Will the Judge do Right?

 My text today is found in Genesis 18:25. The context of this text begins in verse one when three men approach Abraham as he is sitting outside his tent. Conservative theologians are virtually all agreed that two of the men are angelic beings. The third man is the pre-incarnate Christ. Such appearances are usually called ‘Christophanies” – from the Greek combination of two words: ‘Christos’ which means Christ and ‘phainein’ (FAY-nee-en) which means ‘to appear.’ We find Christophanies in Genesis 16:7-10 when the Lord meets Hagar, and again in Judges 6:11-14 when the Lord meets with Gideon, and in Daniel 3:24-25 where we find the fourth man in the blazing furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

 

So, back to the context of chapter 18 and which moves seamlessly into chapter 19. God tells Abraham He is about to destroy Sodom because of the evil He has seen of the city and its environs. You might remember from reading the story yourself, that Lot and his family were living in Sodom at this time. And so, these chapters have a lot to tell us not only about God, but also the chapters hold application to our own lives in 2024, and I might at some time later return to these two chapters. But for today, I want to focus on verse 25.

 

God has just told Abraham what He intends to do to the city, and Abraham – concerned perhaps not only for the entire city, but especially for his nephew Lot and Lot’s family – Abraham speaks to the Lord: (Genesis 18:25, NIV) “Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

 

Listen again to that last sentence: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  Another way of asking it might be, ‘Is God good and right and just at all times, in all circumstances, and in all places?”

 

I want us to pause here a while, because that’s the question all humanity has asked at some time in their lives. And I suspect that there have been – and ARE today – many in church pews and pulpits who ask the same question: Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

 

First, let’s briefly examine who IS the judge? This is so important a question that we dare not gloss over it in my message now. The Judge to whom Abraham spoke and of whom we ask the same question is no other than Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth. The one who with the breath of His mouth set planets in motion. Who with the breath of His mouth instantaneously formed out of nothing all plants and insects and air and sea and land creatures.

 

And why did He do all that? Why did He create everything we see and can’t see? He did it because of His great love and unsurpassed affection for all of humanity which is the crown of His creation. And that includes you and me, by the way.

 

St John tells us, (1 John 4:8b, 10) “God is love . . . . [and] “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 

 

And what is it the Psalmist cried out in the eight Psalm? “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands.” (Psalm 8:3-6a)

 

Oh, we need the Holy Spirit to plant this truth deeply in our souls: God IS love. And I repeat it for emphasis: God is love.

 

Let me try to illustrate that incomprehensible reality it this way: My body has somewhere around 30 TRILLION cells. And every single one of them has an X and Y chromosome. It is that X and Y combination that makes me a male. I can never in ten million years be anything other than a male. My ‘maleness’ is written into my genome.

 

Similarly, every woman in this room and on this planet as two X chromosomes written into all 30 trillion of their cells. It is those two X chromosomes that make you a female. You can never be any other gender than what God made you at your conception.

 

And so, when God tells us He IS love, that means (to use human illustrations to try to explain the Divine) that means ‘love’ is written – so to speak – into God’s very BEING. He can never be anything other than Love. And therefore, it is IMPOSSIBLE for Him to DO anything or to PERMIT anything into our lives unless it is based in His love. That includes His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah as we find it in Genesis 19.

 

Yet, it many in history, and even today in many pews and pulpits, have believed and believe something quite different about God. Instead of a loving and merciful Father, they perceive God as an austere inquisitor; A no-nonsense Being who always scans the earth, waiting for someone to mess up so He can toss His lightning bolts around.

 

Even the Twelve Disciples had a perverted idea of God. You might remember their question of Jesus when they encountered the man who’d been born blind. They asked Jesus: (John 9:2b-3) “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” 

 

It's the same corrupted idea of God that Job’s three ‘counsellors’ had. Early in the story Eliphaz accused the suffering Job: (Job 4:7-8) “Whoever perished being innocent? Or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it.”

