morning. Lead us in the study of thy word. Forgive us our sins. These things you would ask in Jesus' name and for his sake. And all God's people said, Amen. Somehow or another, I've got the proverb written down, but not the verse it comes from. So I'm just gonna have to read the verse. And boys and girls, your homework for today is see if you can find it where it is in the Bible and come and tell me this evening. It's what? You think it's number 12, do you? No, 21. We're doing this like a racetrack, so I'm told. What chapter is it? Do you know? Because I don't. It's in the bulletin. This is just amazing because I've got the proverb. But it's not in the passage that we read together. This was just the next section. Here's the proverb. And we'll just have to find it later. It says Proverbs 27 and 11, but it's not. I don't know where it is. Elders come and escort me away from the pulpit. It's number two, verse two. 12? It's not there. You don't even know which proverb. I don't know how you can be telling me which one it is. I'll tell you what the proverb is, and if you can find it and then do the... The proverb is, a man is tested by his praise. Now you're giving me... 21? There we... See, I was right all along. It is in this section. Okay, I'll just stand down. You don't need to escort me quite yet from the pulpit. Okay, yeah, I've got it down as 11. I couldn't see it, 21. Okay, a man is tested by his praise. A man is tested by his praise. Well, this is a striking proverb. How do you normally think of being tested? I suppose normally we think of it in terms of the adversity, things that we pass through. The loss of a loved one, the collapse of a business, or feeling unwell, health, illness, disease, sickness, they're all negative. Perhaps we're tested by slander. It's not the loss of our health, but the loss of our reputation that can be hard to bear. Well, it's understandable if we think of those terms of things that would test us. But the proverb is not talking about being tested by adversity, it's being tested by our praises, by the positive. Somebody comes and says something nice to you, and it can be difficult to receive. But before we examine how we are tested, think how our words might test others. We don't speak with malice, quite the opposite. We want to encourage. And so what's the range of response? When we're trying to say something, are we there just trying to find fault with somebody? We can often see that small splinter that's in somebody else's eye and ignore the log that's in our own. We're just looking to find fault or we just remain silent. Are we looking to encourage? And that's something of what the proverb is talking about when we're trying to encourage someone. We all recognize how discouraging it can be to deal with a nitpicker. But he or she probably doesn't even think of it as being nitpicking. They just say, I'm just trying to help by pointing out your faults frequently. I'm trying to help you improve. But that's not what the text is talking about. The second option is remaining quiet. Somebody's doing something, you just say nothing. You say, well, I can't be discouraging if I say nothing. Well, I suppose I can't be encouraging if I'm saying nothing. Well, I'm not sure that's entirely true. How many meals does, speaking to the man, how many meals does your wife prepare for you in the course of each year? Hundreds? Yes, perhaps even several hundred. And every time you sit down at table, you get up from the table, and you say nothing. Well, I can't be discouraging. Where can I if I never say anything? Well, I think if a moment's reflection would say, you know, if you never say, thank you, I enjoyed that, that was a delicious meal, that's one of my favorites, let's do that one again. How long's it been, a month? longer since you last expressed appreciation. Well, it's probably time that you went out and got the chocolates that she likes, or buy her the bunch of flowers, or whatever else, or take her out for dinner. Here's a tip. Taking your wife out for dinner is cheaper than going for counseling. I'm just saying. Well, Cooking is not my wife's strong point. Now don't make that biographical. I put on 50 pounds when I got married, and it's all Louise's fault. So your wife isn't the best cook in the world, and you want to be supportive, but there's the problem. Now we're going to have an intern starting with us, God willing, in just a month or so. And you want to be encouraging. I know you as a congregation that we've had interns, summer interns, year-long interns, and you always want to be encouraging, and that's good, and I commend you for it. But an intern probably has very limited experience in the pulpit. I've got no real excuse, but that's another issue. So the intern preaches, and as you're shaking his hand at the door as you exit on a Sunday evening, or whenever it might be, you want to be encouraging. Thank you so much for so faithfully preaching the word. And yet there's that lingering thought that he may not be able to preach his way out of a wet paper bag. But you want to be encouraging. But is that actually helpful if you're telling him he's doing a great job when he's not really doing such a great job? If opening a can is the limit of your wife's culinary exploits, then saying that you just love the tinned soup may not actually be helping her. So praise becomes a test. to the young intern that is doing his best, but his best is not quite where he needs to be, and you tell him, everything's just great, and that was a wonderful sermon, and we love you as a brother in Christ. All sorts of nice things to encourage. So praise becomes a test. But let's turn it around and think of it at the receiving end. Why is praise a test? because I'm quite likely to believe it. You say nice things about me. You say, I think you're wonderful. Well, that doesn't get said to me that often, but hypothetically, you say to me, I think you're wonderful. And I say, yeah, I think you're wonderful too. Thank you for confirming my opinion. You need to assess who is saying what and what he is saying or she is saying. A young man may have a very clear weakness, but constantly being told by the congregation how wonderful he is, is not actually going to help him. And it's a test for him and for his character. And we're always quite willing to believe that we're doing really well. And those who love us most and care for us most want to be the most encouraging and say the nicest thing. But we need to be careful. Here's a word for mums and dads. Careful that your own affections, your love for your children doesn't blind you to their faults. Watch out mums and dads. You may be saying all sorts of wonderful things to your children about your children and your love for them exaggerates just how well they are doing. So boys and girls, if your mom thinks that you are the sharpest mind since Albert Einstein, you might want to ratchet it down a couple of notches. Evaluate who is speaking and what it is that they are saying. Do your best to measure it against objective reality so far as possible. and ask for an unbiased and unvarnished opinion. Why? Because that's the only opinion that really matters. Kings often surround themselves with courtiers who tell them what they want to hear, that they are just wonderful, that they are the best king that this world has ever known, and never say anything to discourage them or in any way challenge them. Indeed, there have been kings that have