A text for today we find in Daniel,
chapter 5, verse 27.
You have been weighed in the scales and
found wanting.
I want to speak about that.
You have been weighed in the scales and
found wanting.
I
want
to
speak about that.
Now the son of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, had called
a great feast, not only his wives, but
his concubines, and all the important people in
the kingdom.
He even then requested, then
using the
special vessels, the gold and silver vessels, he,
while it was happening, And while they were
all happy because of their wine, a hand
wrote on the wall, just a finger saying,
you have been weighed in the scales.
And you have been found waiting, wanting.
His joy, His
happiness came to an abrupt end.
He went pale, his knees knocked together with
fear.
What the Bible says that your laughter will
be turned into tears.
You don't know.
Maybe you are very happy and flippant, but
you don't know.
It might be sooner than later.
And then all the wise men and the
occult people were called to try and interpret
this in Daniel.
But Daniel said to them, you have been
weighed in the scales.
You have been weighed in the scales.
You have
been
weighed in the scales.
You have been weighed in the scales.
You
have
been weighed in the scales.
You have been weighed in the scales.
It came at the very peak.
At the very height of his success.
It changed suddenly when he had all his
parliament and all of the leaders of the
earth with him.
He was the greatest kingdom ever.
But all of that changed.
For God said, even though the statue might
be so powerful, looking so successful, but the
feet are of clay and iron, it will
become nothing.
What are the kingdoms of this world but
nothing?
And we hear this astonishing meaning.
You have been weighed in the scales, but
you have been found to be light.
You have been weighed in the scales.
There are Christians who, if you ask them
how you are, they will always say, I'm
fine.
And they always seem to be happy about
their condition.
Everything is alright.
They feel that they are good and that
they are alive.
That they are well.
Like the churches in Revelations where Jesus in
heaven writes a letter to each of the
seven churches.
Where they said, we are fine, everything is
going well, we are a successful church.
Jesus said, no, you are blind, naked, to
be pitied.
Maybe there are some in our midst as
well who are in that condition where they
think everything is going fine, but they are
condemned.
They said, we have need of nothing.
But they didn't know that they were condemned.
Where you are weighed in the very scales
of God.
God's scales are here in this Bible.
Maybe you have your Bible with you.
God's word is the measurement.
God's word is the scale.
Many Christians are in their comfort zone.
They are not going forward, but they are
going backwards.
And then they fall headlong into sin.
Even if you start well, if you end
badly, woe to you.
I was visited these days by some old
ladies and old men from Durban.
And we sat here.
And I closed with the word of the
Lord.
And I read this to them.
I said to them, on Sunday I want
to preach about this matter.
Now, scales are considered important.
And some people weigh themselves once or even
twice a day to see whether they are
not becoming too fat.
And being overweight is bad for you.
It affects your BP.
Also being underweight, being weightless.
Some regularly weigh themselves, especially ladies.
However, as slightly helpful as it is to
use your scales, there is nothing compared.
There is nothing that can be compared to
the scales of God that is found in
the Scriptures.
If you do that daily, you will find
it will keep you from sin.
It will protect you from hell.
If others are so keen to weigh themselves
two times a day on their scales, well,
you do it three times with the Scriptures.
I have spoken about the fathers.
You children, are you honoring your father and
mother, as the Bible says, that your days
may be long, that it may be good
to you?
Put yourself on the scales.
Do you honor your father and mother?
Put yourself on that scale.
The Bible says that the child that
does not honor father and mother, is under
a curse.
Even if you are sitting here, you fall
under God's curse.
All your efforts are in vain.
Even joining different churches and being there, I
feel sorry for them because they have received
a rotten potato amendment.
They too will not be blessed or revived
because here is this curse in their midst.
If your father is a drunkard, show honor
to him.
Of course, it does mean that you must
be part of his sin, but do good
to him.
I remember once when I was young and
I'd newly given my life to the Lord
and my father lost his temper with me
and I thought, how unfair.
I haven't done anything wrong.
It was as if though he didn't want
to see me.
I went out of the room and I
asked the Lord, I
remember how I walked out to our orchards.
It was full of fruit trees at the
time, oranges, plums, peaches, and then I spotted
one beautiful looking fruit.
I picked it carefully
and
I brought that fruit to my father and
he said, and he was so blessed by
it.
And for the rest of the day, we
could be cheerful together.
I conquered evil with good.
Your wife, can you be a blessing to
your husband?
