Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter
25. Deuteronomy 25. My ears are giving me a little trouble,
so I told Melinda on the way over here that if I wasn't speaking
loud enough to give me some kind of signal, you know, to let me
know to speak up. And she said, well, I'll do this.
I said, what if your nose starts itching? So if I just get louder
and louder, y'all don't know what happens if your nose starts
itching. I've got three goals, really,
in preaching this message to you. The first one is I want
for God to receive all the glory. I want the Lord Jesus Christ
to be high and lifted up before you. The second thing is I want
the brethren here, you that know the Lord, to be comforted by
the message. I want you to be encouraged and
built up by the Spirit of God in Him. And then thirdly, I hope,
you know, you plan to come to a conference and you're thinking
about all your friends you're going to see and you get thinking
about it, but I really, really hope The Lord will be pleased
to reveal Christ to some sinner here. That's what I really hope. I really hope that. Now, here
in Deuteronomy 25, this text that we're going to look at is
going to declare what is righteous and what is unrighteous. And
it's going to be using a scale, a weight scale, to declare it. You know, on our dollar bill.
There is the seal of the U.S. Treasury, and if you look in
that seal in the U.S. Treasury, you'll see a ballot
scale there. You know, the old-timey scale.
And that scale represents justice. That's what it represents. I
want you to have that scale in your mind when you think about,
as we read this text now. Deuteronomy 25, verse 13. The Lord says, Thou shalt not
have In thy bag divers weights a great and a small. Thou shalt
not have in thine house divers measures." That is an ephah. This is a measure of a bushel,
a great and a small. You can't have two different
kinds of measures. Let me give you an example. You
weigh out an item that you intend to sell, and on your scales,
when you weighed it out, One pound, that's what it weighs.
So you take it down to the guy that's going to buy it from you,
and he puts it on his scales. When he puts it on his scales,
it only weighs three quarters of a pound. Well, he's using
a greater weight, so that you've got to add more to it to bring
it up to the just and perfect measure. And you end up paying
there when you pay him, or when you sell it to him, You sell
it to him for the price of a pound. But he just stole a quarter pound
from you. Or you go to a fella and you're going to purchase
something from him. You weigh it out. You know according to
your scales it weighs a pound. But you get to him. You get to
where he is. Put it on his scales and it weighs a pound and a quarter.
Now he's using a lighter weight. He's using a lighter weight.
So you have to take some of that product off of there. I mean
you have to add more product to it. So what ends up happening
is he's cheated you out of another quarter pound. You paid more than you were supposed
to pay. Well, that's what happens with
cheats and robbers. And what are you going to do
in that case? What are you going to do next time you deal with
that fellow? You're not using his scales.
You're not going to use his scales. But he's using imperfect and
unjust weights. You're not going to use His scale.
We're going to do business with God. We're going to do business
with God. And God's not going to use our
scales. He's not going to use our scales
to measure out perfect, infinite righteousness. He's going to
use His scales. His scales. Perfect weight or
just weight. He's using His scales. All right,
let's read on now. He says, verse 15, But thou shalt
have a perfect and just weight. A perfect and just measure shalt
thou have. Here's why. That thy days may
be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
Now, just everyday speaking, we see from our own economy that
when a society starts using unjust and imperfect weights and measures,
eventually the bubble's going to bust. And it's going to rob
the whole society. Well, spiritually. There's no
way, absolute no way we're going to be able to come into God's
presence using those kinds of weights into that land, that
eternal land which God gives, which He gives. We're not going
to inherit that land by using imperfect weights. It's not going
to happen. Verse 16, for all that do such things and all that
do unrighteously, that's what it is to do such things, all
that do unrighteously. or an abomination unto the Lord
thy God. Now, we're going to look at a
perfect and just measure. And I'll just tell you this right
up front. This is what I want you to get. And, oh, I hope you
get it. I mean really get it. Christ Jesus is the righteousness
that we must have to enter into God's presence. Yes. He's the
perfect and just weight. Perfect and just measure. against
whom any righteous deeds that you may think you've done or
I may think I have done would come into God's presence. He's
that righteousness against whom all those so-called good works
will be measured against. We've got to come in Him alone,
in Him alone. All right, let's see three things
here. We're going to see something
about our unjust and imperfect weights, and then secondly, we'll
look at the just and perfect weight of His righteousness.
