There is a verse of the Bible that is often misquoted; probably all of us here have heard it: “Money is the root of all evil.” Have you ever heard that? Do you know that it is misquoted? I Timothy 6:10 does NOT actually say “money is the root of all evil.” What it says is: “The LOVE of money is A root of all KINDS of evil”. There is a big difference. Money itself is not bad; money itself is not the root of all evil. Loving money is bad, and it can lead to all kinds of ill effects. But money is not “the root of all evil.”

There is another sin, however, that I would suggest to you as a candidate for being “the root of all evil.”  I think I can make a very strong scriptural argument that the root of all evil is the sin of pride. A couple of Sundays ago we saw the importance of waiting on a word from God – especially in times of crisis. Habakkuk said he was going to stand watch until he saw what God would speak to him. Well, God rewarded Habakkuk’s commitment to wait on His word. In verse 4, we see that God DID indeed speak to him, and it begins in a very interesting way: :4a “Behold as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him …”.  Now, the next part of this verse is one of the most famous and important phrases n all the word of God — BUT I do not want us to skip over the very first words of this verse, because they point right at the heart of all our problems: “As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” We need to look at this sentence together, for I believe that pride is indeed “The ‘Root of All Evil.’”

I.  Pride: the root of all evil.

This is the first thing we see in the first part of Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” Before we ever get to justification by faith in the second part of this verse, we see what it is that defiles a man before God in the first place; what makes “his soul not right within him.” The sin that makes our souls not right with God, is pride. “As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” Pride is the root of our evil. This is true on several levels:

A. Pride was the root of Satan’s sin. Many believe that it was Satan whose words are reflected in Isaiah 14:14, that “I will be like the Most High” was his thought when he rebelled in heaven in eternity past. Whether that passage is speaking of Satan or not, in I Timothy 3:6 churches are warned against calling new converts as pastors “lest they become conceited, and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.” That verse indicates that the root of Satan’s sin was indeed pride. He wanted to take the place of God. His rebellion, and all sin that followed it, comes from the root of pride. 

John Milton, writing in his epic poem, “Paradise Lost”, portrays the character of Satan & unwilling to worship God in heaven, and, wanting to take His place, he begins a rebellion. God casts him out of heaven, but he is still unrepentant, and cries out: “Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven”. Now, Milton’s poem was a work of fiction, but in his God-given genius, he hit the nail right on the head: it was pride that was at the root of Satan’s rebellion. HE wanted to rule; HE wanted to sit in the place of the Most High; HE wanted to be the center of attention. Satan’s rebellion, and the fall of 1/3 of the angels from heaven, and all of the evil and destruction that has come from it, sprung forth from the sin of pride. “Pride was the root of all evil.” 

B. Pride was at the heart of man’s fall as well. Do you remember the words Satan used to tempt Eve? “You will be like God,” he said. (Genesis 3:5) He appealed to her pride — that SHE could be like God. And she responding by putting something ahead of God: she wanted that fruit more than she wanted Him; she wanted to be a god herself more than she wanted fellowship with Him. Pride was at the root of that first sin. 

And pride is the root of all sin. It is the very heart of sin itself: sin says, I want to do what want to do, instead of what God has commanded. I want to be the center of my life, instead of putting God at the center of my life. This is idolatry, and it is based on pride. Sin is self-will, instead of God’s will. Every time you choose to sin, at the root of it is selfishness and pride. 

I can still remember one of the very first sins I was consciously aware of in my life. As a young boy, I took a white grape from grocery store shelf and I ate it. You may think that was not a “big sin”, but it doesn’t matter how “big” we think it is, it was a sin, and pride was at the heart of it. I knew very well that you had to pay for what you got at the store. And I knew that God had said, “you shalt not steal.” But I just wanted that grape anyway, so I took it, and I ate it. Self-will, pride, was at the heart of it — doing what I wanted, instead of what God had commanded.

And I am not the only one who has done this; this is what we all do when we sin. Every single one of us has come to a time in our lives when we knew what God said, but we wanted to do what WE wanted to instead. In your self-will and pride you chose to disobey. That is the very essence of sin. Pride is the root of all evil. Pride is the root of sin. “Behold as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” “Our souls are not right within us”, the Bible says, because of pride. Pride is the root of all of our sin. 

II. Pride & Salvation

:4a “Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” This has tremendous implications regarding salvation. If you are proud in your heart, then your soul is not right within you — that is, you cannot be saved with an attitude of pride about how you achieved your salvation. You cannot be saved by any of your personal efforts that you can boast about.

And that is exactly what most people are basing their hope for heaven on: some good work or deeds on their own part. A survey a couple of years ago asked Americans what they were trusting for their salvation, and a vast majority of them said something like: “Keeping the 10 Commandments”, or “my good deeds outweigh my bad”, or “I try to be a good person.” But all of these things are self-efforts; they would all lead to boasting of what THEY accomplished to get a place in heaven. 

