The Dangers of Arrogance-Boastful Peter - People Jesus Met Part 41

You know, we are in a series entitled, People Jesus Met. And last week, we watched as Jesus met a very arrogant and a very boastful Peter. And based on the conversation that they had, we discussed three things that God wants us to know about our troubles.

If you missed that message, I urge you to go over to the bookstore after we're done today and get the CD or go to our website and download it or podcast. Today, we want to look at the very same encounter that Jesus had with Peter, except that this week, we want to focus on a different issue. This week, we want to talk about the dangers of arrogance. And so this week, we want to go back 2,000 years and see what happened there with Peter and Jesus. And then we want to scroll all that forward and talk about, well, what difference does that make to your life and my life today?

So let's begin. Matthew chapter 26 is where we're going to start in verse 31. Then Jesus told his disciples, this night, all of you will fall away from me, but after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. And when Peter heard this, Peter was outraged. Then Peter said, Lord, even if every other disciple falls away on account of you, I will never fall away.

Peter said, Lord, you need to realize that I'm a cut above all these other guys. And when the dust clears, Lord, all these other guys may have left you, but, oh, Peter, I'll still be standing there with you, Lord, and you can take that to the bank, Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, I tell you the truth, Peter, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Actually, Jesus says, Peter, you're going to do worse than all of these other guys. They're going to desert me, but you're actually going to deny me not once. You're going to do it three times. But Peter declared, Lord, even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you.

Look at this. Peter is so sure of himself that he actually argues with the Lord Jesus about this. Now, let's fast forward this and see how it all turned out. We switch to Luke's gospel, Luke 22, verse 54. And having arrested Jesus, they led him away and brought him to the house of the high priest. And Peter followed at a distance.

And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. And a certain servant girl saw Peter seated there in the firelight and looking closely at him, she said, this man was with him, that is Jesus. And Peter denied it, saying, woman, I don't know him. A little later, someone else saw him and said, you are also one of them. But Peter said, man, I am not.

And about an hour later, another man began to insist, certainly this man was also with Jesus, for he is a Galilean too. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you're talking about. And immediately, while Peter was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had told him, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.

And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Now that's as far as we're going to go in the passage in the Bible today, because now it's time for us to ask our most important question of the morning. So, at Loudon, at Prince William, in the edge, around the world, on the internet, and here at Tysons, are we ready? I hope so. Here we go.

Nice and loud. One, two, three. Yeah. You say, Lon, so what? Say, you know, I've heard this story before, I know what Peter did, he denied the Lord three times, but I, you know, I don't see a whole lot of relevance here to my life. How does this apply to me? Well, let's talk about that. We said a few moments ago that in Matthew chapter 26, Peter makes one of the most boastful, one of the most arrogant declarations anyone has ever made.

Let me remind you what he said. He said, Lord, even if every other disciple falls away on account of you, I will never fall away. Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you. And as we've just seen, all of this ended with a catastrophic personal failure on the part of Peter. Now, what's interesting is that this is precisely what the Bible predicts will be the outcome of arrogance. This is precisely what the Bible predicts will be the outcome of sinful, fleshly pride. Listen, Proverbs 16, 18 says, pride goes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 29 verse 23 says, a man's pride will bring him low. And so today, what we want to do is ask and answer three questions about arrogance, and here they are. Question number one, what exactly is arrogance? Number two, why is arrogance so dangerous? And number three, how can we insulate our lives against arrogance? So here we go, question number one, what exactly is arrogance? And I was thinking this week that actually, arrogance is the opposite of humility. Would you agree with that?

Yeah? Okay. So if we can define humility, all we have to do to get arrogance is reverse it. So what does humility mean? Well, humility is an outlook on life that says three things.

First, that everything I am and everything that I achieve is only because of God's mercy and grace to me. Number two, it's an outlook on life that says I am weak and I need God's help in every way. And finally, humility is an outlook on life that says when I do achieve something good, the credit belongs to God and not to me. Now, if that's humility, to get arrogance, all we have to do is take it and reverse it. So arrogance, therefore, is an outlook on life that says, first, everything I am and everything I achieve is because of me. It's an outlook on life that says I'm strong and I don't need anybody's help.

And it's an outlook on life that says when I do achieve something good, the credit belongs to moi and not to anyone else. Webster defines arrogance as being overly sure of oneself, as being insolently self-confident, and being defiantly cocky, exactly like Peter was. Lord, everybody else may leave you, but not old Peter. Now, that leads to our second question, and that is why is arrogance so dangerous?

And I have three reasons to share with you from the Bible. Number one, because arrogance leads to humiliation. Proverbs 11 2 says when pride comes, when arrogance comes, disgrace comes with it.

