Tonight our text is found in
the book of Proverbs in the 11th chapter. Proverbs chapter 11. And as we have pondered the unsearchable
riches of the Lord Jesus Christ and attempt to do the same again
tonight, We have been made to see that all good things come
down from the Father of Lights, that all our peace, all our rest,
all of our hope, all of our, anything good about us is Him.
Anything good about us is Him, and anything good comes from
Him. We desire for Him to reveal Himself as always, and we'll
notice tonight, if He be our teacher, that in this life and
in the life to come, Our rest is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. If Lord has not made you to see
that yet, I pray he does. And I pray he continues to cause
me to see that. So many times we're full of turmoil
and confusion during the day. We're battling different problems
that we face. And for different ages, it changes
in life. He's our rest. He's our refuge. He's our high tower. He's the
only rest and peace that we have in this world, that we have a
very changing world, but a very unchangeable God. That's good
news, isn't it? He alone is our great expectation. That's what I've titled the message
tonight, great expectations. So let's read this together.
Proverbs 11, one through 11. A false balance is abomination
to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. When pride cometh,
then cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom. The integrity
of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors
shall destroy them. Riches profit not in the day
of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death. The righteousness
of the perfect shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall
by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright
shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. Now pay attention to this verse.
When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and
the hope of unjust men perisheth. The righteous is delivered out
of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. A hypocrite with
his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the
just be delivered. When it goeth well with the righteous,
the city rejoiceth, and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.
By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is
overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. You notice he said in
verse seven that when the wicked man dies, his expectation shall
perish. His expectation shall perish.
I was going to title this, what is our expectation? But I like
the title Great Expectations better because we know what our
expectation is. It's the Lord himself, isn't
it? We're expecting to be made in his image. We're expecting
to, we're expecting, we know, we have hope that the blood is
still enough, that the blood is still capable. It did everything necessary for
the salvation of the Lord's people. Now we see these two contrasts
here of God's people chosen in the covenant of grace by God's
will and purpose. We see the elect of the Lord here. We see
the ones that have been set aside and they're called the righteous.
They're called the righteous multiple times, multiple times. called the lowly, with the lowly
as wisdom. They're called the opposite of
the wickedness that he speaks of. They're not, the ones that
he's talking about that are the opposite are the wicked man,
the unjust man. And he has continued giving us
these contrasts over and over. And why did he do that? To show
us there's only two kinds of people in the world. Those who
the Lord chose in the covenant of grace to redeem, those who
the Lord purposed to save, those who are called out of darkness
into his marvelous light at his appointed time, and those that
are left to themselves. They're the wicked ones. A lot
of people see that what they do in their life and they think,
well, I'm not as bad as so-and-so, but what people don't understand
and what the Lord has said is there's none good, no not one,
none good but God. and that we're all born in sin.
We're shaped in iniquity. We come out of the womb speaking
lies. God doesn't measure our sin based upon what we do. He
measures the sin based upon what we are. That's what sin is. It's what we are. It's our nature. It's what we are. So what is
our hope? Well, our hope is our great expectations. That's our hope, our great expectations.
First, I wanna tell us the expectation of the wicked, those who are
not ordained into eternal life, and then I'm gonna tell us three
points, and you know we can always do more, but three seems to be
the best number to not get too distracted, so let's look at
verse seven together. Verse seven again says, when
the wicked man dieth, his expectations shall perish. So when a wicked
man dies, those that don't have Christ, those that are not known
of Christ, when he dies, whatever he's expecting is gonna perish.
You remember in the Old Testament, the Lord told, he said, I will
disannul your covenant. When the overwhelming scourge
comes, whenever death comes, when the flood comes, he said,
I will disannul your covenant. You say that you have a covenant
with death and in hell you are agreed, He says, no, I'll disannul
that one. It won't stand. There's only
one covenant whereby men and women are saved, and it's the
covenant of grace. It's the covenant of grace. So
when a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and
the hope of unjust men perisheth. Well, what is that hope that
they have? What is that, the unjust that
they desire? Well, look at verse one. A false
balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his
delight. He's saying that their hope is that God will use an
unjust balance. But he just said an unjust balance
is disgusting. That's what the word abomination
means there. You remember in the Old Testament when Belshazzar
was in the, I believe that was his name, Belshazzar, Belteshazzar,
yeah, yeah. The king over, the king over,
I can't remember where he's over now, this is not, well. Let's
see, Babylon, king over Babylon. There we go. I'm sorry. King
over Babylon. And he took the golden cups.
