There's a book out there by Richard Owen
Roberts on revival.
It's one of the classics of our day.
It just says revival on it.
It's a time to read it.
It'll bless your heart.
It's a classic.
This is a real scholar, uh, scholar putting
down what is the essence of revival.
This is the time that all of us
should be reading The Calvary Road.
If you haven't read it, read it.
Roy Hession, The Calvary Road.
He's written 15 other works.
We've had him in a number of our
conferences.
We fly him in from England.
What a man of God as he preaches.
Yet get into it.
Where do I start reading?
The Calvary Road, the beginning of our day.
Now, last night I, in the midst of
preaching, and by the way, this is the
last time I'm going to preach all that
in one night.
I'm going to, I'm going to split it
up and preach it on two nights.
I don't need that.
I think I'll stay with this tonight because
the Lord has given me some other insight
to that message.
And so if you ever hear it again,
it'll be just half and, uh, digging in
a lot of few areas that we had
to go quickly because we covered so many
points.
But, uh, subject gets bigger and bigger all
the time, doesn't it?
Amen.
Well, I know God spoke to many hearts,
but in the rush sometimes of preaching like
that to get it all in, you say,
why do you preach so much?
You know why?
Because I see the nights going by too
quickly.
You know what?
They're going by quickly.
I was where we are now.
I was already, uh, there on Monday night
and we started on Sunday.
By Monday night, I was where we are
tonight, Wednesday.
So we're two nights behind.
So that's why I'm rushing.
Uh, but in the midst of the rush,
sometimes in preaching, I don't clarify everything I
say and I don't amplify statements.
And I'm glad that we've said so many
times, we'd like you folks to minister to
us.
If we say something and leave something hanging
out there, we don't cover it thoroughly enough.
We ought to take a moment the next
night.
And so last night, when I said something
in relation to contemporary Christian music, I, I,
the way I said it, it implied that
I was against all contemporary Christian music.
No, there's some tremendous contemporary Christian music out,
but there's much of it that is not,
uh, doing much for the cause of Jesus
Christ.
But there is some tremendous contemporary music.
I am against rock music, Christian or otherwise.
I believe if you don't agree with me,
that's fine.
But I believe there's something in that beat
that is not inherently healthy for the, for
the spiritual growth and development of life.
Now, there's a little booklet on our table.
It's had a Christian rock, a strategy of
Mephistopheles, the stratagem of Mephistopheles, about a dollar
and a dollar, one dollar, get it.
And I don't want you to come fighting
with me.
I've told you what I think of it.
Go buy it in $1 investment and then
study it and see if God would speak
to you on it.
This is written by Dr. Noble.
Here's another book, Rock and Roll, the Mind
and the Bible by Tom Allen, a young
man that was hooked on rock music when
he was 17 years of age and 21
years of age, he wrote that book, God
set him free.
This is our pastor's son, our home church
in Mansfield, Ohio.
One chapter there is on, on the rock
of ages.
And this is a book that young people
can take to their public high schools and
leave it on their desk.
And while they leave it there, some kids
will call and say, what's that book?
I said, well, I just bought it the
revival last night.
I don't even know what it says.
You want it?
Go ahead and read it and pass it
around because the last chapter is on the
rock of ages and it's the plan of
salvation.
It shows young people that if they're hooked
on rock music, they are hopelessly helplessly bound
and they need a way out and thank
the Lord for the rock of ages.
That's there.
Some people say you believe in rock and
roll.
Yes.
Rock of ages and rolled away, rolled away.
All the birds of my heart rolled away.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
But get these books and study them and
read them, you know, in revival, I'll tell
you what happens.
God sometimes has to upset us on some
areas we thought we had pegged down and
pinned down and we thought we had the
answer to it and it was all sold,
sealed and delivered.
Sometimes God has to unearth some of our
positions and thank the Lord for tonight's message
because tonight's message gets us ready to even
overthrow maybe some positions we've had standing for
years because we're saying, yes, Lord, what else?
We're willing to see.
We're willing to study.
And you know, the devil would love to
get us into a big debate on these
issues and divide the spirit of unity in
the body of Christ in these days.
And that's why I say these are items
for you to take and study.
Don't be too smart too soon.
Take them and study them.
Let them be a blessing to you.
And then if you want further discussion, but
these are insights that God has given others.
All right.
Now, tonight in our Bible, second Chronicles, chapter
seven, second Chronicles, chapter seven, just keep coming.
It's going to get good and good at
all time.
I'll tell you one night is going to
get goodest.
If you don't want to miss the goodest,
keep coming when it's getting gooder and gooder.
Amen.
Tremendous.
I don't know when I've enjoyed preaching more
than to you folks here.
And I said that in Flagstaff and the
last crusade.
I don't know when I enjoyed more, but
I think you have it beat here.
And maybe it's just something about this Arizona
air to an Ohio and Buckeye that we
really enjoy it.
And you have just been drinking.
I can sense it.
We can sense it.
The presence of God.
I heard somebody say they were getting people
say, you've got to fill your car.
You've got to go.
And they were all excited.
And they said, oh, heaven has come down
upon us.
I thought to myself, if they think heaven
has come down upon us, they ain't seen
nothing yet.
But I thank the Lord that you sense
that.
What is it that God is in the
presence of his people and God is speaking
in a wonderful way.
Now, second Chronicles, chapter seven, verse 12, and
the Lord appeared to Solomon by night.
And he said to Solomon by night and
it said unto him, I have heard thy
prayer and I have chosen this place to
myself on house of sacrifice.
If I shut up the heavens, that there'd
be no rain.
Now God shutting up the heaven, that it's
not going to rain.
He's talking to his people.
And he said, if I shut up the
heaven, be no rain, or if I command
the locusts to devour the land, or if
I send a pestilence among my people, where's
God doing it among my people, do we
consider ourselves God's people?
Yes.
God says, if I do all of that,
if my people.
Now we never think about God sending that
kind of, those things to his people.
Now what's going on?
That God is punishing his people.
That's what it is.
He's smiting his people.
Not because he doesn't love them, but he
loves them.
And therefore he's speaking with a powerful whip
on them.
And he's saying, if you come to that
place, if I finally caught your attention, if
my people, they'll do something, but you're called
by my name.
You know what that does to us tonight?
That means we close the doors except for
fresh air in the building, and we put
the padlock to the door as to where
the blame belongs tonight.
And we quit blaming Washington or Ottawa and
Canada and our capitals and all of our
public officials.
If my people, let's put it right here
where it belongs amongst God's people, which are
called by my name, you call yourself Christian?
Sure, that's his name, Christ, Christian.
By name shall have a prayer meeting like
we've now three or four of them tonight,
right?
Is that what it says?
Shall humble themselves and pray and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways.
Then will I hear from heaven, forgive their
sin and heal their land.
Now mine eyes shall be open and mine
ears a tent unto the prayer that is
made in this place.
Now, God says, my eyes will be open,
my ears shall be a tent unto the
prayers that are made in this place.
Now God says, I'll hear, and God says,
I'll see, and I'll be in the midst
of my people.
Now this great truth tonight, the question, why
did God say we must humble ourself even
before we pray?
Humble ourself even before we pray.
God is saying we have to do something
before pray, humble ourselves.
Well, God started with humility.
Let's talk a shade about it before we
answer the question.
Dr. James Kennedy said, what is true humility?
It is right thinking about God.
