Proverbs 16:18

¹⁸ Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

There are several things that a proud person will fall into.

1.  Rebellion towards Authority

Isaiah 14:12–15
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

2. Rejection of Accountability

• Pride prevents a person from saying “I’m wrong.”
• Pride causes a person to make excuses
• Pride causes a person to defend their sin.

1 Corinthians 5:1–8
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

3. Responding with an Argument

Proverbs 13:10
10 Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

1 Timothy 6:3–5
3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

4. Resistance from the Lord

• Without a doubt, the worst thing that can befall a proud person is for God to resist them.
• The Bible tells us clearly in many, many places that God will not tolerate pride.

James 4:6
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

More examples in scripture:

• 2 Samuel 22:28
• Psalm 12:3
• Psalm 138:6
• Proverbs 6:16-17
• Proverbs 15:25
• Proverbs 16:5

How to avoid the pitfalls of pride

1 Peter 5:6
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: