Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 5 (Pride)

Sins of the Spirit Series: Part 5 (Pride)

Well, at this time, let's open our Bibles to James. James chapter 4. And I'd like to look in verse number 5. And I'd like to look in verse number 5. And I'd like to look in verse number 5. It was the heart. It was the heart of Abraham that was willing and obedient in the willingness to slay his only son Isaac and to offer him up to the Lord. Even though the Lord didn't actually require that, he was willing to obey the Lord should that have been the plan that the Lord wanted him to follow through with.

But as we look at this passage tonight, we've been looking at the sins of the Spirit on Sunday nights. And I want to look at the sin of pride this evening. And it's hard to do the sin of pride justice in one message just because it's just, it really, I think of this sin of pride as it's underlying so many of the other sins that we commit, that we can commit, even as Christians, is the sin of pride. It underlies so many other things.

But we see in this passage tonight in verse 5 that, Do you think the Scripture, do you think that the Scripture saith in vain? In other words, do you think, do you think it's just to fill up space? Do you think it's just meaningless and purposeless? The Scripture has said, Well, of course not. Every word, all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that we might be thoroughly furnished, right? And to all good works.

So certainly the Scripture doesn't say this in vain. We see that the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth. We talked about that word lust this morning. The idea of lust is an, and it is the idea here, epipotheo. It's an intense yearning. The epi is the prefix intensifying that yearning after something. I want this thing badly. I really want it. Well.

We can intensely yearn for something that is good. But oftentimes we see this lusting in the context of something bad. Something that the Lord doesn't want us to have. But we see that the Spirit that dwelleth in us, apart from God, it lusts to envy. To envy is not only wanting. To envy. To have what somebody else has, but even resenting them for having it.

You know, I don't want you to have that. I want to have it. I want what you have. I would be willing to take what you have in order so that I could have it. This is the idea behind this word. The Spirit that dwells in us, we said this morning, out of the heart, right? Proceed all these things that we would think, you know, and how many times have we heard in our lives, I would have never thought.

That person, well, just go ahead and get it straight. Any of us are capable of anything without, apart from God's grace and our own pride, we could do anything. But the Spirit, this is that Spirit here that we're reading of. When you think about what the Scripture says about those who are, in one place it describes those who are past feeling. Talking about those that are without God, without Christ in this world.

They have even gone to the point where the Lord only knows when that point is, but they're gone past the point where they don't even respond. God's Spirit would not always strive with men, even as it did in the days leading up to the flood, right? We read of reprobate minds in Romans chapter 1, where a person can go so far in their pride, it says in Romans 1, look over there in verse 29, Romans 1, 29, in verse number 29, it says there, of those who did not like to retain God in their knowledge, that he gave them over to a reprobate mind, in verse 28, to do those things which are not convenient.

In other words, God just committed them over to their own sinful ways. And if a person is completely given over to their own warped, crooked, perverse, sinful thinking, completely, completely apart and left alone by God, this is what it looks like. It says here in verse 29 that they are being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, and then this little phrase, full of envy, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers.

This is the works of the flesh at the extreme. This is the works of the flesh let go wild. We might say you have a piece of property, you just let it go. Just let it all grow up. This is what the works of the flesh look like when they just go to their natural end without God intervening, with God just leaving it alone. This is what it will look like.

But, thank God. There's a lot of… very timely conjunctions, and they all have to do with the grace of God and His intervening grace at work in our lives. Thank God for His chastening in our lives as Christians. Thank God, we say sometimes, but for the grace of God, there go I. But for the grace of God, I would be in the same mess, and that helps us to have compassion, to have pity, to have mercy, as we have received mercy.

But, the spirit that dwells in us, if we were left to that spirit apart from God, we would be filled with this envy. We would be filled with this spirit that lusts to envy. It's just the natural way that we would go. It dwells in us. This word for dwell is literally, it resides in us. It dwells in us. Thank God that Christ dwells in us, too. Thank God that Christ liveth in me, as lives the flower within the seed, as in the cone of the tree.

So light and life and love came forth from Christ living in me. That's the story of redemption. That's the story of grace. You know, demons can dwell, the same word, like the word, I thought I would mention it before, the oikos, house, in Greek, it's dwelling, as in a house. Demons can dwell in a human being. This word is used of God dwelling in his temple.

And so many different phrases can be found where this word is used in different ways. It's used of the fullness of God, the Godhead dwelling in Christ bodily. And yet, the spirit that dwelleth in us. You know, until we, until we die, we don't ever, we're not released from the possibility of sin. We're not released from the spirit that dwelleth, this is talking to Christians here. There's a spirit that dwells in us that lusts to envy.

