Lecture 12: The Eight Deadly Sins (Part 4)

In the early church passion was seen as something that controlled you and out of control and leading you astray, not a positive motivation. John Cassian described vainglory as passion to take pleasure in our own qualities. The danger is that we take credit for what God is doing. In pursuit of being popular, we often sacrifice who we are at the core. Pride is the original vice from which all others spring. Pride can develop into functioning atheism. The cure for pride is to have the humility of Jesus in our heart.

I. Vainglory

A. In the Early Church, Passion was not a Positive Term

What I would like to do in this session is to quickly fill out vainglory and pride which are the seventh and eighth deadly sins. I also must say that I owe these PowerPoints to a stellar student of mine who did this as an advanced project by the name of Nathan Weaver. In the early church, the word passion never was a positive term. Today the term is relatively okay to use. Someone will say something like, I am really passionate about this or that and we know what they are saying and we are good with that. It means that they are really committed to it and love doing it. It has good positive connotations. But the early understanding of the word, it was like a ring in your nose with a big chain on it. It is something that is controlling you and even out of control. It is something that is leading you astray. So Vainglory according to John Cassian, is passion to take pleasure in our own quality whether real or imagined. It is like some of the people I have known who felt called to the music ministry; however, it was obvious they didn’t have the gifts and grace to do it. It was a little bit of self-delusion in all of that. This is something like what Cassian is saying here. So vainglory is in-ordinate or just over the top, out of control. When something went really well but at that point it becomes out of control. In that you begin to take full credit for it. So, why is this dangerous for people in ministry? We are asking the Lord to bless and to lead us and very much interested that God receive the praise and for people’s’ lives to be transformed. Those are good and right things. When things do go well and when people bless us and when the name of the Lord is lifted up, we want to give thanks for that. But the danger is that we will start drinking it. We will start focusing more on what we have done to pull this off and how we have made this happen, and we will take some joy in it, some in-ordinate pride in it. You will see this happen when you put people forward for instance and get them in a good position. You know that you had a hand in helping them to get to that place in their lives or even to land in that ministry. Then you start talking in terms of, wow; that was me. When this happens, you have slipped into vain glory. Of course, the Lord has used you in a perhaps smaller way than you thought. But any thought that you are the prime mover that is where it starts to get into vainglory. I think Cassian had a wonderful balanced attitude in that, look, you can receive compliments. That is okay. But you have got to pray in a specific way so that you don’t take the credit for the good that transpired. He gave an interesting illustration of a story that was told about a young man trying to understand this.

B. Example from John Cassian

His mentor said I want you to go to the graveyard and stand on its wall. I want you to abuse all of the dead with language. The young man thought that was really strange. He goes to the graveyard and he verbally abuses the dead. The young man returns to his mentor and the mentor says, now tell me how the dead responded. So, when you are abused and people speak ill of you, I want you to remember what the dead did. This is how I want you to pray, pray Psalm 70:1 be pleased oh God to deliver me; oh Lord make haste to help me. So, when you are abused verbally, you lift up the prayer of Psalm 70:1. In other words, deliver me from any kind of anger or retribution or any kind of wanting to get even. Help me to keep my focus on the Lord and not get derailed by this. Help me to be like these people in this grave yard. I want my focus to stay on you. Cassian says now, in like minor, I want you to go to the grave yard and stand on the wall and I want you to praise the dead. So the young man goes to the cemetery and stands on the wall and says all sorts of praise to them. He comes back to the man with the man asking again how they responded. The young man replied, they didn’t say a whole lot. Here is how I want you to pray and think. When you are praised and thanked; Cassian says to receive the compliment but immediately lift it up to the Lord in an act of thanksgiving and praise. Again, pray again, be pleased oh God to deliver me; oh Lord make haste to help me. So what are you asking to be delivered from? We are asking God to deliver us from vainglory. You receive the compliment and you are blessed by the compliment and you give thanks to God for the compliment but at the same time praying and asking God to deliver you from thinking that I did this because of my natural goodness. It was Christ at work in me who allowed that. Make haste to help me keep my focus on you and your love.

Vainglory is a dangerous thing for anybody. It is especially dangerous for those who highly succeed in ministry because you can get back from it and you can start talking in a language that opens up the true place of your heart. You can start talking about ministry being my ministry and my influence that did all of this. One of the greatest issues we have and I am been guilty of it. We start talking about my church. It is not my church. We are not the head of the church but only a representative figure, an under shepherd under God. The church belongs to Jesus; he is the head of the church. It is his body and bride. I merely have the privilege of assisting him in being a co-laborer with Christ in all of this. But this is why we pray Scripture in order to deliver us from any sense of holding on to these things as if I am the originator of what transpired here. Yes, God has used you and worked through you and bless you and you are doing great things for his kingdom and without you oh Lord, nothing would happen. If I lapse into vainglory, then it starts to become my kingdom come and my will be done and my glory be known. Remember the words I wrote here, severe mercy? God will love us with a severe mercy when we lapse into that type of thinking.

C. Narcissism is Rampant in Our Culture

I wish I had a selfie-stick. This is a long stick and you put your cell-phone on the end of it and point it back toward yourself so you can start taking pictures of yourself. One of my grandchildren came home one day with one of these. So, Narcissism in our contemporary culture is who you are, what you make of yourself. This is seen in social media with followers and likes and dislikes. This isn’t about being persuasive and having massive crowds. The Lord may use us in crowds but that is his business, but that isn’t the point. When we place value in these things, we bow down to the idol, called idolatry of vanity. In pursuit of being popular or interesting, we often sacrifice who we are at the core. Cassian’s cure for vainglory is to admit it and face up to it. Instead trying to keep it hidden by vain efforts to eradicate it; those efforts in themselves are prompted by vain vanity. This is both the meek and transparent person. This is why the woman and man of God are called to be in community in such a relationship that we are allowing others in the body to speak into us. For instance, with pastors, they can have a group of people who will coach them and love them and will speak this type of word into their hearts and will be a blessing to them. We are called to find the roots of vanity and sometimes when you get caught up in a ‘me’ centered egotistic vainglory narcissistic life, and then you always have to be reaching out. You have always got to be connecting and pawing and having other people affirming you, doing likes in your life and media posts. Sometimes, you withdraw for the sake of being with Christ and weening yourself from this culture that will literally choke the life out of us. Whatever we do, we don’t do anything for praise alone. Don’t try to stick out to get people to notice you and highlight yourself.

This is the word for Christian leadership; you let others do any kind of highlighting. You don’t do it yourself. You don’t have to push yourself. You are to be humble and let your own work speak for themselves and what the Lord has done through you. You don’t have to promote it; you don’t have to be in that kind of business. God will do it for you. Mediate on the fact, anything done for the praise of people, the result is loss of rewards before God. I want the acclaim of Jesus and I don’t have to try and push myself on others to get that.

II. Pride

The fight against pride is the supreme struggle. It is the original vice in which everything else is based, according to Cassian. Pride is what got Satan into trouble and ultimately, that is what Satan will try and get us with. A quote from C.S. Lewis, through pride, the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind. In vainglory, you start taking credit for yourself and you start pointing toward yourself, but in pride, you just totally cut God out. You begin to live in an isolated world where you are both the subject and the object of the sentence. There is no place for God. And what is frightening is the functional atheism that really continues to be in God’s church. People may come for religious good and religious services but in terms of literally being disciples who place all things before the Lordship of Christ; that isn’t even in the thoughts of so many people in the church. James says that he gives all the more grace. God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. Let it be; Martin Luther says that one little word will fell him. So, pride is the belief that we can be successful through hard work on our own. If you work hard enough and long enough, it will come. One movie about body builders with a line in the movie about the muscle man look of the world. If you think you deserve it, the universe will serve it. How ridiculous!