And certainly I can say that looking back over my life, it's pretty much true that every embarrassing thing I have ever done to myself, every humiliating thing I have ever done to myself began with some kind of arrogance on my part. You know, my middle son, Justin, is an avid skier. And so a few years ago, the two of us went out west to go skiing together.

And one beautiful day, we were at the top of this amazingly long groomed slope. And as we paused at the top, I turned to Justin and I said, I said, okay, Justin. I said, I'm going to show you now how it's done, son.

Like in the Olympics, I said, just stand back and watch the man. And then I pulled my goggles down and I pushed off and away I went. And as I was flying down this slope, I turned behind me to look back at Justin and to taunt him that I was in front of him. And when I did that, the front of my skis crossed, my tips crossed, and I went straight over onto my face, directly over the skis. But it gets worse because I had all that slinky clothing on, you know, that you wear when you ski. And so I'm on my belly now and there's no way to – there's no friction. I can't stop myself.

I can't slow myself down. My skis came flying off. My poles went flying. And I came down this slope, barreling down this slope on my belly like a big old ski plow yelling at people, get out of the way, get out of the way.

Finally, I came to a degrading and humiliating stop at the very bottom of the slope, right in front of the lodge. And Justin, as I was lying there on the ground trying to pull myself together, skied up with my poles and my skis in his hand. And I rolled over and I said to him, I said, so Justin, how would you score that run? Maybe a 6.1? And he said, no, Dad. He said, I'd score that a 9.11. Yeah.

What did I say? Every embarrassing thing I have ever done to myself in my life started with some kind of arrogance. And this is reason number one why arrogance is so dangerous, because it leads to humiliation in our lives.

But there's a second reason, and that is because arrogance leads to self-destruction. There's an interesting book published several years ago by Harvard Medical School psychologist Stephen Berglis. The name of the book is The Success Syndrome. And in this book, Dr. Berglis analyzes some of the most self-destructive people in recent history. Names like Leona Helmsley, Howard Hughes, Dennis Levine, Gary Hart, Imelda Marcos, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Baker, Pete Rose. But you know, his book was first published in 1986, so we need to add a few new names to that list.

Names like Bernie Madoff and Tiger Woods and Elliot Spitzer and Ted Haggard and John Edwards and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and on and on and on. And in the book, Berglis says, and I quote, he says, One of the core attributes of people who achieve stellar success without the psychological bedrock to prevent personal disaster is, what's the next word? Arrogance.

Arrogance, there you go. Isn't this interesting? Harvard Medical School is finally catching up with the Bible.

Isn't this wonderful? Because the Bible's been telling us for thousands of years that this is the way it is. Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

And let me tell you why. Friends, it's because arrogance makes us think that we're invulnerable. Arrogance makes us think that the rules are for everybody else, not us. Arrogance makes us think that we are so smart that we can always beat the system no matter what.

And the result is we get careless, and the result is we get sloppy, and the result is we get reckless, and the result is we get decked. I mean, Tiger Woods, Elliot Spitzer, Bernie Madoff, Ted Hager, John Edwards. I mean, what were these people thinking with their public profiles? Did they really think that they could get away with their behavior? Well, the answer is yes, they really did think it because their massive arrogance had blinded them, and their arrogance had deluded them. And their arrogance caused them to implode. Now listen, folks, arrogance can do the very same thing to you and me.

Remember, arrogance just doesn't destroy famous people's lives, it destroys normal people's lives too. And this is reason number two why it's so dangerous, because arrogance leads to self-destruction. But there's a third and final reason, and that is because arrogance puts us on a collision course with Almighty God. James chapter 4 verse 6, the Bible says God is opposed to the proud. Luke chapter 14 verse 11, Jesus said, For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled. And in Isaiah chapter 2 verse 12, God says, For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against all who are proud and arrogant, and they will be humbled. Now, why is God so opposed to arrogance on the part of human beings, huh?

Well, the Bible answers that question. The Bible says, Isaiah 42, 8, I am the Lord, that is my name, God says, and my glory I will not give to another. It is so important for us to understand that God is fanatical about His glory. It is important for us to understand that God takes it personally when anyone tries to infringe on His glory. When anyone tries to exalt themselves above Him, or when anyone takes for themselves the credit that belongs to God and God alone.

But as we said earlier, this is exactly what arrogance is all about. And when our arrogance drives us to do these things, we offend God, we anger God, and God takes it upon Himself to teach us exactly who's running this universe. When I think of this, I think of Pharaoh. You remember when Moses came back and said, Let my people go? And Pharaoh said, Exodus chapter 5 verse 2, he said, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?

I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. Hey, you know how this ended. You saw the movie, right?