 

Now, let’s pause a moment here to make some clarification. I am NOT saying God does not judge and punish sin. I am NOT saying God will not discipline the sinner – even up to and including death. We see that truth evidenced throughout Holy Scripture, including the passage in 1 Corinthians 11 that I shared with us all last week surrounding the receiving of Holy Communion in an unworthy manner. So, yes, God WILL judge sin. God MUST judge sin. Otherwise, He would not be love itself, nor would He be just. Nor holy.

 

But that might beg the question: HOW does His judgment on sin – even to include death of the sinner – demonstrate love?  Well, perhaps I can illustrate the answer to that question this way: Which of you would stand idly by and let your child be murdered? Would you not do everything in your power – including killing the one who was trying to destroy your child – would you not do everything in your power to protect him or her?  Of course, you would. And why? Because you LOVE your child. And so, God – who IS love – does whatever is necessary to protect His beloved – up to and including the death of those who would destroy them.

 

The idea of God as an inquisitor is as far from Biblical truth as east is from west. The truth of the matter, if we are to fully believe His word, is that God is always, and under all circumstances, compassionate, merciful, and . . .  well, love itself.

 

And after our lives are over, we will fully recognize what we cannot in this life fully understand: Nails did not hold Jesus to that cross. Love did. Consider what would be our inescapable fate if Jesus had become disillusioned by the mob at the foot of the cross. Many of them, only days earlier during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, many had hailed Him as the coming king. But now they were clamoring for his torturous death.

 

But back to the question: Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?

 

I don’t think anyone here knows what I am about to say because I rarely talk about it. But the theme of my message today makes this a good time to talk about it:

 

I am in pain every waking moment; From the time I get out of bed in the morning to the time I go back to bed, hoping for a good night’s sleep. I’ve had this terrible back pain for many years. And sadly, I know many of you can identify with what I am saying because you also live with constant and chronic pain. And you also know how exhausting on the body and on the spirits constant pain can be.

 

My point? Last week near dinner time, my pain level was hovering around seven out of ten, despite having taken my prescription pain medication. I said to Nancy, “I am so very tired of this pain. I can’t hardly stand it sometimes.”

 

Her face reflected empathy, and she said what I immediately knew was the voice of God. She told me to remember Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh.’ And then she added, “Thorns hurt.”

 

Even as she was speaking, my mind took me to 2 Corinthians (12:8-10) where Paul confessed to his readers: “Concerning this [thorn] I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

 

And from there, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Paul’s comment to the Christians at Philippi. Writing as a prisoner of Rome for the sake of the gospel, he wrote: “I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:20b-21)

 

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Of COURSE, the God who IS love will do right – even when we do not understand the ‘whys’ of what happens around us or to us.

 

By now, most of you know Roger. I don’t think I will ever forget our introduction.  Roger shook my hand and the first words out of his mouth were these: I’m Roger, and I’m dying.”

 

As many of you know, Roger has stage four cancer. He knows his time on earth is short. But because he knows that he is dying, his spirit was open to questions of eternity. We spoke later that afternoon, and I baptized him last month on September 1. And while Roger knows his earthly life has been shortened by a disease spawned in hell itself, he now knows his eternal life is ensured by the blood of Jesus in whom he has placed his faith.

 

Certainly, he’s fighting his cancer. Certainly, he pleads with all of us for our ongoing prayers for strength and encouragement, and of course, healing – if that be God's will for him in this time. But one might ask, did God give Roger cancer? Did God give me chronic back pain? Did God give YOU whatever is the physical trouble with which you suffer? Did God give the apostle Paul that thorn in his flesh?

 

We know God is utterly sovereign over all the affairs of nations and people AND individuals. But whether our illnesses or injuries or whatever – whether such things are God's PASSIVE will for us (as in the case of Job where He permitted Satan to afflict the man), or whether He actively brings such things into our lives – we MUST know, we MUST remember these two eternal and never changing truths:

 

1) God is love. It is impossible for Him to act in any way other than with, in, and through love.

 

2), Our omnipotent and utterly sovereign Father, who controls the end from the beginning, who never blinks, who always acts in love – our God will ALWAYS cause ALL things that come into the lives of those who belong to Him by their baptismal faith – He will always cause all things to work together for good.  Always. At all times, in all situations, and in all circumstances.