A. Providence

There is a belief that a person can manufacture happiness and prosperity without any credit given to God’s providence. Providence is one of the great theological issues that bring joy to our life. Providence is simple saying who is in control of history and who is ultimately in control of your history. Who is sovereign? I do like that side of reformed theology. Who is sovereign in all of this? God alone is sovereign and he is working his will out in human history. He is working it toward a glorious conclusion. It is placing oneself into the part of the heart that only God can fill. It is saying that I am going to fill up that part. This is idolatry. I am going to be the measure of my life and I am going to set the standards of my life. This is an autarkic view of living; this simply means self-rule and it is also an autonomous view of rule. Autonomous, simply means self-complete. I am self-complete and therefore, I don’t need God. I am autarkic; I will live the way I want to live. I will establish the rules. Well, just turn on the news or pick up any magazine or popular social media sites; you will see definitions of pride. The issue for us is not to point our finger at society for we expect them not to get it right. The issue for us is where it is establishing a root in my own life, potentially, in the life of the local congregation that I am serving. You can have prideful congregations. This can happen very quickly. The cure for Pride is to have the humility of Jesus in our hearts; purity of heart is a gift of God and not the rewards of our own efforts. Purity of heart comes to a sheer gift of grace; sanctification is a gift. Do you think you have earned this? No! God graciously gives fruit to our lives when zealous efforts try to show that we correspond with grace. Grace is what brings the fruit. Am I called to co-operate with God? Yes, of course. My will is called to be in submission to the Lord. And if Jesus asks me to pray, I want to be obedient to that. Whatever he says for us to do, we co-operate with this and say yes to this. We give him our will and do our part. God is not against us working hard but he is against us thinking that we are making it all happen.

B. Submitting to ecclesiastical Authority

There is also a very good solid sense of submitting to legitimate ecclesiastical authority. Has God placed solid biblical leadership in our lives? That is a biblical call. For those who are in authority over me, I am a person under authority. I have two elder over me of which both of them are elders in the church. If one of them tells me to do something, then I am under authority by God to do that. That is just how it is and I’m okay with that. I am so blessed that both of the elders over me are Godly men. My dean is a man of God and my president is a man of God. My provost is a man of God. There is always safety in submission. There is a lot of danger in self-will. Are there times when I should not put myself in submission under others? Oh yes; I don’t submit to any process that asks me to break a known law of God. I do not submit to any process or to any person who asks me to break a known law of God. We don’t even quibble about things like that. So Merton wrote that pride makes us artificial, puffed up and plastic, but humility makes us real. I love that. So, we give thanks for the goodness of God in our lives as we look back on all of these deadly sins: gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, sadness, acedia, vainglory, and pride.

III. Spiritual Weapons and Resources

A. Personal Example

We want to take up spiritual weapons and spiritual resources. Let me give you a very real life illustration that took place for my wife and me some years ago. I already mentioned our youngest child joined the Special Forces and went off to war. We knew that he was in imminent danger and it wasn’t long where he was with his little group of four men. Just as his group walked out of a building, the building vaporized from an Iranian rocket that came. It wasn’t long after that our son’s best friend and partner in the military was killed in a mission by our son’s side. This happened to a lot of people; all to return to the States in a box. It was at that point that I realized that I had an inadequate prayer life. I just looked up at God and asked God to help me and my wife; we had everybody we knew in Christendom worldwide praying for our son. I would send out prayer letters; we were supported in an amazing way. I had my son’s picture upon my office door and I had colleagues that helped carry us in prevailing prayer. How do you pray in a situation like this? How do you take up the weapons of righteousness? And through sheer grace, the Lord led me to 2 Chronicles 20. I don’t know how I got there. This was a time when the Moabites and the Ammonites were coming against Israel. There is nothing new under the sun in that part of the world. So a great crowd is coming against the Israelites and old fat Jehoshaphat being the king in verse 3, it says that he was afraid. He sat himself to seek the Lord. There would have been posture in that; this is like falling down on your face before God. So he sat himself before the Lord in order to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah. Judah assemblies to seek help from the Lord. From the towns of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. He is bringing the body of the people of God together to ask for help. Jehoshaphat prays and stands before the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem in verse 5 and the House of the Lord. He says, Lord of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven? This is a plea of desperation. Do you not rule over all the kingdoms and the nations? It is okay sometimes to remind God of his omnipotence. In your hand is power and might and no one is able to withstand you. Did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before us? They had lived in it and built a sanctuary for your name. We will stand before this house.

