Sermon Transcript

0:00:00.0

Well, victory is always sweeter than defeat. We know that, don't we? That's true in life. It is also true in sports. As many of you know, my kids grew up as athletes. And I remember way back when my daughter Caroline was very young, we registered her for a basketball league. And I remember it was one of those leagues that said there are no winners and losers. In fact, everybody is going to get a trophy, and we don't keep score. And I remember when I heard that, I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. We don't keep score in this league? But okay. She was just getting started in basketball, and the girls were learning the game. But I'm a rather competitive guy, so I downloaded a scoreboard onto my phone. And I just, kind of, quietly sat there in the stands keeping score and keeping a record of how many points my daughter scored. Because, see, one of the things that they said was, "If your daughter dominates too much on the floor, we're going to take the ball away from her and give it to somebody else." Okay. It was a place to start, right?

0:01:10.9

But after the first game, I couldn't contain myself. I came up to my daughter after the game, and I said, "You guys blew them out of the water." And I gave her the score. And I said, "And you scored 52 points." I think everybody else on both teams went to play in the band after that, which is a good thing to do. But my kids never could sing, dance or play an instrument, so we handed them a ball. And they did pretty well with that. But I tried to use my inside voice when I shared the score and the points, but I'm afraid I didn't. And the coach kind of scowled at me, as well as a few parents.

0:01:49.4

Victory is always sweeter than defeat. There are winners and losers in sports contests, and even winners and losers in life. There is competition out there in the world. And in the Christian life we might even say there are winners and losers. Our enemy, our opponent is the world, the flesh and the devil. And our victory is in Jesus Christ. But we're in this series called "Undefeated", and we're not talking about undefeated sports teams or sports legends. We're talking about how to live an undefeated life, one that triumphs over troubles, one that soars above every struggle, one that overcomes and conquers the deadly sins that drag us down. And we can't afford not to live the Christian life with the purpose of winning the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.

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In fact, all throughout the New Testament there is no hesitation in talking about how wins the victory. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:57 says, "But thanks be the God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." And last week we began this series by establishing the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors, not just conquerors who won by one or two points. We are extreme conquerors, extreme victors. It wasn't even a chance. It was no contest between us and the opponent.

0:03:25.5

And throughout this series we are reaching back to a list that emerged back in the 6^th century known as the seven deadly sins- pride, anger, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy and greed. And our goal is to go undefeated. Our goal is to be 7-0 at the end of this series and to be more than conquerors over these sins that do so easily entangle us. We are more than conquerors, as we said last week, over the trials and the troubles of life. But we are also more than conquerors in Jesus Christ over the tmeptations of life that come about through these seven deadly sins.

0:04:11.7

Today I want to talk to you about defeating pride. That's the first on the list. Andrew Murray said, "Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven will live in you." Let me say that again. "Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven will live in you." Now, pride is…well, it can be good, and it can be bad, right? Let's just talk about it that way first. Before we talk about defeating pride, we need to define it, and we need to diagnose it a little bit. And there is some pride that is good. When you're proud of your kids, that's not a bad thing for parents to be proud of their kids. School pride is a good thing, even in sports. You know, you're proud to be an eagle, or you're proud to be this or that. It encourages a little bit of friendly competition. One of my favorite patriotic songs is "I'm Proud to be an American." Let's not go to far as to say that's a bad thing, unless, of course, we cross over into this dictionary definition of pride, which says, "pride is a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit or superiority."

0:05:32.2

There is a kind of pride where you elevate yourself above others, and you think of yourself in a superior way to other people. Now, your pride for your kids or your school or for your country leads you in that direction, then maybe that's a bad kind of pride. But there can be a good kind of pride in the ways that I mentioned there. But the kind of pride where we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think—it's high, it's inordinate, an opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit or superiority that elevates yourself above somebody else—that's the kind of pride we need to defeat. When racism rears its ugly head in every generation, as it is in our country right now through the riots and all that is in the news, at the root of it is the kind of pride that says, "I'm of more importance than you because of the color of my skin or my ethnicity." That is an egregious, ungodly form of pride we must defeat. And at the end of the day, the only real way to defeat that kind of racist pride is through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

0:06:54.5

Maybe this is why the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:3, "For by the grace of God given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement." And that's our goal in this message today, to defeat pride and to think soberly about ourselves and not too highly of ourselves.

0:07:19.7

Now, there are many bad examples of pride and deadly examples of pride in the Bible. Let's talk about a few, starting with Lucifer. One of the many names of our archenemy, the devil or Satan, he was originally Lucifer, a beautiful, high-ranking angel in heaven, a created being. I would say let's go back to the early chapters of Genesis to learn, but really, we have to go into the scriptures where we find glimpses of what took place before the foundations of the world. Most Bible scholars and teachers will land in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 for a little bit of background on Lucifer and how he became the devil and Satan himself.

