Well, it's good to be back. Always
enjoy it. Always enjoy worshiping with
and hearing your pastor preach the outstanding messages of the
grace of God in Christ. just lifts my soul. And the Lord uses them. And being
with you back in the physical fellowship is always good. It's
always a shot in the arm for me. So it's good to be back.
We're going to look at Proverbs chapter 11 there that Brother
Terry read. He told me when I come out, he
said he read over these verses today and he said he wondered
where I was going with this. And I thought, well, the best
way to tell you where I'm going is to start out talking about
where I come from on this. And the title of the message,
and I'm basically going to focus on verse one, but the rest of
those verses that he read are just right in line with it. If
you understand the meaning, the key that is set forth in verse
one, you understand the rest of these verses. And the title
of the message is, A False Balance and a Just Weight. A False Balance
and a Just Weight. And what got me on to this passage
and other passages, and there's so many that you could choose
from, is in our local newspaper in Albany, once a week they have
a religious writer who writes in the op-ed section. And about
three weeks ago, he had an article about comparing the Psalms in
the Bible to the, quote, Christian, unquote, songs today, and how
different they are. And he mentioned a top 20 of
Christian music. I didn't know there was a top
20. But if I'd say the top 20 in the Bible, I'd say, well,
maybe the first 20 Psalms, then the rest of them are on top too.
But he said the main difference that he saw between what people
call Christian music today, and you know as well as I do that
there's very little that's truly Christian about it. It's mostly
just romance and poetry that's designed to make people feel
better, but it's not anything glorifying to the Lord, and identifying
Him and distinguish Him as He should be identified and distinguished
in the Word, and the Word preached and the Word sung, like what
we sung tonight. And he said the main difference
that he sees in the Psalms of the Bible that's missing in these
so-called Christian songs is the justice of God. And I thought,
you know, he's got some insight. Now, if you read the rest of
his article, you know he really doesn't understand what he even
said. But he's right. Often, when you
read the Psalms, you know this was not written in the original
manuscripts. You know, you have Psalm, like
Psalm 130, one of my favorites. And often, you'll have words
written underneath that tells you a Psalm of David or a Psalm
of Asaph. And sometimes they'll give you
more information. You'll see the word maskil, or
some people pronounce it mashil. But that word means judgment.
That's what it means. And you see it all through the
Psalms. The justice of God. Now in today's modern Christianity,
it's love and feeling better and all of that. But the justice
of God is totally thrown away. Because people don't want to
hear about God being a just God. But one of the things that we
see all through the Bible, and even in the Psalms, when I think
about Psalm 85, which is another one of my favorites, he speaks
of mercy and truth have met together. He speaks of righteousness and
peace have met together, or have kissed each other. He speaks
of righteousness out of the earth, which is referring to Christ.
And what it's showing us there in the Bible from Genesis all
the way to Revelation is that without God's justice being satisfied,
there is no mercy. Without God's righteousness being
established, there is no peace with God. And that's the case. God is a just God and a Savior. And that led me to this passage
here. Look at verse one. A false balance
If you have a concordance, it may say something like this,
balances of deceit or deception. A false balance is abomination
to the Lord. Now, the word abomination is
something else. An abomination is something that's
always connected to idolatry, blasphemy, something that the Lord hates.
You know, the Bible speaks of the abomination of desolation.
And that's something that's connected with idolatry, blasphemy, misrepresenting
God. And then it says, but a just
weight is his delight. Now, if you have a concordance,
look there and see what it says, a just weight. The literal translation
would be a perfect stone. Now, do you know anything about
a perfect stone? Now, you ladies, you might have
a diamond on, you might think that's a perfect stone, but that's
not what he's talking about. You know who the perfect stone
is, don't you? That's Christ. You read it. He's the stone. And that's where I want us to
go today. The Bible says a lot. Just turn
just a few pages over. We're just in the book of Proverbs.
