God Loves… Himself

Last time we looked at the fact that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Prov 16:5). It does not matter if the person is rich or poor; a proud person is an abomination to the LORD. It does not matter if the person is religious or not; a proud person is an abomination to the LORD. Whatever pride is, then, it is something that ruins and spoils all that a person does. We can see from the earliest book in the Bible that pride was hated then as well: “Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud, and make him low. 12 “Look on everyone who is proud, humble him, And tread down the wicked where they stand” (Job 40:11-12). In verses 4-5 of the same chapter Job said this to God: “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 “Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more.” God then challenged Job and part of that challenge was in verses 11-12 quoted above. God challenged Job to do what He as God does. In other words, God looks on everyone that is proud and makes him low. God is the one that humbles the proud and treads down the wicked. God was telling Job that He was God and what He did as God. Since Job could not humble all the proud, He was not God and should not try to question the Almighty.

One thing the text does, regardless of whatever else it does, is show us God’s attitude and ways toward the proud. This fits very well with the declaration of Proverbs 16:5 that “everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD.” That which is an abomination is detestable and is an object of loathing. Now this is not the God of popular thought today. The God that we hear is the God that loves all and is pleading with all to simply pray a prayer and become His child. But these verses tell us that the proud are detestable and even loathed by God and so He will bring the proud down and even tread on them. But how does God fight the proud and bring them down? One way Scripture tells us is that He turns them over to their sin. In Romans 1:28 we see that when people do not want God in their knowledge or minds He turns them over to a depraved mind. They are then “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed” and all sorts of evil things. They also become “slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil” (Rom 1:30) and many other things. Pride is a progressive evil and those that indulge it are given over to it and they become worse and worse. There is nothing a proud person will not do for self except to deny self and receive humiliation of the soul.

In Daniel 5:20 we see a way that God fights the proud: “But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.” This text records Daniel speaking to Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel told him that God had humbled Nebuchadnezzar greatly, but though Belshazzar knew this he had not humbled his heart (v. 22). These things are in the hands of a sovereign God and Belshazzar was killed that very night. God fights the proud by turning them over to their pride which will bring them down. At times He acts directly and the proud are killed. The pride of Belshazzar was such that he used the vessels of the Temple to drink and party with. In this, Daniel said, he had “exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven” (v. 23). While drinking wine from those vessels he praised the gods of various woods and metals and did not glorify the true God (v. 23). This is the true heart and result of all pride.

All pride is the lifting up of self in some way. Pride is the exaltation of self and the puffing up of self. Belshazzar gives us the real heart of pride in his example. Belshazzar used the things of the Lord to party with while he praised false gods. We can see how that is such an affront to the living God. He did not glorify God but lived for himself. Ah, but is that any different than the average church member? Do they really praise the true and living God or do they sing praises to the false gods of their imaginations? Are they really doing anything else but praising the false gods of their imaginations while they use the things of God (the Bible, preaching of sorts, singing songs with words about God, prayer in a manner of speaking) for their own purposes and pleasures? Does the average church member really do all to the glory of God or simply think of God as being at his or her beck and call? Does the average church member really pray or simply say words in order to get something from God? Does the average church member understand that s/he is an image of God and is to do all for God? That is also using something with God’s name and using for self. Pride, then, turns the use of holy things that should be set apart for God and uses them for the idol of self. It can and often does make attending church nothing better than what Belshazzar was doing when He was deposed and executed. Could it be true of us what God said to Amos? “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps” (Amos 5:21-23).

