The Fall Before the Fall (Wisdom, Week 5)

Texts: Proverbs 11:2; 16:18; 26:12 · Luke 18:9–14 · Philippians 2:1–11

“Pride goes before the fall” is one of the most quoted lines in any language. But Proverbs — and Jesus — go much deeper than a warning against arrogance. Pride is the root of sin: the posture of the self - trusting in your own judgment and needing no one else, least of all God. The Pharisee in Luke 18 is not a monster — he’s familiar. Yet the tax collector goes home justified. Not because of his humility, but because of God’s mercy. The solution? Beholding the one who emptied himself for us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In Matthew 28, Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He calls you to be that disciple. To hear his word, to receive his promises, to repent, to believe. That Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that by believing you have life in his name. Now here are the good news of Jesus for you. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We're going to begin with our selected verses from Proverbs. We've been talking about Proverbs as we go through this summer, talking about the wisdom that we see in Proverbs as it's exemplified and manifested in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So we're going to begin with those three selected readings from Proverbs. You can find them in your bulletin. We'll be going through that this morning, and they'll also be on the screen. Proverbs 11 says, When pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble is wisdom. Proverbs 16, pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before a fall. And Proverbs 26. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him. This past few days, many of us have celebrated Independence Day in some way, in some fashion or another. Cookouts, family gatherings, flags flying on front porches, children running around with sparklers in their hands, fireworks lighting up the sky for several nights in a row. You spent time with friends and gone to parades. Maybe you just spent the day with the people that you love. And it's good. It's good that we do those things. This year, especially as we recognize 250 years as a nation, 250 years of our declaration of independence, declaring our independence. We're reminded of this remarkable moment in history where we recognize that freedom is a gift, and it's a gift worth preserving. Freedom to gather here this morning, freedom to hear God's word proclaimed, freedom to worship without fear. And none of this is anything that we should take for granted. It's a gift. And it's a gift that is inherently good. And so independence, when we talk about it like that, independence when it comes to politics and a way to run or function or form a country is a genuine good. But then there's the other kind of independence that we don't think about, but happens subconsciously by nature. Independence when it comes to our relationship with God is the oldest sin in the book. It has a name. Proverbs calls it pride. Today we're going to hold two things at one time. We're going to hold gratitude, gratitude for the many gifts that we have, including the freedoms that we have in this country and the independence that was declared 250 years ago. And it is a genuine good. We're going to hold gratitude for that. And at the same time, we're going to hold this honest reflection, this honesty about the kind of dependence that you and I were never supposed to declare. Our independence, our spiritual freedom from God. Proverbs 16, our middle reading there, it's in your bulletin. Proverbs 16 is quoted in the English quite often, not just in religious settings, but it's quoted elsewhere. People who have never opened a Bible still have heard and even maybe spoken this Proverb before. It usually goes a little bit different than it's listed here in Proverbs, but it goes something like this. Pride goes before. Most people have familiarity with that. They're used to hearing that expression. Pride goes before the fall. But it's actually a summary. It's a summary of that middle reading from Proverbs. If you look at it, the actual reading from Proverbs 16, 8 is, 16, 18 is pride goes before, not the fall, before destruction. And then it goes on in a haughty spirit before a fall. That's what the verse actually says. And so Proverbs means something more than just don't get too cocky, or don't be too full of yourself, or else you might fall. Although there's probably some truth in that as well. The other two verses in Proverbs say this. Proverbs 11 says, When pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble is wisdom. Pride brings disgrace, but there's wisdom in being humble. That makes sense? Proverbs 26. Do you see a man who's wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him. Wise in his own eyes. In a sense, pride is not just about boasting and being arrogant. Although that's pretty easy to spot, it's pretty easy to notice. It's really easy to see in others, that's for sure. But pride, in the biblical sense, according to Proverbs and what we see in the rest of Scripture, is something far more subtle, something far more quiet, and something far more universal. It's this condition that you are your own authority. It's this idea that you evaluate your own life and your own choices and your own righteousness by a standard that you yourself set and you yourself measure. And so wise in your own eyes, as Proverbs says at the last one, wise in your own eyes means that you get to be the judge. You also get to be the defending attorney and the prosecuting attorney. You get to be everybody in the courtroom, which means you answer to you and no one else. This is what makes pride so dangerous and so hard for us to see in ourselves, but easy to see in others, is because prideful people have stopped bringing others into the conversation. They've stopped asking whether or not they might be wrong. They've become independent, unaccountable, a nation of one. And this leads to the fall. Because the person, again, who answers to no one eventually runs into limits. Limits of their own competence, limits of their own