Title: Pride and Humility
Contents
pride and humility
Luke 18:9-14
What we must be careful of as we live our religious life is religious self-righteousness that can easily appear without our knowledge.
Simply put, it is the pride of faith.
There are so many poor people in this world.
People with disabilities are poor, and the homeless are also pitiful.
Widows and orphans are also pitiful.
Unbelievers who do not know God and do not even care about spiritual things are truly pitiful.
But really, the desperately pitiful being is the 'one who doesn't know himself'.
he doesn't know himself
Others know me well.
I know I'm hopelessly pitiful, but I'm the only one who doesn't know myself.
The drunken man had his tongue curled up, his eyes wide open, he staggered, and even a child was drunk.
But he screams that he is not drunk.
Unbelievers are pitiful, but still have a chance to be saved.
However, there is no way to save the pride of faith, who cannot see himself even though he has lived a long life of faith, and still thinks that he is always right.
So it's hopeless.
I'm not talking about someone else right now.
That's what we're talking about now.
1. This age is a period of spiritual stagnation.
If we fall into spiritual stagnation, "Hearing but not understanding; seeing seeing but not understanding."
Also, even if you cry out to God, it becomes a prayer and worship that God does not receive.
The greatest problem in this age is that we have lost our sense of God.
In the past, the church had problems.
There is no era without problems.
However, my spiritual senses were still alive, so I was restored through repentance and prayer.
When the Word was proclaimed, the cold heart was set on fire.
I experienced the presence of God dwelling in praise.
However, if you look at the current situation, no matter how much you cry, you do not hear, and no matter how much you cry, your heart does not move.
The reason is that the spiritual sense is dulled.
Why are we spiritually dull?
It was because they did not meet God and their spiritual senses were paralyzed.
I have a head, but my heart is dry.
There are cold criticisms, but I do not experience the hot emotion that embraces life.
So they do the analysis, but they don't have the strength and ability to break through the obstacles.
The text points out the pride of the Pharisees through the parable of the Pharisees and tax collectors going up to the temple to pray.
The Pharisee and the publican went up to the temple and prayed to God.
Both men stood and prayed according to Jewish custom.
The Pharisees were religious leaders who were highly respected and respected by the people for their religious devotion and thorough observance of the law.
They were theocraticists who needed to recover from the Roman colony with a pious religious spirit.
However, it has become a worship and prayer that God does not accept.
It was because he was arrogant.
2. How was the Pharisee proud? (verses 9-12).
(1) Believing that he was right, he despised others (verse 9).
Take a look at the Pharisee's prayer.
Despite being exposed to a life tainted with hypocrisy and lies, they do not see themselves. In the prayers of the Pharisees, there is the folly of not seeing their own sins.
There is the foolishness of seeing the speck in your brother's eye but not seeing the log in your own eye.
So, we are forgetting the grace of God who forgives our sins.
This person does not see the grace of redemption on the cross that Jesus Christ gives.
It can be said that he is a person who has only his own righteousness and lives in his own good taste.
Even if he is criticized and ridiculed by others, he is a person who lives for his own taste.
Self-centered values are permeated in the prayers of the Pharisees.
Respecting yourself and cherishing yourself is a good thing.
But if you only love yourself, it becomes a sin.
This is where the problem arises.
The Pharisee in the text believed that he was righteous and despised others.
There was no injustice in himself, and he boasted of his cleanliness.
It was the Pharisee who looked like a perfect human but was too far away to get close.
?쏝elieving oneself righteous, and despising others??is the greatest and most dreadful sin.
However, these sins were not the only sins committed by the Pharisees of the old days.
Today, it is a sin for believers for a long time, for those who are obsessed with formalities and traditions, and for those who are conservative.
condemn the faith of others.
It is a sin among those who take good care of themselves and expose the faults of others.
It is the sin of those with bright eyes like eagles who see too well into the faults and faults of others.
Why did the duality of being right and ignoring others appeared?
It was because he did not reveal himself before God and compared himself with the fallen ones.
Compared with those who have fallen morally, they are bound to fall into self-conceit and fall. You must see yourself before God.
Paul referred to himself as ?쐔he chief of sinners??(1 Timothy 1:15).
Do you think Paul sinned more than us? It is not!
That's what he looked like when he stood before God.
That is why Paul was able to seek God's grace and mercy.