0:08:09.5

Ezekiel 28:17 says, "Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor."  Isaiah 14:12-15, "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart,"—now, listen to this—" ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit." And, again, most Bible scholars see this as a description of something that happened before the foundations of the world where Lucifer, this beautiful and high-ranking archangel, we might say, began to think of himself more highly than he ought to think and began to say, "You know, I ought to be ascending higher than the Most High." Pride got the best of him, and he was cast out of heaven. Elsewhere, the Bible tells us that he took 1/3 of the angelic host with him. And today, again, our enemy is the world, the flesh and the devil and his demonic forces that are working against us.

0:09:40.5

King Nebuchadnezzar is another one in the Bible who never defeated pride or went through a really, really hard time before he defeated pride. Babylon, of course, was the superpower of its time.  It was the nation to be feared, the Babylon nation and its army. And one day the Bible says in Daniel 4 that King Nebuchadnezzar walked out on his balcony and began looking out over the empire of Babylon. And he said these words, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" Notice the personal pronouns- I, my, me, mine. If this is the kind of language that often comes from your mouth and you're always talking about "what I have done," and I, me and mine and all that, then maybe there is a pride problem. And this was Nebuchadnezzar's problem. "Look what I have done. Look at the great empire that I have built." Verse 31, "While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, 'O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.'" King Nebuchadnezzar fell hard. 1 Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time." If you try to exalt yourself, God may have to humble you as He did King Nebuchadnezzar.

0:11:21.5

Sometimes nations can become proud. Isaiah 6:16, "We have heard the pride of Moab, how proud he is, of his arrogance, his pride and his insolence. In his idol boasting he is not right." The God of heaven and earth can bring a nation low. In fact, nobody leads a nation without God's approval in one way or another. And then, of course, Luke 18. Jesus tells a story about a proud Pharisee and a humble tax collector. And it was just a shot right between the heart of the Pharisees, who lifted themselves up in pride, religious pride. It's some of the most egregious kind of pride that came from the Pharisees and can come from us today.

0:12:15.3

Proverbs is big on pride. The book of Proverbs is flooded with references to pride. Proverbs 16:18-19, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud." Or Proverbs 6:16-17, "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him."  This was probably the original seven deadly sins, and the first on the list is haughty eyes, another way of describing that bad kind of pride we're talking about. 1 John 2:16, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world." And finally, James 4:6, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." You don't want to be, and I don't want to be on the opposing side of God. You want to be on the side of victory.

0:13:20.8

And that brings us to the question of how we defeat pride. You may be here, and you say, "Yeah, Pastor, this first one on the list, if I'm being honest, this is a tough one for me, because pride rears its ugly head in my life." Or you may be saying, "I don't have much of a problem with it." Here is what I encourage you to do, all of us to do. Invite the Holy Spirit to bring His search light into your heart, into those dark places, and look for any remnant, any smidgeon of arrogant pride that rises up against God Almighty, that compares yourself to somebody else in a way that makes you feel more superior to them. We want to defeat that kind of pride.

0:14:08.4

How do you do that? There are three or four ways. Number one, clothe yourself with humility. Remember, last week we talked about how corresponding to these vicious vices, these deadly sins, were the heavenly virtues. And the obvious one that corresponds to pride is humility. Colossians 3:12 says, "Therefore as God's chosen people, wholly and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." I love the list of virtues that are listed there, and again, these heavenly virtues. We might even call them fruits of the Spirit as they are listed in another way in Galatians 5. Need to become increasingly more characteristic of us. We need the Holy Spirit's help in this, but we have a part to play as well. This is not a suggestion, but a command. "Clothe yourself." "Clothe yourself in humility."

0:15:17.0 

I know before you went to church today or got up and joined us via livestream, you made a fashion decision today as I did. You walked into your closet, and you decided how to clothe yourself for the day. When you get up on Monday and you go to work, you make a decision. Some it takes longer to make that decision than others. Ladies, you do a better job of us than us guys do about deciding how to clothe ourselves as we get ready to go out into the world. Well, as you're reaching for that jacket or that dress or whatever it might be, likewise, think of you having a closet full of heavenly virtues and reach for that hangar that's marked "humility." And just pray for a moment and ask God, "God, as I clothe myself this morning with my physical clothes, will You also clothe me? Help me to put on humility. Help me to defeat any smidgeon of pride that might rise up in a way that makes me want to compare myself to somebody else and elevate my thinking of myself and to think of myself as superior to somebody else. Help me to do that." Paul says, "Clothe yourself with humility."

