Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
We want to fellowship some more on this matter of spiritual warfare. I often feel, in the afternoon, because people are a little drowsy, that it is helpful if we try to share some practical things. So, for the next two days, I want to touch on relatively practical matters in this matter of spiritual warfare.
Before I do, I would like for us to read some portions of Scripture together. Let us begin with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4. We will begin reading in Matthew 4:1.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took Him into the holy city; and he set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down; for it is written,
‘He shall give His angels charge concerning You’;
and, ‘On their hands they shall bear You up, lest haply You dash Your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said unto him, “Again it is written, ‘Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God.’”
Again, the devil took Him unto an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
and he said unto Him, “All these things will I give You, if You will fall down and worship me.”
Then saith Jesus unto him, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’”
Then the devil leaveth Him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.
Then we want to read one verse in Matthew 6. Of course, it is a prayer in which the Lord is instructing His disciples—not so much the repetition of the prayer itself, but the principles behind this kingdom prayer. Just note Matthew 6:13.
And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Then we want to turn to Luke 22, verse 31. Our Lord is addressing Peter, the apostle, just before He goes to the cross.
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.
And Peter said unto Him, “Lord, with Thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death.”
And He said, “I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, until thou hast thrice denied that thou knowest Me.”
Then John 14:30.
I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me.
Finally, in 1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 6:
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time;
casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He careth for you.
Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
Whom withstand steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world.
And the God of all grace, Who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
Let us just have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You again that You have gathered us together this afternoon. We count on Your moment-by-moment faithfulness. Even as You are the God Who is behind every breath, we know You are also the God Who sends the Holy Spirit to anoint us, to quicken our bodies, to enliven us, and to give us spiritual illumination.
We pray that You would anoint us together in this time. Make this a profitable time as we share on these matters before us. O Lord, speak to us in such a way that we could be useful servants of Thine. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
We have heard this morning, in a very wonderful way, the background and history of this spiritual conflict. These Scriptures that we have touched on today speak of those conflicts as they touch us upon this earth: Jesus tempted in the wilderness, Peter tempted by Satan, and the disciples tempted as well. We see that spiritual conflict has this earthly context.
But, of course, we heard this morning that the real import is something happening in the unseen. The spiritual warfare that is taking place has more to do than just with the fact that the devil does not like us and so he is taking potshots. The fact of the matter is, you and I do not count for much, and he is wasting his bullets.
But the fact of the matter is, even as Jesus said, “Because the world hates Me, it hates you.” In the same way, because the enemy hates Jesus, so he hates us.
We might say that, ultimately, there are two issues behind all the conflict that we experience personally on earth. The first ultimate issue is in heaven: it is the contest over the throne. The spiritual conflict is taking place in contest over the throne.
The enemy wants to do anything that might bring the throne into disrepute. If he can attack us in such a way that it brings disrepute to the throne, or challenges the throne’s power in some way, the enemy is satisfied.
Then, upon earth, the issue is the bride—the apple of the Son of God’s eye. Paul says, “I am jealous because I want to present you as a chaste virgin before the Lord.” But there are seducing spirits who want to seduce the bride, deceive the bride in some way, and cause the bride to fall into disfavor, as it were.
So, behind the personal conflict that you and I might sense in our lives, there are these wider issues. Oh, and especially in the last days.
We know that much of the church—at least the visible church that we see—has fallen short of being a holy bride prepared for the Lord. But those people who are serious about Him, those people who have in their hearts to truly be a bride prepared for her Husband, are under great attack.
The enemy will do anything to try to undermine who we are and where we stand. So we need to stand on Christ, this solid rock. If the enemy looks at us personally, of course he can see flaws in all of us. But he has to look at us through the precious blood of Jesus, and he has to look at us clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He hates what he sees.
When we look at it very personally in our lives, we see the devil as a roaring lion. He is hungry—that is why he is roaring. Since Jesus gained the victory on Calvary, he is even more hungry. He has not had a good lunch in a long time.
He is prowling about, seeking someone to devour. Now we see that there is a principle behind this, implied in the Scriptures we have touched on this afternoon.
The devil cannot just go and take a paw and smack you. He has to have some basis for it. He has to have ground to usurp you—something in your life that he can say, “Aha, that is mine.”
So we read where Peter had obviously given some ground in his life. His self-confidence, his blind pride, caused him to say, “I will go with You to death.” Even then Satan had asked permission to sift him like wheat. Peter had given him some ground to stand on.
