Well, it is wonderful to be back. It is wonderful to see all of you again. My wife and I were talking on the way up, wondering who all would dare to go out. The media has us so afraid, but we are so glad you’re here and it’s great to see you. And it is great to meet again with the people of God and to sing. It’s been a blessing this morning already. Wonderful songs. I think especially Psalm 100; I think I could sing that every week. That, of course, is a song that the church has been singing for all the centuries. That particular tune, Old 100th, the church has been singing for several hundred years. And I think it’s great, just a wonderful hymn. And, well, maybe we can sing it every week.
I want to just add my word of what has already been said regarding Bill Lee. You all know him, knew him. He was a great guy to be with, a lot of fun and all of that. But just from my perspective from talking to him over the last several months, I want to say what an encouragement he was to me. Without any faltering at all, just all throughout this, his robust faith in the Lord’s purpose, the Lord’s providence in whatever comes, he expressed that all the time. And it was just encouraging to see. You’ve heard me say it a hundred times: our people die well. And I suppose in that sense, it’s the normal of the Christian life, but he exemplified it very well. And it was just wonderful to see his confidence in God. His safety in Christ was something he realized, and his trust in the Lord’s providence was an encouragement to me. And the same I should say for Janet as well. Continue to pray for her as she makes these adjustments in these times, and it’ll be good to see her again.
We want to continue with Proverbs this morning, so if you will take your Bibles and turn to Proverbs chapter 11. And as we have done with Proverbs, I will be looking at various verses in the book of Proverbs. And today we actually turn to the Proverbs themselves, the proverbial material beginning with chapter 10. Chapters 1 through 9, we have those introductory lectures. And then I gave a couple of other messages on how to understand Proverbs, how to interpret them, and things like that. But now let’s take some time this week, and then in coming times together, two, three more times maybe, we’ll look at the Proverbs again. But we’ll take some of these Proverbs on a certain theme today. The theme is Proverbs on Truth and Justice.
Proverbs chapter 11, verse 1: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” The Proverbs are to be thought through carefully, not just read and left. Let’s read it again. “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” Let’s bow for prayer.
Our Father, what a good thing it is to be back together again with your people, to experience our love for one another, to share again in our common love for the Lord Jesus Christ, to sing together, to speak with one another again face to face. We’re grateful that you’ve brought us back. We’re thankful for the protection that you’ve given us through this coronavirus. We ask that you would continue to give us your protective care. And now we ask as we come together that you will open your word for us, teach us by it, give us a greater appreciation of your truth, justice, our responsibility with regard to truth and justice, and give us a greater appreciation then of the gospel of Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.
Once again, “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” Now we have what we saw last time here, an antithetical parallel in this proverb. We have the same point stated in both lines, but from contrasting standpoints. We have really perfect symmetry in this parallel. We have a false balance on the one hand and we have a just weight on the other. False balance versus a just weight. And then we also have an abomination on the one hand and God’s delight on the other. A false balance is an abomination. A just weight is his delight.
By the way, I am very sure I do not have coronavirus. Don’t worry. These are allergies flaring up. I have been quarantined for three months. There’s no way I have coronavirus. So if I give you a handshake or a hug or a holy kiss, you don’t have to worry.
Proverbs On Justice
Now, obviously here in chapter 11, verse 1, in this proverb, he’s referring to scales in measuring out quantities of goods that are to be bought and sold. A just weight, the second part of the parallel, the just weight is the standardized weights that are usually issued by some governing state and they are true 16-ounce-to-the-pound weights. A just weight, a true weight, actually weighs what it says it weighs. And so, in chapter 16, if you’d like to look at another one, chapter 16, I think this is very important, verse 11, we read: “A just balance and scales are the Lord’s. All the weights in the bag are his work.”
Isn’t that an interesting proverb? A just balance and scales are the Lord’s. The weights in the bag are his work. So what he’s doing here in this proverb is tracing these standards of weights and measures back to their ultimate authorization. It’s not some state issuing these weights and measures and standardized measurements, but ultimately it’s God himself. Whatever device is used for weighing and measuring goods that are bought and sold, ultimately it is as though God himself were issuing those standardized weights and measures. Ultimately it traces back to him.
And the point of that is to say that all of this in dealing with a just weight traces ultimately back, not just to the governing authority who issues the weight—16 ounces to the pound or whatever—ultimately it traces back to God himself who is just and who demands justice of all of his creatures. And in fact, he not only demands it, there’s a reason he demands it. It’s not because he has chosen some arbitrary standard of justice. It is that rather his own character is just and truthful and right, and he expects all of his creatures to reflect him and his justice in all of their dealings with one another.
