In the sermon titled 'God Will Deal with Your Pride,' Scott Brown discusses the significant role of humility in the Christian life and church community. He emphasizes that God actively works to humble His people, as humility is the pathway to happiness and spiritual growth. The sermon outlines the manifestations of pride, which is described as the root of all sin, blinding individuals to their own faults. Brown explains that God uses various means, such as life circumstances, relationships, and institutions, to reveal and crush pride while fostering humility. He highlights salvation, the Word of God, the church, work, civil government, hardships, parents, and marriage as tools God uses to humble believers. The sermon also connects the sufferings of Jesus Christ to the contempt God has for pride, illustrating how Christ's sacrifice addresses the depth of human sin. Ultimately, the sermon encourages believers to embrace humility, recognizing God's kindness in delivering them from pride and enabling them to experience true happiness and spiritual freedom.

I'd like to speak about one of the most helpful matters for church life, one of the things that God is always desiring to do with His people, and that is that He's always doing things to humble them. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the pathway to happiness in a person's life or in a church's life is really through humility. And there's nothing sweeter than growing humility in a church, especially when you can see it as a pastor, to see God continuing to sweeten His people through humbling them. You know, there are different ways that God humbles His church, and I'd like to speak about this whole matter of humility and pride and how God has really designed us together as a church to be involved in the crushing of pride and in the growing of humility.

And there are three things that I want to bring out. I want to talk about manifestations of pride, and then secondly I want to talk about how he crushes it and how he desires to grow it in a church. And then thirdly, I'd like to talk about God's contempt for pride, but in that contempt we find really the secret of the happiness that we can have as God is dealing with us in our pride. Well, I think when Jesus said, you know, happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, he really was saying that a humble, a humble church is a happy church, And we should all be thinking about different ways that God has been working in our lives to humble us. By the way, he just did it.

He completely altered all of our schedules for the last five days. You know, we weren't able to do all the things that we were going to do. It was God that humbled us. He actually put us under his authority by the weather in a way that he hadn't been doing in days and weeks past. And now this hurricane is moving at about two or three miles an hour I mean if you put your running shoes on you could outrun it and it's gonna be here for a while probably and We're gonna all be under the authority of that now tropical storm, but God is doing that.

He's and he does everything for his own glory. He's causing all things to work together for good to the called who are and those who love him. And so God is very kind to us to deal with our pride and he does it in a lot of different ways. Now here are a couple facts about pride. Pride is the essence and the foundation and the epitome of all sin.

It's the root sin. It's the beginning of all other sin. It was the reason that Satan fell. It was the reason that Adam and Eve fell. And it's the reason, it's the reason we do everything that's wrong.

We do it out of our pride. It's the reason people look at pornography. It's the reason that people live for immediate gratification, overspend, and all kinds of things. Pride is always at the heart of it. We just heard a sermon really about the heart of pride working in man and not being satisfied with what you have.

Pride is very difficult and pernicious because it's a blinding sin. The pride blinds you to the pride. That's the problem. And so you can't see it. And God in his providence, he reveals pride to you progressively over the years.

This is called progressive sanctification. And he uncovers various layers of pride throughout your life. I believe if he showed you all your pride you'd die at one time. But God is kind. Somebody said that pride is the viper that swims through the bloodstream and the lymph system of your character.

And it's there in everything. It affects everything. Let's talk about manifestations of pride. You know, One of the things that Richard Baxter says is the one of the problem with pride is that you can actually be preaching against pride and still have pride. That's true.

And now, manifestations of pride. I want to just try to camp on that for a few minutes. And I don't want to give an academic treatment of this. I want to give a list of manifestations that I found in a book by Stuart Scott called The Exemplary Husband, which talks about pride in husbands. But I've taken this list, and I've added and modified it.

But I will say this is not an academic list just for everybody's consideration about this objective subject called pride. These are actual things that I have seen in my own life, every single one of them I've seen, they're not academic to me at all. They're very personal. But there are manifestations of pride. And why would I read such a list?

There are things going on in our lives right now that we're struggling with. Some of them are related to our pride. So I want to read it as a diagnostic tool, not as an academic exercise. So when I go by these manifestations of pride, say to the Lord, Lord show me, show me if any of this is there, help me and put your finger on the wound. One of the things that I've discovered in my own life is that self-pity is always the result of my pride, my own self-pity.

Discouragement is most often the result of some form of pride. Now I don't want to dismiss all kinds of other reasons for discouragement, but my view is that most of the time when you find a discouraged person it has to do with the wounding of their pride somewhere along the line. The fear of man, lack of thankfulness, boasting, acting like the expert, name dropping, perfectionism for recognition, focused on your lack of giftedness and your abilities, talking too much, talking too much about yourself, independence and lack of submission to authority, being consumed with what others think, sarcasm, a critical spirit, withholding service, lack of compassion, defensiveness, blame shifting Not admitting it when you're wrong making excuses lack of prayer Maximizing the shortcomings of others minimizing your own shortcomings Attention getting tactics in clothing or speech or social media. Well, we could just go on and on. But pride manifests itself in a thousand ways because pride is the fundamental sin of all the other sins.

