Pride Goeth Before Destruction

Proverbs 16:18 "Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." This has been true in every age since the fall of man. It will be true forevermore. It is written, by the finger of inspiration, in this Bible - God's Book, the Book that says what it means and means what it says.

"Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." That always has been so; it is so today, and always will be so. Let us read it again. This isn't Bob Jones talking. I'm not saying it; it is in this Book - this inspired Book - this God-breathed Book. It is here, in black and white. It is here for keeps.

"Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Do you get it? You know the English language, don't you? I think the Hebrew scholars will tell you this is properly translated. I don't think there is any misunderstanding about what it says. I think you can understand the English language enough to know what this means.

"Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." These words make me feel creepy! They scare me! They make me a little concerned about myself. They warn me of danger! They are God's red lantern, and He is swinging it across the highway down which you and I are going. Remember, God Almighty is reaching over the battlements of Heaven and holding a red lantern of warning in His hand; and He Himself is swinging it across the road.

This means, "You had better stop! If you are full of pride and have a haughty spirit, you are headed for ruin! You are on your way to a fall! You are on your way to destruction! You are doomed if you go down that road with that spirit!"

Pride Had a Large Part in Eve's Fall
When the Devil tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he came to her through three channels. He said, "You see that fruit yonder? That fruit is good to eat. It makes your mouth water. Great, big, red, luscious something - and you like to eat! Everybody likes to eat! Did you ever taste the fruit? Do you have an inclination that way? Don't you have a desire to eat it? It's there! It's good! Nothing wrong with it - except it is on a forbidden tree."

There are plenty of things in life that are perfectly legitimate when they are not on a God-forbidden tree; but when they get on a God-forbidden tree, they are not right. There are many things you have a perfect right to do in this world if you do those things right. Fruit that hangs on a God- forbidden tree may look luscious and be as luscious as fruit on a tree that is not forbidden. But you can't eat fruit from a God-forbidden tree and get away with it.

Eve looked at the fruit. It did look good! I admit there are plenty of things in this world that look good all right - nice things. That is, they look all right. But they are fruit on a God-forbidden tree. There may have been some other fruit around there that might not have looked quite as good as this fruit looked. But God-forbidden fruit can never be good fruit.

Next, the Devil said, "It is attractive to the eye. It looks good." God doesn't object to men looking at beautiful things. The universe is full of beauty in spite of all the sins that men and fallen angels have committed, and in spite of the cataclysmic judgments upon all creation; it is still a universe of beauty. What is more beautiful than a morning when God is opening the door of the day on golden hinges? What is more beautiful than the picture - as someone has said - of God having the morning stand tiptoe on the horizon and shoot sunbeams of light at the vanishing darkness of the night?

God didn't say you must not look at the morning light! Nothing wrong with beauty! Nothing wrong with looking to the west when the sun turns the sky into fire as it goes down behind the hills of evening. God gave men eyes with which to see! You have a right to use them! But you are not to look at things toward which you are inclined to go when those things are wrong.

Then the Devil came to Eve in another way. I want you to get this! He said, "Now, listen! You want to be somebody, don't you? You would like to make something out of yourself. You want to be all you can. Can you think there is anything finer in this world than being like God? Wouldn't you like to be like God? You can be a god if you want to. You don't have to bow down to anybody! You have in you the inherent possibilities of being a god. And now you just go on and live your life!

Eat what you want to eat! Look at what you want to look at, regardless of forbidden fruit on forbidden trees! What's wrong with beauty? Be like God!" But, wait a minute! You can't be a god! You are a poor human being, earthbound and circumscribed! You can't be a god! Eve said, "Here goes." But she didn't go up. She went down. Pride of life! Eve fell for it. Adam fell for it. Yes they fell. Eve got it in the neck! Adam got it in the neck! All the roses they ever plucked after that had thorns on them! And every briar patch had in it a hissing serpent! And every bed was a hard bed! A baby was born. Pain! Suffering! Cry of Cain, the first baby! The first little baby that ever put a baby hand on a mother's cheek was a crying baby. He became a murderer! He stained his hands with his brother's blood, the brother he should have loved! "Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Generations have come, and generations have gone. Man boasts about the ever-upward struggle, the eternal climb. Humanity, so they say, is struggling upward and upward and upward to higher heights. But before man gets to the mountaintops he falls over a precipice into the valley! Man has built houses of civilization and boasted of his achievements. He has talked of imperishable Rome and the culture of Greece. He has boasted of swinging gardens in Babylon. But the race marches on to destruction. It is as God said it! "Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Satan Tried to Tempt Jesus to Be Proud
Centuries passed, and a Baby was born. A little Baby! The Baby to whose birth the fingers of the prophets of the Old Testament pointed! The Devil saw the Baby. He tried to kill Him. But God, His Father, protected Him. He grew up to manhood. Let's not forget that Jesus was a Man - a Man! Oh, He was the God-Man! "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He was a Man! God-Man! God was His Father. A virgin was His mother. One day the Devil met Him. Jesus was hungry and tired, as men are sometimes hungry and tired even now. The Devil said, "Do you see that rock over yonder? It looks like a loaf of bread! It looks like a loaf out of the oven! It looks like bread!"