 

Isn’t that what He tells us in Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome: (Romans 8:28) “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

 

And isn’t that what the Psalmist alluded to when he wrote: (Psalm 119:67) “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your word.”  And again in that same chapter (119:75) “I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

 

As I begin to bring this message to a close, I want to remind us of something Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth as he began his second letter. This is the same letter in which Paul told them of his thorn. Listen to what he said in chapter one of this letter: (2 Corinthians 1:3ff)

 

 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" 

 

Listen also to what he wrote to the Philippians: (Philippians 1:20-21) “I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

 

I do not know WHY my back pain gets so bad sometimes I can hardly think of anything else. And yes, I am so grateful to God that I have access to medication that helps mitigate the pain. Nor do I know why YOU have such chronic pain or illnesses that sometimes it’s all you can think about.

 

But will not the Judge of all the earth always do right? And don’t we all want to proclaim as Paul proclaimed: Whether by life or by death, Christ will be glorified in our body. Whether suffering a painful thorn or a debilitating illness – Christ will be exalted. Whether in prosperity or need, we want Christ to be exalted.

 

What is it again He told Paul who asked Him THREE times to remove that thorn? “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

 

Oh! We have to get that. Our strength in Christ, our fruitfulness for Christ, our FAITHFULNESS for Christ is perfected by our weaknesses because – and ONLY because – of God's grace.

 

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? It was Job who said – the same Job who in one moment lost his ten children and his fortune – and then shortly thereafter lost his health to excruciating sores all over his body – it was Job who looked toward heaven and shouted: (Job 13:15) “Though He slay me, I will trust in Him.”

 

It was the same Job who also looked at his three phony counsellors and said: “But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” (Job 6:10)

 

That is a message for me. And you. And for all in the pews and the pulpits who sometimes wonder, “Shall not the Judge of the whole earth do right?”

 

Christian!  Stay in the fight. Persevere through the ‘fog of war’ as it is called. Keep seeking the Lord. Keep chasing after the Lord as a child lost in a supermarket calls out for Mommy until she rushes to him, picks him up and embraces him in her arms.

 

The Judge of all the earth is Love itself. And He will always, always do right, at all times, in every circumstance, and in every situation.

 

Hang in there. We WILL understand it all ‘By and By.”

 

Walk Blamelessly

Sermon October 6, 2024

Walk Blamelessly

 

 

As we continue moving through Genesis, I am using the first verses of Genesis 17 as my primary text. But before I read it, let me give you some background, and admittedly what I am about to say is a VERY brief overview of chapters 12-16. I hope you will read the narrative yourself sometime today.

 

In chapter 12, God told Abram to leave his home and move to a land He would show him. And so (verses 5: “Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated . . . and they set out for the land of Canaan.”

 

In chapter 13, Abram and Lot separate because they had so many livestock between them that they needed more grazing land. Lot took his herds and family to settle in Sodom. Chapter 14 tells us Abram rescued Lot and his family when they were taken captive during the war of the five kings.

 

That brings us to chapter 15 in which God told Abram that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in heaven. At this point, Moses tells us that Abram believed God, and God credited it to him as righteousness. (See 15:6).

 

But after 13 years, Abram and Sarai remained childless. And I want to reiterate here some important factoids: It was 25 years since God first spoke to Abram. It was now ten years since God promised Abram a descendant through his wife. And perhaps he, along with Sarai, thought they’d misunderstood God. After all, Sarai was now well past menopause, and we know from her laughter recorded in chapter 18 that Sarah did not believe she’d ever become pregnant.

 

But for now in our story, after ten long years had passed without her pregnancy, Sarai told Abram to go into her maid, Hagar, so she could have a child through her maid – a very common practice in that culture.

Which now brings us to chapter 17. Here is today’s text: “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”

 

In this chapter God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. So now, let’s go back to verse one, and what I have to say about the last part of this verse is extremely important to each of us in this sanctuary – including the one standing behind this pulpit. So, please hear me as I repeat the text:

 

God told Abram – the one who had followed Him for 25 years, who certainly made his share of errors and had his share of doubts for all those long decades – God told Him: “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me and be blameless.”

