Alright, we're going to stay
right there where Brother Norm read in Proverbs 11. And I'm
really just going to focus on verse 1 and I'll go to some other
scriptures to deal with this subject of false balance and
a just weight. False balance and a just weight. Where it says, a false balance
is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. Now, if you have a center concordance
or end notes in your Bible, that phrase just wait, it could be
translated and very well would be a perfect stone. And the idea here is the measurements
of things, to measure the value of something. And that perfect
stone, I believe if you think about it, you can see where I'm
going with this. It's pretty obvious to a believer. And it's
not a stretch at all. But you know the Bible has a
lot to say about just weights and false balances. Look over
at Proverbs chapter 20, just over a few pages. And look at
verse 9 of Proverbs chapter 20. We'll look at several passages
here in this chapter. But it says in verse nine of
Proverbs 20, who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure
from my sin? Well, no sinner can say I have
made my heart clean or that I am pure from my sin. We know that
this purity, this cleansing is from God by His grace. But it
says in verse 10, divers waits, and that's literally a stone
and a stone. Now they used stones back then
to weigh things. How many stones does this person
weigh, or how many stones does this merchandise weigh? So the
diverse weights here, various weights, is a stone and a stone,
and diverse measures, both of them are like abomination to
the Lord. In other words, God does not
measure by various different standards. He has one standard,
okay? And then he says in verse 11,
even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure
and whether it be right. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Isn't that so true? If you can see, spiritually see
the glory of God in Christ, if you can hear the glorious gospel
with a hearing ear, that's a gift from God, isn't it? That's not
something that came to us naturally. But jump across the page there
Look at verse 21. It says, an inheritance may be
gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not
be blessed. Well, how are you going to get
an inheritance hastily? The only way you could do that
is murder somebody. Think about it. But it says, say not thou
I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord and he shall save
thee. Here's this term again. Diverse weights are an abomination
unto the Lord. and a false balance or balances
of deceit, deception, is not good. Man's goings are of the
Lord. How can a man then understand
his own way? Now all this tied together, you
see, concerning just false balances and just weights. Whenever we think about religion,
Brother Norman and I were talking about this today, how we could
make a long list of things in wherein we differ from false
religion. Sometimes it comes down to very
simple things. These two things that are common
to all false religion, even false Christianity, And like I said,
we could list other things, but this kind of covers most of it. And the first thing is this,
that false religion, even false Christianity, will strive to
make salvation at some stage, in some way, to some degree,
conditioned on you, on me, conditioned on sinners. That's a false gospel. The true gospel states that salvation
is conditioned on Christ. And Christ fulfilled those conditions
so as to secure the complete salvation of all whom God gave
him before the foundation of the world. All whom he redeemed,
died for on the cross. The second matter that would reveal false
religion, is that all false religion, and again, even false Christianity,
they always measure righteousness, holiness, and truth on a sliding
scale. You see that a lot, measuring
themselves by themselves. You hear people talk about, well,
they don't preach the truth, but they're closer to the truth,
that kind of thing. It's a sliding scale. And what
that describes is the very thing that the wise man in Proverbs
here says. That's a false balance. That's
a false measure. That's a false scale. And a false
balance is abomination. It's disgusting to the Lord. God hates it. But a just weight,
and as I said, that's a perfect stone, a perfect weight is His
delight. Well, let's consider some things
here concerning how this applies spiritually to the Lord God and
His people and how we stand before God in Christ. Number one is
this, the scales here are used for weighing people in judgment. We're not talking about weighing
gold and silver. We're not talking about weighing groceries or anything
like that. This is weighing people. This
is the scales of justice. You've seen that statue of justice,
you know, blindfolded, and the scales out there, and they measure,
and justice is supposed to be blind to anything but that which
measures out, equals out. Well, what is a false balance?
Well, you know what that is. That's one that does not measure
properly. One that does not measure justly. One that does not measure righteously. That's a false balance. There's
no justice there. And what is a just way? Well,
that's obviously the opposite. One that does measure properly,
righteously, justly, even we'll say perfectly, a perfect stone. You know the idea, you know there's
several words in the New Testament that give us a description of
the idea of sin, what sin really is. And all that is sinful, truly,
if we're to see it properly, has to be measured as it relates
to Christ. And we'll see that in just a
moment. But think about, for example, the word iniquity. Now,
iniquity can apply to a lot of ways to describe sin, but one
way is inequity, unequal, it doesn't balance, it doesn't measure
up to the scale, or we might say the perfect stone, and therefore
it's iniquity, whatever it is. So iniquity, we can say this,
iniquity is works that do not balance the scales. And if those
works do not balance the scale, what are they? They're iniquity.