I have seen those rocks in the wilderness of Judea. I can well understand how the Devil pointed out some of them and said "a loaf of bread." "Jesus, what right have You to go hungry? You are the Son of God! You can have what You want! You made the rock anyhow. It's Your rock! You've got a right to it! Eat it! Turn it to a loaf of bread."

Jesus was hungry. He had an appetite for food. The rocks did look like loaves of bread. But there is a divine law that conflicts with what the Devil said. "Man shall not live by bread alone. I didn't come to gratify My appetite. That is not My mission on earth. I came to die to redeem a race! I can't eat it! I can't eat it and go this road on which I'm traveling. I refuse to cash in on My deity to satisfy My hunger."

The Devil took Him up on the Temple. He said, "Do You see all that country over yonder? Look at it! I'll give it to You. It looks all right! Now just get up on this wall here. There is a great crowd of people down there - a great throng! Look at them! Just look! See the crowd. Just throw Yourself down. Just before You get down to the ground the angels will sweep down and take You. People will say, ' He's the Son of God.'" Jesus said, "That isn't right. There is a law of God in conflict with that."

Listen, young people! That which is right is always in harmony with everything else that's right! Any principle of right in the universe of God harmonizes with all principles of right! "Cast yourself down. God will have the angels take care of You." There wasn't anything wrong with that - except it wasn't right! That's all that was wrong. There's nothing in the Bible that says God is against the spectacular! There are many spectacular things in the Bible! There's nothing wrong with the spectacular! What is more spectacular than a thunderstorm --lightning breaking out from the pavilions of the storm clouds -- thunderbolts bursting? What is more spectacular? Why, it wouldn't have been any jump for Jesus Christ off that Temple! The Son of God who leaped all the way from Heaven and landed in a manger in Bethlehem --a little Baby! It wouldn't have been any leap for Him! He traveled farther than that to get to this earth! What's a little jump from the Temple? It would have been wrong because it was in violation of the divine command, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

The Devil failed. So now he makes another approach. He said, "You want this world, don't You? You came from Heaven to earth to get it. You came to die for it. You'd like to have it, wouldn't You? Well, you can have it. It is easy to get! Just lean on a prop! Get it the easy way! What is the use in dying for something? What is the use in sweating drops of blood? What is the use in having a curtain drawn around a cross and having to cry: 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' What's the use? I have this in my possession. I have taken it over. It is mine, and I'm the god of the world. If You will bend Your knees to me, I'll make You a present." Listen! It isn't right to get the right thing in the wrong way! In the first place, you could not keep the right thing if you could get the right thing in the wrong way! If it's right to get a thing, there is a right way to get that thing. The Devil, no doubt, could have delivered the world at least temporarily to Jesus. He could have delivered the religious leadership of His day to Him. The Devil practically controlled the religious leadership of the day of Jesus Christ, and he controls much of the religious leadership of our age! Jesus said, "Get thee behind me, Satan! Get behind me."

Listen, young people! I don't think it is so hard to go hungry sometimes. There are worse things than hunger. I don't think it is so hard always to shut your eyes to things you ought not to see! I think it was much easier for Jesus to go hungry than it was to sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane.

The hunger of the wilderness didn't compare with the suffering and agony of the time they were beating Him. All the hunger He ever knew could not compare with having somebody come along and spit in His face and having somebody else pull out His beard. The temptation was to take the easy way around the cross, get around the suffering, and take a short cut to world dominion.

The hand of pride always calls, "This way! This way! This way! You can have it this way! There it is! You want a great church, don't you? You want to be pastor of a big church, don't you? You can stand in if - if you'll kiss the big toe of somebody that has ecclesiastical power." You'd like to have a little home somewhere with vines growing around the house and a lovely wife and flowers, the laughter of little children? Certainly! That is legitimate! That is normal. Nothing wrong with that! That is all right! That is perfectly natural! But wait a minute! It isn't right to get a home, with vines growing around it and flowers and a comfortable bed and lovely chandeliers, a beautiful wife and baby, unless you get those things the right way! Pride says, "Get it! You're capable! You have the ability! You have the resources! Take it this way, right or wrong! Get there!"

"Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Pride! Jesus, You didn't fall for it. "What happened to You, Jesus?" "I've been highly exalted. I was invited up on High to have a seat at my Father's right hand. I'd rather wait for the world's redemption than to take control in the wrong way. I'm at the Father's right hand. And the angels up in Heaven cry 'Holy' when they see Me. And some day out of every kindred and people and tongue and tribe and nation, teeming millions will gather and sing about My blood. I'm highly exalted. And some day all of My enemies will be under My feet. And some day away out yonder in eternity, I'll take My nail-pierced hand and untie My key from My girdle of redemption and My authority, and I'll hand it over to God the Father. The door of eternity will open, and we will move in, and God will be all and in all."

