Good morning. It's good to see
more and more people here. We're going to open with hymn
number 21 in the spiral hymn book today. I'm sure you all
heard that Don Fortner passed this last week, but this is my
favorite all-time hymn. He was a prolific hymn writer,
and this was favorite hymn that he wrote and rewrote this hymn,
but it's a great hymn. So let's all stand together,
number 21. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. in eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast. God my Father chose His own in
the person of His Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him
eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
And retrieve me from the fall Christ in love so willingly Stood
as my great surety For my price He offered blood To appease the
wrath of God God the Spirit, heavenly dove, promised to come
down in love, bringing life and peace and grace to the chosen,
purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is ? God's covenant will endure ?
It is sealed by God's own word ? By his spirit and his blood
? Blessed holy covenant God I am yours by ties of blood, ties
of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Tom, that's one of my all-time
favorite hymns. The whole gospel is in that hymn.
It's so clear. I enjoy singing it every time
we sing it. We're going to be in Psalm 112
this morning, if you'd like to turn with me there in your Bible,
Psalm 112. Good to see everybody this morning. Lauren, especially happy that
you're here in Florida now. Lauren, soon to be sharing, so
welcome. We're happy you're here. Also, Adam was just telling me
that Jessica, his sister-in-law, is going to start chemotherapy
this week for her cancer. And so we want to pray for her
and pray for Shelby and the church and Danville and their loss of
their pastor. And also Fiore and Richie's son,
Mikey. Some of you all have been here
a while. Remember Mikey. It's been a while since he's
been here. He had to go in the hospital this week with renal
failure, kidney failure. And they had to put him on dialysis.
And they got very close to losing him, actually. And I think they're
still trying to figure out what the cause of that is. But he's
26 or 8. I can't remember. But he's doing
better as of yesterday. had to use dialysis three times,
I think, to get him. All right, let's ask the Lord's
blessings on our time. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come confidently into thy holy presence knowing that we
have A righteousness, an advocate, a savior, surety, a sin bearer. To give us acceptance in thy
presence. Lord, we know without the Lord
Jesus Christ we have no right to come before they. But oh,
what hope you've given us and knowing that you are pleased
with. With your son, everything that
he did, all that he's accomplished. and all those for whom he accomplished
it, Lord, you're pleased with them. And so, Lord, we trust
that we have the pleasure of the Lord in our Savior. And, Lord, we thank you. Thank
you for the For the privilege and the blessing of being able
to worship you, we ask Lord that you would send your spirit. Enable
me to speak. Enable us to hear. Lord. Bless us with your grace and
your mercy. For Christ sake. And father,
we pray for Mikey as he continues to recover and we asked Lord
that you would give the doctors the knowledge they need to diagnose
and treat him well. Or that you might be pleased
to use this time to cause him to acknowledge his need for Christ. Lord, we. Pray for Shelby and
for the church in Danville. Thank you for dawn. Lord for. For his work in the Gospel and. For the for the good influence
that he's been on so many of us and Lord, Pray that you'd
give Shelby and the brethren in Danville the peace and comfort
of knowing that Don is with thee, Lord, and that you'd provide
for them those things that they need now in his absence. Pray for Jessica. Ask, Lord,
for your hand of healing to be upon her. Lord, give the medical
staff that ministers to her those instruments of healing that are
in your hand. We pray, Lord, you give them the wisdom and
knowledge to treat her well. And pray, Lord, you'd be pleased
to give her healing from this cancer. We ask it all in Christ's
name. Amen. All right, you have your
Bibles open to Psalm 112. We began this Psalm Wednesday
night and made it through the first four verses. I'll read those again. Beginning
in verse one, praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord. Now we know that this book is
all about the man. the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only way for us to understand
the Psalms and to be blessed by the things that God has said
in the Psalms is to understand that they relate to the Lord
Jesus Christ first. The so-called theologians will
tell you that there's about 30 of the 150 Psalms that are messianic. We know better than that. We
know that all 150 of them are messianic. We know that all of
this book is messianic. It's all about Christ and he
is the man. And the blessings that we receive
from God come as a result of his faithfulness and his obedience
and his fear of God. So look with me again at verse
one, praise you the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart and the, I'm sorry, verse one of, they both start
out the same way. These are, uh, hallelujah Psalms.
The word praise you. The Lord is the word. Hallelujah.
And, uh, praise you. The Lord verse Psalm 112 blessed
is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his
commandments. We do delight in the law of God,
but we know that we've never been able to keep any of God's
laws. The Lord Jesus Christ kept every one of them. And he's the
blessed man he received. the blessings of God because
he feared God perfectly and he obeyed God perfectly. His seed,
that's the church, his seed shall be mighty upon the earth. Why
are they strong? Because they have His righteousness.
