I'd like, if you please, to read
the first six verses at this time. The elders which are among
you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ. and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which
is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither
as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown
of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the
proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time. I wanted this morning, having
been led in the Spirit of God, I believe, to look at these verses. I want to kind of give a commentary
of these verses at the outset this morning, and then get into
our message. I believe that the message for
the day is one that will be helpful, and I trust that God will use
it in order to edify and to build up this flock. I certainly believe
that There are many of God's truths that we may have heard
about or that we possibly have even heard messages and sermons
about in times gone by, but that we definitely need to look at
and to examine and to partake of it as God enables us to. And
I recognize, and I mentioned a few weeks ago in a sermon here,
that you could teach a man how to be a carpenter, you could
teach him how to be a welder, how to be a mechanic, you could
teach him various jobs and various, where he could have a career
in various fields, but then, when it comes to the grace of
God, you don't have to teach that man that again. After he
learns it, he's learned it, And he knows it, and you don't have
to keep coming around and telling him about the job and what he's
supposed to do and all of that day in and day out. But when
it comes to the things of God, it's just not that way. I mean,
after the flesh, men can learn and they can retain. But when
it comes to the things of the Spirit of God, we let them slip. We let them slip. And we said
it before, and I think I said it last week, that when we fall,
we always go down. We don't fall uphill. And I'll
tell you this, that it'll be no accident if you grow in grace. It will not be an accident. It's
not going to happen that way. If you grow in the grace of God,
and if you mature in the faith of the gospel, it'll be because
you went against the odds, and you went against the flesh and
the mind of the flesh, and you persevered toward God and the
things of God. And so let us remember those
things as we get in to our message here this morning. But the elders,
Peter's writing to the elders of the church. And these elders,
and this word elder here is a word that's used synonymous with pastors
and bishops. And he says, the elders which
are among you I exhort. Now there was generally a plurality
of elders in the churches. if they were of any size. If
it was needful, necessary, they had more than one elder. And most churches of the New
Testament, you will find that they had a plurality of elders. So he says, the elders which
are among you I exhort. I have a word of exhortation
for you elders." Now he says, giving his background himself
and his right to speak to elders, he says, who am also an elder. Peter was an elder. Having been
called of God, having been chosen of God to be an elder unto the
churches, to be used of God to the edification of the body of
Christ, he says, I'm also an elder and also I'm a witness
of the suffering of Christ. Meaning that Peter had witnessed
the sufferings of his master, of the Lord Jesus, whom he served.
that he had witnessed the Lord Jesus being nailed to the cross. He witnessed the Lord Jesus being
made sin by the Father and seeing Him at the hands of wicked men
put to death. And so Peter was a witness of
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Now I believe if somebody were
to walk up to me and say I was there and I saw him crucified,
I saw him when he was hanging between heaven and earth on that
gory tree, I saw him bleeding out His life on Calvary's cross
carries some weight with me, wouldn't it with you? It carries
some weight with me. And so that's what Peter is telling
these elders. He said, I'm a witness of the
sufferings of the Lord Jesus. And also, he says, a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed. Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ
bought us glory when He died on the cross. And the Lord Jesus
Christ has called us unto glory. And we're going to experience
glory on account of Him. On account of what He's done.