I don't know if you ever heard the
definition of humility like that.
Don't blame me, Dr. James Kennedy from Coral
Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale.
True humility, right thinking about God, rightly evaluating
oneself before God, right thinking about God, and
then rightly evaluating oneself before God.
Very interesting.
Now, therefore, if God is saying we need
to humble ourselves, he's really telling us our
problem is we're proud, right?
That makes sense, doesn't it?
If he says my people need to humble
themselves and pray, it means I see a
people that is proud.
So then we need to talk about pride.
Pride, one that trusteth in his own resources,
one that trusts in his own ability, trying
to work out the problems in his own
hand and from his own ability, instead of
the Peter chapter 5 concept, casting all your
care on him.
Isn't that interesting?
One that trusts in his own resources and
rests in his own ability, trying to work
out his own problems with his own hand
and his own abilities, instead of casting himself
on the first Peter chapter 5, casting yourself
on him for he cares for you.
Let's go back to Webster, way back in
Webster's dictionary.
Webster says pride is inordinate self-esteem, conceit,
ostentatious display.
Inordinate self-esteem.
Now, get that word inordinate, because that gives
the implication that you should have a proper
self-esteem.
Inordinate self-esteem, ostentatious display, conceit.
Let's go back to Charles G.
Finney in those revivals over 100 years ago.
He said pride is a disposition to exalt
my self, to get above others, to hide
my defects, to pass for more than we
are.
Aren't you glad Finney isn't around to preach?
How do I get blessed like that?
Pride is a disposition to exalt myself, to
get above others, to hide my defects, and
to pass for more than I am.
Now, we're right at the right place to
preach this message tonight in the series of
how God has been leading.
By the way, you say, what are you
going to preach tomorrow night?
It's going to be an adventure.
I don't know.
I really don't know.
We're at a turning point after this message
tonight.
I don't know where God's going to lead
us.
Maybe I won't.
Maybe Ralph will.
Maybe God's going to have a totally different
meet.
Come to enjoy the adventure with God, amen?
See how God's going to lead tomorrow night.
Pray for me.
I'm really shaking my boots.
I'm asking you to pray for me.
The Lord give me his direct mind as
to what he wants for tomorrow night as
we come off of this message tonight.
But oh, my brothers and sisters, this problem
of pride, to pass for more than what
we are.
Why is it tonight?
Because we've heard two nights about the character
of God and who he is, and we've
seen how we failed and how little we
are in the light of who he is.
And in the light of the kind of
messages that we've preached in the past two
nights, I don't know who's left unscathed or
who has missed hearing God speak to us
like that.
And yet some of us will go right
on, will not admit to our needs, will
not bow before God, will not face the
issues of that which we heard, even in
the character of God and our, and our
failure to fear him and walk before him,
represented by so many aspects of our lifestyle.
What's going to get me to the place
where God can get through to me, where
things can happen, where I can really face
this issue squarely?
I believe we're right to it tonight.
God needs to deal with the essence, the
problem of pride, and then we'll pray because
the proud man has no need to pray.
Then when you start praying, then you're going
to seek his face.
You see his face, then he's going to
show you simply the wicked ways of your
life, and it's easy to turn from them
because you've humbled yourself before him.
What a progression in this tremendous verse.
Though God said pride is believing that we
have accomplished what in reality God and others
have done in and for us.
It's believing that we have done what in
reality God and others had done in us
and for us.
Now, my brothers and sisters, we should not
be proud.
That's the message of the night.
We should not be proud, but we ought
to be grateful.
That's a different story.
Pride and gratitude can't live in the same
heart.
We ought to be grateful.
What do I mean by that?
Listen, God doesn't want us to look disparagingly
on the gifts he's given us.
Let's get it in perspective.
He wants us to have a proper self
-esteem.
He doesn't want you to always be looking
down on yourself.
We're not talking about that kind of wrong
self-esteem or low self-esteem.
God wants you to have a proper self
-esteem.
He wants you to acknowledge the gifts that
he's given you.
But a proud spirit says, I have done
it, and I have accomplished it in my
abilities.
But the spirit of gratitude says, all good
gifts come from the Father above.
I take them from him and he's given
them, and I have the spirit of gratitude
for whatever gifts that I can even recognize
that God has bestowed upon me.
It's in the attitude.
It's in the spirit.
The Bible says that we ought not to
think of ourselves more highly than we ought
to think, but to think soberly.
And that's the sober thinking, that all that
I have came from him.
And acknowledging that we have nothing that we
have of our own, but it is to
us and given to us as the grace
of God.
It means that I occupy that station that
becomes me as a creature before a creator,
as a sinner before a savior God, as
children before a heavenly father, that anything I
have, I'm just a creature.
It came from a creator.
I'm a sinner before a savior God.
Thank the Lord I am a child of
heavenly father.
That's the proper perspective.
You ever want to see the beautiful perspective
of proper self-esteem put together in two
verses?
It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7
and 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7.
1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 and 2
Corinthians chapter 4.
And here it is.
It's the context of all that I have
came from God, and that I am nothing
but an earthen vessel, and I hold within
me a treasure, that the excellency may be
of the power of God and not of
us and not of myself.
Since the acknowledgement of what I am in
1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7, I'm something
in the sight of God, that the excellency,
that the powers of God, my sufficiencies of
God.
And in 2 Corinthians I am only a
vessel holding a treasure, and I want the
excellency to be all of God and not
of me.
Well, that's the proper self-esteem, and Ralph
has a beautiful message on tape on who
I, who am I, and Dick Sipley, and
you can hear many messages on that.
But let's get to the heart, and so
I won't charge you for that because that
wasn't really planned in the sermon tonight, but
I just thought you'd like to have that
as a balance.
Because what's wrong with pride?
Oh, it's gratitude we need.
Not a spirit of pride, it's a spirit
of gratitude to God for what he's done
for us.
Now, why did God, before he asked us
to pray in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, say
you need to humble yourself or deal with
your pride?
Could I give you reasons?
One, could it be because God has described
in my Bible and in yours over 21
of the most despicable statements that God has
made about anything in all of the Bible
when he talks about pride?
Now, that's a 21-point sermon, and I'm
not going to preach it, but I'm suggesting
to you maybe God put, deal with your
pride before you even pray, because I don't
know anything in the Bible that God speaks
with more despicable language about his attitude toward
the sin of pride.
Now, that's point one.
Point two, and I'd love to take time,
but I dare not, for I want to
move right along tonight.
Point two, maybe God put it up in
front before he even asked us to pray,
because this pride business seems to be so
natural for all of us that it seems
to be the universal area of defeat.
So God knows it's a universal area of
defeat, so he puts it right out there
in front so none of us can miss
it.
Well, I wonder if it relates to Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 1, where it says, laying
aside every weight and the sin which doth
so easily beset us.
Does anybody know of one that so easily
besets us more than pride?
Maybe that's it.
Listen to this, in Job chapter 41, verse
33 and 34, upon earth there is not
like Satan, there is none like Satan, who
is made without fear.
He beholdeth all high things, talking about Satan.
Now listen to this statement, he is a
king.
We know that, don't we?
Who is he a king over?
He is a king over all the children,
what?
Of the world.
Listen to this, he is a king over
all the children of pride.
You ever know that was in the Bible?
Satan is a king over all the children
of pride.
No wonder it's a universal problem.
We come by it legitimately, don't we?
Somebody said some people just grow up, but
most of us puff up.
