Sermon of the Week

“The Proud Brought to Shame.” “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.” PSA 119:78 [1] Now we hold our text in context. We find that David has recognized God’s purpose in sending him afflictions by the hand of the proud. Sometimes it is so hard for you and I to understand why it seems as if the proud prosper against us. But the Lord has his reasons. And as we see our text in its context, then we want to see Psalm 119 verse 69 through 71. The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.[2] The Lord has allowed that the proud should forge a lie against David. And it is for the purpose of making David humble before the Lord. The Lord allowed the pride of the proud to be used as a weapon to slaughter our pride. There isn’t a greater enemy to the presence and the love of God than the filthy pride of our own heart. And when the Lord comes to humble us, he uses what he knows comes the closest to home. You know, it is an amazing thing. I have often thought. The things that are the most humbling to me probably wouldn’t humble the next person at all. That which humbles that person wouldn’t be anything to me at all. But the Lord knows exactly what medicine to apply for what disease. He knows how the balm of Gilead must be applied to what sore. And when the proud are brought against us and they deal perversely with us, then, as he said here, “they forged a lie against me.”[3] Now it says in our text: “They dealt perversely with me without a cause.”[4] In other words, I was not guilty of what they are charging me with. Look at the life of Job and how that he was charged with hideous crimes. Job was charged with standing before his neighbor’s door to wait to lay upon his wife. He was charged with hideous things. But Job retained his integrity. But it was humbling to Job. The Lord uses these things to humble us. Now it was through these afflictions which David suffered at the hand of the proud that he was brought near unto his God. You tell me where is a better place to be found before our God than in a humble contrite spirit. They had forged a lie perversely against him and they have forged lies against him, but it didn’t raise David up in a revengeful spirit. It didn’t cause David to retaliate, fight fire with fire. It bought David humble before his God. But he says: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”[5] Why was it good? Because it brought him to the tender mercies of his God that brought him to his place of refuge in his God. Now I want you to see what Asaph said of God’s restraining grace. I don’t love anything that is a more blessed place than to be able to sit under the shadow of his hand. And you look up under the shadow of his hand and you see that pierced hand and you see the names of every one of your sins engraven in the palms of his hands. And as you sit under the shadow of his hand and watch him restraining the malice and restraining the anger and the bitterness of the wicked. Then you start looking at what the wicked are doing in a different light. When you understand what it is to be under the shadow of his hand, when you understand what it is to be under the shadow of that redeeming blood of the love of Christ who has redeemed you from that very iniquity, there isn’t one corruption that you have ever seen in the heart of a human being that your heart is not capable of if the Lord wouldn’t grant you restraining grace. Now do you see how Asaph speaks of the restraining grace of his God as he sits under the shadow of God’s hand in Psalm 76 verse six through 10? And see how he praises God for his restraining grace, restraining the proud. “At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.”[6] What is he talking about? He is talking about the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea. He is talking about a wonder of God’s grace, of how the power of the elements of this world were restrained by a wonder of his grace. Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still, When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.[7] Do you understand what Asaph is talking about there? Notice how we see the wrath of the proud that the Lord uses and he unleashes it and allows it to come against us. But don’t forget that he has bound Satan in chains until the Day of Judgment. Satan can go only as far as the Lord gives him liberty to go and “the remainder of wrath he will restrain.”[8] He allows the wrath of man to be used to bring us humble before our God, but the remainder of wrath, they would have swallowed us up quickly, but he doesn’t allow that. He restrained them right at the point where he says, “Thus far and no further.” Ok? And this is what Asaph saw in the restraining grace of God and these lessons we only learn as we are becoming exposed to the lies and the wrath of the proud. Now see David’s prayer in our text: “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause.”