By contrast, we see the Lord. He says, “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” There was no ground.
Now, brothers and sisters, our goal would be simply met this afternoon if you and I could resolve in our hearts not to give the enemy ground for his attacks and for his taking something of our lives—not even a porch.
Do you have a porch out there that the enemy can stand on and claim? He usurps it; it is not really his. Is there a window ledge he can get in on? Is there a door he can slide through? He is roaring and prowling, looking for something in you and something in me that he can say, “Ah, that is with me. I take it.”
So we need to find our way in this victory in the Lord. As I said, it is not by our perfection, but it is by our perfecting. It is as we are in the righteousness of Christ that he cannot find any ground.
Of course, the Lord allows this. It is a very mysterious thing. People all over New York City are asking, “How could God allow this to happen?” But when spiritual attacks come from the enemy, the Lord would turn them into victories, strengthen His people, humble us, teach us the severity and reality of the warfare, and even gain the ground.
You and I are the ones who get to build the footstool that goes under the Lord’s feet. The enemy is always trying to draw us out—draw something out of us so that he can stand there.
But if we are hidden upon the Rock and under His precious blood, if in reality we are living in that righteousness of Christ, then in the end his attack draws him out, and he suffers defeat.
That is why, as we will touch briefly on Jesus in the wilderness, we see how the enemy suffered defeat. So great was the defeat that Jesus could say, in effect, “I have bound the strong man, and now I am plundering his house.”
The strong man was drawn out. Jesus had him tied up. “Let us deliver those oppressed by demons; let us heal the brokenhearted.” He was pillaging the house because He had turned the whole thing around on Satan. The Lord allows these things.
What I am going to do today and tomorrow, the Lord willing, is this: I want us to begin by looking at the temptation of the Lord in the wilderness in Matthew 4, considering some principles regarding Satan’s attack to draw us out.
Can you imagine the pride of Satan, that he would try to attack the Son of God and draw Him out into pride, self-effort, and doing something of His own initiative apart from God? Can you imagine the pride of Satan? But pride blinds.
Pride believes that it can still win something, even though it is defeated. Pride believes it can draw out the Lord, Who in this temptation was fully man—of course, Son of God and Son of Man. Of course, he could not do it.
We want to look at just a few of these principles. I know you have all seen them before. Then, over two days, we want to look at two episodes in the book of Daniel.
Let us look at two verses in Daniel just to get the idea. Today we are going to look at Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony. Can you believe that Nebuchadnezzar bore testimony about the sovereign greatness and glory of the Lord? Very strange for a Babylonian king to give such a testimony.
We are going to look at Daniel 4. I trust that, if you have not read it recently, you will look at it sometime. But just note Daniel 4:37 as our topic for today, the conclusion of Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony:
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all His works are truth, and His ways justice: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.
So today I want us to look at one of two topics: the enemy attacks us to try to draw us out in pride. That is ground upon which he can stand and do damage—the ground of pride. We will see it in the life of Nebuchadnezzar.
Then, if you turn to Daniel 7, tomorrow, the Lord willing, we want to talk about something familiar to many saints. At least I hear this complaint often: the spiritual attack in which the enemy wears down the saints.
Daniel 7:25 is speaking of the Antichrist:
And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.
Notice that phrase: “wear out the saints of the Most High.” Lord willing, we will look at that tomorrow—if we are not too worn down.
Now, today, let us go back to Matthew for a moment and consider the temptation of Jesus. We see here the devil’s temptation. He was tempted by the devil.
The devil’s strategy is transparent as well as powerful. His temptations use circumstances to try to draw one out into self-effort, pride, and independence. This is one way he comes and attacks us all the time. The question is: can he find something in us?
He tests the ground. We see him testing the ground with Jesus. Now, I say he uses circumstances. The enemy often uses circumstances, but the circumstance itself is not the problem.
Jesus had been forty days praying and fasting in the wilderness. He was tired and He was hungry. That was the circumstance.
The enemy takes the circumstance, skews it, twists it, and interprets it in such a way as to get us to draw out. Do you see the key there? It is not our circumstance that does this in; it is the way the enemy gets on our shoulder and begins to whisper to us.
He twists the event. He twists the circumstance in such a way as to make us question. The enemy comes after forty days, and Jesus, being the last Adam, experiences these same temptations, as it were, that we all experience while going through the wilderness.
As our brothers shared this morning, sometimes we are lacking bread; sometimes we are in a fearful place of unknowing. It is in various places in our lives that the enemy comes to us, interpreting the situation.
