Proverbs 16:5b, Pride Will Not Go Unpunished!
October 20, Proverbs 16:5b
Phil 2:1-14 “Their counsel shall not stand for God is with us.”
Pride Will Not Go Unpunished!
Pride loves to Parade. “It is the perverse desire for height,” said Augustine, but at what terrible cost! “God was wroth with the angels, and drove them out of heaven. God was wroth with Adam, and drove him out of Paradise” (Thomas). Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. “Though sinners strengthen themselves and one another, they shall not escape God’s judgments” (Henry).
2. It’s a Plague. It is mental leprosy; it de-sensitises every thought! It is the opposite of the Christ-Mind (Ph. 2:5). It is irreconcilable with the most basic Christian virtues. It glories in its rejection of the Gospel. It is the most powerful obstacle to belief, for it refuses “revelation.” It won’t bow to the Word of God. It won’t accept the yoke of Christ. Whatever other name one may give this: “Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul,” and nothing else or nothing less. Such are insolent in attitude toward God and man. They are griped by this plague. They are blind to their own folly. They so admire their views and opinions, and so eagerly respond to man’s praise, yet they scoff when reminded that they are an abomination to the Lord. They feel no shame. They are too superior a breed to grovel before God. In that haunting hymn, “Lead Kindly Light,” written by J. H. Newman, he confessed, “I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, pride ruled my will.” Garish means pretentious, “pretending to be another.” He had been pretending, for a long time, to be an Anglican, but was, in fact and faith, a Romanist at heart many years before. It is only God’s awaking grace that can cure this deadly plague. Isaac Watts got it right when he wrote, “And pour contempt on all my pride.”
3. There’s a Penalty. When pride so strikes at God, it is no wonder God strikes at it (Isa. 2:12; 65:5; 1 Pet. 5:5). What are we to make of all the calamities that are happening around the world? May they not be God’s judgments on the nations? “God makes use of the wicked to execute righteous vengeance on each other, and He will be glorified by their destruction at last” (Henry). The power, whether of nations or individuals cannot deliver from the justice of God (Ps. 2, Pr. 21:30, Isa. 45:9), even though hand join in hand. The first such confederacy was Babel’s Tower, and it was scattered in confusion. Powerful lobby groups are even now plotting against God and His Word. Legislators, politicians, libertarians, anarchists, and every anti-God movement imaginable, including some evangelical and liberal clergy, have joined hand with every outstretched hand, banding together against the Gospel. They not only want to re-write the Moral Law, but the whole Bible. How good it is to know that all their confederacies against God will not succeed. Such were being attempted in the days of Ahaz, but God sent His prophet to declare that they were futile and would fail. Our only recourse is to, Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread (Isa. 8:5-13).
Thought: “Nothing that comes from God will minister to my pride” (Tozer).
Prayer: Help me to daily make my boast in the Lord, alone.