In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding God's judgment and the consequences of sin. He highlights the need to preach the truth, even if it is difficult or unpopular. The preacher also discusses the example of Jesus Christ, who humbly renounced everything and came to earth to redeem mankind. The sermon references biblical stories such as Noah and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to illustrate God's judgment and the importance of living a righteous life.

I want you to turn with us one more time to 2 Peter chapter 2 and let's read the first 16 verses again this morning 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1 But there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable harassers, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction and they shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now the long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not for if God spared not the angels of sin but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment and spared not the old world but saved no one of the earth, eighth person a creature of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemning them with an overflow making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly and deliver just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelleth among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under the day of judgment to be punished but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government presumptuous are they, self-willed do not afraid to speak evil of dignities of dignitaries whereas angels which are greater in power and might do not live in accusation against them before the Lord but these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall only perish in their own corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as though they counted pleasure to riot in the daytime splats they are and the blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you have an eyes full of adultery and they cannot cease from sin regard an unstable soul and heart they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Boaz who loved the wages of unrighteousness but was redeemed for his iniquity the dumb ass speaking with man's voice for bed the madness of the prophet let us pray our father we approach thy throne this morning and we praise thy name it is a throne of mercy it's a throne of grace it's a throne where poor sinners can come and find mercy and grace to help in time of need it's a throne where our lord Jesus Christ sits as our great high priest the one who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens and father we praise thee for thy great grace this morning because it has been so precious to us this week thy grace to our soul thy grace in everything father that is manifested toward us it comes from thee to all of grace it comes out of thy heart of love and flows to us by the holy spirit who indwells us and he takes the things of Christ and reveals them under our hearts how precious is the blood of Christ that blood that was shed for the remission of our sins that blood that poured from Emmanuel's veins that blood that washes whiter than snow God has given to us God has opened the fountain for sin and for uncleanness God has allowed us by faith to come there and pour out our hearts unto thee God has granted us repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and faith to look away to Christ and the cross and the blood and the righteousness by which we have been justified before God and father all of this is thy great mercies toward us and thy great mercies in us and we want to praise thee and thank thee for this this morning and we stand here this morning father only by thy grace we stand here only in thy power but we stand here this morning in the preacher message that makes us tremble and our father we have the right to tremble except for thy grace and for thy mercy to hold us and to keep us as we see anew and afresh the cleansing power of thy blood oh my father fill us with thy spirit open hearts give seeing eyes and hearing ears circumcise the poor skins of our heart that thy word may penetrate even to the depths of our souls this morning and none of us will leave here the same as when we came in but our hearts will be turned to thee our desire father is for in all of this Christ will be lifted up and we will see him in his humility in his brokenness in his coming down that he might receive sinners unto himself through his work which he did for us at the cross our father we thank you for all of the blessings that have been bestowed upon us for thou hast been good to us we are a blessed people and our Father bless us and gracious God to watch over us and to keep us and deliver us and to provide all things for us and for this we praise thee and give thee glory my father we desire this morning to be broken at thy feet humble with no thoughts of our own with no will of our own but the will of him that sent us so cleanse us and have mercy upon us take away every thought that is not on Christ and we bring every thought captive to thee Lord Jesus that by thy spirit thou will turn it away and take it out of our hearts that we might be broken at thy feet we pray for the sick our father we pray for the Scott family this morning that thy hand will be upon them for the Cookie family thy hand will be upon him bless those who had to be out of town this week one at a funeral the other father who are out for the season we pray thy blessings and mercies upon them those who had to work we pray for those who have gone out from us thy mercies will rest upon them be with the Rogers be with the McClintocks we love them we pray thy mercies and grace to rest upon them to bring them to thy throne of grace and so come Lord and deal with us as only thou canst deal with us in this hour and we'll give thee the praise and honor and glory for in Christ's name we ask Amen This will be the 5th message actually the 6th we count the first one on the color test which we preached from verse 15 back on November 15th this will be the 6th the 6th message on the false teachers and the preachers I want you to listen this morning and hear God has a word for our hearts a