So a false balance is an abomination to the Lord because that’s contrary to him. A just weight is his delight because that reflects him. It is a reflection of his own justice and the way that he deals with us always. Now this false balance, that is then a separate set of measures, a separate set of weights that are used to swindle an unsuspecting customer. So for example, in Amos chapter 8, the prophet condemns the people of his days for, here’s the quote, “making an ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances.”
Now the ephah is a volume measure, so let’s say a gallon, or if you like a weight measure, a pound. And he says they make them small. And on the other hand, they make the shekel great. That is the money. They make the dollar great. That is, they weigh things out for selling, and the weight is a little small. It’s not quite 16 ounces to the pound. And yet, they get the whole payment for the pound. And so the ephah is small, and the shekel or the dollar is great. And he condemns them for that, for using these separate sets of weights and measures. People pay the going rate, but they don’t quite get what they paid for.
If you’d like a couple of other Proverbs, chapter 20 in verse 10: “Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord.” Or chapter 20, verse 23: “Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord and false scales are not good.” So in a contemporary setting, this is the butcher with his thumb on the scale. Or this is some subtle form of packaging which results in a little less than a true 16 ounces to the pound that you get when you purchase. Or this is misrepresenting what you are selling at the garage sale, or this is misrepresenting your work to your employer, or this is misrepresenting the number of hours you have worked to your employer, or it is at the board meeting misrepresenting what you have done. It is a false balance.
And God’s attitude toward it, he says he hates it. It’s an abomination to him. It is contrary to what he is. He is just, always. And he demands the same of us. And any time an unjust balance is used, any time that there is any dealing in business that misrepresents the reality, he abhors it. He sees it, he notices, and he hates it.
The Broader Idea Of Truth
Now then that brings us to a broader idea in the book of Proverbs, and that is not just Proverbs on justice, but the broader idea of truth. And the Proverbs have a lot to say about truth as well. So look at chapter 12 and verse 17: “Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.”
Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence. Now you can see here the idea of how the biblical writers understand the nature of truth. This actually is a very contemporary discussion, not only in philosophical circles, but it has worked its way down to society on the street level as well. “You have your truth, I have my truth. What’s true for you may not be true for me.” But you can see here that the biblical idea of truth has the connotations, first of all, of that which actually represents reality. It represents the facts. To tell the truth in that sense is an accurate representation of reality. But it also has, then, the connotations of trustworthiness. It’s dependable. Because it actually represents what is, it’s dependable. You can trust it to be true, and you can rely on it.
And so he says, “Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.” What he says then is to actually correspond with reality. He doesn’t say what is if it isn’t, and he doesn’t say it isn’t if it is. What he says actually represents what is so. And to do otherwise, he says here in this proverb, is deceit. And so in our world, we have “You can have your truth, I can have mine. It’s true for you, it’s not necessarily true for me.” We have all kinds of discussions. There’s the coherence model of truth: if it makes sense, then it’s true. There’s the pragmatic model of truth: if it works, it’s true. But the Bible insists that what is true is that which actually corresponds to reality.
Now for the biblical writers, it’s not merely some philosophical concept. But it’s theologically grounded. It’s grounded in the nature of God himself, as I’ve already mentioned. So, chapter 16, verse 11, as we have seen: “A just balance and scales are the Lord’s. All the weights in the bag are his work.” And so God is the true God. He’s the God who actually is. He is the God of truth. When he speaks, it is true, always. He never speaks what is wrong. He never speaks what is false. Always you can depend on it because he is the God of truth. We find that God cannot lie.
And this works its way out in several different ways in the Bible. God the Son is the only begotten of the Father, and therefore he’s full of grace and truth. The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, and so he’s called the Spirit of Truth, who has been sent. God is a God of truth. And that informs, in turn, the doctrine of revelation that we have in the scriptures. When God speaks, it is always true. It is always trustworthy. He always speaks what objectively is. We have, on the other hand, false religion. It misrepresents what really is. And by contrast, you have the gospel, that is, the word of truth.
And all of that to say God is a God of truth in his very character; all is to always be truthful. He never deceives, and every time he speaks, it is entirely trustworthy. Now that deep connection between God and truth has profound ethical implications for us as well. Because God is true and because when he speaks it is always true, we are obliged to believe it, to trust it, and to obey with confidence. But we’re also obliged to reflect that truthfulness in our own speaking and our own dealings with one another.
