nature along with Satan and his group of demons. You must understand this, that whenever pride raises it's unholy head in our lives, we are really enthroning Satan to rule in our lives!
What is it that above all other things strengthens and exalts the life of self, and makes it the master of all the powers of the heart and soul? It is the pride of thinking that we know more than others, this is what makes us want to strive to have great intellect, this is part of our “flights of imagination,” along with the glory of learning, and the self-conceited strength of our natural reason: all of these things are the different parts of the strong-holds of our fallen nature, which is the master-builder of pride's temple in our hearts, which, keep up the daily worship of the idol “Self.”
Why does all of this folly come about? It comes because the Church is no longer that Spiritual house of God, in which nothing is intended and sought after, but Spiritual power, Spiritual life, humility, meekness and patience. The Church has become a mere human building, made up of worldly power, worldly learning, and worldly prosperity in gospel matters. And therefore all the frailties, follies, and imperfections of human nature, must have as much life in the Church, as in any other human society. And the best members of such a Church, must be forced to plead for it's members to have as many imperfections as is to be expected in any worldly endeavor, where the fallen nature of man is still alive, and in charge. For nothing but a full birth, and continual breathing and inspiration of God's Holy Spirit in the newborn creature, can be a deliverance from all that which is earthly, sensual, and devilish in our fallen nature.
Away then with all the wearisome books about Church unity, Church power, and Church salvation. Do not ask for theologians to give you a definition of the Church. The apostle has already given it to you, and not only a definition, but he has described the unchangeable nature of it as well, in these words. “But now Being made free from sin, and become servants of God, you have your fruits unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." And again in 1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Therefore to be in the true Church, and to be in Christ a new creature which does not sin, is in the strictest sense, the very same thing.
Proud self is all the evil that man has, and God is all the goodness that he can ever have; self is always with him in this life, and God also is always with him. Death to self is our only entrance into the life of the Church, and
NO ONE AND NOTHING BUT GOD CAN GIVE DEATH TO SELF.
Look at all the good works you can think of, they have no goodness for you or for anyone else, except when the Spirit of God is the one who did them in you. For all the outward works of religion may be done by the natural man, he can observe all Church-duties, be strict about doctrines, and put on the semblance of every outward virtue; but, this is as high as he can go, he can only pretend!
When you profess that you are a Christian and say that you are being led of God's Spirit, but still have pride and self-exaltation ruling in your life, you are again only pretending to be a Christian.
Pride and self-exaltation are the very marks of an unregenerate person! Pride is the opposite of humility, Jesus told us in Matthew 11:29. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” Until you learn of Him, you can only pretend to be a Christian, for humility is the very core, the heart of Christianity, just as pride and self-exaltation is the very trademark of the unregenerate life!
The Scripture teaches us that pride is always a bad thing, for instance, Satan fell because of his pride! Here are a few more Scriptures that I believe will make the point clear.
Proverbs 16:18. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. A few more: Proverbs 8:13 Proverbs 11:2. Proverbs 29:23. Philippians 2:3.
Pride is the worship of self, any amount of pride in your life fixes it so that you can't fulfill the greatest of all the commandments,
Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might..
When pride in any amount is in your life you will only, truly be worshiping yourself When you go to Church and to fellowship, you will only be pretending, and making believe, for pride always tells you that you are the one that should be worshiped!
Colossians 3: 12. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
The Nature Of The Proud Person
Pride of heart may be defined as a disposition of mind to exalt ourselves. It is a spirit of self-exaltation--a disposition to get out of our own place, and get above those who rightly, even in our own estimation, ought to hold a place above ourselves.
How Does Pride Deceive Us?
Pride renders us blind to our own faults. The person who has a proud heart will not see their own faults. They don't even have a desire to see them.
The proud person imagines that they are vastly better than they really are, and tries to make everybody else believe it, if they can. Therefore they will overlook their own faults completely, or as far as they can.
Pride leads men to excuse, or at least apologize for their own faults. If a proud man cannot cover his own faults, this is always his next recourse. When he cannot deny that many things in his conduct are wrong, he will yet maintain that under his very peculiar circumstances, they are nearly or quite right.
He will be the last person to be candid about his or her faults, and the proud person never enjoys this honest looking into their own heart.
Pride leads men to imagine that they have virtues which they do not have. This is often manifest in their egotistical manner of speaking. In their conversation they believe that they have virtues which nobody else realizes.
They almost always overrate their own seeming virtues. The truth is, all proud persons actually have no real virtue at all!
The proud person is always quick to make comparisons between themselves and others. They always believe that they are better than their friends and associates. Although they may still only be an impenitent sinner, they see themselves as better than most professed Christians. Pride of heart always deceives.
Pride of heart induces an entirely dishonest application of truth. If the proud man sits under preaching and if what he hears applies to himself ever so fitly, he is sure not to notice at all its application to himself, but will be very prompt and active in applying it to his neighbor.
Pride makes people imagine that they believe the Bible when they do not. If anybody tells them that they do not really believe the Bible, they think that they are being slandered. Their will does not bend to the supremacy of Bible truth. And so, any thought that they believed the Bible to be true was a mere delusion.
Yet who does not know that thousands read the Bible and profess to believe it, but are not half so much interested or affected by it, as they are in reading some modern novel!
Certain Truth
God will do everything in His power to remove the mask, so that our real character is displayed to the whole universe. He is now attempting by His grace to undeceive men; but if this fails, He will one day very soon sweep away all of the lies that are concealed in our lives, once and for all! Then "He that is filthy shall be filthy still," Yes, for the rest of eternity!
All delusions are based on dishonesty of heart and mind. Where there is honesty, and humble trust in divine guidance, there is never any danger of being deluded.
This is the the great foolishness of those who imagine that if they are only sincere, they shall be saved. What do they mean by sincerity? It is this, that you really believe what you profess to believe. But unfortunately man can really believe a lie to be the truth.
The Bible tells us that because they "Do not love the truth, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." The fatal mistake made by those who think that all sincere men will be saved, is this: they overlook the fact that some men may be sincerely wicked, and, may bring themselves to believe a lie sincerely, and God may leave them to the natural influence of their own wicked heart.
I have often wondered when people pray, why they do not know that their prayers are not ascending any higher than the ceiling of the room that they are in! They really have no communion with God, because they are speaking lies to God, lies that originate in the pride of their own hearts!
When you pray you must tell the Lord what is really the need of your heart, and to do this you must be in an attitude of humility, for only when humility is reigning in our hearts and lives do we know the truth of our hearts. Pride of heart is one of the most disgusting as well as the most dangerous of all forms of sin. A proud man is perpetually disposed to deceive himself in everything.