Luke chapter 14 and we're going to read from verse 7 and we'll just go down to verse 11. We're making our way slowly through the book of Luke but it's such a big book and there is so much in it that there's good reason for us doing that. Luke chapter 14 verse 7. We're speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him.

And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man place. And thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Amen. May the Lord bless this reading from his word. We're reading here about the Lord Jesus Christ as he was in the company of a chief Pharisee on the Sabbath day, where he had just performed the miracle that we read about last week, where the man that had the dropsy had been, it would seem, presented before the Lord. Perhaps we thought last week as a little bit of a test to see how he would react. And this parable that is spoken here, this parable and the one following as well, we'll come to that next week, God willing, but this parable and the one following appear to have been spoken at the same time on this occasion of Jesus being invited to the house of this Pharisee. And as we remind ourselves, it was on the Sabbath day. And I suspect that if we're right in the order in which these things are set before us, and that's the same order, then the miracle took place and then the Lord gave this parable.

As the guests sat down to their meal, some of them at least, the Lord noticed scrambled to secure the positions of greatest prominence in the company. So that's what it means when it speaks about the rooms. The rooms were just the places at the table. So it seems as if it's been a little bit like these men had gathered all at once and they all sought to have the best seats at the table.

And as they were doing that, the Lord spoke this parable. He was prompted by what he saw to speak this parable. The people that were present there would probably all be from the synagogue that the Lord had attended that day. And it may be that several of them were, in fact, Pharisees as well as this chief Pharisee. And the Lord, I think, shows great wisdom in raising this matter, especially after the miracle that he had performed. Because doubtless having witnessed the miracle, these men would have sat down ready to discuss what they had seen, the healing that had been performed, and no doubt to debate the merits of the Lord's comparison between releasing the man from his bondage or saving an animal from a pit.

And I'm sure that there would have been much discussion over the dinner table amongst these men had matters just stayed as they were as to the pros and cons of that argument with respect to the law of the Sabbath day. But the Lord taught a little lesson here, I think.

Christian truth and Christian doctrine And much more than that, the words of the Lord Jesus to us are not up for discussion and debate. They ought not to be received as material for debate. We don't ever sit in judgment upon the Lord or his word. Christ's words are for our personal attention. They are for our acceptance and for our trust. They come to us all and they are to be carefully listened to and they are to be diligently applied to our lives and our conduct.

Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong for believers to discuss or even to, on occasion, disagree upon the meaning of things in Scripture. But let us never use the Gospel, let us never use the doctrines of Scripture, the doctrine of grace, as an opportunity to show off our knowledge of the Bible or our theological understanding. Humility is a grace to be exercised. And here I think the Lord wisely prevents these men from reverting to the pointless debate about his miracle by rather provoking the matter of their personal conduct. their personal sin and rebuking their pride.

He noticed them jockeying for position near the head of the table, and he speaks this parable to their shame and their embarrassment. And the Lord refers to a wedding. He speaks about a wedding, so he couches this parable in terms of an invitation to a wedding. Now this was not a wedding, this was a meal after the Sabbath day, but it is quite likely that the Lord employed this structure to his parable in order to disguise gently the fact that he was referring to those present at this meal whom he was observing falling to this very sin.

The lesson applies to any gathering. Indeed, it applies to any event that supplies an occasion for boasting. Self-promotion is a sin. It is the sin of pride. Pushing yourself to the front isn't a new thing. In fact, we might say that it is the original sin Satan was lifted up with pride, and that appears to have been the reason that he was cast out of heaven.

And a thousand years before the Lord's coming and the Lord's ministry in Galilee and in Judea, Solomon in Jerusalem, the king, David's son, Solomon, an eminent type of the saviour, for wisdom and for glory, Solomon in his Proverbs was warning about the very same error of pride. And he wrote in Proverbs chapter 25 and verse 6, he wrote, put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men, For better it is that it be said unto thee, come up hither, than that thou shouldst be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen. That actually could have been written about Lucifer in heaven, and it could be written about thousands of men, and we'll say women, ever since.

And the Lord reuses that lesson from Solomon's Proverbs. He reuses this lesson in his parable to condemn the attitude of pride exhibited here amongst these men and to extol an attitude of humility. And while I think it's unlikely that these Pharisees heeded much what the Lord had to say, After all, they were already ignoring Solomon's wisdom from their own esteemed scriptures. It is nevertheless a lesson for the Lord's people to take to heart and to apply to their own lives. And it's something that each of us should reflect upon as we are confronted with the Lord's words in this parable today. I don't think there's much question as to the meaning or the lesson of the parable. It's all very straightforward. and obvious.

