You. That's nice having introductory
music, isn't it? We're going to miss you, Joy.
We'll be back, okay? Well, good evening, everyone.
Let's open this evening's service with hymn number 23 from the
hardbacked hymnal. Come, we that love the Lord.
Let's all stand together. 23. Come we that love the Lord, and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne. Let those refuse to sing who
never knew our God, the children of the heavenly King may speak
their joys abroad. ? The hill of Zion yields ? ?
A thousand sacred streets ? ? Before we reach the heavenly fields
? ? Or walk the golden streets ? And let our songs abound, and
every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground to fairer worlds on high. Please be seated. Good evening again. Let's take
our Bibles and open them to Psalm 33. It seems like any time we try to
correct error, we always swing the pendulum to the other side
and create a new error. I've seen in Music and worship, I've seen
two extremes. I've seen those who I would call
Epicureans who use music to excite the flesh and get man all excited
about some sort of a false presence of God. And I've seen the other
extreme. I've known churches that split
over whether or not you could sing a hymn that wasn't in the
Bible. There are churches that, you
know, that you can only sing the Psalms and they have no instruments
and everything has to be done very soberly. On the front of
your little spiral hymn book, There's two verses that are written
out there. Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord. Now that's spiritual worship. God is only pleased with what
God does. And if we're able to sing from
our hearts then that's because he put it in our hearts to worship
him. I pray that that will be the
spirit of our worship that the Lord will cause us to have a desire to
lift our hearts and our voices and our instruments. Look at
Psalm 33. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,
for praise is comely. It's beautiful. It's comely for
the upright. Praise the Lord with heart. Sing
unto him with psaltery an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him
a new song. Now that new song is given to
us in the book of Revelation when the church is seen in heaven
singing a new song. lifting their voices in praise
to Christ. Singing to him a new song, play
skillfully with a loud noise, for the word of the Lord is right
and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness
and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. But the word of the Lord I'm sorry, by the word of the
Lord, where the heavens made and all the host of them by the
breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the
sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depths in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Oh, I pray the Lord will remind
us when we come to this place that we're here to worship him. This is, we stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done.
He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. We'll stop there. Let's pray
together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, what great hope you put in our
hearts when we're brought to believe that we have a perfect
righteousness in thy presence. We have an advocate, a sin bearer. We have a substitute. One who
stands in our stead and makes us not only accepted in thy sight,
but gives us the right to be called the
children of God. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us now in this hour to come before thy throne of grace
with confidence, confidence in Christ. And Lord, we come before
you without any confidence in ourselves. You said that Your
church is the true circumcision which worship you in spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Lord, enable us this hour to
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Remind us that our flesh is but
flesh and at its very best state is altogether vanity. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 39 from your spiral hymnal,
number 39. Let's all stand once again. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying. Guilty, I deserve God's wrath. Long I fought against my master. Hell-bent, I was courting death. But the blood of Christ had bought
me, He refused to let me die. This poor sinner, loved by Jesus,
Must be conquered by and by. At the time which was predestined
in the covenant of God's grace, God in mercy sent His Spirit,
blessed time of love and grace. to reveal his son's great merit
as the sinner's substitute. I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement. Justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished. And I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening. Grace that broke my stubborn
will. Grace that would not let me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell. Sovereign grace I will proclaim
it Irresistible and free Grace that chose me and redeemed me. God, by grace alone, saved me. Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by His blood. Please be seated. I think the whole gospel's in
that hymn. That was a blessing. We're going to be looking at
Proverbs chapter 11 tonight. If you'd like to mark your Bibles
there. Proverbs chapter 11. Before we begin in our text,
I'd like for you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew
chapter 13. I've titled this message, Life
or Death. Life or Death. This is not a
matter of degrees of light or understanding, it's a life or
death matter. And the scriptures are written
in such a way as to distinguish that there are some who are alive
and some who are dead. And our Lord, when he taught,
often taught with parables. The word parable and the word
proverb is the same thing. It means to be beside. In other words, a story is told
in order to illustrate a spiritual truth. And in Matthew chapter
13, at verse 10, the disciples asked the Lord, why speakest
thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto
them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them, it's not given. They're
gonna hear the parable. He goes on in this passage and
quotes Isaiah chapter six again, where the Lord said, they'll
have ears, but they will not hear eyes. They will have, but
they will not see. They'll only understand the surface meaning.