There are many ways that pride works in our lives, and we should just be aware of it so that we can turn to the Lord and be sanctified from those areas of pride. I don't believe we'll ever escape manifestations of pride. But we can become more aware and as we become more aware, we can find ourselves with a greater adoration for the truth of God and also the mercy of God for sinners. So I want to talk next about ways that God has ordained to grow humility in us because there are many ways that God has ordained that he would grow humility in us. And I think the first and most powerful way that God grows humility in us is through salvation.

Because the beginning of the Christian life is a beginning in humility. When you become a Christian you say, not my will but thine be done. When you become a Christian, your heart changes and you're humbled before God and you say to him, I want your ways. I don't want my ways any longer." That's the fundamental heart of a Christian. Salvation is the first and foremost way that God grows humility in our lives.

It really opens the door to the dealing with the poisons of pride in our lives. The second way is the Word of God. God corrects us by His Word. He has put things in His word in order to deal with our sin. The Bible says that the Word of God converts the soul.

It makes wise the simple. It rejoices the heart. But it's the Word of God that brings all those things. If a person is proud, then one of the great anecdotes to their pride is to read the Word of God and to receive with meekness the implanted Word, as James says. And then there's the church.

That's another way that God deals with your pride. We could talk about the different ways that God uses his church to humble his children. Here's the problem with the church. You get in close relationship with imperfect people. Somebody once said, the church would be really great if it weren't for all the people and and that's true because in a church you have sinners and they sin against one another.

But God brings people into his church to humble them. And you're humbled because you have to weep with those who weep. And you have to be with people that aren't like you. This is one of the great values that didn't grow up like you. And they're not like you at all and maybe they don't like you.

How about that? And God does that to humble his children. We should never be too disturbed or surprised when somebody sins against us in the church. It's the way God ordained life together so that we would humble ourselves and that we would forgive one another and we would have the opportunity to experience the one another's in the church both to be a recipient of the one another's and also to be a giver of the gift of the one another's that are that are in the Bible and Then there's work, you know God not only you know points authorities in churches and people in churches, he also appoints work. Work is a fundamentally humbling enterprise.

You know, when you have a job, there's a boss, there's an agenda, you don't get to do whatever you want to do. You can't go your own way. If you do, you won't be able to work. And that's why, you know, Ephesians chapter 6 makes it so clear that workers should be obedient to their masters. God has ordained work to humble us so that we don't do whatever we want to do.

There's something about us where we need to be constrained. There's something about the way God wired us that we shouldn't do everything we want to do. And then, if that weren't enough, God gives the civil government. We're commanded to obey the civil authorities and honor the king. The civil government is a humbling presence in our lives, and we don't get our way in the state.

There are lots of things that we have to submit to that we don't like. And God has sent the civil government to us to humble us, to help us to realize that our ways are not the only ways that God has ordained in the world. And so Romans 13, the Apostle Paul says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. And then perhaps maybe the most powerful tool that God uses in our lives to humble us is through heartbreak and hardship. One of the most Powerful and defining things in a person's life is what they do when there's loss and You know we learned from the Apostle Paul that he had what he called the thorn in the flesh Why Why did he suffer with that thorn?

We don't even know what it was. But Paul knew, he said, it was a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he be exalted above measure. So the thorn in the flesh was sent to him to keep him humble. That's why he experienced that trouble. We find the very same thing in Deuteronomy chapter 8 where God sent his children through the wilderness in order to humble them and to test them and he gave them manna.

He says that he did it to know what was in their heart as a man chastens his son so the Lord chastens you. And so there's hardship that comes to us and it's designed to humble us which is designed To make us happy because blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven And then there are parents God gives you parents to to reveal your pride and to constrain your pride. You know, a lot of you still have parents. You're here in this room, you know, you're young and you know the verse, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. You know that verse, you've already memorized it by the time you're four years old and why has God given you parents to humble you why would he humble you so that you don't get your own way so that you can be happier that's why you're humble That's why you're constrained by your parents so that you'll be happier.

That's the way God designed it and Then there's marriage, you know There are many ways that marriage is designed by God to grow humility for example God calls wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. God calls husbands, in 1 Peter 3, to honor their wives. Like when you're honoring your wife, that means that you're actually ordering yourself under her in a way. It doesn't mean you're not her head, but it means that you're honoring her. And while you are her head, you actually, in another way, in a different way, you're under her in a particular way.

That's what honor does. Honor puts somebody else first. So, you know, marriage is a fundamentally humbling institution that God has given us. So all this to say that God has given us many ways to constrain our pride To restrain us it might be the weather It might be your spouse. It might be your boss It might be the pastors in your church who don't want to do exactly what you want to do.

Who knows? But there are many, many ways. God has woven our lives together in this world with weather and institutions and personal relationships, and he uses all of them to make us happy By constraining our pride so that we trust in him So there are many ways that God uses in our lives To to humble us and you might just ask yourself, you know, what ways is God? Moving upon my life to humble me? How is he, through humiliation, working to make me happy?" That's a really important question.

