1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 2 - Blessed are the poor in spirit | Page 7

Enemy THREE: Blatant Arrogance. One of the greatest examples of this kind of
arrogance is the arrogance that king Belshazzar in Daniel 5. Israel had been
taken into captivity and he had taken all of the Holy articles from the temple and
stored them in his palace. On that fateful night, in his drunkenness, he called for
all of these holy items to be used to serve his guests their meal. This was a
deliberate act of arrogance where he, in a most blatant way, shook his fist in the
face of God and thereafter paid the price. God dealt with Belshazzar by giving
him some serious humble-pie where on the night of his blatant arrogance he lost
his kingdom to the Meads and the Persians. He didn’t realise the rule YOU
DON’T WANT TO MESS WITH THE HOLY GOD OF ISRAEL.
I don’t know if there are any people like this sitting in our pews today (I doubt
it) but who knows. Maybe there are some self-righteous people who believe that
God owes them something and that God will meet them on their terms. Folks,
always remember we never meet God on our terms; we always meet Him on His.
Enemy FOUR. Knowledge gone wrong. I love the account of Paul in Philippians
3 v 4 – 9 where he outlines all of his genealogical identities and achievements
both theologically and being “zealous” for the Jews. His sarcasm rises to a
crescendo at the point where he says I count all of that as dung in comparison to
the privilege of knowing Christ.
I have said a number of times that knowledge on its own is seriously overrated.
Knowledge without wisdom just leads to pride. When knowledge does not
partner with love, then conflict arises; judgemental attitudes prevail and are all
too often the sad situation that many families and churches find themselves in
nowadays.
The above two enemies to humility are pretty obvious and yet there is
something in our psychology that often makes them appear less than they really
are. Especially the enemy four where there are so many people out there who
just want more knowledge. I am nervous of this, but at the same time
acknowledge the good that can come from knowledge so long as it is tempered
with enormous amounts of grace. Jesus would have to be the ultimate example
of this, where He had all knowledge, He however never flaunted it, or made
people feel inadequate because they didn’t have it, but His love overwhelmed all
of the lack of knowledge that He experienced in His disciples and so many
others.