Look at Proverbs 20. Listen to this. Now, you know, when we talk about
false religion, we could say a lot about it. But you know
me, I sort of like to get everything down to its simplest common denominator. Let me give you just a couple
of things that is common to all false religion, even false Christianity. And number one is this, that
false religion, will make whatever they call salvation always conditioned
on sinners at some stage, to some degree, in some way. But
God's way of salvation doesn't do that. God's way of salvation
is salvation conditioned on Christ alone, and that he fulfilled
all those conditions and secured the salvation of his people.
I love that passage in Isaiah 9 when it talks about the government
is upon his shoulder. That's the government of the
kingdom of God. That's the government of the
covenant of grace. It's on his shoulders, not on
your shoulders. If it were, it'd fail. If it
was on my shoulders, it would fail. The only assurance of salvation
that we can have based upon us doing anything is the assurance
of failure. But in Him who is our surety,
Now that's assurance, that's peace, isn't it? That's comfort.
And that's why the scripture tells us that we're to walk and
run in this Christian life, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
what? Finisher of our faith. It is
finished. You talked about that this morning.
And so, that's false religion. The second thing that's common
to all false religion, and again, even false Christianity, is they
will always judge holiness, righteousness, goodness on a sliding scale. It's always that way. Somebody
says, well, I'm not as bad as I used to be, but, you know,
I'm getting better, you know. This idea of progressive holiness
and progressive saying, always on a sliding scale, and it's
always how we compare to one another, you know. It's like
a fellow told me one time, he said, well, I know I'm not perfect,
but I'm not as bad as some people. Well, that's okay, and I'm glad
he's not as bad as some people, but that's not going to do him
good in the eyes of a holy God. who cannot even look upon and
accept sin. Look at Proverbs 20, look at
verse 9. It says, who can say, I have
made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin. Now who can say
that? Do you know there are people who do say that? That may shock you, but they
do. But I can't say that, you can't say that. And then he says
in verse 10, diverse weights, that's various weights and diverse
measures. Now that diverse weight is a
stone and a stone. And the reference there is to
the stones that they used in commerce to weigh things in order
to see if it evened out and they charged the right price or they
got the right value of the thing. It had to balance out. And so
when you think about what Proverbs 11.1 says, when it talks about
a false balance and a just way. Think about the scales of justice.
You know that statue of the blind woman holding out the scales
of justice. And it's got to balance out.
Got to balance out. But look at what he says here.
Diverse weights. This is Proverbs 20.10. Diverse weights and diverse
measures, both of them are like abomination to the Lord. God
hates a false balance and unjust weight. He says in verse 11,
even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure
and whether it be right. You know, A lot of people, they
refer to passages like 2 Corinthians 5, 10 where it talks about God's
going to judge the works, you know, whether it be good or bad.
That's not God judging sinners. It's not God judging us by our
works. It's God judging the works themselves. Whether or not they're the product,
the fruit of God's power and grace, or they're the product
of sinful flesh. And you know what makes the difference
there? How do I stand with Christ? Am I washed in His blood? Am
I clothed in His righteousness? Or am I on my own? Because to
be on your own is not going to balance out. You can bark it. And he says in verse 12, the
hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both
of them. Oh my goodness, look at that.
Isn't that a gift of God? If you can see the spiritual
thing, if you've got spiritual eyes. Christ told his disciples,
blessed are your eyes. How blessed are, you see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The hearing ear. I always loved that passage when
the Lord was walking on the road to Emmaus, and those fellows,
they said their hearts burned within them because they were
hearing things that just met their need, filled their hunger. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Is that the way you feel? Is
that the way I feel? Burning for the Word of God.
That's what you're here tonight. You're here to hear the Word
of God. To glorify God. Well, look over at verse 21 right
across the page of Proverbs 20. An inheritance may be gotten
hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be
blessed. In other words, out of time. And he says, Say not
thou, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and He
shall save thee. Diverse waits are an abomination unto the Lord,
and a false balance is not good. Man's goings are of the Lord.
How can a man then understand his own way? Now all of this
is keyed upon this issue of the balance. And back here in Proverbs
11, there's basically five things that we can take from this to
understand it. And here's the first thing. The
scales that he's speaking of, look at it again, Proverbs 11,
1. A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight
is his delight. God's judgments are always according
to truth. And He delights in His truth.
