Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Proverbs 28 beginning at verse 27. Hear God's word, he who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses. When the wicked arise men hide themselves but when they perish the righteous increase. He who is often rebuked and hardened his neck will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when a wicked man rules the people groan, Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice, but a companion of harlots wastes his wealth.

The king establishes the land by justice, but he who receives bribes overthrows it. A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet by transgression, an evil man is snared, but the righteous sings and rejoices. The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked does not understand such knowledge. May we rejoice that this is word as one who has found great treasure. Almighty Heavenly Father, Thank you that you have preserved your word and that you have preserved it to us without error.

Your word is true, it is infallible, not capable of error. We ask that you would sanctify us with your word. I pray that you would preserve my lips from error and that you would sanctify them to proclaim what is true and good. We ask, Lord, that having heard your word today, you would increase our love to you, that you would increase our understanding of its wisdom, and also, Lord, may our obedience of it grow. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Well This is part two of the message that we started last week on this section, a section which deals largely with the application of wisdom to kings and rulers, to those who are in authority. It deals with the question, what makes for a peaceful and a prosperous country? And we only, we didn't finish last week, we had to end it right in the middle of this section. But if you remember, There were two key concepts in this passage that undergird a prosperous nation. Righteousness and justice.

And if you remember as well, if you were here last week, remember that these verses, these nine verses, make a chiasm. Chiasm is a literary device where the beginning and the end are the same and it's like a sort of a pyramid on its side, if you will. The beginning and the end are the same and then what's right after the beginning second from the beginning and second from the last those have some similarity in In principle they are teaching and so on there's a symmetry right to the middle Where the main point if you will is? And so we saw last week that the beginning and the end, verse 27 and verse 7, deal with the treatment of the poor. The righteous take pity on the poor.

They understand the cause of poverty, the cause of the poor. And so they are able then to help the poor without hurting the poor. The wicked don't have that kind of knowledge And their help we saw actually hurts the poor. It impoverishes the poor and increases the poor. So that was the first point.

The second one we would call set B, they'll contrast Righteous and wicked populations. The wicked in verse 28 there is plural. It's hard to see in the English, but in the original language, it's clear. And so it's plural. It's speaking about this plurality of the wicked.

And when they are allowed to increase in number, the righteous go into hiding. But when there is righteous judgment, justice being done, then the wicked perish and the righteous again plural increase they are encouraged and then of course sin sin brings a snare it's habit forming is the other contrast to righteous populations and and wicked populations Nations given over to sin are nations that are ensnared. You can think of a number of sins that have ensnared our nation. Lack of self-control with respect to drugs. There's massive drug addictions and all the problems that come with it.

That is a great snare in our land. Pornography is another snare and sexual immorality. Wasting time might also be a national snare in our they do to all the proliferation of ways that we can waste time. Okay, so the righteous though sing and rejoice even counting in a joy when they fall into various trials. Okay, so that's the second B, set B, and then the third C, and this chiasm as we work in from both ends, we're working in from the beginning and the end, we're working in more and more to the middle.

Section C is verse one of 29. He who is often rebuked and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. And verse five, a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. Both of these verses deal with pride and its effects and we just started to look at this last week and so we'll pick up our discussion of this section here in these two verses, verse 1 and verse 5 that deal with pride and its effects. Pride is pervasive among people and it's safe to say that we all have it.

It just shows itself in different ways. The most obvious pride is a boastful arrogance that exalts itself and thinks very highly of itself. Another aspect of pride is that of somebody who hardens their neck, who will not listen. They're often rebuked. They're corrected.

They're instructed. And they harden their neck, just like the opposite of what Nehemen did. He fell into pride. He was in a rage. He was going to go back to Syria, but he was corrected.

He was rebuked by his own servants, and he didn't harden his neck, but he repented. And he was saved because of that. Pharaoh would be an example of this kind of pride that this verse speaks of. He hardened his neck. He was corrected, and he would...

But then he would harden his neck again, harden his heart. And that hardening led to his destruction. It led to the destruction of his whole nation. He was rebuked many times by Moses and Aaron for not doing as God had commanded. And many times he hardened his heart after he had agreed to let the Israelites go.

And so as a civil ruler, Pharaoh's pride, Pharaoh's hardening of his heart and his neck, as this passage says, and being unwilling to listen to Moses and Aaron resulted in not just his destruction, the destruction of his line, but the destruction of the nation. Nation was never the same again. God said in Exodus 7 to Moses, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. Here was why God told him why he did this. I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

But Pharaoh will not heed you so that I may lay my hand on Egypt and bring my armies and my people out of the land of Egypt by great judgments." And God said elsewhere a little later, he did that so that his name might be glorified among those people. And so all the nations of the earth would know that he was the Lord. So pride then is an unwillingness according to this text. It's an unwillingness to listen when others rebuke us. It's pride if we don't hear the conviction of the Spirit and the rebuke of the Lord, or we have become callous to it so that we no longer can sense that it is the Lord rebuking us, gently rebuking us, more severely rebuking us.