message will be in two parts this morning what we have before us and how he describes the false teachers and preachers and those souls that they beguile and take with them and then from this I would like to show you our Lord Jesus Christ in all of his humility in all of his holiness as he came the perfect one fulfilling Hebrews 7.26 for he is spoken of there as our great high priest who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens so I want you to see these two pictures this morning of those who are false and he who is true the one he desires us to be like the one he desires us to follow the one he desires for us to have the mind of the mind of Christ and this will certainly bring it out this morning and I want you to listen as I have said to you many times in the past 2 Peter chapter 2 is one of the most awful chapters in the whole bible so I have laid this on my heart back in October to go into it I have never heard a message from it in my whole life I have preached from it myself a number of times but to give it a verse by verse exposition as we have done in these messages I have never done that and the more I get into it the more I walk in fear and trembling yet in praise and thanksgiving to my living God that out of this he brought me out of this he had mercy upon me and out of this he cleansed me and washed me and made me free in the Lord Jesus Christ I am praising for this I told you all the other night stand before you is one of the most blessed men in all the world and God at 75 years of age in spite of all my health problems I have had over the years still able to preach one time on Sunday work 7 days a week and 7 nights a week in the ministry and the work of the Lord of this church and it's not a yoke around my neck or a bondage it is my life it is my joy and then he gives us the privilege of searching for him and following him and loving him and desiring to be holy as he is holy beloved I tell you the joy most joyous thing in all the world is to walk in a humble obedient way bowing to the Lordship of Jesus Christ looking only to him not carried away with every wind of doctrine that comes along but to follow Christ and to be like Christ and to daily cry unto him that we may be like him I can say to the apostle Paul this morning as he said in Philippians 3 I have not yet attained and made hold of that for which God hath made hold of me I am deficient in so many ways for I praise God he put my feet in the straight and narrow way and by his grace he has not let me go away from it to walk in the ways of immorality or lasciviousness but to walk in the way of righteousness and true holiness by his grace day by day so I say I am a blessed man and as I see this this morning as I have meditated upon this and as I have prayed about it and cried to the Lord about it I come to you in firm trembling I'll be honest with you because these are awful words that are spoken of here but we have above all of this and I want you to see that this morning we have above all of this picture of man and his total depravity we have the gracious and glorious God manifested to us in the Lord Jesus Christ he is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made high in the heavens and those who know him have his mind they have his nature they have his spirit they have his heart this is what he has given them and they delight in it and I believe that you will delight in him as we go through this this morning to see on one side the awfulness of sin and yet on the other side the glory of him who came to die in our place and who he was and what he did so let us pray and God will take these words home to our heart we brought and showed you in verse 1 of this chapter that these false teachers come in subtly privately being indomitable harasses even denying the Lord that they say it had blocked them bringing upon themselves swift destruction but this is what happens when they come there are many that shall follow after their pernicious or their lasciviousness or their unbridled ways their immoral ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of and not only that but in verse 3 they are covetous full of greed and then he showed us in verses 4, 5 and 6 the message of warning we preached on that one two weeks ago showing the judgment of the angels who fell from heaven showing us the judgment of the flood in the days of Noah the preacher of righteousness how the whole world was destroyed all but 8 souls and then in verse 6 he showed us the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and why God came down to condemn it and turn it into ashes bringing the ungodly down to judgment but the liberant lot and two of his daughters three came out and then he showed the last word then in verse 9 the Lord knoweth how all those words have been ringing in my soul ever since I preached the last word the Lord knoweth how to do what? to deliver the godly out of temptations and he knows something else he knows how to do and that is to reserve the unjust under the judge's judgment to be punished now let us see the picture that God paints of endless learning take it verse by verse see what God has in store for us then we will see by the grace of God the true shepherd our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his gracious and holy life which is the example that we should follow he came to give that life he is not as these men and these men are not of his calling for the calling of the true shepherd we find in the fifth chapter 1 Peter and on the one page in the Bible one page in mine verse 1 of chapter 5 the elders which are among you I exhort for I am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre that is for money that money can buy and already mine neither as being lords over God's heritage but being in samples to the flock now the reason I believe God has laid this upon my heart is because this which we have in this chapter is being played out before us in all the scandal-ridden things in Washington carried by our president and all we get into and in a way he is a man that's going to be responsible before God for the way he's lived and in moral life and God will hold him responsible for the souls that have been damned because of his life but God wanted