All right, the book of Obadiah.
Last week I gave you kind of an overview. One of the parts
of that overview was the name of Obadiah, which means servant
of Jehovah or servant of the Lord. The Lord here is the triune
God, specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ is called
the word of God. We know God only through his
word. His written word tells us of the living word, and that
living word is Christ. And so the one that we are reading
about here is the Lord Jesus Christ who gave a vision to his
servant, whose name means servant of Jehovah or servant of Christ.
So this is Christ's servant. who is writing this, and the
vision he has here concerns two nations of people. The first
is Edom. You see that in verse one. The
vision of Obadiah, or the vision of Christ's servant, thus saith
the Lord God concerning Edom. And it goes on, we have heard
a rumor from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the
heathen, arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle."
So if you understand this book of the Bible, you'll see here
that the first nation spoken of here is Edom, and the second
nation, which we're going to get to in verse 17 is the nation of the Israelites,
the descendants of Jacob. So these two nations began as
twin boys in the womb of Rebekah, born to Rebekah and Isaac. And
when they were twins in the womb of Rebekah, God spoke to Rebekah
and foretold that Esau the elder, who would be born just before
his brother Jacob, would actually serve the younger Jacob And God
also mentions this in Romans chapter nine, it says, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So we can see just from the overview
of scripture that in the Old Testament, this nation that descended
from Esau, called the Edomites, who lived in this place called
Edom, were the brethren, physically, of the Israelites who lived in
the land of Israel that God gave them, which was formerly the
land of the Canaanites. Now, Esau, being the eldest,
had the birthright, as I mentioned last week, But in the course
of their lives, when Esau was hungry, he sold his birthright
to his brother Jacob. That was according to God's prophecy
to Rebekah that the elder would serve the younger. In other words,
Esau would become a servant, would be less than Jacob, and
God was going to bless Jacob. And so in that selling of his
birthright, Esau showed his character. What was his character? Well,
the main feature of that character was that he despised the birthright. And despising the birthright
means that he didn't have any interest in, really, at least
a minimal, no more interest in the eternal salvation and glory
that's in Christ, no more interest in that than he did in a bowl
of soup, because he traded it for a meal, a single meal. And
then later, as I mentioned last week, the selling of the birthright
was followed at the later time in his father Isaac's life, where
Jacob went in and tricked his father Isaac, and Isaac blessed
Jacob. and he pretended to be Esau,
and Isaac believed that he was, at least he was reasonably confident
that he was, and he gave to Jacob the blessing he intended to give
to Esau, which was actually giving him all of the blessings. He
gave him the blessing of the promises that God gave to Abraham,
and then to Isaac, and then now to Jacob. So the promises God
gave to Abraham were what? That Christ would come, and that
in his coming, Not only would Abraham's children, I put that
in quote, be saved, but also people from out throughout the
entire world would be blessed by Christ's coming. Blessed in
such a way that it would be an eternal blessing. A blessing
of righteousness and justification and everlasting life. And you
read about this in Galatians chapter three and four, for example.
And so the children of Abraham in the New Testament are revealed
to be those who, like Abraham, look to Christ for all of their
salvation. And that blessing was contained
in this blessing that was given to Isaac and to Jacob, because
in Romans chapter nine, it says that not the children of the
flesh, born to Abraham after the flesh, are the true children
of Abraham, but the children who were given to Christ who,
like Abraham, look to Christ for their salvation. They're
the elect of God. They're not elect because they
look, but their look is the effect of God's election of them. And
so throughout scripture, this is a huge revelation that comes
in the New Testament that the children who are the true children
of Abraham are those who believe Christ. And this is spoken of,
for example, let me just read one or two verses in Galatians
chapter three, where it says this explicitly, Galatians chapter
three, it says, if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise. And if you look at second Timothy,
for example, chapter one, chapter two, It says this in 2 Timothy
1, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. So
the purpose of God and the grace of God was given to us in Jesus
Christ before the world began. And that's what is spoken of
in Galatians 3, 29. If you're Christ, then you're
the true seed of Abraham. And so this is throughout the
New Testament. Jesus spoke in John chapter eight, for example,
to the Pharisees. He said, you are of your father,
the devil. And they said, no, no, no. We
were not born of fornication. We were Abraham's offspring. He said, well, if you were Abraham's
true seed, then you would do the works of Abraham. He rejoiced
to see my day, and he sought and was glad, but you hate me
and seek to kill me. Abraham never did that, and so
they proved themselves to be not the children of Abraham.