ability, limits of their own wisdom, limits of their own strength. And because they pushed everyone else out, there's no one there to catch them. And there's no one there to tell them that they're wrong. And maybe there is someone that's willing to tell them that they're wrong, but they haven't given them the opportunities to speak the truth or allowed the truth to even enter into the conversation. That's pride. Jesus tells a story in Luke 18 to kind of illustrate this idea of pride. And it's about two men who go up to the temple to pray. One is a Pharisee, and we often give Pharisees a really hard time. But during the time of Jesus, Pharisees were seen as very important religious leaders during Jesus' day. They were respected, they were devout, they were religious rule keepers. They were very good at that. And the other, in the story that Jesus tells, the other is a tax collector. The worst of the worst, bottom feeders in society. They were friends of Rome, they were scandalous. Their profession was about extortion and betraying their fellow brothers and sisters. And so Jesus kind of sets it up really quickly like that. We got a Pharisee, a well-respected member in society, and a tax collector, the worst of the worst. Again, this is not a real story that Jesus tells. It's a parable. And a parable is a story about the kingdom and how the kingdom works. But it's certainly relatable. And so these two men, both of them, Jesus says, they go down to the temple to pray. And here's what the Pharisee prays. He says, God, I thank you. I thank you that I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this, tax collector standing right over there. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Notice that his prayer starts with thanksgiving. I thank God. Except for that's really just a kind of a curtain that he's got up. Because in no way is he intending to really thank God for anything here. He's not asking for God even for anything. He's not confessing anything here at all. In fact, what he's doing is he's presenting a resume. He's saying, God, see what I do here? And how about here? Check this one off. And now I need you to sign in. Because you know it's true. He's really looking for confirmation of what he believes to be true in his heart of hearts. He even says it, I don't belong in the same category as this guy over here. He's a tax collector. I'm not like other people. Now look at the tax collector. It says he's standing far off. He's standing at a distance because he doesn't want to be in the same crowd, because he doesn't believe he belongs in the same crowd, in the same group as everybody else at the temple that day. And so he's standing far off. And he doesn't even lift up his eyes to heaven. Why? Because he can't imagine that God would look down on him with pleasure or with gratification of anything that he is or anything he's done. And so he's standing far off. He's not looking up to heaven, he's bowing his head, and this is what he prays. He says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. No resume, no comparison, no declaration. Check out my resume, sign it. Just a request. And by the way, I'm just asking, I'm not negotiating, Lord. And because it's about the kingdom, uh, Jesus already knows how this story would play out if it happened in real life. And so he delivers the verdict himself. And it's shocking to everyone who would have been there that day. He says, the tax collector, he's the one who goes home justified. That's courtroom language. The way a judge, you come before a judge, and a judge says, Yes, this is the way it is, you get guilty or not guilty. And he says that the tax collector goes away not guilty. And it's not because of what he says, but because of the posture of his heart. The tax collector goes away free and clear. He knows his need. And Jesus says, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. I mean, this is just a story, right? But boy, is it true. Pharisee fasts, he tithes. More than he really even needs to or even is expected. He has this admirable record. And that's what makes his case and who he is precisely a perfect mirror for who you and I are. Because most of the time we're tempted to this kind of a quiet sin. This belief that we have more or less figured it out. That we have a stable marriage, and our marriage is stable because we're good at it. We're good at marriage. Unlike those other couples, because they don't work on their marriage and they don't go to church as much as they should, and they don't read their Bible, and they don't do all the things that you need in order to have a good and stable marriage. And so we're good at marriage, which is why we have a good marriage. And our finances, they're healthy because we are financially and fiscally responsible, unlike those other people who I watch, I see the things that they're spending their money on, and they put it on social media, and it's so obvious why they have financial problems. I'm not like them. And our kids, they turn out well because we are parenting wisely. We're doing all the right things. Unlike that family over there. And you see the way that they treat their kids, they see you see the way that they raise their kids? No wonder the kids are turning out the way that they are. And our faith, our faith is solid because we've made good choices objectively, obviously. And we could see these other people, they've made the wrong choices, and so that's where they're at. And that's what's led them to where they are today. And see, every one of those things could be true in part. But notice what's happening when we start to rattle off these lists in our own mind. You become more important and more successful. And God begins to kind of slowly decrease and be removed from the picture altogether. And so it's not really about God and his grace, it's really about you and your credit and your worthiness. Look at all you've done. Just give it to God, He'll sign over. You can make that declaration yourself. And this is why pride is such a difficult sin to recognize. Because we think of pride as someone else's problem. We think of arrogance and bragging and