Proverbs 16.2, all the ways of
a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Sinners are absolute masters
at justifying themselves. And when I say sinners, I mean
you. And of course, me. We're masters at justifying ourselves. even in the face of just obvious,
clear, plain truth to the contrary, we'll justify ourselves. And
if you think believers don't do that, then you just prove
the truth of the statement. You're blind to your own self.
And me too, we're blind to our own sin, the very things that
we look down on others for, and even we'll speak badly about
them for, We're guilty of ourselves. There is nothing clearer in God's
word than that. May God give us grace to stop
judging one another. We never have a reason to do
that, ever. To ever look down on somebody
else. How can a worm look down on another worm? God give us grace. We cannot
see the beam in our own eye But we can sure see a splinter in
somebody else's eye that's what our verse is talking about Do
you remember that teaching of our Lord in Matthew 7 turn there
with me if you would in Matthew 7 I Don't want to just casually
mention that because this is key to our verse we want to We're
here to know what God said, and if we're gonna have to, the only
way to find out what God said is to look at what God said about
what God said. It's not what I say about it.
Matthew 7, one, judge not that you be not judged. And now the
Lord, and people, you know how people use that. Judge not that
you be not judged. People say, well, you never should
even be able to identify any sin at all. Even when it's open
and blatant in the sight of God because you're not supposed to
judge. It's not talking about that It's talking about condemning
someone else for something when you're clearly guilty of it yourself
The Lord does say by their fruits you shall know them and he does
say judge righteous judgment But this is talking about us
judging one another and pronouncing condemnation for sin that all
of us are guilty of For with what judgment you judge, you
shall be judged. Unless God changes our heart,
we're gonna condemn everybody but ourselves. And what he's
saying is if that's what you are, then you're gonna be condemned
yourself. If you judge without mercy, then you'll be judged
without mercy. I don't want that. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye,
that word mote means like a splinter, it means chaff, the chaff from
the wheat, even the wheat ain't very big, the chaff is just a
husk, it's a little something in your eye. Why beholdest thou the mote that
is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that
is in thine own eye? And there's a reason that word
is translated beam, because when you think of a beam, you think
of a support structure. That's exactly what the word
means, a support, a structural support that is in thine own eye. Or how will you say to your brother,
let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold, a beam
is in your eye. How can you, not only are you
guilty of what they are guilty of, but because you are, you
can't see right. How are you gonna even be able
to pull a moat out when you've got a beam in your, you can't
even see. You don't even know right from wrong without God.
You don't know a moat from a beam. or righteousness from sin. You
don't know the difference. If you did, you'd see it in yourself.
By God's grace, sometimes we do. Believers do. You hypocrite. First cast out
the beam out of your own eye, and then you shall see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And listen, the only one in that
parable right there that saw the beam is God. The only one that saw the beam
is God. Why? Because all the ways of a man
are clean in his own eyes. That's our verse. I've seen people
sin. Have you ever looked at somebody
and said, that's sin? If God said it's sin, it's sin,
right? And I've seen people, I'll take it a step further.
I've seen people point out sin in other people and they're committing
the same sin at the same time. I've seen it. I've seen different people One's
bad-mouthing one for a specific sin, and the one bad-mouthing
the one is committing the exact same sin at the time that they're,
that's our nature, isn't it? But you know what the real question
is? What about me? I've seen that. I've seen that
in them. What about me? What about me? What about David
when Nathan said, David, it's you, it's you, that's the problem. It's not somebody else. David
could see the sin when he thought it was somebody else. But he was committed, he was
the one committing it and he couldn't see it then. But when
Nathan said there was this man, David said, oh boy, you bring
that man to me, I'll kill him. And Nathan said, it's you, David,
it's you I'm talking about. The Pharisee could see the public
in sin Remember Luke 18, let's turn
over there Luke 18 10, please turn with me Luke 18 10 This
is a brief passage of Scripture, but boy you talk about the gospel Luke 18 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray,
the one a Pharisee and the other a Republican. The Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself. And you know what? The Lord shows
a little, he gives a little bit of light every time you look
at something, doesn't he? It seems like he does. I'm so thankful
for that. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank you that I'm not as other men are. The only way
you can pray that is with yourself. If you actually ever pray to
God, you're not gonna pray like that. You can't stand before
God and say, I'm not as bad as other people are. You can't do
that, because he's God. That's how you see what you are,
is you see him. You know who you're praying to,
and you know what you are. Job said, mine I see of thee,
and I abhor myself. And people that abhor themselves
in their sinful, wretched, black-hearted nature are not gonna say, boy,
I'm sure I'm glad I'm not like other people, like that old publican
over there. Boy, what a wretch he is. You
can't pray with God like that. You pray with yourself. I thank thee that I am not as
other men are. It sounds good on the surface,
doesn't it? Oh, he's thanking God. The problem is he's exactly
as other men are. Paul said, by nature, you're
the children of wrath, even as others. That word means equal,
even. Just like there is none righteous,
no, not one. Extortioners, unjust. He started
naming specific things that he's not. And you know, he was a Pharisee.
