Roadblock to Revival — Harold Vaughan

The Roadblock to Revival Is Pride

I feel impressed tonight to speak to you on the subject of what I'm calling the roadblock to revival. The roadblock to revival. You say, Brother Harold, tonight are you speaking on hatred and bitterness?

Is that the roadblock? No, I'm not speaking on hatred or bitterness. You say, Brother Harold, are you speaking on rebellion and stubbornness? No, I'm speaking on the roadblock to revival. You say, Well, Brother Harold, are you speaking tonight on disobedience and hypocrisy?

No, I'm speaking on the roadblock to revival. You say, Brother Harold, are you speaking on gossip? No. Lack of gratitude? No. You say, Are you speaking on prayerlessness? Is that it? No, I'm speaking on the roadblock to revival.

Now, folks, all of these things that I just mentioned and a host of others, they are the effect of the roadblock, but the roadblock itself is pride. That is the root problem. That is the roadblock to revival.

Humility as the First Requirement for Revival

And tonight I want us to quote a verse, a very common verse of Scripture. I dare say tonight, most of us could quote it from memory. It's a very common text tonight, but perhaps we're going to make a very uncommon application this evening.

Second Chronicles chapter seven and verse fourteen. Why don't we tonight just read this verse of Scripture out loud together this evening? Let's read it together tonight. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my faith and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Now I want you to notice tonight the order in the divinely inspired word of God. I know here that God is talking to his covenant people, Israel. I understand that tonight, but I believe the principle is there.

An application is made to us tonight under the covenant of grace. If my people, he's not talking about the pagan, he's not talking about the heathen, he's not talking about the agnostic or the atheist.

If my people, which are called by my name, that's us. Now notice what he says of this crowd. If my people, which are called by my name, shall do what shall pray and humble themselves. If my people, which are called by my name, will turn from their wicked ways and repent and humble themselves.

If my people, which are called by my name, will speak my faith and humble themselves. No, no, the order is not like that at all. God said, if my people, which are called by my name, shall number one, humble themselves.

Notice tonight humility precedes prayer. Humility precedes seeking the very face of God. Humility tonight precedes turning from wicked ways tonight. I want to ask you a question. Why do you imagine tonight?

Why do you imagine tonight that pride is so detrimental that God said, before you can even pray, before you can, before you can repent, before you can seek God's face, you have to, first of all, humble yourself.

Why tonight is pride so detrimental that God said, this is the very first thing you have to deal with as you approach a holy God. Now I want us to look at it tonight for just a moment. God's attitude toward pride from the Bible.

God’s Hatred of Pride in Proverbs

Look in Proverbs tonight, chapter six, to get God's attitude toward pride. Proverbs chapter six and verse 16. Why does humility precede prayer? I looked at the word pride in the Bible and found at least 49 references to the word pride, no less than 48 references to the word proud.

And do you realize tonight that everything in the Bible about pride and the proud, it's all negative. God doesn't have one good thing to say about the pride of man. Notice the night in Proverbs chapter six and verse 16, these six things that the Lord hate a seven or an abomination under him.

That's about the highest negative. You can get seven things that God hates tonight. Look at the very top of the list in verse 17, a proud look. You can read on and find that God hates a lying tongue. He hates hands that shed innocent blood.

Those that are swift in running to mischief, those that so discord among the brethren. But I want you to notice tonight at the very top of the list, at the very top of the stack of the things that our God hates is that God hates pride.

He hates a proud look. Look if you would tonight in Proverbs chapter 16, you get a better understanding of God's attitude toward pride. Proverbs 16 in verse five, everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

Look quickly tonight in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse four. One other reference tonight concerning God's attitude toward pride, Proverbs 21 and verse four, a high look and high look and a proud heart and a plowing of the wicked is seen by brethren tonight.

God hates pride. God even hates a proud look, a proud heart is an abomination to the Lord. A proud heart, a high look and the plowing of the wicked. The Bible says it is nothing less than sin. Now I want to ask you tonight, why do you imagine that our God so hates pride?

Why do you imagine tonight that the God of the Bible so detest and so unalterably opposed to the proud in heart and this thing called pride? Well, I did a study on this and I found no less than 30 reasons.

