This morning, I want to start in Psalm 10, and I want to preach on the subject of pride. This is a chapter that talks a lot about the subject of pride.
Pride is something that is mentioned in the Bible over a hundred times. When we look up all these scriptures on pride, there are certain things that you see coming up over and over again in some of these reference. Now, look down if you would at Psalm 10 verse number 2. The Bible reads, "The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices which they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire," which is, of course, another aspect of pride, boasting, bragging. "For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the LORD abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, 'I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.'"
Now, one of the things that comes up a lot with pride in the Bible is this attitude that judgment is not coming, that God is not going to punish their actions, because, here, it says that prideful, wicked person that's boasting and bragging, what is he saying in his heart in verse 6? "I shall not be moved for I shall never be in adversity."
Jump down to verse 11. "He hath said in his heart, 'God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He will never see it. Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up thine hand. Forget not the humble," which is the opposite of the proud. "Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?" meaning, he has contempt for God, "He hath said in his heart, 'Thou wilt not require it.'" Over and over again in this passage, the prideful person says that, "God is not see it. God is not going to require. God is not going to punish. I'm never going to be moved. I'm never going to go through adversity. I'm going to keep on continuing just like I am right now and getting away with it." In fact, he's doing all the wicked things he's going to do, oppress the poor, hurt innocent people and, you know what, he's never going to face any consequences for his actions. That is the spirit of pride in this passage. It says, "I will not be punished. I'm not going to see any consequence for my actions."
Go so Psalm 12, just a little over to the right in your Bible, Psalm 12. Look at verse number 3. "The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things." What are the proud things? Look at verse 4. "Who have said, 'With our tongue will we prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?'" It's the exact same attitude here that basically says, "Who's lord over us? God doesn't see it. God's not going to punish," and then it even says, "We will prevail." Do you see that? He says in verse 4, "With our tongue will we prevail." [inaudible 00:03:21] that says, "I'm never going to be moved. I'm never going to go through adversity. I'm going to prevail. God's not going to punish me. God doesn't see. Who's God? I've contempt for God. I hate God."
That's what they're basically saying here in the pride and arrogancy of their heart. We see from these passages that pride comes from an attitude that does not acknowledge God. It doesn't acknowledge God as our authority. It doesn't come to grips with the fact that God is the judge and that God will punish us for our sins.
Go to Psalm 73, Psalm chapter 73, and we can see another scripture on the source of pride and this attitude of pride. It says in Psalm 73 verse 1, "Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men, therefore, pride compasseth them about as a chain. Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than heart could wish. They're corrupt. They speak wickedly concerning oppression," and these last 3 words, "They speak loftily." Again, that's a sign of pride, when you're high-minded, arrogant, speaking loftily.
Why is it that these people are proud? See, whenever you see the word "therefore" in the Bible, I heard somebody say, "When you see the 'therefore,' see what it's there for," because right before that he explains why he they got that way. He says, "This is what's going on. Therefore, they're proud. "Therefore, pride compasseth them about as a chain," it says in verse 6, so what's the "therefore" there for? What are verses 4 and 5 explaining? There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Right after that, he talks about how their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish.
The Bible is explaining that, when people don't go through adversity, they don't go through hard times, when things are going really good for them and they're not going through adversity, then that will cause them oftentimes to become proud. Isn't that what it's saying? He says, hey, "Their strength is firm. The wicked are prosperous. Therefore, pride." Do you see those 2 words at the beginning of 6? "Therefore, pride."
Why do people become prideful and arrogant and think that they can get away with anything? It's because things are going good for them. They're not going through suffering or hard times, so they get this attitude that God's punishment is never going to come. God's punishment is going to come because the Bible says very clearly, "Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall." You see, this attitude that says, "God's never going to punish me, I'm getting away with it," it comes right before the hammer comes down.
God will judge. Now, there's often a delay to God's judgment. There's always a time of waiting, but, eventually, God's judgment does come and, when it comes, it's like a ton of bricks. See, in 1st Thessalonians, the Bible talks about this. It says that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night, for when they shall say say, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."
You see, we as Christians can also be susceptible to the sin of proud. It's not just unsaved people who are proud. Christians can often be infected with pride as well. This is sin that everyone needs to be aware of. Now, where does it come from? Again, one of the reasons why people become proud is when things are going really good for them. It's sad, but, often, God will have to bring adversity into our lives to stop us from getting too proud. This is what the apostle Paul talked about where he said, "Lest I should be exalted above measure," he said that he was given a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him. He said, "Just to make sure that I didn't get too proud, I've had to go through suffering to keep me humble and lowly apart," because when things go too good for us, often, we can become proud. None of us is immune to this. That's what the Bible's talking about there.
Now, for the unsaved person, it's different than for the saved person. See, the unsaved person goes through life committing all kinds of wickedness and, sometimes, the punishment never comes in their lifetime. Isn't that true? I mean, that's what Asaph is saying in Psalm 73. He talks about them growing old and seeing their children's children. There are some very wicked and ungodly people on this earth right now that are living into their 80s and 90s and are healthy and prosperous. They get proud because of that, too. They say, "Look, if God was going to punish me, wouldn't he have done it by now? I mean, look at me." Here's the thing. Hell awaits.
Now, when it comes to the Christian though, a Christian will never get away with living a wicked life and not receiving punishment because the Bible says, "Whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." The Bible says, "if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." He's saying, "Look, if you can go out and live a life of sin and the punishment never comes," he's saying, "you're not a not a child of God because God will punish all of his children."
I often explain it to people this way, that I would never spank my neighbor's children. If I saw the neighbor kids disobeying, I wouldn't say, "All right, you're getting a spanking," because, obviously, that's not my place. They're not my kids. If my kids are disobedient, I'm going to spank them. It's the same thing with God. God's going to discipline his children. Some people are without chastisement because they're not children of God. See, they can live a wicked, horrible life and "get away with it," but hell is going to be worse than anything that could have happened to them in this earth anyway. They're really not getting away with anything. They're proud and haughty, arrogant spirit is going to drop into hell and they're going to receive a punishment worse than anything that they could have received in this lifetime.
