UNBELIEF AND PRIDE

It is a wonderful Sunday morning, the first day of the week, the day on which our Lord rose from the grave, and we trust that we will experience it in a new way in our lives this morning.

On 1 December there will be an engagement service here of Etienne Theron and Estelle Girondel.

My theme today is unusual, it is about two sins. The sin of pride, and the sin of unbelief.

You get the raw, obvious unbelief of Communists who say that religion is the opium of the people as there is no such thing as a god.

My grandmother told me the following story. They lived on their farm in the Eastern Cape where they’d have auction sales on Saturdays; when the farmers were gathered for auctions, a man who was an outspoken atheist and who hated God, would arrive with a Bible. He would tear out a page and spit upon it. Then he’d call out; “if there is a God then let him strike me dead now!” Nothing happened, because God is patient. He carried on like that for years. I don’t know how many pages were finally left in that Bible. Then one night, the dominee (pastor) in that area received a phone call from this atheist’s sister with whom he lived, asking him to come quickly as her brother was seriously ill. It was nighttime and they had to ride by horse along a dangerous narrow mountain pass. When they eventually arrived at the home, it was late, and the sister invited them in and offered them tea or coffee. The dominee requested to see the sick brother first and then the sister said that she was sorry, but her brother had passed away already. She was very hesitant to let him see her brother, but the dominee insisted to see him. When he entered the bedroom, he found the man half seated on his bed, his hands gripping the sides, his eyes bulging out and his mouth open in a scream. When she was asked what had happened, she said that as her brother was dying, he shouted:” They are coming to fetch me! I don’t want to go there! It is dark and it is hell.” He died in that state.

On the other hand, where there is faith, there is victory. Somebody there in that area bought a house with a haunted room. A ghost would appear in the form of a woman dressed in white with her head under her arm. Eventually nobody slept in that room anymore. Rev Andrew Murray, through whom revival came to South Africa in 1860, came to that area and asked for a place to stay as he was travelling and needed a place to spend the night. When he was travelling, he usually stayed at different homes. He arrived at this home and asked for a room to spend the night. They told him that there was only one room open, the haunted room. He answered that that would be no problem, he would sleep there. The next morning, he was asked how his night had been. He answered that he slept well, nothing troubled him. From that day on, the ghost never appeared again.

These are examples of extreme unbelief and extreme belief. Friends, unbelief lies at the foundation of every sin that you and I commit. If you truly believe in God, you won’t go into a toilet and do your filthy things there, because God sees you. If you truly believe that there is a God in heaven who sees everything, you will not make a habit of sinning even in your thoughts and motives. As God sees everything, how can you gossip and wish evil on your troublesome neighbour or use dirty language. If you do that it is because you don’t really believe there is a God.

A believer will accept help regarding his spiritual state, but an unbeliever will be offended if someone says something to him or her, or if they are confronted by someone who wants to help them concerning things which should not be found in the life of a child of God. If you believe, you will allow God to convict you, and you will have remorse, deep, deep sorrow and conviction for the sin you have committed.

You know what the result will be? You will become humble. I remember Rev Stegen often preaching and saying the following: if the devil comes and tempts you to feel proud about yourself, there is one thing that will remove all temptation, just remember where God has taken you from. Remember the sins from which God has snatched you – that should be enough for the temptation of pride to vanish out of your mind and heart.

A person that doesn’t have remorse and lacks faith will start arguing when confronted about their sins. That will be followed by finding fault with the person that tried to help them regarding something questionable in their life.

Thus, faith humbles us when we are confronted about our sins, it gives us true remorse about the wrong we have done, and in the second place, if we stay there spiritually, we will develop a walk of faith in humility.

I will share examples of walking humbly with God later.

Let’s move to pride.

This happened after Daniel had explained Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him.

Daniel 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you; break off your sins by being righteous, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity.”

Here God’s word tells us what to do with sin in our lives. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, break off your sins by being righteous. How do you break off sins? God taught the kings throughout the Old Testament repeatedly how to do it. When they moved into a country where sin was rampant, or when the children of Israel allowed idol worship to come in, God said, break down all the places where you have been worshipping idols, your high places on the mountains and hills, and below every great tree. God didn’t just say, destroy the idols, or wipe out those nations – no, even the places where they worshipped should be destroyed.