[9] Does this seem to contradict the spirit of the law that we are taught by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:44? I want you to see it. Do we see a contradiction here? In Matthew 5:44 the Lord Jesus says: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”[10] Does his prayer where he says, “Let the proud be ashamed,”[11] does that contradict that? No. No. David’s prayer is not against the person of his enemies. He is not asking the Lord to destroy the man. What he is asking is to let them be ashamed of their attitudes and of their tactics. See? Here Prayer is not against their person, but against their crimes. It is that they might become ashamed of their plots and of their perverse dealings. Have you ever heard of the old expression that they have egg on their face? I heard a judge use that expression and have you ever heard the expression of getting caught with your hands in the cookie jar? In other words, that you have a wicked plot or devise that you have planned to do and you are caught right in the middle of it and you were put to shame. That is what David is praying for, is that they are not going to be allowed to perform their scheme to the intent they might be made ashamed, that they might be reproved, that they might understand that they were found out. Now this word “perverse” is synonymous with being bull headed. It is synonymous with being closed minded, ruthless, vicious. Those are synonyms. The word “perversely” in our text comes from the Hebrew word twe(aw-vath’) which means to wrest, that is to coerce or force. In other words, when we become bull headed and forceful. You see, we were talking this noon about that we don’t want to come against obstacles. Perverseness means to be strong headed. In other words, to become forceful, to coerce, to twist, to wrench. In other words, at all costs, do your thing. That is what David was praying against is that those who are so strong headed and so forceful that they be made ashamed of their conduct and that the end result is that they might be brought to repentance. The prayer in our text is against the wrong attitude. It is asking that their evil intentions might be brought to shame or fail to be accomplished, in other words, that they might be brought to shame of their intent of what they were doing. Now look at Psalm 119 verse 134. It says: “Deliver me from the oppression of man.”[12] That, in effect, what David is praying for in our text that they would be made ashamed, in other words, that their oppression might be broken that he might be delivered from their schemes and from their plots. David’s prayer, “...but I will meditate in thy precepts,”[13] ...also tells us that God’s Word is his pleading ground. Look at Isaiah 66:5. And I want you to see how that we have God’s Word as a pleading ground for being delivered from the perverseness of the proud and for them being made ashamed. Look at Isaiah 66:5. “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you...”[14] That gets pretty close to home. What is this telling us? Sometimes the proud, those who are perverse, those who are strong headed and forceful, they might be close to home. “Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified.”[15] There they are claiming the Lord is on their side, that what they are doing to you and the way they are coming against you to destroy you, they think they are doing the Lord service. But they are the proud, because they are doing it forcefully. God’s Word says: “Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.”[16] When he says they shall be ashamed that doesn’t mean they will go to hell, see. We are not praying that the Lord will destroy the person or his soul. What we are asking the Lord to do is to destroy their evil cause to make them ashamed, the Scriptures tell us. With a railer you are, no, not to eat. Why? That they might be made ashamed and repent. That is the nature of our text. In other words, he is asking the Lord to give them to see the shame of their attitudes. Now we must always be aware of what our Savior says in Matthew 10:34 through 36. “Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father.”[17] I want you to take notice. The Lord brings it close to home. Sometimes the proud could be your own father or your own son or your own wife or your own child, your own brother in the flesh. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.[18] I want you to see why. When David sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah, the Lord sent his own children to reprove him. The Lord used his own children, one of his own sons forced his own daughter. How bitter to David were the bitterness of adultery? Can you imagine one of your sons forcing your own daughter and the grief it would cause? Now David sits on the throne of Israel. If that had been anybody but his own son doing it to his own daughter he would order the man to be slain. That was the law in Israel. But I want you to see how that brings it close to home. Can you imagine Absalom taking David’s wives and bringing them on the roof of the house and going in unto them before all of Israel? You see, the Lord knows how to make us humble. And do you know what is the most piercing thing is when one of our children are the proud. And the Lord allows pride in one of our children to come against us. Now, you see, the lesson that we need to learn, the Lord is teaching us here a very valuable lesson. “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”[19] Do you know what the lesson we need to learn? When we look at that proud person that we don’t start writing bitter things against him as a person, that we start to accept the fact that he is only an instrument in the Lord’s hands. David says, “It was good for me that I had been afflicted. It was good for me.” Do you know why? It brought him in his right place before God. And, you know, I have learned this by painful experience, you look at an axe and it lays at