Yeah. And how about Goliath, out there on the hill with David. Goliath says to David, Hey David, my armor weighs 125 pounds, my spear weighs 25 pounds, I'm nine and a half feet tall, and Sonny, there is only one God on this hill today. And the Almighty said, Really?

Okay, well we'll just see about that. And then this week I was thinking about Muhammad Ali, who as you remember once said, I am the greatest. When you're as great as I am, he said, it's hard to be humble. Man, I'll tell you, it's tragic to see what's happened to this poor man today.

I don't know if you've seen him recently, he has Parkinson's disease, and the poor man can't even speak. And folks, listen, as followers of Christ, when you and I project the same attitude as these guys we just talked about, it forces God to teach us the very same lesson that He taught them. Now, it's true that as followers of Christ, often God does that a little more mercifully to us than He did it to them, but even getting hit by a merciful train still hurts. Ask me.

I know. And this is reason number three why arrogance is so dangerous. It puts us on a collision course with Almighty God. And so in light of the fact that arrogance is dangerous because it's humiliating, and because it also leads us to self-destruction, and it puts us on a collision course to God, then friends, we ought to ask the question, how can we insulate our lives against arrogance? But before we do that, may I just say this one thing, and that is it's my opinion that arrogance is the mother sin of all sins. Think about it for a moment. Adultery, fraud, stealing, cheating, lying, scheming, treachery, betrayal, they all sprout from the same arrogant notion that it's all about me.

It's the mother sin of all of them. So how do we insulate our life from this dangerous thing? Well, I've got three suggestions and we're done. Suggestion number one is by comparing ourselves to the right standard. My oldest son Jamie in 1995 matriculated to the United States Naval Academy. And you know, when Jamie was in high school, I mean, he's a pretty smart guy. He was always in the top 5% of his class, the top 3% of his class. And so when he was in his first year at the academy, I remember asking him, how you doing? I mean, academically, are you keeping up?

How's it going? And I'll never forget what he said to me. He said, Dad, he said, you need to understand this is not high school.

Everybody here is smart. Well, I watched as God through four years brought some true humility into the life of my son. And you know, it wasn't that my son was becoming less smart. It was that he was now comparing himself to a higher standard of student. He was comparing himself to a tougher standard of student.

And my friends, this same process works in life in general. When we compare ourselves to other people around us, it's really easy for us to be arrogant. But when we compare ourselves to a higher standard, a tougher standard, by that I mean when we compare ourselves to the almighty, sovereign, omnipotent, holy God of the universe, well, then it makes us say like David said, Psalm 8 verse 4, what is man that you take thought of him? Who am I, Lord, that you take thought of me?

And who am I that you care for me? The bottom line is that the more you and I are in the Bible every day, learning who God really is, being impressed by His awesomeness and His holiness and His massiveness, the harder it is for us to be arrogant about what we are in comparison to Him. Number one, want to insulate our lives against arrogance? Then number one, we need to compare ourselves to the right standard, not other people, but to the holy God of the universe. Number two, the second way we can do it is by actively giving God the credit for all that we are and all that we have and all that we achieve. You know, over my 61 years of living, I've observed that so often success in life is suspended on the narrowest of margins.

I certainly know that's true for me. For example, in 1980, when this church congregation was voting on whether or not to ask me to come and be the pastor of this church, I made it. I passed that muster by three votes. That's it.

You realize what that means? If two people had voted the other way, I would never have been called here as the pastor. It would have radically changed my life, would have radically changed my career, would have radically changed the history of this church. Two votes.

That's all. And I'll bet as you look back in your life, you can also see that there are a lot of those small little things that if they had gone the other way instead of the way they went, oh my gosh, how different your life would be and not for the good. Now, let's ask the question, what if some of those little items that fell your way had fallen the other way, huh? You say, well, Lon, I got to tell you, I'm smart enough that I would have figured out some way to compensate.

Really? Well, what if your heart had stopped? Are you smart enough to figure out a way to compensate for that? And who kept your heart beating all those years that got you where you are today? You didn't. And friends, who caused all those little details to fall your way instead of falling the other way? You didn't. And who gave you the gifts that you used and the talents you used to get to where you are today? You didn't. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7, Paul says, What do you have that you didn't receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you didn't receive it?

Boy, that's a good question. And it leads the apostle Paul to say later in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10, By the grace of God I am what I am. Listen. You are what you are today by the grace of God. And I am what I am today by the grace of God. You have what you have today by the grace of God. And I have what I have today by the grace of God.

And you have achieved what you've achieved in your life and I have achieved what I've achieved in my life by the grace and the mercy of Almighty God. And people who truly believe this don't become arrogant. And let me just say, let me just say it's not good enough for us to act like we believe it on the outside. Somebody gives us a compliment and we go, Oh, no, no, no, no.