Are you one who's able to be a
help to him or are you one who
just preaches at him?
No, you're not going to help your husband
through preaching.
Now that's one scale you can measure yourself
in.
Do you pay evil or repay evil with
evil or do you conquer evil with good?
Measure yourself now in that scale.
As an employer, how do you treat your
employees?
Are you underpaying them?
You're not giving a fair wage?
Remember that the unpaid wage cries out to
God in heaven.
Take yourself in the scales every day.
Ask yourself in the scale, am I the
right weight according to heaven, according to the
word?
Your school child, do you know what it
is to respect your teacher or is it
that you mock?
Perhaps in a roundabout way where even with
your eyes you are showing disrespect.
Many are the scales in the Bible and
I'm only touching upon a few here and
there.
In the whole world, David is infamous for
his sin with Bathsheba.
If people just mention David, they immediately start
thinking of his immorality.
Or if immorality is mentioned, they say, well
David was like that as well, promiscuous.
Well take the Bible, read about David.
When he realized his sin, he saw how
great a sinner he was.
How deep was his remorse when he cried
out, oh God, I've sinned against you.
He locked himself in the room.
He just pleaded with God for forgiveness.
He had no peace.
No rest.
Read Psalm 51 for yourself and see the
deepest pain and remorse that he experienced because
of his sin and his repentance.
One day he said, well, he felt like
he was dying.
He went out the room, spoke to the
prophet of God and confessed his sin.
Nathan, servant of the Lord, I've sinned before
God and you.
Nathan said, the Lord has forgiven you.
How could Nathan say that?
Do you know that Jesus gave his disciples
the authority for forgiveness of sins?
He said, those who you forgive are forgiven.
Those who you do not forgive are not
forgiven.
No wonder Nathan could say, the Lord has
forgiven you.
His remorse is deep repentance.
It wouldn't have helped for Nathan to say,
the Lord has forgiven you.
If the Lord hadn't forgiven David, you need
to speak what God has said.
If
the
Lord
hadn't
forgiven David, you need to speak what God
has said.
Is there anybody in our midst who is
like that?
In that you boast about David's sin, but
you have not identified with his repentance.
You've never felt his remorse, even if you
didn't sleep with somebody else's wife.
But you've never felt the anguish of sin.
If you read what the Lord Jesus said
in Matthew 5, 6 and 7.
What he said about adultery, even if you
look at a woman lustfully, you have already
committed adultery, like David.
You might say he killed.
You might say, others are guilty of murder.
I've never done that.
Well, Jesus says, if you're angry with your
brother, calling him bad names, you are already
guilty of murder.
If you're angry with your brother, calling him
bad names, you are already guilty
of
murder.
Jesus also said, if you come to the
altar, bringing a gift at the altar, and
you remember that your brother has got something
against you, has a grudge against you, leave
that gift, that sacrifice.
It's not acceptable to me, the Lord said,
go and be reconciled with your brother first.
Otherwise, God has got no interest in you
and your gifts.
And if you don't repent and go and
make peace, you can go to hell.
He won't accept you.
If you don't repent and go to hell,
he won't accept you.
Take that psalm, read it verse by verse,
after one verse, ponder upon it, meditate upon
it, as we say, so that you are
measured in God's scales according to his word,
then repent.
Romans 7, trouble by sin,
trying to leave it, couldn't.
Till he cried out, woe unto me, I
am undone, who will release me from this
body of sin?
The old English says, I am a wretched
man.
Have you ever prayed that prayer?
If not, have you ever been there?
If not, I doubt your Christianity.
You are a modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are
a modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are a modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are a
modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are a modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are a modern Pharisee and hypocrite You
are a modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are a modern Pharisee and hypocrite.
You are a modern Pharisee would
be taken and the corpse and the murderer
would be stripped naked, then the corpse would
be tied.
Would be bound to the murderer, feet to
feet, hands to hands, mouth to mouth, he
was bound to that death.
The dead hand would work with the dead
corpse.
If you try and move, the dead hand
would move with them.
The terrible smell of death was ever present.
I remember what it was like once when
a grave had to be opened and that
person had been a while in the grave,
how terrible, pungent the odour was.
His flesh was like porridge, having been three,
four, five days in the grave.
The dead hand would work with the dead
corpse.
If you try and move, the dead hand
would move with them.
The dead hand would work with the dead
corpse.