Romans 4:2 says, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” Using the example of Abraham, Romans says if he was made right with God by all the good things he did, he could have boasted: “look what a good guy I am; I have earned my salvation!” But Romans says, “Not before God”! NONE of us can stand before God and boast about what WE did to earn our salvation. NOBODY is going to be standing up in heaven boasting about what “they did” to get there. There will not be one drop of boasting or personal pride in heaven. Not a drop! Ephesians says: “It is by grace that you are saved, through faith … it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”  There is no boasting in salvation, the Bible says. If you are proud of anything you did to earn your salvation, that just shows that you aren’t saved at all: as Habakkuk says, your soul is not right within you. 

One of my favorite salvation testimonies over the years was from a man by the name of Mike, in our church in Louisiana. For some time, Mike used to attend our church with his daughter, and he told me later, he took her because he felt like it was good for HER; he didn’t think HE needed it. He said, I thought I was a pretty good guy; he did a lot of good things. But he said one Sunday as I was preaching on the topic of good works (I believe it was from Titus), and from the text I shared how good works were important, for helping others, and Mike said he sat there very contentedly, because he knew he had a lot of good works in his life. But then near the end of the message I said, “But if you think that all your good works are going to make you right with God, you are sadly mistaken.” God’s Holy Spirit used those words to touch his heart with conviction. Mike DID think he was going to heaven because of all the good things he’d done; he was proud of who he was and all his works, and he thought it was going to get him to heaven. That pride in his works was a giveaway sign: “his soul was not right within him.” Mike had to realize that there were no good works that HE could accomplish to earn his salvation; his trust had to be totally in what Jesus accomplished for him on the cross. God showed him that, that night, and Mike was subsequently saved and baptized in our church — and now he knows he’s going to heaven, NOT because of anything HE can boast in, but only because of what JESUS did for him! 

The scripture says: “Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.” Are you just like Mike was that night? Many, many people assume that they’re “Christians” because they go to church and try to live a good life. They think they’re going to heaven, but it’s all based on their own good works & deeds. This is pride. Do you think you’re gonna have anything to boast about before God?! NO! You might have a sinking feeling in your heart right now, just like Mike did that night, because you know your soul is not right with God. If You want to be saved, you have to humble yourself, admit that you can do absolutely NOTHING to save yourself, and put your trust entirely in Jesus as your Savior. If you don’t humble yourself and do that, you will be lost forever. Habakkuk and the rest of the scriptures are very clear: “As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.”  

III. Pride & The Church 

These words: “As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him”, have incredible implications in the church as well. If you exhibit pride in the church, it demonstrates that “your soul is not right within you.” And it may well indicate that you do not understand Biblical salvation at all. Let me give you an example of how that is true:

Afshin Ziafat grew up in a Moslem home, but came to faith in Jesus as a young man. His father disowned him as a result of his faith, but he continued to grow, went to seminary, shared his story all over the nation as an evangelist, and now pastors in Frisco, Texas. Some time ago, I heard him share about an experience he had in an airport. He said he was getting on a Southwest Airlines flight in which you do NOT get specific seat reservations; they board you in 1 of 3 “categories”: A, B, or C. People with “A” reservations get first-come, first serve seating, then all the B’s get to choose a seat, and after that the poor C’s get whatever seats are leftover! Well, Afshin said that he was getting on with the C’s, and a man and his son came on to the plane at the same time. He said the man turned to a woman who had gotten on with the “A’s”, and asked her if she would move so that he and his son could sit together. Afshin said a collective “gasp” went up from the plane – and the woman was incensed. Why, she had her “A” seating, and it was “just not done” that someone who had a “C” would take “her spot”! She had planned ahead; she had made an early reservation and got her “A’ Seating; she “deserved” the seat that she had – and no one was going to take it away from her!

But then he said, it would have been entirely different, for example, if the woman had arrived at the airport late, and missed a flight due to her own neglect — and at the last minute, a man gave up his own ticket to allow her to get on the plane. NOW if someone had asked if she might move for their son, she just might have had a different attitude, right? She didn’t “deserve” to be on that plane; she didn’t have any “right” to be there; she was only there by someone else’s grace! See, the way she treated others on that plane depended a lot on the way she felt she got there. If she felt she deserved to be there, she might be harsh and unforgiving towards others —  but if she knew she didn’t “deserve” to be there, she’d probably be a lot more humble and gracious to everyone else instead.

And don’t you see it’s the same way in the church, too? If you think that you are here — on the “plane to heaven” — because you have earned it, then you might have an attitude of entitlement: “I deserve this; who is going to serve ME?” — AND you will be harsh and judgmental towards others as well: they may not live up to “your standards.” But if, on the other hand, you know you are here on this “plane” of salvation only by the grace of God, then you are going to have an entirely different attitude. You know it’s not all about you. You know you don’t deserve what you have. You don’t expect anything, and you don’t get angry when something doesn’t go your way. And you won’t look down on ANYBODY either — because you know YOU were a sinner, too, and you are only saved by grace yourself!

See, your attitude in the church reveals your heart! If you say, “I deserve certain attention, or my my way”, or certain rights and privileges” — just what is it that you think you have “done” to “deserve” these entitlements? It betrays a spirit of pride in your heart. 

