Book of warning, everyone. If
you will open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter nine, where
our lesson will be from this morning, Mark chapter nine. Before we begin, let's bow together
before our Lord. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. Father, we come before
your throne this morning with reverence. We come bowing, submissive,
daring only come before your throne in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, pleading only his obedience as our only righteousness,
pleading only his blood as the cleansing from all of our sin.
And Father, it's our earnest plea that this morning you might
Be pleased to enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. We
beg that you'd give us a true worship service and deliver us
from just having a religious service and going home unaffected. But the Father, you might be
pleased to enable us to worship you from the heart. Let us leave
here this morning forever changed. because of a sight by faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us as we look into your
word, Father. While we pray for ourselves,
we pray especially for our children's classes, and Father, for all
your people, wherever they might be pleased to meet together this
morning, how desperately we need to hear a word from thee. Cause
your gospel to run well, to bring glory to your name, to instruct
and comfort the hearts of your people. Father, we pray for our
country that you would be with our leaders, that you'd turn
their heart to wisdom, to do what is good and best for your
people. And Father, we do pray a blessing
for your people that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial. We know that this is for good. We know that it's not to
harm your people, but for good, for our learning, Father, we
pray you'd teach us quickly, that you'd be pleased to deliver
as soon as it could be thy will. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For his sake and his glory we pray, amen. Now, this morning I have a very
important lesson. A lesson that will be for the
peace and happiness of God's people if he'll enable us to
hear it and to learn from it. The title of the lesson is The
Curse of Pride and Blessing of Humility. Remember last week
we looked beginning in verse 30 of Mark chapter 9. And they
departed thence and passed through Galilee, and he would not that
any man should know it. And he taught his disciples,
and this is what he taught them. He said unto them, the Son of
Man is delivered into the hands of men, and they kill him, and
after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. Now, the
Lord taught his disciples the sovereign, distinguishing salvation
of God through the sacrifice of Christ, our substitute for
his people. That is the greatest story that has ever been told,
that the Son of God would lower himself to become the substitute
for his people, to take their sin away from them and put it
away by the sacrifice of himself. And they heard that gospel from
the Savior himself. I mean, you think of that. But
something happened when the message was over. Look at verse 32. But
they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask him. And
he came to Capernaum. Now remember, they're walking
through Galilee and they walked all this way and now they finally
come to Capernaum. And being in the house, he asked
them, what is it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?
but they held their peace. Now they're ashamed, for by the
way, they had disputed among themselves who should be the
greatest. Now these disciples just heard
the gospel of God's sovereign grace, the gospel of substitution
preached by the Lord himself. And when he was finished with
this message, instead of talking amongst themselves about what
a wonderful savior we have, Wasn't that a wonderful message? That
was so plain and clear that blessed my heart so much. That message
was all Christ. Instead of talking about things
like that, they argued as soon as the message was over now,
they argued which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. That's the curse of pride. It's in every one of us. There is nothing more contrary
to the grace that we claim to believe than pride. And there's
nothing more destructive to the life and happiness and peace
of a believer than pride. I'll give you a few examples.
Number one, it's pride that makes us miss the blessing of the gospel.
Like I said, the disciples heard the gospel from the greatest
preacher who ever lived, the master himself. They heard this
message. but they weren't blessed by it.
As soon as the message was over, they were arguing about which
of them would be the greatest. Now think about who these men
are. They're poor, insignificant fishermen whose only claim to
salvation, and the only claim that they have of knowing who
the Lord Jesus is, is God's electing, calling grace. And yet, they're
arguing about Which of them would be the greatest? They're arguing
about who would be the greatest in the presence of the master
himself, the Lord. I mean, can you imagine? It was
pride that stopped them from getting a blessing from the message
that the Lord preached. And it does the same thing to
you and me today. Now, maybe we don't get up after the service
and argue which one of us is the greatest and who should be
the boss of things and so forth. I mean, sometimes that can happen,
but more usually, this is what happens. We hear the message,
and as the preacher's preaching, we think, oh, I've heard this
before. I already know this. I don't
need to hear this. and that stops us from hearing
the message and getting a blessing from it. And the only reason
is pride. Pride of thinking how much we know. Then we hear the
message and we think, boy, oh, so-and-so needs to hear this.
