Seven Things God Hates - Part 2

Proverbs 6:16 these six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: Proverbs 6:17 a proud look. A proud look. Now all sin is hateful to God, and all the sins in this list we want to avoid, but it's interesting that God puts pride first. Seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look. Even before a lying tongue, even before murder, even before wicked imaginations. A proud look. I wonder if you and I, if we were going to classify sin, would put pride first. 

You know, when you examine the lives of great people in the Bible, you see that pride crept in and did some damage, some serious damage. Take the life of Moses, for example. Early in Moses' career, before he was really called of God, he murdered a man. And we would say that's a terrible sin, and it is a terrible sin. God does not like the sin of murder. But later on in his life, Moses got proud, lost his temper, struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock, and God answered the need. God gave the water, but God said, "Moses, you were proud. You didn't sanctify Me before the people. You are not going into the Promised Land." Now, God didn't say, "Moses, you murdered a man, therefore you aren't going into the Promised Land." No, He said, "You were proud. You didn't sanctify Me. You didn't glorify Me. You lost your temper, and therefore I can't let you go into the Promised Land." 

Or take David. People like to talk about David's great sin of adultery. If my calculations are correct, because of David's sin of adultery, at least four people in his family died. But one day David numbered the people. He got proud and said, "I wonder how many people we have. I wonder how I can issue a press release telling how great I am and how great our nation is." And so he had Joab number the people. And because of that, 70,000 people died. Now, if you're going to pick out David's greatest sin, would it be the adultery with Bathsheba or would it be numbering the people, a sin of pride? Now, once again, David paid for that adultery, and that adultery was wrong. It was wicked. But when he numbered the people and acted in pride, he caused a lot more damage. 

I don't think we put pride in its proper place on the listing of sin. Or you take the parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus gave the parable of the Prodigal Son to talk about the elder brother. The Prodigal Son was guilty of sins of the flesh, but the elder brother was guilty of sins of the spirit. He was proud. He wouldn't talk to his brother, wouldn't forgive his brother, wouldn't go into the party. His father had to come out and plead with him to come in. The sin of pride.

God puts pride first. Now, let me suggest some reasons why God especially hates pride and why He puts the sin of pride first on the list. Number one, pride was the first sin. The first sin to enter God's universe was the sin of pride. Isaiah 14:12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! I believe he's talking here about the fall of Satan.

God apparently created this marvelous being and let him be the head over His angelic hosts. And what happened? Pride got in. Isaiah 14:13: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Now, initially, the prophet Isaiah is talking about an earthly ruler who rebelled against God, but behind that, we see Satan. There was a time when Lucifer said in his heart, "I will be like the most High. I will be like God. I will be God." 

And this, of course, is the sin of pride. Whenever you and I find ourselves saying, "I will," God may come along and say, "You won't." My Lord in the garden said, "Not my will, but thy will be done." The first sin recorded in the Word of God as far as history is concerned was when Lucifer, that bright and morning star, that son of the morning, Lucifer became proud, rebelled against God, and he became Satan, the great enemy of God. 

Now, he was not content to stop there. He brought that same sin into the garden. What is the first sin of the human race? Well, it is the sin of pride. Genesis 3:1 you know the story, but let's review it. Satan comes to the woman and says, "Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"

Now, he was doing two things there. Number one, he was questioning the goodness of God. If God were really good to you, if God really loved you, He would not prohibit you from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He would not stop you. So obviously God is not good to you.

Secondly, God can't be trusted. "Yea, hath God said?" Can you really believe what He says? Did God really say that? The woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Now, God did not say "lest ye die." God said "ye shall surely die." 

And the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die." First he questions God's Word, then he denies God's Word, now he substitutes his own lie. And this lie caters to her pride. "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." What did Satan say? "I will be as the most High." What does he say to Eve? "You shall be as God." That is the sin that has brought more ruin than any other sin, the sin of pride. The sin of pride means "I will be my own God." 

