Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.
Text: 1 John 2:15-17; Genesis 3:1-7
I am a proud and stubborn man. I often find myself succumbing to delusions of grandeur. I take myself too seriously most of the time. For some reason, deep down I believe that God was pretty fortunate to save someone like me. I believe that he must have known he couldn’t get his work done in the world without my skills. I know it’s a serious fault and I am working on it. These thoughts are the source of all my most exquisite sins. The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes “ain’t got nothin” on the pride of life when it comes to subtlety and maliciousness. The pride of life is subtle because it is so easy to rationalize away. And it is malicious, because no sinner loves anyone more than himself. Take my beautiful surroundings or my food and that’s one thing. But try to take my pride, and it’s on. I’ll declare war!
The Pride of Life
God created us with the ability to evaluate and improve ourselves. We were created to grow in wisdom. Yesterday we read from Genesis 2. Verses 15 reads: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” This verse teaches us that God created us with the ability to work and keep the garden. We also read in Genesis 1:28 that God commanded man to subdue the earth. That means man was created to learn and improve, both himself and his world. He would have to learn how to harness (i.e. subdue) the earth’s potential in working and keeping the garden. In other words, man was created to grow in wisdom.
It is good to grow in wisdom, but only in the context of a due recognition and appreciation for the greatness of God. Why? Because all wisdom is ultimately derived from him. This was the part of the original temptation which Adam and Eve succumbed to in the Garden. Gen. 3:6 read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was . . . to be desired to make one wise . . . she took of its fruit and ate.” And so as we read from the Apostle John, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” Satan tempted our first parents by prompting them to believe that they could attain wisdom independent from God. When Adam reached out to eat from the tree he said in effect, “I will worship my own wisdom, over my Creator’s wisdom.” And man has struggled with this particular temptation ever since. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:28-32, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” This is our tendency: to seek wisdom for living apart from the Creator, to worship ourselves rather than him, which is really just foolishness. And we do this when we forget that God’s greatness is our good.
The Manifestation of the Pride of Life
The pride of life manifests itself in many different ways in our world.
It manifests itself when we refuse to accept direction from others, especially from God and those whom God has put in our lives as authority figures. As the author of Proverbs writes, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (1:7).
It manifests itself in the company we keep. Birds of a feather flock together. If we run with mockers and approve of their works, then we are one of them.
It manifests itself in our drive to exalt ourselves over others, which is really just self-reliance and faithlessness. We are all prone to compete with others for supremacy in whatever we view as important (usually those things we have a chance of winning in). But Scripture calls us to be humble. As the Apostle says, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind 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 made himself nothing, taking the form of 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. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Php. 2:1-11).
The pride of life is a beast of a temptation to work against. But there is hope for us. Ultimately there is hope because Christ has passed the test. Just as Adam was tempted according to the pride of life in the garden, so also Christ was tempted. In Luke 4 we read that after his baptism Christ was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The last temptation, like Adam’s was through the pride of life. We read: “And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” What was the temptation? To presume upon God. To believe that just because Jesus is who he was, he could act with special privilege apart from God’s will for him, which is the opposite of faith. We do this anytime we tell ourselves that the rules don’t apply to us because we are special. But Christ passed the test. Therefore all who are united to him by faith are counted as having passed the test as well.
Because of Christ’s finished work God is at work to subdue us to himself by his Word and Spirit. Notice that Jesus went into the desert guided by the Spirit and he answered the devil with the Word. Word and Spirit are the means of our fight against temptation.
Conclusion
We will be tempted according to the pride of life until the day we die. There is no way around it. The question is this: will we fight actively to overcome the temptation more and more, or will we just give up and stagnate and suffer the consequences of a life walked in self-reliance rather than God-reliance?
But don’t misunderstand. Overcoming the pride of life does not mean that we should have low self-images. On the contrary it means that the highest self-image possible comes by understanding our position before almighty God and others. It means seeing ourselves in light of this truth: God’s greatness is our good.
Discussion
This morning I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups: In what ways do I see others in our society tempted by the pride of life? Can I think of any biblical examples of such? How does the pride of life affect our worship of God? In what ways am I tempted by the pride of life? What steps can I take to begin to recognize and overcome this temptation?
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