Luke
3:5-6 “Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought
low; The crooked places
shall be made straight And
the rough ways smooth; And
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
The preaching of the man John the Baptist was always
with passion, zeal, and fearlessness. This man was our Lord’s forerunner and he
broke through the religious system of law keeping with a new message of
repentance toward God for the forgiveness of sins. The Law of Moses was not a
part of his speech to the people that came out to listen to his words. John
wanted to warn the people of the absolute, sure, pure, and righteous judgment
that would come from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. John wanted them to
know that our Lord (who desires mercy and always shows love) will show know
partiality and being of the physical seed of Abraham or born as a Pastor’s kid
or born in America or born to Christian parents or Church membership or any
other supposed privilege would earn no man or woman any favor without true
repentance from the heart.
Romans
10:12-13 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” NKJV
It has been rightly said in my opinion that pride is
at the root of every sin that proceeds from the heart (inner man/woman) of
every person of every generation. It was pride that turned the angel Lucifer
into the devil he is today, but praise God he is headed to the Lake of Fire
soon Revelation 20:10 The devil, who
deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and
the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever
and ever. NKJV Our Lord makes a list of 7 things He hates and that are an
abomination to Him in Proverbs Chapter 6 and pride is number one on that list.
Our Lord lists this as one of the sins that comes out of every man’s heart and
defiles him. Our Lord has come to bring down the proud man or woman that they
may see themselves in the light of His truth in order that they would turn
(repent) and be forgiven.
Psalms
10:4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is
in none of his thoughts. NKJV
Psalms
59:12-13 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
Let them even be taken in their pride, And for the cursing and lying which
they speak. Consume them in wrath, consume them, That they may
not be; And let them know that God rules in Jacob To the ends of the
earth. Selah NKJV
Proverbs
14:3 In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, But the lips of the wise
will preserve them. NKJV
Proverbs
16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
NKJV
Proverbs
29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain
honor. NKJV
Jeremiah
48:29 “We have heard the pride of Moab (He is exceedingly proud), Of his
loftiness and arrogance and pride, And of the haughtiness of his heart.” NKJV
Daniel
4:37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all
of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in
pride He is able to put down.” NKJV
Daniel
5:20 “But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride,
he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.” NKJV
Obadiah
1:3 “The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the
clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart,
‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’” NKJV
Zephaniah
3:11 In that day you shall not be shamed for any of your deeds In which you
transgress against Me; For then I will take away from your midst Those who
rejoice in your pride, And you shall no longer be haughty In My holy mountain. NKJV
It was our Lord who reigned and ruled continually in
Heaven, but He brought Himself to the lowest possible estate by taking on human
flesh in order to reconcile sinful human beings back to God the Father. Think
of it He was in the glory of Heaven, the Ivory Palace and He willingly stooped
down to earth to save sinful people (like you and me) that hated Him and many still
hate Him. You can today talk about Muhammad, Buddha, the name of the founder of
Hinduism, Joseph Smith, Harry Potter, and even use the word God, but the moment
someone uses the Name of Jesus in a public gathering people get so wrathful and
indignant. Our Lord could have just moved His Heavenly finger and wiped out
humanity and started over. Our Lord created human beings knowing that we would
be the cause for Him to suffer and to mourn over as He watched each one of us
like sheep go our own way into prideful, disobedient, and sinful destruction.
Philippians
2:5-11 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in
the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming
in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the
cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those
in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father. NKJV
When our Lord came to earth through Mary’s womb, He
looked at the city of Jerusalem and wept over it (as He weeps over sinners who
reject and resist Him) knowing of their total rejection of His rule over them
and being reminded of all of their past sufferings for said rebellion and
seeing the future horrific suffering they would endure due to their sin and
rebellion. It is the heart (inner man/woman) that is under the controlling
power of sin and only when a person has come under the convicting power of the
Holy Spirit and brought low and reached the place of bankruptcy of spirit will
there be restoration and reconciliation. The lowly spirit is the one that is
trodden down with sin and is now in need of being lifted up out of said
spiritual condition into deliverance. These are the people who our Lord Jesus Christ
came to lift up by His shed blood and resurrection life and then by giving them
grace and faith to come to Him in repentance as they mourn over their sin.
Psalms
31:19-20 Oh, how great is Your goodness, Which You have laid up for
those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You
In the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of
Your presence From the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion
From the strife of tongues. NKJV
Psalms
138:6-7 Though the LORD is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the
proud He knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will
revive me; You will stretch out Your hand Against the wrath of my enemies, And
Your right hand will save me. NKJV
Proverbs
3:34 Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble. NKJV
Proverbs
8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the
evil way And the perverse mouth I hate. NKJV
Proverbs
11:2 When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom.