First of all, he always interprets things with fear. He paints the wilderness as desperately dark, black and white. He paints the situation as going on forever.
“This circumstance will never change. You will get weaker and weaker. It will go on and on. It is hopeless. It is dark. You must survive.”
So the enemy twists what is really going on. The second thing he usually speaks is not only fear, but urgency: “Now something must be done. We have to do something now. We must do something right now.”
The implication behind this urgency is that God has forgotten about us. He is not faithful to provide. But do not forget: this is Jesus, Who taught the saints to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and Who knew that the Father would supply all we need.
Suddenly, the enemy comes with this sense of urgency: “But God has not come through. Do you not feel it in your stomach? Do you not see the weakness setting in? Your eyes are getting blurry. You feel your heart palpitating. You must take some precipitous action right now, or you will not survive.”
It is amazing how many of God’s children panic with a sense of urgency in the midst of a circumstance. Just know: the enemy has been speaking in your ear, telling you to slide down the fireman’s pole and take action on behalf of yourself.
“Oh, you had better turn those stones into bread right now. How do you expect to survive?”
Along with that is, of course, the need to prove yourself. There is that inbred sense of insecurity in all of us: “I wonder if God really loves me. I wonder if I am really His child.”
So he says to Jesus—poor devil, he did not know what he was up against—“If You are the Son of God.” As if Jesus would say, “Well, I will prove it to you.” But that is exactly what he was hoping for: a drawing out.
“I will prove who I am. I will show you that I am the Son of God. You are challenging me; I will show you. I will do some mighty act. I will turn these stones into bread. I have a right to bread.”
You see, what he does in dealing with our insecurity is say this. This is one of the enemy’s favorite statements, and it is very popular today: “You have your rights.”
“You have your right to good Chinese food.” Well, that is right.
“You have your right, as the Son of God, to be glorified by men. If You will just jump off the top of the building, everybody will say, ‘Oh, look at who He is.’”
Of course, He was the Son of God. Why not prove it? Even His own brothers said, “Go up to Jerusalem and show them who You are.” That is the devil talking through His brothers, trying to draw Him out in some way.
Of course, the Son of God’s is the kingdom. So the devil says, “It is Yours, all right. Take it. Take the kingdom—Yours right now. No strings attached. Well, You have to worship me. Only strings.”
Satan comes to Jesus and, through the circumstance, twists the circumstance to get Him to look as all men look—to be drawn out by the lust of the eyes, by the lust of the flesh, and by the boastful pride of life.
Of course, Adam and Eve fell, and we have fallen. But Jesus was victorious. Praise God, Jesus was victorious.
In a moment of hunger and tiredness, after forty days, it is easy to lose your vision of eternal purpose. Survival mode hardly ever sees eternal purpose. But Jesus knew there were bigger things at stake.
Jesus’ victory was according to the very purpose of God, Who said, “The seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head.” What a bruise he got that day in the wilderness, huh? This was a victory in the purpose of God.
Not only that, because Jesus had nothing in Him that the enemy could touch, He had drawn the enemy out and gained the enemy’s ground. He tied him up and gained a victory.
As it says in the Gospel of Luke, He went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit and came out of the wilderness in the strength of the Holy Spirit. He had been strengthened, proven, and faithful. He went into ministry with the enemy tied because the enemy had been drawn out by Jesus.
It left only one more temptation of the enemy, and that would be in bringing Jesus to the cross—which, of course, was his final undoing. There Jesus not only bruised the serpent’s head, but regained lost humanity as the new Adam in Christ by His death on the cross. What a great victory.
Even up to the end, there was nothing in Jesus that the enemy could touch. So we see this victory of the Lord, and we want to notice two things about it before we pass on—two reasons that nothing was found in Jesus, reasons that can help us as well.
Number one: He was kept by living in the Word of God.
Now, it was not just that He had scriptural knowledge. He says:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
What a place of keeping this is—to have the Word influencing a person. The enemy cannot find much place in a brother or a sister under whom the Word of God is bearing influence, adjusting them, keeping them, and giving them direction.
There is a life there, and it is a keeping life. If you look in Revelation 3, as Jesus speaks to the church in Philadelphia, He has this precious little word in Revelation 3:10.
Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Is that not wonderful? “Because thou didst keep the word of My patience.” You have not acted precipitately; you have kept the word of My patience. “I also will keep thee.”