Now the Bible says He delights to show mercy. Aren't you glad
that God delights to show mercy? You know why? Because the mercy
that God shows is honoring to Him. The mercy that God shows
does not deny, challenge, or confuse His justice. It shows
him to be both a just God and what? A Savior. Somebody said,
well, you talk about that all the time. Well, that's the first
message that the Lord, I was sitting back there right in front
of where Paul's sitting, Paul and Lisa, and it's the first
message I heard Brother Mayhem preach from Isaiah 45 that the
Lord got my attention. I just got insane. I told my
mother, I said, I've never heard anything like that before. I
was a second year seminary student. Never heard it. But that just
got a hold of me. But here's the first thing he
says. These scales here, these balances, are used for weighing
people in judgment. He's not weighing things, materials,
groceries. He's weighing people. And that's
where we need to bring this down to. How do I stand before God? What is a false balance? Well,
it's one that does not measure properly or righteously. Justly. No justice. What is a just weight? Well, that's one that measures
properly or righteously. Justice. You know what the Bible
talks about the word iniquity. one of the many words that describes
our sin. The English understanding of
that, I think a lot of people, they'll translate it transgression,
and that's okay. Because it's all sin, isn't it?
It all falls short of the standard of the glory of God. But the
English understanding of that is inequity. In other words,
it doesn't level out. It doesn't balance. It's not
equal to what God requires. And that's another thing about
God, that false religion. People really don't understand
what God requires. And like me, when I was lost
in my sins, spiritually dead, when I heard a preacher tell
me what God really requires, the first thing I shot up in
my mind, that's not fair. Well, what does God require?
He requires righteousness. He requires perfection. And it
has nothing to do with being fair. That's who God is. He cannot
require anything less as to the ground of salvation because of
who he is. That's his nature. For God to require and accept
less as to the ground of salvation would be to deny himself. So
he's talking about measuring people here, judging people.
Here's the second thing. God is the one who's doing the
weighing. You're not the one, I'm not the
one, the preacher's not the one, the denomination's not the one,
the society's not the one, God's the one who's doing the judging
here. He's the one who's weighing with the scales. The balance
itself, it can be the word of God. What does God say about
this issue? His word of justice, His word
of righteousness. That's why the gospel is called
the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith. That's knowledge revealed to
faith. That's knowledge believed. As
it is written, the just shall live by faith. Look at Proverbs
16. Look at verse 9. Proverbs 16. And here's another passage that
shows that same idea. Verse 9 says, A man's heart deviseth
his way. Now that's true, isn't it? But
what does the Bible say about our hearts? They're deceitful,
desperately wicked, who can know it? Above all things. But the
Lord directeth his steps. If you want to know about this
issue of salvation and being made right with God and walking
in righteousness, what does God say? That's the issue. And then he says in verse 10,
a divine sentence is in the lips of the king. His mouth transgresseth
not in judgment. He doesn't make a wrong judgment. Whenever God judges, it is right. If God condemns the wicked, he
does it in a right way. If God justifies the ungodly,
he does it in a right way. That verse out of Proverbs 17
that so many use today, saying that those who justify the wicked
and those who condemn the just are an abomination to the God.
And they go from there and they say, well, now see, God can't
do that. Now hold on. You better go back to the gospel. Man cannot do it. You know why
man cannot justify the ungodly and condemn, or justify the ungodly
and how he can't justify the wicked and condemn the just?
