SELF-CONFIDENCE
Prov. 3:5-7
Morning Meditation 1/7/15
"Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil."
Self confidence is a sin in itself and leads to a life of failure in the service of the Lord. It is the way of the world. People are trained to have self confidence. They say it will improve your ability to sell if you are in sales. They say it will improve your skills as a workman.
I will never forget a church member who was an insurance salesman. He came to church regular but he never did get it all together. When I taught on walking by faith and the life of victory in Christ, he made an appointment to talk to me. He wanted me to help him apply the life of faith to selling insurance. He saw all kinds of possibilities. He was not developed enough as a Christian to hear what I had to say. I told him that you don't use God to make you a great salesman. He didn't want to hear that at all. I didn't mind spending time on a one to one basis to help him develop in his Christian life, but I would not spend five minutes to help him use God to make him a better salesman.
The wise man said, "Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil."
The verses that came just before our text say: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
Let's look at some things about self-confidence.
SELF-CONFIDENCE LOOKS TO THIS WORLD INSTEAD OF GOD
It looks down instead of up. Self confidence carefully puts all the trophies in an obvious spot where everyone who comes in the house sees them.
A few years back soul winning seminars were held all over this country to train better soul winners. And the seminars were nothing more than the sales seminars of this world being converted to presenting the gospel. I ashamed to say I participated in it. In this type of seminar, one is given self confidence that he is going to win a person before he starts. When you talk to the sinner get him to saying yes, yes, yes.. Then when the punch line comes you have him saying yes to receiving Jesus as his Saviour. This kind of soul winning uses the world's methods.. It does not deal with his sins and helplessness.
I don't mean to ruffle anyone's feathers. I was guilty of this myself. But if we are Christians and we find out we are doing something wrong we quit and ask the Lord's forgiveness.
Self-confidence uses the world's methods in fund raising. We are living in a time when one of the first things preachers do if you visit them, they take you around and show you the facilities. They tell you how much money it all cost. Then they tell you how many they run in Sunday School. The reason for this is numbers are equated with success. I'm a great preacher if I run so many in Sunday School. Now if you run more in preaching, the preacher says, "We had x number in attendance last Sunday."
Self confidence can build a large church but if they are not saved when the rapture takes place, the preacher and his flock will be left wondering what happened!!!
I had a preacher visit me one time and we had a great time of fellowship. We talked about the Scriptures and various things revealed in God's Word. We talked about some of the biographies that both of us put a great price on. When the preacher got ready to leave, I walked him to the car.. He said, "Bro. White I want to thank you. You did not spend time showing me around your building. You did not ask me once, "How many do you run in Sunday School." When he left I knew that a need had been met in that preachers life. And the need wasn't being made to feel like a failure because he did not pastor a large church.
SELF-CONFIDENCE ACTS IN ITS OWN STRENGTH
Someone has said, "He who sides with self takes sides against God, and runs on a rock to his own destruction."
Self-confidence uses its own wisdom to do things for God. It is not God in the man working through one who is yielded to Him, it is man in his own strength doing something that the world calls monumental and makes the claim that God did this through him. If you will listen closely, you will discover that the man has "I" trouble. I did this and I did that. He knows the Bible enough to know that the human ego is never right. You can't even do a thing for God by accident that will be right if you do it in the flesh. The human ego cannot get out of the picture.
God has another way of doing things. Romans 6:3-6, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."
The Bible very clearly tells us that the old man died when we were saved. We were baptized into Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
What are the old things that are passed away? I believe it is the human ego, i.e., the old man. What does it mean when it says, "behold, all things are become new." The first thing it means is that God instantaneously created a new man within your body. You are no longer the part of you I can see. You are a new man and that new man lives out the new life using the body that the old man used until his death. Someone hold my mules!!! Hallelujah!!! I am no longer of this world. I have a new origin!!!
Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:19, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
Jesus said, "If ye were of (Gk. ek, meaning an origin from which one has come) the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of (ek, you no longer originate but have been removed from the world as to origin) the world, but I have chosen you out of (ek, so that you are no longer of the world as to origin) the world, therefore the world hateth you." I know I have messed the smooth reading of this verse up. But those of us who believe in the verbal inspiration (the very words themselves) of the Bible, it is a blessing to see in detail at times exactly what Jesus said. This world is the origin of my body but it is not the origin of the new man in Christ. I am from another world of which Jesus is the sole authority.
SELF-CONFIDENCE IS THE HIGH THRESHOLD OF THE SOUL
A self confident person is very hard to witness to. Self confidence breeds pride and pride is one of the biggest barriers to salvation. That is the reason I say it is the high threshold of the soul. If a person is going to be saved he has to come to the end of himself. He must see that he cannot save himself. A self confident man will chose the way of works for salvation. He says, "I can do it. I can meet God's commands. Others may fail but not me." This is not a statement of faith; it is a statement of self confidence. It is personal pride.
This is the reason that most people are going to hell. They believe that they can overcome in their own strength. Heaven will be a trophy to them. It is captured by their dedication and personal strength. A person who feels like this feels like gaining heaven is going to be a piece of cake.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Now what does that sound like to you? Does that sound like most are going to heaven? Or does it sound like Jesus is saying that most are going to hell? Jesus never misses it in His predictions. He is always right on target.
Repentance is agreeing with God even when it is against yourself. It is getting on God's side and confessing to Him that you have been wrong and you have discovered that He is right and you have come to Him for His forgiveness. Do you have any idea how long it will take God to make you His child by the new birth? Before you get the words out of your mouth the Holy Spirit will put you in Jesus. It has nothing to do with feeling. It is a choice. When you make the choice by faith to ask His forgiveness, He will forgive and before you know what is happening, you will have a new origin. You will no longer be of this world. You will be from heaven. Your name will be put in the Lamb's Book of life. This will be your heavenly birth certificate.
Self confidence is the high threshold of the soul. One must come down and let Jesus come in. When you do this, you won't be strutting around, filled with pride because you are saved, you will be thankful that God's arm is long enough to dig you out of the pit of sin and set your feet on the solid rock of grace through Christ Jesus our Lord. Instead of strutting you will be bowing at His feet and filled with thanksgiving that God is willing to save a wretch like you.
SELF CONFIDENCE WILL BE REVEALED WHEN IT IS TOO LATE
There is a judgement day coming when all the self confident people in this world will discover that they rode their ego to hell like riding a mule. Jesus said in John 6:65, "And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." The fact is that the sinner needs mercy. The self confident man never asks for mercy. He thinks he can handle life. He believes he can rise to the occasion. But God says he can't. Jesus said in Luke 13:3, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." John 8:21-24, "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." Jesus said this to self confident people. One must turn from his faith in himself to faith in Christ. Jesus said, "for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