I think this applies not only to the church of Philadelphia but to all of God’s faithful children who will stand in the Word of God.
Was it not wonderful how the Lord stood there? As the enemy tried to skew His need for bread, He realized that bread was not the bottom line for a man’s life, but a relationship to the living God.
When the enemy told Him that, if He jumped down, He would be glorified by men, He said, “No, no, no. We should never tempt God by taking this kind of self-action.”
When he said, “You can have all the kingdoms if You will worship me,” Jesus realized that the kingdom was only good if He could worship His Father alone. Worship is more important than having a kingdom.
So, because He was living in the Word of God and the Word of God was living in Him, He was safe when the enemy attacked Him. This is the first thing that we see.
The second thing we see, especially pointed out throughout the Gospel of John, is this: the reason the enemy could find nothing in Him was that He did nothing of Himself.
That phrase is used five or six times in the Gospel of John. Look in John 5:19:
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.”
He was covered, hidden in the Father, because He did not take His own initiative. He only did what the Father did and only said what the Father said. So He was kept.
There was nothing to be drawn out because He did nothing of Himself. You could not talk Him into doing something on His own initiative, as much as the enemy tried.
The reason behind this matter of doing nothing of Himself is that He was fully yielded and consecrated to His Father. He was sanctified for our sake, fully consecrated.
In the most practical way, brothers and sisters, if we want to be able to resist the attacks of the enemy, we need to give our lives as a living sacrifice—our bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord—every day.
If we start out the day like that and say, “Lord, I give You my life today,” He hides us in Himself. It is much more difficult for the enemy to find a place in the saint who has begun the day with such consecration.
But one who is careless and just heads out into the world is liable to run into all kinds of things and find himself quite unprepared—unprepared to react in any other way than a fleshly way.
Let us take these as obvious lessons we can see in our Lord’s life. He was so committed to the Father that He was not going to do anything out of His own initiative. He was living by the Word of God, and so the enemy could not attack Him.
Now we want to look at the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar. So we need to turn to Daniel 4.
You know, brothers and sisters, it is really quite an amazing thing. During the period when Daniel was prophesying, there was no corporate testimony upon the earth. That had been Israel; that had been Jerusalem. But they were all heading into captivity. Jerusalem and Judea were being destroyed.
God was now known as the God of the heavens, because there was not a recognized testimony upon the earth. But, of course, He never leaves Himself without a testimony. There was Daniel; there were his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; there was Ezekiel; and there were others, of course.
Is it not interesting? Glory will be given to God, even if He has to use Nebuchadnezzar—whom we would not recommend, believe me. We would not vote for him for president of the United States. No party.
He was a man full of pride. But his testimony was, “God gets the glory, and I have been humbled.” The enemy had him all out in pride.
The unbeliever does not have a choice. I suppose the enemy just looks at the unbeliever and chooses which ledge he wants to sit on. But for a Christian, all those ledges have to go in.
You know, like some of those modern vans: you open the door automatically, and a little step comes out. We need to put the step back in. Hold the door.
Nebuchadnezzar was an unbeliever, and pride was his fault. Pride goes before a fall. Actually, pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Let us listen to his testimony. We cannot read the whole chapter, but let us look at Daniel 4:2:
It hath seemed good unto me to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God hath wrought toward me.
How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.
This is Nebuchadnezzar, the man who brought the children of Israel into captivity. What a turnaround.
Verse 4 gives the context for the enemy’s finding a place in him—not hard to find:
I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house, and flourishing in my palace.
Now, that is part of our problem: at ease and flourishing. Watch out. The porch is wide open.
It was so wide open that God, in mercy, sent him a warning in a dream. It was a dream about a great tree that was chopped down for seven years. He did not understand what the dream meant, and finally it fell to Daniel to interpret it.
Daniel 4:19 says that Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while, as his thoughts alarmed him. When Daniel heard the dream, he got all upset. The king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you.”
Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you, and its interpretation to your adversaries.”
Daniel then explained that the great tree was Nebuchadnezzar himself. His greatness had grown and reached to heaven, and his dominion extended to the end of the earth.
But Daniel explained the watcher’s decree: the tree would be cut down, though its stump and roots would remain. Nebuchadnezzar would be driven away from mankind, dwell with the beasts of the field, eat grass like cattle, and be drenched with the dew of heaven until seven periods of time had passed over him.
The purpose was clear:
Until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.
Daniel’s counsel was merciful:
Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
But Nebuchadnezzar could not help being proud, just as sparks fly upward. He worried, perhaps, for a year. But Daniel 4:28 says that all this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king.
