Tonight we're gonna be in the book of Proverbs in the 20th chapter. And here in our text, we are given the answer to a very important question, very important question. Because some men don't have the answer to this question right. Some men, only the Lord's people actually have this question right. The question is, Did I have anything to do with my salvation? Was I saved because of anything I did or anything I did not do? Or is salvation of the Lord all by grace, all by His doing? Am I saved by what I did or am I saved because of what he did? That's the question tonight. And we have the answer. We have the answer here in our text.

Proverbs 20, and we're going to read the first 15 verses. And as usual, as you all are aware, these types, he's going back and forth on giving two parallels. He's giving the wicked, he's giving the righteous, he's giving the evil man, he's giving the good man, he's giving the, but he's continuing as this is the last chapter in Proverbs where he does that. So chapter 21, it goes back to having longer Proverbs and actually even towards the middle of this, that's what we find is a complete thought rather than one verse standing out on its own. We have four verses that have a complete thought.

So, Let's read this. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. The fear of a king is as the roaring lion, whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. The slugger will not plow by reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing.

Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man, who can find? The just man walketh in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. Who can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin. Diverse weights, diverse measurements, both of them are a like abomination to the Lord. 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.

Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. It is not, it is not, saith the buyer, but when he has gone his way, then he boasteth. There is gold and multitude of rubies, and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. I've titled this message, The Just Scale. The Just Scale.

Verse nine goes along with what we read in Psalm 24, who shall ascend unto the Lord and he that hath pure hands and a clean heart, Psalm 24. He's saying here in verse nine, who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin. So what we have is we have a question first and foremost, and then we have three statements right after that. Three answers to that question. So let's read that little section again. Who can say I have made my heart clean?

I am pure from my sin. Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are like abomination to the Lord. Even a child is known by his doing, whether his work be pure or whether it be right. In the hearing ear, in the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.

So he says in verse nine, who can say I've purified my heart? Who say I can cleanse myself of my sin? And then he says, he answers the question just a few verses later by saying the seeing eye and the hearing ear, they're the Lord's. We didn't have anything to do with that. It's the Lord that did that. So if we were to ask that question, Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure, I'm cleansed of my sin. Nobody can say that. I mean, people can say it, but that doesn't mean it's true. Nobody can say that and it be true.

Sin affects a part of every bit of human nature. Every bit of our human nature, sin affects it. The problem with a lot of people is that they don't realize how bad they really are. When the Lord shows you how bad you really are, you need the Savior. You need to be saved from what you are, not from what you do, not from what you might got caught doing, but because of what you are, what we are by nature. Sin affects every single aspect of human nature.

The mind, the will, the emotions, the flesh, every single aspect of human nature is utterly, Sinful, utterly sinful. You remember in Genesis chapter six, whenever the Lord came to deliver Moses or to save Moses, he told him to build an ark because Noah found, I think I said Moses, I meant Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Lord, right before that, it says in every imagination of the heart of man was only on evil and that continually. That hasn't changed brethren. That hasn't changed. The heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. That hasn't gone away or got any better.

We are just as much Adam's children as Noah was. When we understand that every part of our nature is tainted, no part is untainted, we'll start to understand a little bit about the need that we have, the depravity that we have, the need that we have for a savior. It's not just that we have selfish motives that taints our actions. We're completely and utterly sinful. It's not just that our actions are what makes us bad.

What our actions show is what's on the inside. What our scriptures say about the tongue. Well, first of all, it's full of dead man's poison for one, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

Someone told me recently humans are not as bad as they could be, not as bad as they could be. And I thought, well, if you mean more crime could be committed or more bad actions could be done, I suppose that that's true. But they really are as bad as they can be. We are born dead dog sinners, dead dog sinners with no hope of fixing it. Who hath purified his heart? Who hath cleaned himself of his sin? Nobody, nobody has. The heart, we need a new heart. Even the scripture tells us, we see babies as being innocent. And scripture tells us they come from the womb speaking lies. Who taught them that? That's just the nature of it, isn't it? It's just the nature of it.