Because he can't do it in a way that honors justice. But I know
one who can and did. God can. And he does it through
his son. The Lord, our righteousness. That's how he does it. So he
says here in verse 11, a just weight and balance are the Lord's. If there is a just weight in
this matter, it's God's. And all the weights of the bag
are His work. All the stones that are in that
bag that He puts on that scale are His work, not your work. Verse 12, it's an abomination
to kings to commit wickedness for the throne is established
by righteousness, justice. So God's the one who does the
way. The stones are his, the stone
is his. This stone, I read this just
looking up a little history. Usually the stone that they used
was a limestone weight of two shekels. That would be four ounces
each, about eight ounces. And one has been discovered by
archaeologists at the base of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
And that weight connects to commerce in biblical times and reminds
us of the Bible's concern for justice and fairness. Think about
it. Diverse weights, a stone and
a stone. Stones crafted by man, weights
and measures of their own invention that make them look good in their
own eyes is nothing more than self-righteousness. That's what
false religion does. That's what denominationalism
does in false Christianity. They set up their own standard,
their own weights, their own stones. But what does it say
here? These stones, the right stones,
they belong to the king. They belong to God. It's God
alone who is the source of salvation. It's God alone who is the source
of the gospel, the source of righteousness. The Bible says, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. He's the one who forgives our
sins on a just ground. He's the one who declares us
righteous in His sight on a just ground. And that's no fake. That's no lie. That's no pretense. That's God. Think about that. Look at Isaiah chapter 8. Now,
who is this stone, this perfect stone? Look at Isaiah chapter
8. Look at verse Verse 13 of Isaiah
8. Now you know this is Isaiah's
prophecy. And he's talking about Christ. Look at verse 13. sanctify
the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, let him
be your dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone
of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of
Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be
snared and be taken. Now, you know that's speaking
of Christ, and look over at Isaiah 28. Now, here's another prophecy of Christ.
Of course, the whole book of Isaiah is a prophecy of Christ,
isn't it? Verse 16, Isaiah 28, 16. He says,
therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a
foundation, a stone, and this is a tried stone, It is a tested
stone, a precious cornerstone. The cornerstone is that stone
laid in the building by which everything was to be measured.
And then it says, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies. That's what an unjust weight
is. That's what these stones that
man makes. It's a refuge of lies. It's salvation. That is not by the sovereign
grace of Almighty God. who chose his people before the
foundation of the world, wrote their names in the Lamb's Book
of Life, set up Christ to be their surety, their substitute,
their redeemer, their life giver, their preserver, their intercessor,
their glorifier. And it says, and the water shall
overflow the hiding place. Now, one more turn to Romans
9 in the New Testament. You see how all this connects?
together to show the absolute sovereign justice of God in saving
his people and in damning the wicked. He's just as righteous
in the damnation of the wicked as he is in the salvation of
sinners. You know, he's talking about
Israel here, which followed not after the law of righteousness,
They followed after the law of righteousness. They were trying
to keep the law in order to make themselves righteous. But they
didn't make it. They didn't reach the standard.
The scales didn't balance out. They had an unjust weight. And
it says in verse 32, wherefore, that means why, why didn't they
make it? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were
by the works of the law. Now what does it mean to seek
righteousness by faith? It's to seek it God's way in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not our believing that makes
us righteous, folks. It's the one in whom we believe
that makes us righteous. And he says, For they stumbled
at the stumbling stone, 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. That stone is a person. I love what Brother Jim preached
this morning. The glorious person of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? God manifest in the flesh without
sin. What a person! But that's the
kind of person it took to save sinners like you and me. He had
to be both God and man in one person. And then what did He do on that
cross? He didn't die to make me and you savable. He didn't
die for everybody just to put us in a position that if we would
cooperate, we could enjoy the benefits of it. No, no, no. If
that were the case, we'd all be lost. Isn't that what the
Bible teaches? Fallen in Adam, born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. Dead, depraved, you know that,
when Terry read that Proverbs 11, he used that word naughtiness.
You know what that means? That means depravity. That means
depraved. But he says here, that stone
of stumbling. That's what the natural man does.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. Well, what this is all saying
is only the righteousness of God's Son, who is that perfect
stone, is acceptable to God. He's the stone. Anything less
is an abomination to God. And that's what he says here
in Romans 10, 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. It's God who weighs with the
scales and balances of 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. And the stone by which God weighs
his people is the perfect righteousness of his son. The perfection of
righteousness that can only be found in Christ and nowhere else. Over in the book of Acts chapter
17, you don't have to turn there. Paul preaching on Mars Hill to
a bunch of Greek philosophers and religionists who don't know
God. They have the unknown God. You
remember he said, I'm going to preach to a God you don't know.