been so caught up with their own sense of self-worth and aggrandizement that to even whisper a word which was not supportive of the king and his ideas risked death itself. Is that the circle of friends that we wish in a far lesser way with which to surround ourselves? I want people that will only and ever tell me what I want to hear, that I am wonderful, that I'm good, that I'm great, and that I am just the best thing in the world. Or do we want those who will actually tell us the truth? A wise king would surround himself with honest men who are able to say to him what? I think that would be a mistake, your majesty. And we need to have friends who will speak to us the unbiased and unvarnished truth. Because those praises that we hear and which are so acceptable to us are actually a test for our souls. It's a test because it robs us of the opportunity to improve. The test is are we willing to consider a way in which we can benefit from the comment rather than just have our egos massaged. If we evaluate the praise of others, but we must re-evaluate ourselves. And what it is that they are saying to us, a man is tested by his praise. You're doing a great job. Thank you. And I'd like to do better. And there's the test. Receiving praise and putting it to good effect How hard that is for us, isn't it? Somebody says something nice to us, compliments us in some way. Well, it's only right that you think well of me, because I think really well of me as well. So we accept it, and we failed the test. But we can also reject it. No, I think you're talking about somebody else. And that may be the snare for our feet as well. We're either too inclined to accept the praises and think too much of ourselves, or because we are nervous about receiving good words spoken to us, we reject it and push it away. No, no, no, that's not me. And we find it difficult to accept that word of encouragement that was meant. And in a sense, it may be a greater failure to accept it and grow boastful and proud. But there may also be a failure in the test when somebody tries to encourage us and we turn away from it and say, no, no, that's not me. You're speaking of someone else. Well, where's the benefit? Thank you, but how can I do it better? And truly, that's a hard test. And I suspect that few of us pass it. It is such a narrow path, either to accept the praise and grow proud, or to reject the praise and shrink away and not learn from it. And a man is tested by his praise. Well, I've got some good news and some bad news for you this morning. And as we think about this particular proverb that says a man is tested by his praise, I want to give you the unbiased and unvarnished truth. And perhaps it needs to be proclaimed in our generation more than in a previous generation. Perhaps previous generations, there's a sort of caricature of the hellfire and brimstone preachers always preaching about sin and God's judgment upon an evil world. But in our generation, the temptation is, I think, on the other side, that we are being told constantly that we are wonderful people and that God is just so pleased with you, and he loves you so much, he thinks you're so wonderful, that he's willing to send his own son to take your place. Well, here's the bad news. Unvarnished and unbiased, you are not so wonderful that God felt obliged to send his son to die for you. That's not the reason for God's sending of his son. But the truth is far greater and far more wonderful. So if you have come to the opinion in, dare I say, your pride and perhaps even your arrogance, and you've been told authoritatively from a pulpit that you are so wonderful, that God thinks so much of you, that he's willing to send his son to die in your place, then turn away from such hubris and recognize who you are in the presence of a holy and perfect God. and confess that you are a sinner who needs to be saved. But the truth is absolutely more wonderful than that foolish misunderstanding and misapplication of the Gospel message. The Gospel is not telling you you're so wonderful that God really had to send His Son. God thinks you're so wonderful, that he wanted to send his son. The truth is, God knows everything about you. Everything. Even those things that you would hide from every other person upon the face of the earth. He knows every foolish word that you have spoken, even under your breath. He knows every deeply sinful act in which you have ever engaged. He knows every time when your own cowardice has prevented you by God's grace from doing the evil that you desire to do. He knows the thoughts and intents of your heart. even when you are too ashamed even to admit them to yourself, let alone to anyone else. He knows everything that there is to know about you and all your wickedness and all your sinfulness. And here's the good news, that He still loves you. And there is nothing that you can confess before the throne of grace. that God will say, oh, I didn't know that. I knew it all along. God knows your sin before you commit it. And he still loves you. Not because you are so wonderful, but because he is so wonderful. So you and I can enter into this place, into the house of worship, and are not struck down by a bolt of lightning from heaven itself because of all our sins and all our wickedness, but because God does love us, and in Christ has forgiven us. all our sins. A man is tested by his praise. You and I so often fail when someone says something nice to us. But there's ultimately only one test which should be of concern to our hearts. when God says to us, I love you so much that I will send my own son into this world that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Not because I'm so wonderful, but because he is. And we take that and receive it and say, thank you. How can I benefit from this? Let me live the rest of this day to your glory. And tomorrow and the next day. And every day you ever give me, let that be the benefit from your word to my heart. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and our heavenly Father, we would recognize how the enemy of our souls desires to pull us off balance Prompting us to believe without questioning anything that is good that is said about us and growing in our own conceit. Or tempting us to disregard and turn aside from every word of encouragement that a brother or sister would bring to us in Christ, meant to strengthen us and encourage us, but stripping it of all benefit. Father, we pray that Thou would keep our feet upon that narrow path, that we may not grow conceited, proud, arrogant, and that we may not grow discouraged. by the knowledge of our own weakness, but see that thou hast indeed given us gifts to be used, and that in the using of those gifts, we might benefit ourselves, but also benefit the church of Jesus Christ and indeed beyond. That we pray most of all that for all who are here present, who would sit under the ministry of thy word, that they would hear even spoken by thy Holy Spirit in the quietness of their own hearts, that it's not because they are wonderful that thou didst send thy Son, but because thou art wonderful. God of grace, God of mercy, who knows every word that we have spoken amiss, every profanity and curse, every evil deed that we have done, and even the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and who has shown us love, not because we are worth saving, but because Thou art gracious and kind beyond measure. Hear us, we pray, in Jesus' name, for His sake. Amen.