They have His faith. They have His wisdom. They have
Him. He is their exceeding. The Lord told Abraham, He said,
I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward. Who has anything
better than the seed of Christ in this world? I mean, I don't
care how much power, or position or possessions a man in this
world has, he does not have anything if he doesn't have Christ. And
the one who has Christ has everything. So his seed shall be mighty in
the earth. That's the church. That's the
seed of Christ. When Christ went to the cross,
his church was in him. That's why Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Just as we were in the loins
of our father Adam when he fell, we were spiritually the seed
of Christ when he succeeded in accomplishing our salvation. His seed shall be mighty in the
earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. That's
his generation. That's his church. That's his
people. Wealth and riches shall be in his house. Not the wealth
and riches of this world. It's the wealth and riches of
wisdom and grace and faith and justification before God. Those
are the riches that cannot be bought. And those are the riches
that are found in his house. In his house, where his people
are gathered together, where his word is preached, where his
gospel is declared, where Christ is lifted up. That's where the
real riches and wealth are found in this world and his righteousness
endure forever. There's no end and no beginning
to the righteousness. God has always seen his children
in Christ. Unto the upright there arise
of light and the darkness. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
that upright one. And when the light was darkened
at Calvary's cross and when the stone was rolled across the sepulcher
where he was laid and darkness came into that grave, this is
a picture of the light that comes as a result of that darkness.
This is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in our
darkest hour, whatever it might be, the trials that he sends
in this life or the hour of death that we will all face, we have
the hope of knowing that his light comes just as it came then. Look, unto the upright, there
ariseth light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion. and righteous. There's our hope. He's full of grace. He's full
of compassion. As a father pitieth his children,
how much more the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He has great
compassion for his children, even when they sin. Most especially
when they sin. We have a tendency in the flesh
to hide from God in shame, like our father Adam did. But those
are the times when he has the most compassion for us. When
the Lord Jesus Christ looked at Peter after Peter had so shamefully
denied him those three times, there was nothing in his eyes
for Peter but love and compassion. And Peter's heart was broken.
It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. He doesn't
roll his eyes at us. He doesn't look at us sternly
and disappointingly as we often do to one another or to our children
or our parents to us. No. There's nothing in his heart
and nothing in his eyes, but compassion and mercy and grace. And that's what causes us to
come to him, isn't it? Now look at verse five, the good
man, the good man. Now, one of the qualifications
in the scriptures for an elder. is that he have a good report
among men. Demetrius, the scripture said,
had a good report of all. In other words, they acknowledged
him as a good man. Now what believer doesn't want
to be known among men as a good man? We don't want to be known
as a bad person. The scripture says, beloved,
follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that
doeth good is of God, and he that doeth evil hath not seen
God. We want to do right. We want
to do that which is good. The scripture says that we're
to askew evil and do good. Be followers of that which is
good. and be good stewards of the manifold
grace of God. To do good and to communicate,
forget not. Forget not. To share what you
have and to be good to others, to do good to others. Be careful,
the scripture says in Titus chapter three, be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Now, doing right and doing good
is good and it is profitable unto men. But it's not going
to make you good and it's not going to earn you profit with
God. The man that came to the Lord
and said, good master, What good thing can I do that
I might inherit eternal life? And what'd the Lord say? Why
callest thou me good? There's none good but God in
the perfect sense of goodness. There's no, doing what's right
is right thing to do. And being a good person is a
good thing to do. But it's not going to earn you
favor with God. It's not going to, it's not going
to make up for our sins, is it? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who can stand in the presence of a Holy God and be
acknowledged as good. Turn to me to Romans chapter
three. You're familiar with this passage,
Romans chapter three. Romans chapter 1, the Lord exposes
the wickedness of the unbelieving Gentile. And I'm sure that some
of the Jews, when they were reading Romans chapter 1, were thinking,
yeah, give it to them. Give it to them. And then the
Lord begins Romans chapter 2, With therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein you judge
another, you condemn yourself. For thou that judgest doeth the
same thing. And then in Romans chapter two,
the Lord identifies the religious self-righteous Jew as being just
as sinful. as that Gentile who has no regard
for goodness or no regard for the things of God. And then in
Romans chapter three, we read beginning in verse nine, what
then? What then? Are we better than
they? Oh, in no wise, for we have before
proved both Jew and Gentile that they are all under sin. They're all under sin. As it
is written, there is none righteous. Now we're talking about the goodness
that that God acknowledges as the fulfillment of the law. And the Lord's making it clear,
there is none that's righteous. No, no, not one. There is none
that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. That's pretty clear. What's the Lord doing? He's exposing
us. Good men? and bad men by the
standards of good and bad as they relate to men. Good men
and bad men. Now, I want to be a good man.
