Pride
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It is also the most predominant sin of Satan
Satan was the highest and most powerful creature God had made (Isa. 14:12). He was an angel who was anointed above all his fellows and who covered the immediate presence of God in Heaven (Eze. 28:14). He was made perfectly upright, holy and good (Eze. 28:15). Yet, his heart was lifted up (Eze. 28:17; Isa. 14:14). What was it that secretly and silently lifted up his heart with pride?
Knowledge, fueled by a love for his own glory: “You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness” (Eze. 28:17). It was pride that turned the highest created being, made perfectly righteous, into the most depraved and evil creature that exists. “Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the sides [the hottest part] of the pit.” (Isa. 14:15).
Oh LORD keep us from pride!
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“All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”
1 Pet. 5:5,6
“Though I speak [and debate] with the tongues of men and of angels [in the most learned eloquence], and have not love, I am become as sounding brass [noise]… And though I… understand all mysteries, and all knowledge… and have not love, I am nothing.”
1 Cor. 13:1,2
“Jesus, who being in the form of God… made Himself of no reputation… humbled Himself…”
Phil. 2:5-8
“In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves… let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus“
Phil. 2:3,5
“If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself”
Gal. 6:3
May knowledge of the truth humble us lower than our fellow man.
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Read, re-read and break oneself upon this letter of John Newton (1725-1807):
On Humility in Theological Dispute 1762
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Let this book by puritan Matthew Henry (1662-1714) guide your life:
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Then continue to read the other writings on this site, especially those of the old Scots who continually lived before the Face of God, and Old Princeton who were continually putting themselves lower than their opponents as they testified to the truth.
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May reformed Christians be most the Biblical and most like God, and be clothed with Humility
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“For when the head is filled with topics, and none of the flamings of Christ’s love in the heart, how dry are all disputes? For too often dispute in the head weakens love in the heart. And what can our paper-industry add to the spotless truth of our Lord Jesus? O that opinions were down, and the Gospel up; and sides and parties might fall, and Christ stand; and that all names, sects and ways were low, and the Lord alone exalted!”
Samuel Rutherford
Survey of the Survey of that Sum of Church Discipline, 1658
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