One way of ardening our neck is to become discouraged when the Lord rebukes us in some way. Hebrews 12, quoting Proverbs chapter 3, reminds us not to be discouraged when we are rebuked. Not to lose heart, not to give up, because that's really a sign of pride. See, if we're willing to listen to the Lord's rebuke, then there's a lot less need for others to have to correct us. It takes humility to listen.

It takes humility to listen to the Holy Spirit convicting us and takes humility to listen just like it takes humility to listen to others who are seeking to correct us. So here are some self-assessment questions you can ask yourself. One would be prayer. You can ask, do I pray over all that I do? Or do I find many distractions that keep me from prayer?

Do I assign more power to planning than I do to prayer when it comes time to get things done? Do I see that prayerlessness is a sin of pride? A sin of thinking that I can do things without Christ. Do I really believe Christ's statement that without me you can do nothing? Do I really believe James' statement that I don't have because I didn't ask the Lord for it.

That's one test of of our of pride is is our prayer life. Another test is is whether we have a servant's heart. Do people see us as a servant? Or am I bothered when I'm treated as a servant and people ask me to do things? Do I get irritated with people or am I grateful for the privilege of being used by the Lord.

Am I more ready to give praise than to receive praise? Or a third test that we can ask ourselves is when it comes to the sins of others. Do my faults come to mind first when the scriptures speak of sins of various kinds? Or do The faults of other people come to mind first when reading the Scriptures. Or another test is confession of our sin.

Am I willing to admit faults as publicly as they were committed? Am I quick to admit faults and confess sins? Am I quick to give grace because I realize how much grace I have been given and how much I need? James 5 says, 516, confess your transgressions to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. That's a test of pride.

Another test would be recognition of weaknesses. Do I acknowledge my weaknesses more than I promote my strengths? Do I glory in my infirmities so that the grace of Christ may rest upon me and might be manifested in me? So Paul says, I boast in my infirmities, that my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Or listening, Listening is another good test of our pride.

Am I committed to listening and to learning? To listening and to learning. Sometimes the people closest to us are the hardest ones to listen to. Do I answer people before they finish their sentences? I have to admit that's a particular sin of mine.

Do I answer people before I'm finished listening to their sentence? Could be a sign of pride. When I receive criticism, do I write it down and think about it? Even if I don't think it's right, Do I listen to it? Do I listen deeply before jumping into solving the problem?

Or praise? Am I rich in praise? Do I appreciate the service of others, even if It's a service that wasn't given to me. Most of us are, we train our children very young to be able to say thank you and to appreciate when things are done for us. Do we appreciate when we see people doing things that aren't necessarily for us?

We're quick to praise those services. Do we acknowledge and praise people who are able to do things that we haven't been very good at. Or people that can do things better than we can or do we and we are are we able to praise people who do things that aren't as good as us? Or do we look down at them because they can't do it as well as we can? And I think I mentioned last week this self-justification.

Do we fire our inner lawyer that wants to defend everything that we're doing to justify our mistakes and our sins in the American legal profession, the practice of law has been, particularly defense law, has been perverted. It is now the expectation of a defense lawyer to do everything he can to prevent prosecution of guilty people. And if he doesn't, then he's liable to be sued for legal malpractice. But what a good lawyer ought to be doing is ensuring that the accused have a just and a fair trial. Not doing everything they can to get them off.

Now if they truly believe they are innocent, then that should be one and the same thing. But have we fired that inner lawyer that wants to justify our sins? And we'll look for any way to do that. Or credit. Do I take credit for my achievements or do I remind myself that I need the Lord?

We need the Lord for everything that we do and for especially those successes or our devotion or devotion to the Lord. Do we tire of worshiping God? Is my devotional life routinely robbed by service and serve and and doing things? Do Do I see worshiping as ministering to God? Bringing joy to God?

Blessing His name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name or his worship more about what I can get from God. Do I love God with every fiber of my being, heart, soul, mind, and strength, or am I more concerned about God helping me in my difficulties? That's our devotion.

See, pride is more concerned about God helping us and doesn't think about blessing the Lord. Another test is Christ-centeredness. Am I secure in Christ despite my sins and weaknesses? Do I see myself serving Christ when I serve others? Is my identity tied up in what I do, in the service I render, or is it tied up in Christ?

