A subtle, serpent-like vice!
(Be sure to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)
1 Corinthians 4:7
"Who makes you different from anyone else?
What do you have, that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?"
Pride takes a thousand forms, and hides itself under numberless disguises. Many talk of being humble, but humility still remains among the rarest of jewels. Many take pride, in what they call having no pride. It is very easy to be proud of not being proud, and perhaps some brethren here are in that condition. Perhaps we ourselves have said, "I am not such a fool as to boast." That is not boasting, I suppose.
"I could not be boastful," says one; "I know too much of my unworthiness to give myself airs, and ride the high horse." Quite so, my friend--and yet at the bottom of such a humble speech, there may lie a world of pride and arrogance. In fact, your humble confession may only be another form of blowing your own trumpet! It is easy to be proud, while sneering at pride. It is easy to exalt self, while denouncing all self-exaltation. There are some who are never more ostentatious, than when they cry down all display; and never more insolent, than when opposing insolence.
Pride is a subtle, serpent-like vice! It will insinuate itself into the most secret chambers of the heart, and hide in the most unlikely places! It will speak like an angel of light, and fawn and display a mock modesty which might almost deceive the very elect. It will blush and be timid and hesitating--while all the while, Lucifer himself is not more puffed up! We must deal blows at this vice of vanity!
It will greatly help us, if we learn the comprehensive truth that whatever advantages any of us possess over our fellow men--we have received as a gift from our gracious God.
Everything that we are, which is not sinful;
and everything that we have, which is worth having
--we owe to the sovereign bounty of our God!
"Who makes you different from anyone else?
What do you have, that you did not receive?
And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?"
These questions should have but one answer from every redeemed person: "By the grace of God, I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10
"Humility is both the rarest, and most beautiful of all the Christian graces!"
"Pride is like oil in the veins; it can't be fully gotten rid of!"
The above post is excerpted from Spurgeon's, "A Catechism for the Proud". You may want to read the whole of this exceptional sermon. Warning! This sermon is not for the faint of heart.