It doesn't mean that we have no power against it. It doesn't mean that we should not have the victory over it. But just remember, when we're being tested, that spirit can rise up. That spirit of pride can rear its ugly head. And that spirit of envy can raise its heads. The human spirit that dwells in us affected by sin intensely desires what other people have and naturally, apart from God, resents others for having it.

And so that's why we need the grace of God. We need the grace of God to override our own tendency and our own natural bents. Well, all that's in the world, remember what we've seen in 1 John, chapter 2, verse 15, verse 16. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. Well, pride of life. This is what, I like to think of it once again, I know I've said this numerous times in the past, but I like to think of it as the lust of the eye.

I see it, you know, and I want it. And I'm going to get it, and once I have it, then I'm going to boast about what I have and how I am better, how I have something better than somebody else has. We have no reason to boast in ourselves. Paul said, God forbid that he should glory except in the cross of Christ. His glory, he said, there is no good thing in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

In my spirit, he knew that his spirit lusted to envy. He knew that his spirit, apart from God's grace, was, he says, I am the chief of sinners, but I am what I am by the grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of God. Well, the God of this world loves, loves it. He loves to see people in that cycle. I see it, I want it, I've got it, look at what I have. He gets excited. He gets great enjoyment out of that.

God gets great enjoyment when he looks at his redeemed creatures who humble themselves under his mighty hand and say, I am what I am by the grace of God. God gets great enjoyment. And great pleasure from that. The devil empowers the children of disobedience. God empowers the children of obedience to do his blessed will. And this is why we don't need to lean to our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge him.

You know, the steps of a good man, once again, are ordered by the Lord, right? But when we obey God, we resist the devil. Look in James 4 here in our text in verse 7. It says in verse 7, we didn't read this far, but in verse 7, submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We sang tonight, early let us seek thy favor, early let us do thy will. We've got to early seek the Lord and resist the devil. And it says, he will flee from you. A brother sent me a quote by Oswald Chambers this week that really was very helpful. Very simple, but very helpful. Oswald Chambers said, there is something in human pride that can stand big troubles, but we need the supernatural grace and power of God to stand by us in the little things.

The tiniest detail in which we obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. When we do our duty, not for duty's sake, but because we believe that God is engineering our circumstances in that way, then at the very point of our obedience, the whole superb grace of God is ours. So humility before God leading to obedience. And we know the grace of God is right there for us to obey.

I want, I delight to do thy will. I know that there's nothing good in me. I know that you've put this in my path. You've put this test in my path. God doesn't tempt us to sin. James will tell us. But he wants us, well, he wants to teach us patience, doesn't he? He wants to, he wants to form the character of Christ in our lives. And so as we submit, we humble ourselves to God. He's teaching and his grace is there to guide us and to enable us in that thing.

But he giveth, it says here in verse five or verse six, here in James four, we know the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace. He giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. God gives us the grace to overcome our jealous nature, our envious nature. He gives us grace.

You know, I know when we were going through the book of James, about the tongue can no man tame. Well, that's true, we can. The tongue can no man tame. We cannot tame the tongue. But the idea in that passage, I think we came to the conclusion was whether it is the bridle, you know, the reins, or be the rudder of the ship, like the tongue. If the Lord is the captain of the ship, if the Lord is the one that's in control of that tongue, then he can control it.

He can guide our words. But we've got to humble ourselves, and let him guide. We've got to humble and say, you know, you don't turn over the reins, so to speak, and let someone else have the control, unless you trust them, right? I can't trust myself. I have no confidence. Paul would say that he had no confidence in the flesh. When we trust the Lord, when we humbly trust him, then his grace is fully available to give us the victory.

I know Andy and Rebecca at their wedding had, had victory through grace. I think that was one of the, one of the, was that the bridle? Or the leaving part, that's right, the recessional. Victory, conquering now and still to conquer. Victory through grace. What a good message that hymn has. But, as we think about this matter, as it says in verse number six here, he giveth more grace.

We might say that, just as we can't tame, we can't tame the envious spirit in and of our own strength. We can't overcome our own tendencies, though we need the grace of God. And, and as I said this morning, when God commands us to do something, he always gives us the grace to do it. In that same, it's, it's always supplied there. It's, it's nice when we get something, if, I know with guys, when we get a, when we, we buy something, it already comes with the proper instructions and tools to go ahead and do the job.

It's already nice to have all that included. Well, the Lord, the Lord gives us the command and directions. He's already provided, made the provision for us to do that. Well, in Mark 10, verse 27, let's look over there. Mark 10, 27. In verse number 27, we read Jesus here. It says, And Jesus, looking upon them, saith with men, it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible.

This is why we must be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If we look at ourselves, if we look at others, we will, we will have, we'll come to the conclusion that it's, it can't be done, you know. Like I said this morning, there, there are certain epidemics that are, that are going on, even, even in churches. And, and it seems like sometimes, you know, how, how are we going to, how are we going to stop the bleeding here?