I quit looking after I found 30, 30 reasons why God hates pride, but tonight I boil it down and I'm only going to give you three of them. All God's people say it on that point right there. There it is.

Amen. All right. Three reasons tonight. Why God hates pride. Number one, God hates pride because pride is so deceitful. God hates pride because pride is so deceitful. Obediah 1. 3 says the pride of thine own heart hath deceived thee.

Pride’s Deceitfulness and False Pretenses

The pride of thine own heart hath deceived thee. I believe tonight that one reason God hates pride is because it's so deceitful. True humility, someone said, is right thinking about God and true humility is right thinking about ourselves.

Correct thinking about God and correct thinking about ourselves. I look at the word pride in Webster's dictionary and he defined pride as an ordinate self-esteem conceit. One man defined pride is believing we have accomplished what God and others have accomplished in us.

Trying to take credit for things that we cannot take any credit for. Charles Finney said a pride that is the disposition to exalt myself, to get above others, to hide my defects and to pass for more than what I really am.

All my brethren tonight, I believe that God hates pride because pride is so deceitful. It's so deceitful. It can cause you to put on a false front. Pride is so deceitful. It can cause people to pretend to be something other than what they really are.

It can cause a person to put on a false face. I heard one time of a fellow that was out of employment. He was desperately seeking work, been all over town, couldn't find a job to save his life. Well, in our last ditch effort, he went down to the local zoo to try to get employment only to be informed by the zookeeper.

No positions were available. Well, the guy was sad and dejected about the walk out of the office when all of a sudden the zookeeper spoke up and said, wait a minute, wait a minute. There is a possibility here.

He said, presently, we do not have a gorilla and we do have a gorilla suit. You're about the right size. If you would like to come in, dress up in this gorilla suit and pretend to be the gorilla until we get a real one.

He said, you've got a job. Obviously the man was desperate. He leaped right on this job. He would come in every day, put on this suit, get in the gorilla cage, set on that set on that swing. People would feed him peanuts and bananas.

And this is the way he spent his day. One day he was in there dressed up in his gorilla suit and he was swinging back and forth. And right next to the gorilla cage was the lion cage. Now that was a fence separating bars, separating the two, but it was quite open at the top.

Nothing there. And this fellow was sitting there on his swing, swinging back and forth. And he noticed that the closer he would get over toward the lion cage, the more the crowd would begin to cheer. And they were egging him on.

Of course he could understand he was a human being. So he began to swing harder and harder and go closer and closer. And the crowd really got excited. He got to the point where he was actually swinging out over top of those bars, separating those two cages.

And the crowd was going wild, literally going ape. And they were really, really, really doing it upright. Well, this guy was swinging faster and harder and harder. And he got to where he was actually going out over top of the lion cage.

Well, he gave it all he had and he swung as hard as he could. And he went about halfway out over onto the lion side of the, uh, in the lion cage and about the time to get about halfway over the rope snap down, the guy goes right in the middle of the lion cage.

Immediately he reached up, jerked off that gorilla mask, started yelling out, help me, help me. You've got to let me out of here. He ran over and grabbed hold of bars. The lion was coming closer and closer all the time.

He was screaming, help me, help me. You've got to let me out of here. And the lion was coming closer and closer and he was screaming, help me, help me. You've got to let me out of here. And about that time, the lion nudged the guy in the back, the lion ripped off his mask and said, buddy, if you don't shut up, we're both going to lose our jobs.

He wasn't the only phony there. He wasn't the only phony in town on that occasion. But brethren, tonight, isn't it great that we don't have to pretend to be anything other than what we are with God. There is a trauma of transparency tonight.

I think the most difficult thing in the world is true self-knowledge. But I'm here to tell you tonight that when you get converted, you don't have anybody to impress. You've only got somebody to please.

And the way you please God is by being yourself. You don't have to pretend to be something other than what you really are. Roy Hesham said, openness, true openness. Number one is a willingness to know the truth about myself.

It's a willingness to know the truth about me. And then openness. Number two is a willingness to let other people know me like I really am. That just simply means we pull off the mask of pretense and we are just who we are by the grace of God.

