Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16, verses 2 and 3 says
this, All the ways of a man are clean. in his own eyes. But the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord,
and thy thoughts shall be established." Now, the scripture bears out
that Almighty God has a standard by which all men are going to
be measured. God's fair. God is just. God is right. God is good. Now here's the standard. The holiness of Christ. That's the standard. His holiness is the very foundation
of this question. What think ye of Christ? What
do you think about Him? Isaiah 28, 17 says judgment. When we say judgment, this is
what I'm talking about. God is going to make the call. I've said before, you take a
judge in a courtroom and that judge, if he's fair, he's going
to make a judgment according to the evidence and to the exact
interpretation of the law. Whatever is right, no plea bargain, No fudging, no absolute judgment. Judgment also will I lay to the
lion, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the
hiding place. Plummet. Plumbob. I'm going to
drop a line. I'm going to put a line, I'm
going to put a plumb bob, I'm going to put a string on this
board right here, and that point is going to come exactly, I'm
exactly to the right level. God Almighty
is going to lay the plummet. And the hail of God's judgment,
God's wrath is going to sweep away the refuge of lies. I don't want to be deceived.
I don't want to be deceived. I know just enough to know that
my old heart, that old heart that I was born with in Adam,
is going to lie to me. My heart will lie. It's deceitful. There's nothing as deceitful
as the carnal heart. It's deceitful above all things. And God is going to lay the plummet
of His holiness to everything that's going to
be judged, everything that doesn't measure up. Going to be swept
away. Now, I know this. Christ Jesus
is the foundation. He's the cornerstone upon which
the Lord builds His church. And every lively stone, every
one of God's people regenerated by the grace of God that's built
upon Him is going to be measured according to His righteousness,
and I'm glad for that. I'm glad that there will be nothing
judged in God's people according to their best, or their works,
or their thoughts. God's standard is measured by
the plummet of the absolute obedience and righteousness and holiness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. My friend, if you think that
you shall plead everything or anything that you've ever done,
I'm telling you, it's a refuge of lies. There is no hope for
any man, any woman, And the best you can do, because it does not
measure up to the holiness of Almighty God. If we're found growing in Him,
growing in knowledge, growing in grace, resting in Him, Built
up, the Scripture says, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices. That is, spiritual sacrifices
of praise and thanksgiving unto Him. Acceptable unto God by Jesus
Christ. Then we've got a hope. No confidence in our own flesh. None. None. Nothing that we've done. Nothing. Shun all thoughts. But here's
the problem. Man has a deceived sense of what
pleases God. Therefore, verse 2, all the ways
of a man are clean. in his own eyes. All the ways
of a man are without spot. They are pure in his own eyes,
in his own thinking. All the ways of a man are good enough. And they measure
up. Or they will be accepted. God doesn't help those that help
themselves. God sends those that help themselves
to hell. All the ways, all the walkings,
all the paths, all the roads of a man are clean in his own
eyes, but not in God's. You know, in the days of Noah,
all the ways of the people were thought to be clean, thought
to be acceptable. But God revealed that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination, every
purpose, every desire, every thought of his heart was only
evil continually. Now you'd think, I find it hard to believe that
every thought, every desire of a man's heart is evil continually. But here's the problem. We're
not realizing that every thought, unless it is measured and found
to be pure according to God's holiness, is evil. It's evil. It doesn't matter how moral it
is. There's a lot of people that
are moral. A lot of people want to do a lot of stuff. Let's have peace and prosperity
in the world. Let's work together. Let's help
everybody that's sick. Let's take up a collection. The only problem is it is not
according to absolute holiness, righteousness, judgment. Therefore,
it's evil. The Lord says, if you're not
for Me, according to these Scriptures, bowing to Him, looking to Him,
saying, if you're not for Me, you're against Me. Only by the revelation of God's
Spirit Through the preaching of God's Word, will a man know
and admit, in Adam, I'm totally deceived. I'm deceived. And people that are deceived
think themselves to be right. My friend, when I tell you that
coming up in false religion, false free will, man-centered,
man-honoring religion, that God wanted to save me if I would
let Him save me and accept His offer. I'm telling you, I absolutely
believed it. I believed that. I didn't believe
I was deceived. How did I know? God's Word. A self-deceived man may admit
some things to be evil, but the Scripture reveals that that heart
is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Man's ways are clean in his own
eyes, in his own thinking. But man's eyes are not the standard. Look at the latter part of verse
2. But the Lord weigheth, continually
weigheth the spirits. The Lord measures out the spirits. He balances the thoughts, the
motives, the looks, the intents. Everything is weighed in the
balance of His holiness. Absolute purity. Holy, holy, holy. That's what
the seraphims cried when Isaiah said, when I saw the Lord. Night
