I was reading a sermon of Calvin's from Micah 1:3-5 this afternoon, and in found the following heavy statement. From it, I, at least, find warning for myself as I am tempted to pride before others and before God:
...we have seen how proud and vainglorious the wicked can be, how they both defy God and neighbor and tower over the latter like noble firs and beautiful cedars. In fact, we find an example of their behaviour in Psalm 37, where the common man is deemed unfit to walk beside them. They see themselves as so well-rooted and so firmly established as to be unshakeable. Such is their ostensible judgment. Hence the need to see them melting away like wax. But God refrains from fulfilling Micah's prediction here, since God wills to spare them a little longer.Therefore, let us refrain from passing judgment on God, according to our carnal nature. Rather, may our faith enable us to fathom what is hidden and unknowable from a human standpoint. For all this contains a doctrine well worth noting. Why have we ceased to walk in the fear of the Lord, and why have we become so incorrigible? Is it not due to the fact that since God has refrained from chastising us, we assume that the day of our accountability is still years and years away?
Calvin points us to consider the pride and vaingloriousness of the wicked...
let US fear God sufficiently to watch ourselves for such pride. He also points to the self-sufficient sense of the wicked - how they feel so well rooted that they will never fall. Let US beware this in America! How well-rooted, and well-established, and SAFE we feel! Oh, for our pride in country, and money! Alas, we are SO unsound! How will America face a fall that follows such pride as we have in ourselves?!
Let us be wary of falling into such sins, and of being negligent of fostering a holy fear of the Lord. Let us encourage others to be equally watchful.