And the apostles themselves didn't understand the real meaning of
the parables because he got them aside and explained these parables
to them. And I can't tell you how many
times over the years someone has said to me, well, I never
would have saw that in the scriptures. Well, that's the reason why the
Lord gets his children aside in worship and he sends his spirit
and uses his preachers to explain his word. But the unbeliever
will never hear that explanation. Look at, Look at verse 34 in
that same chapter. All these things spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables and without a parable spake he
not unto them that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by
the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will
utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation
to the world. Now some of us spent years studying
this book before the Lord was pleased to call us out of darkness
into his marvelous light and reveal Christ to us. And there
were a lot of things on the surface of the Bible that we understood,
but we didn't understand the real meaning. We didn't understand the message
of the gospel. We didn't see the glory of Christ.
particularly in the Proverbs. We thought the Proverbs were
just pithy, practical advice for getting through life. We
didn't know that all of Scripture was given by inspiration of God
and all of Scripture spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are dead and dying
will never see the meaning of the scriptures. But by God's
grace, He will take aside His children and He'll open up those
things which are hidden, the mystery of the gospel, those
things which can only be revealed by the Spirit of God. And that's
my prayer tonight, that He'll do that for us in Proverbs chapter
11. Will you turn with me there in your Bibles, please? A false balance is abomination
to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. Now, certainly that applies to
being honest in business. Things were sold by weight and
a dishonest businessman would take a a 14 ounce stone and call it
a one pound stone and put that on one side of the balance. And
so he would put the pound of goods on the other side and he
was selling a pound of goods for 14 ounces of goods for a
pound. And that's the practical application
of this. I mean, that's what the Lord's
saying. A false balance is an abomination
to me. It's a lie. It's deceitful. It's wrong. And I hate it. But oh, what a message of the
gospel it is. Turn with me to Proverbs 16,
verse 11. Adjust weight and balance are
the Lord's. All the weights, and that word
weight is stone. stuff that's what they use for
weights on the balance scale we see the we see the rock of
ages in that don't leave the rock on which we're to stand
in which we're to build our lives the just wait in the balance
are the Lord's all book stones up the bag are his work all the
stones of the bag are his work now term of me too Psalm 62 And look at verse 9, surely men
of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the balance, they
are altogether lighter than vanity. What do men do when they try
to balance out the scale of God's justice? They put a false balance. They put an imperfect stone on
the scale, don't they? And you remember in Daniel chapter
5 when Belchazar, who was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, brought
the instruments of worship out of the treasury into his pagan celebration that he was having,
this drunken orgy, I'm sure is what it was, and they brought
out these golden tablets or the articles of worship that Nebuchadnezzar,
his grandfather, had taken out of the temple. And I'm convinced
that the Lord would have just let Belshazzar have his party
and live out his days. until he brought those instruments
and mixed the things of God with his pagan gods. You remember
what happened that night? As soon as he brought them in,
a hand appeared and wrote on the wall. And they had to bring
Daniel in to interpret the writing. And the writing on the wall said,
You've been weighed in the balance and been found wanting. Now that's exactly the judgment
that's gonna come towards those who put their free will and their
righteousness and their works and anything else that they do
on the balance scale of God's justice. God's gonna say to them
in that day of wrath, You've been weighed in the balance and
you've been found wanting. There's only one perfect stone.