Pride comes from an attitude that says, "Hey, God's not going to judge," and thinking that we can get away with things. Christians can get proud, too, and think that they can get away with things. Now, if you would go to Malachi chapter number 3. Turn to Ezekiel 15 also, if you want to kind of stick a finger in Malachi 3 and go to Ezekiel 16.
Speaker 2:
15 or 16?
Steven:
16. Ezekiel 16 and Malachi 3. We're talking about pride this morning. Now, pride has this attitude that we saw in Psalm 12:4 that said, "Who is Lord over us?" Now, don't you see how pride could also infect children to rebel against their parents? See, it would be a very proud spirit in a child who said, "Hey, you know what, I don't have to obey my parents. I'm going to do what I want to do. Who's Lord over me?" That's pride. Lifting yourself up higher than you ought to be lifted, not wanting to submit yourself under the God-given authority in your life, that's pride, saying, "I don't have to obey. I don't have to listen to the," and contempt not for God necessarily, but contempt for your parents. Right? Who is Lord over us? They're not going to punish me. They're not going to catch me. They're not going to do anything to me. What can they do to stop me? That's pride. Obviously, other authorities in our life. Wives could be prideful and arrogant toward their husband and not submit to their husband, but be disrespectful and irreverent to their husband. What is that? Pride.
There is a book written a long time ago. I've never read the book, but I thought the title was funny. It was called "Me? Obey Him?" The title of the book is "Me? Obey Him?" Isn't that pride? Why should I obey? I mean, I've every bit as good as ... just this attitude that doesn't want to submit to authority. Who is Lord over me? Guess what, what are you going to do about it? That's pride, isn't it? It's an arrogant, haughty spirit. It's an attitude that's says, "Punishment's not coming. I can just keep on doing wrong and keep on getting away with it," because they don't want to acknowledge God's authority over their life, they don't want to acknowledge their parents' authority over their life, they don't want to acknowledge their husband's authority over their life. They just want to basically be their own final supreme authority. That's pride, lifting ourselves up.
I'm going to get into other definitions of pride later in the sermon, but this is a definition of pride that we see over and over again in the Bible when we look up the scriptures. It's a pattern.
Now, look at Ezekiel 16 verse 49. This is an timely message because of the fact that the Sodomites are taking over our country right now and basically turning us into the united perverts of America here. Basically, it says, in Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 49, "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride." Now, do you think that's a coincidence that God says, "Well, here is the problem with Sodom. Here is the sin of Sodom, pride." Isn't it interesting that, today, the Sodomites use the word "pride" as their slogan, don't they? I mean, they literally use the word "pride" as a slogan when they have this filthy queer Pride parade in Phoenix, this is what they call it, Phoenix Pride. That in and of itself is a sinful name. They're exalting sin and saying, "Hey, not only are we committing a filthy abomination in the sight of God, but we're proud of it." Pride.
The Bible is true once again when the Bible said, "This was the sin of Sodom, pride." All right? They have their gay Pride flag and their gay Pride parade. It says, "This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride. Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her." Now, didn't we just talk about the fact that, when things are going real good for you, that leads to pride, this attitude that says, "Oh, man, we are doing great. God's not punishing us. We've got fullness of bread, fatness of flesh. Everything's going great. We're not in adversity."
That's what led to the pride in Sodom, because, remember, they lived in a well-watered plain. That's why Lot even wanted to live there. The reason that Lot wanted to live near Sodom was because of the financial prosperity. He chose the well-watered plain of Sodom. It says, "This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride. Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness." Idleness is sitting around and doing nothing, which is what people do when they have fullness of bread and everything's going good and they don't need anything. "It was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."
I didn't really point it out, but all throughout Psalm 10, Psalm 12 and Psalm 73, it talked about prideful people abusing the weak, abusing the poor and so forth. "And they were haughty," haughty," verse 50, is another word for pride, "and committed abomination before me." What's that abomination that they committed? Of course, men lying with other men. It says, "They were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore, I took them away as I saw good." The punishment came. Pride went before destruction and haughty spirit came before the fall and they were destroyed.
Look at Malachi chapter 3 verse 15. Tell me if this is a coincidence. Isn't it amazing how the Bible is always so relevant, because there's nothing new under the sun? All the same thing that we're dealing with today are the things that people have been dealing with throughout history. All the things that we read in the Bible are so relevant. They're so up to date. They're perfect for July 2015. It's all right here.
Tell me if this is true, in Malachi 3:15. "And now we call the proud happy." Now, what's another word for "happy?" Gay. See, the word "gay" in the English language used to mean happy. Right? You'd say, "Don we now our gay apparel." Now, that means you just took a trip to Urban Outfitter and that means you went to Abercrombie and Fitch. Basically, you'd say, "Flintstones meet the ... We'll have a gay old time." Right? They're just saying, "Hey, happy." Now, the Bible prophesied in Malachi 3:15 that a day would come when we would call the proud happy. Isn't that what they're called? These Phoenix Pride, what do we call them? Gay. I don't call them that. I don't call the proud happy. I call them filthy.
The Bible says, "They call the proud happy." Isn't that amazing how God's word just has everything in it? It says, "They that work wickedness are set up," meaning, that they're exalted, they're lifted up, they're promoted, they're idolized, they're heroes, they're wonderful people that we look to. He said, "They that work wickedness are set up, yea, they that tempt God are even delivered," talking about the fact that they're getting away with it. At least in the short term, it seems like they're getting away with it.