If I'm not, I've got no place of being up here. But before
God, what the Lord's saying is whether you're good or whether
you're bad in the presence of other men, before God, there's
none that's good. There's none that's good. So
hold your finger there in Romans chapter 3 and go back with me
to our text in Psalm 112. A good man, a good man showeth
favor. Now that word showeth favor is
gracious, is gracious. And this is the same in the ultimate
definition of goodness. This is the same man that's being
spoken to in verse one. Blessed is the man. He's the only good man. Why call
us down me good? There's none good but God. God's
the only one who measures up to two to goodness when it comes
to being righteous. Go back with me to Romans chapter
3. You see men deceive themselves.
And thinking because other people acknowledge them as good, that
they have a goodness that will merit them favor with God. And
that's just not true. That's why the Lord said, here's
where you erred. You thought that I was altogether
such as you are. You see, you measured my goodness
by your standard of goodness. And that's a soul damning mistake
to do that. Yes, be good. Yes, do good. Do right. It's the right thing
to do. Be recognized as a good person
in this world. But don't trust any of that for
your acceptance before God. There's none that's good. No,
not one. Look at verse 13. Their throat,
now oftentimes the Lord uses the physical parts of the body
to describe spiritual things. You know, we have the hand of
God, the eyes of God. We know that God doesn't have a body
in that regard, but he does those things, which we do with our
hands. He works and he sees things. What's the throat? He said, look
here, their throat is an open sepulcher. A grave. You open their mouth
and you look down their throat and there's nothing but deadness
in the heart. What do you see when you look
down? The picture here is you're looking into a grave and you're
seeing a corpse in the grave. And the mouth is the opening
to that grave. And that's what the Lord said.
God said when he looked down from heaven and opened the mouths
of men, if you will, and peered down into their hearts, he saw
that every imagination of the thoughts of man's hearts were
only evil and that continually. So there's the Lord's assessment.
Now who's the good man? Who's going to stand before God
and say, I'm good. I'm good. No. And you see, God's standard of
goodness is infinitely different than our standard of good. Yes,
as I said again, be a good person, do good. It's a good thing. Do what's right. Don't trust
that for your acceptance with God. Their throat is an open
sepulcher, verse 13. and their tongues, and with their
tongues they have used deceit. You know, men come from the womb
speaking lies. Scripture says all men are liars.
God alone tells the truth. You know, when we speak and when we interact
with one another, there's so many things that we're hiding
in ourselves, aren't we? And by the way, that's a good
thing to do. Okay, the person who doesn't have a filter between
their heart and their mouth is a fool. Okay? But there's the point that scripture's
making, that we're never able to just expose everything for
what it is. Why? Because men are liars. The Lord alone, every time he
opened his mouth, he spoke. With such simplicity and such
clarity and such truth, he never had to hide anything. He never
had to sugarcoat anything. He never had to make himself
look better than he was. He just spoke with clarity, didn't
he, and with truth. We can't do that. Look at verse 14, whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery on their way and the way of peace
they have not known. There's no fear of God before their eyes.
That's what we are by nature until the Lord gives us a new
nature. And then he causes us to, to acknowledge what we are,
fear God and fear standing in the presence of God without the
Lord Jesus Christ as our goodness before God. Before that, we thought,
well, I've got something. You know, I made a decision.
I prayed a prayer. I've got something good going
for me. Everybody else thinks I'm good. Surely God would think
that. No, he doesn't. Now, verse 19, now we know that
what things soever the law saith that saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Now, that's what the law does,
doesn't it? It just stops our mouths. How, how are we going
to, how are we going to say, how are we going to object to
God? How are we going to present anything to God in light of his
holy law? See, the law of God is not our
schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. The law of God reveals
the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it does. It reveals his perfection. And
in light of that, it reveals how unable we are to keep any
part of it. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, verse 20, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. You see, we see the law,
we see the holiness and the perfection of Christ, and it just shows
us that nothing about us is righteous. Everything about me is sinful.
Everything about me falls short of his glory. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, verse 20, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his side for by
the laws, the knowledge of sin. But now, but now. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Now, who did the law and the prophets witness? They
witnessed Christ. Just like John the Baptist, who
was the last of the Old Testament prophets, said, Behold, the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sins of the world. And everything
in the law, and everything in the prophets, and everything
in the volume of the book speaks of Christ. And so now the righteousness
of God without the law has been manifested by the law and by
the prophets. Christ is our righteousness.
