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  HUMBLE YOURSELVES
  by Richard Owen Roberts
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of humility before God,
highlighting the consequences of pride and the need for repentance. It
delves into the stories of King David, King Saul, and other biblical
figures to illustrate the destructive nature of pride and the necessity
of seeking the Lord's will above all else. The message stresses the
significance of acknowledging sin, humbling oneself before God, and
seeking His forgiveness and guidance.

Duration: 1:26:50

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of humility before God,
highlighting the consequences of pride and the need for repentance. It
delves into the stories of King David, King Saul, and other biblical
figures to illustrate the destructive nature of pride and the necessity
of seeking the Lord's will above all else. The message stresses the
significance of acknowledging sin, humbling oneself before God, and
seeking His forgiveness and guidance.

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CONTENT
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Now, let me come directly to the burden of my heart tonight. There are
two incredibly wonderful issues involved in true revival. Now, an awful
lot of people are not interested in revival.

And if I thought revival was what they think revival is, I wouldn't be
interested either. I'd go home and stay there. But, there are, as I
said, two absolutely magnificent issues in revival that ought to lay
hold of our hearts and ought to drive us to our faces before God in
pleading for another great movement of the Holy Spirit.

But the first of these issues is the more commonly spoken of, the
manifest presence of Christ in the midst of his people. The first time I
felt I was ready to write a book on revival, it seemed to me necessary
to give some definition to what I was speaking about because there is
such a variety of views as to what constitutes revival. And so I said on
that occasion, a revival is an extraordinary work of the Spirit of God
producing extraordinary results.

No, I still stand by that. But my own judgment in the matter has been
refined, I would say. And now, I believe that I would define revival
simply as God.

God in the midst of his people. There is an incredibly lovely way in
which Christ draws near. And when Christ draws near, things that we have
thought little of, things that we have known perhaps no conviction at
all concerning, suddenly appear ugly in the light of the beauty of
Christ's holiness as he manifests himself.

So that revival always results in the people of God coming to levels of
repentance of which they have known nothing before. Now, some confuse
this issue because they are sure that Christ is always with us to the
same degree. That there's never any variation.

He doesn't distance himself. He doesn't draw near. He's always nigh.

They use such assurances as, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the age. And they fail to distinguish as the Scriptures do, but not
by the language which I'm going to employ. But nonetheless, the
distinction is there between the essential presence of God, the manifest
presence of God, and the cultivated presence of God.

God says concerning himself, I fill heaven and earth. The presence of
God is as much this very hour in some den of iniquity as it is here when
you're speaking of the essential presence. You can't go anywhere but
what God is present.

But what is the impact of that aspect of his presence? Do people feel
restrained from drinking themselves into oblivion because God is present
in the tavern? Do prostitutes suddenly cease forever their life work
because of the essential presence of God? No! The essential presence of
God does not have a resting influence on sin and sinners. But when God
draws near, there is a fear that develops. Some of us who are older saw
some of this just in society itself.

As a young preacher, I found that people were afraid to openly sin. I
wouldn't want to say they didn't sin, but I dare to say they sinned
behind closed doors and under the cover of darkness because there was a
sense of the fear of God. There was at least the remnants of the
presence of Christ in the churches in those years.

So the church was to some degree salt and light. But it's not now. We
have lost the manifest presence of Christ in the church.

And so we are burdened to pray for revival that Christ himself may draw
near. Now I know it's somewhat artificial to distinguish between revival
and awakening in terms of actual usage because throughout the centuries,
the terms have been used interchangeably in that great movement that
begun under the ministry of George Whitefield in about 1735 in England.
That movement on that side of the Atlantic was called the evangelical
revival.

And yet, on this continent, the same movement involving some of the same
men was described as the great awakening. So the terms have been used
interchangeably. But if we have the right to give a distinct meaning to
each of those wonderful terms, revival happens in the church.

And when the church is revived, awakening happens in the world. Know how
we long to see a season when indeed the church is so thoroughly revived
and turned into the likeness of Christ that the world is awakened and
drawn in a great rush to our Savior. The other issue that I would like
to speak of just for a moment or two, the second great wondrous aspect
of revival, is that in revival, the Word runs like a mighty flood.

Now, I don't know what you're observing, but I do get around a good bit
still and am away from home a good share of the time preaching in a
great variety of places. But it doesn't much matter where I'm preaching.
A significant portion of the congregation that says anything at all to
me will say, oh, that was interesting.

And when you have preached, say, for two hours, which I often do, on a
single text, a command text, and somebody steps up to you and says, oh,
that was interesting, I'll have to think about that. You want to reply,
and sometimes it's appropriate to reply. Don't think about it! Obey! But
there's not an awful lot of obedience to the Word that is taking place.