Now, go to Genesis 9. Isn't everything in the sermon kind of coming together for you this morning? I mean, it all fits, doesn't it? It all makes sense when we look up these references on pride, how it comes from things going real well for you and then you start thinking, "Well, if everything's going good, God must be blessing us. I mean, God doesn't know. God's not going to judge." Here's the thing. This is the spirit also that's mentioned in 1st Timothy 6 where it says that there are some who suppose that gain is godliness." Right? They look at financial prosperity, they look at gain and they say, "That's godliness." He says, "From such withdraw thyself."
It says in Genesis chapter 9 verse 8, and it's funny because here's where their gay "Pride" flag, here's the symbol that they choose for their wickedness. They use this rainbow flag. That's their Pride flag. Okay? Tell me if this goes with our definition of pride we've been looking at so far this morning. Genesis 9 verse 8, "God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 'And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your seed after you." A covenant is a promise, a contract, an agreement. God's saying, "I'm making a commitment to you. Here's my promise to you." He says, " I'm going to establish my covenant with you," verse 10, "and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl and of the cattle and of every beast of the earth with you from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth, and I will establish my covenant with you.
"Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, 'This is the token of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, and the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth."
What is the covenant that God is making here not just with men, but with men and every animal? He says, "I'm making an agreement with every animal on the planet. I'm agreeing with every human being. Here is my promise. Here's my covenant. I will never destroy the earth with a flood every again. I will never send a flood to wipe out life on this planet ever again, never going to happen again." That's the covenant, right? He goes on and on about that. That promise has been kept so far. We know that God's going to keep all of his promises all the way to the end.
Isn't it interesting that the rainbow that we see, because he says, look, "When you see a cloud coming over the earth and it starts raining really hard, I don't want you to get nervous and think, 'It's happening again?'" He says, look, the rainbow is God's symbol that he will never destroy the earth again with a flood. When you see that rainbow, it reminds you, "Hey, God's not going to wipe us out again with a flood." It's a symbol of God not pouring out his wrath in that way. Isn't it interesting that the proud who are the ones that are saying, "Hey, God's not going to require it. God's not going to punish us," they pick a symbol that represents God not punishing us? Think about that.
It's a symbol about God not punishing us with a flood, but that doesn't mean God's never going to punish, he's never going to wipe out everybody on the earth. Even in the horrific events of God pouring out his wrath on this earth in the book of Revelation, the 7 trumpets, the 7 vials, where God's turning water into blood and he's burning up all the trees, he never wipes out everybody and he never wipes out all the animals. Think about it. I mean, if you study Revelation, over here it'll will say, "Hey, a third of the people are wiped out," or, "Hey, a quarter part of the earth," or, "Hey, a third of the trees are burned up and all the green grass is burned up, and then it all grows back."
God never wipes everybody out on the earth, because a lot of people ask this question, like, "Who's going to [inaudible 00:22:35]?" He doesn't wipe everybody out. They get confused because, when they read Revelation 19, and this isn't in the Bible prophesy sermon, but I'm just throwing this out there, in Revelation 19, it talks about how God gathers the armies of the earth together in Armageddon and everybody in those armies is wiped out, but here's the thing, not everybody on the planet in those armies. They get the mistaken idea that God kills everyone on the earth, which is not true. He only kills everyone who's in those armies that are assembled. It's not like South America just empties out, completely empty, not a soul, because they're all in Armageddon. It's ridiculous. It's the armies of the earth that gather in Armageddon and are wiped out.
Guess who goes into [inaudible 00:23:20]? Lots of people who survive all the events in the book of Revelation. It's very simple to understand. See, God's never going to flood the earth again. He's never going to wipe out every single person on the planet. The next time he brings judgment, it's not going to be a flood. It's going to be a fiery judgment. He's going to rain fire and brimstone. See, he never promised, "I'm never going to." Think about this, he didn't put a rainbow above Sodom and say, "I'm never going to pour fire and brimstone on homos ever again." He put a rainbow saying, "I'm not going to flood the whole planet." I don't think it's a coincidence that the prideful people of this earth would choose a symbol of God's promise not to destroy. Hey, that's what they're hanging their hat on, but, you know what, they misunderstood the promise, because he didn't say, "Hey, I'm never going to punish anybody. I'm never going to pour out hell fire and damnation from the sky," because he will. It's just that he's not going to send a flood.
Now, if you would flip over to Isaiah chapter 3, pride is what we're talking about. What is pride? If we were just to define the word "pride," pride is when you think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Right? When man thinks that he can be his own authority and his own god and make his own rules for living, that's pride. When somebody says, "Well, I make my own morality. I don't need the Bible to tell me what's right. I've got my own morality from my heart. I'm just following my heart," that's pride.
Pride is when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Pride is when we think that we are better than everyone else. Pride is where we lift ourselves up and exalt ourselves and we take the glory for anything that we've accomplished in our lives instead of giving God the glory for what he has accomplished in and through us. It's when we think it's through our own strength and our own power that we get anything done for the Lord. That's all pride. Pride is being exalted in your own mind and thinking of yourself more highly than you to.
The opposite of pride is humility, being humble, lowly and understanding your condition as an imperfect person, a person who has flaws and faults and who is very inferior to God, very inferior to the Lord Jesus Christ, and one who is ready to listen to what he has to say and obey him and do things his way because he is the boss. Humility is the child who obeys their parents and says, "You know what, I'm not going to sit here and pick apart and criticize my parents and think about all the things that, you know, make them unworthy of me obeying them. No. I'm just going to do what I'm told because God commanded me to. And I'm going to humbly submit to my parents."
Look, who do you think was better, Jesus or Mary? Jesus, right? Don't tell the Catholics that. Anyway, who's greater, Jesus or Mary? Who's greater, Jesus or Joseph? Okay, but did you know that Jesus submitted himself to Mary and Joseph, because when he was 12 years old, the Bible said, "Jesus went home and submitted himself to his parents." He was better than them. You might in your puffed up, arrogant heart think, "Well, I'm better than my parents," but, you know what, that doesn't give you the right not submit to and obey your parents.
