Proverbs 11:1-6

Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, today we're at Proverbs chapter 11, the first six verses.
I'm really excited to have you here this morning. We're back in the church. It's really wonderful to be back so we can see the screen and work through this together. I'm really excited about that. Anyways, why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the opportunity we have now to be in your word, and we pray that we would follow after you. Lord, we pray that you would watch over us and care for us in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, here we go. Let's go ahead and turn over to the computer here to our text. And we are at Proverbs chapter 11, the first six verses. All right, here we go.
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. What is this saying? The Lord hates lying, stealing, and cheating. The Lord hates dishonest scales. This is the idea if you want to know how much something was worth. Have you ever gone to a grocery store before and you've weighed out how much fruits or vegetables. Well what if they mess with the springs in there a little bit or change the standards a little bit and made you pay a little bit more for each and everything. God hates that. It says that dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord.
This is why if you go to a gas pump, somebody's measured. Is it saying one gallon is actually one gallon? When pride comes, then comes shame. But with the humble is wisdom. Isn't that interesting? When pride comes, then comes shame. Our culture, our world loves to be prideful. And here it's saying, hold on. When pride comes, quickly following after that is shame.
But if you're humble, if you lower yourself, if you're willing to serve others, but with the humble is wisdom. It's Jesus Christ himself who humbled himself, right? What does Jesus say? He did not come to be served, but to serve. And so, with humility is wisdom. And then here in verses three, three, six, we talk about the righteous versus the unrighteous. Okay, so let's go through these parts.
The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Okay, so the integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. who you are when no one is watching. Integrity, your uprightness, your character, right, that will guide you. If your character is founded upon the fear of the Lord, he'll guide you, he'll lead you, he'll direct you, and it's but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
We've talked about this before. Sometimes it seems like in this life that the righteous get what the wicked are supposed to have and the wicked get what the righteous are supposed to have. It seems backwards at times, and the psalmist even asks God why this is the case. But if we have the long view in mind, this proverb is true, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
For there is appointed every man a day of judgment. We're all going to die and we'll all stand before the mercy seat or the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and we'll have to find out whether there's mercy or condemnation for us, whether we received him by faith.
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. Wow, that's a theologically loaded statement and a reality in this life. Riches do not profit on the day of wrath. It doesn't matter how much money you have, when God judges, you won't be able to satisfy his wrath. Rich people in this life might be able to get away with it, bribery and corruption and things like this, but not the full wrath of God.
But righteousness delivers from death. Righteousness delivered Jesus Christ from death, right? Death had no claim on him. The grave could not keep him, but our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And if we believe in him, and if he has given us his righteousness, if his righteousness has been imputed to us, we also will be delivered from death. Death, though you die, you will not truly die if you have faith in Christ. The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. Eventually sin catches up to you. You can hide your affairs. You can hide your stealing. You can hide your greed. You can hide your lying on your taxes. You can hide your stealing from your partners at work. You can hide all these things in your life.
But the way of the wicked is going to get found out. But the righteousness of the blameless will direct his way alright. There's a general principle here. There is a blessing in following the ways of the Lord, in fearing Him and keeping His laws. There is a blessing. The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust. You can only sin so long before it finally catches up to you. Again, it's so good to be back kind of in the church where we can look at the words together, not just me reading them.
I pray that you walk in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I pray that you don't just trust in his imputed righteousness to you, but that you walk in the paths of Jesus Christ. For it's what Jesus Christ himself who said, he who keeps my commandments is he who loves me. Do you love Jesus? Keep his commandments. Not that you might be justified. No, you are declared righteous in Jesus Christ. But now you walk in his righteousness.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would keep us from following the lusts and greed that naturally creep up in our heart. We pray that we would fix our eyes upon Jesus and walk in his paths. Lord, we pray that you would watch over us and that you would indeed so unite us to the vine, Jesus Christ, that we would bear much good fruit in our lives, fruits of righteousness and of mercy. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.