The word depravity, brethren, means humanity is incapable of saving itself, unable to fix itself, unable, unwilling, powerless to come to God on its own. We don't have the ability to come to God. And people will say, all you have to do is this, and they don't understand our depravity. We don't have that capability within us. We lack that capability. So whatever he says here, who purified his heart, who cleansed himself of his own sin, nobody can do that. Nobody can. We don't have the ability to do so.

This is why David said Psalm 51, and I about read Psalm 51 for a call to worship tonight, but he said, created me a clean heart, O God, renewing me a right spirit within me. Renew a right spirit. Why did he say that? Because if I'm gonna have a clean heart, it's gonna have to come from God. He's the only one good. He's the only one that can give a new heart. He's the only one that has all the power, all the ability, and he does it all by his grace, doesn't he?

We're in trouble, brethren, because we don't have the capacity, the capability. And it's not your flesh that desires not to sin. I'll just say that. Our flesh is still full of pride and full of lust. Don't doubt that. But the new man created in righteousness, that's the one that desires sin. It's amazing, because the new man's never sinned, because it's in Christ. Old man, all he does is sin, but the new man's the one that takes ownership of the sin.

Isn't that? Flesh won't take ownership of it. Flesh, what do I mean by that? Well, the next time somebody says something to you, see if the first thing you do is not wanting to defend yourself. That's what we do, isn't it? As soon as somebody attacks, somebody says something to us, we immediately will start defending ourselves. Why? Our pride. Our pride, our flesh takes up for itself. We're in trouble. We're in trouble left to ourself, we are. We're as bad as it gets.

I mean, People don't understand that. This is a revelation from the Lord. It has to be given by grace. And if you tell a bunch of sinners that the Lord's made it to be sinners, that they're sinners, they don't get too mad at you, but you go and tell somebody self-righteous that they're a sinner, they'll say, I used to be a sinner, but now I'm a saint. I was told that recently. I said, okay, well, I mean, I didn't argue with them. They weren't asking any questions. I just, I said, I'm a sinner, dead dog sinner, saved by grace alone. Now here's the reason, brethren, that we're in trouble.

If you look at verse 10, diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are alike abominations. to the Lord. In ancient time, they use weights in order to determine currency, meaning they would weigh things out on a scale. That's why this message is called a just scale. They would use the diverse weights. Let's say it wasn't pounds at the time, but that's what we can use. Let's say I had a 10 pound weight I would put on it, and then you would put your 10 pounds of gold on it, and it would balance the scale. That would be a true scale. He's saying to us right here that these diverse weights, these false weights, he's saying, oh, you actually had a 10.5 scale and so I had to give you more gold. You're cheating the system or vice versa. So he's saying those are an abomination unto the Lord. Now that word abomination, that's not a nice word. In the scripture, it literally means disgusting. It's disgusting unto God. Why? Well, because he's not giving us a rule for life on how to live our life, that we should be honest. Should we be honest? Should we live morally? Absolutely. But that's, that goes without saying.

This is not a book written for the flesh to be able to get better. This is a book written so that the Lord will speak through it by his spirit and call his people out of darkness. This is for the salvation of his people. It's a spiritual book and it has to be spiritually discerned.

So this is talking about when men try to get rid of their sin, when men try to create a clean heart, when men try to work a work that would please God, it's an unbalanced scale because our God's scale is just and true because of who he is. He's holy, he's sovereign, he will not acquit the guilty.

So my only hope is that he would create in me a clean heart. Every time a man or a woman tries to do something as part of their salvation, they're bringing iniquity upon themselves, and they are playing with the justice of God is what they're doing. They're bringing their iniquity and presenting it in the stead of Christ's righteousness. No, we don't do that. We need His righteousness alone.

You remember King Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, That was right before the Persians came in that very night, actually, and killed him and took everything. But Belshazzar mocked the Lord. And what he did was, is they had taken the goblets and the cups from the temple. were having a party. They were having a good old time from the Israelites Temple they had taken them. And he calls for those goblets. He says, well I can, because those, understand those were consecrated unto the Lord. Those were reserved for the Lord's worship. They were reserved unto the Lord. So he took it and blasphemously said, well I'm just as good as their God and was drinking out of these goblets.