And where an individual does obey, by and large, it stops with that
person. But in seasons of revival, the Word of God runs like a mighty
flood. The Apostle Paul made reference to this matter in the second
epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 1, in the form of a
prayer request.

Pray that the Word may run rapidly! And dear friends, if you've studied
accounts of revival, that is one of the truly exciting aspects of the
revival. The Word of God is rushing forward and sweeping before
multitudes of people, radically transformed by the Word of God, which
currently seems to be having relatively little impact. So for those who
aren't much interested in revival, if they understand what revival is,
then we know that at the heart of their disinterest is the disinterest
in Christ and His Word.

But for those who are interested in revival and do understand these two
great issues, what could be more desirable? What could the heart rightly
long more for than the manifest presence of Christ in the midst of His
people and the Word rushing forward like a mighty flood, sweeping the
multitudes into the Kingdom of God? This evening, we've listened to a
family group singing and they have drawn our attention to that classic
revival passage in 2 Chronicles 7. And in the light of their
contribution, I believe it would be well to open the Word of God to the
passage and to taste one out of the several issues of immense importance
that are drawn to our attention in this passage. So, I'm reading from 2
Chronicles 7 and picking up the reading at verse 11. And while you're
turning to it for the sake of a few who may not be aware of the greater
context, this seventh chapter is the culmination of Solomon's great
prayer of dedication of the temple that occurred in chapter 6. And it is
the Lord's response to Solomon and the prayer of which we now read.

So, 2 Chronicles 7, starting at verse 11. Then Solomon finished the
house of the Lord and the king's palace and successfully completed all
that he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and he said to him, I have
heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of
sacrifice.

If I shut up the heavens so there is no rain. If I command the locusts
to devour the land. Or if I send pestilence among my people and my
people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my
face and turn from their wicked ways.

Then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sins and will heal
their land. Now, I'm not sure there are very many who have ever
seriously considered the consequence of a land that is healed by God.
But a wonderful way to inform your soul about the consequence of this
promised healing is to familiarize yourself with Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Because in that 28th chapter of Deuteronomy we have the blessings and
the cursings that God promises to bring either upon those who are
obedient or upon those who are disobedient. In that chapter, which if
you are not familiar with, I would plead with you to read before you
come to tomorrow morning's session. But in that chapter about 11 or 12
verses are devoted to blessings.

And then some 50 verses devoted to curses. And when you go over the
passage it is crystal clear. America was once under the blessings and
America is now under the curses.

And the curses don't go away. But God still removes curses and restores
blessing. And when God says he will heal the land he's promising to
remove the curses and to replace them with the blessings.

But let me read on. Now my eyes shall be opened and my ears attentive to
the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated
this house that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart
will be there perpetually.

And as for you, if you walk before me, Solomon, as your father David
walked, even to do all according to that I have commanded you. And you
will keep my statues and my ordinances. Then I will establish your royal
throne as I covenanted with your father David saying you shall not lack
a man to be ruler over Israel.

But if you turn away and you forsake my statues and my commandments
which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods and
worship them, then I will uproot you from my land which I have given you
and this house which I have consecrated in my name I will cast out of my
sight and I'll make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. As for
this house which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be astonished
and say why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house? And
they will say because they forsook the Lord the God of their fathers who
brought them from the land of Egypt and they adopted other gods and they
worshiped them and they served them therefore he brought all this
adversity on them. Now the word that I wish to focus upon tonight and
that I believe is at the very heart of our problem is that first word in
the list of four specific calls.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. That
hasn't happened. What's the sense of talking about prayer? I've been in
several supposedly large prayer conferences over the last few weeks in
several parts of the country and I've been told in advance of the dozens
and even hundreds of churches that were participating.

But in truth not a fraction of those who were supposedly engaged in this
conference were present and it's highly unlikely that they had any
serious interest in prayer. You can't have serious interest in prayer
when you're full of yourself. Prayer is a farce.

The typical local church prayer meeting is a joke. It's disgusting. It's
grievous to the Holy Spirit.

Some pastors jokingly and yet I suppose at least three quarters
seriously say why our church prayer meeting is the organ recital and all
the organs of the Bible are talked about and prayer is requested. And
here is a nation rushing pell-mell to hell and we concern ourselves with
broken fingers and pains in our side. We haven't taken prayer seriously.

And we can't because we haven't humbled ourselves. Isn't it amazing you
can have a community with 35 churches and at least five of them think
they're the best church in the community. You can have Christian
colleges any number of whom in their advertising material make it clear
we're the greatest Christian college.

You attend pastor's fellowships. I used to try in the brief portion of
my life that I was a pastor and I would go to the Monday meeting of the
pastors in the city but I couldn't handle it. They were boasting
sessions.

In a very modest voice one fellow says well, we didn't have a very good
weekend. We only baptized seven this week. Oh, I pity you says the next
fellow.