the root of a tree and it will lay there and rot and never hurt that tree. It is the hand that moves the axe that chops down a tree. And that proud person is nothing more than an instrument in the hand of God to chop us down in our pride and to bring us humble before the Lord. And when the Lord has accomplished his purpose—and I have experienced this more than once—when we have been brought into the right place and our pride has been broken, he can remove that instrument instantly. David was not praying against the person of the proud. He was praying against their conduct and the attitude of the proud. He says, “Let them be made ashamed.” And the reason that he could plead that he says because they do it without a cause. You see? David was not guilty of the things they accused him of. But the Lord had his good reasons that David would come in his right place before the Lord. The Lord used that to draw David home. Now when we have learned to see this sword of affliction in the hand of the Lord instead of in the hand of the perverse, do you know what happens? We lose sight of the person and we start looking at the hand that moved the instrument. And now we start seeing the Lord’s hand in these things and now we start accepting it as from the Lord. And do you know what that does? That puts us in the right posture of heart to be able to pray for the man that is doing it. Now we can truly come right before the Lord and pray for that man, that he Lord will deliver him and forgive him. We begin to understand how important it is that we follow in the footsteps of our Savior. And what did he do? He prayed for his enemies. Look at Luke 23 verses 33 through 34. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.[20] I want you to stop and picture something. Our Savior was not looking at their pride. Our Savior was looking at the hand of his Father in bringing about his purpose to bring about our salvation. And his Father used this as his purpose and he says they don’t know what they are doing. They didn’t realize they were fulfilling the very purpose of God. They didn’t understand that. Has it ever entered your mind when the proud come against you that you can pray our Savior’s prayer? And you can pray and say, “Lord, they don’t know what they are doing. They don’t realize that they are literally an instrument in thy hand to bring me humbled before the Lord. They don’t even realize that that is what it is for. They don’t realize that I am going to come in the end and pray. Lord, thank you. It was good for me to be afflicted. Look at the spiritual blessings that it brought for my soul. They don’t understand that.” And I want you to see the perverse attitudes of those proud, bull headed, closed minded, ruthless, vicious enemies of our Savior and what they were doing while he was praying for them. Look what they were doing. Look at verses 35 and 36, Luke 23:35-36. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar.[21] Look how they were mocking and deriding him while he was praying for them. Do you think that would be a trial of your faith? Can you imagine in such an hour and under such circumstances that you could be praying for your enemies, that you could be praying for the proud and carrying them before the throne of grace and say, “Lord, let them see the shame of what they are doing”? You see, when the Lord Jesus says, “Father, forgive them,” I want you to realize they saw their shame. David’s prayer was also very appropriate for this occasion and I want you to see how the wretched designs of the Jews were frustrated, bringing about the very purpose by their perverse dealings. Look at Acts two verse 32 through 36. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.[22] You see there, they are pointing out what the Lord’s purpose was in what they were doing to him. And now I want you to see that blessed prayer of our Savior for his proud enemies would also answer it as see in Acts two verse 37 through 39. I want you to see how that the proud were made ashamed. “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”[23] See, “You with wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory.” Their charge was laid direct to their heart and to their conscience and they were made ashamed. Hen they saw how that Peter declared what the purpose of God in that crucifixion was and how that He was now seated at the right hand of God and exalted, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. But it says there: “...hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”[24] You see, their purpose was to destroy Christ. They were made ashamed. And that is what David is praying for, that when the purpose of God in their persecution has been brought to light and they see how that the Lord used it for your good and that it might be used to bring them like these men here in Acts two verse 37. “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”[25] They are charged. Their hearts were charged. They were made ashamed. They saw how that their perverseness against our Savior worked out, the very opposite of what they had tried to do. They had tried to kill and destroy him and here he had become promoted and exalted to the right hand of the Father. “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized.”[26] You see, when we rightly understand David’s prayer, that they be made ashamed of their attitude, they be made ashamed of their perverse dealings, of their strong headed and their unbending determination to destroy you and this is brought to shame. The prayer is that they be brought to repent. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.[27] Now David’s prayer was not against their persons. He was against their wrong attitude and their actions. His prayer was for them, that they would be made ashamed of their conduct and be brought to repentance. Look at Psalm 119:78. Look at our text. “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.”[28] Now David’s prayer that they might be ashamed was that they should not succeed in their design. Men are ashamed when their devices and plots fail after they have been revealed. This is what we see in the book of Acts. This is what we see happen with the Lord Jesus Christ. When they saw through how that their very malice, that the wrath of man was used for his glory, where the wrath of man was used for God’s purpose, they saw this. They were ashamed. They said: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”[29] Look at Psalm 70 verses two through four. Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.[30] David’s pleading ground is that there is no cause. His pleading ground is the fact that he had not been guilty of the things that they had accused him of, that he was not guilty. They had used untruth, and partial truth to make a lie. David could defend his integrity on the basis of truth. Look at Psalm 56 verse four through five. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.[31] They twist my words. They wrest them. They use my word to twist them to make it say something that they can use against me. You have never had that, have you? Well, there is nothing new. It started long before David had a problem. It started in the Garden of Eden. The effects of pride are grievous to be born. But God’s ways are higher than ours. Look at Hebrews 12 verse 11. I want you to see the blessedness of how God’s ways are higher than our ways. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”[32] See, God’s ways are so much higher than our ways. He uses the very pride of man to praise him. He uses the very instruments that come against us as the instruments in his hand to bring about his purpose in our life. And what is that? To bring us in a right attitude before God, to bring us unconditionally in his hands. You know, it is an amazing thing to know what it is to eat out of the hand of the Lord, to be so totally dependent that we have to come to the Lord daily for our daily provisions. But it is also a most blessed thing when we are come to such an unconditional surrender that we can take everything we are and put ourselves in his hand and say, “Lord, thy will be done.” You see, those are the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Those are the places where God wants to bring us and he uses his afflictions to bring us there. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”[33] And now, beloved friends, many a time I have fled to the throne of grace to escape the perverse dealings of the proud and I found rich blessings in store. The Lord uses this to bring us into that place of unconditional surrender and a total dependence upon him. And then we come to such blessed riches that are laid in store. Look at 1 Peter five verses six through seven. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”[34] Do you know what is interesting? The Lord knows when it is the right time. You and I would like to be, when the proud comes against us, we would like to be exalted immediately so we can be so proud that we can run them off. No, that is not the Lord’s time. The Lord’s time is when you and I have been humbled and when he feels that he is ready now to exalt us. But he exalts us in a total different way that human pride. See, he exalts us in the way of delivering us under that hand of persecution and now our heart and our mouth may be filled with his praises. That is how God exalts us, not in a way of human pride, but in a way of exalting his name. And then it says in verse seven, it says: “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”[35] Many a time that verse has been a great strength for me. Many a time I have been able to find such consolation in those two verses because humbling yourself before the mighty hand of God comes against the flesh. But it is a blessed place to be. We must remember we were not sent into this world to set up a great empire. You know, that is something that comes against the flesh. We were not sent here to set up a great empire of power but we were sent here to learn patience. Patience works experience. Experience, hope and hope maketh not ashamed. When we learn to understand patience—and that word “patience” when you take it out of the original means cheerfully enduring, not murmuring, not grudgingly, but cheerfully enduring the trial that we have received worketh patience. Look at Matthew 18 verse four. “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”[36] The disciples were striving among themselves who should be the greatest and the Lord Jesus uses this to show who it will be, he who humbled himself as this little child. When we become as little children, that is when we become great in the eyes of God. When we become small in ourself, when self becomes crucified, when we can truly put the other person ahead of us. Now when we pray against the proud design of the wicked, we must consider the wretchedness of our own