And then we'll see how sinners come to have this righteousness.
Now, we've got to have this righteousness, but we don't use righteous ways.
We use unjust and imperfect ways. Now, if this was the only law
of God, if this was the only law of God, and you listen with
me real carefully here, if this was the only law God gave, do
you think you could keep this law and come into God's presence
and God would accept you by what you've done in keeping this law?
I mean, think about it. It's pretty easy, isn't it? All
you've got to do is just use equal weights. I know folks who've
gone through their life, and they would cheat a fellow for
nothing. I mean, use perfect weight, just in what they do,
in their dealings with how they'd weigh out something, or what
have you, would cheat you. But that won't let us come into
his presence, still. The reason it won't is because
we dissipate in Adam. Adam, that first man. We disobeyed
him. So when we disobeyed him, all
the scale went against us right then. We became unjust. We became
imperfect because we sinned against him. And not only that, but when
we were born, we were born of that corrupt seed of Adam so
that we come forth. And in our nature, we have nothing
but unjust and imperfect feeling. In our nature, by nature, how
we were born. God's righteousness requires holiness, first of all,
inwardly. That's where it's got to be first
of all. That's what Brother Donald said this morning, before man's
going to be justified, he's actually sanctified. He's made holy inwardly
to even behold who his justification is. He's got to be cleansed by
the Spirit of God in the blood of Christ before he can ever
even behold who his righteousness is. That's not the case with us.
Look here at verse 13. Thou shalt not have in thy bag
different ways. Look, thou shalt not have in
thy house different measures. You see, I hope that sometime
we really understand that righteousness... I know righteousness and sanctification
are distinct. I know they have their distinctions.
But righteousness, God's righteousness, Christ being the end of the law
for righteousness, It includes sanctification. It includes holiness. Because if he hadn't had holiness
of heart, nothing else he did would have been righteous. And
so that's with us. We can do everything outwardly
that might appear righteous. We can do everything according
to the law, just right down to the letter. But until that heart's
been made new, we got, we got, it's not that we're using deceitful
ways, but we still got in our bag those deceitful ways. We
can't even have them in our bag. You can't even have it. It's
not even, it's not only unrighteousness to put them to use. You can't
even have them in the bag. Just be thinking about maybe.
That's, that's how, that's how God looks at things. He looks
on the heart, the nature, the nature of a man. Well, and that
nature is corrupt. You know, we can't, we can't
do anything to come to him. He's going to come and do something
for us. That's the first, the first. The first one to come
is probably to us. He comes and does something in
us. I know we, I was talking to Brad Pound the other night,
we was talking about this speech this fellow made, where somebody
actually got up and told young people that, you know, you really
haven't accomplished anything. Instead of telling them you can
do everything, you can do anything, believe it or not, he just got
up and told them, you know, you can't do everything. And I was,
I thought about this, I was watching that show American Ninja, you
know, they do all those hospitals they do, you know. And I was
watching that show the other night and a man was on there
and he said to, he said to, in front of the camera before he
ran this course, he said, he said, I want everybody out there
watching to know that if you set your mind to it, you can
do anything. And I told Melinda, And the kid
said, man, I said, that's not true. That's just not true. Well,
the course came up. He went to run the course. And
he went through the first five or six obstacles fine. And he
came to that obstacle, that big wall that curves out like this,
you know? And he took off, run as fast
as he could. And they give him three tries. He ran the first
time, and he jumped. And his fingertips got to the
edge, but he couldn't hold on. He did it again, and he jumped,
just couldn't hold on. He went back, and he stopped.