My brethren, tonight it's pride. It's so deceitful. It causes people to put on a false front. I'll tell you number two pride is so deceitful that it can cause us to blame other people for our problems.

Pride as Blame-Shifting

Pride is so deceitful. It can cause you to blame other people for your problems. I want to tell you that it's what brother Roberts calls the blame game. It began in the beginning with Adam blaming Eve for his sin, Eve blamed the devil for her sin.

And we've generally been blaming others ever since. You know how it goes. Well, if it wasn't for my husband, I'd be able to make a goal of it in the Christian life. Or if it wasn't for my wife, I could really be a Victorian or if it wasn't for my parents or if it wasn't for my children, it's like the students had said, well, if it wasn't for my teacher, I'd be able to make it to the next grade all the time, blaming somebody else for our own difficulties.

May I say it to you tonight that it's pride that causes us to blame other people. Modern counseling by and large will tell you it's always somebody else's fault, but I'm here to tell you tonight, we are not responsible for what happens to us, but we are responsible for how we respond to what happens to us.

And my brethren tonight, it's pride that causes us to blame other people for our own wrong actions and reactions. Pride is so deceitful. Number three, pride is so deceitful. It can cause you to be critical of other people.

Pride as Criticism of Others

Pride is so deceitful. It can cause you to be critical of other people. Calper said the proud are always most provoked by pride. One fellow said, tell me what takes you off and I'll tell you what makes you tick.

Do you just despise proud people? I mean, can you just spot them a mile away? Have you ever noticed, have you ever noticed tonight that the things that bother you about other people are things that are true about yourself many times, but it's a whole lot easier to crucify the other man than to admit you've got the only, you know, it says in Romans chapter two, why do you judge somebody else's servant for the things that you judge him of you're guilty of yourself.

Have you ever noticed that the things that bother you about other people are things that are true about your own heart? I want to tell you, pride is so deceitful. It can cause us to be critical of others.

I heard of a Sunday school teacher. She was teaching her class on the Pharisee and the publican. You heard that story and you may not be aware of it, but that Pharisee, he is the founder of the modern self-esteem cult.

You may not be aware of this, but he is the founder of the modern self-esteem cult. And you know what this, uh, this Pharisee was doing in that story that Jesus told he was thanking God. He wasn't like everybody else.

You were, he was really beating up his own self-image. He said, Lord, I want to thank you. I'm not like other men, God, I think I'm not like this adulterers and God, I think I'm not like these extortioners and God, I'm really thankful.

I'm not like this old dirty tax collector down here. I asked man, God, I think I'm not like him. And he went on and on talking to God in this way, thanking God that he wasn't like all these people and thanking God that he fasted twice in the week and all this kind of stuff with the whole idea of the lesson was the awfulness of being a Pharisee.

Well it came to time for the end of the Sunday school lesson. The Sunday school teacher said to the students, let's bow our heads together now and let's thank the Lord that we're not like that Pharisee.

Have you ever noticed there's a little Pharisee in all of us? Have you ever seen that? Do you realize tonight that a proud man is suspicious of other people, but a truly humble man is more suspicious, more suspicious of his own heart than he is of anybody else.

I want to pay you tonight. The only way in the world you can look down on somebody else is to think that you're better than them. And that is the spirit of the Pharisee. And that is the very essence of pride in that when we, when we despise and other people and look down on them, you know, sometimes when you go out of the auditorium, people come up and say, well, I want to tell you, brother, that was a great message.

They really needed it here. They really needed that message. Boy, if my wife could have been here tonight, I'm telling you, she really, that really applied to her. And so-and-so could have been here and all the time, reeling off this great list of people that the message applies.

You listen to me tonight, when you hear preaching, if all you can do is think about who it applies to in the church and never think how it applies to your own heart, I want to suggest tonight you have a problem with the deceitfulness of pride.

Pride causes us to be critical. You know, the Bible says that the, the proud they're encompassed is with a chain. I'll tell you a person in bondage to pride. He might not know it, but everybody else can hear the clanking of those chains that he's dragging around.