That glory that shall be revealed. Oh, what a blessed day that we're
looking forward to as the Lord's living family. We're looking
forward to that day of the revelation of the glory of God. I know that
there are many skeptics And there are many that say, where is the
sign of his coming? I believe the Lord Jesus is coming
back. The day will come when the Lord
Jesus will come back and the scriptures exhort us to keep
our eyes upon the eastern sky and to be watching and waiting
for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Lift up your head, your redemption
draweth nigh. The time when God will come and
receive unto himself that purchased possession, that possession which
was bought dearly by the sufferings and death and shed blood of Jesus
Christ. And so there's a glory that's
going to be revealed, a great glory. And you know, Paul spoke
of this and how that our sufferings for the present time, how that
they were light compared with the glory that would be revealed
in us and to us in the last day. And so Peter here says I'm a
partaker of that glory and I like to believe that I am and I believe
that there are many of you here that are also partakers of that
glory that will be revealed. And now here is the exhortation
to these elders. He said you feed the flock of
God which is among you. the Lord's people, the sheep
of His pasture. They're sheep of God. They belong
to Him, and they were so designated from old eternity. They're the
Lord's sheep, and they belong to Him. Now then, he says, which
are among you. In other words, the people of
God was gathering around these elders and they were looking
for some spiritual nourishment, some spiritual food. They needed
something of the Spirit, something taught to the elders by the Spirit,
conveyed to them so that they might partake of this food and
that they might grow up. to the stature of the fullness
of Jesus Christ, that they would grow up in the Lord. And he says,
taking the oversight thereof. You feed the flock of God, taking
the oversight thereof. Now this oversight is an oversight
that was given to them by the Spirit of God when they were
called to this office of being an elder. They were to be the
overseers of the flock of God, to look out for the people of
God, to look out for those wolves that would come in and devour
the flock. They were to look out for the
Lord's people, because these people are the Lord's heritage. They belong to the Lord, and
God has invested His own Son, the life of His own beloved Son,
in these people, and God has put men among them for their
oversight, to look after them. And the scripture says you obey
them that have the rule over you. They are those that must
give an account. because they watch for your souls,
they look out for your souls, and they're preaching to you
God's truth. They're taking the Word of God,
rightly dividing it, and teaching and preaching to you the pure,
unadulterated Word of God, and you are to receive that. And
so these elders, Peter said, I exhort them to take the oversight. And then he said, not by constraint.
Not because somebody twist your arm and put you into the business.
Not because mama called you to preach. Or not because your grandpa
was a preacher and because he was a preacher. You necessarily
must be one, young man. You must be a preacher because
your grandpa was. No, no. Not by constraint. not
just forced into the office, not because you was a good man
in the army and maybe you grew to be a captain in the Air Force
or a captain in the Marine Corps and everybody says you're a born
leader and so therefore you ought to be and you must be a preacher. Not so necessarily. doesn't mean
that that would disqualify them, but it certainly doesn't mean
that they're qualified to be an elder just simply because
they have had a high position in the military or in some company.
that they ran. And so here this individual,
not by constraint, but willingly. The elders must be willing servants
of God. Willing servants. Willing to
lay down their lives for the sake of the sheep. willing to
invest their life and their time for the sake of God's heritage.
Those that Jesus was willing to lay down His life for, these
must be willing. And not for filthy lucre, not
because they are getting paid for it, not because there's money
involved in it, not because it would be an easy occupation for
a lazy man, not because it would be an occupation that somebody
that was disqualified for everything else had no ability to do any
other job in the world, and he just becomes a preacher in order
that he would have a living? No, no, not for filthy lucre's
sake, but of a ready mind. Of a ready mind. Now this implies
that a preacher ought to be an individual who definitely understands
his limitations, He understands what he is, who he is, what he's
about, and he must understand that he has nothing as far as
fleshly ability that suits him for this job. But that is not
to deter him. He knows who he is and what he
is. He knows what he can do and what he can't do. He knows he's
not sufficient for the job, but that is not to cause him to back
off and say, I'm not going to do it. He's to have a ready mind. If God, by the Holy Spirit, has
laid hold of that man, and if God has said, this is what I
call you to do and what I want you to do, then that man must
step up with a ready mind and say, I'm willing to be used of
the Lord in whatever way God wants to use me. I'm willing
to be used of the Lord. It's true that I never come,
I never come when I feel that I'm adequate. for the situation,
but God will give me the ability, God will give me the strength,
God will give me the mind and the grace that is needed to be
able to carry out this awesome responsibility that no man in
the flesh is able to do. God will enable me to do it,
do it with a ready mind. So you see it's kinda like old
Moses, whenever the Lord told him, I want you to go to Pharaoh,
he said, well, Can't speak and the Lord said well, I'll I'll
give you this I'll give you somebody and so he gave Mary to go speak
