Proverbs 25 verses 1-7, these are God's words. These also are Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable. Take away the dross from silver, and it will go to the silversmith for jewelry. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness. Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of the great, for it is better that he should say to you, Come up here, and that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your eyes have seen. Amen. That ends this reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. The first verse alerts us to our coming into a new section of the book of Proverbs. There are several of these as far as main or larger sections go. And this is probably the third large section of the book of Proverbs. The first verse indicates that it was during the revival under Hezekiah, the king of Judah, that these particular ones were collected and copied, perhaps covered. In the first section, the seven verses that are before us, this evening especially are for kings and kings-to-be. It reminds us that Proverbs as a whole, of course, is wisdom for all of humanity and particularly God's people, as all scriptures, especially for God's people. But in the second place, it is more particularly aimed at young men even above believers generally, and not just young men, but especially young men who are being prepared for authority, either among God's people or especially among a nation that is made up of God's people. So civil magistrates or kings in training. And verse two takes, whether it's the king in training or a young man more generally, or a believer, more generally still, right back to the source of all wisdom. And that is God is the one who has created all things. He is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. in his wisdom, in his knowledge, and so it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, or to conceal a word. Very literally, although the Hebrew word for word is very broad, sometimes it can refer to an action, but its fundamental meaning is word. It says, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter. In other words, God's knowledge, his wisdom is infinite. He knows himself and he knows everything that is directly and immediately, not by way of observation or learning. He has knowledge and wisdom inherent to himself. He's not like us as creatures. The things that we can know, we can know because God has chosen. how much to make available to us, how much to reveal. And so it is the glory of God to conceal everything else from us to reserve the rest of His infinite knowledge unto Himself. Now, to the extent to which God enables us to learn, to receive instruction, to have resources, to have abilities, there is an obligation that we have to discover, to learn, to gain knowledge of God's world and especially of God's Word. And so he says here, the glory of a king is not to expand his orders. The glory of a king here is not to multiply his military. The glory of a king is not to fill his treasury. the glory of the king in this case, the great thing that he can do with all of the resources and ability and the power that he gets is to increase the knowledge of God by himself, and by his subjects in his realm. That the state, and especially now that the church is not itself a state, the state's great duty is the protection and the prospering, the help of the church, so that God may be known in the nation. And the ruling by the moral law of God in the nation. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out the matter. So, whatever the Lord has not concealed, but has permitted, has revealed, the king should make it his priority to, in dependence upon God, seek out the knowledge of God. Another way of saying this would be, the chief end of kings is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Or the chief end of a king is to facilitate the nations glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. Now this is a great obligation that is laid upon a king. Those whom God sets in authority over us are often dealing with more than we could possibly anticipate or understand. We are not in the place of a king. This is also true with our neighbors. This is true even often with your brothers and sisters in your own home. You don't know what's going on in their heart and in their mind. And so we shouldn't jump to conclusions or be overly critical or judgmental about one another in the home or others in the church or others in the, we just don't know. And it's quite possible that verse 3 is still thinking of the subject in the way that verse 2 described, that the king doesn't even know his own heart. This is what the Lord says through Jeremiah, the heart is deceitful above all things, tracked over above all things. There are so many intricate and competing and complex motivations and emotions going on in the heart at any one time that we shouldn't even presume to think that we know ourselves. Well, with respect to a king, with respect to those over us, it is very easy to become judgmental of them. This was true when there were just two people, and the one who was over them was the living God. And part of Satan's tempting Eve was using her to coax Adam into being judgmental of God. And so we must watch against that inclination of our heart, how easily we become judgmental of those who are over us. This is true, of course, in the church as well. It's true with children, with their parents, a wife, with her husband, and so forth. And even for those who are not over you, remember, we don't even know our own heart. do not presume to know the heart of someone else. And so as the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable. Now the king has an obligation to observe, since you cannot know the heart, he needs to observe the conduct and draw some conclusions from that. Because a king's rule, a king's authority can be fouled up by just one wicked or unreliable man among his advisors. This is true for kings, generally speaking. The most important thing that they do is select the men with whom they are going to surround themselves. That's probably second to selecting the woman to whom they are going to join themselves. Solomon, sadly, knew the truth of that too late. Well, he probably knew it early as well, but he had suppressed that truth and ended up transgressing it a thousand times. But it is one of the most important things that someone in authority does, is selecting those with whom he's going to surround himself. You have to take away the dross from the silver for it to be fit for jewelry. And you have to take away all of the wicked. You don't leave some dross in the silver and make jewelry out of impure, mottled silver. And you should take away all of the wicked from among the counselors. The king should take all of the wicked. from among his counselors. And you should seek that there would be none wicked among those who are your confidants with whom you share your joys and your griefs, to whom you look for counsel, those who are your companions in life. And most of all for you, like we were saying earlier, for the king, even more important than who the counselors of the court are going to be, that he would have a queen who is godly above all else. The most important decision you are going to make in this world is whom you are going to marry. And you must not settle when it comes to the godliness or the character of the person that you're going to marry. It's actually fine to settle in many other areas. There is no one so perfect, but that if you are looking for someone that is perfect, you are consigned to be single. And if everyone else was looking for someone that was perfect, you couldn't get married. But one place you must not settle is uprightness of character that your house may be established. Another thing that we shouldn't assume, whether it's in the case of the one who is being prepared for future kingship here, and he's being given advice, do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king and do not stand in the place of the great. And this is connected to verses 4 and 5, saying, don't assume that you're the righteous one the king is looking for. Part of your righteousness ought to be the humility to take a low post and serve well and be godly and work hard. And if the king finds pleasure in you, and if you are the righteous one that he is looking for for a higher post, let him select you. Much worse, if you are in the place and he's trying to weed out the dross, from among the quote-unquote silver of his cabinet, of his counselors, and he looks at you, and he looks at someone who's beneath you, and he looks back at you, and he looks at them, and he thinks, that other guy's the silver, and this one's the dross. How'd they get up here? And then you would have seen the king, whom your eyes have seen, says verse seven, and have to be put lower in his presence. Generally speaking, when we know that What is really needed is good men, upright men. We should seek to be good and we should seek to be upright, but we should not assume that we are the man that is needed. We should seek by the appropriate ways by which God gives such a calling. In this case, the king's counselor is selected by the king. But by the appropriate ways by which the Lord gives such a calling, we should seek that that which God's grace has produced in us would be put to good use in whatever place He is willing to give us. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus. He who is last will be first, and the first will be last. So don't exalt yourself. Don't put yourself in high position. Seek instead before God to learn from Him whatever He has not concealed and what He has revealed. to gain wisdom, to gain the knowledge of God, to gain the knowledge of His world, so that you may serve well in the world that He made and in which He has placed you. And let Him, by good order and providence, bring you into the place where you are needed to serve. Amen, let's pray. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this portion of your word. We thank you for your Son, who is the King of kings and who is perfect in his righteousness, who needs no counselors, but is pleased to make us righteous. and to grow us in conformity to him, that we may be his servants. Give us, Lord, a hunger and thirst for knowledge. Make us to see how glorious it has been of you to make us able to know things, and give us pleasure in discovering the things that you have revealed and make available to us. Give us, we pray, wisdom in choosing those who will be companions for us. Grant that in our household we would all be godly, that we might be good and helpful companions to one another. So bless to us this portion of your word and grant that your spirit would continue writing it on our hearts, we ask through Christ. Amen.