And he set his mind to it. And he jumped, and he didn't
make it. And that's true, brother, just
as true as you can set your heart to something and say, I'm going
to do righteousness. But if your heart's polluted
and it's deceitful by nature, And nothing coming out of you
is going to be righteous. Nothing's coming out righteous.
You can't set your heart to please God by setting your heart to
please God and think you're going to be able to please God. It's
just not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Well,
I want you to see here now this thing about ways that we think
about things, you know. One thing we think about in our
polluted way of thinking, and I can remember thinking this.
I remember thinking this. I remember thinking, Well, maybe
if my good will just outweigh my bad, God will accept me. And folks really think that.
Folks think if my good works will just outweigh my bad works. I went over helping a lady, my
neighbor across the street, and this lady's Roman Catholic. Her neighbor came up and she
said to me, she said, oh, she told me you're working on your
wings. And I didn't know what she was smelling. The only thing
that came to my mind was those little wings that airplane pilots
wear. I used to think, I mean, pilots
good. And then I don't know, but I
knew what she meant. You're working to make sure you
get these out of the way, your bad things. That's sad. That's really sad, but that's
just how polluted the natural heart is. That's just really
how polluted it is. Or you go to some preacher, and
they'll tell you a list of things that you can do to please God. And that list is always changing.
That list is always changing. When the economy is flourishing,
and it's good, and everything's productive, and everything gets
a little looser, and everybody's living free and high, well, you
can get away with doing a lot more then. But when it gets tight,
and things turn more Calvinistic then, you know, and then it gets
a little more strict. Isaac called it changeable suits
of apparel. It changes just like the fashions
change. Hosea 12 says this. He's a merchant. He's a merchant. And the balances
of deceit are in his hand. He said he loves to oppress.
Try to press out of you what you can't produce. That's what
oppression is. Try to press out of you what
you can't produce. And yet he says, I've become
rich. I found me out substance, and
all my labors, they won't find any iniquity in me that's sin.
And that's what he's saying. I'm righteous by all this. You
need a pair of shoes? He'll provide you a pair of shoes.
That's going to cost you. It's going to cost you something.
You need a robe? You need a righteousness? He'll provide a robe for you,
but you're going to have to do some weaving. You're going to
have to do something to make that robe. That's what the merchant
man will tell you. Is there anybody here that thinks
that? Is there anybody here that thinks, well, I did such and
such and such and such that the preacher told me to do, and so
now I'm rich. You're not going to find any
iniquity in me. Is there anybody here that thinks
that? Listen, if that's how you think,
know this, that's unrighteous. That's an abomination in the
sight of God. He just won't have it. He won't receive it. You look
there at verse 16. For all that do such things,
all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord
thy God. An abomination to Him. And you know what we really do?
Just like these two different weights, when we're wanting God
to measure us, this is the nature, that old deceitful nature. When
you're thinking about how God's going to measure you, you want
Him to use A weight that's going to make you come out better,
more profitable. But when he's measured up your
righteousness, you want him to use that weight, a different
weight on that to make you appear more righteous. And then when
you're talking about somebody else, you always use a weight
that's more harsh on this thing. We do that. We do that. You sit
and hear something on television, a news report, somebody got caught
doing something. How many times have you said,
well, they shouldn't have done that? And then you turn around
and you're doing something just like it. But when you're doing
it, it's never quite as bad as it is. Unjust measures. God just don't
measure that way. He don't do things that way.
I remember I was at a store one day, and this was when I first
started working, and I was checking out groceries. And a man came
through, and I was checking out some vegetables he had bought.
And I didn't notice. Back then, they didn't have everything. Back then, when you checked groceries,
you actually had to check the groceries and bag them and all
that stuff. And I was doing it, you know, and I had something
got on the scale and it weighed up his peaches or whatever it
was he was buying, and it ended up being heavier. So he paid
a lot more for them. And he come back in that store
a little while later, and I'm talking about, he ran me up one
side and down the other. I mean, just laid into me, you
know. And I didn't even remember the
guy, much less remember, you know, anything about him. But
you think about it. We don't like to be cheated.