He said they were going to throw a party. And he had just conquered
the oil. The Israelites had just been
conquered recently. They'd been in captivity. He goes and gets the golden and
silver cups from the temple that were taken, what they use for
the worship ceremony of God. And which is a picture of us
saying we're just as good as God. That's what he's saying.
And he comes in there and he started to drink and then a hand
appears on the wall and it writes. And it was translated that you've
been weighed in the balance and been found wanting. Wanting. You remember we read in Psalm
60 for our call to worship and it talks about that if we were
to be weighed then we would weigh less than vanity. Less than vanity. We would be found wanting. See
God's standard is perfection. absolute perfection. And there
is none that can accomplish perfection in their life. There's none that
can attain perfection in their life. So God sent forth his son
as the substitute surety of his people who is perfect in order
to redeem them back to God. That was what the Lord did. He's
saying here that the ones that are wicked, the ones that are
unjust, that want to use a false balance, they're going to offer
their self to God because they believe that their good outweighs
their bad. Oh, yeah, I've sinned before,
but I don't do this and I don't do I'm not that bad. You know,
and I've I've done this and I've done that. And God's going to
be pleased with me. No, he's only pleased with one. And that
is the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to be found in him or
I have no righteousness. That was Paul's hope. Paul said
to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Some men believe they're good
deeds, I've chose God. I didn't have to choose God,
so I chose God, and now God's pleased with me. Our nature cannot
choose God, did you know that? Our nature won't choose God.
Our nature, this flesh, hates God. Has from the very beginning.
Scripture tells us very clearly that which a man does in order
to try to attain salvation, in any kind of work, it's called
iniquity. In Psalm chapter five, verse five, God hates the workers
of iniquity. Look what the Lord declares about
this. Turn with me to Jeremiah 17. And this is a contrast as
well. This is the wicked. This is the
righteous as well here in Jeremiah chapter 17. Look at verse five, Jeremiah
17, verse five. Thus saith the Lord, cursed be
the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but
shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt
land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a
tree planted by the waters. and that spreadeth out her roots
by the river and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf
shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Now here is the answer
to what I was just saying earlier. The heart, everyone's heart,
not just mine, not just yours, the heart of every human that
has ever lived except the Lord Jesus Christ is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked who can know it. I, the Lord,
search the heart. I try the reins, even to give
every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of
his doings. If we come to the Lord saying, Lord, here's my
heart, the Lord doesn't want our heart. doesn't want our heart. He has to give us a new heart.
He has to give us the ability to look to him through faith.
He has to give us that faith to do so. He gives us takes out
the heart of flesh and gives a heart of takes out the heart
of stone and gives a heart of flesh. One that looks to him
as all in salvation. No cursed is the man that trusteth
in man. Nobody, we can't trust in man. That's what all this
is about over in our texts. When he's talking about the wicked
and the unjust, they're trusting in their works. They're trusting
in what they're doing in hopes that God will be pleased with
them on judgment day. Do you remember what the Lord
said about people on judgment day? He said, they're going to
come to me and they're going to say to me, Lord, Lord, in that
day, I have done this and I have done all these wonderful works
in your name. I've done, what are they gonna say? Everything.
I was a pastor of a church. I was this, I was that. I didn't
do that anymore. I quit living this way, started
living that way. What does the Lord say? Depart from me ye that
work iniquity, I never knew you. You were working that in order
to obtain a righteousness. But the only righteousness that
there is is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not in what I do.
It's not in what I don't do. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice he says, verse seven,
blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the
Lord is. And if the Lord has brought you
to the knowledge of the truth, you know how much of a sinner
you really are. You know that everything that you would do,
you don't do that you would like to do, but the things that you
don't want to do, that's everything that you do most of the time.
That's what Paul said. That's been the confession of
every sinner that I've ever spoke with. It's God made him a sinner.
That's what, just how it is. He's not saying here that You
are blessed because you trusted in the Lord. He's not saying
you're blessed because you're trusted in the Lord. He's saying
the blessing is God giving you the ability to trust in the Lord. That's the blessing. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the blessing here. It has to come by God-given
faith through trust and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and
his finished work. That's the blessing. You're blessed of the
Lord if you trust in the Lord. But the man that trusts in the
Lord is blessed. If he makes, if he hopes in the
Lord, it's because the Lord made him hope in the Lord. Let's go
back to our text. Proverbs 11. I want to read this together again.