for him But Moses was right in recognizing he couldn't do it
But he was wrong and not believing that God could enable him to
do it and beloved This is a matter of faith a man that gets up and
preaches the Word of God does so every time he gets up it's
a matter of faith with him and God will help me for Jesus' sake. God will help me because God
has an interest in these people that I'm preaching to. God has
invested heaven's best in these people and God will help me surely
for Christ's sake to be able to say something that would be
to their edification and their upbuilding. You see what I'm
saying? We've got to have a ready mind, and it's a matter of faith. Neither is being lords over God's
heritage. I do not believe in preacher
dictators. I do not believe that preachers
have any right to rule over God's people in any way except by and
through the living Word of God. They preach the Word. unto the
Lord's people, and they are to be respected for their work's
sake. And those who labor in the word
and doctrine are to receive double honor, be counted worthy of double
pay, because they labor in the word and doctrine. And we have
no right to rule over God's people in any other way. Anytime a preacher
walks up to you and tries to tell you which side of your head
to part your hair on, you just say, no, sorry, I'm not interested. I'm as good an authority on which
side I should part my hair on as you could possibly be. And
if a preacher tries to tell you what kind of an automobile to
drive, pay no attention to him. I've met these egotistical preachers
that think they know everything about everything and therefore
you ought to listen to them about all of these fleshly temporal
matters. And it's not so. It's not so. They are no more authority on
those matters than you are. And your authority or opinion
is just worth every bit as much as theirs are. And so we're not
to be lords over God's heritage, but we're to be examples to the
flock. And my soul, what a task that
is. Fathers are to be an example
unto their children. Do you ever have any trouble
with that? Do you ever have any problems with that? Oh, listen,
mothers to be examples to their daughters. Husbands, examples
to their wives. Wives, examples to their children
also. The wives of good husbands are
to be a good example. And we know what that is, but
preachers are to be examples to the flock. Fail? Do they ever
fail? Absolutely they fail. They certainly
do. But beloved, the goal is the
bullseye. We're aiming at the bullseye. We mean to be good examples to
the flock, and that's what this is about. Now he says in verse
4, And when the chief shepherds shall appear, Now, who is the
chief shepherd? Well, the chief shepherd is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's that one that came into
the world. He's that good shepherd of the
sheep. John chapter 10 is all about
the good shepherd. And there you have the good shepherd
discourse. But here, beloved, he says, and when this chief
shepherd comes back, and he is going to appear at an hour when
we think not, he's going to appear, you shall receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away. That is, if you preach willingly,
That is, if you preach understanding who you are, and understanding
who God is, and His ableness, understanding the people of God,
that there's been a great investment made by God in them, and you're
to look after them, and to feed them, and care for them, and
if you're a good example to the flock, And you're not a Lord
over them, but you preach the Word of God to them and rule
with the authority of the Word of God. Then, he said, you're
going to have a crown of glory that fadeth not away. The Lord
is going to reward you with a crown of glory. It'll be all of grace. It'd be all of grace. Any man
who's ever opened his mouth to preach the word of God, any real,
true, God-called servant of his knows that if there is anything
for which he would be commended in eternity, it would be all
of pure grace and of nothing else. Okay, then he says that
this is not going to fade away. Now, in this world, a preacher
might have spent his time doing something and got a few little
things, trinkets, from the world. He might have been given, you
know, various salaries in businesses, and he might have even headed
up some corporations and become a wealthy man. He might have
got a few trophies out in the world, but that all fades away.
That all fades away. There ain't no lasting glory
to that. But if a man is a true preacher
of the Word of God, faithful in preaching the Word of God,
this glory, this crown of glory, will never fade away. It will
not fade away. Okay, now, he goes on in verse
5, Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Now
what he's saying here is, you younger elders, Submit yourselves
unto those that are older than you are. Older than you are in
the faith. Older than you are by years. You submit yourself unto the
elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another. Be subject one to another and
be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and
he giveth grace to the humble. Now we want to see some things
here that I think that is very important. First of all, you
know the scripture teaches that a preacher must not be a novice. Paul said he must not be a novice
lest he be lifted up with pride and fall into the same condemnation
that the devil fell into. Now this business of pride Very,
very important that we talk about that this morning. But I want
to say that a preacher of the gospel must not be a novice. Now that word, Paul used it And
what that word means, to bring it down and to illustrate it
to you so that you'll really be able to understand it. Now,
Paul said that he's not to be enormous lest he be lifted up
with pride and fall into the same condemnation of the devil.
Now what that word means is he must not have a thin bladder. Now let me explain. You think of a basketball or
you think of a balloon. Now a balloon that children play
with, very thin, and it can easily be blown up until they're of
great size. And that's because it's thin.
