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

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

Incoming GOOD NEWS!

  Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands   (17-19SEP21) Heads-Up   ---   Please find enclosed encouragement in   SO GREAT SALVATION   by the perfect and finished work of   our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - God's unmerited favor to save us  from our sins and from Hell: HOW GOD SAVES SINNERS In Genesis chapter six and seven we have the story of the flood and how God  saved Noah and his family from the horrendous destruction by putting them  into an Ark. We see the righteous judgment of God against sin and the mercy  of God revealed through Christ. The Ark of God is a worthy picture and  pattern of how the Lord is pleased to save sinners and justify them in Jesus  Christ. Here are five things to remember about how God saves sinners. 1). The grace of God , "Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (Genesis 6:8) .  Noah did not earn, merit or deserve grace, he found God to be gracious. It  was the sovereign
Read more

3 LIES ABOUT GOD & 3 TRUTHS ABOUT GOD

 I want to share three lies about God I’ve recently seen tossed about on social media as truth by professed believers: (1) God can move in your life.......if you permit Him. (2) Christ can be Lord.......if you confess Him. (3) God can do anything ........except overcome a man’s will. Friends, if God doesn’t even have sovereignty over the human heart (without being granted permission, of course) who is serving who? Who really has all power in this universe? Many of you reading this post pray to God for the salvation of your loved ones. Yet you believe it is your loved one who has to grant God permission to save! God is left only to making their life miserable in the hopes they come to Him. Such foolishness! Such powerlessness! Truth #1 : God moves in the lives of His children without human permission . Truth #2 : Men do not make Christ Lord. He IS Lord. Your current opinion of Him no more changes His Lordship over you than if you declared a boiling lava pit to be a s
Read more