There's only one thing that will balance out the justice of God's
holy law. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
isn't it? He's the only one that can do
it. And so God says in Proverbs chapter, turn with me to Proverbs
chapter 20, Proverbs chapter 20. at verse 23. This says the same thing that Proverbs
11 verse 1 says, divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord
and a false balance is not good. It's not good. Now there's that
corrupt businessman again, he's got divers weights, he's got
different weights out there and he'll try to cheat you out of
something. But the real meaning here is
the man who tries to cheat God out of his glory, doesn't it?
By putting himself on the balance scale of God's justice. What
greater pride is there than for a sinner to think that he can
tip the scales of God's justice with his own works, with his
own righteousness, and yet that's what men think. That's what everybody
thinks. Everybody thinks that. Believers
are the only ones that don't think that. Oh, they say salvation
is by grace, not by works, but then they try to put an unjust
weight on the balance, don't they? Go back with me to Proverbs
chapter 11. A false balance is an abomination
to the Lord, and a just weight is His delight. This is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased He is the delight. He is the
apple of my eye. Hear ye Him. He's the only one
that can balance the scale of my justice. He's the only one
that can satisfy my demands and I'm pleased with Him. I saw the
travail of His soul and I was satisfied. I delight in my Son. I delight in Him, a just weight,
a just weight. A perfect weight. That's it. You see the word just in verse
1? The word there is the word perfect.
Perfect. A perfect weight is his delight. You see, this is a proverb that
the religious, the self-righteous, they'll see the surface meaning
of it and they'll say, okay, I'm going to be honest. in my
dealings with men so that I'm not an abomination to God. And
yet they're not honest in their dealings with God. Be honest in your dealings with
men, of course. Of course. Believers ought to
be the most honest. They ought to be the most reliable,
the most trustworthy employees, employers, whatever, wherever
God has us. But oh, that God would give us
eyes to see the mystery of the gospel in these things and cause
us to realize that there's only one stone, there's only one stone
that'll balance out God's justice. And when pride, look at verse
two, when pride cometh, then cometh shame. Oh, humility's
so sweet, isn't it? It's so beautiful. It's comely,
it's attractive. Don't you love to see humility
in other people? You can't see it in yourself,
can you? All you can see in yourself is your pride, but oh, how lovely
humility is, and we want to be that way, don't we? But in light
of the gospel, here's a proud man. God hates a proud look.
For a man to look to God and think that he's got something
to offer God is the height of pride, isn't it? And what will
come as a result of that? Nothing but shame. Shame. When pride cometh, then cometh
shame, but with the lowly. With the lowly. There was never
a man so lowly as the Lord Jesus Christ. Never a man so humble. Never a man so dependent upon
his father as was the Lord Jesus Christ. Never a man so harmless. Never a man so holy. And with
him, With him comes wisdom. And with him comes a lowly heart
as well, doesn't it? When the Lord shows us our pride
and causes us to realize that there's but one stone that balances
the scale of God's justice, then we're made lowly when we're made
to be sinners. A sinner is a lowly person. A
sinner is a person, though we see our pride in so many areas
of our lives, we know. We know that we have no righteousness. We know that we stand in the
presence of a holy God with nothing but our sin. Completely dependent
upon Him. How wisdom, the fear of God is
the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? Only sinners fear God. Only
sinners. Only a sinner. would fear to
stand in the presence of a holy and just God without a sufficient
advocate, without the Lord Jesus Christ pleading their cause.
Only a sinner would fear that. The self-righteous think that
they've got something to say. They're gonna bring something
to the table. Oh, how wisdom. This is wisdom,
isn't it? With lowly there is Wisdom. The integrity of the upright.
The integrity. That word integrity is innocence.
Innocence. We stand in the presence of a
holy God innocent. That's what it means to be justified.
It means that I've never sinned. And the only thing that gives
me any power over sin is that. is to realize that in the Lord
Jesus Christ, I stand perfect in the presence of the Holy God.
