A Haughty Spirit. Proverbs 16:18

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1 ï» back to title page I Timothy 4:12 A Haughty Spirit Proverbs 16:18 I. Pride means ABOMINATION to God. A. Pride is the beginning B. Pride is beguiling. II. Pride means CONTENTION with men. A.. Pride sets us above others. B. Pride sets us apart from others III. Pride means DESTRUCTION in the end. A. Pride dishonours B. Pride destroys Haughtiness or pride is a very dangerous sin that is doing more to hold back revival, destroy homes, ruin this nation, cause Christians to live in failure and defeat, and fill hell than

2 any other sin. It would seen if there is one sin that God hates more than another, it must be pride. Most forcibly does He declare His hatred of it. Next to unbelief, I don t know of another sin mentioned more often in Scripture than pride. It is never mentioned in a positive context!. Pride is such a deceitful sin. Many people who are infected and infested with pride have no idea that they are. Let me give you a few indicators of a proud person : _ A proud person becomes irritated when corrected for mistakes. A proud person accepts praise for things over which he or she has no control. A proud person will not admit mistakes. A proud person refuses to take counsel and to learn from other people. See Proverbs 6: I. Pride means ABOMINATION to God. " Abomination " means " morally disgusting." Why does God hate pride?

3 A. Pride is the beginning. Pride is the commencement of all sin because it was pride which overthrew the devil. Pride was the first sin to destroy the calm of eternity. In the Garden of Eden, when Satan came to tempt Eve. At the root of the temptation was pride. The Devil used pride as the bait on his hook when he came to Eve. B. Pride is beguiling Obadiah 1:3 - The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. The most difficult thing about pride is that it is like bad breath: easy to detect in others and hard to detect in ourselves. A young woman asked her preacher for counsel. She said, " Pastor, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I cannot control. Every time I am at church I look around at the other women, and I realize I am the prettiest one in the church. How can I have victory over this sin?" a delusion!" The pastor looked at her and said, " That is not a sin. That' s just See Proverbs 16.5, " Every one who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD." II. Pride means CONTENTION with men. Proverbs 13.10, "Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

4 " ONLY by pride cometh contention." Behind every divorce... behind every argument... behind every war you will find pride. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thins he gets as much as he deserves. Pride divides society. Pride divides spouses. Pridew There has never been an argument, a war, a divorce, nor a church split that pride was not the major factor. Proverbs 28:25 says, He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife..." Pride divides men! A.. Pride sets us above others. Pride exalts us above others. I heard about a fifth grader that came home from school so excited. She had been voted " prettiest girl in the class." The next day she was even more excited when she came home, for the class had voted her " the most likely to succeed." The next day she came home and told her mother she had won a third contest, being voted " the most popular." But the next day she came home extremely upset. The mother said, " What happened, did you lose this time?" She said, " Oh no, I won the vote again." The mother said, " What were you voted this time?" She said, " Most stuck up.

5 B. Pride sets us apart from others When the heart swells with pride there is little room for others in it. Whereas other vices will bring people together, like gossip, greed and drunkenness, pride at its heart always puts enmity between people. Pride builds walls between people, but humility builds bridges. Two Texans who were trying to impress each other with the size of their ranches. One asked the other, " What the name of your ranch?" " The Rocking R, ABC, Flying W Circle C, Bar U, Staple Four, Box D, Rolling M, Rainbow' s End, Silver Spur Ranch." The other Texan was much impressed and exclaimed, " Whew! That is sure some name. How many head of cattle do you have?" " Not many. Few of them survive the branding." III. Pride means DESTRUCTION in the end. As Charles Spurgeon once said, Coming events cast their shadows before them. There is one major tell- tale sign of coming destruction in our lives, that casts its shadow forward, and that is pride. Proverbs 15:25, " The Lord will destroy the house of the proud."

6 Proverbs 16.18, " Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 18.12, " Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility." Proverbs 29.23, " A man' s pride shalll bring him low What the prideful person wants and seeks is honor, but that is not what he gets. Proverbs 11.2, "When pride cometh, then comes shame I heard one day about a Pastor who on a certain Sunday really thought he had preached that day. After worship he was enjoying lunch with his family at their house. Everyone was sitting around talking about what they learned in Sunday School and other things that happened that morning. The Pastor just knew that somebody would say something about his wonderful message. It was about desert time, and nobody had said anything to him about his message. Trying to appear unassuming he said to his wife, " Honey, how many really great preachers do you think are living today?"

7 She said, " Well dear, I really don' t know, but I do know there is one less than you think there is." Matthew 23:12, " whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. A. Pride dishonours The proud person always ends up not with admiration, but contempt. B. Pride destroys Pride ultimately destroys all that it controls. It is the road to ruin. The seeds of destruction are in pride. I m telling you, pride is the road to ruin; it is filling hell. Conclusion Ezekiel 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, PRIDE, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness... It is very noticeable that what we commonly speak of as the specific sin of Sodom is not mentioned here.... God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble," ( James 4:6). Don t let pride escort you to hell. Don t let pride be your destruction. Humble yourself and lay your pride in the dust