The Scales of Judgment
Text: "… Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."—Daniel 5:27.
There is a time of judgment for kings, and dictators, and presidents, even though some of them believe that they don’t have to answer to anyone on earth, and that they are above God’s judgment.
But even if they escape judgment on earth, they will be tried before the throne of Jesus Christ.
There is also a weighing time for nations.
National sins demand national punishments.
The whole history of God’s dealings with mankind proves that even if a nation is continually wicked; and even if it appears to prosper, despite acts of bloodshed, tyranny, and war, there will come a day of reckoning.
When it has done all the evil it can do, the angel of vengeance will execute its ruin.
There can’t be an eternal damnation for nations, as nations; but men will be destroyed as individuals, and they will stand alone before God to be tried.
However, nations will be punished on a national scale.
The guilt, which they bring upon themselves, must receive its awful punishment in this world.
And that’s what happened to the nation of the Chaldeans; the empire of Babylon, which was situated in present day Iraq.
They were guilty of spilling innocent blood.
The excavations in Iraq that have been explored prove that they were cruel and ferocious.
God allowed that nation to grow and prosper; then it became God’s hammer for breaking apart many other nations.
It was the axe of Jehovah; His battle axe, and His weapon of war.
Through them, He destroyed kingdoms, and slaughtered their mighty kings.
But their time came at last.
They believed they were safe, but the Lord brought them down, and gave them to their conquerors, who took all their riches, and made them slaves.
And it will be the same for every nation on earth that is guilty of oppression.
If a nation will humble itself before God when it receives a little of His anger, it may delay its punishment for awhile, but if it still continues its tyranny, it will reap what it has sown.
Every nation on earth will be judged.
There is no God in heaven, if the atrocities committed by Iraq go unpunished.
There is no God existing in heaven, if those countries that have legalized abortion and prostitution go unpunished.
There’s no God anywhere, if those countries that hurt, imprison and kill Christians go unpunished.
Our Lord God will avenge everyone who is oppressed.
As I write this sermon, we are at war against Iraq; and I think that is a wonderful proof that God takes vengeance on governments that are cruel toward their own people and other nations.
There was a time when Christians were hunted like animals, and the ground was red with their blood.
But we can rest assured, that God will avenge his anointed.
And we can be sure that God will bring down those nations, who hurt the children of God.
And all those individuals who reject His Son, and hurt His children will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
There has never been an act of persecution, and there has never been a drop of martyr’s blood shed, that will not be avenged.
And every country that’s guilty of it, will feel the wrath of God.
There are religions that exist today, which are teaching man-made theology, and they don’t permit their congregations to hear the Gospel of Christ.
They are religions of works, and ritual and they give mere men the credit that only belongs to God.
The countries where these religions are prominent, are already feeling God’s wrath in the form of poverty, natural disasters, sickness and hunger.
Men and women will not get away with sin, and neither will the nations.
Our duty today is to become aware of the sins of our nation, and to purge them from this great country.
God has given us more of the light of the Gospel than other nations and He has blessed us with wealth and prosperity, but still sin is everywhere.
Along with light, comes responsibility, so let’s work to purify our land, and let’s pray for the politicians, judges and the police.
Now, I want to go from talking about nations to talking about how our text relates to each one of us.
I hope that when we leave this room today, that we will all be able to say, “I thank God for the assurance that when the time comes that I am weighed in the scales, I won’t be found wanting.”
The first thing to notice is that God will weigh us in this world by setting up tests, so that we will be able to discover what will be the result of our final weighing. After that I want to speak about the last tremendous weighing on the judgment day.
First, LET US JUDGE OURSELVES, SO THAT WE WILL NOT BE JUDGED.
It is a good idea for us to put our selves through various tests, so we can discover, whether we are, at this present time, under weight, or not.
The first test I would like to mention is the test of human opinion.
I believe that the opinion of men is worthless, when it’s based on false ideas, because it will draw the wrong conclusions.
I would not trust the world to judge the children of God.
It’s great to know that the world will not judge the church; instead the saints will judge the world.
I am talking about judging ourselves, but I don’t believe that we should rule out our neighbor’s opinion of us.
The opinion of honest men and women is to be respected, since it may be the first hint of what the judgment of God will be.
Do those who know you, avoid you?
Do good moral people turn away from you; do they refuse to associate with you?
Have you discovered that respectable people believe you have poor character?