And a hand appeared on the wall and it wrote something on the wall. And And the interpretation was, is you have been weighed in the balance and you've been found wanting. Now, if something is wanting, that means that more weight needed to be added to it, but he didn't have anything else he could give. He's already been found wanting and there's nothing else. And that's what the picture is here of this, of this diverts weight and diverse measures.

It's a picture of it not adding up to what God's standard is. What is that standard? Perfect righteousness, true holiness, absolute perfection. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the standard. So if I'm going to come to God on my behalf and try to give him anything as part of my salvation, whether it's a prayer I pray, a choice I make, whether it's gonna give my heart to Jesus, people say, you know, we don't want our heart. He gives us a new heart, doesn't he? We try to bring anything to him. We are saying to him, I can add up to Christ. Think about how terrible that is. And yet men are doing it all over, all over churches. They are, every service, they're doing it.

Okay, I was trying to figure out, sometimes I stumble over my notes. I was like, now what was I supposed to say about that? I went too far down, that was the problem. So I do a lot of research whenever I study. I try to find information, origins, just different things to see if there'd be something else underlining that the Lord might reveal, and he did for sure on this. So what I actually typed in, I was just curious, you know how I do.

I typed in, what does Proverbs 20 verse 10 mean? And the AI thing took about 30 seconds and came back and said this. The meaning of this is God demands integrity in all the areas of your life. that this passage is all about living honestly and morally before your fellow brethren in order to please God. Don't be bad in judgment and make sure that you do everything right in business. And I said, man, if that's all that I got out of that. I've missed the message. I've missed the message. And I'll say again, there's nothing wrong with morality. There's nothing wrong with morality to keep you healthy a lot longer and alive, really.

But that's not, sure it could be applied to physical, but this is spiritual. He's saying it's an abomination because you're bringing something and adding it to the blood of Christ. You're wanting to put one thing with the blood of Christ, something that you have done and you want all the glory. You let Jesus save you.

He said, No, that's not how it works. I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I'll do all the saving. That's that's what we're seeing here. This is talking about judgment for sin, brethren. We've established that we are sinful completely, entirely, that we're corrupt and we can't fix it.

But God, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. He is 100% perfect. He's holy, He's true, He's just, He's right. We just sung that song, it said, false and full of sin I am, thou art full of truth and grace. That's who our God is. That's who our God is. Sure, that's his character. Sure, that's his person. That's his isness. He is goodness. He is goodness. He is salvation.

This is what men can't come to a knowledge of without saving grace. Scripture tells us clearly. And the reason we're talking about God's justice here is because it says he will not acquit the guilty. Acquitting the guilty means if somebody is found guilty in the court of law, they would be not punished. They would be set free. That's acquitting. And he says, No, I will not acquit the guilty.

So what is my hope? I've already heard how bad I am. I already heard how good he is. What is my hope then? If he's scale is just and good, what's my hope? The hearing ear and the seeing eye are from the Lord. That's the hope tonight. That's the hope that we have.

The Lord to reveal his justice, his holiness, to reveal that we cannot keep his law, he gave the law. And why did he give the law? It was very simple. The law was given so that every mouth may be stopped and that all would become guilty before God. That was the reason for the law, that we would see that we're guilty, that we cannot do. And yet this flesh still tries to do, doesn't it? It still, it wants to do, it keeps trying to do. And he says, no, you're guilty. You're still guilty.

For those who believe their deeds are part or evidence of salvation, I would encourage you to listen to what God says, not what men say, because that's a lie from men. Men came up with that. You won't find that in scripture. God did all the saving. God did all the saving. There's none good but God. The scripture's clear about that.