The Lord is really doing things in our place. We had 11. Huh, 11? Well,
I'm sorry to tell you fellows we had 22.

And the average pastor is sitting there saying I haven't baptized
anybody for seven months. Well, if you don't mind baptizing the dead you
can baptize 22 or 50 or 100. You can lead your convention in baptisms.

But baptizing the dead I'm speaking of spiritually dead which the bulk
of the persons who are baptized are. I mean pastors even say they come
forward Sunday morning we baptize them Sunday night then we never see
them again. And they still have the outrageous courage to go on
baptizing people that deep down within they know are as lost as Satan
himself.

I was in one of these larger churches a while ago and the pastor was
very upset with my preaching. And finally I said then why did you invite
me here? Well, he said I'm beginning to wonder but I thought our people
needed to hear what you had to say. Well, I preached Sunday morning on
the Beatitudes.

I don't think that's very offensive. Not to the believer. But it can be
quite a problem for those who think they're believers and are not.

And he was mad Sunday morning but my words you should have seen him
Sunday night when I preached on the first and the greatest commandment
to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Monday
morning early he called he said the whole staff is up in arms that we've
arranged a room at the hotel where you're staying, a dining room and
we'll have a private meeting with you. And there were eight of them
against this little old man.

And they didn't seem to have any qualms at all attacking me. And of
course we've had some experience along these lines, haven't we? And we
know how to behave ourselves. You just sit there grinning and let them
hurl their mean-spirited accusations.

But after a while they began to feel a little sheepish and they weren't
getting any reaction out of me. And so seven of the men left and the
senior staff person remained. So I turned to him and I said, Pastor, did
you ever knowingly baptize an unconverted person? Yeah, yeah, I would
admit I have.

How frequently have you done that? Oh, he said, I haven't really
counted. I should suppose not more than a thousand times. The average
pastor doesn't baptize a thousand in a lifespan.

And here this fellow admits he's baptized a thousand unregenerate people
in a very few years. So I said, then why do you do that? He said, you've
got to understand. I've committed myself to build a megachurch.

And I said, you've got to understand that the megachurch you're building
is your church and it has nothing whatsoever to do with Christ and
you've got to face the fact that you're going to be accountable to God
to every one of that thousand people that you led down the road to
destruction. That sobered him slightly, but he was still mad. But on the
final night he came before the service.

He had avoided me all week. He came before the service. He said, I'd
like you to agree to go out with me after the service and have some
refreshment.

Yes, I said, of course. Well, he said, when you're finished and all the
people are through speaking with you, I'll come for you. So when he did,
he said, now let me tell you the purpose.

When we reach the restaurant, I want you to tell me everything that's
wrong with me. And I said, why would I do that? Are you telling me you
intend to repent? No, he said, I would not dare say that. But what I
must say is I have two weeks in which to repent.

And if I do not repent within two weeks, it will be too late. And I
said, on what basis do you say that? He said, I know my wicked heart.
I'm under incredible conviction right now.

But if I don't act, it will be too late. And when we reached the
restaurant, I gave him a dozen things. But I focused upon one.

I said, I have never heard you preach. But from what I've seen of you
and of your church, I believe that you're a man who loves the Bible, but
not the God of the Bible. But I don't want to be unfair.

Would you regard that as unfair? No, he said, that's the heart of it. I
said, then you are an unregenerate man on your way to hell and leading
multitudes with you. But brothers and sisters, the sad thing was I never
heard from the man again.

And my deep feeling was if indeed he had come to repentance, I would
have learned that. Many of these churches that are flourishing are led
either by men who have never been born of the Spirit or men who have
backslidden so deeply they don't even know the difference between right
and wrong. And at the heart of the issue with these men is the issue of
pride.

Now that's our focus. The role of pride over against the place of
humility in the church. And the absolute necessity of humility if indeed
we are to rightly hope for an outpouring of the Spirit of God.

Now let's focus for a few moments upon 2 Chronicles and the portions
that relate immediately to it. I'm going to go back for a moment to 1
Chronicles because it relates directly to this seventh chapter. And I
invite you as I do so to notice these words out of 1 Chronicles chapter
22.

I'm reading verses 17, 18, and 19. David also commanded the leaders of
Israel to help his son Solomon, saying, Is not the Lord your God with
you? And has he not given you rest on every side? For he has given the
inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before
you. Before the Lord.

Before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord
your God. Arise, therefore, and build the sanctuary of the Lord God so
that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy
vessels of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the
Lord.

So as David speaks to his son about the project that chapters 6 and 7
focus upon in 2 Chronicles, he gives this very straightforward warning.
If you seek the Lord your God, then his blessing will be upon you. He
has given this season of rest and prosperity.