A life of faith is a life of seeing oneself before God.
I hope you live this life.
(2) He lived a life of building walls (verse 11).
The Pharisee did not want to pray with publicans, so he prayed in another place.
And he was thankful that he was not like extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, and not like that publican.
The Pharisees lived a life of building walls with others.
Saints must be different from the world, but you must not build a wall with them.
When dating, you should not make the width of the relationship too narrow.
When you start to form a faction with special people just because you refuse to associate with someone, you have the root of a terrible sense of superiority and pride behind it.
The idea that I'm not like anyone is always a problem.
The Bible tells us to be one in the Lord.
Those who believe well should become one with each other.
We have different status, different knowledge, different ethnicity, but we must become one in the Lord.
Saints should be bridge builders.
Jesus came to build a broken bridge between God and people.
Priests are those who build bridges.
We are said to be a royal priesthood, so we must become the saints who build bridges.
I hope you have the grace to reconcile your neighbors because of me.
(3) They did not repent.
None of the Pharisees in the Gospels repented of their sins.
Rather, they displeased Jesus and criticized and rebelled against Jesus.
A proud person never repents of his sins.
However, if we do not repent, we can receive forgiveness of sins and salvation.
The greatest sin in this world is the sin of not knowing how to kneel before Jesus and repent.
Such a person will be forced to kneel before the Lord at the Last Judgment.
?쏛t the name of Jesus every knee, both in heaven and under the earth, and under the earth??(Philippians 2:10).
It is a sin not to kneel before Jesus.
You can be forgiven only when you admit your mistakes.
However, if you are arrogant, you will hide yourself from God and commit the sin of deceiving yourself.
Humility says accepting Jesus, pride not accepting Jesus.
Humility is accepting the words of Jesus, and pride is not accepting the words of Jesus.
Therefore, the difference between humility and pride is the difference between accepting and not accepting.
If you accept Jesus, you can live forever.
But if you don't accept it, you will die forever.
This is the secret of heaven.
This is the secret of life given to us.
Therefore, we need the grace to accept Jesus.
Because that's how you can live.
How is a publican different from a Pharisee?
Unlike the Pharisees, he has nothing to boast about.
He is just a 'sinner'.
He is a man who cannot live without the mercy of God.
So he depends on the mercy of God.
He thirsts for God's mercy because of his want and poverty.
Unlike the Pharisees, he is a man who absolutely needs God's mercy.
He is poor and empty-handed.
A tax collector who had become ?쁢mpty-handed??with nothing, he grabbed God?셲 hand with his empty hand and, without daring to raise his face, beat his chest and said, ?쏥od, have mercy on me. I am a sinner??(verse 13). The tax collector who confessed that he was a sinner by holding the hand of God?셲 mercy in this way empty-handed received God?셲 mercy and was justified.
Hallelujah!
3. Consequences of pride (verse 14)
I couldn't get God's help.
A proud person cannot be saved because they hold on to their own righteousness.
If you let go of the Lord, you will die.
In a pond, two geese and a frog lived together. After summer, the pond water dried up, so they decided to move to another place and came up with a way to move. The flying geese had a stick on both sides and a frog in the middle to fly. Before leaving, they made a firm promise: 'No one should ever open his mouth'. As they flew, the farmer saw them and marveled, "Who would have had such an amazing idea?" Then the frog replied, "I!" The frog fell off and died.
The result of pride is death.
On the other hand, if you are humble, God exalts you even more.
That is why 1 Peter 5:5 says, ?쏥od opposes the proud, but shows grace to the humble.??
The three sins of the Pharisees were mentioned.
It is a sin to believe in oneself righteous and despise others.
It is a sin that builds a wall with others, kneels before the Lord, and does not repent.
Pharisees are always unhappy people who only criticize.
They were unhappy people who did not receive the forgiveness of sins and the grace of salvation.
It is the same today.
Even now, like the Pharisees, Jesus comes to us who are proud and hypocritical and calls us by name.
We didn't cover our ears to hear the Lord's voice, we didn't kneel, we didn't confess that we were sinners, we didn't embrace and love others.
Why hasn't it changed after we believed for so long?
Because we are proud.
Pride rejects the word of God, humility accepts the word of God.
So who am I today?
Are you proud? Are you humble?
I bless you all who belong to the humble.