Paul talks about this in Romans chapter one. He describes the decline of the human race. He's not talking here about evolution, he's talking about devolution. Man knew the truth about God. Man did not want to hold on to the truth about God. Romans 1:25: who changed the truth of God into a lie. Now, what is that lie? And worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. In other words, this is the great lie, the great pride lie: "I am my own God. I'm going to worship and serve the creature, not the Creator." Man becomes God. This is the sin of humanism, isn't it? Man becomes God. Glory to man in the highest, and let's not worry too much about God. 

And so Satan came along and said to Eve, "You really can do better. You can become as God. You shall be as God." That's pride. It started in the heart of Lucifer, it was transferred to the mind and heart of Eve, she gave it to Adam, Adam sinned and plunged the whole human race into condemnation and death. Where did it start? It started with pride. God puts pride first on His list in Proverbs 6:17, a proud look, because pride was the first sin. 

Now, I think there's a second reason. Pride is the first step toward every sin. I really believe that the essence of sin is pride that leads to rebellion. Sin is lawlessness, rebellion. "I will not submit to the authority of God." Now, anyone who says, "I will not submit to the authority of God," is saying, "I am my own authority. I can run my own life. I can do my own thing. I don't need God." 

Just take this list in Proverbs chapter six and see what pride will do. A proud look, a lying tongue. When people are proud, they will lie. Cain did that. Cain killed his brother Abel. God came along and said, "Where is your brother?" He said, "I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?" He lied. He was a liar and a murderer.

Now, pride will lead to lying. When we humble ourselves, confess our sins, and repent, that's one thing. But when pride says, "Wait a minute, don't humble yourselves before those people. Why, they're no better than you are. Why should you tell them you made a mistake? Why should you admit that you have sinned? No, keep it to yourself and lie about it." Pride leads to lying. 

I think of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter five. They wanted to have recognition. They wanted to be known as generous donors. And so they sold a piece of property, kept back some of the money, gave the rest of the money to the Lord, but they acted as though they were giving their all. Remember, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was not the sin of taking money from God. It was the sin of trying to make people think they were more spiritual than they really were. Pride led to lying. 

Now, pride also leads to murder. Hands that shed innocent blood. David committed adultery. He would not admit his sin. Instead, he killed the husband and married the wife. Pride did that. Pride says, "You can get out of this." Pride says, "Now, here is a scheme whereby you can extricate yourself from this difficulty," which leads to the next thing: a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. Pride leads to scheming.

Now, David did some of that, didn't he? He tried to scheme to make Uriah go home to his wife. He made Uriah drunk. Finally, when he saw he could not do anything about the sin he'd committed, he couldn't make Uriah get involved, he puts him into the heat of the battle and has him killed. Scheming. Faith and scheming don't go together, do they? Faith means living without scheming. But when you're proud, you'll scheme so you don't have to face up to what you have done. 

Feet that be swift in running to mischief. When we're proud, it's amazing how much energy we can put into hurting others and hiding ourselves. A false witness that speaketh lies. Here you have official lying on the witness stand, false witnesses. I think of Ahab who wanted Naboth's vineyard, and he got false witnesses. I think of the priests and the members of the Sanhedrin who hired false witnesses against the Lord Jesus. Why? Pride. 

And of course, the result of all of this is he that soweth discord among brethren. You bring pride into a family, you'll have division. You bring pride into a Sunday school class, a church, you'll have division. My, in my years of ministry, the heartache I have seen in churches because of pride. Someone who didn't get enough recognition. Someone who was not elected or appointed to office. A Sunday school class that was asked to move to a different room and they were too proud to move. I recall one church where the Sunday school class sued the church. Now, these things ought not so to be. We are the people of God. Pride is the first step toward every sin. 

Take the Ten Commandments. Pride will lead to the breaking of every one of the Ten Commandments. If you are proud, you will not worship the one God. You'll be your own God. If you are proud, you will have idols. You'll make your own God. If you're proud, you'll take the name of the Lord in vain. If you're proud, you will not honor your father and mother. Pride leads to murder. Pride leads to adultery. Pride leads to stealing, false witness, coveting. Every one of the Ten Commandments can be broken, but it starts with pride. 