 

I want us to stop now for a moment and focus on a critically important point in this short text: God did not make a request of Abram to walk blamelessly before Him. It was not a suggestion. It was not a recommendation. It was a command: “Walk before Me and be blameless.”

 

Perhaps one reason God prefaced His command with the introduction, “I am God Almighty,” was to emphasize to Abram – AND also to all who would read this story down through the millennia – it was to emphasize that our Almighty Creator is the One who commands each man and woman on this planet to walk blamelessly before Him. The Creator has every right to DEMAND of us that we walk blamelessly before Him.

 

And because He is the Almighty God, He ALSO has the right to DISCIPLINE and, yes, to PUNISH anyone who chooses not to walk blamelessly. And that includes you and me. Indeed, we live very dangerously when we do not EXPECT God to discipline us if don’t walk as He commands us to walk.

 

Now, I’m not talking about stumbling into sin now and then and from which we repent. No, I am not talking about that. What I am talking about now are the persistent and ongoing choices we make to disobey God's commandments – ALL of them. As He tells us in 1 John 3:7b-8, “The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

 

No wonder the Holy Spirit tells us in that same chapter of 1 John 3:2b-3, “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

 

And He tells us through St Paul’s pen: (2 Corinthians 7:1) “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
 
Christian – please hear this. This is important. When we persist in sin, when we make excuses for our sin, when we refuse to repent from our sin – we should EXPECT discipline from our Holy God to range from the ‘slap on the hand’ – so to speak, to severe punishment; Even death itself.  

 

PLEASE listen to Scripture’s warning through Paul to the Christians at Corinth. The context is holy communion: (1 Corinthians 11:27-30) “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.”  ‘Sleep’ here is a euphemism for ‘death.’

 

There should be no doubt why the writer to the Hebrews also warned his readers: (Hebrews 10:26-27, 31) “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. . . .  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

 

Have our pastors spoken in the last two or three generations so much about God‘s love that we have forgotten that God is a holy God. He is a JUST God. He is a WRATHFUL God who NEVER winks at sin, especially when sin is done by those who profess to call Christ their Lord.

It should go without saying that God is not a capricious Creator. He is not an arrogant God. Or egotistical. Or narcissistic. He is Love itself. He is compassionate. Merciful. And so, when He commands us to walk in holiness before Him, He does so because He loves us. And He tells us:

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). And while God prefers that we obey Him out of love, He nevertheless requires obedience from us BECAUSE HE HAS THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT to require it of His creatures.

 

You have heard it said, I am sure, just as I have heard time and time again that the ‘fear of the Lord’ does not really mean ‘fear’ as we define the emotion. They say it means a ‘deep reverence’ for God. And yes, the context in both the old and new testaments often suggests a deep reverential fear of the Almighty. But as is ALWAYS the case when we interpret Scripture, CONTEXT is vital to our ability to properly understand a text.

 

So, for example, when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, he tells us in Exodus 20:18-20 - “All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.” 

 

It should be clear from this context that the word ‘fear’ means exactly as we might expect it to me – ‘to be afraid’ of God.  And why should they be afraid of God?  Look at that last clause: So that they may not sin.

 

The same is true of Isaiah 8:13 when God says through the prophet: “It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.”

 

Listen my brothers and sisters, we simply have GOT to get this. God is serious when He tells us to walk blamelessly before Him. He certainly says it often enough that the point should be crystal clear. The apostle Paul writes to the Christians at Corinth: (2 Corinthians 7:1) “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

 

Perfecting holiness in the fear or God – which begs the question, doesn’t it? HOW do we perfect holiness? Well, the answer is quite simple: Stop sinning. Listen again to Paul writing by the Holy Spirit: (1 Corinthians 15:34) “Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

 

Walk blamelessly before Almighty God. Make a conscious effort every day to stop sinning. For example, one of the most vulnerable parts of the Christian’s spiritual armor is the tongue. Listen to St. James: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” 

 

James continues in chapter three of his epistle: (James 3:6-9)  “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell . . . . [the tongue] a restless evil and full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God.”

 

Which should bring up an uncomfortable point about tongue and gossip. Listen to this indictment by the Holy Spirit through Paul’s pen (Romans 1:28-30) “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil . . . .”