us to bring this thing home and let us see and then know and understand that this is also true not only in the public life of politics and the judiciary and in that area but this is also true in modern day religions where Christ has departed from the church the Holy Spirit has departed from the church and so many tens of thousands have been turned to walk in the way of their own doing and God holds them responsible before them before him I believe I know God wanted us for these words to be spoken at this time that our hearts might be turned toward him Beloved let me tell you another time again this morning I've told you thousand and one times in every day in every hour no matter what the situation in the whole wide world is in our families in our homes in our lives our only hope is the living God manifested unto us in the Lord Jesus Christ he is our hope his blood is our cleansing his righteousness is our covering beloved we have none else to turn to we have none to hold us but the Lord Jesus Christ we have no blood but his to cleanse us no righteousness to cover us but his and so I praise God that we are shut up to the straight and narrow way Christ is that door that enters into that way and he says that I am the way the truth and the life that no man cometh to the Father but by me so he is all in all we have him and him only to come to but look at verse 10 but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness he said pay particular attention to those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion he's talking about these false teachers and false prophets and not only that but he's talking about everyone that does not know Christ and walk after their own way they're walking after the flesh and they're walking after the lust of uncleanness and then he says in the next expression and they despise government in other words Peter mentions these two characteristics of these godless people first of all they're sexually corrupt and they're spiritually anarchists I want you to see that but chiefly they that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government or despise authority the two things that's prevalent among them is that they are godless they are immoral sexually corrupted and they are spiritual anarchists that's the reason they despise government or despise authority you see the doctrines espoused by these teachers lead deliberately to the rejection of divine authority and so to get that the doctrines that these false teachers and prophets espouse lead deliberately to deliberate rejection of divine authority they despise authority these words communicate that these teachers are you listening to me they scorn the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ they have no value to his lordship therefore they do not want his authority to rule over them they despise the words that he speaks and he says if you love me you will keep my commandments but those that do not love him despise his commandments they reject his commandments do not want his commandments and therefore they despise the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ the word despise here has a meaning in the Greek that signifies a complete hatred toward the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what he said in Matthew 6 verse 24 no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and mammon it's amazing but it's true a man can take the name of Christ upon his lips and yet hate him and yet hate him and despise him we do not want to keep his commandments this is what he said no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other so you see there's two ways and if we're not walking in that love toward him then we've got to be in the other way walking in hatred toward him and we show it by despising his authority that's the reason my beloved that there's all this controversy across the nation around the world today concerning whether or not a soul should bow to the lordship of Christ in salvation you may preach that you can take Christ as saviour and if you want to take him as lord down the road someplace fine but if you don't you're still going to go on to heaven they despise his authority they despise his headship they despise his lordship and therefore it says they dis- horn and despise authority but not only that but what he says in the rest of verse 10 now hear this now may God give us grace he says they are presumptuous self-willed and not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries in other words they are bold they are daring they are arrogant they scoff at and revile without trembling dignitaries they're self-willed to the extent of being to the extent of being arrogant they feel and show their superiority over everybody else presumptuous are they and then we should read verse 11 right up out of verse 10 for as angels which are greater in power and might bring not rare in accusation against them before the Lord now if you'll turn that over to the epistle the epistle of Jude I want you to read with me verses 8 and 9 and that will give you an understanding of verse 10 right up out of verse 10 and 11 look at it in Jude 8 likewise also these filthy dreamers that file the flesh despise dominion and speak evil of dignitaries yet Michael the archangel when contending with the devil he disputes about the body of Moses does not bring against him a rare in accusation but said the Lord will give thee beloved you know what he's talking about he's not talking about the glorious angels in glory here in dignitaries, he's not talking about dignitaries in government or out in society he's talking here with the context the context will bear it out they speak evil of the devil and his demons from this standpoint most of them deny the devil most of them deny hell most of them deny spiritual beings and then he says that even the angels will not bring war in accusation against the those who were cast out of heaven always thought the expression rebuke the devil it was a scriptural statement until I looked it up to hold me studying this and I kept saying these people who say they rebuke the devil who are they? how do they have such power? my Lord rebuked him he gave the authority to the apostles to rebuke him and I don't know if