Is my identity first in Christ? I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ Lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God Who loves me and gave himself for me? That's what Paul told the Galatians he told the Colossians for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Am I secure in being in Christ despite my weaknesses and sins?

How about comparison? This is probably a really good one. Do I measure my sanctification by others? I'm doing better than someone else or better than most or do I measure it by God? Paul told the Corinthians for we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.

Controlling, the controlling test. Do others see me as controlling or trying to control the situation or trying to control what other people do? James tells us that the wisdom that is from above is willing to yield, willing to yield, not controlling. Or teachability. Do I try to learn from the peers and inferiors in my family or in the church?

Do I learn from books? Do I quickly retract those things that are shown to be wrong when they're contradicted by the scriptures? Do I learn from people who might be outside of our typical reformed or circles, our typical church or theological traditions. Are we able to recognize when they are speaking the truth according to the Word of God and learn from them even if we think they're wrong in many other places? Or sanctification?

Or sanctification? Do I see myself as highly sanctified? Having come a long way? Having gotten things mostly right? Am I at ease in Zion, as Amos told the Israelites?

Woe to you, he said, who are at ease in Zion. Or do I have a holy discontentment with the state of my walk with God? Recognizing that I have a long way to go. Having a clearer and clearer picture of the sins in my life that need to be overcome. Paul told the Philippians, not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on.

Paul is saying, I'm not there yet. I'm not sanctified. I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He's pressing on.

He's not arrived. Well, those are just maybe a few of tests, things to keep in mind, because we're always looking at where there might be pride in our life, because pride brings a stiff neck and brings destruction. Now, the other verse here is verse five, dealing with pride, and it talks about flattery being a snare. Flattery is false praise. It is commendation offered for the purpose of gaining favor or gaining influence or getting somebody to do something for us or to accomplish something.

It's not praise simply because we see something worthy of it. So direct flattery consists in praising a person falsely in order to get some influence or get something accomplished. Indirect Flattery consists in praising a person through their work or their connections. And flattery, the Bible says, is a trap. It's a trap because it tempts us to pride.

And pride brings destruction as as verse one says Charles Bridges says this about flattery And I thought it was worth passing on. Even when conscious of not possessing the loveliness attributed to us, when we know the flatterer to have no faith in his own words, instead of a just indignation at his smooth hypocrisy, is there not oftentimes a secret self-satisfaction at being thought of sufficient importance to tempt the deceit? Nay, even when it is so gross as to create disgust, is this disgust always unaccompanied with pleasure?" He's saying even when we recognize we're being flattered and and what they're saying isn't exactly true. Isn't there a little secret self-satisfaction that we thought ourselves worthy of being flattered? See, flattery is closely connected with kings and courts and rulers and governments.

Flattery is a huge part of the national political scene and state political scene in our day and probably always has been. And this, brothers and sisters, is a foothold for the demonic. And it tempts the rulers who are being flattered to pride and flattering one another. And that's what all sorts of electioneering and speeches are, for the most part, is flattery. It's a foothold for the demonic because James tells us, "'But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart, ' and that's what people that flatter do, They are seeking something for themselves.

They're seeking some benefit. They're seeking to get influence with power for their own benefit. If you have self-seeking in your heart, don't boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above. It's not of God's wisdom, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

This is demonic. This type of flattery, this type of self-seeking, and that word is actually electioneering. Electioneering is what we call campaigning today. And it's considered acceptable, but it wasn't that long ago in our nation that that was considered completely uncouth. And anybody that engaged in electioneering wasn't worthy of public office.

How far we've come. This is I think one big reason why politicians are known for their spectacular moral failures and falls. It's so common it's not even noticed anymore. It used to be a disqualifying thing for office, for public office. It's because the demonic influence is so prevalent in their lives and in our legislatures and in our courts.

If you've spent any time in these places, it's obvious. It's obvious. Flattery, a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. And politicians that flatter each other, or flatter the people, or people that flatter them, are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Now nations can also be proud.

Proud nations do all these things that we've been talking about. They just do it on a national level. They deny God and they don't worship Him as their king. They don't pray, recognizing that all prosperity, all the good things that they're seeking come from God and from God alone. They justify themselves.

They refuse to acknowledge their faults, but they're quick to see the faults of other nations. Just think a minute. We invaded a nation because they supposedly had weapons of mass destruction. That's no reason to invade a nation. We have weapons of mass destruction.

Does that justify people invading us? No, but we use that to justify invading another nation. And then when we never found them, did we ever apologize? Did we ever say we were wrong? We were wrong for invading you in the first place, even if you had them.