Did I return to Isaiah chapter 3? It says, in verse 8, "For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. The shew of their countenance doth witness against them and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. Woe unto their soul for they have rewarded evil unto themselves." Declaring their sin as Sodom and hiding it not, this is a coming out of the closet as it were. What is that? Pride. We're going to just declare our sin. We're not going to be ashamed of our sin.
Look, everybody here commits some type of sin. Obviously, nobody here commits sodomy, but, if they do, if you do raise your hand, and I'll come grab you and throw you out of here right now, physically remove you from the building. Here's the thing. Obviously, we're not talking about such an extreme filthy, wicked abomination. Here's the thing. Everybody does have some sin in their life, everybody. Some people have real big, major sin in their life. Other people have more minor sins in their life. Everybody has sin in their life. The Bible says, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." The Bible says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." The Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
We all have sin in our lives, but you know what the right reaction to sin our lives should be? We should be ashamed of the sin in our lives. When do something wrong, if we were to tell a lie or steal or think a dirty thought or whatever the case may be, coveth, whatever, we should be ashamed of our sins. Sometimes, it's appropriate to confess our sins, but, wait a minute, declaring your sins? This isn't a confession. This is a declaration where you're saying, "Yeah, I'm in sin and I'm proud of it. Yes, I am a whoremonger. Yes, I am an adulterer. Yes, I did have an abortion." I mean, there are T-shirts like that, literally. "I had an abortion. I'm proud of it." I don't remember exactly what the shirts said, but I've seen a shirt that said something along those lines, just a proud declaration where somebody will just say, "I'm perverted. I'm ..." whatever, and, basically, they have no shame about it, neither could they blush. They declare their sin as Sodom, the Bible says, meaning, that was part of the sin of Sodom, pride in their sin.
Now, flip over, if you would, to Isaiah 9, while I'm going to finish reading here in chapter 3, too, because he says, "Hey, they declare their sin as Sodom and they hide it not." Verse 10 says, "Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked. It shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him." Right after this talk of a proud declaration of sin, God follows that up by saying, "Well, you know what, woe unto the wicked because their day will come. Their punishment will come."
Now, look at Isaiah chapter 9. Here's another scripture that talks about pride, Isaiah chapter 9. Let's start on verse 6 just because it's such a great scripture on Jesus. Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful, counseller, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Now, the humble person reads that and, basically, wants to give God all the glory and wants to exalt the Lord and say, "Hey, we're nothing compared to him." He must increase. We must decrease. That's humility, the opposite of pride.
"Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. The Lord sent a word into Jacob and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria," watch this, "that say in the pride and stoutness of heart." What are these people saying in their pride, in their stoutness of heart? Verse 10, "The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones. The sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore, the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him and join his enemies together, the Syrians before and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still."
Basically, prideful men, here's the pronouncements of the judgments of God and the punishments of God. He basically says, "Okay, well, you know what, the bricks are falling down, because they've had an enemy army come in and basically break things down, chop things down," and he says, "Hey, the bricks are falling down. We'll build with hewn stones. The sycamores are cut down, but we'll change them into cedars," and God says, "No. I'm bringing more judgment, and it's going to be worse. And I'm going to bring multiple armies against you that are going to wipe you out." What is he saying? God's judgment always comes and it comes down hard. If we think, "Oh, you know, God, is that all you got?" he's just send something even more and worse.
Look at all these scriptures. We've turned to a lot of scriptures. Over and over again, pride is this attitude of "God can't stop me, God can't punish me, what's he going to do about it." That's the attitude we see over again with pride, this lack of fear of the Lord, no fear of God, no reverence for him and respect for his judgments and his power.
Now, while I'm in this passage, I have to bring up this bestselling book, The Harbinger, by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn. Who has heard of this book before? Put up your hand. Yeah, hands all over the building. I get ask about this all the time, "What do you think about The Harbinger? What do you think about this guy, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn?" This guy was exalted lately in the media and all over Facebook, "Listen to this guy's great speech where he's preaching about Jesus and this and that, and, you know, he's doing it in Washington, D.C., in the belly of the beast," and they'll send you some video of this guy preaching at the Presidential Prayer Breakfast and tell you, "Wow, he is really reaping some faith at that Presidential Prayer Breakfast."
Let me explain something to you. Anybody who is invited to the Presidential Prayer Breakfast is a false prophet. If he was really saying something that the powers that be didn't want to be said, he wouldn't even be invited, he wouldn't even be there. Now, let me just prove to you in 5 seconds that Jonathan Cahn is a lying, false teacher. Okay? Ready to start the clock? Give me 5 seconds. Ready? Okay.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, done, finished, because Jesus Christ clearly said in Matthew 23, "Be not ye called rabbi." That's what Jesus said in Matthew 23. Listen, "Anybody who calls themselves rabbi is not following Jesus, period, end of story, case closed, done, because you can't be following Jesus and say, "Oh, yeah, I'm a preacher and a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and say, 'Hi. My name is Rabbi Jonathan Cahn.'" It doesn't work that way, friend, because Jesus commanded "be not ye called rabbi." He said, "Call no man father," and he said, "Be not ye called rabbi. Be not ye called masters." Okay?
Now, why would anyone want to call themselves rabbi? I think it starts with a "P." What's that word that starts with "P" again? Pride. That's what it is. Yeah, that's why someone would want to call themselves rabbi. They say, "Oh, but, man, this guy's teaching all this great stuff. He's got this book, The Harbinger," and it's just amazing." Let me just debunk for you this book, The Harbinger. Basically, this Harbinger book, it talks about all of these mystical mysteries and signs where God prophesied this stuff in Isaiah chapter 9 and it's being fulfilled in America to the T, and this ancient mystery unlocks the keys to America's judgment and America's future.
