The sermon by Scott Brown on 'How to Face Self Serving Pride' explores John 1:19-28, highlighting John the Baptist's humility and his role in pointing to Jesus Christ. John the Baptist is questioned by the Pharisees about his identity, and he denies being the Christ, Elijah, or the prophet, emphasizing that he is merely a voice calling in the wilderness as foretold by Isaiah. The sermon underscores the centrality of Christ in the Christian faith, portraying humility as making less of oneself and more of Jesus. John the Baptist serves as a model of humility by consistently redirecting attention from himself to Christ, illustrating that the heart of Christianity is humility. The sermon also discusses the significance of Beth-A-Bara, where John baptized, as a symbolic crossing from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness. It challenges believers to recognize the presence of pride in their lives, which can hinder evangelism and harmonious relationships, and encourages them to exalt Christ above all.

Well good morning. Our sermon text this morning is from John chapter 1 verses 19 down to verse 28. Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then, are you Elijah?

He said, I am not, are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Then they said to him, who are you? That we may give an answer to those who sent us what do you say about yourself? He said I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now those who were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, what then, why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. John answered them, saying, I baptize with water. But there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.

These things were done in Beth-a-Bara, beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. Lord, We call out to you here this morning and our hearts are indeed full of praise. Lord, you are worthy to be praised as we just sung. Lord, you've opened the life gate that we could come in who before time were blocked, who were ravaged by sin, deserving of damnation, Lord, but you've shown such kindness and mercy to us through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Lord we thank you. Today, Lord, as we Look at these words here in the book of John.

We ask you Lord to open up our hearts, our minds, as the word is preached, to see your exalted glory and majesty. Lord we pray that we would See your son in such a clear way As John said Lord, he wasn't even worthy to loose the strap of his sandal and yet you've called us near to you You've called us sons. You've called us daughters Lord. Thank you for such a blessing. We pray now as Mr.

Brown comes and brings forth your word, would you give him power from on high? Oh Lord, would you touch his heart and his mind as he speaks to us and for us who are hearing your word, Father, we pray and liven us, keep us alert and awake and desire us of hearing your word, Lord. May you speak directly to us today and strengthen us and help us. And Lord, for those who can't be here with us this morning, those who are at home and not well or on the road, we pray, Father, that you would have mercy upon them as they listen in and bless them as well Lord thank you for this time in Christ's name amen As we look into this passage into John 1, 19 through 28, I can't help but think of the ways that the Lord is changing us as a church showing more of His will to his church. This is what God does through his word, doesn't he?

He shows us more of his will. He brings us through trials. He causes things to happen so that we might grow, so that we might be equipped. And this passage is no different here. I think it's perfectly timed for us as a church and What we find in these verses is how John the Baptist humbles himself For one reason so that Jesus Christ would be exalted as we've already seen John is always pointing to Jesus Always and we find him doing the very same thing here.

And it shows us that the heart of Christianity, it really is humility. And Christianity is a call to make little of oneself and to make much of Jesus Christ and that's what we see in John here in his ministry Christianity doesn't make you the center of the universe. It makes Jesus the center of everything. All of your words, all of your ways, all of all of your doings in your life. Jesus Christ becomes the center.

The mark of a Christian is that they have a new center, and that center is Jesus. And that person is so glad to have Jesus because they are so sick and tired of themselves, and they want more of Jesus and less of themselves. And we find John proclaiming this here. Now the context of this passage is that John is baptizing at a place called Beth-Abarah, and it's a place, It's the place where the children of Israel originally crossed over the Jordan River After Moses died they crossed over with Joshua and they came into the promised land. This is the place John is baptizing It's called the crossing.

That's really literally what the name means Beth-A-Bara. It's a crossing It's a and this is what John was always doing. He was calling for all his hearers to cross, to cross over, to cross over from themselves to Jesus. And I think that that imagery is there. And, you know, when you make this change when you cross over you turn away from yourself you you desire less of yourself and more of Jesus Christ and you find a whole different view of yourself you used to exalt yourself You used to think so highly of yourself.

But Jesus changes that because you don't need to think more highly of yourself. In fact, Paul said don't think more highly of yourself than you are. And that's why I say the heart of Christianity is humility. It's that humility that bows down before Jesus and exalts Jesus, that wants all the attention to really be upon him. And so now, you know, we've been working our way through what's called the prologue of John, which is verses 1 through 18.