Well, I believe that if you can’t stand the trial of honest men and women, whose judgment is imperfect, then you will never pass the rigid scale of God’s justice.
When anyone is so bad that his fellow beings can see his vices, he should be afraid.
If you can’t pass the test of human opinion, you have good reason to be afraid, because you have been put in the balances and found wanting.
Next, I would like for everyone to put themselves into the scales of the divine law.
We should do it at least once in our lives.
The law of God, those Ten Commandments which God wrote with His finger on stone tablets is a weight which can’t be balanced.
Let me put just one of those commands into the scale.
It is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.”
I invite anyone, who would flatter themselves by thinking they don’t need the blood of Jesus Christ or His forgiveness or His salvation, to put themselves into the scales to see if they have the weight.
If we would try ourselves by the First Commandment, we would have to admit we are guilty.
If we were to put all ten in there, there’s not a person on earth who wouldn’t fall short of the mark.
We will always fall short of the standard, which the Law of God requires.
Mr. “Goody-two-shoes” may say that he has been kind to the poor, and gone to church often, has taken communion, so if he doesn’t enter heaven, nobody will.
But I’m sorry for him, because he’s as light as a feather.
If he goes into the scales to be weighed against the tremendous weight of the Ten Commandments of the law, he will hear the Lord say, “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.”
There may be someone here who is very respectable, who has always imagined that he kept God’s law, and none of his family and friends can deny that he has.
And you may believe that when you arrive at the pearly gate, you will receive a reward for your righteousness.
My friend, if you would just take time to set down and weigh your self in the scales against just one of God’s laws, you would know that you are guilty.
Every one of us should do this, and we would all have to say, “I am weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
But the true believer can say with certainty, “I have been weighed in a different balance; I am what I say I am.
I am not found wanting, because I can bring with me the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
All of the law may be placed on one side of the scale, but on my side I will have the full weight of the blood of Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus, the Son of God.
I can be weighed against the law, because I know that now and for ever, I am equal to the law, because Jesus is mine.
There’s another scale; the scale of conscience.
Many people say they are religious, but this is a time of pretence.
There were never so many liars in the world as there are now.
The Father of Lies has never had so many obedient children as he has now.
Today, there is a lot of vein showmanship in religion.
Would each of us put our self in the scale of conscience, and ask, “Is my profession of faith true?”
There are some whose consciences have become so toughened by sin, that they don’t work, but I believe that all of us could abide by the results of the test of our own consciences.
Friends, I wish you would get alone in your room, and shut the door, and shut out the world, and then set and review your past life.
Think about what your character is now.
Be honest with yourself.
Bring up everything you can think of that may make you doubt your salvation.
It shouldn’t be difficult, because we commit enough sins everyday to cause us to doubt that we’re God’s children.
After you have laid out all your sins, ask yourself, “Have I asked God’s forgiveness for all these.”
But I hope you can say along with me, “I hate sin. But I don’t have to carry that heavy burden of sin, because I have trusted in the Savior, for salvation and justification, and I have been born again; I have the life of Jesus in my body.”
So call up your conscience; put yourself in the scale, and I pray that the verdict will not be against you-that you will not hear the Lord say, “Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting.”
And I believe we should all weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s word.
Not just in the part where the Ten Commandments are recorded, but let’s weigh ourselves in the scale of the gospel. Read about the life of Christ, and as you do, ask yourself if you are conformed to Him, like the true disciple He describes.
See if you have the meekness, and the humility, and the loving spirit that He constantly displayed.
Judge yourself by the Sermon on the Mount.
Read through the epistles to see if you could say like Paul did: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?”
Have you ever felt like he did?
Have you ever felt that you were the chief of sinners, or that you were less than the least of all Christ’s saints?
Could you say as he did, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain?”
Friends, if we would put the Bible into the scales, if God’s word was a test of our spiritual condition, the very best of us would fail the test, and have to say, “I am weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
There is another trial that God may put before us; the trial of providence.
Some of us have been tried in the scales of adversity, and have not faired too well.
For example, I had a business fail, and that brought hard times on my family.
I have gone through serious surgeries, which brought great stress to my loved ones.
Sierra and I have given ourselves to our Nursing Home Ministry, but there are times when we don’t feel qualified to preach, and we doubt that God has really called us to serve Him in this way.
Perhaps you have a child, whom you cry over, because their ingratitude has hurt your spirits.
I have a son, who is refusing to talk to me, even though I keep reaching out to him.
But we know what God is doing; He is testing and trying us.
