No Room for Boasting

Q: What does the Bible say about pride and boasting?

The Bible teaches that pride is excluded and boasting is annihilated through faith, as seen in Romans 3:27. The Bible clearly states that pride is opposed to grace; it is an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:16-17) and is totally excluded by the principle of faith, as noted in Romans 3:27. In the context of salvation, boasting is rendered meaningless because our righteousness is not of ourselves but a gift from God, through the grace found in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). Pride not only blinds us to our own need, but also places us in opposition to the very grace we seek. The natural inclination toward boasting underscores our fallen nature, which fundamentally seeks to elevate ourselves rather than humble ourselves before God.

Q: How do we know justification by faith is true?

Justification by faith is affirmed in Scripture, particularly in Romans 3:24, where it states we are justified freely by His grace. Justification by faith is a foundational doctrine supported by Scripture, predominantly seen in Romans 3:24, which declares that we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This means that our right standing before God is not based on our works or adherence to the law but solely on what Christ has accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection. This doctrine is further reinforced in Ephesians 2:8-9, which emphasizes that salvation is a gift from God, ensuring that no one can boast in their own efforts. Additionally, the narrative of Abraham's faith (Romans 4) illustrates that righteousness is credited to those who believe, not based on their deeds, but on God's grace and mercy.

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is essential for Christians because it stands in direct opposition to pride, which is an enemy of grace. Humility is vital for Christians as it aligns us with God's heart and signifies a proper understanding of our position before Him. Scripture teaches that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). In recognizing our own spiritual poverty, we open ourselves to receive God's grace fully. The act of humbling ourselves is clearly stated in 1 Peter 5:6, where we are called to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt us in due time. Furthermore, true humility recognizes that every good thing we possess comes from God's mercy, shifting focus away from ourselves and our accomplishments to God's glory and grace. This understanding cultivates a heart that acknowledges our dependence on Him for salvation and daily sustenance.