And he told him about the God of creation, the God of providence,
the God who is sovereign, and the God who brings salvation
to his people. And he told him, he said, God
has commanded all men everywhere to repent. And verse 31 says,
because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, and
that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead. Christ is the standard. Here's
the third thing. In ourselves, by our works, none
of us can balance the scales. Think about a king named Belshazzar. That's in Daniel chapter 5. His father had destroyed the
temple in Jerusalem and brought some of the vessels of the temple
over to Babylon with the Jews. And he allowed the Jews to keep
him up to a while, and then he died and Belshazzar took over.
And Belshazzar was holding a big party for all of his nobles one
night. And they ran out of glasses to
pour the wine in, so Belshazzar commissioned his soldiers to
go get those vessels that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken
out of the temple, those things which were sacred and holy, in
that God had told the Israelites to make them for one specific
use, and that's for the work in the temple. He said, bring
them over and we'll drink out of them. And they went on with
their party. They were having a big time.
You remember what happened? There appeared a hand. And that hand began to ride on
the wall. You remember what he wrote? Mene,
mene, tikal ufarsin. What does it mean? Well, none
of the king's philosophers or diviners could understand it,
but they brought in Daniel. And Daniel said, well, king,
here's what it means. It means this. You're found, you're weighed
in the balance, and you're found wanting, lacking. That's what
it said. Well, let me tell you something.
By nature, based on our works, We're all weighed in the balance
and found wanting. The best of us, the worst of
us, and everybody in between. That's our state by nature. Fallen
in Adam. The best we can do is not good
enough at any time. None good, no not one. None righteous,
no not one. None that seeketh after God,
you know it. So here's the fourth thing. In
salvation, our one and only hope is to be found before God in
Christ. That's it. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but death and hell. That's what Paul said. He talked
about it. He said, Oh, that I may know
Him and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the faithfulness of Christ to do what He came to do. It's
finished. The righteousness of God which
is by faith, which we receive by faith. That's our salvation. Washed in the blood. Are you
washed in the blood? What can wash away my sin? I
tell people, my two favorite hymns. First one, my hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare
not trust the sweetest frank, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
And my second one is how firm a foundation, ye saints of the
Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. The reason
I can have such assurance of my hope is because the Word of
God says, this is the foundation. Christ is our foundation. And
then lastly, beware of any way, any proposed way of salvation
that does not balance the scales. You know that's what a false
gospel is? A false gospel is a false balance. Think about
those false preachers in Matthew 7. When they stood before the
Lord and He said, He said, Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but they which do the will of
my Father. And what is the will of His Father? It's to believe
on His Son whom He has sent. Many will say unto me, he said,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Here's the scales. Christ is
the measure of the way. Let's put my preaching on that
other side. Is that going to balance it out?
Even if I preach the truth, is that what's going to balance
it out? No. No. Prophesied in thy name. Cast out demons. That's pretty
impressive, isn't it? I've never done that. That I
know of. I've preached to a lot of demons. Put that on the scale. Is that
going to balance it out? Done many wonderful works. Is
that going to balance the scale? No, that's an unjust weight.
That's a false balance. That's what false religion is. How are we going to balance out
the scale? I'll tell you how. Plead Christ. He's really got
to be on both sides of that scale. One side representing the justice
of God. The other side representing His
people. He's my surety. He's my substitute. He's my security. He's my Redeemer. He's my intercessor. When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. That's
who balances the scale for me. You understand? Now by nature,
people don't like the way of God's judgment. They prefer to
make up their own ways, to craft their own stones. They prefer
to make up their own stones and their own balances by which to
compare themselves. But my friend, that won't do. That may look good to your friends
and your family, but it won't do in God's sight. That's what
this little verse in Proverbs, that's where it's going to. False
balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight,
a perfect stone, a perfect Christ, a perfect Savior, a perfect righteousness,
a perfect, perfect purging away of all my sins. That's the only
way that these scales are bound. Okay, brother G.