The Lord’s Work – Part 27
Vanity
Man’s works are FAKE. They are:
- Shadows, Figures, and Patterns
- Vanity
- Idols
Our works are FAKE? How are they fake? What are they, if not true?
They are vanity!
Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
1 Corinthians 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
There are only two sorts of work… Yours and His. Man’s and the Lord’s. True and fake (reprobate). Carnal works and spiritual works. Good works and Evil works.
The Lord is going to prove your works. He is going to find them out, of what sort your work be by:
1 – Trying them (it) – in the fire (whether they abide, or burn), and
2 – Weighing them (it) – against a just weight in an even balance.
We’ve talked a little about the trial by fire. Just to recap:
Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Ezekiel 22:21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
You will either melt in that fire, or walk through the midst of it like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Your works will either abide the fire, or be burned.
1 Corinthians 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
We’ve talked a little about the trial by fire. Now, let’s focus on the weighing.
1 Samuel 2:3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
The Lord is going to weigh man’s work, your work, and recompense you according to the weight of it.
Isaiah 65:7 … therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
Your work(s) is going to be measured.
You will be recompensed according to the measure, according to the weight of your work.
Remember – whether it be good, or it be evil… you will receive according to your work – how much should He recompense you? How much payment do you deserve for your work? He’s going to use weights, and measures, to find out.
Deuteronomy 25:13-15 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. 14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. 15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: …
Leviticus 19:35-36 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
The Lord will take your work and put it in His balance, and measure it against HIS weights.
And.. the Lord will be perfectly fair when he measures your works in His balances against HIS weights. It will not be unfair. There will be no untrue balances. There will be no uncalibrated scales. There will be no unjust weights. There will be no confusion, there will be no gray area. There will be no almosts. There will be no just barelys. There will be no last minute cheats.
Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
So what will the Lord use as a just weight to weigh your works?
Noah’s work? Abraham’s work? Job or Daniel’s work? You might come out pretty favorably if that were the case. Most wouldn’t. But you’d have a shot! Your works might weigh a portion of their works. Your works might have some weight in that case. They would weigh more than nothing (vanity), at the least. But those are not just weights. Those men were sinners. The Lord will not weigh our works against those of a sinner. So what else could he use?
His own works! His own weights.
Proverbs 16:11 A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
Your works will be laid in a balance. Not to compare them to your own works, or to the works of your neighbor, or to the works of an average human being, or even to the works of a good human being.
No, your works are going to be weighed against HIS WORK.
I used to emphasize, God is NOT going to put your works in a balance and weigh your good works against your bad works.
True… but… He IS going to weigh your works.
Your works will be weighed in an even balance against a JUST WEIGHT. They will be weighed against a TRUE GOOD WORK. Your work will be weighed against “HIS WORK”.
If you have worked just one true good work, you’ll be rewarded with glory honour and peace, and eternal life.
If you have worked just one work that measures up against His Work, you will be rewarded with eternal life.
If your work is found to weigh anything… if it has weight… it will be rewarded.
Isaiah 40:10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
How will he know exactly how much to reward you? By measuring and weighing your work against His work.
It’s not just your works laid in the balance. It is you.
Job 31:6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
You yourself will be weighed against a good man, Jesus Christ.
You yourself will be weighed against a good work, New Jerusalem.
The Lord weighed King Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son in the balances before taking away his kingdom and life.
Daniel 5:27 … Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
The Lord will find you out. He will find out if you, and your works, have WEIGHT.
What will he find of an unsaved man??? That he weighs nothing; less than nothing.
Psalms 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
All men, when laid in the balance, are found to be lighter than vanity, lighter than emptiness, lighter than nothing.
YOU will be laid in the balance and YOU will be found to be lighter than nothing.
You are worthless, and your works are worthless. Less than worthless!
Psalms 39:5-6 … verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: …
Ecclesiastes 2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
You cannot claim to have done more “good works” than Solomon. His kingdom was the most prosperous in the history of mankind. Not only did he increase riches but he increased happiness. He increased knowledge. The law was adhered to. There was chastisement. There was fairness. There was good judgment. There was peace and trade with other nations.
Everything that men strive to accomplish in the world today through politics and diplomacy, Solomon had accomplished.
Solomon’s were “good works”! And yet, he himself confessed that they were all VANITY. Nothing. But not just HIS:
Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 4:4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
The only instance of “right work” in the whole Bible. Every right work under the sun is merely a pattern of a true right work. Every right works under the sun is vanity.
Jeremiah 10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: …
Jeremiah 51:17-19 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image [his work] is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.
You are the work of errors. Everything you make is the work of errors.
By your knowledge, you are a barbarian. In your lack of understanding, all your works are errors. Knowledge, understanding is the problem.
Because man has no truth, no knowledge, his work is vanity.
But the Lord and His works are not like man’s.