They actually proved themselves to be the children of Esau, spiritually. So the children of Esau, called
Edom and Obadiah, represent all those in history, throughout
the world, who are left by God and not chosen in Christ. Whereas
the children of Jacob, in history, represent all those who were
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And so when we
read this book, we have to realize, as I tried to point out last
week, the book is actually a historical prophecy. but it's also an allegory
where the objects and the people and the events in history have
a message that's outside of the history of this book. It communicates
and tells about God's truth that he will communicate throughout
scripture about these two representative people, the people of Esau and
the people of Jacob. And that's the key to unlocking
the meaning of this book of the Bible, that it speaks of the
spiritual descendants of Jacob and those who share the character
of Esau and are treated by God as he does here with these people
in Edom. All right, so the opening verse
is the vision of Obadiah. Again, this is the servant of
Christ's vision. He sees the gospel. He explains
the gospel through this historical prophecy. He says, Thus saith
the Lord God concerning Edom, We have heard a rumor from the
Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise ye,
and let us rise up against her in battle. Here, if you understand
it, historically, the Edomites were a strong people. Remember
when Esau met Jacob, while Jacob was coming back to his father
Isaac and his mother Rebekah, having been in the land of Laban,
his uncle, and having gotten his wives, Leah and Rachel, and
their two servant girls as his wives, and had all these children.
When he's on his way back, Esau met him with 400 armed men. So
Esau was a powerful man. He was a man of the field, a
man of battle, and he trusted in his own strength. And his
people lived in this mountain called Mount Seir, and so they
were strong in their own opinion of themselves. And so here it
says, yet in spite of that, the Lord has sent a rumor among the
heathen, an ambassador is sent among the heathen. And this is
the message of that rumor, that ambassador. Speaking to the heathen,
these nations that are gonna arise up historically and come
against the Edomites. Here's the message, arise ye
and let us rise up against her in battle, against Edom. And
then he says in verse two, behold, I have made thee small among
the heathen, thou art greatly despised. So the Edomites were
made to appear small and weak in the eyes of those who were
the surrounding nations in order that by the instigation of God's
providence, they would rise up and destroy the Edomites who
were the who were the enemies of the people of Israel. And
we'll see more how they were enemies later on in this book.
But the point here is that what's happening historically, Edom
is going to be destroyed because God is, he hates the Edomites. One reason you can see why he
hates them is because they're opposed to Jacob and his children,
whom he loves. So he sends this rumor among
the heathen to rise up. But spiritually, what does it
mean? Well, spiritually, in a larger sense of history, we see God's
purpose to destroy all those who oppose the salvation of his
elect. And that means especially in
the religious world, but it also means in the political world,
in the world of man's science and philosophy and politics and
religion. All of them essentially boil
down to religion, don't they? politics, science, it's all religion
because it denies that there's only one source of truth, Scripture. And it denies the message of
Scripture, Christ and Him crucified. And the salvation of the poor
and sinful people of the Lord whom He saves by Christ alone,
it denies them salvation and it actually brings another purported
truth, a false gospel, which in Galatians chapter 1 Paul says,
if anyone preach another gospel, let him be accursed. So throughout
scripture you can see that God's curse is upon those who bring
another gospel. just as it was upon Satan in
the Garden of Eden. Remember, Eve was tempted, Satan
came to her and tempted her, and she took the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represents living
upon our works before God. The knowledge of good and evil
is what in Scripture? By the law is the knowledge of
sin. So how do we know the difference between right and wrong? Well,
there's this rule, set of rules God has given, and men think
by keeping those rules they can be acceptable with God and they
can make themselves okay with God. That's called the law. That's
called works. And God says no one can be justified.