Now, I can see why people would fall for it, because he does make what seems to be a convincing case for 1 aspect of it. He has these 9 harbingers that he associates with 9/11. Okay? Now, first of all, in order to believe in this book, The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn, you'd have to actually believe the official version on 9/11. Okay, so strike 1, you're called rabbi. Strike 2, you're telling us that God revealed all this stuff to you, but, somehow, God forgot to reveal to you that 9/11 was an inside job. Okay? Here's the thing about that. He has these 9 harbingers that he lists, right? Basically, he's saying, "These, there's no way these things could be coincidences. They all line up perfectly with Isaiah chapter 9 verse 10, and this is God sending us this signal. And 9/11 was this judgment from God and, you know, we've got to change our ways," X, Y and Z.
Here's the thing. If you look at these harbingers, only one of them is even interesting because the rests of them are just clearly coincidences, he's just twisting things and exaggerating things. Like, for example, he says, and, if you would look at Isaiah chapter 9 verse 10, "The bricks are falling down, but we'll build them with hewn stones. The sycamores are cut down, but we'll change them into cedars." He'll take that verse where it says, "The sycamores are cut down, but we'll change into cedars," and he makes this big deal about how there was this tree near Ground Zero at New York and it was the sycamore tree and, when the buildings came down and crashed and debris flying everywhere, it destroyed the sycamore tree and, guess what they replaced it with?
Now, if they would have replaced it with a cedar tree, then that might actually make you think, "Oh, that's kind of interesting," except it's not. They didn't replace it with a cedar tree. They replace it with like a coniferous evergreen type tree. This is what he said, "Oh, but if you go back to the Hebrew, the Hebrew word for cedar is kind of, sort of similar in the same family of that type of tree." It's so funny. Listen to him talk about it, because he says, "I mean, this is a city. It's concrete everywhere. It's buildings everywhere. What are the chances that this tree is going to be there?"
Okay. Listen, have you ever been to a city with no trees in it, because every city in America, every city in the world is filled with trees. Hello. You know what, in fact, I got the proof. I busted a window in the church van by accident parking in downtown Phoenix because a tree branch went through the window and [inaudible 00:38:30]. Now, what was a tree doing in downtown Phoenix? Somebody explain that to me. How about this? Because we live in the city right now, look out the window. We don't exactly live in a jungle or rain forest. I mean we're in the city. Do you see all those trees, because, guess what, every street, every city, every high rise area? I mean, go to Phoenix, and it's just rows of trees up and down every street. True or false?
If we went to New York, guess what we're going to see? Trees. That's not really that weird, especially since it's not even replaced with the same tree. That's two of his 9 harbingers, because he splits it into 2. One harbinger is that the sycamore got knocked down. I wonder how many other trees got knocked down when 3 buildings collapsed and sent debris flying everywhere? I'm sure many trees were destroyed. Then he's like, "Well, it's not even the same kind of sycamore, but, you know, close enough." A tree got knocked down and, you're not going to believe this, they planted a new one. Case closed. Okay. All the harbingers are like that. They're just dumb coincidences, "Hey, they took a block from the old building and used it in the new one." Oh, I'm shocked.
Here's the that kind of get everybody's attention as just, "Wow, this is so eerie. There's no way it could be a coincidence." He points out the fact that the Senate majority leader at that time, Tom Daschle, gets up and makes a speech the next day after 9/11. He gets up and makes a speech and he says, "You know, uh, at times like this, the words of Isaiah speak to us when it says," and then he basically quotes Isaiah 9:10, "The bricks are falling down, but we'll build with hewn stones. The sycamores are cut down, but we'll change them into cedars." Basically, he takes this passage about people defying God and he used it in a speech as like, "Yeah, this is going to comfort us right now." Now, that is creepy and weird, isn't it? Why would a politician get up and take a verse about defying God and say, "You know what, we're going to take comfort in this right now," and then just like publicly defy God?
All that proves is that our leaders don't know the Bible or are just openly defying God. Do either of those things really surprise you? You don't really have to be a clairvoyant or a Kabbalist or into Jewish mysticism to figure that out. He basically used this defiant speech and then, 3 years later, another politician, Jonathan Edwards, fellow Democrat, quoted the same thing, probably just getting it from the guy who quoted it. Here's what this Jonathan Cahn says, this "rabbi." He says, "Well, that's just a really weird coincidence, because, of all of the 31,000 verses in the Bible, why would he pick this verse? It makes absolutely no sense to pick this verse that's just total defiance of God and has nothing to do with the situation, so, therefore, everything in my 300-and-some page book is true."
Okay, but here's the thing. Actually, it makes perfect sense why Jonathan Edwards and Tom Daschle would have chosen this misguided scripture that has nothing to do with "God just made him do it to fulfill this harbinger." Here's the One Year Bible. Who has one of these? Do you have one of these or you've seen these? First of all, it says on the back that millions of people have benefited from this thing. It's a hot-selling item. I mean, I've seen this at tons of bookstores. We have like 5 of these at our house. We like this. Our family, a lot of our kids and stuff, they use this as their Bible reading. This is a real popular book that millions of copies have been sold.
If you turn to September 11th in the One Year Bible, and there are other Bible-reading plans that would follow this same plan, if you go to September 11th in the One Year Bible, guess what passage it has you read that day? Isaiah chapter 9 verse 10. It's like, "Oh, whoa, well, this is so crazy of a coincidence. I mean, of all the passages in the Bible, why would you pick Isaiah 9? Are you nuts?" Maybe here's why, because it was in the Bible reading for that day of millions of people who own this book. Obviously, one of these people who weren't very smart or several of these people who weren't smart were reading their Bible on September 11th, or maybe they don't even read their Bible enough, but they're scared because they don't know what's going to happen, so they grab the One Year Bible off the shelf and they're like, "Okay, let's read today's portion," and then millions of people's Bible right next to September 11th, it has this verse.