NKJV
Proverbs
16:19-20 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide
the spoil with the proud. He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And
whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he. NKJV
The contrast in the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 5
where our Lord spoke the 8 blessed and Matthew 23 where He pronounced 8 woe’s
is severe and can be summed up by the blessed referring to people that have
been brought to the point of lowliness of heart by their own sin and the woes are
the proud hearts who do not recognize their desperate sinful condition. The
destruction or crucifixion of sin is the goal of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ and He will lift up the lowly sinful heart into freedom and He will
bring down the proud sinful heart into degradation, despair, and destruction. Every
lowly person in heart will be filled with the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
and though he will still sin, the power of sin to control him will be subdued/broken
and his paths shall turn from crooked to straight and smooth. But the proud
person in heart will be left to the choice of his or her own sinful devices and
evil desires that will cut them down very low and they will continue to go back
to eat up the vomit of their sins as the dog does and as the sow that wallows
in the mud. In the end all of humanity will see the salvation of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but the lowly will rejoice for all eternity while the proud will weep
and gnash their teeth forever with the continual knowledge that it did not have
to be so with them.
Hebrews
12:12-13 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and
make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated,
but rather be healed. NKJV
Psalms
98:2-3 The LORD has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed
in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness
to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of
our God. NKJV
Isaiah
2:11-12 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of
the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon
everything lifted up --- And it shall be brought low. NKJV
Isaiah
42:16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in
paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked
places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them. NKJV
Isaiah
52:10 The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And
all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God. NKJV
“Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their
present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the
self-righteous, are in that danger.” C. S. Lewis
“God is not looking for extraordinary characters as
His instruments, but He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored throughout
the ages.” A. B. Simpson
“They that know God will be humble, and they that
know themselves, cannot be proud.”
John Flavel 1627-1691
“The prayer of the feeblest saint who lives in the
Spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan. The very powers of
darkness are paralyzed by prayer; no spiritualistic séance can succeed in the
presence of a humble praying
saint. No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we
cannot think in prayer.” Oswald Chambers 1874-1917
“The doctrines of grace humble man without degrading him and exalt him without
inflating him.” Charles Hodge 1797-1878
“There is nothing into which the heart of man so
easily falls as pride, and yet there is no more vice which is more frequently,
more emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture. “Pride is a
thing which should be unnatural to us, for we have nothing to be proud of. In almost every other sin, we gather us ashes
when the fire is gone. But here, what is left? The covetous man has his shining
gold, but what does the proud man
have? He has less than he would have had without pride, and is no gainer
whatever. Pride wins no crown.” Charles Spurgeon
“The law stops every man’s mouth. God will have a
man humble himself
down on his face before Him, with not a word to say for himself. Then God will
speak to him, when he owns that he is a sinner, and gets rid of all his own
righteousness.” D. L. Moody
“God walks with the
humble; he reveals himself to the lowly; he gives understanding to the little
ones; he discloses his meaning to pure minds, but hides his grace from the
curious and the proud.” “Every man naturally desires
knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God? Indeed a humble
rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course
of the stars.” Thomas a Kempis
“He who loves will rejoice in the Truth, rejoice not
in what he has been taught to believe; not in this Church’s doctrine or in
that; not in this issue, or in that issue; but “in the Truth.” He will accept
only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for Truth
with a humble and un-biased
mind, and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice.” Henry Drummond 1851-1897
“It is a proud spirit, that will not let grace be exalted, but puts
self, in the throne of Christ, and his righteousness. It is a filthy and
abominable spirit, and pollutes the man more and more: and God abhors it, as
that which contradicts His most glorious plot.” Ralph Erskine 1685-1752
“How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with
a poor humble soul?
which is more than if He had said, such a one should dwell with Him; for a beggar
to live at court is not so much as the King to dwell with him in his cottage.” “Humble souls are fearful of their
own strength.” William Gurnall 1617-1679
“Only the poor in spirit can be humble. How often the experience,
growth, and progress of a Christian become such precious matters to him that he
loses his lowliness.” Watchman Nee 1903-1972
“Not until we have become humble and teachable, standing in
awe of God’s holiness and sovereignty acknowledging our own littleness,
distrusting our own thoughts, and willing to have our minds turned upside down,
can Divine wisdom become ours.” J. I. Packer
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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