No one can be approved or accepted by God that way. So these heathen
were those in the world also lost like Esau and his children,
and yet God raised them up, one nation or several nations against
this one nation, Edom, because he's going to destroy all those
who oppose the salvation of his people in Christ. throughout
history, they're all going to be brought to judgment. And in
Jesus' time, this is especially prominent, every time He talks
to the scribes and the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, they're completely
opposed to what He's saying. They're especially jealous of
the fact that He has more disciples than they. Thousands of people
follow Him and flock to Him, and especially the poor and the
sinful, which they use as a way of mocking Him and reproaching
Christ because He was the friend of publicans and sinners. But
these are those that God is talking about here. Outside of the historical
context, He's going to destroy all those who come against the
camp of the saints, as it were, as the opposers of His people
and their salvation and of their Christ, their King. and he's
going to overthrow them. In the end, God is going to win,
and Christ is sitting on the throne. He's going to subdue
all of our enemies under our feet. And this is what the New
Testament says in great comfort to God's people. Even though
now, in our present experience, in time and history, it looks
like evil is winning, Christ is on the throne and he has a
purpose. There's a rumor sent among the heathen, he's going
to destroy the people who are opposed, the reprobate in the
world who are opposed to the salvation of his elect. So that's
what this is talking about. Now, he goes on here in Obadiah,
chapter one, there's only one chapter, verse two, Behold, I
have made thee small among the heathen, thou art greatly despised.
Not only despised among the heathen, but despised by God. And what
does God hate? Remember Proverbs chapter six?
Let me turn to that so I get it right. Proverbs chapter six,
these six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven, are abomination
to him. Right. Proverbs chapter six, and I think it's, I thought it
was chapter six. Oh, no. Oh yeah, verse 16. These six
things that the Lord hate, yea, seven, are an abomination to
him. Here's the one at the first of
the list, a proud look. A proud look. And then it goes
on, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart
that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift to running
to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that
sows discord among brethren. This is the devil's work. Right? Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, says,
I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I've espoused you
to one husband, Christ. And yet, I'm concerned that you're
turned away by the false teachers who come as the ministers of
righteousness. But they're not. They're false
teachers. That's what this is about here. Pride, a lying tongue,
speaking things to inflate their own importance in the eyes of
men, in their position, and their power, and their view of things. And hands that shed innocent
blood, these are the Lord's people that they're killing. A heart
that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift to run to
mischief. And this is exactly what he's describing here in
Obadiah. Now look at Obadiah verse three. The pride of thine
heart hath deceived thee. Remember Jeremiah chapter 17
verse nine, what does it say there? The heart of man is deceitful. above all things, and desperately
wicked, deceitful. Where does deceit come from?
The pride of our hearts. The pride of our hearts. The
pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the
clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart,
who shall bring me down to the ground? This sounds like the
prince of darkness, doesn't it? the one who is Satan and the
devil. He is proud, isn't he? He trusts
in his exalted place, in his power. But God's gonna bring
him down. The Lord Jesus is the strong
man who is stronger than the strong man. He's gonna destroy
him and subdue him under the feet of the virgin of the daughter
of Zion, which is the church of God. So the pride of thine
heart hath deceived thee. Now, I wanna spend a couple of
minutes, as I said I would do, about this matter of pride. Because
I don't know about you, but I find this to be the most unsettling issue in my own thoughts,
in my own mind. He says here, the pride of thine
heart hath deceived thee. Isn't it pride that causes us
to think that we can come to God and that he will accept us
for something that he finds in us? And isn't it our pride that
keeps us from having confidence before God because we're sinners,
knowing that Christ alone is all that He can receive from
us, that He has to provide salvation for us in Christ and receive
us for Christ's sake alone? It's our pride that keeps us
from that. Our unbelief stems from our own pride. And I want
you to consider this. Pride in scripture is seen, for
example, in Luke chapter 18. Remember the Pharisee? He trusted
in himself that he was righteous and he despised others. He was
the epitome of pride, human pride. And this was a parable. Christ
gave it in Luke 18 as a parable, meaning that he concocted the
story in order to teach us basic and important principles. that
first there are those in the world who are arrogant. And when
we say that, we think of others, naturally, but the most painful
part is that when we see our place to be more described by
the attitude of the Pharisee than of the publican, that Jesus
said, he didn't even lift up his head, but stood far off,
and he beat on his breast, and he said, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner, he's describing, that's me. And so that was humility. That was God-given humility.
That was a broken spirit, a man who knew his heart was broken.
And he had nothing except his own corruption before God, and
he had no hope unless God looked upon the sacrifice he would provide,
the propitiation he would make in the blood of his son in order
to accept him. And so that's the way he prayed.