The rubber is thin and it can be blown up quickly. Now you
contrast that with a inner tube out of a 1020 truck tire. and those of you that know what
i'm talking about knows that you can not you there is no difference
how windy you are you're not going to blow that inner tube
up you can't do that it takes a an air compressor something
that has a lot of pressure behind it to be able to blow that inner
tube up now what paul was saying is this He's saying that the
man who is a pastor or an elder, he's not the one that whenever
somebody walks up to him, and here he is, he's just preached
a sermon, and somebody walks up to him and say, oh my, that
was a great sermon. Oh, that was a great sermon.
And not only was it a great sermon, but you are one of the very best
preachers that I ever heard. Well now, that fella has a thin
bladder. that guy's gonna puff up right
quick and Paul said he'll fall into the same condemnation the
devil is if he's got that thin bladder now if he's got that
bladder like a 10-20 truck tire in him then he'd say what he
wants you to like. Oh, somebody walked up to John
Bunyan after he preached the sermon and said, John, that was
a mighty good sermon. He said, well, the devil beat
you to it. He already told me before I got down that it was
a good sermon. The devil's already beat you
to it. And so it is. And beloved, if you're truly
God's servant, and God has taken you behind the door and whipped
you a number of times, and if he's taken you down, down, down,
down and humiliated you over and over again, then you got
a thick bladder, brother, and ain't nobody gonna come up and
blow your balloon up with no, I think that was just a wonderful
sermon. I think that's good preaching,
man. That's good preaching. Ain't gonna puff you up in the
least. It'll have no effect on you. And so this pride business
is so very important. Now then, I wanna say that pride,
this is the entertaining, of oneself. It's the entertaining
of a high opinion of ourselves or our gifts, our abilities,
or possibly our righteous morals. It's entertaining a high opinion. Now the verse says that we're
to be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud.
That's verse 5. Be clothed with humility. That
means you be covered, you be robed, you be dressed. Let it
appear on the outside. Let your humility be from the
inside, but let it appear on the outside. Now the word humble
means low lying. It means to be abased. Paul said,
I know both how to abound and I know how to be abased. In other
words, I lie low. I do not push myself out forward. If I walk in a room and there's
a big crowd of people, I don't go up to the front and find the
front seat there so that I will appear to be somebody that's
important in that situation. I would take a back seat. Now, I'm just trying to explain
what the word means to you. Now this word submit here means
to yield, it means to withdraw, it means to retire, it means
to step back, to yield to. He said you younger, you submit,
you retire, you back off in respect to the elder, to the older of
the elders in the church. For God resisted the proud. Meaning
that God is against the proud, that God lines up his army, and
what they're going to shoot at first is pride in the heart,
and God's going to take it out. of his people, and God's going
to take it out of his elders. Now, pride is so natural to us
that it grows in us like weeds in a well-watered garden. Pride
is a very natural thing, this business of entertaining a high
opinion of ourselves. Now, you do not have to plant
pride. It is as natural to men as mosquitoes
are in a swamp. If you kill pride or try to kill
it, it will always revive. Remember that. It's not something
you can do once for all. I mean, you can just simply get
a hold of it and choke it to death. But as soon as you let
your hands off of it, it's going to resurrect. It will revive. It will be there immediately.
Now when you think you have it conquered and you rejoice over
it, like a conqueror would rejoice over the enemy when he has put
it down and when he's really got it in its place, that very
rejoicing over that is pride in itself. The man who thinks
he has No pride has the most and anybody says I just don't
have any pride Oh my friend my friend Don't you go around saying
that you just let the cat out of the bag. You've got more than
anybody else Because you said you don't have any it has a thousand
faces and by perpetual change It is hard to locate it and destroy
it Somebody said, well, I don't know whether that's pride or
not. Well, it's hard because it moves around. That's what
I'm trying to say. And comes out in different and various
ways. You'll find it in the rich and the poor. You'll find it
in the pulpit. Yes, you will. Some of the proudest,
most egotistical people I've ever met were men that were in
the pulpit, and those in the pew also, and even those in the
prison. They have pride. You see, in
the old and the young, the beautiful and the ugly, the educated and
the ignorant, in every one of them, you will find this thing
of pride. Pride even grows on things that
are given to destroy it. That's right. The scripture.