Twelve months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, with his hanging gardens, libraries, and everything. The king reflected and said:
Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?
While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: the kingdom is departed from thee.”
He was driven from the palace. He became like a madman, like an animal living out in the woods and eating grass. His nails grew long, his hair grew long, and he went insane for seven years.
Finally, he acknowledged that heaven rules. In Daniel 4:34 he says:
And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth for ever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom from generation to generation;
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, “What doest Thou?”
So Nebuchadnezzar learned his lesson of pride. We need to learn this lesson of pride.
There is a base pride known in this world today: pride of appearance, pride of prosperity, pride of accomplishment, pride of education, pride of race. These are very base forms of pride, and they all provide an avenue for the enemy to attack.
But, of course, there are more subtle forms of pride. The enemy can see them, and he can gain ground through them. Here is a perfect example in Nebuchadnezzar. He thought he was the greatest and had to learn that only heaven rules.
There are three points I want to make regarding pride. It is not as though we need to hear this, but we do. We know about that because we have all been there.
We want to underscore that this is ground that the enemy, when he finds it, can use to do great damage. Pride has to be dealt with.
Our brother read this morning from 2 Corinthians 10 concerning the powerful tools of God to destroy strongholds and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. It is as if we have built around ourselves, by our sin, a stronghold with various towers.
If there is a stronghold with various towers, I think pride is the highest citadel on the fortress, holding off the knowledge of God. It must be destroyed.
The first thing I want to say is this: pride is uncovered ground for the enemy’s attack because it is of the very essence of the spirit of Satan himself.
When we exercise pride in our lives, we are breathing the air of Satan.
Our brother mentioned in passing the passages in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. Let us read Isaiah 14. The interesting thing about both passages is that they begin talking about a man who is haughty, and end talking about Satan.
There is some coupling and recognition of the same spirit. In Isaiah, it begins with the king of Babylon, and then suddenly it turns and speaks of Satan—as if the king of Babylon were manifesting the same spirit.
In Ezekiel 28, it speaks of the king of Tyre and all his pride, and then suddenly it speaks of the covering cherub. Where does man end and Satan begin? That is the question I raise.
Let us look at Isaiah 14:12. Pride is of the very essence of Satan’s heart.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
And thou saidst in thy heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit also upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
Yet thou shalt be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit.
Satan: “I, I, I.” Boasting. His motive: “I will be equal with God. I will ascend into the very hill of God.”
One saint said that in this picture we see that self-seeking began in heaven, was cast out of heaven as unworthy of the life of heaven, and will never be allowed back in. Such is the nature of pride.
That is what caused the conflict our brother spent time speaking about this morning. But can you believe, brothers and sisters, that this pride sometimes visits our assemblies?
In two places in the New Testament, an Old Testament Scripture is used:
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.
You can see that God resists pride itself. In James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5, the context is corporate. When He says, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble,” the context is this: What is the source of the quarrels among us?
When we have quarreling in the body of Christ, in God’s assembly, among God’s people—when there is ambition, quarreling, and grasping—do you know what happens in our assembly? Grace goes away.
God resists the proud—both sides. He has nothing to do with it. So what is the source of the quarrels? Oh, may all the ledges of pride be chopped off in our lives.
What we need in our assemblies, do you agree, is grace—grace upon grace.
In 1 Peter 5:5, after speaking to elders and shepherds who are to shepherd out of love, Peter turns and says, “You younger men, be subject unto the elder.” Be clothed with humility, because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Here again we see that youthful rebellion also quenches grace in the assembly. When people always attack authority, attack the leaders, and always blame the leaders, it just takes grace right out of the assembly.
But God resists that. He gives grace to the humble.
Let us end this first statement with the positive side. What is the antidote to pride? Let us say this: to really live by grace.
He gives grace to the humble. Grace is the opposite of pride because grace is so—I am going to use the word—humiliating.
What does grace have to do? Ask every day for daily bread. Just like we were in the wilderness, we have to get the manna every day.
“Well, can I just live on yesterday? Can I get two days of life?”
Give us this day our daily bread.
That was not yesterday’s prayer. Every day I have to ask. Does it ever come to a place where I do not have to ask anymore? “Ah, take my ease. My barns are full.” You are in trouble.
Grace humbles itself every day: “Please, God, give me my daily bread. Please, God, forgive me my sins every day.” How many of you do not have to ask forgiveness for your sins anymore? How many of you asked this morning?