And just look at all these parallels. And then I have three points
to make. verse one, a false balance, Proverbs
11 verse one, a false balance. And that actually translates
balances of deceit, deceitful balances. They're loaded. They're
loaded. Back whenever they didn't have
scales, they would have a bar or they would have different
fancy ones where they would have two cups on each side and they would
put something in this one and something in that one. They would
see what it would weigh. Well, if the standard was three pounds
on this side, then the standard on this side should be three
pounds. It should be perfectly balanced. Sometimes, especially the ones
that are doing the weighing and they got the payment for it,
They would make their cup a little bit heavier so that they got
more gold or more whatever. That was a false balance. That's
what he's talking about here. He's saying, you're going to
come to me with the deceitful balance. You're going to hold
up a balance and show me that you're weighed in the balance
and you're perfect. He said, no, you're going to
be weighed in the balance and you're going to be found wanting. You're going to
not be enough. You're not going to be enough
to go into the Lord's heaven. A false balance is abomination
to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. When pride cometh,
then cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom. Do we see the
two there? The prideful and the lowly? The ones that are lowly
are the ones that he's made them lowly. The integrity of the upright
shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy
them. Riches profiteth not in the day of wrath, but righteousness
delivereth from death. The righteous of the perfect
shall direct his way. The righteousness of the perfect.
Okay, what is the righteousness of the perfect? That's the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's our righteousness. And why
are we perfect? Because I am his and he is mine and he's made
me thus. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his
way. The Lord's gonna direct his people.
But the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. The righteousness
of the upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall
be taken in their own naughtiness. When a wicked man dieth, his
expectation shall perish, and hope of the unjust men perisheth. The righteous is delivered out
of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. An hypocrite with
his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the
just be delivered. When it goeth well with the righteous,
the city rejoiceth, and when the wicked perish, there is a
shouting. By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted,
but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. The Lord's people. God's elect,
they've been made to trust in Him. We don't trust in riches. We don't trust in our hands.
We don't trust our heart. We don't trust what we say. We
don't trust our thoughts. We don't trust anything about
us, but we trust in the Lord. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says just
that. It doesn't say trust in yourself. It doesn't say trust
in your works. It doesn't say trust and do your
best. It says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not
to their own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct that path. How can we trust in the Lord
with all our heart? Lord, you're going to have to make me do that.
You're gonna have to give me grace to trust in you with all
my heart. And what is it that we trust
the Lord with all our heart with? Our great expectations of grace,
our great expectations of our Lord's promises. We've been given great expectations,
and I've got three of them I want to talk about just briefly. The
first one is we have confidence in God. Not self. And I think I've already started
talking about that. We have our confidence is not in ourself.
Our expectation is not that we're going to save us, but that he
is going to do all the saving. Our expectation is not that we
are good enough, but that he is good enough. I want to trust
him or trust him, not myself. I don't trust myself for any
part of my salvation. Why? Because the flesh, we just
heard it. The heart's deceitful. The heart's going to say, well,
just do this and you'll live. God will be pleased with you.
What does God say? I want to know what the Lord says. I don't care
about, I'm not worried about my opinion and I'm not worried
about your opinion or another man's opinion. What does God say about
the matter? Lord says if you want to go to his heaven, if
you want to be found in Christ and have righteousness, you have
to be born again. Born again. How do you become
born again? We told Nicodemus that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou cannot tell from whether
it come or whether it goeth. So it everyone that is born of
the spirit. What does that mean? The Lord births you into his
family at the appointed time that he purposed. You're born
of the spirit, not of your choice, not of your determination, not
of your life, not of your actions, not of your will, not of your
works. We are born again by the spirit of God, according to his
purpose, all for his glory. This is something we expect to
happen if we're his. We expect it to happen. How do
you know it happens? Well, this one thing I know, whereas I was
blind, but now I see. Isn't that the confession? Well,
how do you know that you believe? Because I believe. I still believe
that Christ is all in salvation and God's absolutely sovereign.
And if he sent me to hell right now, I deserve it completely
and totally. I still believe that, but my expectation is the
expectation of every single one of the Lord's people. It is that
Christ said it is finished and therefore it is finished. I expect,
um, and I hope in the, the Lord's words, not my thoughts, not my
words, but his, his, we have great hope, have great expectations. God, about God and salvation,
how he chose before the world ever was created. Do we realize
that God, it's the Lord Jesus Christ we find in John chapter
one. It says, by him all things were made and without him not
anything made that was made. That means everything was made
by the word of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. But before
time ever began, God chose in the covenant of grace to have
mercy on some of his creatures he was going to create. And that's
what we are. We're creatures of dust. That's all we are. That's why
there's nothing good about us. He's holy and sovereign. He's
a spirit. And you and I are just made of dust. And as soon as
we die, we start going back to that dust. From thus thou art
and thus thou shalt return. That's what the scripture says.