But we're doubly wrong for claiming that you do and invading you in our arrogance, and then when we don't find them, just self-justification. Them just self justification. Another one of the most telltale indicators of national pride is that they are controlling. Proud nations are often led by proud rulers, and they want to control all the other nations around them. They want to conquer the world.

And so the fact that we are invading all these other nations all the time, economically as well as militarily, is one indicator of great national pride a nation that wants all the other nations to do as they do and say and do as they say I should say and will even invade the nations with their armies in an effort to control them is a proud nation. And proud nations, like proud people, will be destroyed suddenly. And that without remedy. Remember Belshazzar, proud, lifted up, got the temple temple cups and things, I can't think of the word, for his celebration. Had them carted out to rejoice that here is a nation that they've humbled and defeated and taken these things out of their temple.

Right that very night, God sent a message that you've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. And that very night that nation fell and his life was forfeit. Proud Nations fall. Suddenly, suddenly, and that without remedy. Alright, the next section deals with, in contrast, wicked and righteous rulers.

This is the section that's right around the heart of the middle. It's contrasting wicked and righteous rulers. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan. The king establishes the land by justice, verse 4, but he who receives bribes overthrows it. Righteous rulers produce content nations or nations of contented people.

Now someone or something is considered righteous when it conforms to the lawful standard. And there's only one standard there's only one lawful standard by which all matters are decided and you know that is the law of God. That's the only standard of what is right and what is wrong. And so righteous rulers are those whose rules And laws and edicts conform to the law of God that respect the rights that God gives His people. God has given rights to His people, to people, to all people.

What are they? Well, the right to be children of God is given to all those who believe on Him, John says in John 1. The right to be children of God, to worship God, the Father as His children. That is our right to those who believe. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

Secondly, we have a right to food. Paul said to the Corinthians, my defense to those who examine me is this, do we not have a right to eat and drink? The unspoken answer and assumption behind that question is yes, we do. We have a right to eat and to drink. We have a right to food.

We have a right to marry and to live with our spouses. Paul said, continued, do we have no right to take along a believing wife? A believing wife. Notice we don't have a right to marry an unbelieving spouse. A believing wife.

We have a right to marry and to live with our spouse, our spouses. We have a right to work and to be paid for our labor. You can read that whole chapter is dealing with the right of a worker to be paid his due wages. We have a right to trade goods and services that belong to us, that we own. That is a right.

Referring to property and money received in the sale of his property, Peter said to Ananias, While it remained, Was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your control? In other words, we have a right to direct the use of our possessions. We have a right to the fruit of our labor. 1 Corinthians 9, 7.

If we grow something, we have a right to the harvest and to use it as we see fit. That's a right. All these rights, if you've been thinking about them, all these rights are foundational to life. The right to food, the right to labor, because that's how we can get food, the right to work and be paid, the right to a wife, that's how the human race is procreated, that's how life is continued, The right to direct the things that we own. These are fundamental rights.

We have a fundamental right to life. And there are other rights, for examples, fathers have a right to give or not give their daughters in marriage, 1 Corinthians 7 tells us, but the ones we've listed here are the ones that are most relevant to civil rulers. We also of course have authority to do the things that God commands us to do wherever God commands us to do something we obviously have a right to do it. Now those are the those are the enumerated rights but anything that is necessary to an enumerated right is also included in our God-given rights. So everyone has a right to eat.

That means we have an inherent right to grow food and to buy food that other people have grown. That's necessary. It's an inherent right in our right to food. Since we have a right to be paid for our labor, that means we have a right to sell food we have grown to other people who have a right to buy food. Everyone of course has a right to life.

And that means that we have a right to the means that are necessary to sustain life. Medications, equipment, tools that are helpful to sustain life. We have a right to buy these things, and to make these things, or to grow these things if you like to use plants and things for medicines. We have a right to these things. The right to take a wife includes the right to do what is necessary within the confines of the law of God to provide for that wife and family.

A home, food, businesses and so on. That word that is translated right in all those passages I was reading, that's the word exusia. Maybe you recognize that word. That's the main word in the New Testament for authority. It's authority.

Paul was saying in all those places where he said you have a right, we have an authority. A right is the authority to do something. And Jesus told Pilate that all authority comes from God. In that Pilate, He said to Pilate, you would have no authority unless God gave it to you. Paul says the same thing in Romans 13, 1, for there is no authority except from God.

So what does that mean? About our rights. That means that all rights are God-given rights. The right to food, the right to work labor, the right to be paid for our labor, the right to take a wife. These are God-given rights.