Well, I can't live for anyone else, but I must, I must let God's grace, God have his way in my life, in my life individually. I must let God have his way. You know, I, I've listened to somebody like Dave Ramsey before on the, talking about how to change your financial family tree. How to change your financial family tree. He says, most everybody's in debt, in credit card debt up to their eyeballs. Well, how do you, we can't change society.

He said, but you can change your family tree. You can change your, your outlook. And that's all we're going to give an account for. I can't, and you know, if we're, if we are, if we're letting God work in our lives, then we can become a channel of blessing. Can't we? We can become a channel of blessing to others, not because we're the blessing, but because we're, if, if, if the love, the grace of God is flowing through and God is using our life as he wants us to be, then we can become a pointer to the Lord that other people can say, look, I know when I, when I went to Bible college and I was, you know, struggling with some of the things that teenage people, people struggle with.

And I realized that God was helping me with certain things. And then I realized there's other people and they were going through similar things too. And God was helping them too. What an encouragement that was to me when I saw there's, there's grace for me. There's grace to help me through what I'm going through. And this, this grace that we read up here in the text is more grace. The word is literally mega, mega grace. Maison is the word in the Greek.

There is, he gives, he gives mega grace, great, strong, largest used to speak of something, something great. And it's truly the grace of God is greater than all of our sin. We have to get a proper view of the Lord and his grace. We have to have a proper view of ourselves. You know, we're not only the best in me, but every good in him. I see if we get our eyes truly, you know, like the hymn writer says, since my eyes were fixed on Jesus, I've lost sight of all besides.

So in chain, my spirit's vision, looking at the crucified, you know, if we truly understand how great God is, it will change the way that we live and think and talk. Annie Johnson Flint wrote, he giveth more grace. When the burdens grow greater, he sendeth more strength when the labors increase. And the book of James is talking about that very thing, isn't it? Trials, the trial of our faith. To added affliction, he added his mercy. To multiply trials is multiplied peace.

When we've exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed, ere the day is half done, when we've reached the end of our hoarded resources, our Father's full giving has only begun. Well, he giveth, isn't that something? He giveth and giveth and giveth again. The grace of God is greater, it's more extensive, deeper, however we want to say it, it's greater, it is greater than all our sin. And he resists the proud, but he gives grace. God resisted the proud, but giveth grace to or unto the humble.

I think we've said this a number of times in the past, resisting the proud. He's literally opposing, he's standing in opposition to us as an adversary in our pride. You know, sometimes it's easy to get our eyes on men or a man, but blessed is the day, I hope that, you know, when we talk about our children here tonight, I hope that our walk with the Lord is just an individual one, that we're leaning on him, not so much leaning on our parents or our teachers or our pastor.

What a blessing it can be to have an example when we look at someone that could be an example to us, but that example can fail you. Look to the Lord, and just know that his grace is there to help you with whatever you're facing and going through in your own life. You know, he will carry you through. He will get you through it. You. He will get you through it.

Not just, not, what was it, I was listening to the funeral of Dr. John Sarragan recently, and I like what his daughter had to say. She said whenever she had some, something she didn't understand or something she wanted him to help her with from Scripture, he said, study it yourself. And I'm sure that he helped her, but he wanted her to know it for herself. He wanted her to dig into the Word and find it for herself.

Now there's a point where, yes, I know he helped him when he stood up in the pulpit. I remember Pastor Peacock used to say when people come to me with all these problems and questions, he said, if you just study your Bible and pay attention to the messages being preached, you probably have half the questions answered. You know, or more, probably answer most of your questions. Well, this, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. We're to flee. We are to flee.

God resists the proud. We're to flee idolatry. Because idolatry is pride. I think the most prevalent form of idolatry we have in our world today is the idolatry of just me. Me, me, me. My way. What I want to do. No. That's not, I was talking with someone, talking with someone this past week and she was mentioning that growing up in the 80s in a Pentecostal home that she got so tired of hearing about when you played rock music backwards, all these satanic messages and stuff were in it.

I said, and she said, I just got tired of hearing about that growing up in the 80s and she doesn't go to church, doesn't claim to even be a Christian now. And I said, well, you don't have to play it backwards to get the satanic message. Just play it forward and you'll hear the satanic message. I said because, you know, when you play it forward, it's just rebellion. Me, my way. Ain't nobody going to tell me what to do kind of thing.

