The Destroyer!-spurgeon

The Destroyer!

Spurgeon, "PRIDE THE DESTROYER"

Pride may be set down as 'the sin' of human nature.

If there is a sin that is universal, it is pride.

Where is it not to be found?

Hunt among the highest and loftiest in the world, and you
shall find it there; and then go and search among the
poorest and the most miserable, and you shall find it there.

There may be as much pride inside a beggar's rags
as in a prince's robe; and a harlot may be as proud
as a model of chastity.

Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings.

It will live comfortably enough in a palace,
and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel.

Is there any man in whose heart pride does not lurk?

When we fancy that we have escaped from pride,
it is only because we have lost the sense of its
weight through being surrounded with it.

He who lives in pride up to the neck, nay,
he who is over head and heels in pride, is the
most likely to imagine that he is not proud at all.

Even in people who do know the Lord,
see what relics of pride there will often be.

Remember what John Bunyan said on one occasion; after he
had done preaching, a brother came to him, and said,
"You have preached an admirable sermon."
"Ah!" said Bunyan, "you are too late; the devil told
me that before I got down the pulpit stairs."

There was one who used to say that he was not half so
much afraid of his sins, as he was of what he conceived to
be his good works; for his sins had humbled him full often,
but what he thought were his good works had puffed him up,
and done him much more mischief.

I am more afraid of a lofty 'pride of self' than of anything else
under heaven. He that is down need fear no fall, but he that
rises very high in his own esteem, is not far from destruction.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Dr. Ives?

From Spurgeon's sermon, WARNING AND ENCOURAGEMENT

Dr. Ives, who used to live on the road to Tyburn
at the time when prisoners were always carried
in a cart to be hanged there, would frequently say,
when he had any friends with him, if he saw the
criminals riding by- "There goes Dr. Ives."
When they asked him what he meant, he replied-
"Such crimes as that felon has committed I would
have committed, but for the grace of God."

That is true even of you who live nearest to God.

You, who have the most familiarity with Christ,
and enjoy the most holy fellowship with him,
may soon become the very leaders of the hosts of Satan-
if your Lord withdraws His grace.

DAVID's eyes go astray, and the sweet psalmist of Israel
becomes the shameless adulterer, who robs Uriah of his wife.

SAMSON one day slays a thousand of his enemies with
the might of his arm and the valor of his heart;
another day his honor is betrayed, his locks are shorn,
and his eyes are put out by a strumpet's treacherous wiles.

How soon are the mighty fallen!

Behold SOLOMON, the wisest of men,
yet the greatest fool who ever lived.

Even JOB fails in patience,
and ABRAHAM, staggers as to his faith.

"Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."

That demon!

From Spurgeon's sermon, "Fear Not"

That demon of pride was born with us,
and it will not die one hour before us.

It is so woven into the very warp and woof of our nature,
that until we are wrapped in our winding-sheets we shall
never hear the last of it.

If any man tells me that he is humble, I know him to be
profoundly proud; and if any man will not acknowledge this
truth- that he is desperately inclined to self-exaltation;
let him know that his denial of this truth is the best proof of it.

We do not hate flattery, any one of us- we all like it.

We do not like it if it is labeled "flattery";
but we like it if it is given in a little underhand fashion.

We all love praise.

LOOKING IN THE MIRROR!

Our tendency is to decry the particular
form of sin that we find in others.

We hold up our hands as if we were quite shocked.
Better to look in the mirror than look out the window.
Looking out of the window, you see one for whom
you are not responsible.

But looking in the mirror, you see one for
whom you must give account to God.

-Spurgeon, "Kept From Iniquity"

Where pride cannot live

(the following is by Spurgeon)

"He humbled himself." -Philippians 2:8

Jesus is the great teacher of lowliness of heart.

We need daily to learn of him. See the Master
taking a towel and washing his disciples' feet!

Follower of Christ, will you not humble yourself?

See him as the Servant of servants, and surely
you can not be proud! Is not this sentence the
compendium of his biography- "He humbled himself."

Was he not on earth always stripping off first one
robe of honor and then another, until, naked, he
was fastened to the cross, and there did he not
empty out his inmost self, pouring out his life blood,
giving up for all of us, until they laid him penniless
in a borrowed grave?

How low was our dear Redeemer brought!
How then can we be proud?

Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple
drops by which you have been cleansed; see the
thorn crown; mark his scourged shoulders, still
gushing with encrimsoned rills; see hands and
feet given up to the rough iron, and his whole
self to mockery and scorn. See the bitterness,
and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief,
showing themselves in his outward frame.
Hear the chilling shriek, "My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?"

[b][color=CC0000]And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground[/color][/b]
[b][color=CC0000]before that cross, you have never seen it.[/color][/b]

If you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus,
you do not know him. You were so lost that
nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's
only begotten. Think of that, and as Jesus stooped
for you, bow yourself in lowliness at his feet.

A sense of Christ's amazing love to us has a
greater tendency to humble us than even a
consciousness of our own guilt.

May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary,
then our position will no longer be that of the
pompous man of pride, but we shall take the
humble place of one who loves much because
much has been forgiven him.

Pride cannot live beneath the cross!

Let us sit there and learn our lesson,
and then rise and carry it into practice.

What an evil we have to deal with!

Pride can strike at any time, and it is painful for the Christian to admit it has any room in their lives.

Humility comes with denying our flesh. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, Rom 8v8.

Fasting is a great key to humility, Ps 36v13

You can't help but notice in western nations where there is abundance and much materialism, pride is also abundant. The gospel is almost non-existent in these nations.

We had better humble ourselves before God does it for us.

God bless.