There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. All
my sins have been put away. If I've got Christ, I've got
innocence before God. And what does he say about the
integrity or the innocence of the upright shall guide them?
You see, it's not the threats of judgment that guide us. It's the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ that makes us innocent in the presence of
God, that gives us boldness to come into his presence to find
help in our time of need. It's our innocence, isn't it?
What breaks the heart more than to know that in spite of yourself,
you're innocent before God? What claim can a sinner take
on being innocent before God? other than what Christ has done
for him. And that's what brings us to the throne of grace, isn't
it? But the perverseness, and that
word is crookedness, and oh, how crooked the wicked are. You
see, this isn't a matter of emphasis. This isn't a matter of, well,
somebody's got more light than another. What the Lord's doing
here is he's contrasting those who are alive to those who are
dead, those who know Christ to those who don't. That's why I've
titled this Life and Death, the integrity of the upright. The
innocence of those who are in Christ will be guided to Christ. But the crookedness of the wicked
Oh, and how crooked are their ways. They'll speak out of both
sides of their mouths. They'll contradict themselves.
They'll say God loves everybody, but most of the folks God loves
He's going to send to hell. They'll say Christ died for everybody,
but most of the folks Christ died for aren't going to make
it to heaven. They'll say man's got a free
will. And then they'll turn right around and say God is sovereign.
and he's omnipotent until he comes up against your free will.
He's abdicated his throne to man. You see, it doesn't make
sense, does it? It's crooked. It's just crookedness. You can't make sense out of nonsense.
And so the Lord says the perverseness or the crookedness of transgressors
shall destroy them. They're going to be destroyed
by that. Oh, Lord, don't let me. Don't let my speech be crooked. Let it be true. Let it be straight. Let it be right. Riches profit not in the day
of wrath. You know, and we would say, well,
you know, What does a profit a man if he gains the whole world
and loses his own soul? And men, it's amazing to me.
I mentioned this a few weeks ago. The older I get, the more
amazed I am of what men will do for a dollar. They will lie
and steal and rob and deceive and throw away relationships
and throw away their integrity for a few bucks. Men in business
will do it. I'm becoming more and more cynical,
I guess, of people the older I get. But it is true. It's true. The love of money. But what about
the riches of man's righteousness? That's what he's trusting in,
isn't he? He's bringing his gold that he's fashioned. He's bringing
his altar that he's hewned. And he's presenting his works
to God. And the Lord says, The Lord says,
riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness,
righteousness. And she shall be called the Lord,
our righteousness. We have no righteousness of our
own, but all what righteousness we have in the righteous advocate,
Jesus Christ, our savior. Righteousness, that's what we
need in the day of wrath. And righteousness will deliver
you from death. No fear of judgment, no fear
of wrath. We have a perfect righteousness
before God. The perfect stone's been put
on the scale. We've been made lowly. We're
not proudly declaring our righteousness before God. Look at verse 5, the righteousness
of the perfect shall direct his way. You see, God's people are perfect. They are, they're innocent. Saints
made perfect, holy, no condemnation, no sin can be charged to them. We have a perfect righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ and he directs our way but the wicked
shall fall by his own wickedness. What the unbeliever calls righteousness,
God calls wickedness. So he says, your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before me. The righteousness of the upright
shall deliver them. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ will
speak on behalf of His children, won't He? He'll present Himself
to His Father. Hey, Father, that's one of mine.
I died for them. Don't charge them. You've already
charged me. No double jeopardy with God,
is there? Once the sin's paid for, it's
paid for. It can't be paid for again. The blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ cleanses us of every sin. He put away all the sins
of all of his people once and for all by the sacrifice of himself
and God satisfied. The law has been silenced, but the righteousness of the
upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken
in their own desire. That's the word naughtiness there.
It's the word desire. The wickedness, the transgressor,
those who transgress the way of God will be taken in their
own desire. Oh, and they do have a desire,
don't they? God, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, has sent them a strong
delusion that they should believe the lie. They desire their righteousness. They desire the lie. Why? Well,
the first part of that passage says, because they have no love
for the truth. They have no love for Christ.
