Tonight we'll be in the book of Proverbs in the 16th chapter, if you'd like to turn there. And our subject tonight goes right along with what we heard last week. And as I said earlier, it could always be, could always been, I suppose, a part two if we wanted to do a series on it, but I don't think I'm gonna do another one after this, so I didn't do that.

Last week's title was The Root Problem. The Root Problem. It was all about pride, wasn't it? There in James, as we just read, we see that pride He talks about lust, but lust and pride go hand in hand, do they not? I mean, what I want about me, myself, pride.

For tonight, we're looking at two kinds of people. That's only two kinds of people in the world. There's only now and has ever been two kinds of people. You have the lost and the saved. You have the sheep and the goats. You have the righteous and the wicked. You have the fool and the wise. And tonight we're going to look at the proud and the humble, the proud and the humble. That's our title.

So let's read this together. Proverbs 16 verse eight through 19 says better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right. Man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord direct us to steps. The divine sentence is in the lips of the king. His mouth transgresseth not in judgment to just weight. In balance of the Lord's, all the weights of the bag are his work. It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness, for the throne is established by righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him that speaketh right. The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify it. In the light of the king's countenance is life, and his favor is in the cloud of the latter rain. How much more, how much better is it to get wisdom than gold, and to get understanding rather than to be chosen than silver? The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. Pride goeth before destruction and a halty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Our call to worship, we read the verse in James chapter four, it says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Luke 14 chapter 11 tells us that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be abased.

If the Lord is requiring humility from me, specifically me, he's going to have to provide it. There is nobody upon the face of the earth that has ever humbled themselves under the hand of God, unless God calls them to do so. If we had that ability, then we could please God in the flesh. But we cannot please God in this flesh, the scripture says.

Now I want you to notice verse 10 through 15 again, because it talks about either a king or a lord. Six times here, or more. Now let's look at that again. A divine sentence is in the lips of the king. His mouth transgresseth not in judgment. So he's perfect. A just weight and balance are the Lord's. All the weights of the bag are his work. It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness, for the throne is established by righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him that speak right. The wrath of a king is his messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify it. And the last one is, in the light of the king's countenance is life, and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain. What is he saying by all of this? Why was it necessary for him to speak of a king or lord that many times? And you do notice that he said the lords, not a lords. He's talking about our lord. He's talking about God. He's saying all grace, all judgment, all wrath, belongs to the Lord. That's what he's saying right here. The favor belongs to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In order to have favor with him, we must be humble. Humble.

Now, if I tell you, I was trying to think of a good example, but having kids, I always run back to my children and thinking, you tell your kids you need to be more humble, I mean, it's not natural. It's not natural to be humble. You know what our nature is? To be selfish, to be prideful, to be liars. That's our nature. But it's not natural for us to be humble. But in order to have favor with the king, we must be humble.

But as we heard last week and just now, humility is not in our nature. So I have three questions for us tonight. What does it mean to be proud pertaining to salvation? What does it mean to be humble pertaining to salvation? And who maketh thee to differ? Who maketh thee to differ?

First question is, what does it mean to be proud pertaining to salvation? Some of this may seem redundant as last week's very similar to this, but we're not going to talk about the same allegories at least as we did last week. We have new ones, but if it does seem similar, it's not because I didn't have a message. The Lord's given me a message in that verse 18 and 19 pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than provide the spoil with the proud. And the scripture, as I've already quoted, God resisted the proud, but give a grace to the humble. So if he hates a proud look, which is something the scripture said, he hates. I've got to be humble. I've got to be humble.

Well, being proud when it pertains to salvation. And my hope this hour is that we end up seeing the Lord will reveal himself to us. We'll see our savior one more time tonight, even if it is a little bit redundant, we'll see. But being proud means that we have it all figured out. What do I mean by that? Well, in the garden, Eve took of the fruit. She disobeyed God. But we were not condemned by Eve's decision. We were condemned by Adam's decision. Adam was the covenant head. He's the reason that we all fell. the way that we did.

Now, when Adam failed, he knew he was naked. What did he do? Did he call out for the Lord and say, have mercy upon me, the sinner? It's not in our nature. He fixed it, didn't he? At least he thought. He got fig leaves and sewed them together and covered himself. Ironically, you all know this. Most of you, we had fig leaves sitting out there on that table for a while. And it looks just like a man's hand, doesn't it? It's a picture of works. It's a picture of man trying to cover themselves up, having their own righteousness, which is of the law, so that God will be pleased with them rather than the righteousness, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, Scripture says.

