Pride & Contention - Deliver Thou us, O God!



In Proverbs 13:10 we read a statement that should be a rebuke to most of us: “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” Did you really hear that? “Only by pride comes contention”? Strong’s Hebrew dictionary defines the word for contention here as “strife, debate.” Here is one more of its three uses in the Bible: “He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction” [PROVERBS 17:19].

Then there is one more: “Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high” [ISAIAH 58:4]. At the root of all contention, strife and debate is PRIDE, period! God says “only.” Whatever our stated reasons might be, pride is the real reason. The scriptures say that with pride comes shame and it is pride that precedes destruction and a haughty spirit that precedes a fall.

But contrasted to that it says, “but with the well advised is wisdom.” Who are the well advised? They are those truly taught of God, those who have learned of the Father and have come to Christ Who is the Wisdom of God! You see, the sinner brought to Christ the Wisdom of God is brought knowing, acknowledging and confessing that he has no wisdom of his own to be proud of! His opinion is nothing. His ideas have all been wrong, especially his thoughts of God. No, Christ is now the only Wisdom he has. Not only that, but all other believers he now esteems more highly than himself knowing that surely, they all have more knowledge, more understanding, more faith and more graces than he himself does.

He knows there is no need to enter into strife or debate or contention because it would only reveal his ignorance but also be a reproach to God and the gospel of His dear Son. He prays, “God, shut the door of my mouth and keep me from contention.” No, he runs back to the Word of God and asks God to teach him the truth as it is in Christ Jesus and to cause him to be “well advised” by the Spirit of God. No matter what we may say or think, “ONLY by pride cometh contention.” God bring us to be among the “well advised” and to acknowledge that Christ is the only Wisdom we have!


-Gospel report by preacher Gary Shepard

Sovereign Grace Baptist church of Jacksonville, North Carolina USA

Please find enclosed a link to Audio Gospel Sermons and Contact Info:




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Putrid Cup of Tolerance: When Evil Poses as Progress

"Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." -Psalm 97:10 [KJV] "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." Thomas Mann's chilling words pierce through the fog of modern moral relativism like a shard of ice. It's a warning that echoes through the blood-soaked pages of history, a truth we ignore at our peril. The Seduction of False Neutrality We live in an age where tolerance is held up as the supreme virtue, the golden idol before which we must all bow. We're told to accept everything, question nothing, and embrace a faux-unity that sacrifices truth on the altar of political correctness. But what happens when this tolerance becomes a blindfold, obscuring the stark reality of evil lurking in our midst? Like a ravenous wolf, evil doesn't care for our carefully crafted social constructs. It doesn't respect boundaries, it doesn't play fair, and it ce...
Read more

JESUS - Rock of Ages

Jesus remains the same in all ages. He is the One who is constant when everything and everyone else fails. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is our R ock [I SAMUEL 2:2 ] . In the Old Testament, in Exodus 33, Jesus is pictured as the Cleft Rock. In that chapter, verse 18 and following, Moses desired to see the glory of the Lord, but was told, "You cannot see My face; for there shall no man see My face and live.” And the Lord said, “There is a place by Me, and you shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by." Notice that as Moses stood upon the rock, the Lord hid him in the cleft. This wonderfully applies to us today! Believers are both standing on and hidden in Christ [COLOSSIANS 3:3 ] . We are both in and on the Rock. As life with its many bitter events presses upon us, ...
Read more

CHRIST OUR ONLY AND PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS

" The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." —Galatians 5:17 [KJV] Christian experience fully proves this apostolic truth. Hence the children of God cannot do the things that they would: nor have we any authority from God's word to conclude this lusting ever ceased in any of the saints till they got to glory; none are delivered from it while in the flesh. For, as the renewed soul or spirit loves to enjoy spiritual and heavenly objects, so the flesh, or unrenewed part, lusts after those objects it is naturally conversant with, and from which it derives its happiness.  Here is thy conflict, O Christian. Hence the necessity of thy Lord's command, "Watch always." This is the use of the doctrine. What woeful effects have fulfilling the lusts or desires of the flesh produced in eminent saints! Thou standest by faith, be not high-minded, but fear. The conceptions of lust are the productions of sin.— see James 1:15 . The commission of sin contracts fresh s...
Read more