 

Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Walking blameless before our Creator. But beyond the tongue are a slew of other sins that so easily trip us up. Sexual immorality certainly tops the list for most people – regardless of our age and health. And you know, if you know your Bible, that it matters not in the least if sin with our body or with our mind – it is still adultery, or fornication, or perversion. You’ll find that warning in Matthew 5:27-28.

 

And then there is the sin of ‘unforgiveness.’ It is a rare, rare person indeed who does not struggle with this offense against God. “Forgive us our debts, - we ask the Lord when we recite the Lord’s Prayer – “as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  But we rarely ALSO recite what Jesus says two verses later in verse 14: “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

 

And please hear this also, because I have great fear for some in church pews across the country.

 

We have an election coming up and if we think that it is not a sin to vote for people who promote the amputation of young girls’ breasts because they think they want to be boys, then we do not know the Holy Jesus of the Bible. If we think it is not a sin to vote for people who would amputate young boys’ genitals because they think they want to be girls, then we do not know the Holy Jesus of the Bible. If we think it is not a sin to vote for people who strive to make abortion the constitutional law of the country, if we think it’s fine to vote for people who bring Drag Queens into kindergartens to corrupt the morals of young children, then we do not know the Holy Jesus of the Bible. What we know is an imaginative Jesus. A make-believe Jesus. A lie straight from hell itself and one which, if we fall for it, will drag us into hell.

 

God is very, very serious about our walk of holiness. But – and I now bring this message to a close with these words – I must also remind us that God is equally serious about His forgiveness of the penitent, the ones who sin, then confess and repent of their sin and strive to continue to walk blameless walk before Him.  

 

That’s what the sacrificial atoning death of Jesus is all about – to divert the Father’s wrath against your sin and my sin onto Jesus, so that the one who repents of his or her sins and strives to walk blameless before our Holy Creator may receive full, complete, and everlasting forgiveness of those sins.

 

I will close this message this way – and please hear this. Please BELIEVE this: God is the God of the second chance. And the third. And the tenth. And the thousandth chance. He is not wishing that you nor I perish in a forever hellish torment. No, our Creator, who DEMANDS we walk in holiness before Him – our Almighty and merciful Creator wants us all to be with Him forever in eternity.

 

God told Abram – as He tells us in this sanctuary – “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.” And God is very serious about that command. May He burn that truth today into our very souls. Amen.

Hidden Pride

Hidden Forms of Pride –

And What to do About Them

 

My text today comes from Genesis 11. It’s the story about the Tower of Bable. Listen please as I read. As always, you have the text in your handout:

 

“Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

 

We could unpack this text and spend a lot of time talking about the truths embedded in this section of Genesis; But for today, I want us to focus on the motive of these men of Babel for building that tower. It was this: “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.”

 

Their motive? Pride. Plain, simple, clear, uncomplicated. Pride.

 

But as I prepared this message, I discovered something about myself that I’d not realized was so deeply buried in my heart. And what is that? Yes – pride.

 

It is as Jeremiah warned: (17:9) “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” And the Psalmist prayed: (Psalm 19:12) “Who can discern their own errors?”

 

And, listen – If I have been able to hide my sinful pride from myself, it’s possible some of you here might be doing the same thing. So, I bring this text to our attention for our own personal consideration and thought. After all, we want, as Paul urged Timothy, to “discipline [ourselves] for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7)

 

We’ve spent the last several weeks looking at what it means to ‘discipline ourselves for godliness.’ As faithful followers of Christ, we want to pay close attention to St John’s plea to us in his first epistle: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

 

Christian – we know intuitively that we ought to walk as He walked. We know intuitively that we ought to adjust our lifestyles to reflect His. And we know from the Scriptures that God calls us to discipline ourselves for godliness, to purify ourselves as we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and perfector of our faith.

 

I would guess the average age in this sanctuary circles around 75 years old. And at our stage in life, it will come as no surprise when I remind us that ‘pride’ will destroy us. It ruins relationships. It destroys families. It will eventually take one’s life. We’ve seen it happen to others in our years of experience, and some of us can sadly testify how it has ruined our own lives in the past.

