Proverbs 26:12

Pride then prevents growth because all right and true spiritual growth is an outgrowth of the relationship with God. When a person is sure that he knows everything about a subject, he is not in the frame of mind necessary to learn more and if one is blind to his defect, he has little or no chance of ever correcting it.

Proverbs 26:12 says that there is more hope for a fool than for a man wise in his own conceit. Do you know why? Because a fool may stumble on knowledge that will help him and he may use it. But the arrogant, the conceited, already thinks he knows. He is self-sufficient. That is why it said in Psalm 10—which we spent a good deal of time in last week—that God is in none of his thoughts. "God has forgotten. God hides His face. He will never see it."

Proverbs 26:12

A humble person will admit the knowledge of God and will not fight against it. Pride rejects the knowledge of God assuming that it already knows. It is at war with God. So strong is pride’s effect that it says in Proverbs,

The arrogant person is sure that he already knows.

A fool may stumble upon a bit of wisdom in his wandering, but the proud, God said, is so vain, he is sure that he already knows and thus he is undeterred by facts and feels a self-sufficiency in his own opinions. But this has an effect that is not very nice, it is not something that we like to deal with.