Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 13:10 "Only by Pride"

Alright, if you take your Bibles and turn to Proverbs 13:10. The title of the message tonight is "Only by Pride." Hannah, you got a lot of pride? I thought you did. "Only by Pride." The verse starts out by saying, "Only by Pride." And Solomon is speaking tonight when he says, "Only by pride." He's speaking about something that can only exist by pride. If pride doesn't exist, then you can't have this other condition. So only by pride, without a spark, you'll never have a fire. because only by ignition comes fire. And in the same way without pride, you'll never have contention, because only by pride comes contention. You remove pride, you have no contention. You take fuel from a fire, you have no fire. You take pride from between two people, you have no contention. It's that simple. So if you don't want contention in your life, and I sure don't, then you need to have a biblical understanding of pride. And with that biblical understanding of what pride is, It'll give you the ability to, by the grace of God, keep pride from your heart, and by the grace of God, God willing, hopefully be able to deal with pride in someone else's life. Because if me and Abigail have contention, and we often do, now we don't. Never had contention. But if me and Abigail had contention, if Abigail had no pride in her heart, but I had pride in my heart, could we have contention? Yes. So all it takes is one person to have pride in their heart. So, if Abigail knew how to deal with the pride in her heart, that may eliminate contention between the two of us. If she knew how to deal with pride in my heart, that may also help deal with the contention between us. So we'll be looking at both of those tonight. And what better place to gain a biblical understanding of pride than the Bible? Look with me now in Deuteronomy chapter 17, Deuteronomy chapter 17, in verse 8 through 12, and let's examine a particular part of God's law for the Jewish people. God told Israel, "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between stroke and stroke, between being matters of controversy," there's that controversy, "contention within thy gates, "Then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose." That's going to be Jerusalem, where the temple is, by the way. "And thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire. And they shall show thee the sentence of judgment. And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee, and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee, according to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee. Keep that in mind. And according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand nor to the left. And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the judge, even that man shall die, and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel." In verse 11, he says, "According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee." So here's the thing, if someone has a difficult matter, a dispute, how were all disputes settled in Israel? Well, God's law was the law. It was a theocracy, and you didn't have to go to a penal code, or a code of criminal procedures, or traffic law, or any of those things, or some kind of civil code. You didn't have to go to any of those things to get a remedy and to get an answer. You just went to the Bible. And there were all the instructions you needed. If you would rightly apply them, you could fix any matter in Israel. Now, sin can get very tricky in people's lives, can't it? All you got to do is look in the Scripture, see what it says about divorce, and then come and present someone a really elaborate situation that they've never heard of before. And they say, "Well, now what does the Bible says about this?" Well, the Bible doesn't specifically say something about that situation. And man can get himself into all kinds of trouble. We can really get way out there with some of the decisions we make in life. And so what you do, you have to take the principles of the Scripture, and then break those down, and then apply them to the problem. And so the people would then go to the priests, and whoever was set up to be judge at that time, to judge matters like this, and then they would take the law Abigail is mad at Richard because of A, B, C, and D. She thinks he stole one of her goats, and he says, "No, that goat got on my..." And just some kind of crazy thing. And so, it's some difficult matter, and so you go to the priests, and then they teach you what the law says about your situation. They said, "Well, now here's what the Bible says." And so, because this is what the Bible says, this is how we should apply this to your situation. This is what God says you should do. And so, this is what you should do. This is how this should be absolved. "Richard, you should give her five goats back." "Abigail, you should quit your whining. It's your fault. You should have had your fence up." Whatever the problem is. But once that judgment was issued, God says, "You do exactly according to that judgment because those priests represent Me." Now can the priests get the law wrong? Sure, they're people. But they're trying. And they're trying to go by the law, so you go by what the priest says. And whoever acts presumptuously and says, "I'm not paying her five goats." I disagree with the priest's judgment on that. And they act on their own and say, "Look, I'll give you two goats. You're not getting any more out of me. Or that goat you had, that thing was a scrawny, it's not worth five goats." And so, I deviate to the left or to the right, I deviate in some measure from what that priest tells me to do according to God's law. The Bible says, "Put them to death." No, we're not doing that. We're going by the scripture, we're going by the authorities that teach the scripture and study the scripture for a living, and you don't want to go by it, then we're done with you. And by doing that, we'll ensure that we all stay by the law. That's how it's supposed to work. And if I don't follow the law, that's said for me to be acting presumptuously. And that word presumptuously, that Hebrew word translated presumptuously, is the same word translated pride in our text tonight. So you could say whoever acts pridefully and doesn't hearken to the priest's judgment, that soul shall be put to death. So pride, the type of pride we're looking at in God's Word tonight, is when a person disregards the judgment of God and acts independent of God's Word. They say, "No, I'm going to be independent of God's Word. I'm going to do what I think is best." That's the kind... Is that not pride? "Oh yeah, I know better than God. I know better than the priest. I know better than the judges. Even if I disagree with what the priest says, God says I'm to do what the priest says. So I'm still saying I know better than God." It was that type of presumptuous sin that Adam committed in the Garden of Eden. He acted presumptuously. He deviated from to the right or to the left of what God said. And so he acted in pride. And what happened when that pride came? There was then contention between him and God. And then contention between the woman and the devil and his seed and her seed. and now contention to this day all because of humanity that thinks and acts independent of God's Word. And only by that type of pride can there be contention between God and man, and man and his fellow man. That's the only way it can exist. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 22, Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 22, "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not," in other words, if he prophesies something's going to happen, it doesn't, "nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken. But the prophet hath spoken it," there's our word again, "presumptuously," again, same Hebrew word, he's spoken it Pridefully, presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him. In other words, don't fear his words. So if a prophet spoke something that God didn't say, then that prophet disregarded God's Word and he acted according to his own Word and not the Lord's. He spoke presumptuously or pridefully. And only by thinking and acting according to God's Word Can we not have contention and only by not thinking and acting according to God's Word, look back in your text in Proverbs now, cometh contention. And what is contention? Contending. Have you ever heard of a prize fighter, you know, a boxer, and they were called contenders. Contenders. I could have been a contender. There was some movie, someone said, "I could have been a contender." Huh? What did she say? On the waterfront? Okay, I've never seen... Marlon Brando. I've never seen the movie, but I just remember, "I could have been a contender." Well, that's what it's talking about. Contention. Strife. And that is to contend for superiority. Contend for superiority. What was Adam doing when he acted presumptuously? Was he giving God superiority? No, he was contending for superiority with God. I'll do it my way. What was the devil doing? He was contending for superiority. What do two people do when they have strife between one another? One is contending with superiority against another. Who's going to come out on top? Speaking of Jesus' disciples, of all people, Jesus' disciples in Luke chapter 22, and by the way, this was right after the Passover meal. Jesus is talking about giving His life, and His body being broken, and He's going to be betrayed, and He's going to die. And speaking of Jesus' disciples, after this happens in Luke 22-24, the Bible says, "And there was also strife," that's contention, there was also strife among them, that is among the apostles. Which of them should be accounted the greatest?" Contending, striving for superiority. And how did that contention between the apostles, how did that take place? Only by one thing. Pride. Just pride. They were striving for superiority among themselves, and only by pride came that strife among them. In Leviticus 19, 18, God told the Jews, "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people." That is your fellow Jews. "But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord." Were the apostles loving their neighbors as themselves? No. Now, if they weren't loving their neighbors as themselves, were they following God's Word or were they acting presumptuously? They were acting presumptuously, not according to how God's Word told them to view their neighbor. Had they loved each other as they loved themselves, they wouldn't have been fighting over who was going to be the greatest among them. They were not thinking and acting according to God's Word, and that's where the contention came from. For only by that type of presumptuousness, that type of pride, can contention come. It's really exciting when you learn about it like this. You think, "Hey, if you know how to put a fire out..." I mean, if you're in the kitchen, And you've got a grease fire coming up out of your pan. How many of y'all had a grease fire in the kitchen and you did not know how to put it out? That ever happened once in your life? Whether young or old, you had a grease fire and you didn't know how to put it out? You did? Did you put water on it? There you go. Now, once you saw her put the cloth over it, did you have a grease fire since then? But if you did, would you be as panicky? No. Why? You know what to do. You know how to put it out. I've seen grease fires come up and people panic. I've seen other people do it. Put something over it, and you smother it. So, when you learn like this, it's like learning how to put a grease fire out in people's hearts. Well, you know what we do? We smother the pride. Well, what we got to do is smother the pride. Get rid of the pride, and the contention will go away. And suddenly, you become very powerful in dealing with human nature. You would think that among a group of people who confessed that they were sinners in need of a Savior, people who had seen Jesus in His great humility wash disciples' feet, You would think that people who have been filled with the Holy Spirit and perform miracles and cast devils out of people, they wouldn't be arguing among each other over who was going to be the