 

As we have seen already in these early chapters of Genesis, pride was at the root of Eve’s sin when she ate from the forbidden tree. She believed Satan’s lie that she’d become like God. Pride was the reason Cain, out of jealousy, killed his brother, Abel. Pride seduced Lamech to boast about killing a young boy for wounding him and a man for striking him. In Babel, it was pride that motivated them to build a tower, so they’d make a name for themselves.

 

And don’t we all know that it is pride that keeps people from the Savior? For good reason the Lord warned His listeners: (Mark 2:17) “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”? If we like to think of ourselves as virtuous, as moral, as worthy of God's pleasure, if we’re too proud to admit that our sins – ANY of our sins – are worthy of eternal damnation, then we’ll never admit to ourselves – or to God – that we desperately need a Savior.

 

Solomon warned: (Proverbs 16:18) “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Several centuries later, another Jewish writer wrote these wise words of sober warning: “Pride is like a fountain pouring out sin, and whoever persists in it will be full of wickedness.” (Sirach 10:13, GNT).  

 

As damnably dangerous as pride is, I think its subtlety is sometimes equally hard to spot. Why is that?  Well, as Jeremiah reminds us in that text I quoted a few minutes ago, our hearts are more deceptive than all else. As a result, pride distorts our spiritual eyesight, so much so that we don’t realize the Lord’s warning to the Christians in the church at Laodicea also applies to us: (Revelation 3:17-19) “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me . . . . eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore, be zealous and repent.”

 

Those in the city of Babel built their tower because they wanted to make a name for themselves. But we should be careful about pointing fingers at them, and others, who let pride rule their lives and lifestyles. We should be careful about doing so because it is just as likely that we are expertly hiding from ourselves the same sins. Our pride – hidden or not-so-hidden – might not manifest itself as openly as those in this 11^th chapter of Genesis, but the results of our pride, if left unchanged in our hearts, will lead to the same result of judgment.

 

My research for this message led me to a number of online sites that list some attitudes we might hold that give evidence of unhealthy pride. I’ve limited the list to only thirteen – a baker’s dozen. I’m including them in your handout so you can review them yourself later on.

 

1. Are we critical of others – for example, the way they speak, the way they dress, the way they eat, their backgrounds, their schooling (or lack of it), and so forth?

2. Do we worry how others think of us more than how God thinks us?

3. Do we think we know God as well as we need to know Him?

4. Do we think we know the Bible as well as we need to know it?

5. Do we usually reject the honest criticism of others?

6. Do we neglect the genuine physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial needs of others when we are able to assist?

7. Do we usually need to be the focus of attention?

8. Are we often jealous of others?

9. Do we justify and rationalize our sins against God instead of repenting?

10. Are we reluctant to apologize to others when we’ve sinned against them?

11. Are we easily offended, angered, or get our feelings hurt?  

12. Are we reluctant to accept the help of others – whether practical or spiritual?

13. Do we spend undue attention, money, and effort to avoid the appearance of aging?

 

As I said earlier, pride is such a slithery sin that easily hides itself in our hearts under the cover of self-rationalization and self-deception. But Jesus deserves far better than our cover-ups, doesn’t He?

 

I’ve told some of you of my own recent battle against my pride. It happened last October when I was walking our two dogs by our neighbor’s house. He was sitting on his porch waiting for me. When I passed, he ordered me to pick up the dog excrement someone had left on the grass by his curb. I told him it wasn’t from my dogs, but he insisted it was. He then stood up, walked toward me and again ordered me to pick up the mess near his curb.

 

That’s when my anger started boiling up, and in my early days I’d have actually gotten into a fistfight with the guy – over what? A pile of dog excrement and my offended pride?

 

Long story short, we settled the issue on a positive note when he realized I was telling the truth about my dogs. But my point is this: I had for DECADES successfully hidden and rationalized my pride that results in being easily angered. But on that day in October of last year, God revealed to me how my pride is so very close to the surface – and how that pride is not only wrong, it is sinful.

 

The Holy Spirit revealed to me once again that I desperately need a change in my heart. I’m a Christian, one who is supposed to follow AND act like Christ. And as a Christian I represent Jesus Christ to a world fatally diseased by sin. What kind of a testimony for Christ would I have been if I’d let my pride-driven anger bring us to a fistfight?