The Lord is saying don't grab the best seats, don't try to get the most honourable seat in the house because any imagined honour that you will gain by sitting in that seat will be vastly outweighed by the shame and humiliation of being asked to vacate your place for a more honourable guest when the host of the feast, when the host of the house arrives.

And how embarrassing that would be. Standing up and making one's way to the end of the table, it would indeed be a public spectacle and a great shame. And if it happened to you, or if it happened to me, I imagine that every time we saw someone laughing or smiling for weeks to come, we would assume that they would be laughing at us. The Lord, however, adds another dimension to Solomon's advice by recommending his people intentionally assume a place of lowliness, the lowest seat. even below what they might rightly be entitled to. Assume that everyone is better than you. And by this means, honour would be forthcoming if roles were reversed and the host notices that you are seated far away from that place of honour and insists that you come up higher. The shame of being demoted would then be replaced with the honour of being promoted in the presence of the whole assembly.

But I think that there's more to this lesson of pride versus humility for the believer that seeks the knowledge of the Lord and of his truth. Pride is born of ignorance and the grace of humility reveals rather a well-grounded and spiritual understanding of our sinful nature and our privileges as the redeemed people of God. If we are proud, it's because we haven't understood the gospel. If we are humble, it's because we have understood what the Lord has done for us.

The Apostle Paul's teaching of total depravity, for example, and scripture's teaching of man's sin shows that there is nothing in any of us that justifies pride and is of any merit, certainly not before God. By nature, the apostle Paul was highly educated and he was religiously zealous, but he was brought to confess that in him, that is in his flesh, in his nature, and in his natural powers, dwelt no good thing. And when Paul fell to the ground as the bright light of Christ's glory shone on him on the Damascus road, it was more than his elbows and knees that were bruised that day. His pride took a knock as well. His blindness meant that he had to be led by the hand into the city. And because of that experience and because of his introduction to the Lord, the Apostle Paul learned from that day forth that he had no grounds on which to boast himself.

And that is a lesson that every believer learns at the time of their conversion. And it ought to be a truth that we carry with us when we observe sin in others. We all have sinned, and one sin is as grievous against God as another. David could say, speaking of us all, they are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Gratitude, not pride. ought to be our foremost feeling when we see or hear of sin.

And it ought to be a frequent thought in our mind, there but for the grace of God go I. God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all are cleansed with the same blood, clothed in the same righteousness, joined to the same head, part of the one body. And even though our roles differ, we are called by the same spirit to the service of the one true God. And someday we shall all share the same glory. And furthermore, The message of divine grace, sovereign grace, teaches each of us not only that all our salvation and all our righteousness is of the Lord, but that all we have of any good, any usefulness, any skill is also a gift from the Lord, and there is no reason for boasting in it. There is nothing worthy of praise or merit in us apart from what the Lord has given to us. If you or I are able to serve the Lord in any capacity, for any good, to any effect, It's the Lord that is to be praised. It is he who has to be thanked and honoured. We, you and me, we are just tools in the hand of the craftsman. We are the workmanship of the master builder.

Paul asked of the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7, for who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? So within the church It's something, this pride is something that we have to be cautious, careful, aware of the danger.

And I think it is a danger particularly relevant to preachers, not exclusively, but it is certainly the case. It can afflict anyone who serves in a public role. The preacher, However, rightly has a position of prominence in the gathered assembly of the Lord's people.

But God forgive us the pride of our flesh and prohibit us from being jealous of another man's usefulness or success. If sovereign grace teaches us anything, it ought to teach us humility, And yet I fear that the devil has schemes enough to make even our knowledge of a gospel truth a source of temptation to pride. The Lord closed this little Sabbath day lesson with the words that we read in verse 11. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased. The Lord will allow no flesh to glory in his presence. And I have no doubt, many of the trials and troubles we experience as believers are sent expressly to teach us humility and patience. And then the Lord continues, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

And our saviour here is our example. He was meek and gentle and good and kind and sympathetic. And what humility he showed. The eternal God who dwelt in the highest majesty, the creator of all things, worshipped by angels, stooped to take our fallen flesh and joined himself to our sinful race. What more can we add to that thought than what Paul holds forth of our dear Saviour as a constant example from Philippians chapter two.

He says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Never were words more truly applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ than those. And may this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. Amen.