All the hope of our salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our righteousness. When a wicked man dieth, verse
7, his expectation shall What is his expectation? Well,
we've made a covenant with death and with hell we're in agreement.
And what does God say? I will disannul your covenant. I'll disannul it. All your desires,
all your expectations will perish. You can't think about that anytime.
You can't help but to think about it every time someone passes
from this world, particularly a religious person, a loved one,
a family member, or a public figure who's very religious.
And you think, oh Lord, all their expectations, everything they
thought they had done to satisfy God. will perish. And the hope of
the unjust man? You see, it's either black or
white. It's night or day. It's life or death. There's no,
well, you know, if you do these things, or if you know, know
the hope of the unjust, he's going to perish. Men by nature
are unjust. The righteous is delivered out
of trouble and the wicked cometh in his
stead. How does the Lord deliver the
righteous out of trouble? How does he do it? He lets them walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, doesn't he? Brings them out gloriously
on the other side. And then an unjust man, a wicked
man comes and takes his place. A hypocrite with his mouth destroys
his neighbor. What is a hypocrite? We all see
hypocrisy in our own lives, don't we? And we hate it. We're talking
about a spiritual hypocrite, a person who pretends to be something
that they're not. They pretend to be a child of
God. They pretend to be spiritual. They pretend to love God, and
they don't. And they lie to men. They lie
to their own neighbors. And then they promote their hypocrisy
in such a way as to destroy their neighbor because their neighbor
sees, believes what they say about themselves. They don't
see their hypocrisy. But through knowledge, here in his life eternal that
they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom
thou has sent to know God, to know the power of his resurrection,
to know the fellowship of his suffering. And that's our That's
our lifelong pursuit, isn't it? To know Him. Paul said, I have
not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me, but this
one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, I press
towards the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ
Jesus, so I might know Him. And this knowledge of Him is
what delivers us. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he's able. I'm persuaded that he's the perfect
stone. If he's on my balance scale with
God, God's satisfied with him, and I can't go anywhere but to
him, and I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Verse 10, when it goeth well
with the righteous, the city rejoiceth, and when the wicked
perish, There he's shouting. Now this is the city of God,
isn't it? This is the city of God. People
think, well, you know, if we just have a, if we have a righteous
president or a righteous mayor, you know, the city will be blessed.
There's no such thing. I've never seen one. But in the church, when the gospel
of God's grace is declared, the righteous rejoice, don't they?
And when evil is exposed, when the wickedness of a false gospel
is exposed and you can't preach it one way without preaching
it both ways. You know, I have people say, well, you're such
a negative preacher. No, you've got to, the way the
script, is this not clear, the Proverbs? Proverbs 11, is this
not clear? Well, the Lord says this is one
way, this is the other way. Well, I just want you to tell
me the good stuff. No, you've got to know that the
wicked's being put to death, don't you? They're shouting for joy when
the wicked perishes. And when the wicked perishes
in your own thoughts and hearts. Lord, I was having thoughts this
way or that way. Lord, perish the thought. Perish
the thought. But the blessing of the upright,
I'm sorry, by the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted. This is the city of God. This
is the new Jerusalem. And when the Lord blesses us,
he blesses us with himself. That's what he said to Abraham,
I am thine exceeding great reward. That's the blessing. Let the
world talk about their material blessings or their physical blessings
all they want. We want the spiritual blessing,
don't we? We want God to speak. We want to find rest for our
souls in the gospel and in Christ. And by the blessing of the upright,
the city is exalted. It's lifted up, but it is overthrown
by the mouth of the wicked. All cities that have been exalted
have been overthrown. They've been overthrown. There's
places where the gospel was once preached, it's not being preached
anymore. Why? Because the wicked came
in and they compromised the truth. And unless God makes us an exception
somewhere down the road, I hope it's after my life and yours,
the same thing will happen here. He that is void of wisdom despiseth
his neighbor, destitute in the heart of wisdom, but a man of
understanding holdeth his peace. A talebearer revealeth secrets, but he that is a faithful spirit
concealeth the matter. Oh Lord, don't. Tail bearers,
those, you know, telling things. Lord, keep us from repeating
things about people. You know, to give us grace to
hide. Love covers a multitude of sins.