You see, when we're full of pride, we can spot a splinter and somebody else's eye a mile away, but can't even see the beam in our own eye. When we look into the mirror of the word of God, let me give you a little test tonight for pride.

A little test here. Is there anyone, is there anyone in this church, in this town? In this world? Is there anyone that you can think of right now that you consider yourself to be better than that? Is there anyone that you can think of right now that you consider yourself to be better than they?

You said, well, yes, certainly I'm better than those streetwalkers downtown in Kansas city. I'm a whole lot better than that. That bunch. Well, I'll tell you, I'm a whole lot better than these, uh, God deniers.

Yeah. Hold on. Better than those atheists. Hold on. Better than those perverts. Yeah. Folks. I want to pay you tonight. If you ever get a good, clear vision and a grasp of God's holiness and who God really is, you'll know that within your own breath lies the potential for every iniquity known to the human race.

And I want to tell you something. When you really meet God, you're going to have a hard time looking down on anybody else. It's not always them, but it's rather, well, it's me. When you really see God, all my brethren tonight, pride is so deceitful.

It can cause us to be critical of other people. I'll tell you, pride is so deceitful. It can cause us to water down sin pride is so deceitful. It will cause us to deal with the respectable rather than the real, because it's a deal with the general rather than the specifics.

And there'll never be revival. As long as we're blame shifting or rationalizing, we were in a meeting one time, Roy Hessian was there from England. He was the speaker. God was moving. There was some young women in the church that decided they needed to confront an elderly lady in the church.

And they did it with the right spirit, with an intent to restore. I mean, everything was right because here was the situation where this woman was so abrasive and so abrupt with her tongue that people would come in.

They would be offended and they'd never come back again. So they decided they need to lovingly confront this woman about this. He was a blind spot. Well, they went to this woman and confronted her about that abrasive tongue.

Well, when they confronted her, you know what she said? She said, well, that's just my personality as if that was the letter for the whole thing. That's just my personality. Have you ever read first John one, nine, it says, if we confess our personality, God is faithful and just to forgive us our personality and to cleanse us from all character defects.

There it is. It's the new Bible. It'll be out before long. A new translation. Uh, brethren, listen tonight. God cannot forgive you for your personality. I mean, some of us ought to be forgiven for our personality.

Amen. I mean, really, but, but the truth of the matter is God cannot forgive personality. God cannot forgive an inherited trait. God cannot forgive a shortcoming or mistake. God cannot forgive a temperament.

The only thing God can forgive is sin. And I'm here to tell you tonight that we have so redefined sin and redefine things that God opposes and give it a new names. It is nothing less, nothing less than our pride causing us to water down.

Pride’s Role in Hiding Sin

We were in a meeting in single mountain, Tennessee. God got in the meeting. I'll tell you, it's always good to be in town when God is. And God was in town in this meeting. Things were happening. Unbelievable.

Things were happening. Such a spirit of prayer on that crowd. There was a man in the church, Mr. Johnson, sit on the back row, came in late, left early, never said anything, never did anything so backwards, so timid, so shy pastor said he would often come to him and say, preacher, you know, I'd like to do more in the church, but I'm just so timid.

It's just my personality. I, I'm just so shy. I'm afraid to do anything. And you know, he wouldn't, he wouldn't give a witness for Christ. You know why he was afraid somebody would laugh at it. He couldn't give a testimony and pray out loud.

You know why? Because he was afraid he'd make a mistake. Well, I want to tell you the pastor, he was a merciful man, had the gift of mercy, and he would all the time, pat him on the back and say, Oh brother, that's just the way it is.

But you know, God didn't pat him on the back. God showed this man that his shyness was nothing less than pride in reverse. So concerned about what people would think more concerned about what people would think than what God knew.

And God convicted this man of his pride. He came forward one night in this meeting, he came and stood at a microphone. The church couldn't believe Mr. Johnson was in front of him. He'd never done it, said anything, never done anything.

He stood before that crowd. He was shaking. He was crying. He said, you know, I can't believe I'm up here. And he was just weeping. He said, I've hid behind my community for so long, I've used it as a self-protection device.