We don't like to be robbed. We don't like for that kind of
unjust weight to be used, you know, when we're wanted to be
judged. How about God? You think we think
God's going to receive us like that? This is in Micah 6, 11.
Shall I count them pure with the wicked balance? And with
the bag of deceitful weights? God only accepts those who are
perfectly holy and perfectly righteous. And we're poor and
deceitful merchants. That's what we are. We're just
bad merchants. You and I are. We sold ourselves
into sin. And you know what we got in return
for it? We bargained real well. We got nothing. Absolutely nothing. We sold ourselves for nothing.
So those scales are well-plated. Yes, as far as by one man's disobedience. Many are made sinners, but here's
the good news. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Let's talk about Him. Let's talk
about Him. The righteousness of God, the
perfect and just weight and measure. Everybody that God's going to
accept in His presence shall be made perfectly holy and righteous
by the person and work that's been accomplished by Christ Jesus.
Every one of them. Every one of them will be accepted
by that holy person in Christ our Lord, who's righteous in
everything He did. God sent Him to redeem His elect.
That's what He sent Him for. You know Galatians 4. The fullness
of time has come. God sent forth His Son, and He
came made under this law. He came made under this law to
redeem. That means to buy. That means
to purchase. That means to pay the ransom
price, to pay the price that was owed. I said, we're going
to have to do business with God. He came and took the likeness
of this flesh. He came and took human nature
so that as a man before God, as the righteous servant of God,
he could do business with God for his people. He came to do
the business that has to be done for his children. He came to
do that. Now, there's got to be holiness
inside. You can't have, look at the verse now, verse 13. Thou
shalt not have in thy bag different weights, great and small. Thou
shalt not have in thy house different measures, but thou shalt have
a perfect and just weight. A perfect and just measure shalt
thou have. That means this one, when he
comes forth from the womb of the virgin, he comes forth, he's
got to be hopeful. Before that, he's got to be holy.
He's got to be a holy thing in the womb. He can't be unrighteous. He can't be, I mean, unholy whatsoever. Else nothing he does in his deeds
would be right. But he was holy. If an angel
told Mary, that holy ghost overshadowed you and that thing formed in
you, it'd be that he's holy, that holy thing formed in you.
Isaiah was talking about the judgment that was coming upon
Babylon. And right in the middle of it, in Isaiah 47, he said,
the Spirit of God just moved him. And he said, this is our
Redeemer. And he said, the Lord of hosts
is His name. He's the Holy One of Israel.
Absolutely is. He came to redeem His children.
He came to purchase them. And He's the Holy One who could
do it. He walked this life. He walked through this world.
under that law, and everything he did, everything he did as
he walked under that law, that law was bearing witness, that
law of God was bearing witness that this is a righteous one
right here. This one is holy. This one right
here is just perfect, because everything he did was right.
Everything he did was just. That's all he did. I get so It
hurts me. It really hurts me when men talk
about Him being unjust, about God being unjust. He's going
to save His elect. Well, that's unfair. That's unjust.
Brethren, think about it. There's probably a young person
here, maybe even an old person here that's talking about, you
know, that's just not fair that God would choose somebody. Well,
let me ask you this. If you had somebody, your dearest
loved one, and all your These persons' days, all they ever
did was just curse that one you love. All they ever did was just
speak evil against them and run them through the mud. And just
every one of your brethren that talked about him, they would
try to kill him. They'd try to run him down. They'd
do anything they could to just malign the character of that
holy one you love. Would you go to where that person
is? and bear their vile venom coming
out of them and lay down your life for them and pay all their
debt and purge them of all their sin and put it all away by taking
their place. Speak evil against him. Maybe
we did it by talking about how holy and just and righteous we
were. Using his name and saying, Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Do you know the name Baal and
the name is Lord? Do you know that? Do you know
what Baal means? It means Lord. That's what it means. The Lord
hears what's really coming out. When we say, Lord, Lord, he hears
Baal, Baal. That's what he's hearing. He
won't receive us that way, but this one did everything right.