heart and that it is only by grace if we differ. You know, that makes you so much more forgiving for another man when you learn to recognize that same wretchedness in your own heart. You know, if you have learned to see as the Pharisees, the Lord opened their heart and they had just a little glimpse of light and they didn’t have one stone to throw at a woman that was taken in adultery. Don’t you imagine the Lord gave them a glimpse of their lust in their own heart and give them a glimpse of their adultery of the heart and they began to realize they didn’t have one stone left to throw and they walked away? You see, as we learn to understand our own heart, then we can start to have mercy and we can start to have love for the very person that has come against us with such pride, because we learn to understand a little bit of the pride of our own heart. We start to remember what we were. And then we see in 1 Corinthians 4:7: “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”[37] If you have been given the grace of humility, if you have been given the grace of a forgiving spirit, then should you look at others as though they are not forgiving and look at them with an unforgiving spirit because they can’t forgive? No. What do you have that you didn’t receive? Was there a time that you were not able to forgive? Was there a time that you harbored bitterness in your heart? See? Where do you learn to understand that? When you learn to understand the depravity of your heart you become so much more forgiving for those who are outside of that grace. That grace that gave you a forgiving spirit, now you can forgive their unforgiving spirit. Our text says: “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.”[38] In other words, I will meditate in that law of love. My heart will be centered in the will of God. Scriptures clearly teach that pride is the root of all strife. If you have a life of strife, then don’t forget what we read in Proverbs 13 verse 10. “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.”[39] Any time you see contention, pride is the author of it. And sometimes it is so easy to see it in the next man. But sometimes we have to see that we are looking at the mote in his eye and overlooking the beam in our own eye. You see, if we are able in the right state of humility to deal with the proud man, that is the best antidote there is to his pride is that you treat him in total humility. Then there is not much room for contention even though he is proud. The Lord allows us to become confronted with our fellow man’s weaknesses to try our patience and to prove our humility. This is what David is talking about when he says: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”[40] The proud have forged a lie against him, but it was good for him to be afflicted. I want you to notice in Philippians four verse six through seven: Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.[41] In the time when the proud are forging lies against you, if you can truly retain the Spirit of Christ, you understand that peace of God that passes all understanding. Do you know why? Because you are receiving it as from the hand of God, because you look at him as no more than an instrument in the hand of God using his chastening hand to make you humble and right before him. And now the circumstances don’t always change. I had one time when the Lord had sent adversaries against me to the point I laid flat on my face on the floor and said, “Lord, what must I do?” That Scripture came to me. “I came not to send peace, but a sword.”[42] And I all of the sudden saw those people that were coming against me completely disappeared out of my sight and I had perfect peace. Do you know why? I received it from the Lord. And when I was in the right spirit and when the Lord gave me to unconditionally surrender, that it was from him and that I could forgive with unconditional forgiveness, losing sight of the adversaries, the next day the trial was over. It ended right there. See? The Lord had accomplished his purpose and do you know what I think it was that conquered the adversary? I was no longer giving resistance. All resistance had ceased and I accepted it in a friendly spirit. And the quarrel was over. The pride was still there and I saw later on that those same two people came against each other and were destroying each other to the extent it makes you cry. The Lord rewards every man according to their doings, but I had peace of heart. My adversaries left me alone. And I am sure that what the Lord used to diffuse them was that my resistance was gone. This peace of God is contingent upon keeping our hearts and minds in the right attitude towards our neighbor. That peace of God that passes all understanding has a contingency and I want you to see this. Philippians 4:8-9. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue...”