boasting. Where is pride then? It is excluded. It is annihilated. It is mortified. It is put down. By what law? By what principle? That's the word. By what principle
is boasting totally excluded? Pride totally annihilated. By the law of works? Nay. but by the principle of faith.
Faith annihilates pride. Now I realize, and just hold
that passage there before you, I realize one of the things I
try to do in preaching is be true to the word, sincere, and grave, solemn. We're dealing with solemn subjects.
But honest. Honest with God, before God. Honest with myself and honest
with you. Honest. Barnard used to say,
honest people won't wind up in hell. You say there's no honest people,
none good, no not one. Not in that respect. But there's
some honest sinners who are honest with God. and before God. And
I know, and I realize pride, pride is as natural to you and
me as breathing. It's as natural as breathing.
Now that's right. Darce and I were riding along
in the car the other day and she was reading the Reader's
Digest And she read me a statement by
Benjamin Franklin. She said, you've heard this quoted
in various ways by various people, but Benjamin Franklin was the
originator of this statement. And here it is in its entirety. He said, there is perhaps no
one of our natural passion so hard
to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify
it, as much as you please, it will still live. Even if I could conceive that
I had completely overcome my pride, I would probably be proud
of my humility." That's where it all came, that's
where that statement came from, proud of my humility. He said,
even if I could conceive of ever having completely overcome my
pride, I would probably be proud of my humility. And we laughed. And naturally, we should make
fun of ourselves. But pride is the enemy of grace.
It's serious business. It is the enemy of grace. Pride
is an abomination to God Almighty in any form, and especially in
the pulpit, and especially among His people. It's an abomination. He said six things I hate. Six
things I hate. That's an interesting scripture.
Six things God Almighty hates. Yea, he said seven are abomination
to me. And the first one mentioned is
a proud low. God goes on record as saying
that which I hate, number one. And I say especially in his people.
Especially in me. He hates it. It's an abomination
to God and that is pride. He said this, pride goeth before
destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. The apostle wrote
this, God resisted the pride. The devil may promote him, but
God resisted the pride and gives grace to the humble. He said
again, humble yourselves, humble yourselves under the mighty hand
of God. He'll exalt you. When? In due time. And when that is,
I don't have the faintest notion. He'll exalt you. In due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. Four thousand years passed until
he died, but in due time he died. In due time, God sent His Son
into the world, made of a woman, made under the law. And you humble
yourself under the mighty hand of God, and in due time, in His
time, He'll exalt you. He'll exalt you. So pride is
an abomination to God. We talk about it, we preach about
it, we consider it, we laugh about it, but it's the enemy
of grace. It's an abomination to God, and pride is one of the
greatest expressions of sin. I read this week this statement,
there's no fool like the man who glories in borrowed robes. That's a height of ignorance,
glories in borrowed robes. Ebenezer Erskine wrote this, What's the first gospel lesson
that our Lord teaches his people? And when I read that statement,
what's the first gospel lesson that our Lord teaches his disciples? I thought, what is that? What
is the first thing that a disciple of Christ learns? The first thing
from the Lord. What's the first thing he teaches?
And he went on to say, this is Erskine, it's just this. If any man will be my disciple,
let him deny himself. That's the first lesson, the
first gospel lesson he teaches his disciples. If any man will
be my disciple. If you're a candidate to be my
disciple, the first thing you learn is to deny yourself. That is, he must renounce his
wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. He must
renounce His own righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
He must renounce His own holiness. Christ is my sanctification.
He must renounce His own works, if not by works of righteousness
which we've done, according to His mercy. And everything pertaining to
His salvation and every ground of hope must be renounced And
he must be content, and there is a word in it, content, to
lie down at the foot of sovereign mercy and lie there as a wretched,
poor, blind, naked sinner and to receive freely all pertaining
to God, all pertaining to life, and all pertaining to glory.
through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Come thy fount of every
blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy praise. Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I am come,
and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. What Paul is declaring in our
text, let's go back to the text of Romans 3. What he's declaring
in our text Over here in verse 27 is the gospel of God's grace,
the gospel of God's glory allows no room for boasting. Absolutely no room. Everything we have is by the
grace of God. Everything we know is by the
grace of God. Everything we hope to be is by
the grace of God. Let's go back to verse 19, just
quickly, verse 19. You have it? Now we know that
what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law. Now who's that? That's every subject of God in
this universe. That's every creature. We're
all under the law of God. If you live in God's universe,
you're under God's government. And what this law says, it says
to every one of us that every mouth may be stopped. And all the world, every human
being, old and young, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, white
and black, all the world may become guilty. And in your margin
it says, subject to the judgment of God. Rightfully subject to
the judgment. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. I've never been to too many court
trials. I've been to a few. One of the
most significant and I guess one of the most traumatic that I ever attended,
when I was just a young fellow, 20 years old, and World War II was over and
we were sent to Japan with the occupation forces and I was I
landed in Sasebo, and then there was another place we landed,
Yokohama. And I went over to Tokyo and
attended this war crimes trial. They had some of these Japanese
officers on trial in Tokyo. There were six American majors