Every day: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Every day: “Bring us not into temptation.” Lord, I will walk into temptation as surely as I walk unless You keep me from temptation. Please keep me from the evil one. Please, God.
This is humility and grace. When somebody finds himself in this disposition, the enemy cannot so easily get at him. So we learn that first lesson: pride is resisted by God because it is the very essence of Satan.
The second thing we find is in Habakkuk 2:4. I hope you can find it. It is a very famous and familiar Scripture.
Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Notice the contrast: the proud one, the puffed-up one, his soul is not straight in him. The reference is to the Chaldeans coming down upon Judea and taking it captive, as Habakkuk watches from the tower.
Here come the Chaldeans, winning battle after battle because the Lord is allowing them to win. But as they go and scoop up land for themselves, they are full of pride. The Chaldeans are puffed up.
The second reason pride is so hideous to God is that pride presumes a ground of righteousness. “As for the proud man, his soul is not right in him.” But pride assumes that it is righteous.
Those who are puffed up interpret their possessions, blessings, and prosperity by saying, “It is because I am good. It is because America is good. So God has blessed us with bounty.”
But when we assign pride as righteousness, we are on the wrong ground.
This has been a problem with God’s children. Our brother again alluded to Deuteronomy 8, where the Lord explained to the children of Israel why they went through the wilderness to be tested all those years.
Then He said, in effect, “Now you are about to go into the land. When you go into the land and suddenly you are living in milk and honey, do not forget how you got here. Do not forget where you came from. Do not forget that you were no people until I made you My people.”
Do not finally say, “I have gained this by my own righteousness.” It is a big mistake.
God’s children always have this terrible mistake. God blesses us, but if we assign that blessing to our own righteousness and say we have these things because we are right and good, this becomes the very boastful pride of life.
That is what the Pharisees had. There was no one whom the Lord rebuked more sternly than the Pharisees because they had a pride that assumed that they were righteous.
But let us look at the positive side and see what true righteousness is: “The righteous shall live by faith.” Here is true righteousness.
Here is Habakkuk standing on the tower and waiting for God. He is standing there with no righteousness of his own. He is waiting for the Lord to reprove him because he is dialoguing with God and asking, “Why is this happening?”
So he says, “I will go up on the wall, and I will stand here until the Lord reproves me.” He is not standing in his own righteousness. He is trusting that God is going to come through.
When the Lord came through, He said, “The righteous shall live by his faith”—just like you are doing right now. Trust in Me, and you will see the end of the Lord in due time.
The opposite of the proud man, who considers himself righteous, is faith. We Christians have found all kinds of sneaky ways to say, “Oh, no, no, no, no, I am nothing. My righteousness is a filthy rag.” Yet still we feel right about things.
How do I know? Because when something adverse happens to us, we say, “Why did the Lord do that to me?”
Pride presumes a ground of righteousness. Going right along, I want to make the third point: pride is the world’s act of faith.
How does the world act in faith? They act in faith by standing up and saying, “I did it my way. I stood against all my competitors, and I won. I am number one. I have done this. I have built this kingdom. I have built these vineyards. I have, I have.”
This is man’s act of faith: standing up in front of people and saying, “I have done this. See?”
As soon as somebody does this, as Nebuchadnezzar learned, they uncover themselves and set themselves up as a target for the enemy. As soon as we have this in our hearts, we have set ourselves up as a target.
Nebuchadnezzar became a target. Do you remember the story of King Herod in Acts 12? One day, after killing James the apostle, he was sitting on his throne. The Tyrians and Sidonians were there, and as he spoke they said, “The voice of a god, and not of a man.”
Of course, they were just buttering him up, but he took it seriously. It says he did not give glory to God, so God sent down an angel, struck him, and he died of worms.
He set himself out in the open.
Now, to me, among all these things that have happened in the New York area—and it is still shaking us, I know—we have to see that the Twin Towers were standing up in pride, saying, “We trust in our economy.” The Pentagon stood up, saying, “We trust in our might.”
Now, people see these fall and say, “We must trust in God.” I think that originally was the statement, was it not?
Those were targets of the enemy. The enemy sat there and thought, “How can we bring discredit? Ah, we will hit them in the wallet. Hit them in their military pride. Oh, they think they are so good. Watch this.”
The enemy does the same with us when we set up our towers. The enemy takes note and begins to set his sights on doing these things in. Pride does go before a fall.