If a man reads the word of God, you say, well, I think that would
make him humble. Well, I'd think it would too. And the grace of
God and the mercy of God. You'd say, well, I think those
things would kill pride in a Christian. Yes, you'll find more pride,
I believe, in religion than about anywhere else. And these things
that you'd think would kill the pride in us, somehow or other,
we just get proud of those things. Man says, I've read the Bible
through from cover to cover, over and over again. I don't
know if that's necessarily edifying to me for you to tell me that,
but I guess it done you a whole lot of good to be able to tell
it, especially in the congregation of the saints. So that everybody
know you read the Bible from cover to cover more than anybody
else, you see. Now that's pride is what that
is. It ain't necessary for you to tell that. You say, well preacher,
you know, I've just, I've just, I've just growed lately. Well,
that's good. That's good that you've growed
lately. But demonstrate it instead of talking about it. Just demonstrate
it. Let us know it by your humility
and by your submission and by you taking low ground and submitting
yourself. Pride of race, pride of face,
and pride of place. And the most abominable pride
of all, somebody said, is the pride of grace. Pride was man's
first sin in the Garden of Eden, and it'll be the last sin that'll
die, and it won't die till you do. But it's the first sin. You know, in the Garden of Eden,
didn't the devil say, you eat that fruit? Said to Eve, you
eat that fruit, and you'll be like God. Eat that fruit. Well, she said, well, I ought
to be like God, if anybody is, and there's not many of us around.
So it'd be good for us to be like God. And so she ate the
fruit. And at the judgment, Matthew
7, 22, you know, many will say to him in that day, why, we've
cast out devils in thy name. We've done many wonderful works
in thy name. Well, you mean you're going to tell me that you never
do me? Why, Lord, look at all I did. That's nothing but pride
is what it is. Fellas real proud of what they
did and they'll find fault with God and charge him with folly
in the judgment Because he's condemning them to hell because
he said I never knew you But all they had a whole list and
you can read that there in Matthew 7. You can read it begin with
verse 21 No place is safe from pride no place well Somebody
said I think our church is a just a wonderful place and it's a
very pious, the people are very pious in our church. And I just
doubt seriously that you'd find much pride among our members.
We're sovereign grace believers. We believe in the grace of God
and we believe that salvation is altogether the Lord. I doubt
seriously you'd find much pride among us. Well, let me tell you
something. Do you know where pride showed up? Pride showed
up in heaven. That's where it showed up. And
if you were to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 14, I'll read
it to you. Pride showed up. In heaven and
you say I don't think it can show up in our church It can
indeed if it can show up in heaven. It can show up any place. Wouldn't
you agree with that? Isaiah 14 began with verse 12. He says how art thou fallen from
heaven? O lucifer son of the morning
how art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou has said in thine heart
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down
to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall
narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this
the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms,
that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof,
that opened not the house of his prisoners?" Always talking
about old Lucifer, Satan himself. And he showed up in heaven, and
the Lord cast him out of heaven because of his pride. So no place
can guarantee you safety. No place can guarantee you safety. Look at Cain and Abel. Here's
Cain and Abel, them two boys in the Garden of Eden, had it
all to themselves, outside of their mother and father. And
Abel, he offered a sacrifice that was acceptable to God, and
God refused Cain's because Cain brought the works of his own
hands, and Abel offered a blood sacrifice. which pictured the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ and God accepted it and accepted
him because of his offering and Cain oh Cain he got upset and
you know what he did because God would not accept his sacrifice
he slew his brother he killed his brother and what was it caused
him to do it pride pride caused him to do it he just could not
take it that his brother was exalted and he was cast out. Pride caused David, you remember,
to number Israel. Oh David, he was a man after
God's own heart and he was a servant of God. No question about it.
But there just came a day when old David just had to know how
many soldiers he had. He just had to know how many
people were behind him. Now wait a minute, he knew God
and one man was a majority, but there came a day, you see, when
he just had to know that he had a big army. And so he went out
to number them and God knew that he'd give him all the victories
he ever got. And it wasn't David's army that
had got the victory. How many he had in his army,
the Lord had given him the victories. And so it brought down the judgment
of God upon Israel because David numbered the people, his pride.
He wanted to be able to say when the kings of the earth was talking
about how big armies they had, he wanted to be able to tell
them how big he had. And I'll tell you what, as a child of
God, you be awful careful when you're figuring out where you
stand, and what you got, and what you can trust in, and what
you can depend upon. You be mighty careful, my friend.