Isaiah 41:24-29 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. … 28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. 29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
We are nothing. Our works are nothing. And they weigh exactly… NOTHING!!
Why? Knowledge. Understanding is what you lack.
The Lord is going to weigh your works.. and find them to weigh nothing. Less than nothing!
They are of nothing. They are made of nothing. They have no substance, no density, no weight.
When laid on the scale, when put in the balances, they won’t move the needle at all.
You may as well be weighing the wind. You may as well be weighing confusion.
Which of your works would weigh anything to the Lord?
How much does a prosthetic leg weigh? What about a house for the homeless?
What about a whole hospital? What about a whole nation?
Surely, if your work was a whole nation, it would have weight in the Lord’s balance, no??
Isaiah 40:12-17 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance … 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. … 17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
He’s going to find them to weigh nothing.. less than nothing, and vanity.
Man’s works weigh exactly vanity. How much do you weigh? One. One what? One vanity!
I know some women that would happy with that, but I don’t know any men that would.
And if your works were do good that you were worth all nations twice over (Elon Musk maybe?), well then your weight would be two. Two vanities. Two nothings. Two zeros.
Psalms 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
All men, all together. Put every man who has ever lived on this planet together, along with the accumulation of every work that they have worked, on one side of the balance, and put the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the other side of the balance. What do you find?
They are altogether lighter than vanity.
Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Of what sort is your spirit? Is it the Lord’s, or is it man’s? Does it have weight, substance, or is it vain? Your works: Are they natural, or are they spiritual? Do they have (spiritual) weight? Spirit has weight. Pretty opposite of what you’ve been taught, isn’t it?
How much Spirit (eternal life, wisdom, truth, knowledge, understanding) have you gained? (The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.)
True things (spiritual things) have weight. Carnal things are nothing.
Judges 9:4 … Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.
Again, vain and light is not good. We want weight in a man’s spirit. We want THE Spirit in a man’s spirit.
Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Psalms 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Jeremiah 17:10 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.
We know God will try the hearts with fire. Likewise, its possible that the Lord will try the whole hearts of men with weights as well, to see if they are empty, or to see if they have Spirit in them.
Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Words. Understanding. Wisdom. Good things are made by wisdom.
It is the understanding that causes men to work vanity instead of to work the true spiritual things.
In the vanity of man’s mind, he believes his works are true, he thinks his works are weighty. And so he walks, he works, he continues to heap up vain works.
Many walk, work good works, and are enemies of the cross of Christ.
You must work – walk – in the Spirit, in understanding. Understanding that it is the spiritual things that are the true things.
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Judgment, mercy and faith have WEIGHT. These will be what the Lord will be looking for. Either the Lord will find that the man and his works are vanity and they weigh less than nothing, or the man and his works will have weight.
But not yours.. His judgment, His mercy, His faith. These are the things that are weighty.
A saved man has judged himself as wicked, and has received mercy of the Lord, by faith in Jesus Christ.
A saved man has judged the Lord’s word as true, and now gives the Lord’s mercy to the poor, by the faith of Jesus Christ.
A saved man will stand before the Lord’s judgment and be found innocent, as having been justified by the mercy of the Lord, and having overcome the world by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His works. All the weights of the bag are HIS WORK. These come from Jesus Christ – the Word of God.
But those works of the law, in the OT were FAKE. They were not true. They were only a pattern of the true, to teach man about the true. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us unto the true.
School is fake. Schools is learning through practice. In school, we learned through solving fake problems, which were patterned after real world problems.
But no one rewarded us for our schoolwork. We didn’t get paid for school assignments.
When we graduated from school and moved on to the real world, that was when our real work began, and our works were worthy of a recompense, no?
Likewise, when we died to the law (the schoolmaster) and were born again in the Spirit, that was when our real work began, and now our works are worthy of a recompensed.
Now our works have weight. When we speak the gospel and win souls, those things (the works – the words, and the people) have weight. When we get wisdom, and give wisdom, we work a weighty work. These things will be weighed and recompensed.
And also, when we suffer for Christ’s sake, this has weight. In fact, it will be found to have EXCEEDING WEIGHT in the Lord’s balances. And our reward for that weighty work will be eternal glory.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Get saved, get wisdom, preach the gospel, and suffer affliction for the cross of Christ, and THESE works will be true, and WEIGHTY.
Isaiah 65:7 … therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
Every man will have his spirit weighed. Of which sort is your spirit? A true and weighty spirit, or a light and vain spirit.
Every man will have his works weighed, measured, and recompensed to him.
Carnal works are vanity. When weighed against the Lord’s work, they are weightless, lighter than vanity. When they are tried by fire, they melt and consume away.
Spiritual works in Christ have weight. And these are the works for which we will receive an eternal, profitable, glorious reward.