And as we've been communicating, the prologue sets the stage for the whole rest of the book of John. The prologue tells you who Jesus is and where he came from. And then from verse 19, where we are today, from then on, is really an explanation of the things that Jesus did. And that explanation begins with John. That's why in the Gospel of Mark, the very first verse makes it very clear.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ and then he talks about John the Baptist. This is the beginning of the gospel and so John John's ministry marks the beginning of of the gospel So now we've come to the end of the prologue and now we enter into the whole story that runs all the way to the end of the gospel of John that tells you what Jesus did. Now in the prologue you learn who Jesus was and when you know who Jesus was that it explains how Jesus did all these things that he did and because he is God he is from he is from eternity past he never had a beginning and and John is here really to proclaim that So now from verse 19 to the end of the chapter, we actually find four specific days in the life of John the Baptist and Jesus. It's quite likely in this narrative here John the Baptist and Jesus are together. There's some language in here that we'll get to later that you'll see that may indicate that.

So day one, we are now in the first day, and on day one, which spans from verse 19 to verse 28, a delegation from the Jews comes to interrogate John about his identity and John explains who he is not in this section and by doing so he makes it clear who he is. He's just a voice. And then this in day two beginning in verse 29 we'll cover this next week. Look at verse 29 with me, the next day. So now we have the next day, day two, the next day John saw Jesus coming to him and he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Well that's what John does, he's always saying behold, he's always saying look, he's always pointing to Jesus. He wants the attention off of himself, off of his will, off of his motives, off of his personality, off of his everything and onto Jesus. So then day three begins in verse 35. You see that verse, 35, and again the next day. So this is day three that is documented here in chapter one.

And you find these two disciples from Judea, Andrew and Peter and they become followers of Jesus and then in day four beginning in verse 43 look at verse 43 the following day so here in the first chapter we have four days in the life of Jesus and John the Baptist and And so the message that we'll cover today is just the first day where John is baptizing beyond the Jordan, Beth-A-Bara. Now, John states who he is not, and that's really important to understand what God is trying to communicate to us in these verses here. At every turn John does one thing he points and he says no not me not my life but his And he is pointing to the one who is truly great. Now, this is important to us on so many levels. John helps us to face our self-serving pride in many ways.

He helps us to face our desires for the praises of men. He helps us to face our desires to build a platform. He helps us to face our desires to be exalted and receive a praise for ourselves and to puff ourselves up in the eyes of others. John suppresses himself and he exalts the supremacy of Jesus Christ. And in some ways, I think you can say that John has no vision for himself.

He has no vision for his life except one thing, and that is to point to Jesus Christ. And this is the beauty of his life. He always wants to say, behold, behold the Lamb of God. And you know if our church would grow, it ought to grow in this one area, that all of who we are and what we do would point to Jesus Christ. It's not our personality, it's not our culture, it's Jesus that matters more than everything else.

And John, of course, he wants everyone to know that the Lamb of God is the only one sufficient to take away the sins of the world. He's always appealing to this one central need of mankind to have their sins be taken care of by Jesus Christ, to turn to Him, and to find all of their life in Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men There was a man sent from God whose name was John this man came for a witness To bear witness of the light that all through him might believe That is what John is doing here in this passage as we've seen him do. Now there's no more important person in the room than Jesus Christ. In any moment of our lives there's no more important person in the room.

Often we act like he's not there. I know somebody who used to when they would counsel someone, a pastor, a friend of mine in California, he would always put an empty chair in the room to remind him who was in the room. And that the most important person in the room wasn't him, but it was Jesus who is wonderful and counselor at the same time. So this is what John does. Now, notice the scene.

We've talked about it just briefly, but the scene is the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem. And in this scene is an opportunity. And in your outline, you'll see, I've called this John's opportunity. This is John's opportunity to strengthen his platform for his own glory. And he's asked three questions, but verse 19 says, now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

So they ask him these three questions, and you'll notice that these questions are actually insightful questions. They are actually biblically rooted questions. And while they were probably questions designed to discredit him, possibly not. They were asking him questions that were rooted in Scripture. They were making connections with the Old Testament.