Let us look at Psalm 131 and see a king resting in faith and trust.
Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty;
neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too wonderful for me.
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, my soul is with me like a weaned child.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.
Can you imagine a king saying that? “Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty. I do not involve myself in great matters or in things too difficult for me.”
How many of us have been drawn out to handle things too difficult for us? David says, “That is too tough for me. God, please take care.” We say, “I will handle it. Now, let us see, I can fix this computer. How do you turn it on?”
We are always drawn out to prove ourselves. But David says, “I do not involve myself in great matters or in things too difficult for me. I have composed and quieted my soul like a weaned child resting against his mother.”
That is true faith. It is not faith that is bragging. Here is a king who says, “You know what? I am lying on my Father’s chest, satisfied, trusting Him through all things.” There is a place of safety indeed.
These are the three things I have mentioned: pride is the very essence of Satan’s heart; pride presumes a ground of righteousness that is not its own; and pride is the world’s act of faith—it stands up and glories in itself.
Is there any ground of pride in us? The enemy relentlessly tries to draw us out in pride.
Many times, when I am with young people and they come asking for prayer and forgiveness, they say, “You know, I am doing so well in school. All my teachers tell me how good I am and that I could do this or that. Why am I wasting my life going to church?”
The enemy is always trying to draw people out to think of themselves as more than they are. He is always saying, “Believe in yourself. You can do anything. You can do anything—believe in yourself.”
All these seminars—you poor guys who work in these places—take you to seminars where they basically hype you up to believe things about yourself, what you can do, who you are, and what your rights are. There are even religious groups that do that.
They pump up your so-called self-esteem, but they are just pumping you up for the fall.
Why does it pump you up for the fall? Because if you believe the fallacy that blessings mean you are righteous, then trouble means you are judged.
Whenever trouble comes, the world inevitably reacts and says, “Why has God done this to me?” It is because they believe God changes His mind all the time.
We know that God is always the same. It is we in whom the enemy has found ground.
Oswald Chambers said in one of his readings one day, “The only reason I cannot get to God is pride, no matter how humble I seem.”
Are you having trouble in your relationship to God? Do you think it is something other than pride? “The only reason I cannot get to God is pride, no matter how humble I seem.”
Humble ourselves before the Lord, and we will find grace and safety there.
I do not want to end on these negative things about pride. Could we look at our Lord Jesus once again, in Whom the enemy found nothing?
In Luke 10, Jesus sends out the seventy, two by two, into the villages to preach the gospel of the kingdom and perform miracles that would attest the kingdom’s reality.
When the seventy returned in Luke 10:17, they returned with joy, saying:
Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in Thy name.
It was victory. But victory becomes the danger of pride.
Jesus said to them:
I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.
Jesus is saying, “In the spiritual realm, I saw Satan tottering down to the ground because you little people ran out there and preached the gospel.”
Then He said:
Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you.
Nevertheless, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
At that very time, He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. I do not know what He did, but it was visible to all the disciples. He was rejoicing and praising God, and this is what He said:
I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight.
Oh, how the Lord rejoiced at this time. There is our Lord. There can be found no pride in Him. Even this victory did not cause pride in Him.
What did it cause Him to do? Number one: to give thanks, to rejoice.
There is an English word I want to use. I do not know how the Chinese will translate it, but it is a powerful word. One of the antidotes to pride is true gratitude.
One of the things most lacking among us all, is it not, is thankfulness for our brothers and sisters and for where we are.
Do you have an issue against them? There is some pride there. Are you thankful? We have people here, and we are glad you can see all of us. Who are we?
Most of the people here really are seeking the Lord. This is the best the Lord has to work with right now. Please, is that going to make you proud? Not if we see who we are.
But I sure am thankful for my brothers and sisters. I tell you, they love the Lord.
It is a wonderful thing to know that I am saved. It is the bedrock. You can always wake up thanking God for your salvation.
I have often wondered why the song says something that seems redundant: “Give thanks with a grateful heart.” But I find myself giving thanks sometimes not very gratefully.
But true gratitude—an antidote for pride in our lives—surely means every day being thankful for our wives, our children, our jobs, the supply of bread the Lord has given us, the safe trip we had, and the good night’s sleep.
These things are so simple, but they tie us in cords of love with the Lord. True thankfulness.
Disciples, you have come back and gained a victory. But where should you be caught up? “Oh, you should have seen me. I went like this, and the demon jumped out. Oh, that hand—what a powerful hand.”