But don't lose sight of that critical issue of seeking the Lord. Now a
second passage also out of 1 Chronicles, but this time chapter 28. A
single verse that I draw to your attention.

The words that David spoke specifically to Solomon his son. 2 Chronicles
28.9 As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve
him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches
all hearts and he understands every intent of the thoughts.

If you seek him, he will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he
will forsake you. Now I don't know how any warning could be plainer, but
with those two passages in mind, flip back to 1 Kings 11 and notice this
very sobering statement.

1 Kings 11. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the
daughter of Pharaoh. Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite
women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of
Israel, you shall not associate with them.

Neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your
heart away after their gods. Yet Solomon held fast to these in love. He
had 700 wives, princesses, 300 concubines, and his heart was turned away
by his wives.

For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away
after other gods. And his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord. As
the heart of David, his father, had bent.

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and
after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites. And Solomon did what
was evil in the sight of the Lord. And he did not follow the Lord fully
as David, his father, had done.

Then Solomon built a high place for Chinosh, the detestable idol of Moab
on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. And for Moloch, the
detestable idol of the sons of Ammon, thus also he did for all his
foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed their gods. Now the Lord
was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord,
the God of Israel, who had appeared to him.

And I commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after
other gods. But he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the
Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this and you have not kept
My covenant and My statues which I commanded you, I will surely tear the
kingdom from you and give it to your servant.

Is it not amazing that the man who is depicted as the wisest man in the
world played the fool, forsook the command of the Lord and brought the
wrath of God upon himself and upon Israel? And why? Pride. No doubt it
has occurred to you that the root of sexual sin is pride. And we all
know something at least of the account of what happened.

And I want to read a summary statement now from 2 Chronicles 12. Many of
you will remember that Israel was divided as a result of Solomon's sin.
And the ten tribes went in one direction and the two tribes in another.

And then Rehoboam came to the throne. And listen to these summary words
from 2 Chronicles 12, verse 14. Words summarizing the whole of the life
of Rehoboam.

And he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord. Now
friends, our Savior taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And he assured us
that if we do so, all these other things will be added unto us.

And then he stated very plainly, after all these things do the Gentiles
seek. There is in every human breast a seeking aspect. We are always
looking for something.

And if we do not set our hearts to seek the Lord, we end up seeking
something else. Our Lord is assured that if you seek Me first and My
kingdom, all else will be added unto you. But it is an absolute
guarantee that if you don't seek Him first, you will seek something
else, as did Solomon, as did Rehoboam, and you will lose the kingdom.

Do you remember the summary words concerning the situation that Asa was
facing in the early days of his reign? He said the kingdom is ours
because we sought the Lord and He let us find Him. And we in North
America must acknowledge we have lost the kingdom because we did not set
our hearts to seek the Lord. And pride is the underlying issue.

Many foolish people with whom I speak say, I don't see why you keep
stressing that we must seek the Lord. I didn't know He was lost. And I
say to them, there's something else you obviously don't know.

And that is your loss. You remember the words of Isaiah 57, 15. Thus
saith the High and the Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is
Holy.

I dwell in the High and Lofty Place with Him also who is broken and
contrite to revive the heart of the broken one, to revive the spirit of
the contrite. God has a limited habitation. He dwells in only two
places, the High and the Lofty, and the heart and the spirit of the
broken and the contrite.

We have millions of people in our land who honestly think they're
Christians because they once gave a hearty salute to Christ. But no,
Christ only dwells in the broken and the contrite. The proud and hard
know nothing of God.

They may have adopted religious language, but God makes it crystal
clear. He holds the proud in heart at arm's length, and we would do well
to remember how long the arm of God is. So Asa says the land is still
ours because we sought Him and He let us find Him.

And we say the land is no longer ours because we did not seek God and we
have not found Him. And that leaves us at the juncture where we either
get serious or it's too late. So we have the account of Solomon with all
of his wisdom departing from the Lord.

We have the account of Rehoboam and all the potential good that was in
him departing from the Lord. I make reference briefly to another king. A
young fellow by the name of Joash.

His story is also in Chronicles. I'm referring specifically now to
chapter 24. And I want to give you just ever so brief a sketch of this
man and then remind you of the tragedy that happened in his life.

Joash was just a boy when he became king. And in all the early years of
his reign, there was a high priest who was a godly man by the name of
Joash upon whom this boy king leaned. But when the old priest died, then
the princess in the kingdom spoke flattering words to the boy king and
he was swayed.

You see, part of the great problem in our church is a significant
portion of the people are leaners. Not leaning on the Lord, but leaning
on some spiritual prop. And when that prop is gone, down they go.

Here this boy king turns completely aside after several years of walking
the straight and the narrow. Then in the providence of God, the son of
Jehoiada, the high priest, is a prophet and he appears and he rebukes
this boy for his departure. And this foolish, arrogant young king has
the prophet Zechariah put to death.