All right, here's the second thing. It is God, God is the
one who does the weighing here. Not the preacher, not the elders,
not the denomination, not the congregation, not man, it's God
who does the measuring here. And the balance itself is the
word of God, his word of justice, his word of righteousness. You
can consider the words of this Proverbs chapter 11, for example.
It says in verse six, or verse five, the righteousness of the
perfect shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by
his own wickedness. Now what is righteousness? What
is wickedness? Well, we have to measure that
as God measures it. We have to go by God's ruler,
you might say, God's scales. And then it says, the righteousness
of the upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall
be taken in their own naughtiness. And that word naughtiness is
something similar to depravity. And we know this, we're all sinners.
Look over at Proverbs 16. Since these are so close, think
about this. Look at Proverbs 16. The balance
itself is the Word of God, His Word of justice, His Word of
righteousness. Whatever God says, whatever God
accounts, charges, is truth and cannot be denied. But look at
verse 10 of Proverbs 16. It says, a divine sentence is
in the lips of the king, his mouth transgresseth not in judgment,
and then he goes back to the same thing, a just weight and
balance are the Lord's. In other words, the just weight,
the right weight, the perfect stuff is of the Lord. And all
the weights of the bag are his work. Now that weights of the
bag are the stones of the bag. That's the literal translation. And it says in verse 12, it is
an abomination to kings to commit wickedness, for the throne is
established by righteousness. Now if you study the history
of human kings, human rulers, you see very little justice and
righteousness. But this, as it applies to God,
and then look over at Proverbs 20 again, verse 10, diverse weights,
and diverse measures, both of them are alike abomination to
the Lord. And even a child is known by
his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right."
So you see what's happening here. How this is falling out. That this is God's measure. And
it says in verse 12, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord
hath made even both of them. And then look over at at verse
23, diverse weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance
is not good. So that's settled. And I wanted
to read those verses several times to understand that these
diverse weights, a stone and a stone, crafted by men, measured
by men, weights and measures of their own invention that make
them look good in their own eyes, by which they proclaim themselves
righteous. You understand? That's exactly
what the abomination is here. How do I see myself? How do I
see myself measuring up? Do I measure up? Well, false
religion will say, yes, you do, in some way to some fashion.
Thank you. that you do. But here's the point,
it is God alone who is the source of anything that is measured
to be righteous and that's the gospel is the revelation of what? The righteousness of God, not
the righteousness of men. So back in in our text Proverbs
11, it says, a perfect stone is His delight, and this perfect
stone, now we know who this perfect stone is, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is the only perfect stone. And if we're in Christ, we have
the righteousness of God. If we're in Christ, we have His
blood to wash away our sins. Our sins are not charged to us.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. It's God who weighs it out. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again, who's seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. How many times in the
Old Testament and the New, look with me at Romans chapter nine.
How many times is Christ described as a stone? a rock, a cornerstone. He's a rock of offense. He's
a stone of stumbling. He's the rock upon which we,
who are the church, stand. And we're measured by, you know
what a cornerstone is? That's a stone in construction
by which every measurement in the building is weighed and measured,
right there. And look at Romans 9, look at
verse 31, speaking of Israel. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore, why? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. Now that's prophesied by Isaiah, 700 and
some years before, almost 800 years before. and this is quoted,
and it says in verse 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in
Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. Well, that's Christ. The Pharisees,
the unbelieving Jews, and all men and women by nature have
a standard which they have set up in their own minds, which
is an abomination to God, and they measure themselves by that
standard. And it can be a lot of different things, diverse
weights, see? It can be, well, I gave my heart
to Jesus, or I walked an aisle and confessed Him, or I got baptized,
or I reformed my character and conduct, or I did this and stopped
doing that. All kinds of standards. Joined
this church, joined that church. But all of that is an abomination
to God. Because it is only the righteousness
of Christ is acceptable to God. And He's the stone. And anything
less than the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ
is an abomination unto God. As far as our right standing
with Him. Over here in Romans chapter 10
and verse 4 it says, for Christ is the end, the finishing, the
fulfillment of the law, the perfection of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Only Christ can cleanse us and
work righteousness for us. And it's God who imputes His
righteousness to us, imputed our sins to Him and His righteousness
to us. It's God who weighs with the
scales and balances of perfect law and justice. It's God who
makes the judgment as to whether the scales are balanced. And
it's God who crafts the stones of His purse. You don't craft
them. I don't craft them. And if we
did, it's an abomination. And the stone by which God weighs
his people is his perfect righteousness in Christ, the righteousness
of God. Acts 1731 says this, that God, God, it's God who commands
all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained in the which he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. So as we seek to come before
God and to be accepted, in any way, worship, prayer, for salvation,
for forgiveness, for righteousness, as we seek to come before God. If we seek that by anything less
than the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ,
it's an unjust way. It's diverse ways. It's an abomination
to God. Well, here's the third thing.