0:16:33.3

And he wants us to do this—notice the words carefully in this verse—out of an understanding of our identity in Christ. He says, "Therefore as God's chosen people." Now, there is a lot behind that word "chosen" that I don't have time to dive into today. But the idea that you and I might be chosen by God should humble every one of us. Why would He choose me? Why would He choose you? The proud and arrogant person says, "Well, of course He would choose me." You don't want to go there. He says, "As God's chosen people, holy and dearly beloved." This is language that speaks to our identity in Christ. And it's only as you understand your identity in Christ. Not your identity in your ethnicity, not your identity in the color of your skin, not your identity because you were educated at this school or that school, not your identity because of your bank account or the size of your house or where you live. No, your identity is in Christ, who you are in Him. And when you get that settled in your life, it's a whole lot easier to reach for that hanger in the spiritual closet that's marked with "humility", to say, "This is who I am in Christ. Anything that I am is because of Christ and the victory that He won for me." So, clothe yourself with humility.

0:18:05.1

Number two, embrace brokenness. Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." King Nebuchadnezzar had to be broken. His pride had welled up so big in him that he paraded like a peacock on the balcony of his castle there and said, "Look what I've done." And God had to humble him. He broke the man. Sent him out to where…I mean, you read the description in Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar was a broken man until he came to his sense and he acknowledged (0:19:00.0) the one true God.

0:19:04.4

There is something about a broken spirit and contrite heart that draws the Lord toward us. He says, "Come in a little bit closer. Now you're where I need you to be." Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a marvelous Bible teacher. She has had a ministry to women worldwide for some time. And I came across something she wrote a while ago where she makes some insightful observations about the difference between pride and brokenness. She says, "Proud people focus on the failures of others. Broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need. Proud people have to prove they are right. Broken people are willing to yield the right to be right. Proud people have a critical, fault-finding spirit. (0:20:00.0) Broken people can forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven." How about one more? "Proud people don't think they need revival, but they're sure everyone else does. Broken people continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God and the filling of the Holy Spirit." Are you proud person, or is there a broken and contrite spirit in you?

0:20:26.8

You know, when Jesus was delivering His Sermon on the Mount, one of His most famous bodies of teachings recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, He began with the beautiful attitudes. We call them the Beatitudes. And one of them says in Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Think about that. He didn't say, "Blessed are the poor," you know, the physically and the monetarily poor. There ain't nothing blessed about that. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," those who recognize their poverty of spirit, that they are sinners who need a Savior. You can't come to faith in Jesus Christ, you can't come to the cross but on your knees as a humble, broken, "poor in spirit" sinner. That's how you come to faith in Christ. And if you don't get there in this life, the Bible says there will be a time that every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You can bow now or bow later, and it's always better to bow now. To come as that humble, broken, "contrite in spirit," "poor in spirit" person and say, "God, I need You." And this is where the Lord enters in.

0:21:50.6

Number three, learn from the good example of John the Baptist. You know, we don't talk enough about John the Baptist, and he's probably okay with that. Because John was one of those guys that always pointed other people to Jesus. John wasn't all about himself. If John were living today in the selfie generation, I'm not sure that he'd be taking selfies and saying, "Hey, did you see me baptize this guy?" No, John was always pointing people to Jesus. And John was the one who said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Who says that today? Who, in the competitive world in which we live, says, "No, you need to get more business than I do even though we're in the same business together. Your restaurant needs to increase, mine to decrease." But that was John the Baptist.

0:22:39.6

In fact, in the 1st century many people came and thought that John might be the Messiah.  The messianic expectations were at a fever pitch in the 1st century, and the Jews had been waiting for the Messiah for centuries. And many people looked at John's ministry and said, "Hey, I think he's the one." And there was a contingent of people that came up to John and said, "John, are you the Messiah?" And a proud person, if that were John, he might have gone home and looked in the mirror and said, "You know, I'm looking a little Messiah-like these days. Maybe I ought to run with this." But he didn't. He said, "I'm not even worthy to tie the guy's shoelaces." And he pointed people to Jesus. He said, "Behold, the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world."

0:23:31.4

There was a time when, after John baptized Jesus, that some of John's disciples came to him and said, "John, that guy that you baptized, He's setting up shop right down the river from us. And all of these people are going to Him to be baptized. John, what are you going to do about this? I love his response. He says, "A man can receive nothing unless it is given to Him by the Lord." It's kind of "the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. And besides, this is what's supposed to happen. They're supposed to go to Him." Learn from the good example…not the perfect example. John wasn't a perfect man…but the good example of John the Baptist. What a humble man. He lived out the kingdom principle "The first shall be last, and the last shall be first." And no wonder Jesus said to him in Matthew 11, "Among men born of women, John is the greatest." I remember Muhammad Ali boastfully saying when he began his boxing career, "I am the greatest." No, Jesus says John was. And I call John, really, the second greatest man in the world, because Jesus is first, right? The God-man Jesus. But Jesus says, "Of men born of women, nobody greater than John. " John shows us how to descend into greatness. "He must increase, but I must decrease."