B. He Fights with Thanksgiving and Praise

My house is the house of prayer and he is going to the house of God; he is praying in the House of God. For your name is in this house and we cry to you in our distress and you will hear; this person is extending themselves in faith. Keep in mind that faith is absolute trust in the divine goodness and divine providence of God. He is extending himself. He is praying and he concludes his prayer in verse 12; Oh God will you not execute judgement upon them who are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. This is like songs of a sin. The handmaiden looks to her maid. The servant looks to the master, our eyes are upon you. Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, ‘Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.’ There are resources that they couldn’t even imagine here. ‘Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a loud voice. This is the choir standing up praising God with a loud voice. And they went out into the wilderness of Tekoa, Jehoshapat stood and said, hear me, Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed. And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.’ He is fighting with thanksgiving and praise. It is a vocal act of worship. This is action; it is bodily language which has content and objectivity. We are thanking and praising God. He appoints the people who were to sing to the Lord. As they went before the army; the choir is out front. He puts the people of praise out front and at that moment, I knew how I was to pray for my children, particularly my son who was in trouble. In some ways, this is the heart of the Old Testament. They were to sing, ‘give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love that endures forever’ and you see this throughout the Psalms, like Psalm 136.

They are giving themselves in thanksgiving in how he is going to work. Oh, give thanks to the Lord and then they are declaring the nature of God for he is good and declaring and singing about how the Lord works with us. ‘For his steadfast love endures forever.’ That cannot be taken away from us. It is just not going to happen. He is saying that he is encapsulating us in his steadfast love. That doesn’t mean that you will never experience pain. Paul wasn’t devoid of pain. There is a measure of suffering for the body of Christ. So, let’s stay biblically grounded here, but you will not be taken away from the love of Christ. Well, the battle was the Lord’s that day.

C. Psalm 149

Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the Godly! Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he advances the humble with salvation. Let the Godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats with two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the written judgment! This is honor for all his Godly ones. Praise the LORD!

What is the sword here? It is the Word; this is an offensive weapon. It is the Word of God to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the people. This is the glory for all his faithful ones. Praise the Lord! Whether we are fighting a battle against the eight deadly sins; of course, there are other deadly sins listed in Scripture. All you have to do is read through the Sermon on the Mound. There are others while these eight are simply an overview. We are fighting against the deadly sins and principalities, and also rulers that are trying to work themselves into institutions or perhaps even into the congregations. I know that there are people listening to this in parts of the world where their lives are in danger for calling upon the name of Christ. I have students this very day from places like Northern Nigeria and from other parts of Africa, from the Sudan and also Middle Eastern students that call upon the name of Christ. This places all of their lives in danger. So whatever we are dealing with: a personal injury or the result of the fall where some disease has come upon us, we want to take up the weapons of righteousness for this and we want to walk in the way the Lord has asked us to walk. The Anglicans have these prayers for every Psalm; there is a prayer that kind of summarizes Psalm 149; give us hearts to praise you all our days and the will to reject the world’s deceit that we may bind the evils of our age and proclaim the Good News of salvation.

D. 2 Corinthians 6:7

What did Paul write in 2 Corinthians 6:7? It says that by truthful speech and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. It is the weapons of righteousness for the left hand and the right hand. He is probably talking about a sword in the right hand and a shield in the left hand.

E. How do I Change

We are taking up the Word of God and we are allowing the shield of faith to keep us firm and steady. The Lord is quenching the darts of the evil. We are standing fast.

F. In 1 John 5:4

This is the victory that conquers the world. It is our faith; a steadfast assurance in the love, the care, the power and the providential goodness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

G. 2 Corinthians 10:3, 5

Think then about what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, ‘we do not wage war according to human standards.’ We don’t take up an evil response for someone who has done evil against us. The weapons of our warfare are not merely human but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We take every thought captive to obey Christ.

We are out of the valley of the eight deadly sins. We are triumphant in Christ and we proclaim with assurance; we are overcomers in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is because of his efficacy in our lives. There is nothing but Good News here. There is never a reason why sin should over power us unless we allow it. There is always substantial love and grace to carry us to every season that we have to go through. Blessed be the name of the Lord, who is faithful to his people. Amen.

Navigation