In Indiana, in a newspaper in a little
town, it said a college education now costs
$25,000, but it produces three very, very
proud people, the student, his mama, and his
pauper.
There's one vitamin we all have too much
of, and it's vitamin I.
Of all the enemies, it is pride which
dies the slowest and is the hardest to
die.
Even the children of the world are able
to discern this.
Madame de Steele said on her deathbed, she
said, do you know what's the last to
die in man?
It's the love of self.
Don Main prize in Houghton Lake, Michigan.
I think he was six feet six inches
tall and he owned a Volkswagen.
And he said one night, he said, I
bumped my head again this morning while getting
into my car.
And he said, come to think about it.
Most of the bumps in my life came
when I forgot to lower my head.
Do we get it?
Oh, so natural to all of us.
A man in Bay City, Michigan said he
got up.
It was the last night of me.
I still remember and got up to give
his testimony.
He said, no one else has any pride
in this church.
I thought to myself, isn't that interesting?
What puts him in such an exclusive society?
And he went on to say, he said,
I have it all.
So there's none left for any of you.
You know, it's funny.
Somehow we can have it all, but there
seems to be enough left for the rest
of them.
It's a universal problem.
Maybe that's why God put it out in
front.
Thirdly, maybe God put it out there even
before asked us to pray, because he's afraid,
he fears, and we might not even think
we have any pride.
I don't think we have any.
You know why?
Because of its deceptive nature.
You know, pride's so deceptive.
Jeremiah 49, 16 says, thy terribleness hath deceived
thee and the pride of thine heart.
Now that would have been bad enough, but
God says, I'm afraid you didn't hear it
in Jeremiah.
So he said, I want to say it
again over Diyah.
So he said over Diyah 13, the pride
of thine heart hath deceived thee.
I'm suggesting to you what Bob Leland said
in Michigan.
It's unbelievable.
So many years, 30 years, just because I
was so proud.
And I didn't think I was saying so
many years, I struggled in defeat.
I didn't even think I was proud.
The man said, that's unfortunate thing about it.
I had proud of my pride in my
heart and I didn't know I had it.
Dr. DeHaan said, even as Christians, we should
be aware of the deceptive nature of our
own hearts.
Let us allow the Holy spirit to correct
our vision, to recognize our proud spirit.
Pride is woven into every warp and woof
of the heart of man and only the
spirit of God can expose it.
It is the most difficult to diagnose and
deal with.
It's perhaps the gravest enemy to revival.
The gravest of all sins is the failure
to see my own sinfulness, the sinfulness of
my own heart.
And because of the deception of pride, we
might not even think we have any of
the sin of the pride.
Well, on television, there was a quiz program
and they said, they asked the question, which
word is used most in our daily talk?
And they had six words, one, two, three,
four, five, six, six words.
Which one?
I, but, the, and yes, and no.
If you're two years old, it's no, right?
But what about the rest of us?
Do you know what they found?
The, those on the panel picked every word.
I was picked fifth and there was only
one left, but was the sixth one.
Maybe they picked the sixth one because somebody
said, you can always tell people always say,
but you can always tell a goat by
the way it butts.
But you know, we always have a, but
instead of taking God's truth, but we talk
back to God and that's the kick in
the spirit, isn't it?
Well, let it be as it may, but
I was number five and that's what they
pick.
But you know what?
It actually was number one.
It's the word used mostly in every one
of our vocabularies.
Well, that's the third point.
This is about an eight point sermon.
Aren't you glad I'm already at point four,
but hang on, it's coming.
Point four, because God fears not only that
we might think we don't have any, but
God might fear that we might not recognize
it for what it really is because of
its deceptive nature.
Not only because of the deceptive nature, we
might not think we have any, but secondly,
because of its deceptive nature, he might fear
that we might not even recognize Christ for
what it really is because of its deceptive
nature.
Now, what do I mean by that?
God has a different measuring stick and measuring
rod than we have for a lot of
things.
And here's one of them.
If I can ask you the question, how
many things in the Bible do you find
the words like this blank fill in a
blank is sin blank is sin three words,
or maybe two words or whatever here describing
the item is sin.
How many can you find in all of
your Bible?
I'd ask you the Bible talk about sin.
Yeah.
Lots of sin in the Bible talks about.
I'm not asking that I'm asking you, how
many times do you find in your Bible?
The actual word is sin blank is sin.
How many times you find it?
Can anybody give me any tonight quickly?
What the thought of foolishness is sin.
There's one, another all unrighteousness in this too,
but lawlessness is sin.
And maybe it is unbelief is sin.
Not quite.
What's hers.
Not a faith is sin.
Same thing.
All right.
Well, about four or five, anybody else either?
No, do good.
Do it.
Not as sin.
That's six at all.
Don't you folks read your Bible so much
as sin in the Bible.
All right.
There's what I'm really saying to you.
There are very few things in the Bible
that God says is sin.
Why Bible talks about a lot of things
that we know are sins.
Why does the Bible name so few?
Could it be that God is afraid that
we might not recognize those things specifically because
they might have a dissection in them, a
deceptive nature to them.
And we might not recognize them for what
they really are sin.
And God has to put them in an
exclusive society and say, I want to name
it clearly.
So there's no missing it.
Well, Psalm 21, verse four, a high look
and the proud heart and the plowing of
the wicked.
What is what?
Oh, personality trait.
That's the way I was made.
After all, I'm a chip off the old
block.
They tell me my dad will have the
same kind of personality.
And they even say his dad had it.
And what do you expect?
I have that same personality trait, right?
Listen to this.
Isaiah 46, 12, hearken unto me.
He stout hearted.
What does that mean?
Stout hearted mean have a big fat heart.
I don't think so.
I think it means a proud heart.
Hearken unto me.
He stout hearted.
What's the problem with the stout hearted that
are far from righteousness?
What's the thing?
Whatever the stout heart is, it's a person
who is far from righteousness.
That means it's a sinful heart.
Isn't that the saying?
The proud, the high look and the proud
heart is sin.
Again, God says in Habakkuk 2, 4, behold
his soul, which is lifted up.
What's that?
A proud spirit, isn't it?
His soul, which is lifted up, how's God
describe it?
Is not upright in him.
The soul that is lifted up is not
upright.
That's a good one, isn't it?
The soul that is lifted up is not
upright.
Amen.
Get it.
Let God say it to us.
It's a sinful heart.
A proud spirit.
A man in Michigan said the Lord forgave
my pride.
Now what does God forgive?
That's sin.
That's what God forgives.
So this man, he was in the right
ballpark, wasn't he?
The joy of the Lord is now a
reality in my life.
You see, he was naming it God's name,
but another young man got up in a
testimony meeting.
He said, I'm a proud full person.
So I guess, so I guess I'm a
sinful person.
I had to write that one down when
I heard him say it.
I thought to myself, Oh, how God needs
to get through to us with one of
the basic truths.
That is this.
I'm a powerful person, but somehow we're not
convinced that a powerful person is a sinful
person.
We say, so I guess maybe perhaps.
And tonight God wants to show you and
me that pride is sin.
It's not a personality trait.
It's not just the way you are.
It is sin.
And aren't you glad I said it tonight?
Because when I name it, what God names
it for the first time in your life,
you realize as you sit in this meeting
that you can now find an answer to
something you thought you're going to have to
live with and go to your grave with.
A proud spirit that was afflicting you.