and colonels who were the judges. six or seven, it was an awesome
thing. I don't know what I was doing
there, I don't know why I went there, I just providentially
I went to one of those trials. It was a Japanese lieutenant
on trial for mistreating American servicemen in prisoners of war
camps. And they brought all the gory
details and everything. And when he had his defense,
when it was presented He was guilty. I mean he was
flat guilty. They proved beyond a shadow of
a doubt he was guilty. His family was sitting there,
mother I guess it was, wife or whomever, and I sitting over
here and listening. Those six or seven majors and
colonels went out and he came back in. They weren't gone any
time. They came back in and they told
him to rise. And he rose and stood in front
of them. All that gold-plated and I mean awesome. And there
he stood. And they said, we found you guilty. And that word just hung over
that court. Guilty. And his mother screamed.
Some more people. Whoever it was out there. They
said, we found you guilty. And we sent you to be hanged
by your neck till you're dead. Now take your mouth. And I was
just a kid. I was 20 years old. Even then,
it was just like ice water. Boy, guilty. That word, when
he said it, guilty. And let me tell you something.
That's where you and I stand right now before God. Guilty.
And you can do what you want to with that word, but it says
here, shut your mouth. And he shut him, he never said
a word. He never said a word. They let him out, he never said
a word. He was guilty and he knew it. And they knew it. Everybody
else knew it. I knew it. And they took him
off. And we're not going to say nothing.
We're going to be speechless. He said when he came in, that fellow
had not on a robe, he was what Larry? Speechless. He had nothing
to say. We do a lot of popping off now,
but we won't have anything to say in the presence of that awesome
tribunal. I don't want to sit there. Lord,
don't bring me into judgment. That's what David said. Don't
bring me into judgment. I haven't got a prayer of a fall leaf in
a mandelblass furnace. A lot of folks word that differently,
but I've eased up a little. Verse 20, This is before God,
verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall be no flesh. No flesh. And that's what we
are. No flesh. And that doesn't mean whether
you're a Ph.D. or what you are. No flesh. It
doesn't matter whether you've been a Methodist or a Baptist
all your life. No flesh. No matter whether you
are a person that's lived your life in tune with all the principles
of so forth and so on, no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. If you get acquainted with
the law, you'll get acquainted with what you are. Paul said,
when the law came, I died. When you really see the spirituality
of God's holy law, you'll die. You'll melt as the snow melts
before the sun. But now, good news, watch this,
good news. the very righteousness of God. Not His essential righteousness,
but He has provided righteousness. His purchased righteousness.
But now, the very holiness of God without the law. Without
the law is manifested. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the holiness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. And it's unto all and upon all
men that believe, there's no difference. Oh, what if someone, when that
lieutenant was standing there and his hands literally dripping
with the blood of American servicemen and his conscience smitten by
the terrible, terrible treatment that he had afforded them during
those awful days in the Philippines and other places, if someone
could have come in and taken his place? Not only just taking
his place, because that way he'd have still been guilty. You know,
you take a guilty man, move him over here and put another man
in his place, but guilt's still over here. Isn't that right? He's still
guilty. Conscience smitten and worthy
of death. But my Lord, when He took my
place, He took my guilt. That's what's the mystery of
it. See what I'm saying? When He took my place, He took
my guilt. He literally exchanged places
with me. He was the guilty one. The just
for the unjust. And when He moved me out of that
place of guilt, which He took literally, my sins in His body,
He left me without sin. Not guilty. Justified. Let's go home. See what I'm talking
about? Like Scott said one time, this
righteousness of God is not a pasted on thing. It's not just a robe
I put on, because if I just put it on, underneath it will smell. I'm literally, we are literally
in Christ righteous. If I'm still guilty, I've got
to be damned. But I'm not guilty! I'm justified! You understand
what I'm trying to say? This robe of righteousness is
not something put over my smell. Like when you ain't got time
to bathe, you spray on a little white guard or something, you
know, it smells still there. But He takes away the smell.
He takes away the corruption. He took our sins in His blood. He took the corruption. And Almighty
God killed Him for it. and put him in hell for it. And
I went away. Actually, I'm not the one that
did it. He did it. I don't know how to
explain that. I just know that's so. I know
that this justification and this righteousness without the law,
even the righteousness which is by the faithfulness of Christ,
by the death of Christ, by the obedience of Christ, and it doesn't
just give me a star, you know, or pasted on righteousness, it
literally, through Him, in Him, because of Him, makes me holy. And in Christ I'm not guilty.
That's what it is. And who's it for? Verse 22, it's
even the holiness of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ, and it's unto all and upon all them that believe. There's
no difference. You believe? Abraham believed God, and it
was charged to him, it was imputed to him, it was reckoned to him,
because it was true righteousness. And that wasn't written just
for Abraham's sake, that's written for our sakes too, if we'll believe
on Him who justifies the ungodly in Christ Jesus. Verse 24, being
justified. I read one time about a man who
was in prison for a crime he didn't commit. And after two
or three years passed, they found out that he did not commit the
crime. So they were going to pardon
him. He said, no, you're not. You're not going to pardon me.
You can't pardon me. I didn't do anything. He said,
you're going to justify me. You're not going to pardon me.
You're going to apologize to me. and you're going to justify
me, and you're going to make restitution. And that's what
God's done for us. He hasn't just pardoned us. He
hasn't paroled us. He's literally, in Christ, justified