Maybe one of them sent it to Tom Daschle and said, "Hey, here's a great ... I was just reading this today. Here's a great verse," or sent it to his staff or speechwriters, whoever. People email these people all the time. It's not just this amazing, insane, supernatural coincidence that Tom Daschle just happened to be led by God to read this obscure verse. No. It was the Bible reading for that day for millions of people who own this book, so it's really not.
Does anybody not understand what I just said, because I want to make sure everybody understands what I just said? Basically, that's the only thing that's compelling at all of these harbingers. The rest are just silly coincidences or he has to go back to the Hebrew and twists words and make it say things that aren't even really there. This book is this guy's claim to fame, that he sold this amazing mystery of the harbinger, and then he's got all these other books that he's coming out with now. Listen, this guy is teaching these heresy and lies of the Hebrew Roots movement, this Judaizing of Christianity, and he puts a blanker over his head and [inaudible 00:44:29] and all this stuff, you know what I mean, that weird shawl they put over their head and, "It's going to give me power, and you feel the spirit," and everything. He teaches all this Jewish stuff, Jewish fables.
Listen, when people talk about Messianic Judaism, it's 1% messianic, 99% Judaism. It's real heavy on Judaism. We don't need Messianic Judaism. We need Christianity. We need Jesus, the New Testament, the gospel. This Zionist, this rabid Zionist, Jonathan Cahn, with his pro-Jewish, pro-Israel, pro-Judaism, Judeo-Christian teaching, he comes out with 1 cute thing and then, all of a sudden, everybody wants to listen to this guy. Why do they want to listen to him? Because he found this amazing coincidence that Tom Daschle quoted a verse that didn't make any sense.
Look, anybody who listened to Tom Daschle and would have looked that up in their Bible would have said, "Hey, that verse that he read makes no sense to read because it's a verse about people who are defying God." Really, isn't that weird that some Democrat Senator, majority leader, didn't know the Bible real well and quoted an irrelevant verse? I mean, that reminds me of what Bill Clinton said, "Hey, my, you know, my favorite verse is John 16:3." You know what I mean? Obviously, we all know he meant John 3:16, but he's so biblically illiterate that he said, "Hey, it's John 16:3. It's my favorite verse."
What difference is that from Tom Daschle just quoting something. Somebody sent him, because they were reading it in their One Year Bible and then they said, "Oh, yeah, this is a great, relevant verse." He's like, "Okay." He doesn't read the context. He just reads that verse by itself, quotes it in his speech, so, now, we're going to go on a tour of New York with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and his modern-day prophets and they're having all of these dreams and visions where George Washington and King Solomon are like the same guy and everything, they're like parallels and all that, just making up this weird stuff based on Tom Daschle quoting a stupid verse that came from the One Year Bible for day that somebody sent it to him or whatever.
Look, the book is a fraud. The guy is a fraud. The guy is a gimmick. I'm sorry, I just don't get that excited that some pastor goes to a Presidential Prayer Breakfast and says, "Hey, you need to be saved through Jesus. Yeah, we need Jesus." You know what, there are all kinds of phony, lying preachers who will get up and say, "Hey, we need Jesus. Hey, Jesus saves." Benny Hinn will tell you that. Kenneth Copeland will tell you that. I mean, look, people will say all kinds. Not everybody who says, "Lord, Lord," can enter the kingdom of heaven, people, so don't be deceived by this guy. This guy is teaching a bunch of Jewish fables. He's a Judaizer.
You say, "Well, I don't know if you're right, Pastor Anderson." No. You don't know Jesus is right when Jesus said, "Be not ye called rabbi." Done. See, I just wasted the last 5 minutes of my time because I couldn't just finish there. We could have just said, "Be not ye called rabbi." He calls himself rabbi. Therefore, he's a liar when he says, "Oh, I'm following Christ. He's my final authority." No, he's not. You are saying, "Rabbi, because you're pandering to a wicked religion called Judaism.
By the way, don't ever come at me with this thing of Jesus-a-rabbi. "Jesus was a rabbi." No. Jesus is the rabbi. He's the only rabbi. He said, "Don't you be called rabbi," for what is your master? Christ. There's 1 rabbi. It's Jesus. I wouldn't even use the word "rabbi" today to talk about Jesus because the word "rabbi" has come to mean something different now towards only associated with the Pharisees. The Pharisees are the only people who called themselves rabbi anymore. We should not take on that Pharisee title. When you're trying to work toward the anti-Christ goal of merging Judaism and Christianity, it's perfect for you.
Anyway, that had nothing to do with the sermon. Go to Daniel chapter number 4. In fact, it has a little bit to do with the sermon because pride is what causes people to call themselves rabbi. The rest was kind of a stretch to tie in with the sermon. You know what, people need to be warned about this guy. I get emailed about this guy literally every week, every single week, "What do you think about Rabbi Jonathan Cahn?" and I just send them back the verse, "Be ye not called rabbi." "Yeah, but what do you think about the book?" I'm just like, "Case closed. All I need to know. Done."
Some guy came to me with his collar turned back and said, "Hi. I'm Father so-and-so." This guy's not following Christ. You know immediately because it's so clear, it's so blatant. I mean, how much clearer can you get? "Be not ye called rabbi." "Well, but it's still okay for him to call that." What are the parts of the Bible you want to just deny and contradict? It makes no sense, my friend. Here's a great example of pride in the Bible, Daniel chapter 4 verse 29. "At the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and said, 'Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?" What's his problem here? What's his issue. He's exalting himself and glorifying himself in saying, "Look at all the great things that I've done. Look at the greatness that I'd built."
"While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, 'O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken. The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and 7 times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar." Why is it that he's being punished? Because he is not giving God glory. He's taking all the glory for himself. "Look what I have built. Look at what I have done," no mention of the Lord, no acknowledgement of, "Wow, thank you, God, for allowing me to get to where I'm at right now. Thank you for putting me in authority. Thank you for giving me this great kingdom." He didn't acknowledge God.