You know, it was the one thing. I turned there one time and showed
it to you. When the Lord used the word Pharisee, he said, you
extortioners. The very thing that he denied
being was the very thing that characterized who he was. Unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. He saw that old publican over
there beating on his chest. And he said, boy, I'm glad, thank
you, Lord, I'm not like that. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes, I'm not this, and I am this. I do this, I don't do that,
and I do this. That's the law. You want to stand
before God on a footing of the law? Paul said in another place,
don't you hear the law? The law condemns you. By the
deeds of the law shall no man be justified in the sight of
God. And this man wasn't. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I possess in the public and standing afar
off. would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. And the Lord said, I tell you,
this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. The Pharisee went down to his
house after praying with himself, and he went down in his sins. All of the sins that he had named
that he wasn't guilty of, he went down to his house guilty
of those very sins. For everyone that exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The Pharisee's ways, quite simply,
were clean in his own eyes. That's what Solomon wrote. God
with the heart God weighs the spirit And the Pharisee was found
wanting By God's grace the publican saw
himself as God did at least to some degree I Really believe
that if we ever saw ourselves exactly the way God did we would
die on the spot Don't you think it would kill us it would kill
us I? We wouldn't, if people commit
suicide because, you know, there's no hope in this life and things
like, you talk about no hope. You look at yourself the way
God sees you. You talk about despair. You don't know what
despair is and I don't either, because I've never seen myself
exactly the way God sees me. But by God's grace, he knew this
much. God, I need your mercy. I've
got nothing to brag about, but I need mercy because I'm a sinner.
God showed this man the being that was in his own eye and the
blackness of his own heart. But what's marvelous and what's
glorious and beautiful and what we will sing about today and 10,000 years from now, there's
not going to be 10,000 years, I suspect, but if there were,
we'd still be singing about it. And when there is no more time,
we'll be singing about this. God didn't see anything in his
eye or in his heart or anywhere else. He said, he's justified. He weighed that sinner's heart
and said, he's justified. He's not guilty. He's not sinful. How? propitiation That's what he prayed
for he said God be merciful and that word merciful there means
propitious It means to appease it means propitious, and here's
that same word It's in different forms. This is the adjective
form I believe in our in where we just read in Luke and in Romans
here I believe it's the net or the verb and Romans 3.24, being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation,
a sin offering, through faith in his blood. to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. It's the same word that Paul
uses in Hebrews 9 that is translated there, mercy seat. And in that context, Paul describes
how that the Old Testament high priest went into that holy place
made with hands once a year, not without blood. Paul mentions that in Hebrews
9.5, that Old Testament mercy seat, or propitiation, or appeasement. And then he says this in verse
nine, in that same context, which was a figure for the time, then
present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience. Those sacrifices and offerings
in the Old Testament were never meant to take, they could never
take away sin, they could never make you without guilt before
God, which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings
and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation,
but Christ, what does he mean by the time of reformation? But
Christ. being come and high priest of
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. That's what that publican was
crying out for. Redemption, propitiation on the
mercy seat, Lord. I'm a sinner. and my only hope is your grace."
And he didn't see himself by God's grace the way the Pharisee
saw himself because God had given him a new heart and his ways
were not clean in his own eyes, not anymore. Paul said, I was
alive without the law once. I didn't have any idea. I was
living by the law, but I didn't even know what the law said.