any man has ever given that power to now the scripture says resist the devil and he will flee from you resisting, how do we resist him? Revelation 12 tells us we resist him, we overcome him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony by the word of God now if that statement is not true then why is verse 9 of Jude in the bible? why would the highest being created in heaven after Lucifer fell, became satan Michael the archangel why would he not rebuke the devil satan? we are in accusation against him brother we should be we should be conscious of this, we can do nothing except God give us power from above to do anything and we need not to be afraid to resist the devil using the armament he has given us in Ephesians chapter 6 and I believe this is what this teaches all that I could read on the subject brought out this same identical thing in the commentary I went after the Lord showed me that and I looked up the word rebuke and it was not in reference to the devil then what is he talking about here? it is those who go about thinking they have the power to rebuke him and did you know that no man can slay a believer in the spirit all this talk today about being slain in the spirit I had a man in which field, he was listening to me on the radio he was the head of the he was a young contractor in town and he went with a group that charismatic and he did my preaching on the radio and on Monday morning he walked into the bookstore and he comes right up to me and he says I hate that preaching you are preaching you are false prophet you are not preaching the word of God and I said yes what about it? he said I could slay you in the spirit right now so don't get smart with me I got real close with him and looked straight in his face I said do it go ahead do it, slay me of course he had to back up why? because he was one of God's children he couldn't slay me in the spirit never saw him again he left and never saw him again do you love it? you better be careful Satan is the God of this age the God of this world God has given him great power and he wields it you better respect that power and understand and keep crying to God that we would not be brought back under again his influence in any way he has access to our minds God has given him access to our minds and he comes with those insinuating thoughts he throws them with his demon spirits into our mind how are we going to overcome him? we are going to overcome him by the blood of the Lamb by the word of our testimony that's the way we overcome him so let's be careful of the way we talk about the spirit world that we know nothing about so what God really told us did you ever wonder why in Job 1 and 2 that God let Satan come into his presence in heaven did you know that he had access still back there until God cast him out according to Revelation 12 because he's not there now he was the accuser of the brethren then but he's not there he doesn't have that power now Christ defeated him at the cross and laid his principalities and powers down so let's be understanding nobody can bring us under their power or under their control as long as we are walking in the will of God and humble soul before God and look into Christ and his blood and his righteousness for deliverance nobody can bring us under their control why? cause God has given us brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and we can never go back in again that's one of the most gracious thoughts to me in my Christian life I never can be brought back again under the control and domination of sin or Satan or the spiritual world I don't say that we cannot come under the control of our flesh cause we do I do not say that we cannot walk after the flesh cause we do sometimes but I'm saying never again will we come unless we respect what God has done and then look at verse 12 he says in the verse 13 I mean verse 12 but these are beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption in other words Peter identifies them as though they had within them not a spark they did not have a spark of spiritual light of spiritual fervor whatsoever they could not and did not perform the spiritual duties of ministers they did not preach in the spirit they walked in the spirit their duties as spiritual officers of God so called of the church they could not and did not administer in other words they were the blind leading the blind and they were caught in this mesh he calls them brute beasts natural brute beasts they could be taken and destroyed caught in, are you listening to me? caught in the net of their lust and their passions and their immorality and their lasciviousness caught in it and could not get out I know I've seen them there, I have seen how they have taken churches and made them their own kingdoms and lived like they pleased, reviling the people and with a little truth and a half truth is worse than a than anything just to hold them and then I want you to notice that expression speak evil of the things that they understand not they rail at the things which they are ignorant of how many people have I heard so called ministers of the gospel that rail against the doctrine of the sovereignty of God's grace I mean rail against it, they are ignorant he said they speak evil of the things that they do not understand and therefore they say every they say that the sovereignty of God and his sovereign grace is doctrines of devils, they speak evil of the doctrine of the lordship of Christ they speak evil of the doctrine of everlasting punishment for those who die outside of Christ, they speak evil of the doctrine of sanctification is that possible is that possible to me it is to me it is why you can't sanctify the old flesh walk as you please in grace, grace covers it all the blood covers it all you can't sanctify the old flesh you can't walk in holiness what do you mean holiness God has given us liberty you are making license out of it they make fun of the doctrine of sanctification they make light of a holy walk they walk in holiness they make light of those who desire to be like Christ there are those who make fun of anybody whose life is dedicated to being like Christ oh man he thinks he is holy he is holier than thou listen at him talk he is crying