A.Confidence is complete trust in the reliability of a person or thing.It is the same as assurance or security.
B.False confidence is confidence that is errantly placed upon a person or thing that is not reliable.
1.A person who possesses false confidence is bound for a fall because he is relying upon something that will eventually fail.
2.To avoid such a fall, we must be certain that our confidence is true.To this end, let us consider a few lessons in false confidence from the Scriptures.
II.LESSONS IN FALSE CONFIDENCE
A.Whereas faith in Christ produces true confidence, relying on anything or anyone else produces false confidence.
1.Paul correctly identified the source of true confidence in 2Timothy 1:12 – “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
2.We can have true confidence in the Lord because He is strong, reliable, and unchanging.However, any confidence we have in ourselves or others for spiritual matters is false because we have moments when we are weak, unreliable, and wavering.
B.The Pharisees embodied false confidence because they were self-righteousness, and they received the strongest rebukes from the Lord.
1.The Lord exposed the Pharisees’ self-righteousness when he taught the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-gatherer (Luke 18:9-14).
a.The Lord addressed this parable “to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt” (v. 9).
b.In the parable, the Pharisee’s prayer was a self-exalting recollection of his own merits and the failures of others.He expressed no recognition of his own sins and did not appeal to God for forgiveness or any other blessing.
c.Conversely, the tax-gatherer was fully aware of his sins and begged God for mercy.
d.The Pharisee had much more confidence than the tax-gatherer, but his confidence was false, for it was the tax-gatherer who went away justified rather than the Pharisee.
2.During the final week before His crucifixion, Jesus strongly condemned the Pharisees for their self-righteousness and hypocrisy (Matt. 23).
a.The Pharisees’ self-exalting ways were exposed in verses 1-10.Their hypocrisy (“play-acting”), false pretenses, and spiritual blindness were condemned in verses 11-36.
b.The things that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees were the very things in which they trusted.Their confidence in themselves was false, empty, and worthless.
3.The Pharisees’ false confidence was due to their self-righteous blindness to their own sins.
a.Consider John 9:39-41.
i.After the Pharisees put a man out of the synagogue whom Jesus had healed of blindness, Jesus said to them, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (v. 39).
ii.The Pharisees replied by asking Jesus, “We are not blind too, are we?”Jesus answered, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains” (v. 41).
b.The Pharisees’ confidence was false because it was built upon a false belief.They thought they were flawless, but they were actually corrupted with sin.
4.We must take a lesson lest we also have false confidence in the likeness of the Pharisees.
a.Let us not put our confidence in our own ability to be righteous lest we stumble.
b.Let us not become self-confident by comparing ourselves with others whom we consider to be unrighteous.
c.Let us not have a false confidence based on false beliefs and blindness about who we really are (hypocrisy).
d.Instead, let us place our confidence in God to atone for our own failures and shortcomings through Jesus Christ.In this is true confidence.
C.Peter is another example of false confidence, for he was certain that he would never fall.
1.When Christ foretold that the apostles would fall away, Peter vehemently denied it of himself (Matt. 26:30-35).
a.Peter said, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away” (v. 33).
b.When the Lord told Peter that he would deny Him three times in that very night, Peter said, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You” (v. 35).
2.However, when circumstances changed, Peter denied His relationship with the Lord just as the Lord predicted (Matt. 26:69-75).
3.Let us take a lesson from Peter lest we betray ourselves through a false confidence in our own strength.
a.Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we are stronger than we are.
b.Instead, let us realize our own limitations and depend upon the strength of God to make up for our weaknesses.“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).
D.Consider Israel’s false confidence in their standing with God, which led to their downfall.
1.Paul recalled the results of Israel’s false confidence in 1Corinthians 10:1-12.
a.Although all Israelites shared the same benefits of being among God’s chosen nation, God was not pleased with most of them because they craved evil things, committed immorality, and grumbled against Him (vv. 1-10).
b.Paul said that these things happened to demonstrate this lesson in verse 12 – “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”
2.Let us take a lesson from Israel lest we become overconfident of our own importance.
a.Let us not think that we are infallible or because we are the Lord’s church (consider that the Lord had something against five of the seven churches of Asia, Rev. 2-3).
b.Let us not think that we cannot sin and fall because we are Christians (see Heb. 6:4-6; 2Pet. 2:20-22; 1John 1:5-10; there is no “once-saved-always-saved”).
c.Let us not think that God is obligated to us or that He owes us anything.Remember, even when we do all that God commands us, we are still unworthy slaves (Luke 17:10).
d.Instead of thinking too highly of ourselves, let us have sound judgment about ourselves so that we will rightly rely upon the grace, mercy, and power of God.
E.Notice a few other sources of false confidence.
1.Many have a false confidence in worldly riches.
a.The Lord warned of the temporal nature of earthly wealth and commended heavenly treasure instead (Matt. 6:19-21).
b.The parable of the rich fool demonstrates the folly of trusting in stored-up riches without the security of faith in God (Luke 12:16-21).
c.Psalm 49 shows how those who trust in their wealth will not endure but are “like the beasts that perish.”
2.Some have a false confidence in the flesh.
a.Some are confident because of their physical strength, prowess, or beauty.Such things are fleeting and have no value in spiritual matters (consider 1Cor. 2:14; 2Cor. 10:10).
b.Notice Proverbs 31:30 – “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”
3.Still others have a false confidence in worldly wisdom.
a.Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the conflicts between worldly wisdom and the preaching of the gospel (1Cor. 1:18-31).In 1Corinthians 2:5, he said that his preaching was “so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
b.Notice 1Corinthians 1:25 – “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
III.CONCLUSION
A.Christians should have the highest level of confidence that is possible, but that confidence must be grounded in the right source.
B.Let the confidence that we have be the true confidence of God through Jesus Christ and not the false confidence of the world.