Well, in the cool of the evening, the Lord came and he called out to Adam, where art thou? I love the Lord, how he does, whatever he asks questions. Don't you? Will thou be made whole? He knew the answer to the question before he even asked it. Every question the Lord ever asked was not, for an invitation for somebody. It was to draw the confession. That man said, sir, I have no man to help me when the water's troubled. It was to draw a confession. I have no man. I'm not strong enough and nobody can help me.

Same thing with Adam. Adam, where art thou? He said, we were naked and we covered ourself. We hid. Who told you? Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree? Well, It's your fault, Lord, because you gave me this woman. What do you call that? Pride. Is that not what that is? Absolutely, it's pride. He was proud of the, he had too much pride to admit, I was wrong. I was wrong.

Now, David, on the other hand, as we heard last week, when Nathan came to David and told David, you're the man, you're the sinner. David said, I have sinned against the Lord. And you can read his repentant prayer of contrition in Psalm 51. We read it last week, I think, or recently. When the Lord gives humility, there's a totally different spirit to a person because it's his spirit in you. It's not your spirit, it's his spirit in you.

Adam said, unto God, the woman that you gave me gave me to eat and I ate, I took thereof. That's us. Every single time. Trying to get out of the blame, trying to dodge the, whatever, the trouble. We're just, that's us. But it's pride, isn't it? It's pride.

And what about, we're not going to do too many of these like we did last week, but Kane was another one that had pride. The Lord told Cain something very, very important. When he brought the works of his hands to God, he brought the fruit of his labor to God, and then Abel brought the lamb and the blood unto God. God was pleased with the lamb because it was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. God rejected, actually it says that he had no respect to Cain or his sacrifice. And Cain was wroth. Wroth. Why is that? Pride. Is it not pride?

By nature, we want to cover ourself in self-righteousness. By nature, we want to be pleasing unto God on our own. We want to bring the works of our hands and God be pleased with it. But here's the problem. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Cain's problem was the root problem, same as last week we heard. It's pride. And God told him, he says, if you do well, do you not know that you're gonna be accepted? You'll be accepted if you do well. And he didn't do well, did he? He killed his brother. All because of pride.

What about the Tower of Babel? What was that about? We can make a tower to God. We can get to God our way. Do you see the pattern here? Everything revolving around false religion is about pride. It's about self. Worship, it's about me. Look at me. Look what I have done or look what I'm doing They build a tower out of bricks and slime in the desert. That wasn't very smart. It's hot in the desert So everything that they did was gonna fall apart. Anyways, God confused their language and they couldn't get anything done Why cuz nobody's going to be able to climb up to God Scripture says anyone that tries is the same as a thief and a robber. There's only one way to God the Lord Jesus Christ He is the way

And the last allegory I want to mention to us for now is the rich young ruler. He said, good master, what must I do? to inherit eternal life. What must I do to be saved? Now think about that question. That's him literally saying, I have the capacity. I have the capability. I have the right. I can do anything that I need to do in order to obtain salvation. Just tell me what it is. Where does that stem from? Pride. It's all pride, isn't it? It's all pride. Well, I told you wrong, I got another allegory for you. Job, forgot about that one. I have verses written down, that's why I didn't see it. Job's a really good example. You had three so-called, they're horrible friends if they're friends. They weren't friends with Job. If you wanna call them friends, who needs enemies? I mean, they were horrible. They were hounding him, giving him a hard time. But Job got angry. Job justified himself. As in, I didn't deserve this because I've done nothing wrong. And that's people's attitude and mentality is that pride. It's self, their expectations are entitlement. And that's what Job felt entitled. I have worshiped and I have done right and this is unfair.

Did he say those exact words? No, but here's what he did say, or here's what was said about him, that is, Job 32. So these three men, the three friends, so-called, ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes, then was kindled the wrath of Elihu, the son of Berechel, the Buzite of the kindred of Ram. Against Job was his wrath kindled because he justified himself rather than God. Why? Why? Pride. Pride. That was the problem. Pride.

All men foolishly by nature excuse themselves and accuse others of sin. They don't examine them by nature. A dog doesn't know it's a dog. Does that make sense? It doesn't know, hey, I'm a dog. It just does what it does by nature. You and I cannot know that we're sinners until God opens up our eyes unto his holiness, who he is, like he did Job. A couple chapters later, after Elihu preached to him about three or four chapters, God spoke to him out of a whirlwind and said unto him, where were you when I laid the foundations of the world, Job? Speak if you know. Speak if you know how the stars are hanging in the heavens and the seas are cut off from the shoreline. Tell me how that works, Job. Job said, I'm going to put my hands over my mouth. I'm not going to talk anymore. Behold, I am vile. I'm vile. And that's the humble spirit that the Lord gives his people.