Have there been places where you worshipped an idol that you have not destroyed in your life? Whatever that idol might be - money, success in life, getting married, all kinds of prosperity – these things can be idols. Have you destroyed the places where you worshipped those idols? Why was God so strict about that? Because it could become a temptation in the future to go back to these places again. God expects us to break from all our sins, to burn all the bridges, so we won’t be tempted to return to them.

Dear friend who has turned to God, do you truly want to repent? Have you destroyed all the bridges behind you? The devil will try to get you distracted by bringing back memories, maybe feelings you had when you hear music in a shop that jogs your memory about old relationships you had. Have you broken with all those people, contacts and the good feelings you had back then?

Friend, have you got rid of the cell phone with which you have been sinning, or are you keeping the SIM card with numbers of people you should have broken contact with.

If God has spoken to you about a relationship you are involved in, or being proud of your qualifications, the money you earn, being lukewarm and comfortable spiritually, repent and part from that. Do you love the things of this world? That makes God your enemy.

Girls and young women, how many men have you caused to sin not because you flirt with them, but because of the way you dress, emphasizing certain parts of your body? Making men go to hell because they sin in their thoughts when they see you, it is a grave sin and your going to church or growing up in the place of revival will not save you, only true repentance will do so.

Then I want to go on to verse 29. At the end of the twelve months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon.

Despite having been warned twice, first through the 3 friends of Daniel and then through a dream, in each case Nebuchadnezzar had admitted, “your God is the true God.”  God still gave him 12 months to repent, and then one day he was walking on the roof of his royal palace, and pride entered Nebuchadnezzar’s heart.

Verse 30 The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honour of my majesty?”

Nebuchadnezzar was alone when he thought those thoughts. We don’t read that he said it to someone, but God in heaven sees what is in your heart and mind.

Verse 33 That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

God judged him for a ‘victimless’ crime, namely, he was proud of the civilization he had established. What is wrong with that? This time he hurt no person, but he hurt God in heaven.

Woe to us if we hurt the God of heaven. God punished him with the worst humiliation, I think, on earth. He lost his mind. I don’t think there is any greater humiliation than that, that one loses one’s mind. Beware of looking down on a person with that problem. Even if you help such a person, don’t commit the same sin as king Nebuchadnezzar did in God’s eyes.

For 7 years Nebuchadnezzar lived like a wild animal. Daniel had prophesied that it would be 7 years that God humiliated Nebuchadnezzar. And then we read verse 34.

Verse 34 – 36 And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honoured Him who lives forever: For His dominion is and everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation. 35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?” 36 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honour and splendour returned to me. My counsellors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.   

How can you explain that – for 7 years, the king lost his mind. None of his generals tried to take over his kingdom, nobody tried to commit a coup. We live at a time where there are coup d’etats for the most minor reasons. However, God ‘put his kingdom in the freezer’ so that no decay would come in. The amazing thing was that Nebuchadnezzar’s counsellors came to him and asked him to be king over them again.

If God humbles us and we submit ourselves under God’s hand, it will build us up, even though it hurts in the process. Confession of sin and making restitution is a dying to self, as the Lord Jesus said, he who wants to follow Me must take up his cross daily. If you feel that you have dug a hole that is too deep to get out of, take heart, God can restore you if you obey Him and make your faith stronger.

Just one other example – Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. When the angel told him he would have a son, he did not believe. He asked, how is that possible, my lord? And the angel said, because you didn’t believe you will not be able to speak. Some people interpret that as punishment, without God it is punishment, but with God it is something which strengthened his faith. His being unable to speak reminded him of the promise of a son that he was to receive through God’s miracle.

Friends, accept God’s chastisement, and you will see it will build you up and bring you closer to God. God doesn’t punish us to destroy us, even if He makes us go mentally sick, it is not to destroy us, but to build us up – if only we are able to see God’s hand in it.

Let us return to where I started. If you have faith, you will be convicted of your sins when God points them out. Without faith you will be offended, by ignoring God’s words and allowing the world to instruct you, or you will be hurt and backslide.