And God gave him this composure and he shared how that he quit shaking. He quit crying. He shared how God had convicted him of his pride, how he confessed it, how he'd been set free. The people couldn't believe that this man was so articulate and so free in sharing this testimony.

And when God set that man free, it set other people in the church free that had the same problem. And I would deal with a mad dash for the prayer room in those days. And pastor told me that from that point to the day of his death, Mr. Johnson became the boldest witness in that church for Jesus Christ.

Aren't you glad tonight you're not locked in to your inheritance? Aren't you glad about that tonight that you're not locked into what you are by nature? Thank God tonight. We don't have to stay melancholy.

We don't have to stay the way we are by nature, but when God fills us with his spirit, we can be exactly what God wants us to be. Oh, my brethren, tonight is pride that causes us to water down sin and call it by another name.

Pride as the Essence of Sin

God hates it tonight because pride is so deceitful. But let me give you another reason tonight. God hates pride because pride is the greatest of all sins. Pride is the greatest of all sins. Humility is the foundation of all virtue.

Humility is the foundation of all virtue and pride is the essence of all sin. Behind every other sin, my friend, is pride. First John 2, 16, God says all that's in the world, all that's in the cosmos, all that's in the world system is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.

God says there's only two things in the whole entire world system, lust and pride. Do we see tonight that lust and pride are the root sins from which all other sins spring? And out of that highest root called pride will come all kinds of evil and wickedness.

Pride tonight is the greatest of all sin because it's the essence of all sin. I'll tell you how severe it is. Pride is so terrible that pride will eliminate God from a person's thoughts. It will eliminate God from a person's thinking.

The Bible says in the book of Psalms, chapter 10, that the wicked through the pride of his countenance does not seek God and God is not in all his thoughts. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek God and God is not in all his thoughts.

How is it tonight that men can go for years, some of them decades and never give adequate thought to their creator? How is it tonight that you and I can go for hours, sometimes days and never give due consideration to God?

I want to tell you tonight, it's pride that drives God out of a person's mind. It's pride tonight that keeps, keeps, keeps the person's mind off of the most important thing in the world, their relationship with almighty God.

I'll tell you what else tonight pride will stop Jesus from being Lord in a person's life. It's pride. You see tonight, God and pride are just like oil and water. They just don't mix. And I'm here to tell you tonight that God will never compromise with humanistic pride.

Diatrophies, Paul said, love to have the preeminence. He loved to have the preeminence. And my brethren, there is a diatrophies called the flesh, called the self that loves to have the preeminence. They just love to take the main show.

They just love to take that place of being the boss. And little chorus says, save me from myself, dear father, from each subtle form of pride. Leave me now with Christ to Calvary. Show me I with him have died.

Hold my brethren tonight. That cross of Jesus. It not only delivers us from the penalty of sin, it delivers us from the very power and the very source of seeing that old flesh nature. Pride is the greatest of all seeing number two, because pride is the very nature of Satan.

Pride as Satan’s Nature

The greatest of all sin, because pride is the very nature of Satan. The Bible teaches that pride was the very first sin to destroy the calm of eternity. Think of it in the book of Ezekiel. When God says of that original sinner, Satan, listen to what he said, he says, I was perfect in all my ways in the day in which that was created.

I want to tell you that God created Lucifer, son of the morning and anointed intelligent, beautiful, majestic cherub that was perfect in all my ways in the day in which that was created. My friend, God didn't make the devil.

The devil made himself. Listen to what it says. That was perfect in all my ways in the day in which that was created till iniquity was found in the dying heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. There it is.

His own heart was lifted up because of his beauty. And we read in Isaiah chapter 14, the I wills of Satan. You know what he said? He said, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the throne of God.

I will be like the most high. I will sit upon the Mount of the congregation five times. He said, I will, my brothers and my sisters tonight, man is never more like the devil than when he's full of self will.

And the essence of self-will is when a person is no longer content to be what God made them to be. As Satan was not content to be subservient to the creator, he didn't want to be like God. He wanted to overtake God.

He wanted to run his own life, set his own agenda, do his own standards. There he was. And he was in rebellion. And that is the essence of sin. And that is the essence of the fall. And pride caused it all.

