FBC Morning Light – September 27, 2022

The Folly of Pride and Self-Deification in Tyre

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you, hope your week got off to a good start yesterday. Today we're in the book of Ezekiel and let me ask you this question, do you know anybody like this? I know a guy who really denies the existence of God or he at least thinks if there is a God he has nothing to do with us.

Essentially he denies the existence of God and he thinks that everything that he has, he believes everything that he has, he got it himself. He owes no gratitude to anyone but himself. So he looks at the food on his plate, he doesn't bow his head to give thanks to God for providing that food and giving him the opportunity for nourishment.

His attitude is, I earned this, I did the job, I worked the job that gave me the income to do this job and I earned this, I put this food on the table, I bought the food. Any aspect of material possessions, he looks at his own ability as having acquired it.

He's the one who's provided his clothing, he's the one that's provided his housing, he's the one that's purchased his car. It's him, him, him, him, him. So really when you get right down to it, this man thinks of himself as being a God, a God unto himself.

But our passage of scripture today shows how utterly foolish it is to be so proud, so arrogant, so lifted up in a sense of self-esteem that you make yourself God-like. This was the folly of Tyre and in Ezekiel chapter 28, the Lord pronounces a judgment against Tyre and here's why.

He says this, he says, because your heart is lifted up and you say, I am a God, I sit in the seat of the gods in the midst of the seas. And what he's referring to there is Tyre's skill as mariners. They traversed the Mediterranean Sea and were able to accumulate great wealth because of their sea trade.

In other words, I am a God because of what I've been able to do to acquire my wealth. So he says, but yet you are a man and not a God, though you set your heart as the heart of God. And then he goes on to talk about their self-esteem and how they talk to themselves.

They say, behold, you are wiser than Daniel. There's no secret that can be hidden from you. With your wisdom and your understanding, you have gained riches for yourself and gathered gold and silver in your treasuries.

By your great wisdom and trade, you have increased your riches and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. So this is the Lord speaking to them as they speak of themselves. In my wisdom, in my greatness, in my ability and my skill, I have accumulated all this for myself.

Utter, utter foolishness and pride and arrogance. Because here's the thing about such pride and such, quote, self-esteem, all of that which you look to, to make yourself think you are a God, can be taken away in a moment's time.

And this is what God says is going to happen to Tyre. He says, therefore, thus says the Lord, because you have set your heart as the heart of God, behold therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor.

They shall throw you down into the pit. You shall die the death of the slain in the midst of the seas. And that's exactly what happened to Tyre. It was completely decimated by a foreign power that came in and destroyed the city, plundered its wealth and so on and so forth.

And that, though that happened on the scale of a city and even a small kind of city state, we should not be so foolish as to think that it doesn't apply on a personal level, because indeed it does. It does.

This man I'm thinking of who dismisses God completely, thinks God has no role to play in his ability to gain what he's gained and to accumulate whatever measure of wealth he might have, completely dismisses God.

He is so short-sighted because tomorrow God could take away all of his ability to earn a dime just like that, and he's not going to be able to put even a morsel of bread on his plate by his own abilities.

He needs to understand there is a God. And what God has enabled him to do deserves that one to bow his head in gratitude and humility before that God. Don't look for him to do that apart from the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to transform his heart.

But nevertheless, this is the way it is, and God's revelation makes that clear. So I want to encourage you today. Be sure to stop and give thanks to God for whatever he's allowed you to have, even if it's a little, whether little or a lot.

Give thanks, be grateful to your God and what he's given you to do, given you to be able to accumulate. It's all up to him. So Father, we do thank you today. We thank you for your grace and your kindness and that you graciously provide and meet the needs of your people.

And deliver us, O Lord, from the arrogance that thinks we get this on our own. We don't need you. What folly. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your Tuesday, and I trust God will bless you richly in it.

Good day.