He said, think not that I came to destroy the law. I didn't
come to destroy it. I came to fulfill it. He said,
this heaven and this earth will not pass away. It would sooner
pass away than one jot or tittle of that law might be fulfilled. He said, it's going to all be
fulfilled. And if you don't hear that, just say, see? See there? That means we've got to keep
that law. That means we have got to keep that law. It's still
in effect. We've got to keep it. Who did
he just say came to fulfill it? He said, I came to fulfill it. You see this cup right here?
It's not full. This cup's not full. You can
put some more in it. So if he came to just fill the
law that much, then we'd have to put this much more in. But
he said, I came to fill it full. So when you fill it full, you
can't put anything else in it. You just can't put anything else
in it. That's what He came to do. He
came to fulfill the law. Do we make void the law through
faith? Believe it or not, that's the
only way we establish the law. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is the way the whole law is established, because He's the one who filled
it full. Filled it full. And he did that
in justice, too, for what the law couldn't do. It was weak
through our flesh. God sent forth his own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin
in the flesh. He condemned the condemnation
of the sin. He made death die because of
what he did by his bearing that death. Now, remember that God
requires an absolutely perfect and just way. He requires an
absolutely perfect and just measure. God is righteous. The whole purpose
of sending his son was to perfect a righteousness for his people. If we could do it, God wouldn't
have sent his son. There would have been no need
to send his son. He sent it to do for his children what his
children could not do. And that's the reason he came.
So when he came and what he came to do, God's not going to deal
unrighteously. with Him if He came to satisfy
righteousness. God's not going to deal unjustly
with Him if He came to satisfy justice. That would defeat the
whole purpose. And so when He came forth, when
He made Him sin for us who knew no sin, God in perfect and just
righteousness poured out upon Him the perfect and just measure
of fury which we deserve. Look at Isaiah 53, verse 10. Isaiah 53, verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It satisfied the righteous demands
of God to bruise his soul. He had put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands." He put the scales in his hand, and he
came, and he willingly, he willingly, he willingly being found absolutely
perfect, absolutely just, absolutely having no sin, he willingly took
the place of his children and had all of the just measure of
every abominable Draughts we are laid on him. He did that. And being found
there before God, God poured out everything that infinite
justice demanded of us upon his own son. Look at verse eleven, "...he
shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the small with the strong." Cuts it, I'm giving him everything.
And he's going to give it to whomsoever he will. He's going
to give it to whoever he's going to give it to. He's going to
divide it with them. Because he's poured out his soul
unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Isn't
that amazing? That's just amazing. The Holy
Living God the Son came here and willingly made himself to
be numbered with transgressors. And he bared the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors. You know what
he did? He put away their sin. You know
what he did? He made that law say, I'm satisfied. I'm completely satisfied. He made God say, this one right
here, this one right here, he is the eternal delight of my heart. He's the eternal delight of my
soul. This is the one in whom I'm well pleased. You think about
that. God saying of someone, I'm well
pleased with him. Think what's required for God,
oh my holy God. The heavens are appearing in
his sight. Holy God to say, I'm well pleased with him. That's what he said. Of what?