I'm here to tell you tonight that pride is the very nature of Satan. That's why it's the greatest of all sin. Let me give you a third reason tonight. Pride is the greatest of all sin, because pride is the very worship of ourselves.

Pride as the Worship of Self

It's a very worship of self. I remember one time of a guy, this man was boasting to his son, what a great duck hunter he was. Great marksman decided to take his little boy out. One Saturday, duck hunting really boasted it up, really did it upright, told his son.

Now, when we get out there, son, and those ducks come flying over, he said, just watch him drop one after the other, son, just watch him drop. Well, this little boy was impressionable, thought his father was the greatest thing since William Pell got out there in that blind ducks came flying over.

The man stood up, began to shoot, unloaded his shotgun and the ducks kept on sailing. The kid was sitting there, looked over at his father, thinking he would be mightily embarrassed and ashamed at being such a lousy shot, but his father didn't look embarrassed at all.

In fact, he looked a little surprised and in length, the father spoke up and said, son, we've just witnessed a miracle, son, we've just witnessed a miracle. He said, there flies a dead duck. Brethren, some people will never back down.

Do you realize tonight that pride is a very worship of self. You know, the Bible says in the last days, men will be lovers of their own and will be proud and bolsters in the last day. You know, what's coming to church humanistic.

If you don't love yourself, you can't love anybody else. But all what you need to do is try to concentrate on loving yourself. I'm here to tell you tonight, my brethren, the Bible gives no commandment to love yourself.

The Bible assumes you love yourself and the Bible tells you to deny yourself and take up the cross and follow him. You know, you know the word ego. You know what that means? E G O is the acrostic. You know what it is?

Edging God out there it is. And it's coming to the church and we've swallowed it hook, line and sinker to where in these days we are so consumed with ourselves and our own needs and our own felt and perceived needs that we've lost sight of God.

And I'm telling you, we've created a God that's no longer worthy of worship. And that's why our music has degenerated to such a low ebb in these latter days. Oh, my brethren, pride is the very worship is the very worship of self.

C .S. Lewis said that pride is an anti-God state of mind, an anti-God state of mind. I'll pay you the man that's in the grip of pride. He worships at the shrine of self. Otto Koenig said of Romans chapter 12 in verse one, I've beseeched you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

He said, the problem with a living sacrifice is it keeps wanting to hop off the altar. Amen. There it is, but I'm here to tell you tonight that pride is the refusal to give our life over to God. And when we do that, that is the very essence of worshiping self is the very essence of pride.

And that's why humility is the first prerequisite for revival. God hates it tonight because pride is the greatest of all sin. God hates it tonight because pride is so deceitful. And then God hates pride tonight because it's so destructive.

Pride’s Destructive Power

I might say it's soul destructive. The Bible says pride goeth before destruction and a holy spirit before a fall. Pride goes before destruction. You remember when Herod got up and gave that speech and the crowd began to praise him and said, it's the voice of a God.

He lapped up that praise. He didn't give any credit to God. And the Bible says he was smitten by an angel of God and eaten of words. Pride goes before destruction and a holy spirit before a fall. Andrew Murray said, welcome everything that helps you on towards humility.

You don't write that one down. Welcome everything that helps you on towards humility. Amen. I'm talking about friction in relationships. I'm talking about mechanics. We can't get that thing straightened out after you take it in five times, amen.

Welcome everything that helps you on towards humility, misunderstandings, demotions, adversity, conflict. Welcome everything that helps you on towards humility. I think pride is so destructive tonight and will destroy your relationship with God.

It will destroy your relationship with God. The Bible says that God resists the proud. You know what that means? He stiff arms the proud. He keeps them at arm's length. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the who?

Who are the humble? They're the most unworthy. They're the most unlikely. These are the most undeserving. God resists the proud, the proud he knoweth afar off. He resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

I want to tell you tonight that pride will keep a person from being saved. It's pride. We were in a meeting in West Virginia. There's a fellow in the church who'd been there. He was a good man outwardly, wasn't respected, but he was lost.

He knew he'd never been converted. He stood in that meeting one night and here's what he said to that congregation. He said, you know, I'm lost. He said, I've known for years I'm lost, but he said, I've been afraid.