The son of the man upon whom he leaned put to death because he rebuked
him for his gross failure. Let me read just a portion out of chapter 24.
Picking it up at verse 17.

After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down
to the king. And the king listened to them. They made obeisance to him.

They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers. They
served the ashram and the idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem
for this their guilt.

He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord. Though they
testified against them, they would not listen. Then the Spirit of God
came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above
the people and he said to them, Thus God has said, why do you transgress
the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper? Because you have
forsaken the Lord.

He will forsake you. So they conspired against him. And at the command
of the king, they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the
Lord.

Pride grips this young king. And most of us know at least something of
the story of Uzziah in chapter 26. Look at verse 4. He did right in the
sight of the Lord.

According to all that Amaziah, his father, had done. And he continued to
seek God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding through the
vision of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him.

But dropping down to verse 16, these horrifying words, when he became
strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly. And he was
unfaithful to the Lord his God. For he entered the temple of the Lord to
burn incense on the altar of incense.

Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him 80 priests of the
Lord, valiant men. And they opposed Uzziah the king. They made it clear,
this is not your business.

But Uzziah with a censer in his hand was enraged. And while he was
enraged with the priest, leprosy broke out upon him. The issue of pride.

And so clearly described, while he was weak, he was seeking the Lord.
But when he became strong, he no longer sought the Lord. Now friends,
this has been the history of multitudes.

While weak, the Lord is soft. When strong, the Lord is forgotten. This
has been the story of multitudes of pastors.

This has been the story of incredibly large numbers of churches. This is
the story of nations. When we were small, we sought the Lord.

But now, in our great strength, we don't need the Lord. We dismiss Him.
We make a mockery of the things that He holds dear.

Now friends, I'd like to give you a list of words that depict the
biblical picture of pride. I've had words that I want to mention. Pride
is number one, the beginning sin.

At the heart of all that transpired in the garden, between Eve and the
serpent, and Adam and God, the issue of pride is very much in the
forefront. So pride is, as I said, number one, the beginning sin. Number
two, pride is a blasphemous sin.

A person who tolerates pride elevates themselves either to the equal of
God or the superior to God. Now the vast majority of people in our
churches worship and serve a God scarcely a half inch bigger than
themselves. And that balance is precarious.

And very readily, one can go from supposing God is a little bit bigger
to thinking themselves equal to or superior to God. But whatever form
pride takes, it is a blasphemous sin. Not one of us has anything to be
proud about.

If you're proud of your physique, you didn't make yourself what you are.
If you're proud of your brain power, you didn't have anything to do with
that. If you're proud of your physical beauty, whatever it is we take
pride in, it is God who made us and determined what we are.

And instead of pride, there should be an incredible spirit of
thanksgiving. Pride is truly a blasphemous sin. Number three, pride is
tragically a binding sin.

A person who allows pride in their life is chained by pride itself. All
true freedom, all true liberty is gone because pride entangles a person
and wraps them so much up in themselves that they're worthless in terms
of the kingdom of God. Number four, pride is a bizarre sin.

You take the people who boast so much of their own prowess, those who
feel as if they are truly superior. It might be that anybody could find
somebody who looked worse than them in some particular area. But we are
all created beings and the only one we have any right to ever compare
ourselves with is Christ.

And there isn't a person in this room or anywhere else that looks
anywhere near decent in comparison with Christ. Pride is always bizarre.
But pride also, number five, is a barrier sin.

It erects walls. It causes division and separation. A high percentage of
the church divisions of which I've known over the years, pride is
without any doubt the fundamental issue.

Problems in homes that result in divorce. Issues of pride. Over and over
and over and over.

Walls are erected by pride. But also, number six, pride is a blinding
sin. In the old days when I was a youth, we had the milk wagons that
came around and we had the other merchants who brought their stuff and
we had the trash peddlers going up and down the streets crying, Rags!
Rags! Rags! And as a boy, I remember all those horses had blinders on so
that they had very limited, straightforward vision.

Well, pride has a worse effect upon us than blinders have on horses.
Pride so obscures our vision that we can't see who we are and where
we're headed. A church beset by pride is blind.

They think they're eminently effective. The pastor I described baptizing
a thousand people. His success of going from a handful to 6,000 in a
very short period of time blinded him to reality.

Okay, there he was leading a multitude of people to hell and totally
unaware of what he was doing. And when an old preacher calls it to his
attention, he gets rip-roaring mad. And then when conviction comes, he
knows perfectly well it may be too late for me.

Pride. A blinding sin. Number seven.

Pride is a boating sin. I know that's not the term everybody uses, but I
had an old Welsh grandmother and every once in a while, she would say,
I've got the boating. Now, if you haven't heard the term, it's an inner
sense of something awful that's going to happen.