greatest. Who was going to be top dog? But the Bible lets us see the apostles pridefully strive with one another. Why? To warn us that we will pridefully strive with one another if we're not careful. to think and to act according to the Word of the Lord. Heaven, the most holy place of all, was where Lucifer acted presumptuously. Now, if that type of pride can bring contention in the holiest place of all in heaven, can't we have it here in this church? Absolutely. If the angels can do it, and the apostles can do it, then preachers can do it, and church members can do it, And that's why we all need to pray that we won't be the next to do it. A lot of preachers do it. A lot of preachers strive. They want more people paying attention to them than somebody else. "Listen to me. Let my opinion be what matters more than anybody else." I should have the final say. I'm the expert here. In 3 John 1, verse 9-10, 3 John 1, verse 9-10, the apostle John said, "I wrote unto the church, 'But Diotrephus, who loveth to have the preeminence, that is, the superiority,'" So, contending for superiority. "Diotrephus loved to have the preeminence among them." John says, "Receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prating against us with malicious..." There's your contention words. "...and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church." Why? He was striving for preeminence, and thus he was malicious. I want to be top dog here. Don't listen to the apostle John. We don't want any letter from him. We don't need any apostles. You've got me. Only by pride, only by thinking and acting outside the Word of God can a man strive for preeminence like that. Speaking of Jesus, the Bible says in Colossians chapter 118, "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He, that is Jesus, might have," what? "the preeminence." Not Deuteronomy. Jesus has the preeminence in everything. And if we set our hearts under Christ and we realize We're nothing. He is everything. And we're all sinners saved by grace. If we'll remember who's preeminent, we won't forget that we're not. Solomon said, "Only by pride comes contention." Look back in your text now. "But with the well-advised..." That means with those who are not advised by their own presumptuousness, but by the Word of God. Psalm 16 verse 7 says, "I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel." Now that's someone who's well advised. You take counsel from the Lord. He says, "He's given me counsel. My reins also instruct me in the night season." Your reins instruct you in the night season? You know what reins are? Don't think of reins on a horse. It's talking about your inwards, Your inner conscience. God gives us counsel. He gives us His Word. And when we think on His Word, because He says, "My rains also instruct me in the night seasons." So we have the Word of God. And let's say that something took place during the day and there was contention between people. And you had strife with somebody. And now the day is over, and you're laying in bed at night. Can you imagine your conscience replaying how the day went? And the Lord saying, "Now, Richard, did you do right there? Were you humble there? Did you love your neighbor as yourself? Were you prideful there? And start role-playing that back? That's your reins instructing you according to God's counsel. Your conscience convicting you according to God's counsel. And man, I'm sure that's probably happened to everybody here. You go lay in bed and you try your best to justify yourself, don't you? But if you're honest, you'll do what the priests should do. Like if you were to go to the priest and have them judge your case in Jerusalem, you can go to God's Word and your reins can judge your case and hold court in your own heart. And say, "Well, now you know what? I was wrong in this situation right here." And where the well-advised is what? Wisdom. See that in your text? Wisdom. So with pride, there is contention. If you're well advised, you don't have contention, you have wisdom. God gives wisdom instead of strife. A presumptuous person can't be a well advised person, because he acts presumptuously, according to his own will, and not obediently according to God's. Wisdom avoids crises. Pride creates them. Today, there was a lady at work, very sweet lady, but very loud. You may not hear anybody else talk in another room, but you hear her. And when she's around you, she's talking. I've never been around here where she's not talking loudly, sweet as she can be. And she had some questions about some door locks at the courthouse today. So I said, "Well, show me what you're talking about." So she took me to an inner stairwell and she pointed out these locks, and she's trying to figure out what keys go where. And of course, she's talking. And of course, it's loud and her voice carries. And there was a lady in her cubicle that was trying to get some work done, and it bothered her. So she came and she shut a door to block off the conversation. And she looked at me and she says, "Was I being loud?" She said, "I was rude." And so, you know me, I can't get my voice much above a whisper. But she was loud. But it was a nice lady. And I thought, you know, I don't want her to have any hard feelings. So a little bit later, she comes walking through, and I caught her privately, so it wouldn't embarrass her. And I said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry that we, you know, disturbed you earlier." She goes, "Oh, no, that's fine." You can tell she's completely over. "That's fine, that's fine." But you know what I could have done? I'd say, "Hey, what's your problem?" You know? "Who are you to come saying we're rude?" You know what? Then we have contention. One trying to be superior over the other instead of one trying to love the neighbor as themself. You know, when I said humbly, "Hey, man, I'm sorry about... you know, we didn't... I wasn't trying to... we weren't trying to you know, she's all fine, she's okay now. She's okay now. So, wisdom knows that only by pride comes contention. So a wise man will guard his pride to prevent strife, but in the same way, as I said at