That's the spirit of rock music. It's my life. I'm not going to take it. I'm not going to take anything off of anybody kind of attitude. That's the spirit of it. Look in Proverbs 6. The idolatry of pride and selfish self-will. Proverbs 6 verse 16. Proverbs 6 and verse 16 says, These six things doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Well, we see at the first of that list is what? It's a proud look. A proud look. Well, if the Lord hates a proud look, he certainly hates the proud heart behind the proud look. You see certain people, you can just tell by the way you look. When you look at them, you can tell they have made a very hard shell around themselves, and they're not going to, they're not going to take anything from anybody. They're not going to listen to anything, and they think they know it all.

Well, God help us not to even think that way. Maybe not even just don't look that way, but don't think that way. Don't think proud. Think that you can't, you aren't in any need at all before God, or even that God couldn't use other people to work in your life. One of the primary ways that God works in my life, one of the primary ways that God works among us as His people, He uses our opportunities to fellowship with one another, to be like iron, sharpening iron, and to edify one another, and build one another up, sometimes to admonish one another, to exhort one another daily, lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

And so, Psalm 138, verse 6, look over there, Psalm 138, verse 6. It says in verse number 6, Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly. Well, lowly, meek, we saw that was a fruit of the Spirit this morning, didn't we? That was a manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, the meekness. But though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly. But the proud He knoweth afar off. The proud He knoweth afar off.

But He giveth grace, He giveth grace to the humble. The only way to get victory in our Christian lives is to humble ourselves. That is the only way that we can experience victory through grace in our daily living, is to humble ourselves before God. Pride will lead to so many other sins. We see that envy is intricately associated with, it's very closely associated with pride. Because what does pride say? Pride says, I want the best for me. I want the best for me. I am the best, as a matter of fact.

I have the best ideas. I want the glory for me. I want the attention. I want control. I want money. It may not say all of those things, but I want the money. I want to be first. I want to have the best. And even if it means somebody else not having the best, I'm going to have the best. I don't mean that we shouldn't should. That we shouldn't strive for excellence. Don't take that the wrong way. We should strive for excellence, but it must be for the glory of God.

But not in the sense that, even at the end of the day, if we give the most excellent offering to the Lord, it must be, we've given thee but thy own, right? We've given the Lord what is already His. It wasn't ours to begin with. Anything I know, anything I can do, it's the Lord's. I am like the statement we say, let us return thanks unto the Lord. We're returning to Him what is His. There's no room for pride. There's no room for, I think we're cultured enough in our church setting that we wouldn't come out and just thump our chest and say, look at me.

But even the thought of pride, Lord forbid even that thought that would enter into my heart that I am really somebody. No. I am what I am by the grace of God. And you know, what a blessed life that is to truly, in our hearts, and we know, in the privacy of our own prayer life, the privacy of our own walk with the Lord, you know when you are truly humble before the Lord, you know when it's not a fake thing you're putting on. You know when you truly humble yourselves and God, you're not resisting God and He's not resisting you.

What a blessing that is. May God help us as we go. Whether we be children at home, we can humble ourselves and just obey our parents, right? Obey our parents as unto the Lord. Husbands, love our wives unto the Lord. Wives, submit to our husbands. If you don't have a husband, well, love the brethren, right? Love your neighbor as yourself. And the great and ultimate, the great and ultimate fulfillment we will find, the greatest and the ultimate fulfillment we will find in our lives, as it comes right back down to it, is putting away all idols and saying, God, what is, how would you have me to do? What would you have me to do?

And when we do that, how He fills our hearts with His grace and His love. And we gain the victory over that spirit, the spirit that dwelleth in us, that lusteth to envy, that intensely desires to be first, to be the number one, to be the spotlight, to be the whatever. And then, as the Scripture says, it is more blessed to give than to receive. We find what it means, don't we, when we let God have His way. We find what it means to be blessed, to truly give instead of saying, hey, I'm going to take it all right here.

No. I'm going to let God's grace flow through my life and be a giver and be used by Him for His glory. May God help us to be in, as we said this morning, led of the Spirit. Even as we go this week, there's different, we're all going to be in different contexts. David's going to be at work. Oh, this is a good test. We're going to be on vacation right now. Sometimes vacations are the best, some of the best tests, aren't they? You put, get put in a different set of circumstances than you normally find yourself.

How, well, we need to humble ourselves and not try to be first in the things of life and let God, and see how God will bless in His own way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for these moments we've had tonight to look into Your Word. We pray, Lord, that we would find grace in our time of need, Lord, as we come upon many needs in our lives and we are a needy people. Help us to have that spirit of humility and lowliness before You, Lord, that we would, Your grace, not our own corrupt, corrupt desires, but Lord, Your graciousness might be seen in us in the way that we respond to the circumstances of life.

This will, this will keep us until we go to glory. It will keep us on our knees before You because we're always in need of it. But Lord, as we were reminded tonight of that good hymn, He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the trials increase. Help us in this. We pray in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Amen.