Nov 14 2021
The Lord’s Work – Part 27
Downloadable Word document:
The Lord’s Work – Part 27
The Lord’s Work – Part 27
Vanity
Man’s works are FAKE. They are:
Our works are FAKE? How are they fake? What are they, if not true?
They are vanity!
Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
1 Corinthians 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
There are only two sorts of work… Yours and His. Man’s and the Lord’s. True and fake (reprobate). Carnal works and spiritual works. Good works and Evil works.
The Lord is going to prove your works. He is going to find them out, of what sort your work be by:
1 – Trying them (it) – in the fire (whether they abide, or burn), and
2 – Weighing them (it) – against a just weight in an even balance.
We’ve talked a little about the trial by fire. Just to recap:
Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Ezekiel 22:21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
You will either melt in that fire, or walk through the midst of it like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Your works will either abide the fire, or be burned.
1 Corinthians 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
We’ve talked a little about the trial by fire. Now, let’s focus on the weighing.
1 Samuel 2:3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
The Lord is going to weigh man’s work, your work, and recompense you according to the weight of it.
Isaiah 65:7 … therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
Your work(s) is going to be measured.
You will be recompensed according to the measure, according to the weight of your work.
Remember – whether it be good, or it be evil… you will receive according to your work – how much should He recompense you? How much payment do you deserve for your work? He’s going to use weights, and measures, to find out.
Deuteronomy 25:13-15 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. 14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. 15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: …
Leviticus 19:35-36 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. 36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
The Lord will take your work and put it in His balance, and measure it against HIS weights.
And.. the Lord will be perfectly fair when he measures your works in His balances against HIS weights. It will not be unfair. There will be no untrue balances. There will be no uncalibrated scales. There will be no unjust weights. There will be no confusion, there will be no gray area. There will be no almosts. There will be no just barelys. There will be no last minute cheats.
Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
So what will the Lord use as a just weight to weigh your works?
Noah’s work? Abraham’s work? Job or Daniel’s work? You might come out pretty favorably if that were the case. Most wouldn’t. But you’d have a shot! Your works might weigh a portion of their works. Your works might have some weight in that case. They would weigh more than nothing (vanity), at the least. But those are not just weights. Those men were sinners. The Lord will not weigh our works against those of a sinner. So what else could he use?
His own works! His own weights.
Proverbs 16:11 A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
Your works will be laid in a balance. Not to compare them to your own works, or to the works of your neighbor, or to the works of an average human being, or even to the works of a good human being.
No, your works are going to be weighed against HIS WORK.
I used to emphasize, God is NOT going to put your works in a balance and weigh your good works against your bad works.
True… but… He IS going to weigh your works.
Your works will be weighed in an even balance against a JUST WEIGHT. They will be weighed against a TRUE GOOD WORK. Your work will be weighed against “HIS WORK”.
If you have worked just one true good work, you’ll be rewarded with glory honour and peace, and eternal life.
If you have worked just one work that measures up against His Work, you will be rewarded with eternal life.
If your work is found to weigh anything… if it has weight… it will be rewarded.
Isaiah 40:10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
How will he know exactly how much to reward you? By measuring and weighing your work against His work.
It’s not just your works laid in the balance. It is you.
Job 31:6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.
You yourself will be weighed against a good man, Jesus Christ.
You yourself will be weighed against a good work, New Jerusalem.
The Lord weighed King Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son in the balances before taking away his kingdom and life.
Daniel 5:27 … Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
The Lord will find you out. He will find out if you, and your works, have WEIGHT.
What will he find of an unsaved man??? That he weighs nothing; less than nothing.
Psalms 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
All men, when laid in the balance, are found to be lighter than vanity, lighter than emptiness, lighter than nothing.
YOU will be laid in the balance and YOU will be found to be lighter than nothing.
You are worthless, and your works are worthless. Less than worthless!
Psalms 39:5-6 … verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: …
Ecclesiastes 2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
You cannot claim to have done more “good works” than Solomon. His kingdom was the most prosperous in the history of mankind. Not only did he increase riches but he increased happiness. He increased knowledge. The law was adhered to. There was chastisement. There was fairness. There was good judgment. There was peace and trade with other nations.
Everything that men strive to accomplish in the world today through politics and diplomacy, Solomon had accomplished.
Solomon’s were “good works”! And yet, he himself confessed that they were all VANITY. Nothing. But not just HIS:
Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 4:4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
The only instance of “right work” in the whole Bible. Every right work under the sun is merely a pattern of a true right work. Every right works under the sun is vanity.
Jeremiah 10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: …
Jeremiah 51:17-19 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image [his work] is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.
You are the work of errors. Everything you make is the work of errors.
By your knowledge, you are a barbarian. In your lack of understanding, all your works are errors. Knowledge, understanding is the problem.
Because man has no truth, no knowledge, his work is vanity.
But the Lord and His works are not like man’s.