Pride is what is common to all men, though in the unregenerate person it is what controls them. Pride, though common to all men, is particularly deadly because it is unrecognized. Pride is such an insidious beast in the heart that it also hides itself from the eyes of those that the Spirit of God has not opened. Imagine having a disease that disguised itself as part of the disease. Pride is like leprosy of the soul that is foul and eats away at the soul polluting and ruining all it touches, and yet it is like a chameleon that hides itself as it fits in with what surrounds it. Pride will hide itself in the hearts of open sinners pointing to those that do worse things and then lying to the heart of the one that commits sinful acts by giving it justification in doing so. Pride will hide itself in the hearts of the rich and the famous by keeping its gaze on its fame and wealth. But pride will also hide in the hearts of the ordinary person that tries to live a good life and not get caught up in worldly things. Even worse, pride is found in the hearts of those that live very religious lives. This type of person will take pride in doing evangelism, preaching, good works, musical things, and in being strict in staying away from outward sin. Pride is so hideous that it will take pride in its supposed humility. The Bible repeatedly warns of pride because God opposes the proud.

However pride manifests itself, it is still pride. Proverbs 16:5 makes it plain how much God hates it when it tells us that “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD.” The text tells us that “everyone” that is proud is an abomination to the LORD. It is not just the open sinner or those that hate truth that are an abomination, but it is everyone. The Pharisees were very religious and yet also very proud. Jesus spoke more harshly to them than anyone else. Their pride was such that their very religion and their idea of God were controlled by their pride. The same is true today. Much of Christianity seems to be directed and controlled by pride. Whenever a church or a person is controlled by a human-centered form of Christianity, pride is what is really in control. When a church or a person speaks a lot of God and yet that God is human-centered, pride is still in control. Pride asserts itself toward God in wanting God to be as man-centered as man is. Pride wants to be the center of all things and tries to use Christian teachings to control God and be the center of God as well.

Jeremiah 48:29 shows us the ugliness of pride and how it demonstrates itself: “We have heard of the pride of Moab– he is very proud– Of his haughtiness, his pride, his arrogance and his self-exaltation.” A proud person is just like Moab. This person is haughty and arrogant and as such does all for self-exaltation. This exaltation of self will fit very nicely in the form of modern Christianity as well. People want to preach in order to be in front of people and to gain honor. This can also fit very well with orthodox Christianity as well. A man can be very proud of his orthodoxy and of his doctrinal alliance with the historical creeds. Another person can love to be in front of people and so desire to lead the singing or do some sort of skit or musical special. Still another may want the honor of being a servant and so will do anything that s/he is asked. The language of the heart, though not of the mouth, will say that “I am a greater servant than you are.” Pride will find a way to exalt itself, at least in its own mind.

When leaders in the church are proud, the church is in the hands of fools. When pastors are proud, those pastor’s sermons and teachings will be utterly foolish even if they are orthodox. The very sermons and teachings themselves are an abomination to God. The sermons and teachings may line up with the creeds and all standards of orthodoxy, but the preparation and the delivery will all be for the pride of the speakers. All will be slanted in a way so that the honor will be to the speaker. All will be planned and all will be governed so that the speaker will be highly thought of. Even if God is spoken highly of, even then God is being used as a way to gain honor for the speaker. Pride is such a hideous beast that it ruins the most orthodox of sermons and teachings. Yet if I live in the grip of pride my life is in the hands of a fool too. If I live in a way where I long for the honor and applause of others, I am a fool too. A sermon or a life guided by pride and seeking honor for self is a sermon or life of a fool.

Pride is also such a beast that it will ruin the prayers and lives of all those that have it. Even the most pious and feeling of prayers are utterly spoiled by the poison of pride. The Pharisees prayed in order to be honored by men (Mat 6:1, 5) and the spirit of the Pharisee which is pride and self-exaltation is still alive. “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 16:5). We must examine our hearts carefully and often lest we fall under the condemnation of that verse. The pride in the heart will blind us to our own pride and lie to us about being an abomination to the LORD. Pride will not show up if we take an X-Ray, it will only show up when we begin to seek the Lord in prayer and the Bible asking Him to show us our own hearts. If we will not do this, the leprosy of pride will grow in our own souls as we grow in being an abomination to God. How we need grace.