the onset of this message, a wise man can sometimes pacify another person's pride to prevent strife. In the book of Judges, man this is good stuff. In the book of Judges, God allowed Gideon to win a battle against the Midianites. And the men of Ephraim were upset because they weren't invited to get in on the action. Man, I know all about that. Anytime there's ever been a pursuit in law enforcement, do you know what the policemen want to do. They almost chase each other to try to get as close as they can to the pursuing the vehicle that they're pursuing. They want to get in on the action. I want to be the one that spikes the tires. I want to be the one that does the pit maneuver and pushes them off the road. It's alpha males all all the way and it's... There was one night, I kid you not, this happened to me twice in my career, where I caught somebody. I apprehended them out in the woods. And while I am there on top of them, someone who wasn't even there when I caught them - they're not handcuffed yet now - I wasn't even there when I caught them, comes running, knocks me off of them, and then jumps on them and handcuffs them. That's happened to me twice. They didn't find them. They didn't catch them. And they knock me off of them so they can be the ones handcuffing them. That's what happened here in the book of Judges. They're like, "Hey, how come you went off in this battle You didn't invite us." Man, they wanted some of the action, they wanted some of the glory, they wanted some of the fame. Their pride was getting the best of them. They apparently, again, wanted the glory of the battle. Instead of celebrating what God had done through Gideon and those with him, they were contending with Gideon. And only by pride could that contention come. We don't want you to get more glory than us. Now, watch what happens here in Judges 8, 1. "And the men of Ephraim said unto him," that is to Gideon, "Why hast thou served us thus?" Why did you do us like this? "That thou callest us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites?" And they did chide with him sharply. Boy, they chewed him out. Now I want you to watch how Gideon extinguished their pride like putting that... that... huh? Towel. Like putting that towel over the grease fire. Judges 8, look in verse 2 and 3 now. "And he that is Gideon said unto them, 'What have I done now in comparison of you?'" Oh my! You're talking about what I did? You're talking about the battle I won? What is that compared to what you've done? Man, you're something! He says, "Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abazer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Orban, Zeb." Man, you caught those guys! You caught the top dogs! And what was I able to do in comparison of you? Man, you're the man!" And look what happened. Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that. The towel over the grace fire. Wow. The oxygen was gone, so the fire was gone. The pride was gone. So the contention was gone. His pride was insulted. And what did he do? He doctored that pride up a little bit so it wouldn't be hurt. He bolstered him up because that's all that man wanted was to feel superior. So Gideon said, "Okay, you want to feel superior? Let me help you." Look at you, man. You go. And when he did that, the fire's gone. And a lot of times we can do that when we deal with people. And we can squash contention. If another person has that pride in their heart and they're going for superiority, if you lift them up, then contention will go It won't happen every time. Won't happen every time. Something's flying around up here. Won't happen every time. But if Gideon lifted him up to where he wanted to be, and what happened? The contention went down. Gideon was like, "God let you men conquer." "Orban, Zeb, you men are the real heroes." Gideon didn't strive for superiority. He yielded superiority to them. And that's a wonderful thing to do. He said, "You men are something..." And listen, sometimes a compliment, sometimes a little pampering of a person's pride, is all it takes to remove contention. One day when I was a 15-year-old boy, had my temporary driver's license, I could drive till 10 o'clock at night. They let us do that back then. And I was driving down the road coming past the college. I was just 15. I was just a little scrawny kid. And I passed by some big, tall college students walking down the road going to class. I had my window down on my pickup truck, that little black diesel pickup truck. I didn't have any air conditioning, didn't have power steering. I'm just driving down the road. And when I drove by them with my window down, that crowd full of prideful young men, they looked at me and wanted to act all tough when I drove by. All tough. And at that time, I recognized a young man, and I had seen him play basketball for the college before. A very good player. Very good player. And I recognized their attitude of toughness. "Who are you? We're tough, man. Don't mess with us." You could sit all over their face. And so with my window down, I told that young man, I said, "Hey, I've seen you play basketball. You're my favorite player." You know what happened? Towel over the grease fire. "Why, are those tough boys walking looking at me?" They suddenly go, "Thank you. Thank you. Man, thank you much." And boy, they're suddenly, "Boy, I've got a fan. I've got a fan. I don't have competition. I've got an admirer." And by lifting somebody up, you can put contention down. Wisdom doesn't seek superiority. Wisdom loves his neighbor as himself. Wisdom elevates his neighbor, therefore putting down his strife. Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word. God, it's so enlightening to us. The God who made humanity knows all about human nature, knows all about the corruption of our heart, and all about reprogramming it and fixing it, and God, thank you, one day redeeming it. Thank you for these precious people tonight. Thank you for their love for your Word. Help us, Father, to wholly obey it, and turn not to the left hand nor to the right. Bless them all, we pray, in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.