When I say it's sin, you know God
has an answer for sin, but not personality
traits, but he does something for sin.
I would ask how many people realize that
pride was a sin before I preached this
message.
It might be a shocking revelation how few
people in this meeting would have identified pride
actually named in the Bible as sin.
And if it is such, you know what
you need to do with sin.
There's only one place to go with sin,
and that's back to the cross.
Well, now I want to go on further.
That's four, five, I think, where am I?
I say four, five, whatever.
Pride is not only sin.
Maybe God puts it out in front because
he wants us to know that it is
more than just sin.
He wants us to know that it is
more than just sin.
You say, how can it be more than
just sin?
Here's why.
It is the very essence of sin.
Ah, not just a nice little sin in
the bag of a bunch of others.
I want to show you that it's the
very essence of sin.
I want you to turn now to Psalm
9, and I want to look at this.
It's tremendous how it unfolds.
Psalm 9.
Pride is the very essence of sin.
Maybe this is the reason why God puts
it out there before we could even pray.
Psalm 9, verse 17.
The Lord, thou hast heard the desire of
the humble.
Thou will prepare their heart.
Thou will, excuse me, that's, I'm reading Psalm
10.
That's a good one too, isn't it?
Psalm 9, verse 17.
The wicked shall be turned into what?
Hell.
And all the nations except the United States
that forget God.
Now we've learned two things.
The wicked are going to hell and nations
that forget God are going to hell.
Now we don't know why the wicked are
going to hell according to that verse, just
as the wicked are going to be turned
into hell.
But we know why the nations are going
to be turned into hell because it says
the nations that do what?
Forget God.
Remember that.
Important statement.
Now let's see if we can find out
a little more about the wicked, a little
more about the nations yet.
Let's go to verse 20.
Put them in fear, O Lord.
Ah, see?
We're back to the fear of God we
talked about last night.
Put them in fear, O Lord, that the
nations may know what is their problem, know
themselves to be but men.
Does it sound familiar to last two nights
sermons?
God, the psalmist says, Lord, put the nations
in fear that they may know themselves to
be but men.
Why were the nations going to be cast
in hell?
Because they were forgetting God.
Put them in fear, O God.
So it's a thinking process about God.
It's leaving God out of their life and
out of their plans.
Put them in fear, O Lord, because they
built themselves up to be God and put
them in fear.
Let them know they are but men.
Pull them down off of that that high
pedestal they're on, that deifying of man, and
bring them back down and let them put
God back up on the throne.
Now that's the problem of the nations.
Now what's the problem of the wicked?
Why does God put the wicked were going
to be cast into hell and nations that
forget God in the same verse?
Why is there something of that?
There's a correlation between the sins of both
of them.
Look at it in the next chapter, next
Psalm, verse three, verse two.
The wicked, what's his problem?
In his pride, doth persecute the poor.
Let them be taken in the devices that
they have imagined.
For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire,
and there's the proud spirit, and blessed the
covetous whom the Lord abhors.
He doesn't have time for God.
He wants to go anti-God.
The wicked, what is the wicked's problem?
We're finding out.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
what happens when he's proud?
Will not seek after God.
Wasn't that the same problem the nations had?
Will not seek after God.
God is not in all his thoughts.
So what is the essence of wickedness?
It's a proud spirit that doesn't need God.
It's a proud spirit.
The basic principle of sin is refusal to
act dependent on God.
And that's the essence of wickedness, of the
wicked, and the essence of nations that forget
God.
Therefore, that's sin.
The very heart of it.
Oh, that God would show it to us.
Isn't that what it was in Romans chapter
one the other night when we described it?
They brought God down and they didn't want
to retain God at all in their knowledge.
God's going to pull down the curtain on
a sinful society.
Now it says in Isaiah, I believe, among
my people are wicked men.
What does it mean?
It could be our thinking about God, the
proud spirit that doesn't need him.
Isaiah 65 too, I have spread out my
hands all the day unto a rebellious people.
What was their problem?
Which walk in a way that was not
good.
What kind of a way was it after
their own thoughts?
Isn't that the problem of the wicked?
Isn't that the problem of the nations that
forget God and they walk in the ways
of their own thoughts?
It's the essence of sin.
Proud spirit is a spirit that acts independently
of God and does not need to depend
on God.
The essence of a proud spirit is this.
The Lord has made all things for himself.
Everyone that is proud in heart is an
abomination to the Lord.
Dr. Graham was asked the question, my, I
am a Christian, but I have a real
problem with pride in my life.
Welcome to the club.
I know this is wrong, but how can
I fight it?
Dr. Graham pride is a serious sin.
In fact, it is at the root of
almost every sin.
I didn't tell Dr. Graham to write that
for my sermon.
That was in the newspaper.
Tim LaHaye said, pride is the greatest enemy
that a man must face.
We're talking about the heart of the issue.
And I'm asking you a simple question.
Did God put pride out there even before
he asked us to pray?
Because pride is not only seen.
It is the essence of sin.
Well, if that be the case, my brothers
and sisters, the verse says in Psalm 18,
21, for I have kept the ways of
the Lord and have not wickedly.
What is wickedly?
I have not wickedly departed from my God.
That was the essence of wickedness departing from
my God, no need of him, a proud
spirit that doesn't need him.
We've learned it.
If a pride, if pride is the essence
of sin, therefore we know why God had
to put it then before he asked us
to pray, don't we?
Surely because of its relationship to prayer.
If pride is the essence of sin, my
Bible says, if I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not see or hear
me.
So therefore I can't even pray.
What good is my praying if I'm filled
with pride and pride is the very essence
of sin.
I wonder, he said, behold, the Lord's hand
is not short that he cannot save, nor
is he heavy that he cannot hear.
Nothing wrong with God, but your iniquities separate
between you and your God and your sins
hide God's face from you that he cannot
hear.
And we know that God here is not
sinners.
And therefore we have to have pride.
We have to deal with our pride before
our prayers will get anywhere because that's the
essence of sin.
Psalm 10.
Here we are.
We've been in Psalm 10, haven't we?
Look at Psalm 10, the 17th verse, Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble.
You see, that's the man who can pray.
It's the man who has humbled himself.
If my people, which are called by my
name shall humble themselves and pray.
Here we see it in the Psalm 7,
10, 17, Lord, thou has heard the desire
of the humble.
Why will God hear the desire of the
humble or the prayer of the humble?
Because that's the person who has dealt and
is dealing with the essence of sin.
And that's the heart that can pray.
The prayer that ascends the highest comes from
the depths of the humble heart.
It isn't enough that prayers offered even for
a good object.
It must come from the yielded, humbled heart.
My brothers and sisters, we're tonight talking about
praying for revival and we're praying for a
good object, if I can say it that
way.
But I'm suggesting to you that tonight, as
we talk with the emphasis on prayers, we've
heard so much.
It's not enough that we pray even for
that, which is good.
It must come.
Our prayers must come from those humbled hearts.
And I'm thrilled when I'm hearing what's going
on in the morning prayer means, especially how
men are humbling themselves with brokenness before God,
before they're even thinking about praying for others.
Pride is opposed to faith.
And that's why we've got to deal with
our pride before we can pray.
Because you know, the verse that I read,
behold, his soul, which is lifted up is
not upright in him.
That's not where the verse ends.
The verse goes on to say the other
half of the coin is, but the just
shall live by faith.