But he chose to have mercy. He chose to show grace. He chose
to save some people. Romans chapter 9 talks about
predestination. It tells us that we were predestined
to do what? To be conformed to the image
of his son. That means we were predetermined
that we were going to look just like him. We were going to be
just like Him. Why? Because we're in Him. We're
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Him electing a people
was all about. And the sons agreed to redeem
those people, all that the Father elected. When the Lord elected
this, the covenant that the Lord entered into, and you can call
it the Lamb's Book of Life if you want to, that would be just
fine. It's an everlasting covenant. It has the name of every person
that Christ died for in it. The name of every person Christ
died for. Was he successful? Absolutely. How do we know? Because
the Lord resurrected him. He was pleased with his sacrifice.
He was very pleased with his sacrifice. God chose the people
and elected them before time ever began. And when the fullness
of time came, the great creator, the omnipotent sovereign author
and finisher of faith, the Alpha and Omega became a man. He became
the dust that you and I are. The dust that you and I are.
Can you imagine that? I mean, we believe it because
the Bible tells us that. And it's our hope. It's our hope. And that's a part of our expectations
that every single promise God made, He kept. That's our expectation,
is it not? Everything He promised to come
to pass will come to pass. We expect that. That is our great
expectation. God became a man, born of a woman,
born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
to redeem his chosen people. And how did he do this? Well,
that's our second great expectation. I think I've given us three already.
That's okay. Our second great expectation
is we have great expectations in salvation. Christ finished
the work. We expect everything that he
said is true. We expect that it's going to
come to pass the way that he said it's going to come to pass
and that he's not going to lose one. We expect that the Lord
was successful. We know that the Lord is we have
hope that the Lord was successful. because he became the surety
substitute for all of God's chosen people. A substitute, a lot of
times I use the example of substitute teacher. My kids go to school
so they got that reference. A substitute teacher is one that
sets in for the teacher when they're out, they substitute.
Christ became the substitute for his people on the cross.
What does that mean? He literally bore our cross.
He literally had to, everything that happened there should have
happened to us, rightfully so. We were the guilty ones. He wasn't
guilty. We were the guilty ones. And yet the Lord was pleased
to bruise him. Why? To save his people from
their sins. That's what Matthew chapter one
says whenever Christ was gonna be, his birth was announced.
Call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin.
Well, what happened? Well, the Lord chose in mercy
to drink the dregs of the cup of damnation, to drink the dregs
of the cup of the wrath of God, the justice of God, to have the
full wrath of God poured out upon him. Brethren, our, our
Lord and his suffering, and you can read it in Psalm 22 and there's
other places in Psalm. You can see some, uh, Can't remember
if it's Psalm 61. There's other places where it
talks about the suffering of the Lord on the cross and what
he was enduring. He said his heart was poured out like wax.
All of his bones were broken. He's talking prophetically. David
is about how the Lord is suffering. Yet we can't enter into the thought
that the Lord's soul was made an offering for sin. His soul,
very soul was made an offering for sin to God. The Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary never offered himself up to a
man, he was offering himself up to his father for the purpose
of the salvation of the Lord's people. He wasn't trying to save
people, he saved his people that day. In the fullness of time,
he just lets us know about it. The Lord saved his people from
their sin, plain and simple. Another verse we could use would
be Hebrews chapter one where it says, he had by himself purged
our sin. That day, he sat down, the work
is finished. The work is finished. Because
he became substitute surety and shed his own blood, he sacrificed
himself upon the tree. His soul was made an offering
for sin. The Lord poured out his eternal wrath. He endured
the hell that was due to us. Oh, we have great, great expectations,
great expectations of righteousness, great expectations of grace and
mercy, because he's the one that said it and he cannot lie. He
cannot lie. He drank of the cup of breath
and justice till every drop was consumed until justice was satisfied
until the law was content until the father was well pleased with
his sacrifice. You know what we deserved? We
deserved that. Scripture says he bore our sin
in his body on the tree. It's imputation is what it is.
Imputation was given his righteousness to us and he took our sin. Took
our sin and gave us holiness. He took our sin and gave us perfect
union and peace with God. He took our sin. You talk about
a trade. I mean, He got all the glory. That's the point of it
all, isn't it? He gets all the glory for it. I didn't give him
my sin. I wasn't there when he died.