But pride is the opposite. Pride is a sufficiency that finds
its sufficiency in itself, rather than submitting in complete dependence
to Christ and God's mercy that's in Him alone. And this was Esau's
problem. He despised the birthright. Why?
He had no need for it. He did not need God's promise
of eternal salvation in Christ. So he despised it. When it came
between a choice between food and Christ, It didn't matter.
Christ was of no consequence. It was a far off thing. What's
important is what's right now. So he despised it. So pride is
living in this attitude of self-dependence. Esau was confident. He could
hunt. He was respected by his father.
He took confidence in that. And he was just a man of self-confidence. Self-confidence is the opposite
of Christ confidence. The only confidence that a believer
has is not in his flesh, but it's in Christ. Philippians 3.3,
he said, we are the true circumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus and
take no confidence in the flesh. So that's the opposite of dependence
on Christ. It's this arrogant attitude that
I can do it. We're given a task to do. We're
told, you need to do this in order to be saved. What do we
do? Well, I better get busy. I got to do that. Whatever is
said, what did the preacher tell me to do? That's what I have
to do. Did he tell me I have to appear, show up at church
every Sunday? I'll be there. Did he tell me
I have to commit myself? All right, I'm committed. Did
he tell me I have to sacrifice everything? Oh, I'll do that
too. I have to be sincere. Sure, I can do that. Weep. I'll
start weeping. Sorrow. Whatever it is, I'll
just add it to my list of things I can do. It's called self-dependence. But the publican, remember, he
stood afar off and said, no, everything that God has in the
column of this is what violates my law, that identifies me. And
I have no hope unless God saves me for Christ's sake. So the
opposite, of course, is self-confidence. It's living without the fear
of God. The fear of God leaves us naked
before God. It leaves us exposed. We know
God knows us, and it's not a happy thought. that the God who sits
on the throne of judgment, who holds justice in his hands and
has no respect for a person, knows us. But when he tells us
of his mercy in Christ, then we're overwhelmed because we
fear the Lord. And that's God-given, that's
God-given. It's the opposite of pride, the
fear of God. And in the Psalms, in Psalm 119, I was reading this
today and have been for a few days. In verse 53, the psalmist
says, horror hath taken, I'm sorry, horror that, has taken
hold of him because of the wicked that forsake thy law." Let me
read that to you. I don't think I quoted it right. Psalm 119. The psalmist is praising, if
you read Psalm 119, I really encourage you to read it through.
And I'd like to talk about it more, but this is not the time. But look at verse 53, horror
has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy
law. The one who loves God and loves
His word and loves His doctrine, His law, His commandments, His
precepts, and so on, that one, when he sees how wicked men presume
to flaunt in their arrogant pride and despise God's law and His
truth, That man is horrified. How could anyone so dishonor
God as to stand and oppose him to his face in utter rebellion,
in proud rebellion against God? Horror, that they can hold upon
me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. God is not to
be provoked. He's not to be provoked. He made
us. He knows us. and he knows how
to bring justice. The fear of God instills this
thought and also brings us an attitude of submission. Lord,
you who made me have to save me and save me from my pride,
you see. And so this is the attitude of
the psalmist. He was horrified that men would
be so arrogant and turn away. And he was also probably horrified
because of the justice that would come down upon them. In Ecclesiastes
8, verse 11, it says, because the sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons
of men is fully set in them to do evil. That's what pride is.
God doesn't care. I'm just going on. Everything's
fine. But again, when the Lord arrests us, what happens? When
he troubles us, when he afflicts us, when he afflicts our conscience,
like David was in Psalm 32, my bones, waxed old within me. And someone asked a couple weeks
ago, what does it mean to be chastised of the Lord? Think about that. What did it
mean when you were chastised by your dad? Whatever that makes
you cry, that's chastisement. Anything my dad would do to me
that made me cry out and pay attention, that was chastisement.