So on the one side, the proud spirit
is the heart that's not upright, but the
just shall live by faith.
The just is the context of the humble
heart.
That's the just heart.
It's not a perfect heart.
It's the humble contract heart that says, oh
God, whatever you say about me is fine.
I accept it and I'll bring it to
you and I'll bring it to your cross.
And I will admit it.
That's the just heart.
It's the humble spirit.
And God says, that's the spirit that will
live by faith.
So that's the spirit that can pray.
No wonder it says, God will hear the
prayer of the humble.
Maybe this is the reason why our attendance
in our prayer meetings is so meager.
Because we have prayed and we prayed, our
prayers have hardly gone to sea and come
back again.
And we finally give it up.
And we say, what use is there?
There's nothing getting done, nothing being accomplished.
And so we just might as well stay
home because it seems like it's a waste
of time.
But I'll tell you, when revival hits the
church, prayer meetings will mount and will increase.
And your prayer meetings might even double after
this crusade, if we really mean business with
God.
One church in Woodstock, New Brunswick, the prayer
meetings after the revival, they were packed out
on Wednesday night prayer meeting to where they
had to bring in extra chairs for the
people to sit on.
And the people asked the pastor to enlarge
the prayer meeting for 30 minutes longer.
One hour was too short.
They wanted an hour and a half and
the pastor is still alive.
He didn't have a heart attack.
Why does God deal with sin and deal
with pride before he even asked us to
pray?
Another reason.
I don't know which one we're on.
Here it is because my brothers and sisters,
there is a correlation between pride in that
verse and humbling myself in that verse and
something else that's in that verse.
What else read on in second Chronicles seven,
14.
If my people, which are called by my
name, shall humble themselves and what and pray
and what seek my face and what turn
from their wicked ways.
I want to ask you a simple question.
What's the difference between dealing with my pride
as the essence of sin and turning from
my wicked ways.
Isn't pride a wicked way.
Why did God reach into the bag called
wicked ways in second Chronicles seven, 14.
And why did God reach in the bag
and get one thing out of it?
This thing called pride and pull it out
and stick it up in the front of
the verse.
Why did he just leave it in the
bag?
It was, if you say it's the essence
of sin, it's the essence of wickedness.
You ever asked yourself the question could be
a correlation between humbling myself and my wicked
ways.
Could it be like this?
Could one be the fruit while the other
is the root.
Could it be that the pride of it's
the essence of sin is the root and
could the wicked ways be the fruit that
comes out of the root.
Could it be, could it be that, uh,
the essence of sin is wickedness.
The pride spirit, which is we've talked about
the essence of wickedness.
Could it be that wicked ways are the
fruit coming from the root of wickedness, the
proud spirit.
Could it be that God's saying recognize the
heart of the issue.
And if you recognize the heart of the
issue, you're going to have a key to
the answer to so many of the fruit,
the individual fruit that comes from the well
for Samuel 24, 13, a don't turn.
I'll be done in a moment as set
the proverb of the ancients.
What did the ancient say?
Wickedness proceeded from the wicked.
Could it be the wicked is the root
and the wickedness is the fruit or the
wickedness as the picture of the wicked ways.
Anyway, you want to put it.
Could I give you two illustrations about this
tonight?
We, we see the subject of leprosy in
the Bible.
When you see leprosy in the Bible, we
talk about leprosy.
What does the Bible use leprosy as a
type of sin?
All right.
So we've got a good base.
Leprosy is a type of sin.
We're talking about sin.
Now there are two men in the Bible
specifically that had the problem of leprosy.
One was Uzziah.
He became a leper, get it.
He became a leper King Uzziah.
He was strong and he got proud.
At first it was a feeling of confidence
and then a suggestion of strength until finally
he had such a complete attitude of self
-sufficiency.
And when it got to that place, King
Uzziah, the Bible says, God smote him with
leprosy.
Now, what do we learn?
Proud heart brought on the leprosy.
What is leprosy?
It's a type of a disease that goes
all over the body.
One thing, one basic issue had him afflicted
with something that spread out all over his
body.
Could that be the wicked way, the essence
of sin, pride?
And as a result, because he wouldn't deal
with the real issue of pride, the wicked
ways, a picture of leprosy that affected and
inflicted his whole body, the whole body was
affected by the one issue.
Am I telling some people in this meeting
tonight that your whole life is basically affected
by the one issue?
Am I telling you that your life is
corrupted with many, many wicked ways and you
don't know how to get the handle to
the problem and you can't seem to get
victory in your life and you're struggling and
this, and you no sooner get this one
down and up pops this one and that
one, you can't even keep up and you're
swamped.
If they're just coming out of you, out
of the seams or out of the woodwork
in your life, and you can't find the
answer.
Could I tell you that perhaps God is
saying to us tonight, I've got to put
the real issue up even before you pray.
And before you can even turn from your
wicked ways, deal with the root.
And that's going to be the key for
your victory with a fruit.
Harry Thyssen, Western Canada said, I was a
prisoner of myself, man bound in himself.
I'll tell you what was the leprosy that
spread out in his life.
He was visiting psychologists and psychiatrists and every
kind of fellows to fix up the mind.
He was losing his marriage.
His wife was walking out on him after
20 years of marriage.
He had lost his children and God touched
him and he dealt with his pride and
his life was saved.
And his wife and children, and he and
his wife just a year and a half
ago resigned from dominion.
He resigned from dominion bridge in Winnipeg, and
he and his wife were out in full
-time revival ministry, helping couples find victory in
their lives.
You see, he had all kinds of problems
because of the root of fruit.
The fallout was disaster.
I'm talking to people in this meeting, the
fallout from your basic sin, the sin of
pride that you'll not deal with that thing
that is the enemy of the soul, the
essence of sin.
And until we deal with that, you are
infected with problems of all kinds.
And you can't keep out, put, keep up,
putting out the brush fires.
You can't get ahead of it.
God's talking about something very basic.
You're bending and you're breaking before him and
you're humbling yourself before him, recognizing that spirit
of pride, which is the essence of sin.
There's another man with leprosy and it was
Naaman.
Who was he?
He was a man who had leprosy and
was trying to get the cure for leprosy.
Now, what was the answer to the cure
for leprosy?
He had to humble himself, right?
You know, your preachers preach about the seven
ducks in a muddy river.
It was Naaman going under seven times, right?
Seven ducks in a muddy river.
And he had to get cured.
He couldn't be cured from leprosy until he
was willing to humble himself and go into
the filthy river, Jordan, instead of that beautiful
river outside of Damascus, where I've been, where
the water's crystal clear to, to go into
that river, Jordan, this man who was a
somebody who was the elite, a captain of
the Syrians.
And he had to humble himself to have
deliverance from his leprosy.
And that's what God is saying to you.
We're infected with so much tonight.
We'll carry these things until you die, until
you deal with the root of the issue
and humble yourself.
Then I'll set you free from the leprous
condition all over your life.
Ralph and I are in our 32nd year
of ministry.
And I want to tell you something.
If I didn't believe what I was preaching
right, what I'm preaching right now, I'd quit
the ministry.
I'd quit this thing of going around the
world and different countries and so forth and
places and go back to the wife and
children and so forth and settle down.
But I'll tell you, I believe we're at
the heart of the truth that God wants
the church to hear in a new and
fresh way.
Instead of picking off a few little, a
few little leaves on the tree, let's get
to the root, the heart of the issue.