And then the law came. The spiritual truth of the law
was taught me by God's Holy Spirit, and sin revived, and I died. But now this publican knew that,
and you know how he knew it? You know how he knew that he
had no hope before God but the blood, because that's all God
has ever said. God's been saying that since
the beginning. He said it all the way through
his word from Genesis to Revelation, and he's still saying that. He's
still saying the same thing in thousands of different ways,
the same simple truth that the only way a sinner can have mercy
and favor with the holy God is by the high priest, Christ, offering
a burnt offering, Christ, and bringing that blood, Christ,
into the most holy place, Christ, and splashing that blood on the
mercy seat, Christ. If the high priest does that
for me, then I'm justified. I'm clean. Clean not just in
my eyes. I'm not cleaning my eyes, but
I am in his Where it counts When things were
weighed in those days the last part of our verse talks about
What God weighs and how he does it? He weighs the spirits. It's a spiritual weight. I When
things were weighed in those days, when the Book of Proverbs
was written, there was a set of scales and there was a stone.
And if you bought something at a merchant's place, so you buy
a pound of rice from the merchant, a one-pound stone was set on
one side of the scale, and they would pour rice on the other
side, and when you had a pound of rice, the scales would balance. Problem was, of course, knowing
the nature of man, often it was a false weight. They would get
a rock, and everybody kind of knew, you know, what a one-pound
rock looked like, so they would hollow it out somehow, you know,
and make it look like a one-pound rock, and they'd probably write
on there one pound, but it wasn't a pound. It was common for dishonest
merchants to use a stone that didn't weigh what they said it
did, so that they could charge people for a pound, but actually
give them something less. And there's a verse of scripture
that describes this very clearly. Proverbs 11.1, a false balance
is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. The word just there in the original
Hebrew means perfect. A perfect weight. Gotta be exactly
a pound now. or you're not getting a pound.
And the word weight there means stone. That's what we've been
talking about. That was the weight, a stone. So the perfect stone, and this
verse means more, Proverbs 11, one means more than just that
God doesn't like cheats, although that's true too. The perfect
stone is Christ. And God weighs everything in
that balance with that perfect stone. When God weighs the spirit
of a man, he doesn't weigh it in comparison to another man.
That's a false weight. You might measure out pretty
good based on that because everybody is altogether vanity. But that's not the way God weighs.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So if he
weighs you against me, that might be fine. You might look pretty
good. It would be a lie though. God weighs you and me by that
perfect stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And do you remember what
God wrote on Balthazar's wall? When Balthazar used the the consecrated
vessels of God's tabernacle and temple to have a party and drink
wine out of them. And those were consecrated unto
God. Those are only to be used in
the worship of God to picture Christ. And Balthasar said, I'm
the king. I'll do what I want to do. Bring me those vessels.
I'm sure he had other vessels. He was deliberately thumbing
his nose at God, which is what we do all the time. It's what
we've been doing since the garden. And Daniel told Balthazar a story,
reminding him about his father, Nebuchadnezzar, and how that
Nebuchadnezzar lifted himself up in pride, too, and said, look
at this great kingdom that I've built. And God showed him what
an animal he was, what a monster he was. And then Nebuchadnezzar
praised the God of heaven and earth and said, oh, who can stay
his hand? Or saying to him, what doest thou? And he said this,
he said, Those that lift themselves up in pride, God knows how to
bring them down. And Daniel told Balthazar, the
Lord taught your father this, but you apparently don't know
it. And God wrote on the wall, and
he wrote several things, and one of them was this. I believe
it's pronounced tekel, T-E-K-E-L. Thou art weighed in the balances
and are found wanting. You came of light. And that very night, God killed
him and put him in hell. And this is all of us by nature
now. That publican, by God's grace,
knew it. And you know what he did? He
cried for mercy. I'm not gonna measure up. I need
the lamb and his precious blood. I need the mercy seat. I need
for God to be propitious to me. The only way that mercy can be
had by the precious blood of God's lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us grace. I recommend
that. Cry to him for mercy because
you don't measure up either. All have sinned and come short,
come short. but we're justified if we are
by grace through faith in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God be propitious, have mercy
on me, a sinner. Let's pray.