They were making connections with Isaiah 40. They were making connections with Malachi chapter 3 They were making connections with Malachi chapter 4 and they were asking John if he was The connector with those verses so they were actually acting asking questions that were biblical and they send their most learned. And this I think also is an expansion of verse 15 where we read, He came into his own and his own did not receive him. This was their, this perhaps was their attitude. And you see the sad state of Israel, they can't even recognize when God is sending a prophet or sending the Messiah.

And because when, When John came, the nation was spiritually active, very devoted, highly structured, really well-oiled, lots of people involved, but it was dead, spiritually dead, full of words, but not any life. And so this delegation that came was characterized by those things. They had a lot going on, but it was as hollow as you can imagine. And so they knew much about the Bible but they were blind. But this is John's opportunity.

They came to him, thousands were flocking to him, He was remarkable. And the Bible makes it very clear that he was remarkable, that no one born of woman was greater than John. John was an astonishing personality. And he had an opportunity to really, really become someone. He could he could have been the rage of all rages of that time.

And John's opportunity, I think is it's applicable to us in lots of different moments in our own lives. And you know, Each meeting is an opportunity to promote ourselves, to protect ourselves. It's an opportunity to glorify ourselves, to build our platform, to make progress, to have more traction for ourselves. John had that opportunity. This was his opportunity.

You might say that he blew it. He blew it. He really did. But every time we talk, every time we email or text or FaceTime or Instagram or Facebook, it's an opportunity. And what do you use for that opportunity?

I'm often astonished at people who claim to be Christians, and I look at their Facebook pages and there really isn't anything about God's kingdom. It's really pretty much only about themselves. That concerns me when I see that. It really does. Who are we representing?

Why are we alive? And who are we justifying? Who are we promoting? John had his opportunity at that moment. And every time, Every time we speak or act or are present, we have that opportunity.

Every time you speak to your wife, every time you speak to your children, every time you're in the room, every time you're with your fellow church members, there is an opportunity. There is an opportunity. And what John shows us is how Jesus is always the most important person in the room, in the sentence, on the page, and in the picture. Jesus is supreme, and John is always suppressing himself and exalting Jesus Christ and him alone. So that was John's opportunity in verse 19.

And then we come to John's threefold denial. He's asked three questions and he makes a denial with each one of the questions. And we see that in verses 20 through 21. The first denial occurs in Verse 20 and he confessed and did not deny but confessed. I am NOT the Christ.

That's the first denial Christ that word that he uses means and Messiah. I am NOT the Savior John had an opportunity to present himself as a Savior. He could have scooped up lots of followers at that moment. They were already astonished. And you know, it really is a remarkable question.

Are you the Christ? Just think about that for a minute They asked that of John Has anybody ever asked you that question No, actually no one has ever asked me that question Scott. Are you the Christ that is hilarious? But actually they asked him that question this tells you this tells you How prominent and mighty John was they actually asked him? Are you the Christ and he said no absolutely not and John was was remarkable and I Really I was struck by what Matthew Henry said about this.

You know, he talked about how men can get an exalted view of themselves, or even how they can get an exalted view of other men, and actually treat other people as if they are Christ, as if they are the answer to their problems. And he says this, they cannot create grace and peace, they cannot enlighten, they cannot convert, they cannot convict, they are not the Christ. That's what he says. I think that's helpful. You know, when you think about getting the answers to your problems, you often think they can be solved by finding the right person, the right counselor.

And some people just go from one counselor to the next until they finally think they hit it and they look for the silver bullet that some human being can bring to them and when that happens it's possible that a person can have crossed the line of thinking way too highly of men, and not enough of Jesus Christ, to seek your answers from Him, from His Word. It's much easier to just keep going from one council or to another to tell you what you think it is, and then the light goes on. Look for your light in Jesus. I think that's what John is proclaiming here. I am not the Christ.

And then the second question, the second denial, is in verse 21. And they asked him, what then are you Elijah? And he says, no, I am not Elijah. Now, Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind 900 years before this. And the scribes and Pharisees actually expected Elijah to return because the Old Testament said that he would return they were expecting it you know this was a biblical question and John is saying I am not the incarnation of Elijah.

I'm not that guy that disappeared into the clouds. That's not me. Now, Jesus did say that John was the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy of Elijah. Jesus said in Matthew 11, 14, he is Elijah who is to come. And I think we have to say that Jesus spoke more clearly and understood more.