It's God, the grace of God. Forget that nonsense. The question is not whether you say it on the outside. The question is, do you really believe it in your heart?

Do I really believe that in my heart? Number three, and finally, how do we insulate our life against arrogance? Number one, we compare ourselves to the right standard, not other people, the holy God of the universe. And number two, we give God the credit and we mean it for everything we have and are and achieve. And number three, and finally, we do it by surrounding ourselves with friends who will rebuke us for our arrogance. Proverbs 27 verse 6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend. And folks, no matter how hard you and I might try to police our own lives when it comes to this issue of arrogance, look, we are all prone to deceive ourselves.

The heart is deceitful above all things, Jeremiah 17, 9, which means we all need friends who love us enough and who love us so much that when they see us becoming arrogant, they will step in and they will rebuke us and call us on it. You know, as many of you remember, a few weeks ago, I preached a message from John chapter 8, the woman taken in adultery, and the message was all about not judging other people. Well, the very next week after I preached that, Brenda and I went for a couple days to Chicago to visit my son Justin and his wife Kim, and we were walking around downtown Chicago one day, Brenda and I together, and all of a sudden this person passed by and I said something that was incredibly arrogant and incredibly unkind and incredibly judgmental about this person, said it out loud to Brenda. And she said to me, she said, Excuse me. She said, But didn't I just hear a sermon last week about arrogantly judging people? And I said, Well, yeah. And she said, Well, don't you think that what we preach, we should live? Now, in case you didn't catch it in her sentence, we meant me. Did you catch that?

I got that loud and clear, so I just want to make sure you understood that. And I was rebuked. I had to apologize to her and say, Lord, please forgive me. That was so wrong.

You know what? Thank God for a woman like that. Thank God for someone who loves me enough to step in and say, No, you don't. And thank God I've had the wisdom to give her permission to do that without retribution in my life, but that I tell her I appreciate that.

Friends, I don't know if you've got people like that in your life, but if you don't, you need to go out and recruit some and you need to say, I am giving you permission. I am asking you. You see me get arrogant. You see me get haughty. I'm asking you to come in and hammer me.

Please do that for me. Because, folks, left to ourselves, we will all delude ourselves. Believe me, when I said it, I didn't have any buzzers go off. It made perfect sense to me what I said, you know.

I was like, Fine. Okay, well that's just the fact that I'm a sinner through and through and it didn't register. We need people around us who go, No, no, no. Not in this universe you don't say that, Lon Solomon.

No, you don't. So let's conclude. Romans chapter 12 verse 3. The apostle Paul said one of my favorite verses in the Bible. He said, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment. Paul said, Don't get too big for your britches and watch out for arrogance in your life.

And I can't think of any city in America where this message is more needed than in this city where we live. And what have we talked about today? We've answered some questions. Why is arrogance so dangerous? We said, Number one, because it leads to humiliation. Number two, it leads to self-destruction. And number three, it puts us on a collision course with God.

And then we said, So how do we insulate our lives from it? Number one, by comparing ourselves to the right standard to Almighty God and not people. Number two, by actively giving God the credit and meaning it for everything we are, have, and achieve.

And finally, number three, by surrounding ourselves with friends who will rebuke us when they see arrogance growing in our life. You know, let me close by saying I was in the lobby a few weeks ago between services shaking hands and this gentleman came up to me and he said, You know, that was a great message and really appreciated that and went on and on and on. And I said, Sir, pray for me. And he said, Why didn't you just say thank you?

And I said, Well, because what I really need is not a compliment. What I really need is for you to pray for me. Because, Sir, all the seeds for my own destruction live right inside of me. I don't even need anybody's help to self-destruct.

I can do it all by myself. I need you to pray for me. And listen, friends, I understand that my arrogance is my worst enemy. And I hope that you understand that your arrogance is your worst enemy. And if you don't understand that, then you are in worse trouble than I thought you were.

We need to get that. We need to understand we have met the enemy and the enemy is us. And that we carry the seeds for our own self-destruction. Folks, may God protect us from ourselves. May God protect us from the sin and the arrogance that lives in our life.

And I hope you'll take this message to heart and do some of the things that need to be done to insulate ourselves. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thanks for speaking to us today about a very real problem.

In fact, in this city, I can't think of any problem that's bigger. And so I pray, Lord, that you would protect us from the influence of this town. And protect us, Lord, from the power of our own sinful, fleshly nature.

That carries the seeds of arrogance and self-destruction everywhere we go. Lord, I pray that you would speak to us deeply and help us to put into practice the measures we need to to insulate our lives from arrogance that would seek to embarrass, humiliate, and destroy us. Lord, change our lives because we were here today and we sat under the teaching of the eternal Word of God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. And what do God's people say? Amen. Amen.