and day, holy Father, holy Son, holy Holy Spirit. Weighed according to absolute
right. I called a guy the other day
in Tennessee. And we were talking about, I
needed something shipped to me. And he said, I said, what's it
going to cost? And he said, Marvin, I don't
have a scale right here with me. He said, I can tell you the
dimensions of the box. And I said, well, I can tell
you this. I said, it's going to be around 20 pounds. So I
called the post office just to give me an idea of what it was
going to cost. The lady answered, and I told them, I said, I've
got a package. It's this big by this big by this big. And
I said, it's going to weigh about 20 pounds. And she said, it'll
be $19.69 plus tax. I said, okay, that's great, that's
great. Know how much the package weighed? 21 pounds and 4 ounces. You know
what the charge is going to be? Whatever they say it's going
to be. It's not going to be $19.69. It's going to be according to
their standard, according to their weight, And I can go ahead
and just assume that it was going to be 1969, and I'm telling you,
when I get that bill on my card, it's going to be whatever they
said it was. Measured by their standard. The
Lord weigheth the spirits. Not my heart, not my thinking,
not man's lies. The Lord weigheth the spirits. Well, knowing that Psalm 119
asks this, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way,
count his way to be pure? How can a man count his way to
be holy? Here's the answer. By taking
heed thereto according to thy Word. What does God have to say? Whatever we hear. If it's not
according to this Word, to these Scriptures, it's a lie. Verse 3, Proverbs 16, Commit
thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Roll your works. Roll your thoughts. Roll your intents unto the Lord. Trust the burden of your soul. We're going to die. Trust the
burden of your soul unto the Lord. I read this here the other
day. It was such a blessing to me.
I'll read it to you again. Psalm 138 verse 2. I will worship. I will lick the
hand. I will bow. toward thy holy temple. And praise thy name, praise thy
character, praise who you say you are for thy lovingkindness
and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name." Almighty God has established His Word
to be counted by Himself above all of His character. His Word. His way. I know according to God's Word
that my way is not clean in His sight. My sight it is. Not in
His. I know that my best is always
going to be found wanting, lacking, been weighed in the balance.
Bell shatter. And you've come up short. How do I know this? Because His
Word tells me that every man at his best state is altogether
vanity. And then that little word, selah. Mow that over. Every man at his
best state, at his best way, at his best works, altogether
vain and evil and proud. Oh, to have my works, my standing
ground. My standing ground. My action
to be this. His righteousness. His righteousness. What's all your hope? Marvin,
what is the only hope you've got? If I knew that today, and
this might be the last time I ever preach, and if it is, I pray
the Lord Bless the Word to the salvation of His elect. Comfort
His people. And that I be found faithful,
preaching the gospel of God's free grace. But if somebody were to ask me,
tell me this. Wherein, where is your ground
of standing? What are you going to base? What's all of your hope? What's
all your hope? Here it is. I can say no better
than God's Word. This is what King David said
under the inspiration of God's Spirit. Although it be not so
with my house, He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things. And sure,
this is all my hope. This is all my salvation. Here's
all my hope right here. This is all my hope. That Almighty
God, from before the foundation of the world, chose to show mercy to me. And
look not upon what I would do, because He knew what I'd do. And by the grace of God, I know
what I did. All of my hope is that Christ
has forever stood as my surety. And that Almighty God viewed
me in Christ, and Christ alone, and that His righteousness is
charged to me. And that what I am by nature,
He was made. And He put away the guilt of
my sin. Though I live with the presence
of it, and soon shall be even taken away from the very presence
of it. All of my hope is that God Almighty
sovereignly showed mercy to me, Mitch. That chose me in Christ. And that when Christ came to
this earth, according to His Word, according to His Scriptures,
that He laid down His life for me, And died far in the place
of, in the stead of Marvin Stoniker. And he paid my debt to God's
broken law. And satisfied righteousness by
his obedience in life and death. And that the Spirit of God has
put a new man in me. that I've been born from above,
that God Almighty has chosen according to His will and His
purpose to show mercy and compassion to me, not according to my works. And He gave me faith to believe
it. And by faith, faith that was not mine, but His, I believe. that all of my life is His life
in me. That's all my hope. That's all
the comfort I've got. Trusting Him, not even trusting
my faith, not trusting my feelings, trusting Him. Commit thy works
unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be right, established,
sound, kept, man is wrong being born in Adam and led into error
by doing and trusting what pleases him and seems to be right in
his own eyes. But he that is set by the grace
of God, upon the sure foundation of Christ, by God's will, God's
purpose, given a new heart that believes that his eternal weight
of glory to show mercy to me is all of my hope. That man's
thoughts of what is right and what is just and what's going
to stand, that's sound. Lord, keep me for Christ's sake. Amen.