But how do we reconcile this? Was he or wasn't he? And I think the way that you reconcile it is you say that Elijah, he is not Elijah raised from the dead. But he is, as Luke 1.17 says, he is a man in the spirit of Elijah he's a man in the spirit of Elijah he's a lot like Elijah he he operates much like Elijah but John is affirming that he's not the one who is taken up in the fiery chariot. He's not the Elijah that will appear in the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses as well.

He's not Elijah who's come back to life again as a reincarnation. That's what he's denying. But John is continuing to make this important clear that there's no more important person than Jesus Christ. He is not. He's not even somebody as great as Elijah.

You know, when Elijah was walking, he made waves. You know, everybody wants to make waves. Everybody wants to have a great impact in this world. John wanted Jesus to make an impact in this world, not himself. And then the third denial, I am not the prophet.

Are you the prophet? No, I am not the prophet. No, no, and this is the third no. And he could have answered yes. You know, imagine, imagine how, how brand strengthening that would have been.

He already had thousands coming and now he could say, I am the prophet. He had that moment in the sun and he blew it in man's eyes. And, you know, what satisfaction it could have been to have a name and a reputation and such an identity of such power wherever he walked he was the prophet and people would listen. He denied it. He didn't want it.

He wanted Jesus Christ to be the prophet. Perhaps the Pharisees were referring to Deuteronomy chapter 18, 1400 years before John. In the last month of Moses' life, when he was writing Deuteronomy, Moses prophesied that another prophet would come and he said, another will come like me. Another prophet like me is coming." And so the Pharisees were actually asking a legitimate question, and John had the opportunity to be that person. And Quite likely the Pharisees would have been delighted if he was that person.

They didn't think Christ, they didn't want Christ to be that person. Remember what they said of Christ? He's the carpenter's son. But he was the Christ. Man would rather have a hot shot than Jesus.

The church would rather have a hot shot than Jesus, really. And John would not have it that way. He wanted Jesus to be the center of their attention. And so the Lord here is exalted by John. Now John was remarkable.

He was probably dead before he was 35 years old. He survived probably six months, maybe a year in his ministry. Remember, he was just six months older than Jesus, and he was the forerunner. And then he was like a shining light that was snuffed out early. And It was prophesied that he would turn many from sin.

He was filled with the spirit from his mother's womb. He was a man sent from God, and he really was a remarkable personality. His whole message was of repentance, and he called for repentance. In fact, he had a baptism of repentance. And he believed that there was no more important person on the ground than Jesus.

And so that's what we see in this first, in this section of the, of his threefold denial. And then John reveals his identity. He actually begins to speak of what he is all about in verse 22. And in verse 22 and 23 he reveals his identity. And verse 22 reads, then they said to him, Who are you?

That we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah said I'm a voice I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Now he's quoting Isaiah 40.

Please open your Bibles to Isaiah 40. John had a message of comfort. It was the comfort of Jesus Christ. Even though people were turning for their sins, he was speaking the truth in love, saying, you're a brood of vipers. Who told you to escape the wrath to come he was calling people out of their sin and But it was a but that's the only comfort that there is in the world is to be called out of your sin and into repentance There's no more comforting blessed thing than to repent.

And John was calling for repentance. But Isaiah 40 speaks of this whole matter and in verse 3 he says he is a voice crying in the wilderness, and what is he using his voice for? And there are several things that he uses his voice for. We know that John is bearing witness of the light, that he is a witness. But here's what he's using his voice to do, verse four.

That every valley shall be exalted. That means that the depressed and the unworthy in the valley of desperation, the unworthy, they'll be raised up. And then he says, and every mountain and hill brought low. He's using his voice to proclaim That the proud and the self-confident and the self-sufficient They they will be brought down the mountains will be brought down. God is going to bring the pride of man down.

He's going to do it. He's always doing it by the way. He's always crushing our pride in different ways and it's so important that He does that. He does it through all kinds of things. God wants to destroy your pride because your pride is bad for you.