Anything the Lord does to bring us to see our need of Christ
and God's mercy in Him and puts us in humility at His feet, pleading
that God would look upon Christ and receive us for His sake alone,
that's chastisement. And God uses everything in the
believer's life to do that. And so even though that's the
case, not all men are so afflicted. Not all men. Jesus said to the
Pharisees, if you were blind, you wouldn't have any sin. But
because you say, we see, therefore your sin remains. God has to
afflict us, doesn't He? He has to bring us low. And Psalm
107 is all about that, how God afflicts the sons of men. And
it is because of that affliction, and because they cry as a result
of that affliction, and then He delivers them, then they should
praise the Lord. So pride is the opposite, it's
going my way, it's having an attitude of, I do what I want
presumptuously, even though I know what God has said, I am not feeling
the consequences of my behavior, my attitude, and so God is not
really going to do what He said either. And I begin to harden
my heart against His truth, and the Lord has to bring us down,
and only God can do that. In the life of the non-elect
here, God is describing, the pride of his heart deceives him
and brings them to judgment. And that makes me pause, doesn't
it? That gives me a great attitude of being very soberly minded
towards God. God is sovereign, isn't he? God
told Moses in Exodus chapter 33, he said, And Moses said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And he said, the Lord said to
Moses, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. And that is his glory, that God
would be merciful. God's mercy is the only reason
anyone is saved. isn't it? But God's mercy is
a sovereign mercy. We don't influence God. We don't
change God's mind. God sets down his will from eternity. We're subject to it. We're in
the hands and at the mercy of a sovereign God. And so, like
these Edomites who were destroyed, what should Esau have done when
he learned that God was going to bless Jacob because Isaac,
his father, blessed him. What should Esau have done? I
thought about that last week. Maybe I mentioned it last week.
Well, Esau should have said, since God has given all blessings
to my brother Jacob, and I need to be a servant to Jacob, I need
to submit to him. I need to come under the God
of Jacob and submit to him. And who is that? It's Christ.
And who is that in the larger context? It's Christ and the
people where the Gospel is preached. It's the Church of God. The unbelievers'
only hope is to hear the Gospel and to turn from their unbelief
to faith in Christ, and that's the work of God. Their only hope
is to believe the message God has given to His Church. And
so Esau should have submitted to Jacob, but he didn't. He went
off to Mount Seir. He hated Jacob. When the Israelites
were going through the wilderness, God told Moses, now you don't
trouble the Edomites. Just buy, tell them I'm gonna
buy water from you. I'm gonna buy food from you.
But the Edomites troubled Israel. They troubled them. They wouldn't
let them come. So you see these things throughout
history. It's showing us how that the
people of this world who are in the kingdom of Satan, who
are destined to receive the due reward of their deeds, they oppose
Christ and his people. They will not submit to the gospel
of Christ. They are like the Israelites
in Romans 10. they go about to establish their own righteousness.
That's what we're like by nature. And so that's pride. Pride shows
up, it shows itself in our everyday life, doesn't it? We show our
pride in the way we live with ourselves at the center of all
of our thoughts. We show our pride when we compare
ourselves to others and despise them because we're proud. We
show our pride when we hold others in contempt and judge others
worthy of ill that comes on them, and yet we judge ourselves worthy
to receive good that comes on us. and we prove that we trust
ourselves, that we're righteous, and despise others, just like
the Pharisee. When we hold these attitudes, we show that we trust
our own goodness, we worship the works of our own hands, we
worship our own wisdom, and our own attainments, and our own
beauty, and our health, and our knowledge, and our spiritual
gifts, and our blessings. In short, we praise ourselves
in our own minds, and we seek the praise of others. But all
such praise is false praise. It's empty praise. All true praise
is due to God only, and so in seeking praise to ourselves,
we are seeking in our self-conceit to occupy the throne of God.