If you try and move, the dead hand
would
move
with them.
That murderer was bound to that corpse.
The person he had killed, the maggots that
would come out of that person, he was
bound to it.
It would go into him and he could
do nothing about it.
And he would walk around crying, who will
release me from this body of death?
In his home, in the yard, in the
street.
Because under the law at the time, it
was said, if you kill somebody, then you
must die too.
Just imagine what would happen in South Africa
if murderers would be bound to the corpses.
What would happen?
They would probably, it would cause people to
think first before they killed.
And Romans 7, it says there, I am
bound by this body of death.
I believe that this sin is ever present
with me.
Bound to sin.
Take the Bible, it is your mirror.
Take it for it is your scale and
see whether you identify with that.
The Bible says, let the greatest be the
smallest, the first be the last.
Is that true of you?
Some people cannot repent because of their pride.
They can't humble themselves.
They will rather defend themselves and excuse themselves
and justify themselves.
They can't bow and say, God forgive me.
I have sinned.
I wasn't a blessing to my brother.
You treat others with anger.
Now it says in the Bible, there was
no one as meek as Moses was.
Jesus says he will come and be the
judge of even our thoughts.
I'd be glad if you'd all be like
the English.
You are not what you think you are.
You are what you think.
That's your true picture.
If that doesn't humble you, you must be
a child of the devil.
Read the Bible.
Test yourself.
Test yourself in the scales of God.
And don't exclude yourself and say I'm from
another church.
Whoever you are, whatever church you're from, are
you found wanting in the scales of God?
Then you won't go astray.
Whether you're in the city, whether you live
in Sodom and Gomorrah itself, you will be
found being way...
I remember when I was 13, 14, 15
years of age, I didn't know what I
know today.
I had little understanding.
But if I felt that I wasn't burning
for the Lord as I should be, you
know what I did?
I got to...
I got to the point where I didn't
know what to do.
I got to the point where I didn't
know what to do.
I would go to a graveyard at the
Lutheran church and on each of those graves
was a tombstone, date of birth, date of
death.
I was just 13 or so, 15.
I found some who had died before my
age, children who had died.
I tell myself, Erlo, if you go into
the grave, meet with God, how will it
be?
And you stand before the judge of judges.
I would preach to myself and say to
myself, Erlo, you don't know when you're going
to die.
You don't know
when
you're
going to die.
I would go two or three kilometers.
I would look at those graves.
I would kneel, cry to the Lord, saying,
Lord, help me.
I am a sinner before you.
In Moses' prayer he said, Lord, teach me
to number my days that I may gain
a heart of wisdom.
Count your days.
In German it says, remind yourself that you
are dying.
Remember the day of death so that you'll
become wise.
I grew up like that, crying to the
Lord.
I remember boys of our age group coming
from school, boasting about their girlfriends having slept
with ghosts.
I said, look, I don't want anything to
do with that.
I said, look, I don't want anything to
do with that.
Even to a good friend I said, that's
the end of our friendship, though I like
you, but I cannot go this way.
I cannot go this way of filth.
That helped me.
Some of them are dead.
Some are still wallowing in sin.
Some are seriously ill.
But I'm thankful that God has kept me
and that I've been able to preach the
gospel till today.
Now as I draw towards the close, I've
spoken enough.
I'm just scratching the surface, point by point.
You'll find that that first church in Jerusalem
were of one heart.
They burned for the Lord and were burning
love for each other too.
The Bible says if your brother has sinned,
go to him and help him.
If you haven't done that, but instead you
go and you gossip about him to somebody
else, well that person might be destroyed but
you too with him.
But if you want the truth to bring
forth fruit of repentance, you
must humble yourself about your sin.
And call upon the Lord to forgive you,
that you say, Lord, I thought others were
the sinners, but I am the greatest of
sinners.
You have been weighed and found wanting.
If you can stand, you can stand.
We're going to close in prayer.
Lord, your seed of the word has been
sown.
Lord, your
seed
of the word has been sown.
Grant that hearts would soften, bow to you,
be receptive to you, that your word would
come in and bear much fruit and not
be eaten by the birds and the rats.
But today, there would be those who can
say, Lord, you have set me free from
this body of death.
Grant, Lord, that your word wouldn't be in
vain to us, that your love wouldn't be
in vain to us, and that we wouldn't
trample underfoot the speaking of your Holy Spirit,
but that we'd rather obey and do.
Amen.