In ourselves, And by our works, none of us can balance the scales. Over in the book of Daniel chapter
five, you don't have to turn there. But you may remember this,
there's a story of a king in Babylon who decided to have
a party. And he told his cup bearers,
his servants, to go find the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar,
I believe this man was Belshazzar. I believe Nebuchadnezzar was
his father or grandfather, I can't remember. But he told his servants
to go get the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen out of the Temple
of Solomon and bring them so that they could use them to have
their party and drink their wine and all of this, all their gala
festivity. So what was happening there is
they were taking the things of the Lord God, which God had ordained
and made for a specific purpose, that is to be in the service
of God and worship of God, and they were using them for sinful
purposes. And you remember during their
festivities, during their party, there appeared a hand, and it
wrote on the wall. And nobody could interpret it,
so they went and they got Daniel, And Daniel read the handwriting
on the wall, and you remember what it said? Thou art weighed
in the balance and found wanting, lacking. You know, it's iniquity. Well, here's the point. By nature,
we are all weighed in the balance and found wanting. And that's
what it says, isn't that what it says in Romans chapter 3?
Verse 10, there's none righteous, no not one. That's in ourselves
now. That's based on our works. That's what that's talking about.
What Paul's doing, he's bringing an indictment against the whole
human race as we stand in ourselves. And he says there's none righteous,
no not one. There's none good, there's none
that understandeth, no not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. Brother Mahan used to say when he'd read that verse, he
said, now it doesn't say there's none that seeketh after a God.
Man by nature's religious, but there's none that seeketh after
the true and living God. They are all gone out of the
way, that's God's way. They are together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no not one. Now you go around
and you tell the average religionist, that the Bible says there is
no person on earth who is naturally or by their works good. No, not
one. Most of them will think you've
lost your mind. Well, I know all kinds of good people. You
remember the rich young man who came to Christ? He said, good
master, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?
He was addressing Christ as just a mere godly man, but not God. He didn't recognize that Jesus
Christ was God manifest in the flesh. And that's why Christ
answered him as he did. He said, why do you call me good?
There's none good but God. If you don't think I'm God, then
don't call me good. There's none good but God. And religious people, they can't
think this way because they are measuring with an unjust weight,
a false balance. And they say, I know all kinds
of good people. But the scales of God's justice
are set forth by God's standard, not man's. And in God's standard
of goodness, there's none good, no not one. So in ourselves,
by our works, none of us can balance the scales. He says it
in verse 19. We know that whatsoever the law
saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in God's sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now if your religion, is guided by a sliding scale. You can say things like I've
heard people say, well, I'm not perfect, but I've never done
anything that would cause God to send me to hell. But what does God's scales say? What does God's standards say? It says, listen, if it doesn't
measure up to that perfect stone, which is Christ Jesus, it's iniquity. So the fourth thing is this.
In salvation, our only hope is to be found in Christ. We've
got no other hope. Our hope is not in anything that
we do or stop doing, not in any religious exercise. Our hope
is in Christ and Him alone. My hope is built on nothing less. than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name, on Christ the solid rock, the solid stone I stand. All
other ground is sinking sand. Unless we're found in Christ,
we're gonna be like old King Belshazzar. Thou art found weighed
in the balance and found wanting. And the evidence of one being
found in Christ is Holy Spirit wrought faith in Him and repentance
of dead works. Think about it. Think about how
the Apostle Paul spoke out and he said, when the Lord God opened
my eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
everything that I put on that scale to balance it out, I now
count but loss. do count it but dumb that I may
win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, not going by that sliding scale that men
and women love so much, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith. Well,
let me conclude it this way. Fifthly, Beware of any proposed
way of salvation that does not balance the scales. A false gospel. You know what
a false gospel is? It's a false balance. Look at
Matthew chapter seven. You're familiar with this passage.