During the days of the Vietnam war, there was an American captain who went with his platoon to fight against the Vietcong, one day they walked into an ambush. They all fled back to the trenches. However, one soldier was wounded and was left lying where he fell. He screamed in pain and wailed the whole night. It was unbearable for his comrades to hear his suffering, yet the Vietcong were on both sides, and it was impossible to rescue him without putting yourself in danger of being shot. In the end the captain could not take it any longer. He crawled to the wounded soldier, grabbed him and pulled him back into the trench. As he was about to climb back to safety himself, bullets struck him, and he died instantly. A few months later, the young soldier who had been rescued returned to the USA. The parents of the captain invited him for a meal. The evening of the meal turned out to be torture for the parents of the captain as the young man arrived stone drunk, he was cursing and telling dirty jokes. The meal was finished as soon as possible and after saying goodbye and the door closed behind him, the mother of the captain fell on the floor and began weeping, saying; to think our son gave his life for such a person.

He just didn’t care. He followed the world. He drank like the world, swore like the world, followed the big stream going to hell.

Let me ask you dear brother and sister – dear friend – if God looks down from heaven, is He satisfied that He sent His son to die for your sins? If he looks at the life you are living, and hears the words coming from your mouth, if He sees the thoughts of your heart, the jealousy, the anger – how does God feel? If you have allowed God to work in you, you will have remorse, true remorse over your sins. Then your life will change.

A hymn writer wrote the hymn: “Oh teach me Lord”.

Oh teach me what it means, that cross uplifted high.

(That doesn’t make sense, you may say, it wasn’t one cross, there were three. Through the years the Romans crucified many people, but once your eyes have been opened to the death of Christ, there is one cross and it stands out above the others. That cross uplifted high).

With one the Man of Sorrows

(There was a specific person on that cross, one man, all the other people who died on the crosses were irrelevant, but the Man of Sorrows was the One.)

Oh, teach me what it means, that cross uplifted high, with one, the Man of Sorrows.

(That was what God called His Son. For your and my sake, God called His son, the Man of Sorrows.)

Condemned to bleed and die, oh teach me what it cost Him to make a sinner whole.

To make a sinner holy.

Please Lord, teach me what it cost You to make a sinner holy.

(Then he says, teach me Saviour, teach me. He doesn’t say, Teacher, teach me. Because the normal brain of a man cannot see this truth, it must be a Saviour that changes your mind, that opens your eyes, that you can see. But it must be a Saviour, otherwise I will end up hopeless – taking my own life. But if you teach me my sins, I will receive hope and healing in the process.)

And teach me, Saviour, teach me, the value of the soul.

If you as a young girl speak to a young man, do you see what he looks like, his clothing, his build, his character – or do you see the soul that needs to be saved by God? And you young man, if you speak to a girl – do you just see what she looks like on the outside? Or do you realise, here is a soul before me that needs salvation and God can use me to bring that soul to be saved.

So, if you have gone through the mill of God like Nebuchadnezzar, if you have been convicted and saved from your sins, you will live in permanent humility.

I am closing with words from Andrew Murray: Humility is the only soil in which the graces root. The lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace of virtue along with others, it is the root for all other graces. It is the root of all because it alone takes the right attitude before God and allows Him as God to do all.

Dear friend, if you come out of a trial, a time of testing, a time of purification, and you did not develop humility, you have missed it all. A humble person lives in humility. Even if you walk and work with a person that has lost his mind like Nebuchadnezzar, or even if you work with sinners that come to you with a life filled with sin, you will think more of that person than of yourself.

Dietmar Joosten

Maybe you have found yourself – what you are really like. When you are a child, you are taught that you are a child and you have to be obedient. And your mom and dad help you, if they are good parents, to be obedient. If they don’t teach obedience because they feel sorry for you, then they are not true parents.

Your parents do that because they want to spare you the fruit of disobedience and pride. And you learn that from when you are young. Children backchatting their parents and workers who do the same to those over them; it is time to repent and change.

A person should always have a prayer on his heart: Lord, help me to be obedient and humble so that you don’t have to take me by the scruff of my neck and cause me unnecessary pain to teach me obedience. If, however, you find yourself in a difficult situation, accept that too, because God does not want you to die in your sin. Learn from every situation, God usually uses people to teach you obedience and humility.

If you submit, humble yourself – that is where the grace of God abounds and works.