Proverbs 11 verses 1-8, these are God's words. Dishonest skills are an abomination to Yahweh, but a just weight is His delight. When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust. When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes. The righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead. Amen. So far, the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. In verses three through eight, every one of the couplets gives a benefit that righteousness produces. And it's described not merely as righteousness producing circumstances, but righteousness itself being that which delivers. The integrity of the upright guides them. Verse three, righteousness delivers from death. Verse four, the righteousness of the blameless directs his way straightly, right? The righteousness of the upright, verse six, will deliver them. The hope of the unjust, the unrighteous, perishes, verse seven. The righteous is delivered from trouble, verse eight. And so verses one and two actually lead us into why righteousness itself is such a benefit. because righteousness is not, first and foremost, an action that is according to particular legislation. Rather, the legislation comes from God, the law comes from God, because righteousness is a right or straight relationship to God. It has a right standing before God. And one of the things that we have learned so far in Proverbs as a whole is that wisdom is especially a living of the life with regard for God, before his face, honoring him, receiving everything as from him, doing everything as unto him, doing everything for his glory. The fear of Yahweh, a right reverence, respect, regard for God. is the beginning of wisdom. It's the heart and substance of wisdom. And so, righteousness is almost synonymous with wisdom, because the wise life is the life that is lived in a right way before God. And of course, can't be done by a sinner except by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit applying Christ to us. That was true even before Christ came prospectively. that for Christ and from Christ, the Holy Spirit would give a person life to believe in the Lord Jesus. And although they were not conscientiously aware of being united to him, still any rightness in their character or rightness in their conduct came only by the grace of God, came only from and in consistency with the character of the Lord Jesus. And verses one and two then give us a introduction or an entrance into this description of the righteousness of the godly or the righteousness of the wise being that which is their greatest benefit by reminding us that we are interacting directly with the Lord in all things. So verse one, these dishonest scales, or this just weight, really a perfect or complete stone, is what the second half of verse 1 says. The primary thing is not that it leads to an accurate transaction, or that it maintains peace between men, or keeps the economic system from breaking. All those things are actually true. But the biggest reason to be honest in economic dealing is because it's done before the face of the Lord. The dishonest scale is an abomination to Yahweh because he is just and equitable and he has assigned to man what each man has and he has assigned to man the proper way of being productive and accumulating wealth. And so, the dishonest scale isn't first and foremost a sin against man, It is a rebellion to an offense against a provoking to his face of God. The dishonest scale is an abomination to Yahweh. But the picture of the second half of verse one should motivate us who trust in him and love him and want to please him. The complete stone or the perfect stone is his delight. So, when the honest believer is putting the weight upon the balance over against whatever he's selling on the other side, he doesn't take one that's been shaved off a little bit so that he is shortchanging the person who's buying, but he picks one that is the full weight, the perfect weight, and he puts it on the balance. The picture in the second half of verse 1 is God smiling down upon him. He may get a few grains less of wheat, but what is that compared to the smile of his God? And so, even in the picture that is given in verse 1, and then the picture in verse 2, when pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom, it reminds us Back in 334, which is quoted in a couple of places in the New Testament, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. That humility is a proper way of relating to God. And so the word picture in verse one, the reminder of chapter three in verse 34, in verse two, Prepare us for verses three through eight. We understand why Righteousness has all of these benefits and delivers because righteousness is a Condition between you and God it's it's the condition of your the relationship and between you and God. And this is important, not just in justification, that we are counted righteous in Christ for the sake of his obedience and his sacrifice, really for the sake of his person. He himself is a righteousness. But it's also true in sanctification and in behavior. Whatever we do is either an action that rightly relates to God or wrongly relates to God. We often have been thinking about our actions recently in terms of their source or their origin, that it's either coming from our fleshliness our sinful nature with which we came into the world or it's coming by the Spirit from our union with Christ and Christ who lives in us and that's one important way for us to think about everything we do and everything we speak. Is this coming from my sinfulness or is this coming from Christ and his righteousness in me? But this also teaches us to think about our actions, not just in terms of their origin, their source within us, but their end. Is this an action that relates rightly to the Lord with whom we are always interacting, whether we acknowledge it or not? And so, the man who is trying to get a little bit, give away a little bit less wheat for the money, or trying to get a little bit more money for the wheat, he has a deceptive scale, or maybe he's moved the fulcrum just a little bit, or whatever it is, is not just relating wrongly to the person in front of him, he's relating wrongly to the God before his face. before whose face this is done. And so, verses 1 and 2 then help us to remember that we're especially interacting with the Lord. Is what you're doing an abomination to the Lord, or is it His delight? There's nothing, there's no in between. It's not like there are morally neutral things that we do at any time. And so now that we