[43] Now you see, instead of looking at our adversary and all the terrible things about him, we are searching if we can find something good in him. Do you see the different attitude? And it says: “...whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”[44] Do you know if we want to be critical, the Pharisees were critical against the Lord Jesus Christ. There isn’t a human being whom we can’t be critical of. If that is all we want is to be critical, but if we have a forgiving spirit we can look upon our greatest adversary and we can see if we can find something good in him. I think I explained once before about two people were out assassinating each other’s character. A person come between and was talking to the one and after he had told all about this other person he asked him, he said, “But do you really think he is honest?” “Well, yeah, I would have to admit he is probably honest.” So then that person goes to the other one and he was telling all about the terrible things of this guy. And when he got all done then this person in between he says, “But do you know what he says about you? He says you are honest.” “Oh, I can’t imagine that.” Well, anyway after some discussion he got him to admit that maybe the other guy was honest. Right away he run back and told the other one. He said, “You know what he says about you?” Two weeks later they were friends. Is there anything that we can say of good report? Can we find any virtue? Can we find anything to praise them on? Do you want to walk right? Then we run around praising and that is what our Savior tells us in Matthew five. “Bless them that curse you.”[45] Do you know what that means? Speak well of those who speak evil of you and speak well of them. Quite a challenge, isn’t it? That is the gospel. And this is what the apostle Paul is saying here. He says if there is anything... Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.[46] Do you want to live in peace? Do you want the peace of God which passes all understanding to dwell in your heart? Then observe those rules. See? Then live by these principles and you will find you will live in perfect peace. If we walk in humility under the law of love in the Spirit of Christ we will find we have no need to be concerned about the perverse or the bull headed or the closed minded or the ruthless or the vicious or the designs of the proud. Look what we see in Isaiah 51:12 through 15. “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man?”[47] You know, the Lord gave me this verse, these three verses one time and I am going to tell you what it was. I had been notified the that the president of the bank had boasted that he would go to the judge and that he would persuade the judge to set it for trial because I was embarrassing him by taking all these depositions and that his attorney and the judge were very personal friends and that they would set it for trial. They would end all discovery and that they were going to bring things to trial and have it over with and that he had no fear of going to trial because he knew the judge was friendly to him. And I come before the Lord and I says, “Lord, where am I? What must I do?” And the Lord gave me these four verses. Let me read them to you. Isaiah 51:12-15. I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.[48] Oh, then to learn to see and to rest under the shadow of thy blessed hand, that we can see that he is the one who divided the Red Sea. He is the one who destroyed the Egyptians and they all came on the bank of the sea. He is the almighty. Why should I be afraid of a man? “I, even I, am he that comforteth you.”[49] And, you know, he can take in such a storm when the billows rage and the waves wash and he can give us such perfect peace. He can bring us to where all is still and that the waves have all ceased and that the circumstances didn’t change. But we can have such perfect peace in the midst of it all. All the afflictions we receive at the hands of the proud are the Lord’s instruments to make us meet to be partakers with the inheritance in the saints in light. The thing you and I have to understand, the Lord’s purpose in this and that is to bring us into oneness and in harmony with God and his perfect will. It is to bring us to where we are partakers, that we are meet to be partakers, that we will fit in character. Our pride has to be crucified. Everything of self has to be cut down to give us to be able to dwell with God for all eternity. And so we see in Deuteronomy eight verse three: “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”[50] Do you know, friends? I want to tell you. When I get to where I am at my wit’s end and I have a passage of Scripture as I just explained to you that the Lord blesses my soul in? Then it is not that I am feasting upon what the proud are going to do, but my whole feast is on that which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord and it becomes my bread. It becomes that upon which we have for our spiritual food and we feast upon it, even in a time when those afflictions are at their roughest. I want you to see what the Scripture says about the woman who is the type of the bride of Christ. It says in 1 Peter three verse three through four: “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart.”[51] Do you see what the Lord wants when he prepares you and I to be the bride of Christ? He wants: “...the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”[52] That is what is of great price to the Lord. It is that meek and that quiet spirit. And you know how he brings us back. Most of the time it is by turning the proud loose against us. And as the proud come against us then they forge these lies against us. And we are fighting to defend ourselves, but we come to that place where we come to an unconditional surrender before the Lord. And then we can say with David: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”[53] External splendor pleases the flesh, but it is not the sign of virtue as much as it is of pride. When you see somebody that can make all the fuss of how they look and how all their attire, it is not the sign of virtue. It is the sign of pride. The proud hate those who have the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. Look at there in 1 Peter 4:4. “Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.”