And when we get there, you watch the
victory.
God didn't even say, repent from your wicked
ways.
Do you notice that in second Chronicles seven,
14, he didn't even say, repent from them.
He didn't even say, admit them as sin.
He said, turn from them.
And I believe God is telling you and
me that if we deal with a real
hard issue, that spirit of pride that will
not bend before God and wants to take
the credit for everything and wants to be
so big.
And if we want to break that and
bend that and admit that for what it
is and deal with it for what it
is, once we come to that place, it's
nothing for whatever God wants to show us.
It's nothing for us to turn from.
You see, when we deal with that pride
for what it is, it's like somebody said,
we've allowed God to put his hand on
us.
And once God gets his hand on us,
then he's got his fingers and he says,
now, did you know you had this wicked
way and that wicked way?
Yes, Lord.
This week away.
Turn from this week away.
Yes, Lord.
This week away.
Yes, Lord.
This week way.
Now God is able to even show you
wicked ways about your life that you didn't
even know was there that were there.
Oh, I remember a layman when God dealt
with him so powerfully in this context.
He said, Lord, my pride, I see it.
It was like a fungus at the bottom
of the root of the tree.
It was spread out all over it and
infected and it spread into everything.
Oh, Lord, teach me to ever recognize it.
I didn't realize how many areas it had
spread into.
And maybe you're like that tonight.
Pastor Walter, both of the large Alliance church
in Western Canada, when the revival broke out,
when we had to move from one church
to the second, then to the third, it
was his church.
And when we moved there, he says about
the first night that all these Baptists came
into the Alliance church.
He said he sat up on the front
row of the balcony way up there about
a thousand or 1100 people there that night.
He sat up in the front row and
you know, as he can joke, he said,
I wanted to see what revived Baptist looked
like.
You know, they were using our building.
That was the first night that they were
joining the crusade.
He sat on the front row, but he
said, you know, God was dealing with me
and speaking to me in such a way.
And I said, and I knew I needed
to go down forward and get on my
knees and pray.
But what would it look like if the
preacher of the big church at the Baptist
had just come to for the first night
has to go down and get right with
God, right?
That'd be terrible.
So he said, oh, I was glad to
see so many people go forward because then
I could go forward as a prayer partner.
People think I was going to pray with
somebody.
Did you know preachers had deceitful hearts like
that?
And so he said, I went down, you
know, and when I went down there first,
I thought it was going to be a
prayer partner.
God smoked me and I had to deal
with a real sin of my heart.
Thank the Lord.
That man became an instrument of revival in
Saskatoon.
He had to confess to all the other
evangelical pastors of the city.
He called them together.
I believe it was on a Monday morning
after that next Sunday, it got all the
evangelical pastors of the city.
They said, let's meet in a basement of
a home.
And we had a meeting in one of
the largest basements that we could get.
And there we are.
We had wall to wall pastors and their
wives and they came and we started nine
o'clock in the morning.
That meeting got done at four or five
in the afternoon.
Hardly had time to get home and get
cleaned up until the big meeting that night.
But preachers were getting right with God and
their wives and restitution.
He said, I had such, I didn't need
the other pastors.
I had the leading evangelical church in town
and I couldn't care less how the works
of God were going and I was so
filled with pride.
And then God showed him his lovelessness.
And then God made him such an instrument
to bless so many pastors and bless.
We're probably here and everything's happening here for
the decision that pastor in that church made
to humble themselves before God canceled their missionary
convention when missionaries were already on the scene
and they'd already rented the big civic auditorium
for the next Sunday, final Sunday.
And there was money that was going to
be lost.
It was already paid for advertising, all the
rest of it.
Oh, what God did to the man himself.
If you want to come somewhere in the,
in the wintertime, you want to get away
from this cold winter, come and join us
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in February, because we're going
to be in the same church.
That church now is a building that seats
2,800 people.
What God has done those days, I revived.
We're going to have a conference in that
church in the dead of winter.
And we packed out the last time we
were there, we had to turn 800 people
away on the Sunday night in the dead
of winter.
What God has done by his spirit.
And I suggest to you, my brothers and
sisters, if we deal with a basic issue
of pride, the very essence of sin, my
heart will be willing and truly prepared to
deal with every wicked way that God can
show me.
He hasn't even wasted his time to try
to show me what he really wants to
show me because he'd know it'd be no
good.
It would be no use because of the
proud spirit wouldn't let him in now.
Oh, yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord.
That's the revived heart.
That's the Lord.
Yes, Lord, is the answer.
And then we say, Lord, what is the
question?
Lord, I've already given you the answer.
What is the question?
Throw the books at me, Lord.
Turn from the wicked way.
Yes, Lord.
Fine.
I've already humbled myself.
That's not glad, Lord.
Show me some more.
Turn from this wicked way.
Now God can set you free from shackles
that have been in your life that you
didn't even know were there.
And the heavens will be open and you
can start to pray now like you never
could pray before.
Oh, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
You know, Winston's tastes bad like a cigarette
should.
Right.
We were in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, holding
a crusade, and we were on the way
to the crusade.
The pastor met us in the airport and
he was taking us to the church.
And he said, now you know where you
are, don't you?
Well, it hadn't dawned on me.
Ralph and I had been preaching up north
so much.
We hadn't been in that area of the
south for a long time, especially since the
Revival in Western Canada.
He said, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He said, you know where you are?
He said, you know, this is tobacco country.
And he said, you know, when I took
this church, they asked me what I would,
what I thought about tobacco and if I'd
preach against it and if I answered a
certain way, I wouldn't be asked to be
a pastor.
It's just the way it is.
Now, I just want to warn you.
I thought to myself, we're riding in a
car.
I thought to myself, Pastor, do you think
you ought to head back the other way
to the airport and put us on the
plane and fly us back?
We had just come out of the Revival
in Canada.
See, God break down walls and move through
hearts and change people and set them free
from every shackle.
And we believe that if there's going to
be Revival, we've got to be thorough and
we've got to go all the way down.
When God speaks, we've got to say, yes,
Lord, and then throw the question at me.
I've already given the answer.
And here you're telling me, preacher, you're really
telling me that I'm coming here to lead
you folks in Revival, to believe God for
Revival.
And you're trying to tell me there's something
that God can only go so far, but
he can't go that far.
Well, I thought they'd spent their money on
the plane ticket.
So I'm here now.
Might as well see it out and see
what happens.
I said, oh, God, give me wisdom.
And God led me to preach on the
spirit of pride.
I stayed right on it.
And then this great text of 2 Chronicles
10, 14 just got on the bones of
the people.
And they'd get up in the meeting.
The whole congregation was quoted.
I said, praise the Lord.
They're just getting ready to go down, right?
Lord, you're just setting them up good for
me.
Wonderful.
And they kept quoting in.
They were just reveling in the truth.
And I kept preaching on the problem and
the sinfulness of Christ.
The problem, you see, we don't even think
it's sin.
And I made the mistake.
The sinfulness of it.
And God started to grip their hearts.
And I said, all right, Lord, tell me
when.
Give me the cue when.
When I got to the wicked ways, God
gave me and the Lord gave me a
sweet spirit.
The Lord showed me in the ministry, the
harder you hit, the sweeter you ought to
give it to them.
And the Lord gave me a sweet spirit
to get.
Now, folks, there's a wicked way around.
I believe God wants to set you free
from.
And I laid it out.