Because you may say, well, I look like I'm in pretty good shape.
I got this, I got that. Looks like everything's rosy.
But I'll tell you, my friend, our security is God Almighty.
Our security is the Lord. And you're not a bit more secure
than what God makes you. Not a bit more. You say, well,
it'd be nice. Well, it'd be nice. Yeah. The flesh thinks so. To have
some fleshly security. Be mighty nice. I'm not condemning
it. I'm not condemning it. I'm just
telling you, don't you trust in it. Paul told the rich, he
said, you don't trust in uncertain riches. Don't trust it. You trust God. You lean on God. Isn't it wonderful that we got
a God that whether we're poor or whether we're rich, that God
is just as faithful as He can be and He will see you through. He'll see you through and He'll
meet your need. He'll supply you. Seek the Lord. Seek Him
first and He'll provide all your needs. And then did it not cause
Peter to boast of his loyalty to the Lord? You remember old
Peter, why he said, though all men forsake you, I'll never forsake
you. Oh, you know, I've heard a lot
of fair speeches in my time. I've heard a lot of people get
up and reiterate that they'll stand by the truth until they
die. That their loyalty is to God's
truth and don't you question it. But all in a few days, you
wait around And you'll see them people, like old Peter, you know,
he said, well, I'll never, I'll never leave you. I'll never leave
you, though all men forsake you, I won't. But then there came
a day when old Peter denied the Lord three times. You remember
the crowing of the cock? You remember that? And old Peter
denied the Lord. And then he went out and he had
to weep bitterly over it because he said, I just, I opened my
mouth. And then my old flesh was weak,
and I went back. And I'll tell you what, we need
to be very, very careful. This pride business will get
us in trouble. And then it plagued the early
church. In 3 John, in verse 9, John said, I rode into the church,
but deatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them
receiveth us not. Here's this figure in this early
church, and he loved to have the preeminence and he would
not have anybody else to even visit the church and have a word
for the church. And so he would not receive us,
John said. That's pride, is what that is.
Now, so there is no church, this church or any other church, where
you will find safety from pride. It is in all the Lord's churches. Next, I want to say that it's
a sin that God hates. And I mentioned this a few minutes
ago, but it is a sin that God hates. He says that God resisteth
the proud. He resists them. He resists a
man who is full of pride. Now, I want you to look at a
couple of verses, Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. If you would turn there in your
Bibles, I think it'd be worth your time if you would turn and
look at these verses. And look at verse 16. We'll begin there and read down
through verse 19. Look at these. These six things
doth the Lord hate. These six things. Yea, seven
are an abomination unto him. He adds another one. First thing that he mentions
in verse 17 is a proud look. God hates it. A proud look. Well, I don't know. I think I've
seen a few proud looks. You ever see a proud look? Well,
let me tell you this. We may be a little bit blind
ourselves. But I'll tell you one who is
never mistaken. And that's God Almighty. He that
made the eye can he not see? And God can see a proud look. Would you agree with me on that?
God can see it even though you and I are not able to detect
it. God can see a proud look. And then he says, a lying tongue. a lying tongue, and hands that
shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness
that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren."
These are things that God hates, but I thought it was very, very
important to point out that the first thing on the list was a
proud look. Now turn on over, Benjer, in
Proverbs to chapter 16 and look at verse 5. And you just look
at this. Everyone that is proud in heart,
Proverbs 16 5, is an abomination to the Lord. Though hand join
in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Now what do you suppose a verse
like that could mean? Well, I'll tell you what it means. It means that God resists the
proud. It means that his hand is against
the proud. It means that God will have no
part of it. Everyone that is proud in heart
is an abomination to the Lord. As far as God is concerned, their
pride is a stench in his nostrils. And though he should find those
that would agree with him and say, why, it's all right to feel
the way you do. It's all right. to have your
ideas and that which you agree, we agree together, though hand
joined in hand, and you've got people to support him and back
him up, he shall not be unpunished. God shall deal with this pride. God's going to deal with it.
And that's the point, that God hates pride. He hates it. And he will deal with it. Now
we must be aware of this. And I think if we are aware of
it, that we will be able to, as it were, we would be able
to humble ourselves, as verse 6
says, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due
time. The Lord gives grace to the humble,
my friend, so bow down and submit yourself, take the low ground,
Knowing that God hates pride, it's an abomination to the Lord.