 

And, by the way, what kind of testimony for Christ would YOU be if you let your own pride-driven anger or jealousy, or negative criticism and gossip bring you to unkind words toward someone sitting at another table in the dining room?

 

Christian, we simply CANNOT be – we MUST NOT live with the attitude popularized by the Sammy Davis, Jr song: “I Gotta be Me.”

 

“Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong/Whether I find a place in this world or never belong/I gotta be me, I've gotta be me/What else can I be but what I am.”

 

Christian – don’t fall for that demonic tripe. We gotta be what GOD created us to be – and that is the image of Jesus.

So, how do we successfully overcome that slippery sin that shows up in multiple ways? It is to that question that I now devote the remainder of this message. And it is to that question that I offer some recommendations that I believe can guide us closer toward the holy lifestyle we all want.

 

First: If your conscience has been pricked by any of the things I just listed in this baker’s dozen, then the first thing to do is to thank God for that revelation. Thank God that He’s opened your eyes to how the many different forms of pride have infected your heart – as they have infected mine, for unless He shows us the SPECIFIC areas of our lives where we offend Him, how can we repent and seek His cleansing and change?

 

Which brings us to the second recommendation as to how we can walk more intimately with Christ in the holy lifestyle we all want. And that recommendation is this: Once He shows us the specific forms of pride that have hidden themselves in our hearts, we must then ask the Holy Spirit to do whatever it takes to change our hearts. 

 

Whatever. It. Takes.

 

Do not expect this to be an easy thing to do – to LET God do whatever is necessary to change our hearts. Our flesh will immediately and steadily argue and fight against it. As the apostle recognized in his letter to the Christians at Rome: (Romans 8:6-8) “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

 

But those who are SERIOUS about pleasing God, for those who are SERIOUS about letting Him root out sin in our lives in whatever form it may take, then fighting against our fleshly nature is something in which we must persevere.

 

Some of you might remember the lyrics of this song – lyrics which speak directly to this point of letting God change our hearts:

 

There’s a voice calling me from an old rugged tree/And it whispers, “Draw closer to Me/Leave your world far behind/There are new heights to climb/And a new life in Me you will find”/For whatever it takes to draw closer to You, Lord/That’s what I’ll be willing to do/And whatever it takes to be more like You/That’s what I’ll be willing to do.

Take the dearest things to me/If that’s how it must be to draw me closer to You/Let my disappointments come/Lonely days without the sun/If in sorrow more like You I’ll become/I’ll trade sunshine for rain, comfort for pain/That’s what I’ll be willing to do/For whatever it takes for my will to break/That’s what I’ll be willing to do/That’s what I’ll be willing to do.

 

Am I critical of others? Then I need to keep asking the Holy Spirit to ‘ping’ my conscience every time I slip into that form of pride. Am I jealous of others – their successes, their popularity, their appearance, their ‘whatever’?  Then I need to keep asking the Holy Spirit to root out that form of pride from my heart. Am I more concerned about how others think of me than how God thinks of me? Am I generally reluctant to let people know I need help? Am I easily offended by others?

 

Christian! How many of the things in that Baker’s Dozen list of evidences of pride apply to you? Quite a few apply to me. OH! How we so desperately and urgently need the Holy Spirit to ping our conscience every time we fall short of His holiness! Whatever in that list applies to us – we need to keep asking the Holy Spirit to do whatever it takes to make us more like Jesus.

 

Those who built the tower of Babel did so “to make a name” for themselves. But the Lord Jesus came to make a name – so to speak – for His Father. For example, here is John 12:27-28a: “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”

 

Pride – in whatever form it takes – if we let it remain unconverted by the Holy Spirit – pride will damage us and our relationships. It might even kill us. That is why it is GOOD when the Holy Spirit reveals to us our hidden sins. In so doing He gives us the opportunity to repent and give it to our God for cleansing.

 

I close this message with a text from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi: (Philippians 2:3-8) “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

 

Oh, may God the Holy Spirit continue to mold us more and more perfectly into the image of Christ. Amen.