If I'm not good, I can't produce goodness. Do we see that? He is good, and he is goodness, so he can produce that. His scale is just, and if we examine ourselves, our works, we're using an unjust scale. Think about that. We're not using God's scale. If I'm looking at my life, and I'm trying to consider my works, and I'm trying to consider how good I am, or perhaps how I'm not as bad as you, that's what a lot of people do in false religion, and I'm not using his scale. I'm using my own fabricated scale, imaginary scale, that says, I'm not that bad. But what does the Lord say? The Lord says there's none good, but God, none good, but God.

If I'm using an unjust, just scale, he calls it an abomination. It's very strong language. It's actually the one of the strongest terms used in all of scripture. It is. It indicates God doesn't just merely dislike it or slightly disapproves of it. It literally means that he loathes it. It's disgusting to him if we use an unjust scale. The reason it's loathsome is because it violates justice. It takes the place of justice. Sin must be punished. The scripture's clear. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Even as children, look what he says in verse 11. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right. We see our children, they're not pure. We see little babies and hold them and think that they're cute and whatever else and innocent in our minds. They're not pure. They're children of Adam just as we are.

God, it's important that we understand that God sees all the way down to the heart. He talked about, he says, but you're open sepulchers, meaning he can see all the way down. He said, you're whitewashed sepulchers full of dead men's bones. They make the outside look pretty and they have dead bones in them. He sees all the way down to the heart, all the way down.

He knows the thoughts. Brethren, he knows our thoughts and intents before we think them and do them. Think about that. He knows our thoughts and intents before we think them and do them. He knows everything. We can't hide anything from Him and His scale is just. He has a just scale. He is the just God of this universe. Having established that we are corrupt and we can't fix it, having established that he is just and he is good and he is holy, what possibly could there be hope before a sinner like me and a sinner like you?

He tells us in verse 12, the hearing ear in the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. And again, you take that at face value and you say, yeah, my ears work and my eyes work. One time I was preaching to a lady and I quoted the verse, he that hath ear to hear, let him hear what the Lord say or what the spirit, the Lord says unto the church. And, uh, He said to me after service, I have my ears work just fine, thank you. And I said, well, you didn't hear anything I said.

The hearing ears of the Lord, it's talking about spiritual hearing. It's not talking about just physical. It's talking about spiritual sight. We're born blind and we're born deaf. We're born dead with no hope in ourself to change that. We can't change that. We can't fix it. But this is being born after his spirit.

He gives sight. He gives ears to hear. Remember Bartimaeus was begging, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And the disciples kept shushing him, saying, hey, you're bothering the master. That didn't stop him. He had a need. The Lord gave him a need. He was blind. And he cried louder. And he cried louder. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And finally, the Lord heard him. He heard him the first time. You know, he knows everything. He's God. But he calls for him. He says, go fetch him. Bring him to me.

And Bartimaeus drops his robe, which is a picture of his self-righteousness. He comes to the Lord completely naked. He had nothing to bring to him whatsoever. He was a blind beggar. That's how God receives sinners. He'll receive them no other way. He comes to the Lord, the Lord says, what would you have me doing to you? He says, my sight, my sight. And the Lord healed him of his sight. Now, later on, we find out he was also a brother. The Lord actually saves him as well.

But this all is a picture of how we have to be brought unto the Lord in order for him to give us the ability to have sight. How would Bartimaeus found his way through that crowd to even find the Lord? If he wanted to try, he couldn't have. Well, how much more manifold is it that you and I are born completely dead, powerless? He's got to do all the work. He's got to do all the work.

Here's the good news. Our hope is this, Romans 5, 8, but God commended his love toward us. in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Not when we were righteous, not when we were good, but when we were blind and when we were deaf and we were held captive by our sin under the law, under the bondage of the law, held captive to Satan, God committed his love towards his people. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God chose to save some people before time ever began. God says, I will do this thing. Listen to what he says in Isaiah.

For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain thee that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, even for my own sake, I will do it. For how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

Why did he choose to do that? For his own sake, for his glory, for his honor. It was according to his purpose and his will. For his own sake, God elected a people. Then he predestinated those people to be conformed to the image of his son. Now his scale's just. So if I'm going to balance in that scale properly, I have to be as good as he requires. And how good does he require?