By the way, what does it say in Romans 1 about the people who would eventually become filled with pride and declare their sin as Sodom? In Romans 1, it says, "When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their own imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened." Nebuchadnezzar, because of his pride and self-glorification and not giving God the glory, God's going to teach him a lesson, God's going to take him down a notch. God takes away his sanity from him and makes him lose his mind. It says in verse 33, "He was driven from men." Why? Because he's so crazy, he can't even live amongst men. He has to be driven into the wilderness. It says, "He was driven from men and then eat grass as oxen." He's out in the wilderness.
Just imagine. Let's think about one of our leaders. I don't want to insult Nebuchadnezzar by comparing like Obama to Nebuchadnezzar because Nebuchadnezzar was, I'm sure, a much manlier, more powerful guy. I mean, I don't think Obama ever even says, "Look at what I have done," just because he's such a loser. [inaudible 00:52:21]. Just imagine, I don't know, who is a more powerful leader? Help me out, people. Who?
Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:52:31].
Steven:
Oh, we have to go to Russia to find a powerful leader. Okay. Great. Yeah, let's lift him up. Okay, we're stuck with our faggoty President Obama. Anyway, let's say, just imagine, like let's say Obama he gets all prideful and arrogant, "Look at me. Look how great I am," and then he's driven from men. Just imagine him like on the White House lawn basically just on hands and knees like an animal and eating grass, grass coming out of his mouth. Anybody who tries to stop him and he's like ... They're like, "Whoa, man." I mean, just picture it. I mean, this guy is the most powerful man in the world, Nebuchadnezzar, this man is a great leader, and God just goes like that and takes his sanity. You know God could do that to anybody he wants. Think about that. God could just make everyone go like that and just makes them lose their mind. That's what he did. He gave him the heart of a beast.
It kind of reminds me of Romans 1 again, lot of parallels. When people start lifting themselves up with pride, they start doing animal type things. Right? "Hey, it's okay to be a sodomite. The animals do it." Exactly. Anyway, basically, Nebuchadnezzar, he's eating grass and acting like an insane person. Look what it says, "His Body was wet with the dew of heaven," meaning, he's just sleeping outside. He's not even looking for shelter. He's just clobbering around on all fours, eating grass and then he just lays outside, just exposed to the element and just sleeps out there. It says, "He did it till his hairs were growing like eagles' feathers," because his hair is getting dirty and matted and stiff like eagles' feathers. "Till his hair was growing as eagles' feathers and his nails like bird's claws."
People have said, "What does it mean 7 times?" Because it doesn't tell us what is the time. First of all, when it says a time, a times and half a time in Revelation, that's 3 and a half years because he defines it as 42 months, 260 days. If we kind of use scripture with scripture, times is used to refer to years at other places in the Bible. Now, some people have said, "Well, it could be weeks. It could be months. It could be days," but here's the thing. In order for your nails to grow like bird claws, it isn't 7 days. It isn't 7 weeks. Okay? Some of you haven't cut your nails in 7 weeks. No. I'm just kidding. This is 7 years. I've seen pictures of people who have big talons on their fingernails because they will keep growing if you don't stop it. Don't show them in church, by the way, because I found little pile. Have you even found little pile? I found little piles of fingernails in the church. All right, so I'm on to you whoever you are. No. I'm just kidding.
They grew like bird claws. Watch this in verse 34. "And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, 'What doest thou?' At the same time, my reason returned unto me. And for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counsellers and my lords sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."
Now, I think is one of the coolest stories in the Bible. I've always loved this story. He's out there like an insane person, eating grass, sleeping outside, fingernails like bird claws, just matted, just wet, just an insane person out in the wilderness for, I believe, 7 years, and then, just all of a sudden like that, his reason returned to him. Just put yourself in his place. You're out just eating junk and filth and just out in the wilderness living like an animal for 7 years and then, all of a sudden, your reason returns to you and you remember everything that happened and you know where you are and what you're doing, and you look down at yourself and you're, like, "What have I been doing for the last 7 year?" I mean, wouldn't that be weird to just snap out of it like that? He just comes to himself, and the first thing he does is just drop to his knees and glorified God and say, "I'm not going to make that mistake again."
Now, how did he know to just immediately glorify God? How did he know? Because, if you read the whole chapter, Daniel had already warned him about this. Daniel had come to him and told him, look, because he'd a dream and called Daniel to come and interpret the dream, the dream is explained to him, and Daniel says, "Look, this is going to happen to you," but he says, "Look, if you'll straighten up, maybe God will be merciful with you." He didn't heed that warning. When he snapped back into it, obviously, Daniel told him this was going to happen, he remembered that and he instantly knows why it happened and he instantly gives God the glory and worships the Lord. Then he has to show back up at the kingdom, at the palace and everything.
Here, he's been gone for years. Other people are ruling and everything. Obviously, he is the greatest ruler. They want him in charge, if they can. This is not a parallel with our leader. I mean, this is a guy who had brought Babylon to its finest hour and had taken over and been ruling and doing all these great things, so, obviously, they're ready to give him his job back. Just imagine, he's got to walk up there and he's all dirty and filthy and he's like, "Hey, I need a haircut. I need a manicure." He needed to get cleaned up and straightened up. Once he's cleaned up and straightened up, all of his councilors, all the princes, they want him back. They put him back in authority, and then God says that even more majesty was added him. He actually ends up more glorious and more powerful in the end than he was before, and then he prays and extolled the God of heaven.
You know what's really interesting about this is the first verse of the chapter. Are you there on Daniel 4? "Nebuchadnezzar, the king unto all people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you." This is something that everybody heard about at that time. Isn't that interesting? God used this story to actually spread the Word of God and spread the knowledge of God to every person living in that generation, so people knew who the Lord was, because this message went out, this story went out. It's kind of a memorable story. Of course, we still have the story today in the Bible that's been translated into all different nations of the world and so forth.