I wasn't there in eternity past, before time ever began, when
the agreement was made between the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. This is the work of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Every
time you see something about salvation in the scripture, it's
God that saves. It's not man that lets God do
anything. It's God that saves. It's not God asking them a question.
Hey, I need you to do your part. I'm so close to saving you right
now, but I can't unless you let me. No, no, he's God. He doesn't
ask our permission. He doesn't ask our forgiveness.
He's God. He says, seek you my face, we seek his face. He's
sovereign, he's holy. He's not like we are, he's other. We deserved every wave of wrath
that he endured on the cross, the hell on the cross that he
went through, just for breathing his air, just for breathing his
air. Why? Because we're corrupted
creatures. There's not a good human being
on the face of the earth. And if people tell you there
are, they're wrong. Not in God's eyes. God has never
looked at a person on the face of the earth and been pleased
with them except the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to be in him.
And because of what he accomplished on the cross of Calvary, I have
great expectations that all of his people are in him, seated
in the heavenlies right now. Why? Because He tells us, He,
God, hath made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. We have great expectations. We
have a good hope. Because after the father was
well pleased with him, he was pleased to bruise him after he
accomplished salvation on the cross by himself, purged our
sin, he said with a triumphant voice, it is finished. Salvation accomplished. not hanging
in the balance, not depending upon me in any way, it is finished. It is finished. And the veil
in the temple, when he gave up the ghost, was rent entwined
from top to bottom, signifying we can now enter boldly to the
throne of grace to find mercy, find grace to help in the time
of need. We have great expectation in
him, in his finished work, because we were in him when he died,
and we were in him when he was resurrected. We're now complete in Him. I
was looking for that song. I wanted to sing it, but I don't
think it's in our, it's not in our hymn. That's okay. Maybe
I'll put that on the back of the bulletin sometime. That's
a good song. We're complete in Him. I have expectation that
everything God required. he provided in his son. That
everything he requires of me, his son fulfilled on my behalf. That my substitute, when he died
on the cross, he satisfied God in my room, in my stead, in my
place. Now my sins are gone because
of what he done, not because of what I done. Now God is satisfied
with me, not because of what I do, but because of what Christ
did. The Lord says, well pleased, because I'm in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's all by his grace. It's all by his grace. God has made him unto us all
our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification, and all
our redemption. This is why we have a blessed hope. This is
why we have great expectations. And lastly, this is what I've
been thinking about lately quite a bit. We have great expectations
in his return, in his return, because he promised, I'll come,
if I go not away, the comforter cannot come, but if I go away,
I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am,
there you may be also. Now, whether it's by the way
of the grave, or whether it's by the trumpet, when the Lord
ascends with a shout, the voice of the archangel, trumpet god
will sound, the dead in Christ will rise first, and we which
are alive and remain shall be called up together to meet him
in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is the
comfort of the Lord's people because the next verse actually
says, comfort ye one another with these words. That's our
expectation. The glorious return of our Savior,
whether it's going to be in this body or it's going to be after
we die, we can face to face with him. We're going to be made just
like him. That's my expectation. I'm going
to see him as he is, the scripture says. We're going to experience
being glorified. We're going to have a perfect
body. This is my expectation. Why? Because Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. This is my
expectation. This is your expectation because
we don't see ourself as having a righteousness outside of Christ.
Christ Jesus is our righteousness. We don't have hope in what we
do. We have hope in what he did on the cross of Calvary as our
only hope before God of salvation. Brethren, we have great expectations
because of our Savior and our Lord, what He has done in saving
His people, and what He's going to do in bringing them all the
way, keeping them. What did He say in John chapter
six? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. He that cometh to me, all I know, I was cast
out. Then He said, all the Father giveth me, I will lose none,
none. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. No man can pluck them out of
my father's hand, or no man can pluck them out of my hand. My
father which gave them me is greater than all. No man can pluck them
out of his hand. I and my father are one. The
Lord's sheep hear his voice. They follow him, our hopes in
him and him alone. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. One
day we'll be changed in the moment of twinkling of an eye. We don't
know what we shall be, but we know that we shall be made like
him for we shall see him as he is. That's why Paul said in Romans
chapter eight, I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us. What is that glory? He tells
us that too. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Thank God we have
a good hope. And thank God he's given us great. Expectations,
let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
promises. Thank you for your work. Thank you for salvation.
We ask that you would cause us to believe this truth. And bless
it for understanding for your glory in Christ name. Amen.