Okay, so he brings things into your life to bring the high the high mountains of your exaltation down. And then he says, the crooked places shall be made straight. That means his voice was used to call people out of their crookedness and to proclaim that Jesus could make them straight again, that all the crooked ways of sin can be straightened. And then he says, and the rough places made smooth. And I think he's saying that the rough, unsophisticated, unrefined, uncouth, they'll be softened, they'll be changed, they'll be smoothed out.

It's what God does. It's a sanctifying work of his Holy Spirit in our lives. And then in verse 5 he speaks of what the result of this. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. All these are expressions of the glory of the Lord, the high hills coming down, the valleys being raised up, the crooked things being made straight.

This is the glory of God working in the world, and John is bringing that message. And you know, when the high and the proud come down out of their lofty arrogance, it's evidence of the wisdom of God working in their life when the depressed and the incapable are lifted up in the strength of the Lord. It's an evidence of God's mercy and his compassion. And when you see the perverse who've been ruined by impurity and made crooked and they're forgiven and they're purified. This is the mercy and the wisdom of God.

John came to proclaim all that. That's why, that's how he used his voice. He used his voice for all those things. All those things glorify Jesus. The glory of the Lord is revealed and it shows that the mouth of the Lord is spoken.

When the mouth of the Lord speaks the words, when the mouth of man speaks the words of the Lord, it's for his glory and his glory is manifested in all those healing things that we have seen John speaking about and Verse 6 and the voice said cry out and he said what shall I cry and Verse 6 here's what we learned the voice should cry all flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. John's message was, look to Jesus Christ.

Look to His glory. Look away from any glory of man and look to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. His was a call to humility. And the call to our church is a call to that kind of humility. What does humility really look like?

What is humility? There's a false humility. We've heard that term, false humility. But humility, true humility, is exalting Jesus and suppressing yourself. That's true humility.

It's raising Him up and diminishing yourself. You know, the world doesn't need more of me, doesn't need more of you. It does need more of Jesus. Now there's this matter of the voice, the use of the voice. The use of the voice is always implicated in this question about pride or humility.

The voice is used either for pride or humility. And here John uses his voice to point to Jesus and away from himself. The use of the voice, what men and women talk about reveal pride or humility. And I think what we're learning from John is that pride may look different than we thought it was. Pride is, of course we know that pride is being full of yourself, but humility is being full of Jesus in his words.

That's humility. And so he, John, is extolling the majesty of Jesus Christ. Because there's no more important person in the room than Jesus. And maybe the Lord could use these words here in this chapter, to bring more of the walls of pride down, more of the desire for self-exaltation, more of the desire to proclaim yourself, to make your mark in the world. Do you really want to make your mark in the world?

And, you know, when you're talking with your wife and you're having a disagreement, is your motive to exalt Jesus or to get your own way? Or when you're with your children or when you're with your friend, what's driving you? What is driving us? Why do we say what we say? Why do we do what we do?

Let the walls of pride come down. And then these interrogators ask John why he's baptizing in verse 24 through 27. Now those who were sent from the Pharisees, they asked him saying, why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ nor Elijah the prophet nor the prophet? And John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loose." So there is John's baptism and then there is Jesus' baptism.

So the subject is baptism. We'll get into the matter more deeply later on when we get to the passage of baptizing in the Spirit. But how do you compare the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus? And I think it might be helpful to put them side by side. I'm not going to comprehensively put them side by side, but I think it's simple.

John's baptism was a symbol of repentance. The baptism of Jesus is a reality. Baptism was always a symbol. It wasn't the reality. Baptism never saved.

Jesus saves. Baptism is a sign and a symbol, but not a reality. And so John proclaims that Jesus has a different baptism. John's baptism is an outward sign of repentance, and Jesus' baptism is an inward and real sign of regeneration. That's the difference.

A person can be baptized and not be regenerated, like John's baptism. But if someone really comes to Jesus, they're baptized in the Holy Spirit. And it's real and it has power. Now I think that in verse 26 there's a hint that these men were aware of Jesus but they didn't believe in him. But there stands one among you whom you do not know.

That's Jesus. It's quite likely that Jesus was nearby. He is, well, John is going to baptize him in the same place. And so Jesus quite likely was right there. Now, in the very next verse, at the end of our text, John sees Jesus and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So it's quite likely that Jesus was there and John is saying, There stands one among you that you don't know. You don't know him. And that really explains their spiritual condition. And then John says something that affirms what he's been saying all along in verse 27 He he puts himself in comparison with Jesus in verse 27 Look at the comparison It is He who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose." So he uses Two ideas to communicate how different he is. First of all, Jesus is preferred.

