Implacable, hardened in pride

"'The more you grow in grace, there are these moments where you become conscious of, 'That was me. That wasn't Christ. That was my action; that was me trusting my resources.'

"As soon as you realize that, you become aware of your own sinfulness; of the sin that dwells in ME. You become aware of what a long way you still have to go as a Believer.

"A quote from an old preacher I always remember is, 'The closer you get to the light the better you see the dirt.' The closer you get to 'It's Christ,' the more you realize, 'It's not me, because I don't have the capacity. I still have a long way to go and it seems like it's taking me forever to get there.'

"You become conscious of your pride, your impatience, your selfishness, your unrighteousness, your irritability, your laziness, your vanity, your complaining, your unbelief, your envy, your greed, your ingratitude. All those things, and you begin to see them in yourself, and you say, 'Woah.' That's what happened to Job.

"Those fiery darts are designed . . . I Timothy 4:2: 'Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.' Fire burns and it leaves scar tissue. It makes you insensitive. It kills the feeling. You become like Ephesians 4, 'past feeling.' You come to the place where you're insensitive to who you really are in Jesus Christ. That self-centeredness, that self-will, is an internal thing.

"Satan is literally seeking to get you to identify yourself with him and not with the righteousness you have in Jesus Christ. These darts assault you so you think of yourself more in the light of who you were in Adam than who you are in Christ--more when you were under the power of darkness than in the kingdom of His dear Son. That's the goal of these fiery darts.

"The shield against that is the constant, personal application of the truth of God's grace to you in Jesus Christ. You say, 'This isn't really who I am; it's the transformed life I have in Christ that's the real issue.'

"How can you say, 'I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live'? The way you say it is by faith. God's Word says that's the reality of who you are. The shield of faith says, 'This is my real identity; not the actions of me, the actions of Christ. Not my faithfulness, or lack of it, but His faithfulness.'

"The shield, the protection, is me trusting who He is and who He's made me in Him, and then personally applying that to my life in whatever the circumstance or situation I'm in. By the way, that transforms your view of the circumstances and situations, because now they're opportunities for your faith to trust who God has made you. They're growing moments.

*****

"A constant struggle Believers have is to apply the truth of God's Word in denying ungodliness and worldly lust and living soberly, righteously, godly.

"The struggle is to do what faith does, do what God says, regardless of our opinion or viewpoint about it, our emotions, our ego, our desires, our reasonings. What preachers call the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 says in verse 6: [6] But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

"When you think about your faith in God's Word, your persuasion that God's Word is true, your confidence that it is, your Christian life will never be a life that is well-pleasing to God except it be a life lived by faith. You must understand that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; it's more than just believing God exists.

"People ask the question, 'Can God really help me in my life? Can He really work to transform my life? If I trust Him, will it really pay off? Is there a payoff for trusting Him?'

"That's what faith is; it's what produces the reward of God working in your life. The transformation is in our faith trusting what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us as it's revealed in His Word.

"Faith and discouragement are polar opposites. They don't exist together. The attempt of the Adversary to discourage someone comes about with the assault of the fiery darts.

"It's easy when you're talking to other people to say, 'Here's what the Bible says,' but what happens when it comes to you?

"Galatians 2:20 says, [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

"What you have to do to lay hold on eternal life--get a grip on the life God's given you in Christ--is come through some of these 'not I' moments, where you realize again what you realized when you got saved. You said, 'I can't do it.' You were conscious of your sinfulness, failure, bankruptcy, brokenness. You said, 'Lord, I can't; I'll trust you because YOU can.' 

*****

"In the Bible we learn the entire world is saturated with pride and we know why and we know why it hardens.

"The mind becomes implacable and it's hardened in pride. It's difficult to penetrate it with light and truth and understanding; they have no means of access.

"Satan is a king over all 'the children of pride,' says the Bible. The unsaved humanity is a mirror image of their father the devil and he is the reigning authority over all his children. Pride courses through their veins and because of that pride, there is this ungrateful response to the things of God. They're not thankful.

"Satan has this proudful ambition to usurp what is rightfully God's; what belongs rightfully to the Creator, and ever since Genesis 3, unsaved humanity falls right into the lap of that prideful desire to achieve, to ascend, to make a name for one's self. Did he not offer to Eve, 'Ye shall be as gods'? He's saying to her, 'You see, you don't have to be inferior, you don't have to play second fiddle; you deserve better.' 

"The same individuals who are lifted up in self-adoration, self-love (Paul says they are lovers of their own selves), they're boasters, a bunch of braggarts. They're haughty, and not only that, they're proud.

"When you study what pride is, and surely we could go to a dictionary, pride simply is a preoccupation with self. There is this excessive desire to be the attention, to be appreciated and adored. There's this unhealthy desire to be admired by others.

"When you find pride in the Bible, you find this lustful desire to be the center of attention. What often happens as a result is you will see a proudful person begin to look at others with contempt. That haughty spirit of puffed up arrogance will lead one to begin to look down on others. There is this false sense of conceited superiority that leads toward looking at others as being inferior.

"Pride, by Bible definition, is extremely deadly, extremely dangerous, and there is this link between pride and unthankfulness. In Romans 1, right off the bat, as the Apostle Paul indicts humanity, [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, when they knew god they glorified him not as God.

"In their attitude of unthankfulness and ingratitude they rely upon their haughty sense of professing wisdom. Notice, neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations. They replaced that spirit of thankfulness. They displaced any gratitude that should have been expressed because of the creative power and wisdom of Almighty God, and what they did is they suppressed any attitude of thanksgiving with vain imaginations.

"II Corinthians 10:5 says, [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

"The idea here is that humanity--they presume, they assume they know what's happening. They assume they know what's going on. They assume they know how man came into existence. They assume they know how God thinks in some ways as well.

"Paul says meekness is the capacity to bring into subjection every thought to the obedience of Christ. It's not so much bringing my thoughts so that I'm always obeying Christ, but rather, just like Jesus Christ in meekness chose to obey His Father. Meekness is not weakness. Rather, it's the ability to restrain power, ability, strength. To restrain one's prerogatives. He chose not to exercise His royal rights and prerogatives as an equal co-member of the godhead. He chose to restrict His divine abilities.

"Jeremiah 49:16: [16] Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

"Pride deceives and convinces you of something that just simply isn't true. It distorts reality. By the way, the idea of vain imaginations--again, Paul, when he talks about the imagination and every high thing, it's talking about prideful understanding and wisdom. So when you think about the deception, it's all imaginary! A proudful person convinces themselves, 'I am right; you're wrong.' Pride convinces that person of things that just simply are not true.

"Psalm 73:6 says, 'Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.' Pride is bondage; it makes you a slave. it's like a chain of enslavement.

Proverbs 13:10: [10] Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:[5] Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

[6] By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
[7] When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
[8] Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
[9] A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

"Proverbs 6:16-17: [16] These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: [17] A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

"By the way, that's No. 1 on the list. The No. 1 abomination is a proud look. When it says a proud look, it's not suggesting that somebody looks proud, or has the appearance of pride. It's talking about a pride-filled person who evaluates and sees everything or everyone as being beneath them, as being inferior; as being unworthy.

"It's not a, 'Look, man, he dresses proudly,' or, 'He looks proud,' but rather it's the way he evaluates, the way he perceives. The proud look is the way he interprets his surroundings. Again, there is that twisted sense of superiority of the one who has the proud look. He views things through the lens of that empty, vain, imaginative, haughty pride that would lift himself in exaltation against the knowledge of God; against what God is saying and against all that God is doing."