unto God, listen to his prayers he is crying unto God for holiness what is the matter with him any man that desires to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution at the word of God and yet the word says that without holiness no man shall see the Lord no man shall see the Lord and so the word of God says they shall only perish in their own corruption they shall be taken and crushed and destroyed at the judgment of the last day I keep referring to it because it is a good object lesson all of this is which has come out upon our president and upon others did you know something that that is exactly what is going to happen to every soul outside of Christ on the day of judgment their life is going to be exposed just like this to the whole wide world their life as it were is going to be cast upon a screen for the whole world to see them as they are being judged look first down Nixon and his presidency that he made tapes of everything that went on in the white house those very tapes told on him and brought his kingdom down well there is two records of what we do think and say one is right here and the other is in that little tape recorder that God got and in that day that shall be played and is going to record what is on that little tape is going to correspond to what we have here and that life will come back and be shown beloved judgment is coming we need a hiding place we need a hiding place that hiding place is Christ we need cleansing from we see it and that cleansing is in the blood of Christ that hope is in him and him alone and I want you to notice in verse 13 and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time in other words they are going to be paid back with the harm that they have done of course that brings us to Galatians 6, 7 and 8 whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap if a man sows to his flesh he shall of the flesh reap corruption if he sows to the spirit he shall of the spirit reap life everlasting beloved God lets nothing die unless it is repented of confessed and washed in the blood of Christ and faithfully told of the Lord Jesus Christ beloved I pray that God would take this home to our hearts this morning because I came here and found trembling that I would not hold back this word but that this word would go home to our hearts this morning, remember he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap life everlasting now I want to show you one of the most hypocritical thing in all the world it brings it out on him a sin of hypocrisy he says there in verse 13 there are spots and there are blemishes spirit of themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, have an eyes full of adultery and it cannot cease from sin, but there are in unstable souls and hearts that have exercised with covetous practices cursed children in other words this is what it means they came to the assemblies of God's people they came to their love feasts they came to the table where the Lord's supper was laid out and there they feasted and all the while pretending to be something they were not their wondering eyes are you listening? their wondering eyes with two in full eyes full of adultery and it says that they cannot cease from sin in other words they can't stop sinning it is with them all the time and all they are there for is to beguile unstable souls and to lead them astray you don't think that's possible do you? but it is I know from actual experience when I'm preaching this morning that if you tell the truth this morning there's not a soul in this place saved by the grace of God you ask them they would admit that their life before God stayed here they walked among the people of God our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately with you that's why the grace of God is so precious to my soul that's the reason the precious blood of Christ is so precious to my soul is because it's brought us out of there by His grace and not only that but he goes on and say that they have exercised their hearts are exercised with covetous practices and they have covetous, they're full of greed trying to see who they can bring under their control trying to see what they can get for their preaching and their teaching only to get money to buy things with that their hearts might be satisfied with the things of this world and those things that they cannot get a hold of except they beguile precious souls the rest of you which have forsaken the right way and gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Bozah who loved the wages of unrighteousness with rebuke for his iniquity the dumbass speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the prophet and what he's bringing out here is this Balaam king of Moab as the children of Israel were going through by their land he went and got this false prophet up in Syria and said come on down here there are people coming by me, I want you to curse God tried to stop him and he wouldn't stop he wanted that filthy look up when he got there every time he tried to curse them, he blessed them because God couldn't put a word in his mouth he couldn't do otherwise and then because he wanted that reward and because he wanted that filthy looker his mind began to work now how can I get God to curse his people so he goes to Balaam the king of Moab and he says listen get all of you women out there and let them parade before the men of Israel and get them to commit fornication and you will have the judgment of God down upon them and that's what they did and the judgment of God came and nearly 25,000 were killed because of that curse and judgment that came upon him and Balaam got his reward he got his filthy looker he got his money but Numbers 31 tells us that he was killed in a battle by the children of Israel he got it but he didn't have nothing to eat couldn't do anything with it we'll go into that later I've got to bring you this as our second point I hope you've heard something I've said up to now and I hope some of it sank down deep in our heart this is awful it's terrible, but it's here and God hates it we must preach it watch the difference these covetous proud peacocks and that's the difference Christ's life in the gospel was one of entire renunciation of everything he was