Pride is a boating sin. It carries with it a guarantee. The proud in
heart will perish.

Pride does go before a fall. But pride, number eight, is also the
backslider's sin. Do you remember the proverb, the backslider in heart
is filled again with his own waste.

When one comes to Christ in a true conversion, they're emptied of self
and filled with Christ. But when backsliding sets in, then self begins
to return and to crowd Christ into the far corners of the heart.
Backsliding is an issue of pride.

But number nine, backsliding, and then I mention number nine. Pride is a
breeder sin. B-r-e-e-d-e-r.

It breeds other sin. I must step down where I can see clearly your eyes
and make it clear to you. Most people who think they are repentant have
only repented of the fruits of sin in their life.

But underneath the fruits of sin are the roots of sin. And Jude makes it
clear that the three great roots of sin are unbelief, stubbornness,
rebellion, and pride. If these root sins remain, you can be endlessly
confessing the sins that appear on the branches of your life, but
there's no change that occurs.

If I may speak very cautiously but specifically, we had a president who
was caught in adulterous relationships. He denied them up and down.
Finally, he could no longer get away with denying it.

The evidence was mounting up so high. He then confessed his sin. And a
lot of silly people among us said, now we must all forgive him.

He has confessed his sin. I said, don't be ridiculous. Confessing an
adulterous relationship doesn't mean anything, especially someone who
has been a habitual adulterer.

We don't have any reason to think he knows anything of repentance until
his pride is broken. And I need to pause and ask, is it possible that
the repentance you know is of the fruits of sin and you have never moved
to repentance of the very roots of sin in your life? It's not enough to
turn from what we've done. It is mandatory that we turn from what we
are.

Finally, number ten, for multitude's pride, is there besetting sin? Time
after time after time. And it's not at all uncommon to have someone step
up after a serious meeting and say, I admit I'm proud, but you should
have known my father. No, thank you.

It's hard enough dealing with you. It's almost as if I admit I'm proud,
but it isn't a matter of consequence. It just isn't worth worrying
about.

But dear friends, I hope that from that list of ten words you see that
it is indeed a very critical issue. But don't think I'm done. I want now
to ask you to turn to an incredible passage that demonstrates the kind
of humility that is acceptable to God.

It too is another passage involving a king. I refer to 2 Samuel 6. In
the interest of time, I shall not try to read this, but rather I shall
give you a summary of it and then an application. In this sixth chapter
of 2 Samuel, the prophet records the experience of King David.

David got under a burden over the fact that the ark of the covenant was
out of its rightful place. And I believe that in order to appreciate the
consequence of this, we need to remind ourselves of how long the ark of
the Lord was out of its rightful place. Remember that overweight priest
Eli who had two wicked sons? And you remember, don't you, that he
rebuked his sons? Oh, naughty, naughty, naughty.

Oh, you shouldn't do it. Hey, that is a mighty nice piece of meat. Give
that to me.

He grew grossly fat consuming that which his sons had misappropriated.
And his rebukes of them was a farce. He was so fat that he sat on a
stool.

His legs could not support that gross weight. But you remember that a
battle came and the Philistines carried off the ark and they put to
death his two sons. And when the news of that battle came to Eli, he
fell backward off his stool and he broke his fat neck.

Now that was about 20 years before the end of the work of Samuel. Then
Samuel was followed by Saul who reigned 32 years and never concerned
himself about the ark of the covenant. And then as near as we can tell,
this sixth chapter occurs somewhere maybe around the tenth year of the
reign of David.

So we got 20 years under Samuel, 32 years under Saul, 10 years under
David. All this time, the ark of the covenant is out of its rightful
place. So David sets his heart to bring the ark of God back where it
belongs.

But he makes a very stupid decision. He doesn't consult the Word of God,
but he asks the Philistines when you move the ark, how do you do it? And
they said put the ark on a new cart. So they load up the ark on a new
cart and they start to bring that ark home.

There's a farm boy accompanying the ark and when the ark hits this very
rough place in the road, he reaches up to steady it to keep it from
toppling. And the Lord strikes him dead and immediately David flashes
into a rage of anger against God. And he calls the name of that place
where this fellow was struck dead, Perez, Uzzah.

The Lord has made a breach between us. But then the Spirit of God is
gently working in David and he comes to realize that the real sinner in
the situation was himself. He took 30,000 men down there to recover the
ark.

And not one of them said now before we take any action, let us ask the
Lord how He wants us to do this. Many have been perplexed over the Lord
striking that poor boy. My own dad, one time he put a lot of pressure on
me.

We had a family member who had purchased a condominium in Florida for my
folks as they were aging. And one winter he called and said, you must
come and bring your family to Florida. I said, Dad, that sounds lovely,
but the schedule is much too heavy to even think of it.