the way our culture sometimes celebrates pride as a virtue in and of itself. But Jesus doesn't let us keep pride like that at arm's length. He makes us look at the Pharisee and see ourselves in it. And not just as a political problem or a cultural problem or someone else's problem, but pride is a human problem. It's a human problem. Whenever a sinner attempts to stand before an almighty and a righteous God on their own terms. That's what the Pharisee did. This is the irony, by the way, of every time we come to a sermon around the 4th of July. Because the freedoms that we do celebrate in this country, and that, especially on this weekend, those freedoms are genuinely good. And yet this language, this language of independence, of self-rule and self-sufficiency, and the fact that we don't need anyone else. That kind of language is the same language, it's the same vocabulary of original sin. That's the serpent's pitch to Eve in the garden. The serpent's pitch to Eve in the garden wasn't you should go ahead and disobey God. Because if that was the case, she probably would have said, no, I don't think that's a good idea. No, it was you will be like him. You'll be independent. You can do it on your own. That's what happened in the garden and still happens today. This conviction, this conviction that we don't need anyone or anything except for ourselves. And it costs the same thing it costs the Pharisee. He walked out of that temple and he thought everything was good, but he walked out unjustified. Not because his fasting and his tithing were fake. No, they were real. But he walked out because he thought he didn't need anything. And how many of us stand in that same place? We're competent, we're responsible, we're self-reliable and self-sufficient, and we've got everything figured out. And so we're quite certain, we're quite sure, and we're quite certain that we are not, we're not like everyone else. But in reality, we're just like the Pharisee in Jesus' story. But we can't see it. That's the danger of pride. Philippians 2 says, have this mind then among yourselves. Have this mind instead. Which is yours, by the way. It's yours in Christ Jesus. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, this is what he did. He emptied himself. And then he he took on the form of a servant, and he was born in the likeness of men. And then being found in that human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. And the worst kind, death on the cross. Think about what that passage is actually claiming. Jesus, by right, Jesus, by right, possessed the single greatest claim to independence that has ever existed or ever will. He was and is equal with God, and he refused. He refused to grasp it. Now think back to that garden because this is the opposite of what happened in the garden. Adam and Eve had no rightful claim. No rightful claim to independence apart from their maker. But what did they do? They grasped it anyway. Jesus had every right to claim independence from us. But he let it go. And he became dependent. Depending on Mary and Joseph. Dependent on his own heavenly father. And then on the cross, he took the place of every sinner who stands in a courtroom or a temple or a quiet moment of honest reflection. And they pray sincerely. They say, God, be merciful to me. Because I'm just a sinner. He bore the verdict. He took that disgrace, the disgrace that comes from pride, not his own, but ours. And he did that so that we, like the tax collector, could walk away free and clear, justified. Not because we have a better resume than the Pharisee or the tax collector, but because Christ's humility and Christ's life and his death and resurrection are credited to your account. Think about how this story ends that Jesus tells. The Pharisee walks into the temple with this resume. He has these accomplishments that he begins to point to, and he has evidence and he has reasons why God should look down and be pleased with him. But the tax collector, he walks in with none of that. He has no defense, no excuse, no argument. Just an honest prayer. And when they leave, everything is reversed. This is how the kingdom works. The man who has this really long resume, he leaves empty. And the one who comes in with nothing leaves with everything. All of Christ and what he has done is credited to this tax collector. That's how the kingdom works. So here's what that means this weekend. Give thanks. This is the gratitude part of it. Give thanks for the gifts that God has given us. The gifts of being able to worship together, being able to worship in freedom and to worship our amazing and almighty God. The freedom to be able to have family and friends and gather together and do all these things without fear. Rejoice. Give thanks to God for these things. But then this recognition, this honesty, that this independence that we so often sometimes chase after, unbenounced to maybe our own conscious desires, but it happens. This independence was never something we were meant to declare. And so what we really have is freedom, but not in and of ourselves, but freedom in Christ. Because the greatest freedom that you and I possess, and this is important for us to hear on the weekend of the 4th of July, the greatest freedom that we possess is not our political freedom. It is not our economic freedom. It's not freedom to do whatever it is that you want to do. The greatest freedom that you and I possess is the freedom that that tax collector found as he walked out of the temple as Jesus tells that story. The freedom of knowing that your standing before God does not depend on you. It doesn't depend on your performance. You have freedom because your sins are forgiven. And that Christ has carried your verdict, the verdict that belongs on you that says you're guilty. And it's put it on Christ. It says now you are not guilty. You're free and clear in Jesus. And that is a freedom that no government can grant. No court can declare it. No constitution can guarantee it. And nothing, nothing can take it away. And so you get to leave here today like the tax collector. Free and clear. Justified on account of Christ. In Jesus' name. Amen.