The moral of the sermon is this, I just got to finish up very quickly with the time that I have, is that, first of all, pride is of the devil. You don't have to turn to these because we're out of time. Pride is of the devil. First of all, it says of Leviathan in Job 41:34, and we know Leviathan is a picture of Satan in the book of Isaiah and elsewhere, it says, "He beholdeth all high things. He is a king over all the children of pride." It says the devil is the king overall the children of pride. Then it says in James 4, "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Isn't it interesting in a passage where he's saying, "Hey, be humble. Don't be proud. Submit to God. Resist the devil?" Because what does the devil want you to do? Be proud. The devil wants you to be proud, and so he says, "Resist that and, instead, be submissive. Be humble." Okay?
First of all, I want to show you from those couple of scriptures that pride is of devil. Also, the Bible says of the pastor that you should not be a novice lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil." There we go again. Pride, 3 times in the Bible, it specifically said, "Hey, pride is of the devil." The devil wants us to be proud. He wants to have us infused with pride.
Number 2, pride is of the world, because the Bible says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the father is not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world." Not only is pride of the devil, pride is of the world.
Thirdly, pride is of our flesh because the Bible says in Mark 7 verse 21, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man."
Basically, there are 3 sources of pride. The devil will try to get us proud. The devil will convince us to to be proudful, to be prideful, to be proud. Number 2, the world around us is going to try to get us to give into this thing of pride and teach us that pride is a good thing. They might even have parades about it. Pride. They might even make a flag about it and tries to get you into pride.
By the way, some people's patriotism is also just pride, exalting our nation above the things of God. You know what nation I'm a part of? The Holy Nation, the peculiar people, which in time past was not the people, but now are the people of God. My nation is that nation in 1st Peter chapter 2. That's why you don't see the American flag up in this building, because of the fact that we know God forbids that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We basically need to be careful. I'm not saying that everybody who's patriotic is filled with pride or whatever, but, you know what, there are a lot of people who cross the line with patriotism. I mean, it becomes a pride, proud to be an American where it becomes this thing of "we're better than people who are not."
I don't think that Americans are any better than anybody else in this world. In some ways, they're worse. Some ways, we're better. Some ways, we're worse. In fact, a lot of ways, we're more sodomy than a lot of places, more abortion, feminism, Hollywood, dope consumption, et cetera, et cetera. Pride is of the world. The world wants to get you into pride, and then also your own flesh is going to lean toward pride. It's going to come from within you. This is real dangerous, isn't it? It's something that's going to be hard to avoid. The devil's coming at you with it, the world's coming at you with it, and then it's coming from within. It's coming out of your own heart. You need to be very careful about pride.
Lastly, this, pride is what hinders people from getting saved, because why don't people get saved? I mean, it's just so easy, right? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Why don't they want to be saved? Because here's what the Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves." It's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should ...
Audience:
Boast.
Steven:
What's boasting?
Audience:
Pride.
Steven:
Hey, look at me, everybody. Look, it's a proud person who says, "Well, I'm gong to heaven because I'm a good person." Yet, if we go out and knock doors, someone will tell that every day we [inaudible 01:04:50]. "Why do you think you're going to heaven?" "Oh, I'm a good person." Pride. That's the definition of pride. "Oh, why are you going to heaven?" "Oh, man, I forsook a life of sin, and, now, I'm living for God. I pray every day. I read the Bible. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess." It's pride. When people say, like, "Well, you know, that just sounds too easy, to just believe on Jesus and be saved," it's their pride that doesn't want to accept that free gift. Some people can't accept gifts because they're too proud, like, "I'll pay it myself. I can pay everything myself. I don't need your money. I don't need your help." That's when people are looking to God and saying today.
Pride is the thing that will damn more people to hell than anything else. Pride. We need to start thinking of pride as something that's very dangerous that we need to stay away. Don't let it creep in. We need to be humble and exalt the Lord and glorify him. If they say, "Hey, why are you going to heaven?" Because of Jesus.
Audience:
Amen.
Steven:
Because of his death, burial and resurrection. See, that's not so very self-glorifying, is it, to go around and say, "Oh, well, I'm a sinner. I deserve hell. I'm a sinner that ... If I were judged on my works, I'd go to hell." That's humble thing to say, isn't it? Hey, if God were to put me at the judgment seat and get out all my deeds and all my works and the books are open, I would be condemned because of my works, because they come short, because I'm a sinner. That's humility.
Pride says, "Well, you know what, if my good works outweigh my bad, I'm getting in. And I think I'm going." Pride. God gets all the glory for our salvation. God gets all the glory for anything we accomplish in our lives. The children that we have are gifts from God. The job that we have, God gave us that job. The physical strength and health and sanity to go to that job is a gift from God, because anytime God wants, he can snap his fingers and make us go insane like Nebuchadnezzar. Everything comes from God. God gets all the glory. Don't let pride become a part of our lives just because our society is exalting pride in so many ways.
Let's bow our heads and say a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the gift of eternal life, Lord, and we just want to give you all the glory this morning, Lord, and just praise you for your mighty acts. Lord, this sermon, all the glory goes to you because it's all biblically-based, and I would have had nothing to preach if it weren't for your word, Lord. Any wisdom that has ever come across this pulpit, anything that was ever said where somebody said, "Wow, that's an amazing point," it was always from your word, Lord. It was nothing man could devise, and so thank you for your unsearchable riches of your word, Lord. You get all the glory for this church, Lord. You said, "Upon your rock, you build the church. You build the church here, Lord. You get all the glory for our salvation.
Help us to go through life humble, meek, lowly. Earthly authority figures in our lives, Lord, legitimate authority figures, we need to respect them. Help us not to get puffed up and think that we're better than the people that we should be submitting to or honoring or giving reverence.