humble and that's where he wants us to walk his royal regard as Philippians 2 tells us he laid aside and left heaven's heights to come to earth's depths that he might redeem the precious souls, mankind so as the last Adam he must walk as God had intended our first parents to walk if the first Adam tried to climb up to be God as God then he must come down and descend to humble himself to be a lamb look at the difference the devil tempted him and said if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will be as God there in good and evil so he started climbing up the last Adam came descending down to the manger and therefore if the first Adam climbed the last Adam must descend if man soars Christ must come in lowliness that's enough because man seeks the highest seat the Lord Jesus came and took the lowest seat in the lowest place in comparison because man wishes to be as the gods he became man and that obeyed in the manger and that for him because men desire costly dwellings he had not where to lay his head and started his life in the manger he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross this is the way God wants us to live as we follow him not the highest seat but the lowest not to be as God but to be as God the man Christ Jesus as he came and bowed himself down because man chooses the elite suburbs Christ came and chose to live far away from the big city of Jerusalem in the small town of Nazareth can any good thing come out of Nazareth Nathaniel said because man strains at wealth he became poor because man disdains his inferiors looks upon him with disdain our Lord Jesus chose the outcasts and the poor to minister unto most people wouldn't like your place brother William but I praise God he put you there to minister to the down and the out sinners have been caught they need Christ he is the glory of God because man chooses men of renown to have their worldly systems of government the Lord Jesus Christ chose eleven humble fishermen from Galilee to follow with him then again since pride and covetousness rule and reign ruin the lives and the souls of men the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ are a stand in rebuke to every form of pride to which man is liable I want you to get this I borrowed this from somebody else it's not mine but when I read it I said that's exactly well the Lord in the first part of the week had laid upon my heart to do a comparison like this this morning and it was Friday I was reading in a book and there what comes up was the very thing he had laid upon my heart to bring before you for the comparison and here it is again pride is the thing that damns man and pride was what caused the angels to fall pride is what causes man to walk in his own will in his own way in his own strength in his own power so watch as we go through look at it on one side man on the other side our blessed Lord and this is the way he wants us to be and the way he desires us to walk there is the pride of ability but the Lord Jesus Christ said I can of mine own self do nothing he had no ability in himself as the son of man he depended wholly and completely upon the Father man he's proud of his ability and Christ said I can of my own self do nothing so beloved when we quote Matthew 5 3 the first beatitude blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven all we are saying is that the poor in spirit and the broken man and the humble man is the man who knows in his own heart he has nothing he can do nothing what's the other one brother Mary? knows nothing knows nothing can do nothing he has nothing the pride of ability is gone then again the pride of birth and rank that was the son of our Lord is not this the carpenter's son he was born in the city of the king at death for him but he came not to set up a kingdom then he took the place of thirty years of subjection and obedience to his mother and his foster father Joseph he was called the carpenter's son nothing to brag about there and then the pride of bigotry father forgive them they know not what they do that was his pride from the cross to all those who put him to death around the cross forgive them for they know not what they do beloved pride of bigotry goes everywhere then the pride of indirect there is another damning thing of pride the Lord Jesus said as my father hath taught me I speak of these things in other words he was taught they had nothing of his own he depended completely upon the father he came there in utter complete obedience to the father by the spirit and then there is the pride of learning oh how many try to palm that off on us the pride of learning what he says and it was said of him how knoweth this man letters have he never learned he went to none of their schools they have not graduated the feet of communion like Saul of Tarsus who became balded and the pride of appearance you often wonder why Isaiah 53 starts off he has who hath believed I reported to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed he hath no form nor comeliness that any should desire him no form nor comeliness that any should desire him in other words when you look at a crowd you would never pick him out he was just a common ordinary Jew dressed like them walked among them the only time you knew he was the Messiah is when he spoke and he was his miracle but then he did it to the glory of the father and when they tried to take him to be king after he said the 5000 he went out of their midst across the sea he was in want of publicity then men want the pride of reputation of who they associate with he had reputation this man eateth and drinketh the sinners his reputation was among the publicans and the sinners and my friend he wore that epithet very well this man is a friend of publicans and sinners he eats with them and drinks with them he was not afraid he did not partake of their sins nor what they did and he did not do anything to his reputation at all that's what he came for he had me never to stop by my hearts door in the pride of self reliance I'm a merit and self made man for I said I rely on myself to do what should be done he went down to Nazareth was subject unto his mother and his foster father that's humility that's where he learned it that's what God wants