He wants to know if our faith can stand the test.
Remember Job; he was placed in a scale that belonged to Satan.
Job was weighed against afflictions and troubles, which were sent by the devil.
But he could bear them all, and he came out of the scales victorious over all the weight that satanic strength could hurl into the scale.
Is it the same with you?
Can you say, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord?
Can you say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him?”
If you and I are broken in pieces by a little hardship, what will become of us when God gives us a truly hard test?
Ask God to help you come out of these scales, because many are weighed in them and have been found wanting.
There’s another set of scales, which have proved to be fatal to many of God’s children; it is the scales of prosperity.
Many people have endured the hardships of poverty, who could not endure prosperity.
How many have been destroyed by prosperity?
How many have had their minds tarnished by popularity?
The hero worship that crowds give to entertainers and athletes has brought down thousands.
There are many who live humbly and respect God, but if you put them in a mansion they would forget Him.
When they earn their living by the sweat of their brow, they serve the Lord, but if prosperity comes to them, they lose their religion.
It’s not easy to stand the trial of prosperity.
And if you can get out of these scales and still you are faithful to the Lord, thank God that you are not found wanting.
There is also the scale of temptation.
We may appear to be getting along very well; but temptation will check out the faith of many a Christian.
If you have ever been in business for yourself, and especially if it was a small business; there was the temptation to cheat on your taxes.
I have heard men say that they couldn’t stay in business if they were honest.
And then the Christian restaurant owner may question whether he can stay in business, if he doesn’t serve liquor.
There is always the temptation to depart from the high standards of Christianity and to follow the low standards of your fellow businessmen.
Do you think you would be able to say, “How can I be so immoral, and sin against God?”
But perhaps, you have been able to resist temptation, and to say, “Get thee behind me Satan.”
How have you stood the test of temptation?
Have you been weighed in the balance, and were you able to say, “I know that it was the Holy Spirit, who kept me from sin when I was tested; He provided a way of escape, and now I know I am truly His. If I ever fall, I know He will lift me up.”
Now, I would like to speak about THE LAST GREAT BALANCE.
Time is short for all of us.
You never realize how fast time flies, until you are old.
So, very soon life will end, and eternity will begin.
Death is a certainty for every man and woman.
Then, after death, there is the judgment.
The archangel will sound the trumpet, and the dead will rise, to stand on their feet, to confront the God who will be the judge.
Let me, at this moment contemplate the time when I must enter those scales and be weighed once and for all.
Those scales are exact; I may deceive you, but I cannot deceive God.
And whether I want to be weighed in those scales or not, I must go.
God will not take my word for it; that I deserve heaven.
I could bring witnesses with me; my minister and the deacons of my church to be character witnesses for me.
That would be accepted in a civil court, but not to God.
I will have to go into the scales, no matter what others may think of me.
Will I be able to walk up boldly to the scales, knowing whom I have believed, confident that my sins are covered by the blood of Christ, and that I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ; or will I be dragged there, kicking and screaming?
But friends, there is a much more terrible time awaiting those who have rejected Christ.
They may have made a profession of faith, but it wasn’t from their hearts.
I can see them in the scales, but what can they say.
The howling of hell will not be sufficient to express their misery.
They are in the scales without Christ, and it won’t be long before they are in the jaws of hell, without pity and compassion.
Friends, check the state of your own hearts.
Test yourself, before God tries you; Judge your own hearts, before He judges you.
Don’t say that because you are religious that you are all right.
But see yourself as God sees you, because after all, that is what you really are.
How terrible it will be for those who are church members, to be cast into hell.
How terrible it will be for those who think they are Christians, but are not, to go from singing hymns in the church to the cursings of the synagogue of Satan.
Hell is a terrible place to think about, especially for those who are religious; they know all about Jesus, but He isn’t their Savior.
Jesus will say, “I never knew you,” and they will enter hell.
They will enter where multitudes of sinners are tossing on their beds of flame.
They will cry out, “Are you one of us? What is the deacon of the church doing here? Come and set with adulterers and curse God.”
The ridicule of hell must be torture itself; professing Christians mocked by those who never professed any religion.
When you go to your rooms today, make sure of your salvation.
Don’t be disappointed, and most of all, make sure you don’t have to face the destruction and awful vengeance of Almighty God. Get down on your knees and pray; ask God to forgive your sins, and if you haven’t done it before, ask Him to save you.
God bless you, for Jesus sake.
Amen.