Perfection, absolute perfection, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's no way that we can get perfect in ourself, and we're born sinners. So what's the hope? Well, he couldn't, justly save them without an atonement being made first for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. It would have been unjust for God to save us without first punishing the sin that we have, the sin that we are.

That's why the Lord said over in Isaiah 53, the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Here's our hope, brethren. Abraham was walking up a mountain with his son. The Lord said, take thy son, Isaac, and offer him up as a sacrifice unto me. Abraham, by faith, took him up. Isaac said, father, here's the fire and the knife and the wood. Where's the sacrifice? And he said, God will provide himself a sacrifice.

Before time ever began, Christ is seen over in Revelation as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. the lamb that God required, God provided. The Lord Jesus Christ agreed in the covenant of grace to redeem the ones that the father had elected, and he sent forth his own son, born of a woman, born under the same law we were talking about, to redeem them that were under the law, that you and I might be made righteous, that you and I might be made perfect, that you and I might be pure in his sight.

Can you imagine Christ, or God, Purposing to become a creature of dust, yet without sin, as you and I are. That's all we are, is creatures of dust. Dust thou art, and dust thou shall return, the scripture says. He had to become a creature of dust, yet the fullness of the Godhead bodily, 100% man and 100% God. You say, I can't believe that. Only faith can believe that. And we don't supply that either.

It has to come from him, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ worked the works of God perfectly and completely and redeemed the Lord's people. He redeemed those who he died for. There was not a person that Christ died for that will ever feel the fires of hell. Never. It's not possible. Why? Because he is just. He is just and the justifier of his people.

He took the punishment away because he took the problem away, the sin that we are, unto himself. He took the cup and drank the cup, the damnation requirement that the cup brought. He took it unto himself and he drank it dry. He suffered the full wrath and punishment of God on the Lord's people's behalf so that nothing Nothing can say about the Lord's people that you're guilty anymore.

The law doesn't say anything. It holds its tongue. The sword of justice doesn't move because it's already been satiated by Christ. Whenever the Lord took the sword and he said, smite the shepherd, smite the shepherd. God was satisfied in our substitute. He took our sin, put them away and he gave us his righteousness freely by his grace. He is just and the justifier.

And I want to turn to Romans three where it talks about that. Let's read that together. That verse that I quoted earlier is right here as well. So we'll look at verse 20, I'm sorry, verse 19 of Romans chapter three. Now we know that whatsoever thing, now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty. And that word guilty means subject to the judgment of God, subject to the judgment of God.

We are weighed in the balance and we're found wanting. That's what that means. So if you think of the Lord weighing the law on one side and us on the other, we don't add up. We don't add up, do we? We don't even move the scale. verse 20, Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Now, brethren, if you take the law, you can break it down into three different, two different categories. What you do to God or for God or in worship Has it pertaining to God? The first five are pertaining to God and the last five are pertaining to man, but that's not the entire law. There was many, many laws that were given to the children of Israel.

And the point was, is we cannot keep the law, but he says plainly here, even if you do, whether it's the civil law, whether it's the social law or whether it's the, uh, What's the other one? Ceremonial law. Whatever it may be, in keeping that, no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the law.

That's as simple as it gets right there. And yet men are constantly telling other men and women, you need to do this. You need to do that. The Lord says, no, I'll disannul your covenant. You're not going to add up in this scale, this just scale. It won't budge. It's going to be perfect. Can't change it.

Verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption. that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. So there's our hope right there, that Christ was the one that became the propitiation for our sin.

It's gone. It's gone. He says in verse 26, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, not my righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believe in Jesus. Now, the next thing says, where is boasting? It's excluded. You can't brag about it, you didn't do it. The Lord's the one that did it.

But he tells us right here, God's just and the justifier. What does that mean? Well, that means he was right in what he did on the cross of Calvary because the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sin in his body on the tree. The scripture tells us that clearly. And He was right in justifying you and I, because Christ Jesus took the sin of His people, nailing Him to His cross, and when He had by Himself purged our sin, He sat down. So God is just and justifier.