So for example, a famous one, Proverbs chapter six, back into the lectures. Proverbs chapter six, this is the eighth introductory lecture. Proverbs 6, verses 16 and following: “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven are an abomination to him.” You remember when we have this numerical formula—”There are three, no four,” “There are six, no seven”—the emphasis is on the last. So he’s aiming for the last, but still notice here what he mentions, what he hates. “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness that breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
Now notice here, twice he mentions deceit and lying. A lying tongue, that’s the second one, and then a false witness who breathes out lies. And the emphasis here in verses 16 to 19 is on God’s attitude toward it. He hates it. It’s an abomination to him. There’s a moral revulsion against it. Now we have something of the same in chapter 12, verse 22: “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”
Again, we have an antithetical parallel, both lines from contrasting standpoints making the same point about truth. And again, both of them, he says, God abominates dishonesty; he hates it. And on the other hand, he delights in truth. He hates falsehood because it’s so contrary to him. And he delights in truth because it reflects him. And so if you are squeaky clean in your dealings with others, in your business, in whatever kind of business dealing, you always do it right, you call it by the numbers, you may never get recognition for it. You may not be appreciated for it—you probably will, but you may not ever get appreciation or recognition for it. But know that God notices, and it delights him. When he sees us in our dealings with others, and we are truthful, and we are honest, and we are just, he delights in it. Even in the common affairs of life, it reflects his justice, and because it reflects him, he takes delight in it.
And then, of course, on the other hand, when you cut corners and you misrepresent your work, when you’re presenting your work at the board meeting, or you are presenting your work to a customer, or you’re representing something that you’re selling at the garage sale, and you misrepresent it, God sees that, too, and he hates it. It’s an affront to him and it’s a violation of his demands. So the point in all of this is honesty and integrity in all of our dealings with one another, even in the common interchange of life. When we do what is honest, we say what is true, we represent our work accurately and honestly, God sees it. And because it reflects his own truthfulness and his own justice, he delights in it. And if on the other hand we misrepresent and we are unfair in our practices, he sees that too and he hates it.
Being A Faithful Witness
Proverbs then takes that into another related dimension and that is how we represent or misrepresent other people. The matter of being a faithful witness or a false witness—bearing faithful witness or bearing false witness against another. So look at, again, chapter 6, verses 16 to 19. Whether in the courtroom or in normal social interchange, the idea of being a false witness who breathes out lies is something God hates. It’s a violation of the Ninth Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
So chapter 14, verse 5, if you look there: “A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.” And then we find in these Proverbs as well, God’s response to false witness. Look at chapter 19 and verse 5: “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.” Verse 9, we have almost the same thing: “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.” And then look at chapter 21, over a page or so. Chapter 21 and verse 28: “A false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.”
So you have one man who hears the evidence, sees what it is, puts his own spin on it. God sees that. And then you have the other guy who hears, and it’s not explicitly mentioned here—it’s the elliptical clause in the verse—it’s assumed he not only hears, but he then in turn represents accurately what he has heard. God sees that too. And God delights in that.
We sang a song about that this morning, Psalm 98, the song that we sang. Talked about God judging the unjust. What was the line? “Injustice robed and enthroned in light, the Lord shall judge and dispense the right.” That’s what these Proverbs are insisting on. God sees in all of these affairs of life, and he takes delight in what is true, takes delight in what is honest and just, and he hates all false ways.
And in this matter of misrepresenting others, let’s look at one more. This is very important to see this, just for our own relationships’ sake. Chapter 25, verse 18. This verse describes in vivid terms the effects a false witness has on the person who’s wrongly slandered. Proverbs 25, verse 18: “A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like” what? It’s like “a war club or a sword or a sharp arrow.” These are deadly battle weapons. You bear false witness against a man. It’s like beating his brains out with a club. It’s like piercing him with a sword or shooting him with arrows. It’s character assassination. It’s murder, in a sense. You’ve hurt his reputation. And God hates it.
And what we find here in Proverbs then, about truth and justice, is what we find through the whole Bible, only here in more pithy kinds of statements, and that is we are to be people who are marked by truth and honesty. Our word is our bond. We say yes, we mean yes. We say no, we mean no. Our yay is yay, our nay is nay. We are to be people who are noted for our honesty, our integrity, so that when we speak, people know that they can depend on it. Our yay is yay, our nay is nay. We know what to say. We know how to interact with others. We know how to represent our work to others in business and in normal interchange in life. God is a God of truth, and he demands the same of us.