Now that's their problem. I hope so-and-so is listening
to this. And we say that like I don't need to hear it. We don't
get a message, a blessing from the message because it's pride
that stops us from hearing the gospel as a needy sinner. When
we hear the message preached, it's a solid message. It's a
good message. Every bit of it's true. It all
points us to Christ. And we sit there being so proud,
like I know this. And all them free wheelers and
all these church buildings I passed right here, none of them know,
but I do. We don't get a blessing for the message because pride
in ourselves stops us from hearing it. That pride is in the heart
of every son of Adam. Believer and unbeliever alike.
That's why our constant prayer should be that the Lord deliver
us from the pride that's in us so that we get a blessing when
we hear the gospel preached. Number two, look at Proverbs
chapter 13. This is an old, old tale. Solomon wrote about it. It's pride that divides. Pride
never unites people. Proverbs 13 verse 10. Only by pride come of contention. But with the well advised is
wisdom. The only reason contention comes
between brethren, Solomon says, is pride. It's the only reason. Look over a few pages of Proverbs
28. Proverbs 28 verse 25. He that is proud of heart stirreth
up strife, but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be
made fat. You ever met somebody that just
they're constantly stirring up strife? People that make people
fuss and fight and divide and be mad at this one and we're
going to separate ourselves from this one. The person is constantly
causing contention. Psalmist says because they're
full of pride. Full of pride. It's pride that makes us think,
I deserve to be treated better than I am. And we start pressing
that issue, it'll divide every time. It'll end up causing division
every time. Every single time, there's fussing
and fighting among true believers. And I'm talking about true believers
now. I'm not talking about a goat and a sheep who You know, we'll
eventually have to part ways because, you know, they've got
two different natures. But I'm talking about two true
believers. If there is a division among
them, the cause of it every single time is pride. Every time. And when that happens, we lose
a pleasant atmosphere and we get an unpleasant atmosphere.
Listen to what David said, Psalm 133, verse one. He said, behold,
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Isn't that pleasant? And that
unity amongst believers, humility promotes that. And if everybody
would just be humble and think of others better than themselves,
we'll dwell together in unity, won't we? But the moment pride
takes over, we're gonna not have a pleasant atmosphere, we're
gonna have an unpleasant one. Caused by pride every time. Look
at Ephesians chapter four. This matter of pride, it's so
pervasive and it's so sneaky. We're so full of pride, we're
so full of sins, sometimes we don't even realize it's our pride
that's causing us to act the way that we're acting. We have
to work hard to keep our pride from causing division and hurting
the body of Christ. Ephesians 4 verse 1, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. Now, how do I do that? With all
lowliness and meekness, with long suffering for bearing one
another in love, endeavoring, working hard to keep this matter
of pride out and conduct myself with lowliness and meekness and
long-suffering, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. For there's one body and one
spirit, even as you're called, and one hope of your calling.
We need to make this matter of the Lord keeping our pride down
a matter of prayer and a matter of true effort because If we
don't, and we start acting in pride, you know who's gonna get
hurt? You, the body. If I start acting in pride, I'm
gonna hurt you. I don't want that, and you don't
either, do you? You don't wanna do that to this body. The way
we do that is pray the Lord keep us from acting in pride. Number three, it's pride that
brings ruin. Ruin and destruction. It was
pride that ruined man in the first place, wasn't it? It was
pride that made Adam take that fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil and eat it. It was pride, that's all it was.
