I invite your attention to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. Luke 14, we'll start in verse 1. And it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day that they watched him. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him and healed him. and let him go. Here, our Lord is in a chief Pharisee's house. He was surrounded by lawyers, Pharisees, religious people, religious leaders, all right? And it tells us here that there's a man there who had an infirmity. Now, I don't know, this was often the case, where the Pharisees or the scribe, they go find somebody and bring him to where the Lord was tempting him to do something that was unlawful. And it makes sense that that's what happened, because our Lord asked that question, is it lawful? Would it be right for me to do this? He had the dropsy, nowadays known as edema. Now our Lord, we know He's the great physician, and as He often did, He healed this man. I love how it tells us very plainly, He took him, He healed him, He let him go. And look at the reaction here, verse five. The Lord didn't even let these men say anything. But look here, verse five says, he answered them. He knew what they were thinking. He knew the evil thoughts running through their heart. He answered them saying, which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And I love this. And they could not answer him again to these things. Didn't even let him get a word out. He shut their judgmental, self-righteous mouths before they could even speak a word. And though they often tried, any chance they got to trap him, to trip him up in his words, or try to get him to do something wrong, they never could. They never could. It's kind of like with Pilot, even he said, I find no fault with this man. No man could ever find fault with this man. Praise God. Look, verse seven. And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms. The Pharisees, they chose out the chief rooms. They always did. And the reason is because they thought themselves to be worthy, most worthy, more worthy than anybody else who could possibly be in the room. And it was no different this day. No different at all. Our Lord said this in Matthew 23, 6. He said, They love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. Our Lord said, Don't call anybody that. He said, You have one master. That's Him. These Pharisees, they saw themselves as greater than others. And here our Lord is going to teach them something. They're going to get a lesson on pride and humility. That's what this Bible study's all about. I pray God would teach us today. Verse seven again, 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 honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man his place, And thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. Our Lord, he marked how they did this. He observed their pride. This is a big word in our day. Their self-worth. Gotta know your self-worth. Their self-righteousness. He observed it. He knew it. Now with this parable, he's gonna put them in their place. And let me go ahead and say this. We need God to put us in our place continually. You know, if you're anything like me, it is so easy to do something which we're proud of ourselves for, pass a test, earn a credential, something, okay? These are things I have been given the ability to do. And we just, oh man, we just get lifted up? We need to be laid low. What do we have that we didn't receive? What are we gonna start glorying in that God didn't do for us? The chief rooms here, it means the first reclining place, the chief place. That's where they sat. And I couldn't help but wonder, this occasion, when our Lord was in this chief Pharisee's house, surrounded by these religious men who wanted nothing to do with him, they saw nothing in him, I wonder where our Lord sat. Where you supposed he sat? Scriptures tell us a son of man hath not where to lay his head. You think they gave him a seat of honor, the first reclining place? And I thought of this. Back when I lived at home with my parents, as I got a little older, I would want to sit in the best chair in the living room. It was my dad's recliner. Especially when he got a new recliner. That's where I wanted to sit. And I would often go and I would sit there and my dad would get home from fishing or hunting or work or something. And he'd come in the living room and he'd say, get out of my chair, boy. Get up. That was his chair. I knew it. That was his chair. If we're sitting in someone else's chair, If we try to put ourselves in that seat of honor, that reclining place that does not belong to us, God will see to it that we're moved. God will get us up, move us out, put us somewhere we belong. Now, did you notice a phrase towards the end of verse eight? It says, lest a more honorable man than thou Be bidden of him. And it goes on to say he and the man that's hosting the event kind of tell you to get up. There is a more honorable man than you and me. No son or daughter of Adam in God's sight, as we are in this flesh, is an honorable man or woman. It means someone that is held in honor, prized, noble, precious. Who here is that inside of God? Is there any reason God