That night, the first night in the heart,
some of those people raised tobacco for their
living.
Some of them walked in, in, in the
Winston, in, in the JR Reynolds tobacco company.
Maybe I'm telling you something.
If you went into the restrooms after the
services, you have to go in there with
a smoke mask.
That's what it is.
They smoke out on the front steps.
They smoke in the rest and the, in
the restrooms, you laugh, but I'm telling you
the truth.
And when I preached on it that night,
God had done such a deep work in
the humbling of the hearts that when I
could come to that issue, five men were
set free from tobacco.
The first I'd even mentioned it.
And then the public radio station heard about
it.
God was setting so many people free from
tobacco.
And they heard about in the word around
town was these fellows are JR Reynolds out
of business.
And the radio station, we were on the
radio and they opened the radio lines and
people were calling in their testimonies for an
hour or two a day.
People were just giving their testimony of going
out over the air of God, setting people
free.
I tell you, if a preacher would have
come in and jumped on that issue, he
would have been railroaded out of town.
There's no way I could have done it.
No wonder the pastors couldn't do it.
There's no way, but it's when God almighty
brought his people down and they saw the
pride of their heart as the essence of
sin.
Then God was able to deal with wicked
ways that you couldn't touch with a hundred
foot pole.
But one preacher in Michigan, he really, he
was really something.
He went away two weeks before the revival
for one whole day to get alone with
God.
And he went, he said, Lord, the twins
are coming.
And before they get here, I've got to
go alone.
You got to straighten me up.
So I'll be all ready for when the
twins come here.
So I won't have to humble myself in
front of my people.
And he did, and he got before God
and he started to pray, God, show me
what's wrong.
I want to be right with you, Lord.
Oh, God, purify me.
And you know what?
God didn't say boo to him.
God said nothing to him.
What a way to waste the day, right?
God said nothing to him.
He went home.
He said, Oh, isn't this wonderful?
I'm ready.
Come on, twins.
Come on, let go out by people.
Now I went away with God and God
didn't show me anything.
I'm right.
Everything's fine.
I started in on pride and you know
what happened, don't you?
About halfway through the week, God showed him
what it was and he bent before God.
He broke before God in the sinfulness of
his pride and the Lord forgave him.
And then God was able to show him
one wicked way after another, after another, after
another.
And from Wednesday night, when God dealt with
him about his pride till Sunday morning, when
he stood up in front of his whole
congregation and he confessed to his crowd, his
spirit of why he wanted to get right
with God two weeks before because of his
proud spirit and God showed him nothing.
And then when God showed him with a
real problem, the pride of his heart, he
said ever since Wednesday night, God has been
throwing the books at me and throwing the
books at me.
And now I say, Oh, God, when are
you going to stop?
Two weeks ago, I had nothing wrong with
him.
Now he says, God, when are you going
to stop?
That's what I'm saying.
You maybe have felt you are not a
candidate for revival.
You're glad the twins have come because you
know so many people who need it.
You've got all things put together and there's
nothing wrong in your life and you'll go
along and enjoy the ride and see what
God's going to do to other people.
My brothers and sisters, I believe with all
my heart if God's truth can come through
to us tonight on the basic issue of
this message, you then will be a true
candidate for revival and God will set you
free from shackles in your life and the
stream of worship to God will flow in
your life like it hasn't flown for years
if we go back to where God starts
and deal with a proud spirit that has
been ruling and running and controlling our life
and we don't even know the areas that
need to be touched, the wicked ways that
we need to turn from till we get
there.
Now I think I've got about one more
to go.
Number eight, why did God put pride, deal
with pride before even says pray?
Could it be because of the utter devastation
that comes through pride?
Is that why God put it out front?
Because of the utter devastation that comes through
pride.
Nothing, nothing, nothing can match the devastation that
comes through pride.
Psalm 31 20 is a very interesting verse.
It says, thou shall hide them from the
pride of man.
Isn't that something?
I read that verse.
Let me tell you what God's trying to
say.
Thou shall hide them from the pride of
man.
This thing called the pride of man is
so bad that you better go run for
cover.
You hear it?
Thou shall hide them from the pride of
man.
Thou shall keep them secretly in a pavilion
from the strife of tongue of the tongue
of tongues.
Get it.
God says we need to be hid.
We need to run for cover to be
hid from the pride of man.
And we need to be kept secretly in
a pavilion away from the strife of tongues.
Isn't that the very essence of the spirit
of pride?
Can't you hear it?
Haven't you heard it?
Haven't you been around it?
Haven't you been in a church somewhere where
it's happened?
The strife of tongues.
And it gets so bad.
You say, oh God, I'm glad I found
that verse tonight.
I want to ask you like I've never
asked before.
Lord, hide me from the pride of man
and hide me secretly in the pavilion.
Set me free.
What devastation comes to pride that God talks
about it even like that.
You know, Christendom has recognized that there are
seven deadly sins and there's good ground for
calling the pride the deadliest of the deadly
and as much is so often as the
root of others.
Why?
When people are thwarted and pride is thwarted
and they are humiliated, get it, pride gives
way to envy and bitterness.
That's where pride runs.
Envy and bitterness.
You thwart pride, touch somebody's pride.
He runs to envy and bitterness in order
to justify itself.
Pride will not hesitate to stoop to hypocrisy
and deceit.
What is it?
It is.
It is envy.
It is bitterness.
It goes to hypocrisy and deceit.
Warren Wiersbe said the sin of pride has
ruined more lives than any sin known to
man.
It is the sin that invites Satan to
rule.
Sounds like devastation.
Some of you have been around where you
wonder who is in charge.
It is the sin that cost King Saul
his character, his crown, and ultimately his life.
But humility is the grace that made David
a king.
A young lady in Tucson a year ago
said when God dealt with her and showed
her this great truth of a proud spirit,
she got up in front of the crowd
and maybe she'll come here someday and give
a testimony.
What a sweet testimony.
And she said, if I had dealt with
pride before, I wouldn't be divorced today.
And she was just going through the throes
of divorce right then.
She would have dealt with pride before.
She said, I wouldn't be a divorcee today.
Pride ruins personalities and families and relationships on
and on.
And my Bible tells me in first Peter
chapter five, the devil goes about as a
what roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
What is first Peter chapter five?
What chapter in the Bible is it?
You and I know it is the big
pride chapter in the Bible.
Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord
and he shall lift you up.
God resists the proud.
He gives grace to the humble.
It's all there.
Caster cares on him for That's all there.
Those words precede the words that Satan, your
adversary, the devil goes about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour.
And I have thought to myself, isn't it
interesting that the one place in the Bible
that the Bible describes the work of Satan
as a devourer, a roaring lion who devours,
it's in the chapter that's the encyclopedia of
pride.
I wonder if it isn't saying that's the
real area that Satan has a field day.
He goes about as a roaring lion.
What do you say?
Um, if I know anything about lions, I'm
glad it's a roaring lion because they tell
me that you don't have to be afraid
of the roar.
He's just making a lot of noise, right?
Ah, well, wait a minute.
That's just where it starts.
If you think it's just a lot of
noise, that's just where it starts.
You know what that noise is all about?
That's the noise calling all the young ones
to come on out and join in.
That roar is not to frighten you.
That roar is to call all the young
lions.
You see, that roar says, I'm too old
to really give this fellow what he needs.