[54] You do not run with them anymore. You are not part of their game. But now they will start speaking evil of you. So let us beware of pride. The same Lord that hated the pride of Moab also hated the pride of Jacob. Oh be aware of pride. Do you know why? Because the Lord will humble you. And sometimes the humbling process is painful. Be aware of pride. We see in Amos six verse eight: “The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob.”[55] See, Jacob had become so excellent. He had not that meek and that quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. He had all these excellencies. “...and [I] hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.”[56] The Lord hates pride in his Jacob as much as he hates it in Ammon. The prayer of David, “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause,”[57] will be answered in the Lord’s time because he is scorned by the proud more than we are. You know, the Lord allows the proud to come against you. But he also rewards them for their doings. And I have seen this in my life many a time when the Lord has hallowed the proud to come against me. After the Lord has performed his purpose, he rewards them according to their doings. Look at Isaiah 63:9. “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.”[58] You don’t realize. When you and I are being afflicted if we are one of Christ’s bride, that in all things that we are afflicted, he is afflicted and he will reward the proud for their pride. Satan is so crafty. He would fill the humblest of God’s people with moral pride. You know, moral pride sometimes is just as bad as any other kind of pride. We can be come I holier than thou. And that is a lofty conceit of ourselves and a contempt for others. Satan loves moral pride. Look at 18 verse nine. “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.”[59] Moral pride. Well was this conceit detected in the prayer chamber. Do you know that? When the Lord begins to withdraw the first place we will feel it is the prayer chamber. When the Lord is displeased with what we are doing and we start walking in pride the first place we are going to feel it if we have any sensitive feeling at all is we will see that the Lord withdraws in our prayer chamber. We no longer have those sweet communion and that sweet fellowship with our God. That is one thing that has been the most delicate part of my whole religion is if I feel that the Lord has withdrawn himself, that he has been offended, that he would withdraw himself and remove his favor, that I would sin against him and cause him to frown. You know, some people have to be whipped. Some children have to be whipped with a strap with many stripes. And others know what it is to melt into tears from a frown. I believe, I dare say, that is where I have lived all my life. That if I see the slightest sign of the Lord’s frown upon me, that it melts me before the Lord. But now watch what we see here. Deceit and conceit is detected in prayer. The Lord Jesus says in Luke 18:10. “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.”[60] We know the history. The Pharisee’s prayer was all self centered. But may God give each of us that publican’s prayer? Luke 18:13. “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”[61] May the Lord give us that publican’s prayer. I want you to see how our Savior is pleased with a sinner who truly humbles himself before the throne of grace. Look at Luke 18 verse 14. “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”[62] If you see Luke 18 from the beginning, it is talking about prayer. It is all about prayer and it is about the posture of the heart in prayer, and that is what the Lord will look upon is those who come before him as a humble sinner. No our text says: “Let the proud be ashamed.”[63] You know, sometimes we have to pray that for ourselves. If the Lord will give us to see the pride of our own heart. We have to ask him to give us humility. “...for they dealt perversely with me without a cause.”[64] Amen. ________________________________ [1]Psalm 119:78. [2]Psalm 119:69-71. [3]Psalm 119:69. [4]Psalm 119:78. [5]Psalm 119:71. [6]Psalm 76:6. [7]Psalm 76:7-10. [8]Psalm 76:10. [9]Psalm 119:78. [10]Matthew 5:44. [11]Psalm 119:78. [12]Psalm 119:134. [13]Psalm 119:78. [14]Isaiah 66:5. [15]Ibid. [16]Ibid. [17]Matthew 10:34-35. [18]Matthew 10:35-36. [19]Matthew 10:34. [20]Luke 23:33-34. [21]Luke 23:35-36. [22]Acts 2:32-36. [23]Acts 2:37. [24]Acts 2:36. [25]Acts 2:37. [26]Acts 2:38. [27]Acts 2:38-39. [28]Psalm 119:78. [29]Acts 2:37. [30]Psalm 70:2-4. [31]Psalm 56:4-5. [32]Hebrews 12:11. [33]Ibid. [34]1 Peter 5:6. [35]1 Peter 5:7. [36]Matthew 18:4. [37]1 Corinthians 4:7. [38]Psalm 119:78. [39]Proverbs 13:10. [40]Psalm 119:71. [41]Philippians 4:6-7. [42]Matthew 10:34. [43]Philippians 4:8. [44]Ibid. [45]Matthew 5:44. [46]Philippians 4:8-9. [47]Isaiah 51:12. [48]Isaiah 51:12-15. [49]Isaiah 51:12. [50]Deuteronomy 8:3. [51]1 Peter 3:3-4. [52]1 Peter 3:4. [53]Psalm 119:71. [54]1 Peter 4:4. [55]Amos 6:8. [56]Ibid. [57]Psalm 119:78. [58]Isaiah 63:9. [59]Luke 18:9. [60]Luke 18:10. [61]Luke 18:13. [62]Luke 18:14. [63]Psalm 119:78. [64]Ibid.