should look your way? Go ahead. Adam's entire race is fallen dead in sin, covered head to toe, or desperately wicked, deceitful hearts. You know, we can make the outside look pretty good, can't we? I put on a suit this morning, shaved my face, or my neck. But I am fully corrupt within, dead in sin. That's what I am in this flesh. The Pharisees, they didn't believe that about themselves. Neither do we, naturally. Their wicked hearts deceived them into thinking that they were good, thinking that there was something honorable about them. Do we not fool ourselves into thinking the same thing? Do we not? Good? Yeah, a lot of evil happens in this world, but down deep there's a little good in everybody. God says there's none good. When that rich young ruler came to our Lord and called him good master, he said, why do you call me good? There's none good but God. You see, he said good master, and yet he turned around and said, what good thing can I do? Well, you're good, I'm good, we're all good. No, God's good. We're not good. The chief seat, there's just one chief seat. There were apparently several, perhaps many, Pharisees and lawyers here. I think it's right to think they had a bunch of chief seats sitting around. There's just one chief seat in glory, and that seat has been reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is honorable. He's the more honorable man than us. He is. He alone is honorable in God the Father's holy sight. He's the chosen one, mighty-legged, in whom my soul delighted. He's daily His delight, the delight of His Father, beloved Son, in whom He's well pleased. The Lord Jesus Christ, as He walked this earth, He healed all manner of disease. He still does that today. He compels, we're not gonna look at this, but starting in verse 15, down several verses, there's a man who hosted a great dinner. Our Lord compels, causes, draws sinners to his dinner, his great eternal wedding feast, the marriage supper of the lame. He compels them, he brings them in, sinners. The lame, blind, Poor, worthless, needy sinners. He saves souls. You know, we can do what we call good things for each other. We can help a brother or sister in need, and we should, but we can't save a soul. We can go into all the world and preach the gospel as God enables us, but we're reliant on Him to do anything. We can do nothing without Him. Not a thing we can do. God saves souls according to His will and His good pleasure. He said, I will have mercy. I will have compassion. I will be gracious to whom I will. What a man. That's the Lord Jesus Christ who does these things. What an honorable man He is. My soul. Now, let's acknowledge something, all right? I thought of this verse. I think it's in 2 Samuel, maybe. God said, them that honor me, I will honor." Let's consider ourselves for a second. Who here has done that? I'm not talking what God has done in you and for you. Who here, as we are dead in sin, who here has done anything honorable to God? You know, we'll say things like, your honor, your majesty, that's who Christ is. No son of Adam or daughter of Adam deserves such a title. Have we done anything to honor Him? God said, those that honor me, I will honor. Anybody here worthy of that? I'm not. The Pharisees didn't, they thought they did. They saw no beauty in our Lord that they should desire him. Nine, how often they heard his glorious voice, utter gracious words. How often, how many times they saw him perform miracles and wonders. How many times? How many times he healed the person right in front of them, just like right here. And yet their hearts remained cold and dead and hardened against him and his goodness and his grace. But it's not just them. This isn't a message to condemn the Pharisees. This is a message to condemn us, as we are in our flesh, and to cause us to look elsewhere for any hope to stand before God. Our carnal minds, mine and yours both, enmity against God, enmity against the Lord Jesus Christ. The friend of this world is the enemy of God. Who here is not naturally the friend of this world and the things of it? If we love the things of the world, God says the love of the Father's not in him. Does that not convict us? Does that not convict you? Our Lord was despised. He was rejected of men. We esteemed him not. None of us did. Not one of us. We're not honorable. If someone's honorable, they're commendable. Are we commendable to God? I think the last message I brought here about a month ago was about how we're unworthy. I just, we need to know that. We need to not lose sight of that. How unworthy we are and how worthy Christ alone is. I really pray God will enable me to hammer that home. Pray God will hammer that home to me. We don't deserve to be in his presence. These Pharisees, they were in his presence right here and time and time again. They didn't deserve that. God has blessed you and me with the privilege of coming here week after week. We have four messages every single week to hear the gospel preached, to hear Christ proclaimed from his word. We don't deserve that. We don't deserve that. I believe God has given many of us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, enabled us to call upon him, revealed himself to us. We don't deserve that. Oh, may God never let us think we, you know, we sing a song. I love the song, In Tenderness He Sought Me, but it says, I wondered what he saw in me. I know what he saw in us. God looked down from heaven to see if there were any good, any that understood, any that sought him, and he found none. They're all gone aside, they're all together, become filthy, unprofitable, all of them. Sovereign mercy, that's it. Sovereign mercy. Look right here, verse eight. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, I'm so guilty of that. If someone has you over for dinner, you just, maybe you see a recliner and that's, we go straight to it. Or someone has people over for dinner and we're the first one to sit down and we have a fellowship dinner, we're the first to jump in line. I'm so guilty of these things. Our Lord said, don't do that. Don't do that. Middle of verse eight. Sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. Verse nine. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man his place. Now, let me tell you something. This is a command, all right? Now, it's talking about the more honorable man. God says, give this man his place. Honor him. Praise him. Look to Him. Glorify Him. Fall down on your face and worship Him. That's His place. That's His place. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Turn over with me to Psalm 111. Psalm 111. He's the more honorable man. It says in our text that the Lord went into their house and they ate bread. He's the bread of heaven. It said it was the Sabbath day. He's our Sabbath rest. He healed a man. He's the great physician. The Pharisees were so interested in keeping the law. That was their hope, is their law keeping. Our Lord is the only one who ever kept the law, magnified it, and made it honorable. The only way for us to establish the law, keep the law, is by being in Him, vitally joined to Him, which is something God must do for us. He's the law keeper. It talked about a wedding, a wedding feast. He's the bridegroom to God's elect. He's God. Give this man, may God enable us to give this man his place. Now, It's not, let me say this real quick. It's not that if we don't give him his place, then he's not gonna have it. No, he has it. We would be wise to acknowledge it. We would do well to confess our place and acknowledge his place. And he said, every knee shall bow. I thought this was only in Philippians 2. I believe it's in the scriptures three times. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He has his place and he's going to forever have his place. Pray God will cause us to Acknowledge this, confess this. Look here in Psalm 111 verse 1. It says, Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all of them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable. and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Everything about the Lord Jesus Christ is honorable. His works, his name, his person, everything about him, everything about him is honorable. May God cause us to praise him. May God cause us to seek his honor. to seek His glory and not our own. Go back in our text, Luke 14, verse 9. Luke 14, 9. He that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man his place. Now look at this, the end of the verse. And thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. You know, it would be horribly embarrassing if I went into someone's house and I sat down in a seat that was for a man more honorable than me. And the host and that more honorable man came up to me and told me to get up and move me to another seat. That would be humiliating, would it not? When God comes to his people, reveals to us the more honorable man, the end of this verse is what happens. We begin with shame to take the lowest room. Now for God's people, When the gospel comes to us in power and in love, this is a glorious thing. We need to know something about our shame, our wretchedness, our sin before God. We need to be humbled. God gives grace to the humble. God gives grace by which he humbles us. And it's a wonderful thing. He lovingly breaks us. A broken and a contrite heart. God said he will not despise. It's a good thing. He lovingly draws his people to the Savior. And it's his beautiful, glorious work that he does. And that's what I pray God would do for me and for you and for our children. Just had a son born five days ago. It's what I pray God will do in time for my children. Break them. Bring us to Christ. Again, when the gospel comes and does this for us, it's a wonderful thing. But if that doesn't happen, if we leave this world and that never happens for us, we're still gonna, the moment of shame is coming regardless. And for the unbeliever, for the person who dies in their sin, it's a most terrible, terrible, heartbreaking, devastating thing. Go ahead and turn with me to Jude. We will not bow. We will not confess our sins and come to Christ unless God draws. We know that God declares that. Look here in Jude, look at verse four. Just one chapter, Jude verse four. There are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me say this, denying Him alone to be the honorable man. Thinking again that he's good, I'm good. We can be one as I am in this flesh, as I am in my sin. Look down at verse 11. Woe unto them. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsetting of Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Look at this, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. That's the condition for those who will not bow in this life, for those who do not bow until it's too late. Pray God would cause us to bow now. I pray God would show us the more honorable man now and cause us to give him his place. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Look back in our text. Luke 14, verse 10. Luke 14, verse 10, 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. Come to Christ in absolute shame. It's the only way to come to him. Not asking what good thing we can do that will be accepted. There's nothing we can do. Nothing. Come to Christ in absolute shame, no boasting, no goodness, nothing to offer, no worth, completely empty, good for nothing. Come like that. Come like that. If God calls us to come like that, this is what we'll hear him say, friend, What a glorious thing to hear him say, if God says to you or me, friend. And he didn't just say that, he said, go up higher, and go up higher. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's the friend of publicans and sinners, whom he's broken, whom he's broken. I can't help but think of that publican in Luke 18. You know the story, you've heard it. That Pharisee stood there boasting about himself and his works, his do's and his don'ts. Wanted everybody to see him. Stood right there in the middle for everybody to see. And that poor publican stood afar off. He smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That man was broken. God broke him. And God said, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Pharisee didn't. He was lost as could be. Now, this is a great question. How could a shameful, unworthy, wretched sinner possibly be God's friend? Psalm 5 verse 5 says, The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. You know, people say God hates the sin. He doesn't hate the sinner. Well, read that verse, Psalm 5 verse 5. The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Not the sin, the soul. That's a person. The wages of sin is death. How could such a one be accepted before God? Here's the answer. Listen. The answer is, the more honorable man. That's how. He's the answer. He's the sinner's salvation. You know, we say this, and it's in the scriptures multiple times, and I'm gonna keep saying it as long as God allows me to. Salvation's of the Lord. But it's not just that. The Lord is our salvation. He is my salvation. That's what the psalmist said, isn't it? He's our substitute. Go ahead, turn with me to Hebrews chapter two. Read a couple verses here, Hebrews two, and I'm almost done. He's our hope. What hope do we have apart from Him? Nothing. He's our life. All our life. I have no life but Him. Christ is our life. A verse in the Proverbs said, He's the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Now we're gonna use that for context here in Hebrews chapter two, look at verse 17. Hebrews 2, 17. And we're told earlier in this chapter that there were children that the father gave to him. Those children are also called his brethren. Look here, Hebrews 2, 17. Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He was made like unto His brethren, His people, His elect. Turn over to chapter 7, verse 22. Hebrews 7, 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, and they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, this more honorable man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Look here, verse 26, "'For such an high priest became us, who is holy harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, then for the people's. For this he did once when he offered up himself. Now he had no sins of his own. He knew no sin. No guile was found in his mouth. He died once. That's all it took. One sacrifice to put away the sins of all his brethren, all his children that the Lord gave to him, his friends. who were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, his enemies. He brought us to his footstool in mercy, in loving kindness. And he died for us. He became us. He traded places with us so that we could be with him where he is forever. Gathered around the throne, gathered around his seat of honor to sit at his feet and praise his holy name forever and ever. What a God. What a man. What a God, man. What an honorable man. We'll close. Look back at Luke 14, verse 11. What a friend. There's no friend like this friend. No friend like this friend. Luke 14, 11. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Jesus Christ, the more honorable man, he must increase, but I must decrease. Are you all right with that? Does that sound good to you? He must be exalted, we must be abased. That's the way it is. Whether we see it or not, that's the way it is. I pray God reveal to us this more honorable man. I pray God calls us to abase ourselves, loathe ourselves, exalt, praise, honor, glorify, worship Him alone, who is worthy to be exalted forever. Amen. May God bless His word.