But by nature, we're like Job, we have this pride. And this is what it is, it's pride in salvation. It's saying, I had part to do with my salvation. I accepted Jesus and I made a good choice. The problem with that, according to Scripture, is salvation being a choice is not up to you and I. You'll never see where it says, choose Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And it also says, how can they believe if they've never heard? It says the hearing ear and the seeing eye, they come from the Lord. He's not talking about physical hearing and physical believing. He's talking about spiritual life being given and being able to believe.

And yet a man or a woman hears this, and that pride will start bubbling up. You're telling me I can't do anything on my own to be saved? God's got to do it? Yes, absolutely, 100%, or we will not be saved. Men foolishly say, look at what I have done. I've prayed this prayer. I've attended this church for so long. I have tithed. I've given. I've done this and this. What about Nebuchadnezzar? Look at great Babylon, which I have created. I did all this myself. He thought he was the man, didn't he? And if the Lord would have left him in that state, hell would have been his home. But thank God to his chosen people, to his elect, he comes to them and he smacks us off of our high horse, if I can say it that way, into the dirt, causes us to realize we're nothing but a beast, nothing but a sinful, dead dog sinner. And then he causes our reason to come to us. That's called faith and repentance. And we say with Nebuchadnezzar, he is God. None can stay his hand or stand to him, what doest thou?

Being prideful pertaining to salvation, brethren, is simple. It means glory in self. Self-choice, self-work, self-righteousness. And this forfeits any hope whatsoever of salvation by grace. If we are hoping in anything we have done as part or evidence of our salvation, we have forfeited salvation by grace. For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And why do we boast? We're proud. Isn't that why we boast? We're proud.

God must do all the choosing, all the electing, all the saving, all the keeping, all the calling, or none will be saved. And when the Lord makes us sinners, we see that to be true. We see that, oh, truth, Lord, don't leave me to myself. I see that very clearly now, because if you do, I will not choose you. Christ even said, you will not come to me that you might have life. Why? We can't. Either God does the choosing, the electing, the saving, the keeping, or calling, or we will remain prideful and lost for all eternity.

Do you know why it angers people when you tell them that God doesn't love everybody and Christ didn't die for everybody? Do you know why it angers them? Pride. I'm entitled. I'm not as bad as that person. I haven't done this. I'm entitled. Pride. Pride. What did the Lord say in 1 Peter 5, verse 6? Humble yourself therefore unto the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Yet we have not the capacity nor the ability. The Lord said, you will not come to me that you might have life. And do you know why that is? Pride. Pride. I want to be right.

I know most of you have been married or are married. And you've had fights before, fusses, scuffles, whatever you want to call them, disagreements, arguments. How's those go normally? They over pretty quick, you just immediately apologize. You know, I didn't really see your viewpoint. I'm sorry, sweetheart. I love you. Or is it more like, no, you need to understand how I feel right now. No, you need to understand how I feel right now. Well, you're not hearing what I'm saying. Well, you're not hearing what I'm saying. Well, this is the second time you've done this. Well, it's the third time you did this. What is that? Pride. Pride.

Men would argue with God, even though it's written in black and white. They would say, no, that can't be salvation. I have to have part of salvation. I have to do my part. No, there's no arguing with God. His word is final. His word is final. Matter of fact, he's already told us the end result of everything. Every knee's gonna bow. We're gonna be humbled, either here or on the other side. And every tongue's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It's gonna happen.

Now look at verse 18 with me. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Scripture tells us that a proud look is something that God hates. And do you know why that is? It exalts the flesh. It exalts the flesh. And that means it diminishes the blood. It diminishes, it makes it, The blood can't be diminished, but you understand what I'm saying. If the flesh is exalted, you don't need the blood. That's what I'm trying to say. If we look at ourself and believe that we are good enough on our own, what we're saying is, is the blood is not what God said the blood is. It's not a hundred percent necessary requirement as the full part of salvation. It's only part of it. It's not the fullness of salvation. It's just part of it.

But that's not true, is it? The blood is all. Christ is all. Salvation's of the Lord and all by grace. God's sovereign. Brethren, his ways are not man's ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. We can't diminish that which God has spoken or what God has done. It's finished. It's finished. His thoughts are higher than the heavens in comparison to ours, yet men believe that they're wise in their own eyes. The scripture tells us in Proverbs 21, every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts. The Lord pondereth the hearts. I'm right. I'm right. No, I'm right. Pride. This is the pride of the heart pertaining to salvation.