Of only one of us, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's satisfied with Him. And because the Son highly exalted
Him in everything He did, in His obedience right up until
death. And I want you to know something about this law. What's
the law require? The law requires love God and love your neighbor
as yourself. It requires you to love God and
love your brethren. That's what it requires. That's
what the spirit of the law is, love. The fulfillment of it is
love. Love God and love your brethren supremely. The only
one that ever did that did it in this way. He willingly took
the place of those brethren he loved and willingly put himself
in a place to where that father he loved would turn his back
completely on him so that those that he loved Those that He loved,
they don't want to have anything to do with Him. And His Father
doesn't want to have anything to do with Him. But for love
for them and love for the Father, to satisfy that justice and declare
His God just and the justifier, He willingly took that place. And the fulfillment of it is,
that's perfect love to the Father and perfect love for His children.
perfect love, that's the perfect love, wherein God says, that
law is fulfilled. It's done. It's satisfied. And
that's the righteousness that He gives to His children. That's
the righteousness He gives to His children. We don't like to
talk about, we don't like, we like to talk about our children,
you know, and our children are nearly what his son is, he's
not going to have us talking about anybody. But his son, all
this weekend, you know what the men have gotten up here and done?
You might have sat there and thought, you know, all they keep
doing is talking about Christ. All they keep doing is talking
about him and what he's done, and they haven't told me what
I'm supposed to be doing. If you keep hearing all about
Christ, and you keep hearing about what he's done, if the
Spirit of God enters that heart, he'll tell you what to do. Lay
hold of him. Lay down. Fall back in his arms
and don't do nothing else. Just rest right there in him.
And you'll do that. You'll do that. Alright, let's
talk about real quick how this comes about. How do we get this
righteousness? How are we made new in righteousness
and true holiness? Have you been under a heavy load?
Has there been somebody, you know, I have a, there's a young
man in our congregation and his dad told me the other day, he
said, He said he's been listening, and he said he told him the other
day, he said, I'm angry. And he said, son, why are you
angry? And he said, because this has interrupted my life. And
he said, what do you mean? He said, this word or this message
has interrupted my life. And he said, I can't get rid
of it. I can't get away from it. And he said, and it's making
me angry. And I told his daddy, I said,
that's good. That's good. I said, I like hearing that.
Boy, that's good. But you go around and you start
bearing this load. You start getting a load, because
what's happening is whether you think God's the true and living
God, or whether you think He's a stump, or whether you think
Whatever in your mind you think God is, in your imagination,
whether it's true, bear some resemblance of truth or nothing
at all, whatever it is, what you're thinking is, that one
who's trusting, partly trying to trust Christ, and partly still
trying to look to something He's done, you're not going to get
any comfort there. You're not going to get any peace
there. That load's going to be heavy. You know why? Because
you can't have that great tribestone in your bag and have that deceitful
way that your own works in the same bag. You can't have them
both. You cannot have them both in that same bag. You might have
thought that you just came here and maybe you just came here
because mom and daddy wanted you to come or your husband or
wife wanted you to come or sister or brother or something. And
you thought, I'll just go, you know, whatever. And you go. Maybe it's just one more deceitful
way in that bag to come here. I've come here, God will be pleased
with me. But you come and you start hearing something. You
come and all of a sudden, you don't know what's happening,
you just start hearing something. And you like that young man,
it makes you angry. You don't like it. Because you
know what the Lord's going to do? The Holy Spirit's going to
make you see you have nothing in your bag but deceitful ways.
All you have is lying and cheating and robbery in your bag. I'm
talking about in you, in that heart, in us. That's what He's
going to make us see. And the process of making us
see that is not really a pleasurable thing. It's not a very pleasurable
thing. Because we want to hold on to
that bag. We want to hold on to that bag with everything we've
got. We don't want to let that bag go. We don't want to let
it go. We just want something. We just
want something. Just give me something that I
can say, I did it. That's what sin says. That's deceitful. That's loathsome. That's abomination
in the sight of God. He's not going to have anything
in heaven, in his church below, and in the church in glory right
now. You know where all eyes are. When His children meet together
in this earth, and all the holy angels together in heaven, and
all those spirits of just men made perfect in heaven and Jerusalem,
you know where all eyes are in His church? They're on His Son.
And that's where God's going to have all eyes, on His Son,
and all praise given to His Son, and all glory going to His Son.
You know what? That's what He made this world
for. He didn't make this world for us to come along and just
Raise up children and teach them to go out and try to get as much
of the world as they can, and try to make a name for themselves,
build a stake for themselves, and just drop anchor here and
drive in your tent stakes and say, I'm settling right here.