Jesus says, “No, no, no, no. Be thankful that you are saved. Your names are written up there. Be thankful you are serving in the kingdom.”
Are you thankful that you are serving in the kingdom? Are you thankful? “Oh, what a drudge. I have to go to that assembly one more time. I am taking a gun.”
It is a privilege to serve the Lord. It is a privilege to serve the Lord. Thank God, we should be full of gratitude for all that we have.
Oh, we are such stinkers and so full of pride. We have something against them, something against them, and there is a reason why we do not enjoy even our wives and children. We started the day off wrong.
It starts with gratitude, the most basic root of our saved lives. Get back to that root. Be thankful.
You have something against those people? Thank God they do not have something against you. You deserve it. You deserve to be canned, you and I. But Somebody loves us in spite of ourselves, and it is the grace of God.
It is the first root. If we cannot realize that, we have such great trouble. “Sometimes I get indigestion. Sometimes my car breaks down. Oh, such great trials we suffer.”
Do you get my point? You know what I am saying. How thankful we should be for all that we have. We are all so rich. We are all so blessed. Most of us are healthy.
Even those who are suffering in the area of health have other consolations in the Lord that are so precious. Be thankful. Be thankful.
The second thing is this: whenever there is victory, there has to be glory. Do you understand? Where there is victory, there has to be glory.
But here is the thing: you can take it to yourself, which the disciples were perhaps toying with, or you can give glory to God when there is victory.
What did Jesus do after correcting and helping the disciples? I do not know. I guess He threw His hands up in the air, and He was so full. He said, “Oh God, I am so happy. I give glory to You.”
“You know what I just saw? I saw Satan fall by You using these little people. You hide things from the big shots, and You give little people Your power. Oh, I worship the sovereignty of Your wisdom and Your ways. What a wonderful God. He is sovereign, Lord.”
I do not know how Jesus rejoiced—surely not like that. But I know one thing: He gave God all the glory.
He did not say, “Well, I guess I taught them pretty well, did I not?” As a matter of fact, He brought up a particular thing. He noted how the Lord uses these things to achieve the putting down of Satan. So He gave glory to God.
When there is victory, you have to give glory. But where do we give it? Give glory to God.
Jesus is our perfect example. You could not find anything in Him. No, He was not going to turn stones into bread. God would take care.
No, He was not going to seek the adulation of men. He was not going to wait for everybody to shake His hand and say, “Oh, Jesus, You spoke such a good Sermon on the Mount.” No.
He was not going to grasp anything. He would just do what the Lord wanted Him to do, not go beyond Himself—just do and say what the Father gave Him to do and say.
Oh, may the Lord help us. If we can be cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb, come in humility, and receive the grace that we need, then the enemy cannot find such lodging places as pride in us.
Then we can go after him, draw him out, and gain the victory in spiritual warfare. But it starts right with these things in our lives that the Lord needs to point out to us.
It is very humbling to realize how much pride I have. Somebody corrects me, you know. The Lord always gives me some older sisters to correct me.
I bristle inside and smile on the outside. Then the Lord says, “You know, that person is right.” It brings me back to square one.
The Lord saved us by grace, and we need to stay right there—asking Him every day for His grace, every day for His bread, every day for His forgiveness, every day for His deliverance. That is the only way to live today.
May the Lord help us. He wants to cover us in His righteousness. Oh, confess your sins. If you sense your pride, do not prickle with it. Give it to Him. Humble yourself before God.
Let us ask the Lord to gain the great victory. Satan would come and attack and attack, draw out our pride, tell us how great we are, tell us we do not deserve this, and tell us that we are right while everybody else is wrong. Oh, let us be done with that kind of stuff.
Father, we come unto You, thanking You for the Lord Jesus, in Whom nothing was found by the enemy. Oh, may that be the experience of His church, His people.
Lord, we have this one thing going for us: if we see there is some ground, we can come and ask You, Lord, to take it away—to deal with us by the cross until these things are there no more.
Oh Lord, cleanse us by the precious blood. We do not want to have platforms all over us that the enemy can light upon, speak in our ear, and cause us to have a twisted understanding of what is going on.
No, Lord, no. We want to be found in You, abiding in You, taking You alone as our righteousness, standing and waiting for our reproof, and meanwhile knowing that You will give us everything that we need.
Lord, in this day, let the warfare start with that warfare within. We will have nothing to do with pride anymore. We have been saved by grace.
We thank You, Lord, in Jesus’ name.