Hear what the Lord says. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. The flesh cannot comprehend the things of God and cannot understand the things of God because it's flesh. As a matter of fact, if the Lord leaves us to ourselves, we'll think preaching is foolishness. what He's telling us right here. And it's all because of pride. That's why we turned here. Look 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18-31,

For the preaching of the cross to them that perisheth foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than man.

Now I want to stop right there just for a second. I want us to understand something. Those that believe they're wise in their own eyes, that's pride. That's all that is, is pride. I know something you don't know. That's pride. That's what he's talking about here. Yet we are completely abased to say we preach Christ and him crucified. Nothing else. We have no secrets. We have no knowledge of something that we're not telling you about. And we don't go around gloating in our wisdom. Christ is our wisdom.

Let's read on. Verse 26, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things that are not to bring to naught things that are, and here's the whole reason why, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We no longer glory in this flesh as any part of salvation. We don't have pride when it comes to our salvation based upon what we have done. We don't any longer. The flesh trying to glory is the pride of man in the heart, and God says no flesh will glory in my presence.

It may be foolishness, this preaching, but it's life and death to you and I, isn't it? To the world it's foolishness, but to you and I it's everything. It's everything. Let's go back to our text.

First 18 pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than the to divide the spoil with the proud. What does it mean to be humble pertaining to salvation.

There was a woman, she was a Syrophoenician woman. She came to the Lord because her little girl was sick unto death. And she says to the Lord, Lord, if you don't do something, my daughter's gonna die. And the Lord said, I come not but to save the lost house of Israel. She was not a Jew, she was a Gentile. The Lord said, it's not meat to take the children's bread and cast it before the dogs. And you know what she said? How dare you call me a dog? That'd have been pride, wouldn't it? That's not what she said. Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. Can you say in your heart whenever the Lord reveals unto you that you're nothing but a dead dog sinner, can you say truth, Lord? I feel that. I know that's truth.

Does that not make you wanna say with the publican, have mercy on me, the sinner? Does that not make you wanna say with Peter, save me, Lord? Not a big long spiel, he's drowning, Lord, save me. Does that make you wanna say with Jonas, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord.

Do you wanna know what a Christian walk looks like? The Christian walk. It looks like mercy begging sinners at the master's table, just begging for another crumb. Lord, can I please have another crumb? Can I please have another crumb? I love the part where he says over in Psalm 23, my cup runneth over. He's not gonna let us starve. He's gonna feed us. He promised he would. We're mercy-begging sinners needing a crumb, brethren, from the master's tables, not boastful.

I chose to let the King save me, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the God of this universe, the creator of everything, the sustainer of all things. I allowed him to, that's so silly. That's so prideful. What does the Lord's people say? Have mercy on me, the sinner. God says you're a filthy, wretched, vile, deceitful, hell-deserving creature of dust with no hope of saving yourself. I put away your sin, you won't die. I put away, I did it. I put away your sin all by myself. Doesn't that make you just want to bow and give thanks when you hear that? In the heart, not physically. We ain't getting on our knees right now. I'm just saying, in the heart, you're just like, truth, Lord, and you put all that away. You don't see that sin any longer? Why? He put it away. He put it all away.

Saying we chose God is the same thing as, it's not the same thing, it's not even close to being the same thing, but it would be kind of like being trapped on a deserted island with no food, no water, no shelter, and a hurricane's on its way and the National Guard shows up and saying, I'll let the National Guard save me. And that's not even a fraction of how silly it is whenever we say we'd let God do something. The Coast Guard isn't sovereign, God is. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? You know why? Because it is.

Which brings us to our final question. Who maketh thee to differ? It's not my choice, and I have to be humble, but I don't have the capacity, I don't have the ability. Who maketh us to differ?

1 Corinthians 4, 7 says, For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that hast thou hast not received? Now, if thou didst receive it, what is thou glory? And if thou hast not received it, God, who is rich in mercy, or in his great love, he has to give faith.

Everything pertaining to God and his salvation can only be received one way by grace alone, not by merit, not by earning it, not by taking it by force, received by grace through faith alone.