He didn't make it for that. He made it to show the glory
of his son. The way he made it, he showed
the glory of his son. Everything he's done in it, he's
showing the glory of his son. That's what he did. This Holy
Spirit, you start thinking about these things, and you start thinking
about, you know, well, here's what I've done going to measure
up. And you don't really know what's going on. You just know.
Now, you say, are you trying to tell me that, you know, I
just trust the Lord. I trust Jesus. He's the only
one I trust now. Are you trying to say now that
all the works I've been doing since I trust Him to make myself
holy, you're saying that all that I've been doing to try to
make myself holy counts for nothing? That's exactly what I'm saying.
You know, holiness is not in the hands. Did you know that?
Holiness is in the heart. And what it is, it's a union
with Christ our holiness. It's that purging of that inward
mess so that you come out of all that filth and out of all
that corruption and out of all that, and you're united to Him.
You're in Him. That's what a true union is and
a true holiness is. That thief on the cross had both
his hands and his feet nailed to the cross. He didn't take
time to be holy. He didn't. And he went into God's presence
that day, fit to be partaker of the inheritance with the saints
in life, fit to be that wife. He was holy. He was holy. He
was holy. And he makes you start thinking
about it. And he starts whispering in your
heart. The Spirit of God starts bringing
this in your heart, and he starts saying to you, God shall bring
every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it
be good or whether it be evil. And you start thinking about
those things. You start thinking about, well, who am I going to
be weighed against? It won't be me. And it won't
be any sinner here. It won't be them. Here's who
we're going to be weighed against. Acts 17, 31, He at the point
of the day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he has raised him from the dead. He
hath exalted God, and I have exalted him. He gave him a name
above every name, and everyone's going to hear that name." I scared
Brother David to death one time with this illustration. I told
him, I said, people think we're going to come into God's presence
and we're going to take all our evil works He's going to put
all our evil works on this side of the scale, and He's going
to take all our good works, and He's going to put them all on
the same side of the scale. If we come outside of Christ,
that's where they're going to be. David tells me, he said,
you scare me to death. He said, I'm going to put the good works
over there. But the one that's going to be laid against, It's that just and perfect way,
that just and perfect measure. Christ Jesus, the righteousness
of God. And you know what he's going
to say? When he says this to you and begins to reveal this
to you, as you hear this word like this, he begins to say to
you, talk no more so exceeding proud things. Let not arrogancy
come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and
by Him actions are weighed. Who's that one by whom actions
are weighed? It's this righteous one we're
talking about. All judgment's been given to him. You see, it's
a very foolish man that would go to a court of law and walk
in there to be his own advocate, and deny, reject the one who
is the perfect advocate, and then get to court, having done
that, and rejected him, and get to court, and stand before the
judge and find out that advocate I just rejected is the judge.
That's going to be, you're in a bad spot, man. Yeah, and he's
the righteous one. He's the one that's saying, here's
the righteousness you got to have. You got to have him. You got to have his righteousness.
Wolf, I think, will come up. He said, you're weighed in the
balances and are found wanting. And the Spirit starts telling
this to you, and he starts making this more real in your heart.
And you're like, my friend, you don't know what's happening exactly.
All you know is, I've been interrupted. Something is, this is interrupting
my life. I don't like it. As my son used
to say in his little, you have ruptured me up. And you start
walking around in his body and it just weighs on you and it
makes, it takes you from one extreme to the other, angry and
mad and it's sad. And then you don't know what's
going on. It's like you're being ripped from one side to the other.
You don't know what's taking place. And he just keeps on.
He won't let you get rid of it. You go home and you think, I'm
going home every time before I go home. And I found me something
to do. And I just put this out of my
mind and pressed it down and forgot about it. But this time
you don't. You can't. You try to get free from it.