us. That's the gospel. And we're
justified freely. Freely. Not for sale. It's free. And it's by His grace. And it's
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Whom, verse
25, God set forth. You don't have nothing to do
with this. That's what Jim prayed while ago in thanking God for.
I'm thankful I didn't have anything to do with it. I'd have messed
it up. Whom God has set forth. Whom God has made our substitute. Whom God has conspicuously set
forth from the time He promised the seed of woman and the prophet
to Moses He promised David that his son would sit on the throne
forever, and all those types and pictures, and then when he
sent him in person to this earth, angels came down. And a bunch
of shepherds were out there on the hillside. You notice to whom
God revealed it first? There was a temple down there,
but He didn't send the angels to the temple. There's a bunch
of religious fellows debating doctrine down there, but they
didn't come to them. There was a palace over there
where a king was sitting with his mighty councils of war, and
he didn't go to them. Out there on the hillside of
Judea, one night, there's a bunch of simple, unknown, unregarded,
uninfluential shepherds sitting around watching their flocks
at night. And suddenly, the glory of God
shone round about them. And the angels of God appeared
unto them and said, don't be afraid. We bring you good tidings
of great joy. Unto you, unto you, you simple
people, poor, despised, blind, weary, prisoners, unto you, humble
and heavy laden, is born this day in the city of David, as
God promised, the Savior. which is none other than Christ
the Lord. Oh, after God set him forth,
hung a star up there in the middle of that bank and pointed down
to where he was, sent angels down to declare it. If it set
him forth to be a propitiation, a mercy seat, a covering, I'll
meet you at the mercy seat, God said, through faith in his blood
to declare his righteousness, his righteousness. for the remission
of sins, even those that have passed, even the Old Testament
believers who sinned before Calvary through the forbearance of God,
through the patience of God. You see, God has always looked
to Calvary in order to save anybody. And anybody who is saved has
always looked to Calvary. They didn't always understand
everything there was to understand about Calvary, but even Old Abel
looked to the Lamb of God Abraham looked to the Lamb of God, the
Lamb slain. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. And so these sins of Old Testament
people were not put away by deeds and duties, they were put away
by blood. They looked to the cross. I don't
know how He's coming, but He's coming. I don't know how He'll
die, but He'll die. I know He'll shed His blood.
And God Almighty, verse 26, to declare, I say at this time,
God's righteousness, that God may be just, and the justifier
of them that believe in Jesus." Now, where's your boasting? In the light of that, where's
your boasting? What you got to brag about? Didn't
you love what David, the reason I selected that scripture, Jim
read? David, high as a man could get,
Naturally speaking. And I reckon spiritually speaking
about how as a man could get. A man after God's own heart.
Writer of Scripture. And in the esteem of the people,
as high as a man could get. From the time he was a young
man, they were talking about David has killed his ten thousands
and sold his thousands. And yet here he is sitting before
the Lord. Saying, who am I? What's my house
that you should show such mercy unto us? Don't turn to her. Let me just look at a couple
of passages here. This is not the manner of men,
O Lord. This is all grace. And what can David say? What
can I say? My Lord, you know your servant.
Oh, he knows me. I don't even know me like he
knows me. I probably wouldn't even stand up here if I knew
me like he knows me. I'd be embarrassed. You know
me. These folks don't know me. I
don't even know myself. The heart's deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? But you know me. And even knowing
me, you love me. For you, Lord, for your Word,
Satan, according to your own heart, you've done all these
things for me. Not because of anything you saw in me, Not for
anything you'd get out of me, but for your word's sake and
according to your own heart, you've done these things for
me. Wherefore thou art great? And what am I? Nothing. Now let me give you some things
about faith here. Where's boasting? Where's pride? It's excluded. It's annihilated. By what principle? Do we work
to do it? Do we try to strive to do it
and so forth? No, sir. Pride is eliminated,
excluded by the principle of faith. Because, number one, here
are six things in our question. Faith does not give, it receives. Love gives. A while ago when
you were putting your offering in for the missionaries, for
the television, that's love. That's labor of love you were
giving. Love acts. It does something. Love responds.
That's right. Obedience works. Labor of faith, labor of love,
work of faith. Patience submits. Repentance
weeps. But faith, it just recedes. Faith does not work. Faith recedes. Love works. Love gives. But faith,
in my hands, no price I bring. Literally, actually no price.
Faith does not give, it receives. All that I am, I am by the grace
of God. All that I have. Secondly, faith
has nothing to offer to begin with. Faith comes to no market but
grace. Scripture says, come and buy
wine and milk. How? Without money, without price. For everyone that thirsts it,
come to the water. You see, faith is not going to
do business in any marketplace but a marketplace of grace. Faith
is not interested in wages. And let me tell you something.
It's like Brother Tom said in a study a while ago. The word
rewards, plural, rewards. You hear all the preachers talking
about rewards in heaven? The word rewards, plural, is
not in the Bible anywhere in reference to a believer. Nowhere. It's in the Bible's singular
reward. And Christ is our reward. That's
what God said to Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward. Christ is our reward. But rewards?
Faith's not interested in wages. Faith is interested in the gift
of grace. The unspeakable gift, only gift, that's all. Faith
is not interested in rewards, not saving faith, not humble
faith. And then thirdly, faith will
address no throne but a throne of grace. Oh, that's right now. You bring faith to a throne of
justice and faith will run the other way. That's what Israel did when they
came to that mountain. They turned and ran. They said, Moses, you
speak to God. We don't speak to God. Faith
stands afar off from a throne of justice and smites on its