Pride Tempts All Christian Workers
I would say to you today: It's not enough to have ambition. It's not enough even to want the best. It's not even enough to want just what God wants eventually. We must want to have even that which is right in the right way. "Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." One of our fellows graduated here a year or two ago - talented, gifted - a boy I love. God was blessing him. A few days ago I heard about a letter he wrote a certain fellow which indicates he has a little too much taste for money. I read the letter and was greatly disturbed. He didn't write like I want a Bob Jones University boy to sound. A day or two after reading the letter, another Bob Jones University boy told me the fellow told him, "I'm going to a certain theological seminary. I find it is necessary for standing." Now wait a minute! You haven't any right to enroll in a college or university or seminary for the sake of standing [i.e. status]. That's the voice of pride! That's feeding pride and feeding self! That's wrong! That goes before destruction! If he had said, "I want to preach; I'm not prepared to preach; I need more work; I need more prayer; I need more study; I need more power; I need more anointing so I can preach the Gospel of the grace of God to lost men; I'm going to this place for that purpose," he might have been misguided, but at least God would have approved his motive.

Pride! Pride! Pride!

I imagine somebody came to Jesus and said:

"Jesus, you know I had about made up my mind I would go along with You. But You know, my pastor - the Pharisee over there - tells me I won't have any standing in our nation. I won't have as much position if I go that way. I'll be a marked man. And I won't go along with You on that account. But I sure do admire You; You are doing a great work. I saw You break up that funeral the other day. I never shall forget that. That was the most wonderful thing I ever saw. I never saw anybody else do that. And, Jesus, I saw you touch the eyes of that poor blind fellow, and I never shall forget how he smiled! I'd never seen such a miracle. And I saw you when that poor leper said, 'Unclean! Unclean!' and You touched him; and as soon as You touched him, the leprosy ran so far away we couldn't see it anymore. You sure are wonderful! I sure admire You for that! But I'll be martyred if I go with You." I imagine Jesus looked at him, and the man said, "What kind of a job could You guarantee me?" He said, "I haven't any job to give you. I haven't any pillow on which to lay My tired head when the day is done. I have to use a rock for a pillow. I sleep out at night...If you follow Me, you will suffer persecution. The machine will be against you - the Sadducees and the scribes and the Pharisees. If you follow Me, you will have to carry a cross and die, for I'm going to die. All I can tell you though is that I will be King someday, but I will be King by divine right. He that suffers with Me will reign with Me. Remember, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

"Pride Goeth Before Destruction." Wait a minute! There isn't one single statement in the Bible more terrible than this: "God resisteth the proud."

This means that Omnipotence is against the strutter! God that made all things and put enough power in an atom to blow up a universe has organized His resources to resist the proud! God will not let pride win. "God resisteth the proud!" But He "giveth grace unto the humble." God picks up the man who is on his face, and knocks down the man who struts. God blesses with abundance the man who says, "I just want to know God's will. I'm nothing. I'm weak. I'm helpless. I just want to do what He wants done. I'm not going to look for anything that He doesn't send to me as I go along the road of His purpose for my life." "Pride Goeth Before Destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

[Closing Prayer] 0h God, put us on our faces. We know what pride will do. We have seen its consequences in our own lives. When we thought we were somebody, You showed us we were nobody. And when we thought we were not anything at all, You picked us up and helped us to do something that seemed impossible. Help us today to humble ourselves. Help us never to get away from this hour. May this message and this verse and this Scripture ring in the ears of our souls until we get on our faces before Thee. Lord, we are not looking to the rich men to keep this school going. We are not looking to the educational associations. We are not looking to the influence of men. We are looking up to Heaven. God, if this thing fails and we have looked to Thee, then it will be Your reputation at stake - not ours. If we are sincere, if we mean it, if we are true, if we are honest, if we are faithful, and if we won't waver, and we look to You, while other men look elsewhere, then, God, Your reputation will be at stake. When Elijah challenged the false prophets, he stood there that day and asked for fire to come down to show them that God was God. You remember how the fire came. The fire had to come or, God, You would have been laughed at by false prophets. 0h God, we dedicate to Thee this school anew - all over again! We pledge Thee this morning by Thy grace that, let come what may come, we will not surrender for worldly favors or preferment or position or ease. Keep this school faithful and humble till Jesus comes. And when people think of Bob Jones University, help them to think of Almighty God and say: "God did it!" When they ask how a school with such ecclesiastical opposition and worldly forces against it survived and prospered, we will tell them that God did it. We didn't do it. Help all these students to stay humble. Oh, save us in this age when the dictators are strutting and men are trying to build upon the crumbled ruins of empires and civilizations of the past, a civilization of today, and building it on the same human depravity. Help us to be faithful. Hear us in this prayer. Save us from the 'pride that goeth before destruction' and the 'haughty spirit that goeth before a fall.' For Jesus' sake. Amen.

Bible Study  The Bible · Bible Concordance · Bible Dictionary · Bible Commentary · Audio Bible · Sermons · Online Books   Daily  Daily Devotions · Bible Reading · Daily News · Radio-Hymns-Music-Poetry  Christian Radio · Hymnals · Other Items of Interest  Heaven · Search Site · Contact Us · Copyright · Home · Go To Prior Page