Surely, he said, you can get a week in there. Well, finally we found six
days. I was finishing meetings in one place on Friday and didn't start
the next one until the following Friday.

So my wife drove from Illinois to Florida, picked me up at the airport,
and we went and spent a few days with my folks. On the Saturday night,
my dad said, we've been attending the local Baptist church. Of course,
you can go where you please, but we'd like you to come to church with
us.

Oh, of course, Dad. Be delighted. We went to the Baptist church and the
pastor read the whole of 2 Samuel 6. And when he got through reading it,
he said, I don't understand this passage.

Then he went and preached a sermon that proved he didn't understand it.
As we were leaving after the service, my dad and I walking down the
sidewalk, he turned to me and he said, I don't understand the passage
either. And, you know, I tried to keep eyes forward.

I didn't want to get involved in that one. And then he turned again. He
said, do you? And I had to say, yes, Dad.

I understand the passage. Then we get back to the condo. You and I are
going to sit down in a quiet corner and you explain it to me.

And strangely, just a short time later, when I was home for a few days,
we lived at that time in a very long house, and my wife had a study on
one end and I had a study on the other, and I got up first in the
morning, went to my study. We just had this unwritten rule that we don't
look at one another until we've had a chance to look at the Lord. But
one morning early, she came raging into my study.

I'll pretend you're me. She's wagging her finger in my face and saying,
do I want you to know if you ever do what David did, you're in the same
kind of trouble with me as he was with his wife. I said, Maggie,
whatever are you... You know perfectly well the passage.

I'm warning you. I said, Maggie, I don't know what it is you're all
agitated about. Well, he danced naked in the street.

I said, strange, I never read that. Go back to your end of the house and
reread the passage. And when you've done so, then at the breakfast
table, we'll discuss it.

I want to share with you in brief the discussion I had first with my dad
then with my wife. You see, my dad was confused. He thought there was an
injustice in striking the farm boy.

He didn't understand it any more than the Baptist pastor did. But I
said, Dad, in Numbers 4, there's a long passage describing precisely how
the ark is to be moved, how every portion of it is to be wrapped and
folded, how the rods are to be put through, and how the ark is to be
carried on the shoulders of the Kohan. David should have known that.

The priest should have known that. None of them had the good sense to
seek the Lord in the matter. They just rushed ahead seeing a need, and
they violated God and His Word.

And that's where the church is at today. We don't pay any attention to
the Word of God. We see what we think needs to be done, and we rush
ahead into it.

But now the other issue, that which was troubling my wife so greatly,
without reading the account, I'll simply remind you of the essentials.
The second time they go down, they carry the ark on the shoulders of the
Kohites, and they bring it into the city, and the people are excited,
and David is dancing before the Lord with all of his might. And doing
so, contrary to my wife's observation, doing so in a linen ephah.

Now what is the meaning of that? My dear friends, David took off his
royal crown. David took off his royal robe. David danced in the street
as a common man among common men.

David humbled himself. And the key to the passage is in the words that
David replied to his wife when she was expressing her loathing of him.
Let me read these words.

Verse 20, David returned to bless his household. Mishael, the daughter
of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How the king of Israel
distinguished himself today. He uncovered himself in the eyes of the
servant maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself.

So David said to Mishael, It was before the Lord who chose me above your
father and above all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of
the Lord over Israel. Therefore, I will celebrate before the Lord and I
will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own
eyes. But with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be
distinguished.

And Mishael, the daughter of Saul, had no child until the day of her
death. And, of course, at the heart of it is this distinction. I did
what your father would not.

Go back in your mind to her father. When the command of the Lord came to
Saul, go and utterly destroy the Amalekites. And instead, he kept alive
Agag, the king.

And he preserved the best of the sheep and the goats and others of the
good. And when confronted by the prophet, he said, I did exactly what
the Lord commanded. And the prophet said, I suppose, with good humor on
his face, Then what is this bleeding of the sheep and the lowing of the
oxen that I hear? And then this king had the gall to say, I was afraid
of the people.

Here a king standing head and shoulders above all the people pretending
that his sin is excusable because he was afraid of the people. And you
remember the prophet made it clear to hearken is better. To obey is
better.

And he likens the matter to sacrifice and offerings. And then he goes on
to speak about the issue of stubbornness, rebellion. And he likens them
to idolatry and witchcraft.

But my friends, the heart of this passage is when Saul could no longer
deny the consequence of his sin. He said, I'm reading from 1 Samuel 15
verse 24. Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned.

I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord and your words
because I feared the people and listened to their voice. Now therefore,
please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship. I wonder how
many of you have learned how incredibly important it is to see where a
person places the periods in their confession.