And now, brethren, because of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ and being with Him, one with Him, and the blood of Christ, We don't have to be afraid of that scale anymore, because the Lord is the one that stood in the gap and made up the heads. The Lord is the one that was judged on our behalf.

We won't be judged. We won't be judged. We were judged in Christ on the cross one time, and it's finished. It's finished. The word justified doesn't mean just if I had never sinned. The word justified means that you've not sinned one time, ever. Can we grasp that? Not in God's eyes and the way God sees it, that's how it really is. You have not sinned one time. If we are in Christ, if I'm his, never committed one sin, never committed one trespass, never committed a blemish of iniquity.

Perfect before his eyes. Perfect before his eyes. God's scale has been made balanced. by Christ alone for his people. This just scale, this scale of justice is satisfied for the Lord's people. When we enter to glory, I was talking to somebody recently, they asked, how is the judgment going to work? And I said, well, he's going to see us because as soon as we, to be absent from the bodies present with the Lord, Scripture's clear on that. We see him as he is and we may like him. Well, what's going to happen?

He's going to say, enter in thou good and faithful servant. Thou have been faithful over a few things. I'll make you rule over many. People used to try to scare other people saying there's like a big projector screen up there and your whole life's going to flash for everybody to see it. No, no, that's not what's going to happen.

No, our life is hid with Christ in God. It is in him we live, move and have our being. When he shall appear, we shall be made like him for we shall see him as he is. So what's going to happen when we open our eyes, when we get there, he's going to say justified, perfectly righteous, enter in. That scale has been balanced. It's not if I had never sinned, it's Not just as if I had never sinned. No, it's I don't have a wrinkle. I don't have a spot. Never sinned one time in his sight. Not once.

The last thing he does, brethren, after we see all of this, Last thing he does once we see the redemption of Christ, once we see the one thing I forgot to mention was the regeneration. I did talk about the Lord having to raise us from the dead, but he has to make us alive to understand all this. What does that mean? Do I have part in that as well? No. I mean, I'm a partaker by his grace, but he's the doer of it. He just lets us know about it.

Lord saved his people from their sin. Call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin. He just gives us life and lets us know it is finished. And we're made to believe it because he gives us faith to believe it. He regenerates his people and he keeps his people from themselves. from themselves. Aren't you glad that you're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time?

He keeps you from yourself. Somebody said, well, I don't really see it. Well, if he removed his hand from you, you'd see it. Your brethren see it. The love of the brethren that shed abroad in your heart, the Lord's given. The Lord keeps his people. The Lord keeps his people. He gives eyes and He gives ear. Truly, brethren, the seeing eye and the hearing ear, they are from the Lord. They are from the Lord.

Let's go back to Proverbs in closing. I was going to try to quote it, but I'm afraid I might mess it up. Look at verse six, I meant to mention this earlier and I won't back up and have a whole another recap on you, but look at verse six, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find, is that not true? That's what this is all about. Most men are proclaiming their own goodness in this scale.

They're bringing their goodness before God in hopes that it'll be enough, and it's not gonna be enough, because it doesn't equal the perfection God demands. So let's look at verse 10, or I'm sorry, verse nine. Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin.

Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are alike, abomination to the Lord. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure or whether it be right. And truly by grace, brethren, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them." Even both of them. I'm reminded the scripture says, the spirit and the bride say, come, he that hath ears to hears, let him come.

And whosoever will let him come, take of the water of life freely. The Lord's given us eyes and ears. Those are the ones that come to Christ. Those are the ones that come to Christ by faith. This is the gift of God purchased by the blood of Christ and freely given all by grace. This is how the just scale was satisfied. It was made right by the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless this to our understanding for your glory. We will never be able to fathom the depth until we awaken your likeness. We'll never understand everything that you went through. There's no way we can. We never even understand the depth of our sin. But Lord, we are so thankful to know that the work is finished, that you didn't leave anything for me to do. You didn't leave anything for us to do. Thank you. In Christ's name, amen.