That's what pride does. It seeks to occupy God's place. And yet, if you think about this
as a believer, because I'm talking about believers here, believers
are proud, aren't they? We're humbled, but we're also
proud. We have this old nature, it is proud. If we truly possess
anything, I mean if we truly possess anything, I don't care
what it is, your house, your health, your intellect, the word
of God, the gospel, anything, Especially if you possess faith
in Christ or the fruits of the Spirit, then what of all that
we have have we not received by free and sovereign grace from
our faithful, sovereign Creator and Savior, the one to whom we
owe not only our breath and life, but our eternal souls? Nothing,
all that we have is from Him. Do we presume to be the source
of anything? God is the Creator, not us. And
what of all that is ours was not given to us and remains the
Lord's, once He's given it to us, to either give or to take? What of all the ill that comes
upon others is anything less than what we ourselves deserve,
and much more than they, and far worse than they, because
of our proud and unbowed attitude, our self-serving covetousness,
which is idolatry? Because covetousness is just
the attitude that I deserve and should have what I see others
have, but what God hasn't given to me. Covetousness is that attitude
that leads to envy of others, that person is more admired than
I am, and jealousy towards them, and hatred toward them, and ill
will towards them, wanting evil to come on them because I didn't
get it. It's because I think in my covetous,
proud attitude that I deserve the worship of men. And we act
as if God has blessed me because of my skill, and he hasn't given
me what he's given to them. And so we turn our pride into
a hatred of God and others. It's this attitude. It seems
to be all around us. I think that pride exhibits itself,
in my own case, in many ways. It's often just by my impatience. I realize my pride in the tone
of my voice. I hear my impatient reply to
others. And all of these things, and
so much more, reflect my own pride and intemperance and my
lack of fear of the Lord, which is the opposite of pride, and
my submission and reverence of the Lord, which is a sign of
humility and a broken heart. All those things, the absence
of those things in my everyday actions and words and attitudes,
everything shows my pride. I feel in myself, and when you
really get it down and you draw the string tight, I really feel
that in myself I live in this big cloud of personal pride. And when things go well, I'm
confident. But my confidence is so much in myself that when
things don't go well, I'm despondent. And if my strengths were in the
Lord, then in my weakness, I would not be despondent. I would delight
because Christ's strength is made perfect in my weakness,
but because I react in intemperance towards others or instinctively
in self-defense when I'm provoked or preserving myself, When it
seems like I'm being mocked or something like these things,
all these things are just an indication that my eyes are on
myself and I seek my own way. I look at my own performance
and I take confidence in my performance and when I don't see my performance
there then I lose confidence. All these things are just arrogance
and pride. Rather than trust and faith in Christ's blood and
righteousness alone is all of my confidence and assurance and
expectation. And so what happens when we find
ourselves in this cloud, this flood of personal pride in our
minds? What can we do? What is it that
we can do in order to be free of this? Well, in Psalm 34, a
verse I like to quote often, the righteous cry, and the Lord
hears them, and he delivers them out of all their troubles. The
Lord is nigh to them of a broken heart, and he saves such as be
of a contrite spirit. You see, pride produces this
self-awareness of our own corruptions, our sinful man who is sinful
and fallen, and we have no help, and so we cry to the Lord. And
he also says this in Psalm 65, verse 3, Iniquities prevail against
me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. So in our hearts, we realize
what we are and what our corruptions before God, and rather than thinking
we can fix it, we realize we're absolutely powerless against
our own sinful corruptions, and what do we do? We have to cry
to the Lord. We cry to the Lord. Lord, you
said that it's possible for you. It's impossible for me, but Lord,
do what only you can do. Humble this proud heart of mine
and cause me to look to Christ only. I was going to bring this
out about pride. Sometimes we think about pride
as being, you know, somebody who's always talking about themselves
openly, and a humble person is someone who never talks about
themselves openly, but they're very quiet and subdued. That's
not necessarily an indication of the difference between pride
and humility. We might think that on the outside, but pride
shows up in lots of other ways. For example, Pride will say what
that man that was given only one talent said. Remember the
three men? One was given, I think, ten and
five and two, or maybe there was one was five and two and
one, whatever it were. One man, the last man who was
only given one, what did he do? He was afraid. He said, you're
an austere man. I can't, I can't, I can't really,
I'm afraid that I'm going to lose your talent. So what did
he do? He buried it. And the Lord comes to him later and he
says, if you knew I was an austere man who takes what he doesn't
sow and reaps what he didn't plant, then you would have put
my money into the bank to get interest because I would have
gotten interest from my money. You should have invested it.
I would have made sure that it produced interest. So pride is
this attitude that we have that we are limited by our own strength.