There's a third reason, I think, why God puts pride first. Pride was the first sin, and pride is the first step toward every sin. It dethrones God. And thirdly, pride hinders us from fulfilling our first responsibility. What is our first responsibility? To glorify God. This is what the Old Westminster Catechism said, that God created us that we might glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. And that starts right now. Now, the humanist says, "Oh no, you glorify man, you glorify yourself." But God says, "No, I want you to glorify Me. I have created you for My glory." 

Romans 1:25: who changed or exchanged the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Now, this is pride. Our first responsibility is to glorify God. John the Baptist said, "He must increase, I must decrease." Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. That's so important in our ministries, isn't it? It's too bad when ministry becomes a performance, when a singer is praised instead of God being praised, when a preacher is praised instead of God being praised. Now, we certainly ought to honor God's servants, no question about that. Those who are faithful ought to be honored, but God gets the glory. God will give you anything, but He won't give you His glory. God is jealous of His glory, and pride hinders us from fulfilling our first responsibility, which is to glorify God. 

I think there's a fourth reason why God puts pride first on the list. Pride robs us of our first and our greatest need. You say, well, what is our first and greatest need? Grace. 1 Peter 5:5: Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. That's 1 Peter 5:5. It's a quotation from the Psalms. God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. My first need is grace. I'm saved by grace. I can only serve by grace. I cannot live by law or by my own strength. I can only live and serve and labor and witness by the grace of God. 

Now, God resisteth the proud. That statement is proved all through the Word of God. You find pride, God resists it. God resisted the proud Pharaoh in Egypt and He broke him. And God has resisted all rulers who have rebelled against Him. God resists His people when they rebel against Him. He gives grace to the humble. Now, when you live by grace, you're a part of the blessing. When you live by pride, you're a part of the problem. There are too many churches today where people are creating problems because of pride. 

3 John 1:9, in that little letter that we call Third John, the apostle John talks about a fellow named Diotrephes. 3 John 1:9: I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Diotrephes was practicing an extreme form of separation. He wouldn't even receive the apostle John. He wouldn't let the church hear the letter that John had written. And Diotrephes was a proud man. My Bible says that in all things Christ might have the preeminence. Pride robs us of our first and our greatest need, which is grace. You see, when we're humbled before God, we realize how much we need the grace of God. But when we're proud before God, God resists us. He cannot give us grace. 

Here then are four good reasons why pride is number one on the list. Pride was the first sin. Lucifer committed it and then he shared it with Adam and Eve. Pride is the first step toward every sin. If you're proud, you'll do anything against the will of God. Pride hinders us from fulfilling our first responsibility, which is to glorify God. And pride robs us of our first and our greatest need, the grace of God. 1 Peter 5:5: God resisteth the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. 

Now, notice that he talks about a proud look. What is in our hearts shows up in our voices and on our faces. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and out of the abundance of the heart, the eyes look. A proud look, a haughty look. Looking down upon everybody else. Not being willing to accept others as your equal. Not admitting that we are sinners like everybody else. 

Well, let's make some tests of our own lives. Let's find out whether or not there is pride in our hearts. For example, are we unhappy when we are unnoticed? Do we like to have attention? That's pride. Do we rejoice when others are hurt and are we unhappy when others succeed? That's pride. Do we have in our hearts malice and criticism against others that we've not dealt with? That's pride. Are we consistently critical? Do we go away from church or Sunday school class just being critical? That's pride. 

Are we a part of the problem in our church, in our family, or are we a part of the blessing? When we show up, are things better or are they worse? When we get up in a business meeting and make a speech, does it solve problems or create problems? That's pride if we're creating problems. Do I worry about what people say about me? That's pride. Do I depend on God's grace or do I feel very self-sufficient to get the job done? If I feel self-sufficient, that's pride. 

How do I respond when I've made a mistake, when I've sinned? When someone comes and lovingly rebukes me or tells me I did wrong, how do I respond? Do I try to excuse myself? Do I cover up, or do I lovingly say, "Well, thank you. Thank you.