AND in the same way, your attitude towards OTHERS in the church reveals your heart too. if you look down on other people because they are supposedly “sinners” — well what do you think YOU are? Some “righteous person”? See, our attitude towards others, reveals our heart. 

The genuine Christian person understands that if we get anything better than hell, it’s more than we deserve. And so we’ll have an attitude of thankfulness for whatever they DO receive, instead of bitterness for what we do NOT. But it all starts with the heart attitude: Pride and self-righteousness in church members is a tell-tale sign that “(your) soul is not right within (you).”

IV. Pride In Times of Trial

This sin of pride is especially relevant to the trying times that Habakkuk is addressing here in his book. Some of us are personally in such times right now. And we may all soon be facing times of trial if our nation comes into a time of judgment. So we need to understand that pride can be very harmful to our relationship with the Lord in times of difficulty. “As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” Our attitudes in difficult times can reveal a spirit of pride, in several ways: 

A. First of all,  do we show, in the midst of our difficulties, that we only think of ourselves? Do we fail, in our trials, to consider that there may be some purpose bigger and more important than our own personal comfort and happiness in what is going on! God may be doing something that will benefit others, or advance His kingdom in some way – but all we think of, is the impact it has on US! 

To me, this is one of the great flaws of American Christianity; we have made Christianity SO individual. Now understand me: Christianity IS very personal. You must personally admit your sins; you must personally trust Christ as your Savior. Nothing is more personal than that. But we have made Christianity so individual in America; that is, we act as if everything revolves around us: the “gospel” that some people preach is basically all about US: “God wants you to have Your Best Life Now” — as if it’s all about YOU! Listen, God’s plan is not necessarily for you personally to have the best of everything right now. God has a plan that is a little bigger than your own personal happiness and well-being! That is SO self-centered. That’s so proud. This world does not revolve around you. It is not all about you. Some of us need to understand that God has bigger things going in this universe that your wants and wishes and well-being! He DOES love you, and He does care for you — but it is NOT all about you! But the way we respond in our times of difficulty can reveal that our souls are not right with God, because our pride raises its ugly head.  

B. Others of us reveal our pride by thinking that we know better than God! You might SAY, “Oh, no, pastor, I would never say that I know better than God.” You’re right; you would never SAY it, but the truth is, deep down within your heart, you DO think you know better than God! You show that by your attitude in your time of difficulty. Do you humbly receive the difficult experiences God has planned for you — or do you question Him, and think You know better and that you would do things in a different way? 

Take just a moment and really think about your heart attitudes during hard times? You might just see that really deep down, you DO think you know better than God! You would do things differently than He is. You think you deserve better than what He is giving you. You think you have a better plan than He does. The heart attitude that many of us have in our times of difficulty, is pride. Deep down, you really think that you know better than God. And God wants you to know today that your biggest problem is not what you think it is! You think that a certain need or trial or difficulty in your life is your biggest problem, and it isn’t. Your biggest problem is that “your soul is not right within you” because of your pride! 

Many of us today need the kind of attitude adjustment that God gave Job. You remember that Job questioned God about why he was having to go through all that he did, when he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. At the end of the book, in Chapter 38, God finally speaks to Job out of the whirlwind, and He basically says, ok, son, you’ve asked ME some questions, now I am going to ask YOU some! And God said: 

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if You have understanding. Who set its measurements, since you know? … Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted with joy … Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place? … Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if You know all this! … Can You lift up your voice to the clouds, so that an abundance of water will cover you? Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, ‘here we are!”… is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, stretching his wings towards the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes its nest on high? … Will the fault finder contend with the Almighty? Let him who reproves God answer it.” (Job 38-39) 

The Bible says that when God had spoken, “Job answered the Lord and said, ‘Behold, l am insignificant. What can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth … I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know … YOU instruct ME … therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” 

Some of us today may be in the same place that Job was — and our responses have been like his: questioning God, feeling like we know better than Him, feeling that we deserve better. And today God is making it clear: this trial is revealing something about you: it is revealing a spirit of pride. “Your soul is not right within You.” Today, some of us need to respond to God’s word like Job did, and just put our hand over our mouth, and repent in dust and ashes. We need to humble our proud, arrogant questioning, and submit to the wisdom and plan of the One who is infinitely higher and wiser than we are. 

God is doing something big in this world; and He is doing something important in your own life too. But you’re never going to be right with Him, if you don’t humble your pride, and trust that He knows best. Will you hear God’s word today, and respond to Him, and humble yourself? Some of you will. But some will not; and it will be for them just as this verse in Habakkuk says: “as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him.” 

INVITATION:

Many of us today need to humble ourselves before God:

— Some of us, if we are honest, would admit we’re in situations where we are questioning God, or think we know better than He does.

— Or maybe we need to stop proudly only thinking of ourselves, and begin to think of others, in our trials 

— Others need to stop thinking we “deserve” certain things because of our good works, or standing in the church — instead we need to walk humbly with God.  We need to realize that we’re only here by grace — like everyone who is on the way to heaven.

— Most importantly, maybe for the very first time you need to humble yourself and admit: I cannot save myself. I need to ask Jesus to forgive my sin and save me right now!