breast and says, oh God, the Pharisee now bragged a little.
But faith kept smiting upon the breast and crying, God, you just
be merciful to me, a sinner. Let thy blood be propitiation
on the mercy seat for the sinner. I want nothing to do with any
throne. Luther said one time, I don't
want anything to do with an absolute God. I want to deal with God in Christ.
Isn't that right? Not Elohim. Jehovah. I don't want anything to do.
I hear these people say, I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe
in God. You better not. You're in for a shock if you
do business with that God. That's right, you're in for some
real trouble. Christ is your only hope to have anything to
do with him. He's not going to speak to you or be spoken to
by you until he permits you to hell, unless you're in Christ. That's not too hard, that's just
so. Faith addresses no throne but the throne of grace. Fourthly,
faith will have no praise or glory to itself. Faith gives
the glory to God. To God be the glory, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory. I have
a righteousness, but it ain't mine. It's His. I have forgiveness,
but I have it through His blood. I am a son. I'm a king. I'm a king priest. It's only
by His grace. I am an heir. I'm an heir. I
have an inheritance incorruptible and defiled that faded not away,
reserved in heaven for me. But I'm a joint heir with Him.
And without Him, I don't have a place to stand. In Him, I have
everything. Now, what am I going to boast
about? It's His. The Father gave it to Him. He
purchased it. He worked for it. He obtained
it. He deserves it. And He let me in on it. Now,
what am I bragging about? What do you have you didn't receive?
Faith seeks no praise. These precious people just sang
Mike with his gifts. He knows where he got it. He
knows who can take it away. He knows it's borrowed gifts,
don't you? He's got no room to glory, no room to boast. does not even glory in its longevity. That's right. We don't start
glorying in ourselves, and the further you get down the road,
the less you glory to. You realize you're kept by the
power of God, through faith, not without faith, but strictly
by the power of God. If one sheep of Christ, just
one, could fall, I'd be the one. And you think the same thing,
don't you? If he lost one, if one was left to himself to go
the way of this world, this would be the one right here. That's
right. If he left us to ourselves, if
one sheep of Christ should fall away, the writer said, I'd fall
a thousand times a day. Either that's begun a good work
in you, And through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already
come. Grace has brought me safe thus
far. It is grace that is going to lead me home. And if we stand
on the very threshold of glory, as Spurgeon said this one time,
if tonight I stand on the very threshold of glory, one step
out of heaven, and God left it to me to make the last step,
I would perish in hell. Richard, I believe that. I tell you, faith does not rejoice
in its continuousness or its longevity. It rejoices in its
God. I believe that. We're kept by
the power of God. He's the author and He's the
finisher of our faith. And then in the sixth place, Faith does not glow in its works.
Now, like you said tonight, Brother Harding, there are works of faith. And James wrote a whole lot about
faith will work. And it will. But we're His workmanship. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. Let
me show you. Here's the illustrious Apostle
Paul. Here's the man I guess God used as much or more than
any man, human being. And he says in 1 Corinthians
15, verse 9, I am the least, for I am the least of the apostles,
and I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed
upon me, was not in vain. God never does anything in vain.
But I labored more abundantly than all the apostles. Yet, not
I, but the grace of God which was with me. That's what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about faith never
gloats. Faith works, and faith wants
to work, and faith wants to give of itself. But faith never glows
in its work. We know it's not our work, it's
His work. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live with
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for
me. So you see, all boasting is excluded by the principle
of faith. Faith and pride cannot live together. Faith and boasting cannot exist
together. Take our election. You didn't
choose me, I chose you. Our justification, I read it,
was justified freely by His grace. Our sanctification, do we wash
ourselves or does He wash us? Love, do we love Him? Yes, because
He first loved us. Regeneration of His own will
begat He us. Perseverance, kept by the power
of God. He that hath begun the work of
completed. Glorification, whom He foreknew, He glorified. To sum it all up, put the crown
where it belongs. And that's what I want to do
in my preaching, in my ministry, I want you all to do in your
singing, in our praying, in our reading, in our testimonies,
in whatever we do, put the crown where it belongs. There's no
rival for that crown on the head of the Son of God. And every
one of us bow at His feet and acknowledge, not have I gotten,
but what I received. God has bestowed it since I have
believed. Boasting, excluded, pride our
base. And I hate it more when I find
it in me than anywhere else. Because that's where it ought
not be. We hate pride in somebody else, but we ought to hate it
in us worse than any place. Because we know ourselves. Maybe
he's got some reason to glory, but I don't. And you don't either. Pride our base. I'm only a sinner. Saved by grace. Suffer a sinner.
whose heart overflows once more to tell it, once more, I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Stay there. There's the place
of blessings. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God and He'll exalt you in due time. Because He's going
to make you like Christ. He's going to make you like Christ.
Oh, we'll have something to glory in then, won't we? My, my. All
right, let's sing that song, Mike, wherever it's found there.
Only a sinner saved by grace.

No Room for Boasting

What does the Bible say about pride and boasting?

How do we know justification by faith is true?

Why is humility important for Christians?

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About Henry Mahan

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No Room for Boasting

What does the Bible say about pride and boasting?

How do we know justification by faith is true?

Why is humility important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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