Isaiah 41:24-29 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. … 28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. 29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
We are nothing. Our works are nothing. And they weigh exactly… NOTHING!!
Why? Knowledge. Understanding is what you lack.
The Lord is going to weigh your works.. and find them to weigh nothing. Less than nothing!
They are of nothing. They are made of nothing. They have no substance, no density, no weight.
When laid on the scale, when put in the balances, they won’t move the needle at all.
You may as well be weighing the wind. You may as well be weighing confusion.
Which of your works would weigh anything to the Lord?
How much does a prosthetic leg weigh? What about a house for the homeless?
What about a whole hospital? What about a whole nation?
Surely, if your work was a whole nation, it would have weight in the Lord’s balance, no??
Isaiah 40:12-17 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance … 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. … 17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
He’s going to find them to weigh nothing.. less than nothing, and vanity.
Man’s works weigh exactly vanity. How much do you weigh? One. One what? One vanity!
I know some women that would happy with that, but I don’t know any men that would.
And if your works were do good that you were worth all nations twice over (Elon Musk maybe?), well then your weight would be two. Two vanities. Two nothings. Two zeros.
Psalms 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
All men, all together. Put every man who has ever lived on this planet together, along with the accumulation of every work that they have worked, on one side of the balance, and put the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the other side of the balance. What do you find?
They are altogether lighter than vanity.
Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Of what sort is your spirit? Is it the Lord’s, or is it man’s? Does it have weight, substance, or is it vain? Your works: Are they natural, or are they spiritual? Do they have (spiritual) weight? Spirit has weight. Pretty opposite of what you’ve been taught, isn’t it?
How much Spirit (eternal life, wisdom, truth, knowledge, understanding) have you gained? (The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.)
True things (spiritual things) have weight. Carnal things are nothing.
Judges 9:4 … Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.
Again, vain and light is not good. We want weight in a man’s spirit. We want THE Spirit in a man’s spirit.
Galatians 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Psalms 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
Jeremiah 17:10 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.
We know God will try the hearts with fire. Likewise, its possible that the Lord will try the whole hearts of men with weights as well, to see if they are empty, or to see if they have Spirit in them.
Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Words. Understanding. Wisdom. Good things are made by wisdom.
It is the understanding that causes men to work vanity instead of to work the true spiritual things.
In the vanity of man’s mind, he believes his works are true, he thinks his works are weighty. And so he walks, he works, he continues to heap up vain works.
Many walk, work good works, and are enemies of the cross of Christ.
You must work – walk – in the Spirit, in understanding. Understanding that it is the spiritual things that are the true things.
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Judgment, mercy and faith have WEIGHT. These will be what the Lord will be looking for. Either the Lord will find that the man and his works are vanity and they weigh less than nothing, or the man and his works will have weight.
But not yours.. His judgment, His mercy, His faith. These are the things that are weighty.
A saved man has judged himself as wicked, and has received mercy of the Lord, by faith in Jesus Christ.
A saved man has judged the Lord’s word as true, and now gives the Lord’s mercy to the poor, by the faith of Jesus Christ.
A saved man will stand before the Lord’s judgment and be found innocent, as having been justified by the mercy of the Lord, and having overcome the world by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His works. All the weights of the bag are HIS WORK. These come from Jesus Christ – the Word of God.
But those works of the law, in the OT were FAKE. They were not true. They were only a pattern of the true, to teach man about the true. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us unto the true.
School is fake. Schools is learning through practice. In school, we learned through solving fake problems, which were patterned after real world problems.
But no one rewarded us for our schoolwork. We didn’t get paid for school assignments.
When we graduated from school and moved on to the real world, that was when our real work began, and our works were worthy of a recompense, no?
Likewise, when we died to the law (the schoolmaster) and were born again in the Spirit, that was when our real work began, and now our works are worthy of a recompensed.
Now our works have weight. When we speak the gospel and win souls, those things (the works – the words, and the people) have weight. When we get wisdom, and give wisdom, we work a weighty work. These things will be weighed and recompensed.
And also, when we suffer for Christ’s sake, this has weight. In fact, it will be found to have EXCEEDING WEIGHT in the Lord’s balances. And our reward for that weighty work will be eternal glory.
2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Get saved, get wisdom, preach the gospel, and suffer affliction for the cross of Christ, and THESE works will be true, and WEIGHTY.
Isaiah 65:7 … therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
Every man will have his spirit weighed. Of which sort is your spirit? A true and weighty spirit, or a light and vain spirit.
Every man will have his works weighed, measured, and recompensed to him.
Carnal works are vanity. When weighed against the Lord’s work, they are weightless, lighter than vanity. When they are tried by fire, they melt and consume away.
Spiritual works in Christ have weight. And these are the works for which we will receive an eternal, profitable, glorious reward.
By Pastor • Christian Doctrine, Good Works • 0