are thinking of righteousness rightly, then we're able to understand and receive and agree with and apply the rest of verses 3 through 8. The integrity of the upright guides them. They're relating to the Lord in everything that they do, and now they don't have this super complex life of how they're trying to manipulate everyone, or having to remember the past lies you've told so that you can be consistent with your new lies, or whatever. The integrity of the upright guides them. In every situation, you are just being honest and doing according to God's law. It may not be an easy path forward or a safe path forward, at least as far as man is concerned. Of course, it's the safest path there is forward because you're not offending God and provoking God, but there's a clear path forward. You do what's right in the situation and things clear up. The integrity of the righteous guides them. How much stress and anxiety and confusion might be saved you if you do two things. One, you don't worry about outcomes. You entrust that to God. And two, because you are entrusting the outcome to God, the only question from you is not, how can I fix the situation, or how can I make this turn out the way I want to? The only question is, what does God say is the right thing to do? It's a wonderful, clear way, simple way to live life. The integrity of the upright will guide them. The crookedness of the unfaithful, on the other hand, it destroys them. They're not walking the straight path of what God says to do. And so they're constantly in distress and making mistakes and the crookedness of the unfaithful will destroy them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath. Okay, so the righteous man who all he cares about is a right standing with God, well, the beginning of that is to be righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, to be righteous by God's grace in the one whom he gave to be our righteousness. And so, the fact that justification is necessary unto righteous living is a reminder that righteousness delivers from death. We are all going to die, and upon our death we either come into the blessing of God, the fullness of all that God is being expressed upon us in His favor, or the wrath of God, the fullness of all that God is being expressed upon us in His fury. And that's going to happen at death, either one or the other. And either you are going to have Christ, And you will be right with God in Christ, which is something that you must have before you get to death, because you will not suddenly get that at death. Or you will be in yourself, and you will have only the fury of God against you, who you are, and what you have done. And there's all the stuff that the fool or the unrighteous or the wicked accumulates in this world will not do him a single lick of good. when it comes time for him to die. Similarly, the one who has the right standing with God will be growing in grace, will be becoming more and more holy in character and conduct. And that is something that will be improved upon his death. And the moment that he dies, if he has the right standing with God and Jesus, then he will be made perfectly righteous. And he can delight in the fact that all of his righteous living from the time that he came to faith in Christ to the time that he died was actually contributing to preparing him for entrance into the presence of God. He's been practicing living before God's face. and now he is actually coming to the God before whose face he lives. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteous of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. It's the same lesson again as in verse 3, the righteousness of the upright will deliver them. but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust." The righteous is delivered from a particular situation by his uprightness. But the unfaithful, as he's being crooked and his perversity is destroying him, as verse 3 says, and his own wickedness is causing him to fall, as verse 5 says, his crookedness will end up getting him caught. Eventually, his complex game of manipulation and lying will get too complex and it will become apparent to others or he will paint himself into a corner that he can't escape from. He'll be caught and trapped. the hope of the unjust perishes. Why? Well, because he's not hoping in the pleasure of God and the glory of God. And so, whatever else it was he was hoping in, he will not get it because no one hopes to have the fullness of God's glory expressed upon him in fury forever. And that's all that the unjust has to look forward to. So, what does he think he's going to get? more entertainment, more pleasure, a little bit more time, uh, more wealth, the admiration of people, uh, more power control over others. Uh, all of those things will perish. There's only one desire that can ultimately be fulfilled, and that is the desire for the Lord. So, when the wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, the hope of the unjust perishes. And then verse 8, the righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead. Again, a restatement of verse 6, the theme of the passage as a whole. being that righteousness, being a right relating to God who personally rules and overrules works and all things. It is its own reward. It is its own blessing in this life because it has God Himself as its reward. And if you live righteously and God himself is your blessing in this life, then how great then will be your blessing at death when you are made perfect in holiness and you come into the full enjoyment of God forever. And so may the Lord give you not only to have a right standing with God, but to think like that godly man in the second half of verse one, about the smile of God, the delight of God, in whatever it is that you are doing, so that you're training yourself to enjoy the heavenliness of heaven, to delight in the Lord himself. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for this portion of your Word. We pray that you would bless it to us and that you would give us to live for your smile, as it were, that the blessing that comes in Christ, your blessing us and keeping us, making your face to shine upon us and lifting up your face towards us, that this would be our great blessing and our great blessedness in this life and then forever. Please, Lord, give my children not only to have a right standing with you through faith in Christ, but to be able to live in this very clear and straightforward way of doing whatever is right unto you. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.