That's from the papa and the mama, the
old timers, and they don't quite have the
energy and they can't make havoc of you
like the young guys can, you know, and
says that roar calls a whole bunch of
them out of the forest and, and they
come and they come and when they get
there and they all come together and they
really go at you when they get together,
you know what you call them when they're
all together, they're called a pride of lions.
Isn't that interesting?
They got the right name.
The pride of lions taking care of the
proud and what devastation.
Doug McIntosh in this meeting tonight tells me
he was in a church in Lumbee, Ontario,
British Columbia, Western Canada.
He said there was such bitterness over the
color of the girls uniforms in the Christian
school connected to the church.
He said he had to deal with it
in a leader's meeting, such bitterness.
That's unbelievable.
I can't tell you how many churches have
been split almost on the color of the
nursery.
Oh, I have my rights.
I have my right to be heard.
No, you don't.
You don't have your rights.
The only right you have.
Oh, excuse me.
If you're a Christian, you have two rights.
One, the right to be called the son
of God.
And two, the second right, if you're a
Christian, the right to denounce any other rights
to yourself.
That's all.
The right to say I have no more
rights.
That's all you have.
Jesus didn't have any rights.
He gave them all up and we are
to be like Christ.
I can't tell you how many churches are
split because somebody says, I have my rights.
It's a proud spirit and it caused devastation.
What is it?
Our attempt to bring others, perhaps even God
to our terms rather than accept God's terms
or theirs.
That's the proud spirit.
Everybody has to come to our terms or
we'll make it known and make it felt.
Devastation, pride.
Dr. John just said if the devil can't
get us into hell, he will get as
much discord into our fellowship through spiritual pride.
You know what the Bible says?
Only by pride in Proverbs 22, 11, 10,
don't turn only by pride come as what
contention only by pride come as contention.
Oh, you say, no, Lou, you don't know
the contention we have in our church.
It's because of this.
If that sister, so-and-so, if she
would just change your mind and that No,
the Bible says only by pride come as
contention.
Oh, no, Lou.
It's that situation, that pastor of ours, if
he would just change a little bit, do
this stuff.
No, only by pride come as contention.
You know what it says?
Only it means it's exclusive society.
We've got 900 reasons why you've got problems
in churches.
We've got 900 reasons why we've got problems
in our families.
We've got 900 reasons why I can't get
along with a brother or sister in the
church or another Christian.
We have 900 reasons why we had to
leave one church and go to another.
Only by pride and pride is P R
I I is in the center of the
word pride and S I N I is
in the center of the word sin.
Pride is sin.
So only by sinful pride come as contention.
When did you confess that simple pride?
And that's why the devastation is going on
in the body of Christ.
God says, don't even spend your time praying.
Get up off your knees and deal with
the real issue of the sinful pride because
of the devastation it causes in the body
of Christ.
Pride brings condemnation of Satan.
Watch it.
Don't lift up a novice, said Paul, lest
being lifted up with pride, he fall into
the condemnation of the devil.
God help us.
The way we've taken some of these so
-called rock stars and these Hollywood actors and
actresses, and they make a profession in Jesus
Christ.
And within three weeks, within two weeks, we've
got them on platforms in the Christian circles
and they're giving their testimony and we're lifting
them up and they're going around the world
with fees that are astronomical.
And they, we've given them a big platform
and it's a heyday and it's popularity prestige.
Instead, they would have been better humbling themselves
for seven years and never even seen on
a platform and walk with God, but we've
lifted them up and they've gone into shambles
because of the pride of their heart.
And God says he'll fall into the condemnation
of the devil.
Don't lift him up.
Lest he be lifted up with pride, the
tragedy and the devastation that comes with pride.
Stanley Volk, he was leaving some brothers and
sisters at a train station when they were
saying goodbye to the brother.
Sister was a marvelous man of God.
They said, goodbye, brother.
We want to say goodbye.
We shall pray for you that you may
be used and blessed of God wherever you
go.
He looked at them and he said, no,
don't do that.
Pray only one thing for me.
Pray that I may always be broken.
He knew only too well that was his
greatest need.
And it is ours that we may be
broken.
And Barbara Kuzmack said when she heard the
truth of God, she said today, I readjusted
my halo.
I'm asking what are you going to do
with this message tonight?
I'm done.
I'm really asking what are you going to
do with this message tonight?
You're going to readjust your halo a little
bit?
She said it's not strangling me anymore.
Is that what you're going to do?
Just give it a little readjustment so it
doesn't quite strangle you anymore?
It's not what this message is all about
tonight.
I like what Don Pottenhauer said, God is
not out to hurt my pride.
He's out to kill it.
And a lady on a kitchen wall in
Ontario, she had a sign, ever have one
of those days when everything goes right and
there's no one around to see it happen?
Remember, men and women, no one has ever
choked to death from swallowing his pride.
His appetite improves after he swallows his pride,
his appetite for God, for holiness, for the
body of Christ, for love in the body.
Oh, remember, a high look and a proud
heart is sin.
Don't minimize it.
Give it God's name.
And there are going to be some people
in this revival who will be bystanders to
this whole revival.
You know what's going to make you a
bystander?
You'll continue to go without true victory because
your hunger to be right with God and
to have victory and power in your life,
and it will not exceed your pride.
And therein lies the conflict of revival.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord Jesus, our speaking loudly and clearly
to us tonight, thank you for these brothers
and sisters who are sitting and listening attentively
to hear from heaven.
Lord God, we've quoted that verse so much,
if my people called by my name shall
humble themselves and pray and seek my face,
turn from their wicked ways, then will I
hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal
their land.
Oh God, you've thrown some light on that
verse tonight to our hearts.
Lord, let us start where you start.
Thank you, Lord.
It's already started.
Thank you, Lord, that this great truth has
come through to the hearts of so many
of your brothers and sisters, your children in
this community these days.
Intensify it, Lord.
Magnify it, Lord.
Amplify it, God, to many where hundreds and
hundreds, thousands of my people humble themselves before
thee.
We all walk in humility before thee, dealing
with their sin, going back to the cross.
Do that tonight in our hearts and lives.
While heads are bowed and eyes are closed,
how many men and women all over this
creation say, Luke, I want to start right
now by humbling myself, by humbling myself, by
saying, God, I need to be freed.
I need forgiveness for the sin of pride.
I need to humble myself.
And I want to start right now by
humbling myself, by even raising my hand to
admit that I have that sin.
While heads are bowed, let me see all
of the congregation.
How many said, Luke, God's taken me in
tonight.
I've seen my sinful, proud spirit all over
this congregation.
Let me see your hands being raised.
All of this congregation, raise them up.
Oh, they're going up all over the congregation,
all over the congregation.
God bless you, dear folks.
God bless you.
There are no three prayer rooms big enough
to take care of the crowd if I'd
ask you to go to a prayer room
tonight of those who've raised their hands.
And so there's only one thing I know
to do for us to pray right in
our suits here.
And let's pray right here.
And we, brothers and sisters who have victory
in our hearts, will pray for those that
God is dealing with.
I want to ask every one of you,
even if you did raise your hand and
you know you should, I'm not even going
to waste any more time to even ask
for more hands to be raised.
You may put them down.
God bless you.
Let's pray right now.
Let's take our sins to the cross of
Jesus.
Take this in a pride and get it
under the blood of Jesus.
If we confess our sins, God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us.
Take it, name it, give it God's name.
Get God's forgiveness tonight.
Do it.
Pray that way in God's presence.