He Who Justifies The Wicked
Now there’s one more proverb I want you to see in relation to all of this that is just very curious, and that is chapter 17, verse 15. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Well, you get the picture. Here’s a courtroom scene, and you’ve got a judge, and he renders a false verdict. It might on the one hand be condemning a righteous person, or it might on the other hand be justifying a guilty person. And in both cases, God says it’s an evil, and he hates it. It doesn’t rightly represent reality; it is not true, it is not just, and God hates it. It’s an abomination to the Lord.
You can see the problem here, can’t you? This is just what we want God to do for us, isn’t it? We want God to justify the unrighteous. We want God to look at us, unrighteous people—let’s put it in our context this morning, liars and cheats—and we want God to look at us and say, “He’s righteous, I’ll take him.” And the whole question then of the gospel, first of all, before it faces any other question, the whole question of the gospel is: how in the world can God do that? How can God, the righteous judge, do for us what he condemns of human judges, and that is justifying the ungodly? How can he do that? God abominates that kind of a judge, and now we expect him to do it for us?
This is why the gospel was such a scandal to the Jews. It seemed like such a miscarriage of justice. Here you are sinners, confessed sinners, and you say that God accepted you and declared you righteous, that you’re justified? What a horrible doctrine that is. It reflects terribly on God. And that’s the dilemma of the gospel. How can a righteous judge declare an ungodly person to be righteous when in fact he is not? That’s the rub.
And of course that’s the whole point of the gospel and that’s why Paul says in Romans chapter 1 that the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God. It’s curious he doesn’t say the gospel is a revelation of the love of God. That’s a true statement. It is a revelation of the love of God. But Paul’s point when he comes to expound the gospel through Romans is that the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God. When we get to chapter 3, he expounds it for us in that compressed passage, Romans 3 verses 21 and following, that God provides his son as a substitute for the sinners. He offers him in place of sinners a sacrifice to God. God is appeased. His wrath is turned aside because he’s been satisfied in the condemnation of his son in place of sinners.
And because he has died in place of sinners and has satisfied the just demands of God, the sinner is then redeemed and then justified, declared righteous before God—not because they are righteous but because their substitute stepped in for them and he is righteous and he has taken the condemnation in their place. And God then in justice justifies the ungodly. We have that just astonishing statement in Romans chapter 4 and verse 5: God who justifies the ungodly. And he does so because there’s this great exchange. We’ve given him our sin. He’s taken it. He’s given us his righteousness. He has borne in our place the condemnation due us because of our sin.
And now God, the righteous judge, can declare unrighteous people to be righteous. There are some glorious ironies in the gospel. One of them, of course, is 1 Corinthians 1: the foolishness of God proves to be wiser than the wisdom of men; the weakness of God overthrows the mighty. It was in Jesus’ defeat that he triumphantly succeeded in establishing the kingdom of God and rescuing his people from their sin.
And here we have another irony of the gospel, and that is that God justifies, finds righteous, declares righteous, people who are unrighteous, and—here’s the kicker—he has a righteous way to do it. Because in Christ he has satisfied all of the demands of justice against us. And he takes us lying, cheating sinners and gives us to his son. And his son takes us and takes responsibility for all of our sin and satisfies in our place all of the just demands of God against us. So that on the ground of justice, God justifies us. The gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God. He has not cut corners. He has not let bygones be bygones. He hasn’t lowered the bar. So committed was he to bringing us into fellowship with him that he gave his son to bear the punishment due us for our unrighteousness.
And that then is the sure standing of every Christian. Our standing before God is grounded in something altogether outside of us. It has nothing to do whatever with my performance. God has come to me in Christ and has done for me through him all that he requires of me. And this God who condemns a judge who would justify the wicked has found a righteous way himself to justify the ungodly through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we can’t read these Proverbs without feeling conviction and sensing the guilt for our dishonesty. We are so easy to skirt the truth. We’re so quick to put our spin on things to our own advantage. God, help us to see that you are a God of truth and a God of justice. And may we reflect that more faithfully in our dealings with one another. Help us to be known as people whose yay is yay and our nay is nay. And Lord, how we thank you for the Lord Jesus who has done for us in his work all that you require of us and that through him, you are able to justify us justly. We recognize that we are sinners. We glory in the fact that at the same time, at the same time, we are righteous because we stand in him. Lord, we pray that you’d encourage our hearts with that thought every day. In his name we ask, amen.