In his pride, Adam wanted to be like God. Adam thought, if
I take this fruit, I can be his God. I can be the one to decide
what's good and what's evil. I can make that judgment. And
it was pride that made him think he deserved it. It's pride, plain
and simple. And his pride led him to sin
and thrust his whole race into sin and death. It's pride that
brought that destruction. And pride still brings us destruction
today. Nothing's changed. Solomon said,
pride goeth before destruction. It's pride that leads us to destruction
and a haughty spirit before fall. Our pride still ruin us, isn't
it? Still ruin us. All right, number
four. It's pride that keeps us from
trusting Christ. Nothing but pride keeps us from
trusting Christ. You know why the self-righteous
trust in their own works? You know why they think their
own good works and their morality and their works of religion,
their orthodoxy, their obedience, you know why they think that
they're good enough to please God? Pride. Even though God says our works
never please him, our works are only sin, the self-righteous
think my works are good enough. When God says that about mankind,
he's not talking about me, because my works are good enough. That's
pride. The only reason somebody can
think that is pride. Do you know why the self-righteous
don't trust Christ? They're so proud of their works
and their morality, they don't think they need Christ. It's
our pride that keeps us center from trusting Christ and sends
us down. It sure is. Let me show you that Psalm chapter
10. Psalm 10, verse four. The wicked through the pride
of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all
his thoughts. God's not in all of his thoughts
because he doesn't think he needs God. It's his pride that keeps
him from seeking after God. It's his pride that seeks him
from begging for mercy and begging for forgiveness. It's pride. And if you and I don't trust
our souls to Christ, all to Christ, we will perish. Now see why it's
so important for us, for our souls, that we pray the Lord
deliver us from our pride. Lord, deliver me from my pride
and my way and break me and bring me to your feet, because that's
the only place I'm ever gonna find salvation. All right, now
look at 1 Peter chapter five. It's pride that keeps us from
receiving the blessing of God. 1 Peter 5 Verse 5 Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another, and
be clothed with humility, be covered with humility. 4 Here's
the reason why God resisteth the proud, and he giveth grace
to the humble. God never gives grace to the
proud, he resists God gives grace to the humble. He gives it freely. Heap upon heap upon heap of grace,
God gives to the humble. Lord, humble me that I might
receive your grace. But Peter said God resists the
proud. And that word resists mean God
opposes them like an enemy opposes you. God's not going to bless
those who are his enemies, will he? Solomon said, Proverbs 16
verse five, everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination
to the Lord. I mean, this thing is not like,
yeah, this Lord doesn't really just, you know, he kind of doesn't
like it. It's an abomination to him. Now, whoever it is that's
an abomination to God, it's going to be cast into hell. And it
comes from pride. David said, Psalm 138 verse six,
though the Lord be high, Yet hath he respect unto the lowly.
Isn't that such good news? The Lord has respect unto the,
he saves the lowly, the lowest of sinners, he saves them. But
the proud, he knoweth afar off. The Lord knows who the proud
are, I mean, he knows them, he knows their name, he knows what
they're doing, but he doesn't know them in redeeming love,
does he? It's the proud who are gonna
hear the Lord say, depart from me. I never knew you. Doesn't that make you want to
cry? Lord, deliver me from my pride. Deliver me from my pride.