So take the low ground. 1 John 2.16 says this is not
of God. The pride of life is not of the
Father. Know it. Hear it. Remember it. And the more pride that's in
my heart, the less grace will dwell there. The more pride that's
there, the less grace. He says God resists the pride.
He gives grace. to the humble man, the lowly
man, the man who abases himself, the man who says, I'll take that
back seat. I'll take that back. I'll yield. I'll yield my rights. I'll yield everything, including
my respect. I'll yield everything but the
truth. I'll yield it all. I'll just step back and leave
it with you all. I'll just leave it with whoever's
in charge. I'll just step back." Well, that
man has got the capacity for the grace of God. Because God
resists the pride, He gives grace to the humble man. Humble yourselves,
therefore. I want to say that this is so.
This is so. God will always bring a man down
before he exalts him. He always will. God will always
bring a man down before he exalts him. That's the way it is with
God. Paul said he knew how to be abased and how to be abound.
This is God's order. Up is down with God. And he'll
bring a man down. He'll humble him and then he'll
exalt him. That's what verse 6 is all about. Humble yourselves therefore unto
the mighty hand of God. God's hand is mighty. He can
exalt you in such a way so that everybody will know that the
Lord's done it. That it's not flesh that's done
it. The Lord's done it. The Lord
has done it. But he's not going to do that
until he brings a man down. And then he will exalt him. Now
God never uses natural gifts for his glory without sanctifying
those gifts. God will sanctify those gifts.
Somebody said, well, that fellow is a natural born speaker. Well, God will never use that
until he sanctifies it. Now, I don't know, Will Spurgeon
said, if God's going to use a man, it's kind of like a man that's
going to build a tall building. he goes down and he digs out
he digs out and he digs out because you see he's got to lay a foundation
and he's got to get that foundation down on the bedrock he's got
to get it down there where that it's on something solid because
he's going to build a tall building see and when God's going to use
a man he'll take a man and he'll turn him over like a plate and
he'll wipe him out Just wipe that plate out. And that man,
when he gets up, he may have some ability to speak. He may
have. But he won't have an ounce of confidence in it. None whatsoever. He'd get up trusting the Lord.
And you know I, some of the preachers that have touched my soul have
been people that, men that have stuttered. Men that Now you pardon
me, but I'm just being truthful with you. Men that drooled even
when they spoke. Men that you knew that God was
speaking through them, that God was saying something through
them, didn't have the natural abilities. They stuttered and
stammered and drooled, but you knew that God was with them.
And they were a blessing. They were a blessing. They had
something in the cup, brother. And you get these fellas that
are polished. Why, them fellas, they, they, I mean, it must be
sanctified first. It must be sanctified. And God
has a way of doing that. If he's called a man, God will
see to it that he's going to get the glory. And the man will
be hid. God will hide him. Well, let's see if the time is
really getting away from us. I'd like to just read, well,
maybe I'll just wait and do that next week. I've got about halfway
through the message, and maybe if the Lord wills, maybe we'll
finish it up next week. But I hope this morning that
there has been some things that have been said that have been
edifying and up-building, some things that would give you some
insight into God's ways. into the ways of the Lord, and
that each one of us will humble ourselves. Humble ourselves. Because every one of us need
to take another look at ourselves. Every one of us. And beware of
this pride. And I want to tell you what,
don't make any difference who it's in, God hates it just as
much if it's in the preacher as he does if it's in the layman
or if it's in just the ordinary fellow that comes in and sits
in a pew. God hates it. Make no difference who it's in.
God hates it. Father, we thank you this morning
for the shed blood of our Redeemer. Thank you, Lord, for our sins
being under the blood of the Lord Jesus. And thank you, Father,
that you've been pleased to deal with us as you have, that you've
brought us in the way that you have. And we've kicked and screamed
about it as we've come this way, but yet you have brought us.
And we thank you. We thank you for your mercy.
And Father, for those dear children of thine, that are caught in
a trap, O God, deliver them, and draw near to them, and bless
them, and show them your way, and lead them, my Father, in
the way that you would have them to go. Meet the needs of thy
people. Encourage the sheep of your pasture. Pray it in Jesus' name, for his
sake. Amen.