Jesus is always the preferred one in the room. Jesus is the one that should be exalted and pointed to at anything that we do in this life. So, he is preferred before me. That's critical. I think that is, that phrase is probably the heart of this text.

You know, whenever you look at a passage of scripture, you ask, what is the message? What's the sense of this? What is the thing that's here? Because usually in any passage, there are 10 things. But what is the thing?

I want to suggest that this is the thing. He is preferred before me. And so when you are in a church, when you are with your family, when you're in your business, the Christian says he's preferred before me. That's the heart of a Christian. That's the heart of Christianity.

That's why I say that humility is the heart of Christianity. It exalts Jesus Christ. And then he speaks of this question about sandals. You know, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to lose He uses a very strong Illustration here when he talks of a sandal strap that he's not even worthy to unloose. And this illustration, I think, is almost as if John is saying, let me tell you just how much he should be exalted.

Let me tell you how he is so exalted over me. Let me tell you how his words are more important. Let me tell you how his ways Are more important. Here's how important he is. I am NOT even worthy To be a slave a slave in that day Would be worthy to unstrap sandals but Jesus says I'm not even worthy of that I'm below a slave that's how dramatic the exaltation of Jesus was with John This was the driving force of his whole life.

And I think that John is saying, my desires, my words, my life, my platform, is so very below the bottom of the priority list, it's not even funny. I think that's what John's saying. He who comes after me is preferred before me and I'm not even worthy to be a slave. I'm less than that. My thoughts are less, so less important than his that it's hard to even describe it.

I can't describe it in such clear terms other than just the sandal strap is what John is saying. And then we come to the location of John's baptism, which we've already briefly spoken about. And in verse 28, there's a geographical marker. These things were done in Beth-A-Bara, beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing. And as I said before, Beth-A-Bara means the house of passage.

And it's the place where the children of Israel crossed. They crossed a line. And they went into the promised land. And John was doing his baptizing there, most likely for a reason, to tell a story. Tradition says that Elijah actually was raised up very close to this area.

I don't know if that's true, but church tradition has it so. But there's this geographical and this historical marker that John the gospel writer wants to make clear that this is something that is true. It happened in history. You can go to this place today. It's on the map.

There's a GPS coordinate that you can find it. There is this place where John was baptizing, and it's the place of crossing. It's the place of crossing the line of your pride and making Jesus exalted in everything in your life. That's what Christians do. They exalt Jesus in everything and nothing is untouchable in their life.

And as we know in in this life, God is, he continues to touch those matters of pride in our lives. He starts out very slow. He starts out at a very fundamental level where we say, Lord, I don't want more of me. I don't want more of this world. I don't want to live like my friends.

I, this is the, this is, I'm turning around and I'm going to follow Jesus. It starts out in this kind of general fundamental Really important way where you say no more of this world And then as you start walking you realize how much more the world was in you than you ever dreamed And as it turns out that keeps happening even until you're like Really old if you know what I mean Because God he just continues to put his finger in the wound of pride in different ways in your life that he does it because he loves you he does it because he wants to deliver you from your pride and so there are many crossings aren't there in this in this life as a Christian there are many crossings where you say oh there it is he's shown me again and there it is you know I I was asked to speak at a conference this year in Texas and it's terrible a little bit terrifying it's a conference on humility okay It's ludicrous that I would go there to speak on humility, honestly. But here's what I know. If you, like let's just say you hold a conference on repentance, you're going to find out that God is going to deal with you.

If you preach on a passage of scripture, God is going to deal with you. He's going to deal with you. And it might not be all that comfortable, but it's also, it's very helpful, and it's very sweet, and it's freeing. But it's not always easy, And that's what crossings are. They're not comfortable, but they always open up to greater joy and greater sweetness.

And so John is showing us the heart of Christianity, which is humility. And the humility of the Christian is the one who makes much of Jesus and little of himself. Christianity doesn't give us our moment to shine. It gives us many moments to point at the one who shines, Jesus Christ and him crucified. And it helps us to know really that we really are most fulfilled, we are better adjusted, we are happier when we are not filled up with ourselves, but when we are filled up with Jesus and his ways and his words.