But Lord, more importantly, don't let us be a tail bearer when
it comes to the gospel. Don't let us tell lies about
Christ. Make us faithful. There is where
no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors
there is safety. There's wisdom in the counsel
of many. Now, what that doesn't mean. what that doesn't mean,
and I've had so many experiences of this over the years. People
come to me for advice or for counsel, and what they want is
they want somebody to affirm what they've already decided
they're going to do. And when you don't, they go somewhere
else, and they find somebody eventually that tells them it's
okay. That's not what, when the Bible says there's wisdom in
the counsel of many, it doesn't mean that, well, you got to survey
a bunch of people and then, you know, kind of take a consensus.
No. When God's people are speaking,
they all speak the same thing. They all speak the same thing.
And that's the wisdom of counsel. The wisdom of the counsel is
the gospel of God's grace. All God's people said the same
thing about Christ. Christ is not divided. They all
speak the same truth. There's wisdom in the counsel
of many. And where no counsel is, unto you a child is born, unto
you a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders,
and he shall be called what? Wonderful Counselor, the mighty
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Where there's
no counsel, where Christ isn't speaking, where he's not making
himself known, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors,
when all God's people come together and they say the same thing about
Christ, oh, that's when there's safety. There's safety, isn't
there? You know, and that's one of the
blessings of being a physical member of a local assembly. is
the safety that there is in numbers. You know, there are people that
are watching us right now and they don't have the blessing
of a local assembly. They can't get together after
the service and realize, you know, all these people believe
the same thing and they're all saying the same thing and what
a blessing that is to me. What an encouragement it is to
my heart. There's in the multitude of counselors
there's safety doesn't make you feel safe when you realize you're
not the only person who believes this you're not stuck off there
somewhere believing something that nobody else believes you've
got you've got a multitude of counselors that believe the same
thing I feel it makes me feel safe yeah I hope that I'll feel
safe in Christ if the Lord puts me out there all by myself But
what an encouragement it is to have the multitude of counselors
all agreeing. Yes, this is what the Lord's
taught me too. Look at verse 15. He that is
surety for a stranger shall smart for it. Don't co-sign, they say. Don't co-sign with a stranger,
it's gonna hurt you in the end. Well, it's probably not a good
idea to put your name on a contract with somebody you don't know.
That'd be pretty foolish. But, oh, we were strangers. We were estranged from God. We were at enmity with God. We
didn't know God. And the Lord Jesus Christ struck
hands with the Father, and He became our surety. And, oh, did
it smart Him. Did it smart Him. It cost Him
everything, didn't it? Cost him everything. And he that hateth, now you see
that word suretyship? That's the striking of hands
between men. He that hateth suretyship is
sure. Now I hate a covenant that a
man makes with another man. I hate it when I hear one man
say to another man, well now you've nailed it, you've prayed
the prayer. Pray this prayer after me and we'll nail it down
right now and we'll make a commitment together and I hear one man telling
another man, well I know you're saved. No you don't. No you don't. Only God can speak that peace
to your heart. We can't be surety ship for one
another. We can't strike hands with one
another and convince one another that we're saved. That's a work
of grace in the heart that only the Lord can do. And he that hateth suretyship
is sure. Sure of what? Sure of God's grace. Sure that I've got a surety outside
of the voice of another man. I've got the voice of God. It's
the Spirit of God that confirms to our spirit, 1 Corinthians
chapter 8, that we are the children of God. And he's the only one
that can do that. You can't convince me and I can't
convince you. And when we hear somebody trying
to do that, we hate it, don't we? A gracious woman retaineth honor
and strong men retain riches. What believing woman doesn't
want to be gracious? And she is honored because of
her graciousness. And what man, what believing
man doesn't want to be strong? And he is. He is, he's given,
he retains riches as a result of his strength. But oh, what
a picture. What a picture of Christ in his church. He's the
strong man, isn't he? He's the strong man that retains
all the riches of God, all the blessings of grace. He retains
them for his bride, who is the gracious woman. the woman who
is depending upon the grace of her husband for all her honor. You see, the unbeliever is going
to read these proverbs and think, well, you know, these are good
words of wisdom for being a better person in this world. And on
the surface, everything that they come to conclude are true.