And if you think about it, pride is really the stupidity of our
fallen nature. Maybe stupidity is not the politically
correct word anymore, but that's what it is. Pride is the stupidity
of our fallen nature. Paul said in Galatians six, verse
three, if a man thinketh himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceives himself. He deceives himself because of
his pride. Look at first Corinthians chapter four. First Corinthians four. Verse seven. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou? What do you have that thou didst
not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, if you received it
freely as a gift of God's grace, even though you didn't deserve
it, why didst thou glory as if you didn't receive it? Why do
you glory as if it's something that you earned? Pride is just
foolishness, isn't it? It's foolishness because we don't
have anything to be proud about. before conversion or after conversion. No matter how long it is that
we have been learning and being taught of the Lord, we've got
nothing to be proud of. Pride is just the stupidity of
our fallen nature. And that's why I pray, oh Lord,
keep us. Keep us, keep me from my wicked
pride. But now let's look at the flip
side. Look back in our text, Mark chapter nine. Let's look
at humility. Mark 9 verse 35. And he sat down and called the
12 and said unto them, if any man desire to be first, the same
shall be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and
set him in the midst of them. And when he had taken him in
his arms, he said unto them, whosoever shall receive one of
such children in my name, receiveth me. And whosoever shall receive
me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. Now here's the
first thing about humility. Humility makes us useful in the
kingdom of God. The greatest, the most useful
in God's kingdom is the lowest servant of all. If you would
be useful in God's kingdom, I tell you what, we're gonna have to
be humble. We're gonna have to see ourselves as beneath everyone
else. And if I might see myself as
so low that everybody else is above me, that means I have to
be everybody's servant because everybody else is above me, now
I'm gonna be of some use. The only way I can be of any
use in God's kingdom is by being a servant. Now if our religion
and all of our orthodoxy and our strict doctrine, you know,
if that does not make us reach out and serve others, our religion
is not God's gospel. If our orthodoxy does not make
us reach out and humble us to serve others, it's not God's
gospel. It's not. Wasn't that the attitude
of the prodigal son? Boy, when he thought he deserved
everything, he deserved it early. He's lost cause. It was pride
that ruined him, wasn't it? It was pride that made him go
to a far country and lose everything with his riotous living. But
when did that son become useful? When he realized, father, I'm
not worthy to be called a son. Just make me as one of your hired
servants. If the father would just let me be one of his servants,
I can be in my father's house and I can be of some use. That's
when that son was welcome home. Greatness in God's kingdom is being humble. Submitting ourselves
to one another, thinking of what's good for somebody else before
I think about what's good for me. Greatness in God's kingdom
is not being the big boss of everyone and everything. It's
being humble and knowing what you all need is far more important
than what I need. We're greatest when we know this.
I am truly nothing and Christ is everything. And you all must
be better than me. Must be. Now look back at Matthew
chapter 18. Here's Matthew's account of this. And Matthew tells us what the
Lord said somewhat different manner. But this is the second
thing. Humility is the mark of God's
children. The Lord used a small child who
was in the house as an example to drive home the point of foolishness
of our pride. Matthew 18, verse one. At the
same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little
children He should not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoso
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
as greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now, the Savior tells
us that we must be converted. We must be changed. We must become
as little children to enter into his kingdom. Now, I know small
children, they have a sin nature, don't they? the same way that
we do, and it's very easy for a small child to act like a brat. But there are some typical characteristics
of small children that every believer should be striving for.
You know, small children, normally speaking, as they go through
their day, are not full of pride. They're small. They know they
need help from their parents or from somebody else. They need
help, and they know it. And they're not ashamed of it.
They're never ashamed to ask for help. My grandson, he and
I will go on walks or go different places, and we come to steps. And he comes to the step, and
you know what he does? He stops in front of that step, and he
doesn't even look. He just holds up his hand. I need somebody
to hold my hand and keep me steady. He's not ashamed of it. We'd
be playing together with something, and one of his toys will come
apart. Now, for me, it's easy to put
back together. For the life of him, he can't
figure it out. And he just says, Papa, and he holds it out, and
I put it back together. He's not ashamed to ask for help. Boy, we need to remember that.
I mean in everything we do, cry to the Lord for help. Lord, help
me. Lord help me, Lord direct my
step, Lord hold me up, hold me up. Don't just hold my hand,
hold my whole body in your arms, carry me. Small children, they're
not full of pride and they're teachable. Small children, no,
I don't know anything. But I sure am excited to learn.