So that was that was John's whole life was to point to Jesus Christ. Now this matter of pointing to Jesus I think reveals one of the greatest manifestations of our pride and that is that we use our voices for our own glory. I want to suggest that the greatest reason that we don't share the gospel like we should is because of pride. Because we're afraid of what people are going to think of us. And we're reluctant to point to him because it might cause us not to shine so much.

The greatest barrier perhaps to evangelism is pride. It's not training, it's not knowledge, it's pride. And John is there to help us to take another step, I think, in the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we would become so less concerned about ourselves and our reputation and what people think, that we would open up our mouths and we would speak of Jesus. We would use our voices for that. I have experience of feeling that pride and not sharing what I knew I should share.

I've had that experience, and I'm sure all of us have as well. Perhaps the greatest barrier to evangelism in this church is our pride. How about that? Perhaps the greatest thing standing in the way of harmony in your marriage is your pride. Because you're not as concerned about the will of Jesus and the love of Jesus as you are your will.

Or maybe that's what's standing away in the way of your friend. Maybe that's what's driving your envy and your resentment towards someone Maybe it's why you're staying away from someone. It's pride pride pushes people away You know pride pride is the fundamental sin it was it was It was the sin of pride which was the first sin in Lucifer. If you go to Isaiah 14, you'll see the heart of Lucifer. I will.

I want. I am. When you go to the Tower of Babel, you see the same thing. Let us make a name for ourselves. This is the heart.

This is the heart of pride and pride. Pride is the heart of every trouble in this world And the Bible has much to say about this matter of pride. Solomon talked about pride just in the way that we look at others. And I think he's talking about not just a physical look of the eyes, I think it includes that, but I think it includes the way that you look at someone in your heart. And he says this, there are six things that the Lord hates.

Seven are abomination. And guess what the first one is? A proud look. A proud look. You know, God has wired the world so that pride always causes destruction.

In Proverbs 16, 18, We know it's true. Solomon said, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And you know, everyone knows that pride sucks joy out of a marriage, pride makes unhappy sullen children, pride ruins churches, Pride causes distance in relationships. And it's humility and the authority of Jesus that heals a marriage and fills it with joy. It's humility and the authority of Jesus that transforms sullen children.

It's the only way to transform your sullen child is if they would turn to Jesus Christ and humble themselves before him. Then you'll have a happy child, but you can't have one until that happens. Humility causes churches to flourish, and humility, it's the thing that causes people to be close to each other, and then humility is like the oil that keeps people close. Humility is the heart of so many things that we need. Proverbs 8 13 says God hates pride.

In Proverbs 16.5, God says it's an abomination to Him. And the Bible actually says that young people have a particular struggle with pride in their thoughts. Did you know that? We're now speaking to the young people. Well, of course, my dad thinks that I'm the young people, so maybe I apply.

I don't know. But let's just talk to the young people. The other day he said, you know Scott, one thing I really love about being in your house is I get to hang around young people. And he was talking about me and Deborah. How about that?

Well, young people, you know, depends on how you define it. First Peter 5, 5. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders, yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble there's so many blessings that of God working humility in our lives. Isaiah prophesied this as the Lord said through him, but on this one I will look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word." And James says, he gives more grace. Therefore, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

So John is before us here to help us to face our self-serving pride that helps us to face our desires for the praises of men, desire to be exalted, desire to have ourselves be puffed up in the eyes of other people, and John suppresses himself so that the supremacy of Jesus Christ would be the theme of his life, not his own pride and not his own ways. And so there's no more important person in the room than Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can save. John came that all might believe through him. And may it be so that we would deal with our pride and we would share the gospel and not be restrained by our pride so much and that God would use this passage to let the walls of pride fall down in this church because at the end of it there's no more important person in this room than Jesus Christ.

And if John were here to say it, that's what he would say. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these amazing words that tell the truth about us, that reveal who we really are, that expose our motives and show us how much we need Jesus, how much we need his blood, how much we need His humility, which stands for our pride. Lord, we thank you that Jesus did not have a proud moment. We thank you that he always walked in humility.

And he was gentle and humble in heart. And because of that we can find rest for our souls in him. Amen.