And so we won't employ ourselves to do what the Lord has told
us He gives us strength to do. We won't seek the Lord with our
whole heart because we think, well, I can't, or something like
that. Or we won't apply ourselves in a lot of ways that we think,
well, I'm limited by my own strength. That's pride. Humility says,
I have no strength. The Lord can do anything. It's
his word. We're just going to proclaim
it and let the Lord do what he wants with it. If he takes this
earthen vessel and the repository of the treasure in that earthen
vessel being the gospel, and we invest it by preaching it
or supporting the preaching of the gospel in whatever way we
can, ministering to one another in the body of Christ, then we're
taking that talent God has given to us, this gift of faith in
His strength, to do what He will with what's His own, and we're
investing it, and the Lord will bless it. He'll get something
for it. His word is not going to return void to Him. So this
pride shows up in different ways, doesn't it? Humility is trusting
Christ. Pride is trusting self. And the
heart that trusts itself will not venture upon Christ in so
many ways. And I find that in my own self
and it makes me ashamed. And yet, what can I do? Lord,
help me. Now, there's a couple of things we don't notice so
much, but legalism is pride. What is a legalist? Well, a legalist
is someone who tries to hold others to a rule of law. A legalist
presumes that they can be the lawgiver and the judge. This
is natural to us. When you're growing up in a family
like I did, where there's seven boys and two girls, everyone's
a legalist, everyone's a judge, everyone's a lawgiver. Ah, mom,
mom, look at that. No, you did that. You're tattling
on each other. And then sometimes you take out
your fist and you enforce the law with it. It's just the way
you do when you're in a big family like that. It shows you what
you are. I remember thinking when I was growing up, I would
like to just for one minute stop sinning. And I, okay, here it
goes. Guess what? It wasn't within
a minute. I was doing something I didn't
want to do. It was amazing. I had absolutely
no power over my own wickedness. But legalism is pride. What does
a legalist do? Well, a legalist presumes to
take or occupy the place of the lawgiver or the judge or both.
The legalist presumes to introduce laws. This is a sneaky way a
legalist does things. They're called traditions in
scripture. They introduce things that actually relieve them from
doing what God has said to do. In the law, God said this, "...you
shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall
you diminish aught from it, that you may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God which I command you." That's Deuteronomy chapter
4 verse 2. And Jesus said this in Mark chapter 7, He said, full
well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your
own tradition. Moses said, honor your father
and mother, and whoever curses his father and mother, let him
die the death. But you say, well, if a man shall say to his father
or mother, it is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever
thou mightest be profited by me. then he shall be free. And
you suffer him no more to do anything for his father or his
mother, making the word of God of no effect through your traditions
which you have delivered, and many such things you do." So
that's a legalist. A legalist is exposed to be precisely
the opposite of what he claims to be. He claims to uphold the
law, but in reality, he dishonors the law by creating rules to
circumvent the law so he doesn't have to keep it. He invents ways
to get around the plain and objective revealed truth of God by holding
others to his own standards and administering justice by his
own judgments, and he acts as both a lawgiver and a judge over
others in repudiation of God's law. But we know there's only
one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy, and who are we
to judge another? So that a legalist is in fact
the opposite of what he represents himself to be. He is in truth
against the law. The legalist, in his pride, proves
that he's what? An anti-law or antinomian, just
as God's word says that he is in Romans 8, 7, where it says
the natural heart, the carnal mind is enmity, hostility toward
God. It cannot be subject to the law
of God. We are all naturally, by nature,
proud legalists, aren't we? In the Lord saves you, he saves
you from legalism. He saves you from this attitude
that I'm saved by what I do and I can judge others because I've
done it and you haven't. You know, I remember telling
my brother when I was seven years old, I went forward in church
and you didn't. What's wrong with you? I didn't say those
last words, but my mom, she told me, if you think that way, then
you are not saved. And those words of hers haunted
me my whole life through, because I knew they were true. A legalist,
that's what's in me. A legalist, a proud, arrogant
legalist. What's an antinomian? An antinomian is also an arrogant
jerk. An antinomian boasts that he's
against the law, but he's a legalist. How does he do that? Well, he
frees himself from objective rules, but he holds others to
his subjective-ism. Well, it seems good to me, so
I do it. But that doesn't seem good to me, so I won't do it.
That's an antinomian. He doesn't use the objective,
revealed will of God to rule his life. He uses his own perception
of things. Pentecostalism is just like this. Because Pentecostalism praises
the emotions and the outward sign of spiritualism. Oh, he's
a mystical man. He speaks in tongues. He has
these visions or whatever. He's just, he's always like,
you know, bubbly and happy and everything like this. He's a
very mystical Christian something or other, right? But because
they put a premium on these things, these uncontrolled emotional
outbursts, because they can't somehow control themselves, they
start jabbering in another language, they say. that no one can understand,
not even themselves. They distinguish themselves from
others by their emotions. They hold others to a higher
standard than they themselves claim to meet. And in this way,
they're legalists. They don't find their standing
in Christ alone, but they find themselves in a standard that
promotes pride, some kind of a visual or emotional evidence
that they're spiritual. If you can see your spirituality
on the outside, if you think others can see it, that's pride. That's pride. What does a believer
do? Well, let me show you how it's
worded here in Romans chapter 14. He says this in Romans 14.