I'm excited to learn. It always just fascinates me
that little babies, they're fascinated to discover their fingers and
their toes. And then an hour later, they're
fascinated again, discover their fingers and their toes. Toddlers,
they're excited to learn new words every day. They just want
to try them out on you. They're just excited to learn
something new every day. That should be our attitude every
time we come to the worship service. And every time we open up this
word, Lord, teach me something, be excited. To learn again. Just like that baby that is so
excited, discovers fingers in its toes. An hour later, it's
excited again. Absolutely, you've heard the
gospel before and it excited you, didn't it? Be excited again
this time. Lord, give me that attitude to
be excited to hear again from you. And small children are dependent
and they know it. They don't own anything for themselves.
They can't do anything for themselves. They're naked. Somebody else
has got to buy clothes for them and somebody else got to put
them on them because they can't do it. And they know it. When
they're hungry, they know they can't fix their own food. They
go to mama and ask for it. Somebody else got to give them
food. They're not ashamed to ask for
help. You know, we should be glad,
glad to be dependent on the Lord. to remember how dependent I am
on him and be glad. Be glad. For the most part, children are
not offensive to one another. I mean, I know they're kind of
stingy. They know this is my toy and I want to share my toy.
But you know, for the most part, small children are not offensive.
They like to play with other children. They just like it when
they see, you know, somebody else their size and you know.
Believers need to be excited. to see other children, to see
other children of God and look for ways to be with them, look
for ways to help one another. And I tell you, look back in
our text, we need to be very careful. All of God's children
are his children. Every believer is a child of
God and how careful we need to be not to offend one another. of all the titles that God uses
for his elect in the New Testament, the one that's most common is
children, children and little ones. Well, that brings me to
the third thing our Lord is teaching here about humility. The humble
have union with Christ. See what the Lord says in verse
37, whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name,
the same receive with me. And whosoever shall receive me,
receive with not me, but him that sent me receives the father.
The Lord says he has such union with his people, with his humble
children, that they are one. And whatever somebody does to
one of his little children, they do to him. Now as a point of doctrine, we
all know that up here, don't we? But if we really believed
that, we'd be a whole lot more careful how we treat one another,
and how we treat others who are believers. Because however we
treat them is how we're treating the Lord himself. Let me give
you in closing a couple scriptures on the humble. The blessing of
being made one of the humble. The Lord hears the cries of the
humble. David said in Psalm 9 verse 12,
he forgeteth not the cry of the humble. God doesn't forget their
cries, He hears the cries of the humble. And you know the
Lord, the humble, they're those like small children, I know I
need to be taught, I know I don't know anything. The Lord's gonna
teach the humble. He's gonna teach them, He's not
gonna leave them to their own way. Psalm 25 verse nine, the
meek, the humble, will He guide in judgment, and the meek will
He teach. He's gonna teach them His way.
And then it's the humble that the Lord saves. In Luke 18, verse
13, you know the story of the publican and the Pharisee praying
in the temple. This is what the Lord had to
say about that humble publican. He went down to his house justifying,
rather than the other. Not the self-righteous Pharisee
who didn't do anything wrong outwardly. It was the humble
publican who was so humble, he wouldn't even look up. and just
beat on his chest begging God for mercy. God be merciful to
me, the sinner. And he went down to his house
justified. God saves the humble. And here's the kicker. Here's
the thing that nails this thing of pride and humility down for
us completely. You think about this. No one,
I won't say had reason for pride, And maybe that's true, but I'll
say it this way. No one had more reason to glory
in himself and who he is and what he had done than the Lord
Jesus. Isn't that right? He's the son
of God. But nobody was more humble than
he was. And through his humility, he
benefited a number no man can number by making them righteous
and accomplishing salvation for these. That's a mighty good, I don't
know the examples because we don't have anything to be proud
of, but that's just a mighty good thing to remember in this
matter of humility. Even the Savior benefited his
people by his humility. If I have any hope of being any
benefit to you, it's going to have to be through humility.
That is the curse of pride and the blessing of humility. I hope
God will apply that lesson to our hearts.