They're true. Why do you speak to them in parables,
Lord? Because it's not for them to
know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. It's for you to know. And I'm going to take you aside
and I'm going to teach you the meaning of these parables. The
merciful man doeth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel
troubleth his own flesh. The wicked worketh a deceitful
work, but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure
reward." We preach Christ, we're sowing
righteousness and we speak of Christ. We're sowing righteousness
and we have a sure reward. This is what great hope and comfort
there is when the Spirit of God confirms to our heart by the
word of God that we are the children of God. We have an assurance
of our salvation. As righteousness tendeth to life,
so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. They that
are of a forward heart are an abomination to the Lord, but
such as are upright in their way are his delight. Though hand join in hand, the
wicked shall not be unpunished, but the seed of the righteous."
The seed of the righteous. Who's the seed of the righteous?
The Lord Jesus Christ is the righteous one and his seed is
his church. The seed of the righteous shall
be delivered. As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair
woman which is without discretion. What a picture. That's worse
than lipstick on a pig, isn't it? I mean, you got a jewel of
gold in the snout of a swine. And so is that false church who
says they belong to Christ, but in fact, they're unclean before
God, unclean. They're wearing his jewels. They're
declaring his name and all along, They're an unclean swine, animal. The desire of the righteous is
only good, but the expectation of the wicked is wrath. Oh, we
do have a desire for Him, don't we? And we do believe that all
things work together for good. You remember over there in 1
Thessalonians 5, I think it's verse 18 where it says, it says,
be ye thankful. for all things, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now there's two ways to
understand that verse. One way of understanding that
verse is be thankful for everything because it's God's will that
you be thankful for everything. And if you understand that verse
like that, then you think, well, I need to be positive and I need
to have a positive attitude and I need to be thankful because
that's God's will for me to be thankful. And then you go around
trying to pretend that you're thankful when you're really not.
Or you can understand what that verse really means. Be thankful
for all things. For all things are the will of
God in Christ Jesus concerning you. That's what that verse means. That means the expectation of
the righteous is good. I know the good that I have for
you. We can be thankful not because we're trying to pretend to have
a positive attitude, but we can be thankful believing that our
God can do nothing for us but that which is good. As difficult
and painful as it might be, it's good. It's good. I can thank
Him because I know He's doing it. The expectation of the wicked is wrath. Let's pray together. Our heavenly
father, we thank you that there is a
perfect stone that balances the scale of thy holy and righteous
justice. And how we pray now that you
would teach us and cause us to rest our hope in Him. For it's in His name we pray.
Amen. To the top. Number 28 in the
Sproul hymn. Now let's stand. Number 28. God has mercy on whom he will
and whom he will. Whom He will, He gives His grace,
And when He will, He hides His face. Let none despise God's
sovereign throne, He does what He will with His own. It is his right to save or kill
according to his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some and others
leaves to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made his choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man, and that I'm in God's sovereign hand. Prostrate I fall before his throne,
a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can,
I say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at
your throne, I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting
Jesus Christ, God's Son, I know that I'm His chosen one. And God's eternal, sovereign
choice makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. Two months. Two years before
you're coming back?