In order for us to be humble, brethren, we have to have faith. If we don't have faith, we can't believe God, so we can't be humble. Nobody's gonna humble themselves before God because they'll never see God until he reveals himself. The only way you and I are gonna humble ourself before God is if we see him like Isaiah did, Isaiah 6. He was seated, he was high, he was lifted up, and his train filled the temple. All of it was his glory, every bit of it. And then he said, I'm the man of unclean lips. When you see God that way, you've seen the king. You've seen the King, then the Lord's given you, he's equipped you with that which is necessary for you to say, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm undone, have mercy on me.

The truth is brethren, faith is how we believe what we believe. God's gospel is impossible to believe by this flesh. God has to give faith to believe him and his word. God is absolutely sovereign and we are completely sinful. Salvation is of the Lord by his power, by his will, by his purpose, perfect purpose. That's even better, isn't it? Perfect purpose.

Before time ever began, the Lord knew we couldn't humble ourself. He knew we'd be creatures of dust. He's the one that formed us. He knew exactly what we would be like. He purposes all things for his glory and for his honor. So before time, he elected a people in the covenant of grace. He set his affection upon them. He had everlasting love for them and he said, I'm going to save you and you're going to be saved, like it or don't. And we love it.

When you first hear it, you don't really like it because you're like, wait a minute, I don't have to say so in this matter. Nope. But once you realize the sweetness of the Lord and how good it is to be able to actually lay your pillow on your bed at night and not have to worry about whether you're saved or lost because you know that it is finished. It is finished. If I'm not saved, it's all my fault. But if I am saved, he's the one that did it. I can rest in that because I can't mess that up. I can mess up a lot of things, but I can't mess that up.

He elected a people, then Christ became a man and lived the perfect life. We couldn't live in humility before God on our behalf. He humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. We couldn't humble ourself. Christ did. and did it on our behalf. It's on our record. Do we see that? We got a new history, it's his story. Our record was completely wiped clean and filled in with the Lord Jesus Christ and everything he accomplished. That's the great news about substitution. When the Lord sees his people, he sees the perfection of Christ, the perfect humility and obedience of Christ. He doesn't see you as having any unbelief. He doesn't see you as ever failing one time. He doesn't see you as ever sinning one time. He sees his people as perfect. As perfect. Not as we see ourself.

By his blood, he took our sin and put them away. Put away every one of the, all the iniquity, all of the sin, all of the filth, everything that we were. That was horrible, all the pride. Can you imagine God dying for mine and your pride? The sin of pride, he hung on the tree for my pride. Well, that's grievous, isn't it, to think? So that I might be made humble before God, that God would accept me on his behalf.

The Lord Jesus Christ, he finished the work given to him. Salvation secure, it is finished. There's nothing else to do. In time, he regenerates the sheep when he has purpose to do so. He comes to them and he says, live. And they cry out, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me, the sinner.

Lord told us in John chapter 10, I quote this often, but my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Something prideful don't do very good following. Did you know that? Most prideful creatures, they don't like to follow, they like to lead. But a sheep's not prideful, it's humble. And just as our Lord was dumb as a sheep dumb before the shearers, he opened not his mouth on our behalf, on our behalf. You and I would have kicked and clawed and screamed and everything else, wouldn't we? You know we would have. He didn't.

Goat is stubborn. Goat is prideful. You ever been around goats? They eat anything. They'll eat tin cans, not a sheep. Why? Because a sheep's particular. A sheep's tender, more tender, more fragile. It needs a shepherd. It needs a shepherd. Sheep is obedient and humble to the shepherd, and God is the one that makes us to differ. That's the answer to the question.

God, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall be in want of nothing. I shall not want. He maketh me. to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I love how it says he does this and he does this and he does this and we're the benefactors of all of it. That's substitution. That's what that is. He leadeth me. He teaches me. He maketh me. God makes us to differ.

We now bow before the King, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, all by his grace alone. We no longer offer self. We don't offer works. We don't promote self as evidence or any part of our salvation. We look to Christ alone by faith. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been given the gift of humility before the throne of God.

I love the thought that one day when we stand before the throne of God, Just as Esther went into the throne, knowing that she could possibly die, she would probably die. If the king didn't raise his scepter, she was a goner, and the whole nation of Israel would have been wiped off the face of the earth, as far as what it looked like. That was the king's words. But the king raised his scepter. Why? She was pleasing to the king. And when you and I stand before the throne of God because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that scepter is going to be raised and the Lord is going to say, enter in thou good and faithful servant. He sees his son in his people. He sees perfect humility that he requires. We've been given the gift of humility before the throne, given and bestowed freely by grace. Thank God he gets all the glory.

in the proud and in the humble.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We ask that you would take these words and bless it for your glory and honor in Christ's name, amen.