I have sinned because I feared the people and listened to their voice.
You pay attention to the people who are supposedly confessing their sin
and you'll find that a great many of them are unable to say, I have
sinned, period. But they add an explanation, an excuse.

Now the tragedy of the hour in which we live is that multitudes of
religious leaders would be doing handstands to have somebody of Saul's
position saying, I have sinned. Even when it's evident that the
confession means nothing. But look further here.

Verse 26, Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you have
rejected the word of the Lord. And the Lord has rejected you from being
king over Israel. And as Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of
his robe and it tore.

So Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you
today. And he has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. And
also the glory of the Lord will not lie or change his mind for he is not
a man that he should change his mind.

Then Saul breathed out, Oh, I have sinned! Twice in one night. But
again, no period. Look at it.

I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people
and before Israel and go back with me that I may worship the Lord your
God. I have sinned, but I know I've sinned. Samuel, you know I've
sinned.

God knows I've sinned. But don't tell the elders or the people. So God
tears the kingdom from Saul.

And He gives it to the neighbor who is better than himself. And that
neighbor is David who messes things up and is the cause of the death of
the farm boy. But he does humble himself.

And you would think David had learned his lesson by this time. But no. A
few chapters later, David sends the army to the battle front.

He deliberately stays home and it's at the time when the king goes to
war with the troops. He lies in bed all day. He rises late in the
afternoon.

He goes up on the roof where he knows he's going to see a beautiful
woman taking a bath in the neighborhood. He sends an official summons
for that woman. Commands her presence in his bed chamber.

Commits adultery with her when he learns she's pregnant. He calls the
husband home from the battle front under the pretense of getting a
report as to how the battle was going when his real intent was to send
the man home to sleep with his wife in the hopes that he would suppose
that the child was his. And when the man's loyalty is so great that he
will not go home, but he sleeps at the palace gate, he brings him in the
next day, gets him drunk, thinking for sure now he'll go home.

But the second night he lies again at the palace gate, brings him in the
third day, writes out a letter, forces the man to carry in his own bosom
a letter commanding that he be placed in the most vulnerable part of the
battle and therefore put to death. And the man dies. And David lives in
his sin, thinking he's gotten away with it.

But he writes Psalm 32 and Psalm 38 acknowledging the trouble he was in.
But it's not until the prophet Nathan wags his bony finger in the king's
face and says, Thou art the man. And let us take a moment to see for
ourselves the very accusation that is leveled against David by the
prophet Nathan.

Four accusations that on the surface have nothing to do with the sins of
adultery and murder. 2 Samuel chapter 12. But look at these accusations.

Verse 9. Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his
sight? You have struck down Uriah, being hit tight with the sword. Have
taken his wife to be your wife. And have killed him with the sword of
the sons of Ammon.

Accusation number one. You despised the word of the Lord. Now that's
David and the fellow who wrote so many of the Psalms.

The one who still delights us with the glorious Psalms he wrote. Why
have you despised the word of the Lord? Look at verse 10. Now therefore,
the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised
me.

And have taken the wife of Uriah, being hit tight to be your wife.
Despised the word of the Lord. Despised the person of the Lord.

Verse 12. Indeed, you did it secretly that I'll do this thing before all
Israel and under the sun. He despised the word, the person, and the very
attributes of God.

Anybody who thinks he does anything in secret shows that he despises the
very attributes of God. The eyes of the Lord roam to and fro throughout
the whole earth beholding the evil and the good. Nobody ever gets away
with anything with God.

And the fourth accusation. Verse 14. However, because by this deed you
have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child
also that is born to you shall surely die.

Despised the word. Despised the person. Despised the attributes.

And despised the reputation of God Almighty. And yet, he is the neighbor
who is better than Saul. We don't know that Saul murdered anybody.

We don't have any record of his having committed gross adultery. So why
is David the neighbor better than Saul? Because David humbled himself.
When he wrote Psalm 51 I will cite just one small portion.

He said, Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy
sight. How could he say that? He sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned
against her husband.

He sinned against his own family. He sinned against the nation over whom
he ruled. And because his sin included sexual sin, he sinned against his
own body.

How could he say, Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this
evil in thy sight. He said it because he understood that the great evil
of all sin consists in this fact. It is against God.

And there is no humility until it is understood that the great evil of
all sin consists in the fact that it is against God. So as urgent as
revival is, we're just mouthing words if we're not prepared to humble
ourselves. We can't get away with what Saul couldn't get away with.

We can't blame others. The tendency is to blame others. This rotten
condition in America is because of the politicians or because of the
corrupt media or because the educational system is no good.

Well, that all may be true, but the problem in America is the church.
Everything that's wrong in America was first wrong in the church. And
the church is us.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and heal the land. But let's not move
on from here until we are sure that we have humbled ourselves.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/2zCrEl6B72Q.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/richard-owen-roberts/humble-yourselves/
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