0:25:02.3

So, clothe yourself with humility. We're defeating pride here. Clothe yourself with humility, embrace brokenness, learn from the good example of John the Baptist. Finally, learn from the perfect example or follow the perfect example of Jesus. Now I want to take you to Philippians 2. Turn in your Bible there for a little bit longer reading. Philippians 2 beginning in verse 5 where the apostle Paul writes, "Have this mind among yourselves." Another translation says, "Have this attitude among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." These verses are some of the most elegant and loftiest verses found certainly in the New Testament, but perhaps anywhere in the Bible as a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the humiliation of Christ, how He humbled Himself. Even the fact that He put on human flesh. How humiliating for a God who is Spirit to put on the rags of humanity and to be born in a barn, not in Jerusalem where everybody would think that the Messiah would be born. No, He was born in Bethlehem. Are you kidding me? It was so far off the map. And born in a barn? And then later in life, crucified on a cross? His own creation crucifying Him. What humility that took.

0:27:07.1

The apostle Paul says, "Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped." He didn't walk around and say, "Hey, come on, look at Me, look at Me, look at Me. You're not treating Me like God. Come on." He declared Himself God and declared His deity, but it wasn't something to be grasped like it was out of His reach. He goes on to say, "He emptied himself." What does that mean? Theologians refer to this as the kenosis, the self-emptying of God and of Christ.

0:27:45.7

Dr. Charles Ryrie sheds light on Philippians 2 when he says, "Jesus Christ didn't become any less God, but He chose not to use some of His divine attributes. This involved a veiling of His preincarnate glory and the voluntary non-use of some of His divine prerogatives during the time that He was on this earth. At any time on the cross He could have snapped His fingers, and the angels would have come and rescued Him. But He humbled Himself, even to the point of death on the cross." Ryrie goes on to say, "For God to become a man was humbling enough, but He was willing to go even further. Christ could have come to earth in His true position as king of the universe. Instead, He took the role of a servant. The Creator chose to serve His creatures."

0:28:43.9

And we see this in a marvelous way on the night before He as crucified in the upper room where Jesus washes His disciples' feet. Now, back then they wore sandals. And they didn’t have paved roads; they had dusty roads. So, it was very common in the culture. You come to somebody's house for dinner, and there was always a water basin and a towel there and a servant who would be there to wash your feet. Jesus took on that role with His disciples. How humiliating. Some of them said, "No, no, no, don't wash my feet, Jesus. This is beneath You." No, it wasn't beneath Him. He says, "I'm doing this as an example to you. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. He who serves will be greatest in kingdom of God."

0:29:34.6

One of the few times that Jesus made a statement about Himself, Matthew 11:29, He said, "I am gentle and humble in heart." That doesn’t win many awards in Hollywood. It doesn't win very many elections in Washington, D.C., somebody who states as their political platform, "I'm humble and gentle of heart." But it elevates you in the kingdom of heaven and in the kingdom of God.

0:30:05.5

One Bible teacher and commentator says, "Humility is the quintessential posture of the believer. It does not mean being bowed down in defeat or shame. Our pattern in Jesus. The humble Son of God cannot be defeated, and He has no reason for shame. Though He was gentle and humble, the omnipotence He laid aside for the sake of becoming like us could be taken up again at any moment. Humility is not for the down and out. On the contrary, authentic humility,"—listen to this—"authentic humility is only possible for victorious men and women." Isn't that great? It ties in beautifully to how to live an undefeated life. We are victors in Jesus. "O victory in Jesus." And it's only the victorious men and women in Jesus Christ who can live an authentically humble life, because we know from where our victory comes. We know who we are in Christ.

0:31:10.2 

So, we defeat pride by clothing ourselves with humility, by embracing brokenness, by learning from the good example of John the Baptist and following the perfect example of Jesus Christ. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to defeat any of these deadly sins, but it starts with a decision. In fact, back to 1 Peter 5:6, "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God." You do this. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you." I always say, you know, I've got to humble myself before I get to the point where God has to humble me, and I go through a difficult and painful and broken kind of process.

0:31:55.5

And may that be our takeaway today. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way, even the wickedness of some smidgeon of pride that makes me elevate myself above somebody else and my own little puny mind. God, keep me humble." And then at the right time, He'll put you on the map somewhere. He'll exalt you. You may one day find yourself with a position in the kingdom of heaven in eternity that you never dreamed up. Because the first shall be last; the last shall be first, and the servant—the one who serves—is what the kingdom of heaven is all about.

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