The Pilgrim Path---Proverbs 16: 18, 19

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit than to divide the spoil with the proud.”

DESTRUCTION: Pride a sure pathway…

Ole Adam and Eve wanted to be like God---what trouble came of that desire. Their pride got the best of them. Derek Kidner: “The special evil of pride is that it opposes the first principle of wisdom (the fear of the LORD) and the two great commandments. The proud man is therefore at odds with himself (Proverbs 8: 36), his neighbor (13: 10) and the LORD (16: 5).”

“The contrite publican was safe when the boasting Pharisee was confounded (Luke 18: 14). Better then---more happy, more honorable, more acceptable to God and man---is a humble spirit, companying with the lowly, than the spoil of the haughty conqueror, ministering only to his destruction (James 1: 9). Better is an humble spirit, than a high condition; to have our temper brought down, than our outward condition raised. But who believes this? Most men strive to rise; few desire to lie low! May thy example ---blessed Savior---keep me low! ‘When Majesty ---said pious Bernard---humbled himself, shall the worm swell with pride?’” Charles Bridges

“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Jonathan Edwards

“Let us carry ourselves as God’s children in humility. ‘Be ye clothed with humility’ (I Peter 5: 5). It is a becoming garment. Let a child of God look at his face every morning in the glass of God’s Word and see his sinful spots. This will make him walk in humility all day after. God cannot endure to see his children grow proud. He suffers them to fall into sin, as he did Peter, that their plumes may fall, and that they may learn to go on lower ground.” Thomas Watson

“It’s all about God. May He forgive us every time we start to think it’s actually all about us.” Alistair Begg

“They that know God will be humble; they that know themselves cannot be proud.” John Flavel

“Boasting is the outward form of the inner condition of pride.” John Piper

“We should take heed of pride; it is a sin that turned angels into devils.” Matthew Henry

“”The most effective poison to lead men to ruin is to boast in themselves, in their own wisdom and power.” John Calvin

“Humility is not simply feeling small and useless---like an inferiority complex. It is sensing how great and glorious God is and seeing myself in light of that.” Sinclair Ferguson

“The world and you must part, or Christ and you will never meet.” Thomas Brooks

“The longer you delay, the more your sin gets strength and rooting…if you cannot pluck up a tender plant, are you likely to pluck up a sturdy oak?” Richard Baxter

“It is of the utmost importance to us to be kept humble. Consciousness of self-importance is a hateful delusion, but one into which we fall as naturally as weeds grow on a dunghill. We cannot be used of the LORD but that we also dream of personal greatness, we think ourselves almost indispensable to the church, pillars of the cause, foundations of the temple of God. We are nothings and nobodies, but that we do not think so is very evident, for as soon as we are put on the shelf we begin anxiously to enquire, ‘How will the work go on without me?’ As well might the fly on the coach wheel enquire, ‘how will the mails be carried without me?’ Far better men have been laid in the grave without having brought the LORD’S work to a standstill, and shall we fume and fret because for a little season we must lie upon the bed of languishing? God sometimes weakens our strength in a way at the precise juncture when our presence seems most needed to teach us that we are not necessary to God’s work, and that when we are most useful, He can easily do without us. If this be the practical lesson, the rough schooling may be easily endured for assuredly it is beyond all things desirable that self should be kept low and the LORD alone be magnified.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“When we become proud, not only are we showing that we are ignorant in reference to our natural and moral insignificance, but we are also showing our ignorance of our spiritual condition. As believers, we sometimes have far too rosy a picture of our spiritual condition apart from Christ.” Wayne A. Mack

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” First Peter 5: 6, 7

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our LORD Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6: 14

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love what Thou dost love,

And do what Thou wouldst do.

Edwin Hatch (1835—1889)

Grace and Peace in Jesus Christ Our Risen LORD, Pastor Jason