You just, it's like, it's like a kidney stone. You can't. It
don't matter how you move. It's with you. And it won't let
you go. They just won't let you go. And
you find yourself not able to even look up to God. Whereas
before you were able to look up to Him and run your mouth
against Him and say Him and defend yourself. And now you can't.
Now you're looking up at Him and you can't say nothing. You
can't even lift up your eyes to Him. And you find yourself
agreeing with Him. And you find yourself saying,
God, would You be merciful to me? God, would you just please
be merciful to me? I can't do anything. I have no
righteousness. Everything I was trusting and
everything I thought was going to commend me to you is against
me. God, would you just be merciful
to me? And it might be soon. It might
be later. But it'll be in his time, and
it'll be the right time. But he starts whispering something
to you, and there comes another voice into that heart. That still
small voice, and you begin to hear him speak. But this time
when he comes in, he's not telling you what you don't have. This
time he starts speaking, and he's telling you what you now
have. This time he starts speaking, and he's telling you what he
has given. This time He starts speaking, He's telling you what
He's given freely by His grace. And He promises you, He begins
to make a promise in that heart. He begins to promise you. He
begins to speak a covenant word, an unbreakable, unchangeable
covenant word in your heart. And He speaks to you in your
heart, and He says this to you. This is what you're going to
have forevermore. This is what nobody's ever going to take from
you. This is what you're going to have, not in yourself, but
this is what you're going to have forevermore in me. Thou
shalt have a perfect and just way. A perfect and just measure
shalt thou have. And he says, and you're going
to live long. All eternity, you're going to
live long in the land that I have given you. And you know what
happens? You know what happens? It's as
good as honey and ice cream. You start hearing it, and it
starts coming, and you drip it into your soul, and you start
thinking, Lord, I believe every word you're saying to me. I believe
every word you are saying to me. Lord, it's too good to be
true to me, but I believe you. I believe it's true. You know
what's happening? There's been a new man there.
There's a new man there now. He's been created. Not in unrighteousness
and unholiness. Not about the unrighteousness
and unholiness in some shady way and untruths and things like
that that claim God does things. But it's been done in righteousness.
It's been done in perfect holiness. That's who God is. That's how
He does everything. In truth I speak, He said. In
righteousness I speak, He said. He does it in truth and righteousness. And that man, He's created in
that heart. Created in truth and righteousness, Christ has
entered in. He's come into the tabernacle.
Whenever He entered into the tabernacle, it was sanctified. When He entered into the tabernacle,
there the glory was. It was there. You know what that
glory means? I can't enter into it, but I
know it's something to do with this. It's the first three letters
of that word. G-L-O. It's GLO. GLO. You see the brilliance,
the brilliance of His glory. You see it in the express image
of His person. That light shines and you behold
the righteousness of God in the face of Christ. You see His glow. You see His glory. And where
the light is, there's light. There's light. That's where it
is. Well, this is what I hope. I hope this. I hope that He keeps
on making this stay with you. If you're here and you don't
know Him and you leave, I hope He makes you stay with Him. I
mean, just stay with you. I hope when you leave here, you
go shop at a store on the way home, and you walk in there,
and they ring you up, and you make that purchase at that register.
I hope you think about this. I hope next time you go to the
supermarket, and you go in there to buy a block of cheese, and
they put it on that weight scale, I hope you hear it. I hope you see that on that weight
scale, and this voice just stays with you. This Word stays with
you. I hope God will not let you go.
I hope He just makes you face it. and makes you, until you
finally come down and say, Lord, I need mercy. Because just as
true as a false abalance is an abomination to the Lord, just
waits His delight. He delights in that. And for
you who know Him, I hope to say thank you. I hope you go on,
and I hope every time you go buy a pack of gum, I hope you
think about it. And remember this, we're bought
with a price. A price. a just and perfect price
was paid. And it's an eternal, unchangeable,
infinite salvation that we have. And remember that. Don't be servants
of men. Glorify God in your body and
your spirit. It belongs to God. He bought
it. Amen.