The apostle, or Christ himself here in the Sermon on the Mount,
He'd been talking about the straight gate and the narrow way as opposed
to the broad way that leads to destruction. Few find the straight
gate and the narrow way. That's God's chosen people. But
many go on that broad road that leads to destruction. And then
he comes down to verse 21 of Matthew 7. He says, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Now the will of the Father can be summed up in believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, believe on the Son, that's His will, and
follow His Son, rest in His Son, find your peace, your hope, your
righteousness, find your assurance in His Son, the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ. And he says in verse 22, many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
or preached in thy name? Well, now let me ask you, what
am I seeking to do tonight? What does Brother Norm seek to
do when he stands behind this pulpit? He's preaching in the
name of the Lord, aren't you? That's what I'm trying to do
tonight. I'm not here trying to preach in my own name. I'm
preaching in the name of the Lord. I'm trying to tell you
about God, about our sinfulness and God's holiness and God's
justice. And I want to tell you about our Savior. I want to tell
you about who He is and what He's accomplished. So it's not
sinful in and of itself to preach in the name of the Lord if we're
preaching the true Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says, in
thy name have cast out devils. Now that was common back then,
I've never cast out devils that I know of, but I know God cast
the devil out of me when he saved me by his grace. But I can tell
you there's nothing sinful about casting out devils in and of
itself. And it says, and in thy name
done many wonderful works. That is for his glory, that's
what they're saying. And in verse 23, the Lord says,
then while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from
me, you that work iniquity. Now, what was wrong with these
fellows? You know, I grew up listening to preachers tell me
about this verse, and here's what they would say. They'd say,
well, these guys weren't sincere enough. They weren't sincere. Well, let me ask you, are you
sincere enough? Am I sincere enough? Let me ask
you this. How much sincerity does it take?
Get out your sliding scale and measure that sincerity. Well,
you know, I'm not as dedicated as some, but I'm more dedicated
than others. There's that sliding scale. That's an abomination
to God. Somebody might say, well, they
really didn't mean it. Well, do you mean it? Do I mean
it? You see what I'm saying? Is that
the kind of religion that brings happiness and assurance that
glorifies God? And the answer is no. You see,
there's nothing sinful in any of these things in and of themselves.
But here's the problem with these guys. This is what they were
presenting before God to balance the scales. As their righteousness
before God. And that's the problem. That's
why it's iniquity. It doesn't balance the scales. I'm preaching
in God's name tonight. But that's no part of the righteousness
by which I stand before God. My preaching, I preach the righteousness
of God. I preach Christ. But my preaching
will not balance the scales of God's justice and His law and
His holiness. I want to do many wonderful works.
I want to honor God. But the best works that I've
ever done, or ever will do, will not balance the scales. Will
not equal the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. I hear these guys talking about
how they have a perfect righteousness within them now. And that's the
works that come out of the new nature, the perfection. No! No,
we have new life, we have spiritual life, we have a new heart, but
we still have the flesh that contaminates everything we do.
I'll never forget, I was telling Norm this the other day. Before
I was converted, I was sitting in 13th Street Baptist Church
listening to Brother Mayhem preach, and he made this statement. He
said, there's enough sin in the best prayer I've ever prayed
to sink a world to hell. And I told my mother, I said,
that man's crazy. That's what I told her. I didn't
realize at the time I was the one who was crazy. I was the
one who was drunk on self-righteousness. And one day the Lord brought
me to a saving knowledge of Christ and I found out he's not crazy,
he was right. And to prove that, when you pray
to God, in whose name do you pray? And how does God accept
our feeble prayers? Through the great high priest
who's passed through into the heavens. It's all Christ, you
see. And that's not saying that Christ
makes up the difference of my sinfulness and his. No. No, it's
presented before God the Father totally and completely in the
blood of Christ. His blood, what can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see, nothing we do can equal
what Christ did. And He was not sent to make up
the difference. He was sent to fulfill all righteousness
for His people. And that's His righteousness
imputed. And can you see now how glorious it is to say with
David of old, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without works. And preachers today, they want
to confuse that, water it down, mix it, don't listen to them. That's a false balance. It's
a diverse weight. A false gospel is a false balance.
False balances have always been prevalent, even today. The false
gospel of freewillism, salvation conditioned on man, the sliding
scale of righteousness and holiness. And the reason is, by nature,
people don't like God's way of judgment. They don't like God's
balance. They don't like God's measure. They prefer to make
up their own ways, false balances. They prefer to make up their
own stones. their own balances by which to
compare themselves. But God, God has set the balance. He set the scales of justice.
And my friend, if you know the God of this book and His Christ,
you'll know that the only way that we can balance them out,
the only way we can measure up is through the righteousness
of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ, Jehovah Sid Canoe,
the Lord our righteousness. All right. Amen. Let's stand together and
we'll be dismissed by prayer. Please take time to greet Brother
Bill, thank him, and we'll leave the Zoom on for a little bit
if you'd like to come up and greet those folks that have joined
us from afar. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your gracious
work of grace. Lord, that you truly have all
righteousness. We are without it. And though
in our feeble efforts we've tried to do that in religion, thank
you for showing us that the true balance is our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Bless us, Lord, for Jesus' sake
we pray. Amen.