Hast thou faith, have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that
condemneth not himself in that thing that he allows. He that
doubts is damned. If he eat, because he eats not
of faith, or whatever is not of faith is sin. Here he's talking
about eating or drink, or eating things that were offered to idols,
or things that were not considered kosher. And he says, this believer
says, I can eat whatever I want to, we're not under the law. And he does it to the bludgeoning
of the conscience of this other poor brother who hasn't yet arrived
at that view of liberty. And so the apostle rebukes that
brother who with his liberty is hurting his weak conscience
brother. And he says, do you have faith?
in this thing, then have it to yourself before God." That's
what he says. Faith is not something you go
around parading or wearing as a badge, is it? It is what, it
is you, your relationship to Christ, your depending upon Christ
for everything in salvation. Faith is the opposite of pride.
Now James talks about works and proving your faith by your works
because some people like antinomians were going about saying, well,
I believe, but you know, hey, you can't hold me to any of those
things that are evidences of believers. And so they were denying
the fact that when you believe on Christ, it causes you to love
him and serve him. But that's a different matter.
The point here is that antinomianism is actually legalism because
it holds people to another standard and it sets aside the objective
revealed will of God. Both of them are spring from
pride. The antinomian who claims to be without law is actually
a legalist. The legalist who claims to support
the law is actually an antinomian. It's the way our pride works.
What did he say in Obadiah chapter 1? The pride of thine heart hath
deceived thee. That's the issue. Pride, human
pride, deceives us. And we think we're right before
God when we're living in spiritual arrogance. Believe me, I know
it firsthand. I know it firsthand. And it's
a painful thing to see your own foolish belief that you have
something to boast in when you have nothing but your sinful
corruptions, which are shameful before God and before men. And the more we try to make ourselves
important before men, we just show our ignorance of our own
pride. Everyone else can see it. We
can't, though, because pride has a way of blinding us, even
to our shame. And that's what happens in the
world today. People run around without enough clothes on or
something else. They think they're proud. They're proud of their
bodies. And that's obvious to us. But what are they doing?
They're shaming themselves. Why are you uncovering this part
of your body no one else should see? That's just the way we are. But spiritually it's even worse.
It's much worse because we want to boast in what we are in some
way. Now I say all this to show us that this attitude of pride
is something we cannot overcome. Can you overthrow your pride?
Go ahead and try it. You will find yourself fighting
against an enemy that grows the more you fight him. The more
you try to deflate him, the bigger he gets. The more humble you
try to be, the more arrogant you become. What is the answer? Christ alone, you see. He turns
our pride off when he shows us that all of your vain, empty
attempts to earn God's favor in your puny mind are all squashed
because there's only one righteous, and it's Christ. There's only
one God accepts. It's what he thinks of his son.
And that's where all of our hope has to be. And all of the children
of Jacob, spiritually, find their all in Christ. God has humbled
them to find it so. And yet if he leaves us in our
pride, then we're doomed and damned. And so what should we
do? Oh Lord, like Esau should have
done, submit ourselves to the one God has given all blessings
to. the Lord Jesus Christ, and when
we do, what does it say? You are complete in Him. Amazing. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would arrest us in our foolish downward spiral, thinking ourselves
to be something when we're nothing, and imagining that we have something
when all that we have is yours. And anything that's shameful
was a production of our own pride and sinful hearts. And we have
need, this is all of our need of your sovereign mercy to turn
us to Christ and enable us to see in his light our salvation
in him. Help us as we read your word
to be humbled by it, but not so that you leave us squashed
by our pride, but in humility to look away from ourselves and
to be obedient in faith, God-given faith, to see Christ as our all. For his name we pray, Lord, do
for us what we need, what you know we need, and do for us according
to what you have done in Christ, and bless us for his sake, and
take away this sinful heart and desire that's in us by nature,
and save us for your namesake. In his name we pray, amen.