us to learn submission not self reliance but reliance upon him and his authority and then there's the pride of self will now Lord Jesus Christ could say I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me give me grace that should be our attitude this morning I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me that was a man who went around practically all his life crying your will not mine, your will not mine and when they were listening to a faint voice before he died he was still saying the same words, your will not mine that's humility to be in the will of God walking in the way of righteousness and true holiness then there are those who are lifted up in pride of their success of what they're doing what they have done now Lord Jesus Christ full of humility could say I am despised and rejected of men where was his followers they all pursued him at the last John was at the cross some of the women but he was despised and rejected where was his success where was his kingdom what had he done oh beloved what did he what had he done it was what he was doing on the cross that matters that holy life matters that commission to the will of the father matters that complete obedience matters of what he did with that life that he had lived perfect and holy in that holy sinless body he took it to the cross and laid it down willingly he said no man taketh my life from me but I lay it down and I take it up again he laid it down and what did he why did he lay it down as a poor old sinner was going to be born on the 22nd day of August 1923 and he was going to be named Leroy Shelton Jr he knew me he laid it down that I might have a way to be justified before God by his blood I might have a way to be righteous in the sight of God oh mother don't you make your salvation personal don't you praise God that it's personal I'm not the only fool am I if you'd call me a fool for making it personal I think we all should make it personal I think when we read the word of God we should make it a personal personal thing applying to my heart making it personal that's what he's done for me and that's what he did was he successful at the cross he didn't have the pride of success but he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men he swallowed up the life of God and his depreciation for sin he defeated Satan at the cross he defeated all hell made it possible that men may be delivered from going down to the pit to having pride but to have success he let us brag on it he let us brag on it he let us brag on him to give him all the glory he was successful he was despised and rejected of men but his mission was successful because he humbled himself have you ever read this scripture in your bible you ought to go through it quite often and this is what it says but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word isn't that precious that's the man that he looks upon that's the man he's seeking for what has been made poor and contrite and spirit and trembleth at his word by the precious holy spirit and then there's another one but that's the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place, with whom with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one, that's the reason he came those are the ones he walks with those are the ones he talks with those are the ones he blesses those who are of a contrite heart spirit of humility brokenness of heart so he came among us then as one of his servants he says I didn't come among you to be ministered unto but I came among you that I might minister unto you and man desires the pride of wealth, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head that's the example we should follow follow him, he was obedient unto death even the death of Christ, and he might bring many sons into glory and this is the example that he left us, for even were him to where you call because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example now you should follow in his steps he did no sin neither was gall found in his mouth and when he was reviled he did not revile again when he suffered he threatened not he didn't call ten legions of angels but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously for his own self there are sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you are healed this is the example he left us left before us, that we should walk in this way did no sin neither was gall found in his mouth when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously beloved, this is the Christ of the Bible this is the Christ that these false prophets did not hear him they did not follow him they had not his spirit, they had not his life all they wanted was the flesh and the things of the world but God has come to give us life and to give it to us more abundantly and therefore we preach Christ and him crucified as the one who was lifted up for our offenses and raised again for our justification the one whom God desires for us to look to by faith the one whom God desires that we come and lay at his feet the crowning king lord of our lives confessing our sins laying bare our hearts before him in true confession and true repentance looking away to Christ looking away to the blood looking away to all that he has wrought for us and did for us upon the cross looking wholly and completely under him and relying upon him day by day will he have mercy upon you? have mercy on me? will he lead you in that path of righteousness for his namesake? he certainly will will he watch over you and keep you? he certainly will will he keep you from these false prophets? that's the reason he's given us the word the word that we could mark their characteristics who they are, so we can shun them run away from them as if they were a plague and run to Christ and sit under a true man of God that brings to us the whole counsel of God by the grace of God try my best this morning beloved bring before you that which God laid upon my heart and I leave you in the hands of Christ I leave you with the Holy Spirit to deal with your heart, each and every one of us I'll pray for you, you pray for me we will walk in this way of holiness desiring to be like Christ in all things and not full of covetousness nor greed but walking humbly before our God