Because all authority, all rights come from God. And what God has given, He can take away. But no human can lawfully take them away unless God has commanded it. So A right means then that we have authority from God to do something, to procure something. We have a right to food.

That means We have authority from God to procure food. Now, but that doesn't mean that other people are obligated to give those things to us. Okay, sometimes that gets confused. People say, well, I have a right to medical care, therefore you have to give it to me. No, you have a right to medical care, but that doesn't mean they have to give it to you.

Unless, of course, you are a minor under someone else's care and protection. Children have a right to receive these things from their parents and wives have a right to receive these things from their husbands. But other than that, just because it is a right doesn't mean that we are entitled to demand other people to provide these things to us for free. Just remember that. So righteous rulers are those who respect and promote and help the rights of the people.

And the Bible says when they do that, the people rejoice. Don't you rejoice when the government produces a level playing field, a just marketplace so that you can buy and sell in the market and receive just compensation when they punish the people that steal and defraud and kill. Wicked rulers, see on the other hand, deny people these rights. Wicked rulers are then those who resist the ordinance of God and deny these rights to people, or they make it hard for people to exercise these rights, to exercise this authority that God has given them. And so when the wicked rule, people groan because these rights are not recognized and supported.

Let's go back to Romans 13 a minute. In Romans 13, 1, Paul not only said that all authority comes from God, and that's what a right is, authority, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God, but he went on to say that those who resist these authorities resist the ordinance of God, and They do so to their own destruction. God will judge those who resist His ordinance. They are fighting against God. So when civil rulers prevent people from exercising these rights, they are the ones who are resisting the ordinance of God.

They are the ones who are breaking the law. They are the ones who are bringing judgment. So when Congress or state legislatures restrict people's access to plants and equipment that is necessary for life, they are resisting the authority of God. They are resisting the ordinance of God. When government passes laws or issues, edicts that prevent people from working, they are the ones who are breaking the law, not the people who are exercising their right to work.

That is a God-given authority. Now wicked rulers don't blatantly resist the ordinance of God all at once. It's gradual, bit by bit. They erode the rights of people. And one of the common ways to pervert injustice is through bribes.

Paying rulers to gain access to them and to build loyalty. That loyalty is leveraged to subtly pressure rulers to trample the rights of people. Bribes. The king establishes the land by justice, but he who receives bribes overthrows it. Today, bribes are primarily done through lobbying organizations.

They pay large bribes to rulers in the form of campaign contributions so that those rulers will be beholden to them. And when they need them, They will be available to trample the rights of the people. Ron Paul tells about when he first became an elected official of the Federal Congress back in the 70s. He was at some meeting down in Houston, and he named the people that were there. And when this meeting was all done, on the way out, it was a meeting set up to receive campaign contributions, and he didn't ask for any.

And on the way out, one of these big men, big business leaders, said, How much? And Ron Paul said, No thank you. No thank you. I don't want your check. I don't want that bribe.

Because he realized there's a payback. They take that money as a campaign contribution and then when the time comes this lobbying organization or that lobbying organization who has paid to get them elected will now say this is what we need you to do. We need you to trample the rights of these people to protect our own self-interest. And that overthrows a nation. So the main point here in verse 3 is whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice.

But a companion of harlots wastes his wealth. Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice. Choose wisdom. Love wisdom. Nations that love wisdom cause the Father in heaven to rejoice over them.

In Deuteronomy God said or Moses told the people, and you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all his commandments, which I command you today The Lord your God will make you abundant in all the work of your hand in the fruit of your body in the increase of your livestock and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as he rejoiced over your fathers. The Lord rejoices over the nations that love wisdom. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments. And in Isaiah 62 we have this beautiful picture.

God promising to the land of Israel, to the nation of Israel, for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God, and you shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hefzibah and your land Bula, for the Lord delights in you. And your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you, and as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God rejoices over you." The nation that loves wisdom causes the Father in heaven to rejoice, to rejoice over it.

May God give us faithfulness to His word that it will be salt and light in this nation crying out to Him for His mercy that he will turn us back from our wicked ways that he may once again rejoice over us, over his people. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you delight in justice and in mercy and in loving kindness. And that you do rejoice over us as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. Let you cover us.

Let you love us. Father, we know how far that we have fallen. And we ask for your mercy. We come asking for you to instruct us to renew a zeal for your kingdom within us. And Lord, where we are proud, may you teach us humility.

For it is the humble that you guide injustice, And it is the humble that you teach your way. Oh Lord, we pray that you would humble our nation. And humble us, that we may learn your ways. And that we may learn your justice. In Jesus' name we ask, amen.