Because we're so proud, we just want life to be different. But God makes it clear that He works all things together for good. All things. Now, I want to talk finally and lastly about God's contempt for pride. Because God does demonstrate in the most graphic terms his absolute contempt for our pride and this contempt for pride I want to suggest was most powerfully communicated through the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Because it was in his sufferings that pride was punished. And you know, Jesus, Jesus errand was principally to suffer for sinners. And God looked upon his Son during his suffering the same way that he looks upon all sin. Because The Bible makes it very clear that two things were true of Jesus and his suffering. He became sin for us.

That's 2 Corinthians 5.21. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ became sin. He became pride. Every single manifestation of pride.

He became for us. Became for us. Also Paul to the Galatian church said that Christ was made a curse for us in Galatians 3.13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And so in Jesus Christ's substitutionary suffering for our sin, He was made sin and He was made a curse, which means that he was the one that received the wrath of God for our pride.

Our pride, which we cannot see clearly, our pride which comes out in everything we say, everything we've ever done, and everything we've ever thought, that is what Jesus Christ suffered for. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the central demonstration of the sinfulness of our sin. The pride runs so deep, it's so pernicious, and it's so pervasive, it's so blinding, but the sufferings of Jesus Christ show us how evil Our sin really is. The prophet said, the heart is sinful. Who can know it?

It's beyond knowability. In the cross, Jesus Christ bore our sin. That's what Isaiah said. He said, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was oppressed. He was afflicted. He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God. Jesus Christ was the one who took the suffering for our sin. Now if you take the gospel accounts and you read the suffering of Jesus Christ, you have, I think, a very helpful picture to understand how pernicious and how problematic our pride was and the links that God went to to deal with our pride and For example he he agonized in Gethsemane He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

Here's the reality We deserve the contempt on Our pride to be swallowed up in in sorrow Because he carried our sorrows He had unspeakable anguish, you know Great drops of blood were falling down to the ground. We deserve the contempt on our pride by experiencing The pressure that caused drops of blood to come out of Jesus' body, that is the judgment that we deserve for our pride. He was betrayed by a false friend, Judas, with a kiss. We deserve the contempt to our pride to be betrayed by every false friend who has observed our inconsistencies and our sins. We deserve to be betrayed.

He was apprehended as a common criminal. And the Lord Jesus said, have you come out as a robber with swords and clubs to take me? Well, here's the reality. We deserve the contempt and the pride to be treated like a robber with the most extreme measures. We don't think our sin is so great.

We don't think our sin is so great. We don't think our sin is that bad. Jesus Christ was flogged. You know, Jesus Christ was spat upon. Jesus Christ was spat upon.

We think, well, we're not that bad. I'm not bad enough to be flogged. That's not true. We are bad enough to be flogged. We are bad enough to be spat upon.

We are bad enough to be spat upon. We are bad enough to be pierced on the side. We are bad enough to be betrayed by every false friend and also his true friend betrayed him. Peter, He denied him three times. We deserve every single one of the punishments that the Father laid upon the Son.

And I think that in the in the scorging and the sufferings of Jesus Christ is the exposure of the true nature of our pride, the most fundamental, defining sin of our lives. Here's a proposition. You never see your sin so clearly as you do at the cross. And you see the contempt that was poured on the Lord Jesus Christ. And God shows his contempt on all our pride.

He suffered in our place. He drank the cup of wrath that we deserved and he handed us a cup of new wine. That's what has happened at the cross. So at the cross you find really the greatest relief and freedom from the condemnation from your pride. You can't get away from your pride.

You'll never know it enough. You'll never be able to confess it deep enough. You'll never get to the bottom of it and you'll never stop expressing it. What will you do? We're in a hopeless situation because we cannot deal with our pride, but God in His love and His mercy through His Son Jesus Christ has come and He's poured contempt upon His Son so that we wouldn't receive that contempt.

Now, contempt for pride will always be poured out. It will either be poured out for you on Jesus Christ the Son of God, or you will receive it. There are only two ways. The sinner who does not repent will receive the full measure of the wrath of God for all eternity. But God is love, and so He has made a way for sinners so that they might not receive the punishment that they deserve.

And that's why Peter said in 1 Peter 3, 18, imagine him writing this knowing that he betrayed his Savior, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. And this I believe is the heart of the happiness of the people of God. First of all, they are set free so that they can experience what it means to be poor in spirit and to be blessed by the love of God. They can know that even though they can't overcome their pride and they can't atone for their pride, that God is so kind to set them free from their pride. Now, one last thought.

You might be thinking that somebody in this room is proud. You might be thinking that. Be like God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and have mercy on the proud. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you that you have taken such extreme measures to show us the depth of our sin, but not to leave us there in despair, but that you would hand us the cup of blessing with which we bless.

And now I pray Lord today you would give us a day of just continuing to pass around the cup of blessing with which we have been blessed. And I pray Lord that you would also continue to humble us as a church and that we would be a humble and a happy people together. In Jesus' name, Amen.