He's the one that's revealed in all of scripture. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe for there's no difference. Lord, it doesn't matter if you're
a good person or a bad person, as far as your reputation among
men, in terms of your need for the righteousness of God outside
of yourself. And that's what, you see, that's
why we cry out, don't we? We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You rest your hope on him. and his righteousness and his
law keeping and his obedience and his faith. For all have sinned. Look at
verse 23. And I've said, I've said this
before to me, that's the clearest definition of sin and all the
word of God is so simple. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now, if the Lord's ever pleased
to reveal the one who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sin, and higher than the heavens, the Lord Jesus Christ,
you'll come to this conclusion. There's nothing in me that's
like Him. Everything about me has fallen
short of His glory. And that's, God says, that's
sin. Whatever falls short of His glory is sin. It's sin. So what do we have to bring?
What do we have to bring? We have nothing. Who do we need to stand in our
stead before God, presenting himself for all our righteousness? Yes, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe on him and you shall
be saved. All right, go back with me to
Psalm 112. A good man, The good man is gracious. He's gracious. That's what we
need. We need his grace. We need for him to choose us
by grace. We need for him to redeem us
by grace. We need for him to regenerate
us by grace. We don't need to have any. Grace
just means we don't have anything to do with it. He did it all.
He did it all. A good man is gracious and lendeth. You have friends, I know I do,
my children in particular, they know that anything in my house,
anything in my shop, they don't have to ask for it. They have
full access to anything I own. And I would say that to you as
well. You need it. Take it. What's mine is yours. That's what the Lord's saying. He's gracious. And what? Now, I'm not going to say that
to just anybody. I'm not going to stop the guy over here on
the side of the road begging for a dollar and tell him that. But this good man, what's his
is ours. What's his is ours. He lendeth. He gives. Everything he owns
belongs to his. Just as everything that your
head owns your body is part of, so it is with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything that the head has accomplished belongs to the
body. Everything that the Old Testament
picture of a woman not receiving inheritances and the inheritance
went to the man and the only hope that the woman had to have
any possessions in this world was to be married to a man that
received it. People read that and say, well,
that was just an old chauvinistic style of living. Well, maybe
it's a picture of the gospel. And we're the woman. And we've
got no hope of anything unless we're married to the bridegroom,
but in being married to him, everything he's got is ours.
Everything. This is the good man. Who's gracious
and Linda. Gives whatever he's got and look
at, look at what else he says about him. The good man show
with favor and Linda. He will guide his affairs with
discretion. Now the word discretion there,
you probably have it in the margin in your Bible is the word judgment.
Judgment. He, he judges everything perfect
by himself. He is the standard of judgment.
He's the scripture refers to him as the plumb line and that
everything that God judges is judged by the perfect plumb line
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And unless we're found in him,
we're going to be like that teetering wall that's been daubed with
mortar that's not going to hold, and it's going to fall over.
And, you know, like a man that leans himself up against a wall,
and the wall collapses. You know, the only wall that's
not going to collapse is that one that's been tested by the
plumb line. And you can lean on that wall. It won't collapse. So he guides all of his affairs
rightly. That's the word there. Discretion
is the word right. It's the word judgment. Everything
is judged by himself. Look at verse six. Surely he
shall not be moved forever. Oh, he's firm. And you and I
are moved all the time, aren't we? We get afraid, we have unbelief,
we have sinful thoughts and behavior and words, and we're constantly
being moved. David said, my feet had almost
slipped when I considered the prosperity of the wicked, but
then I went into the house of God and I knew their end. And
this is where we come back to this place time and time again
to get our feet planted back on the rock, don't we? Why? Because
everything out there is shifting sand. And we're constantly being
moved around by the opinions and the pressures of this world.
This man is not going to be moved. And you can stand where he is
and your feet will be will be firm. Lord, remember me. Remember me. Lord, that thief on the cross
was being moved, wasn't he? He was in his hour of death,
and what did he say? He knew that that one on the
cross next to him, though he was experiencing physically the
same thing he was experiencing, he knew that spiritually speaking,
that one that was dying next to him was the author of life. He was the prince of life. And
that's why he said, Lord, I know this isn't the end for you. It
will be for me, unless you're pleased to remember me when you
enter into your kingdom. Lord, remember me, remember me. He shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance Turn back with me to Psalm 57, Psalm 57 verse 4. Now here's the Lord Jesus Christ
crying out to his father, My soul is among lions. Psalm 57. Verse four, my soul is among
lions and I lie even among them that are set on fire. Even the
sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongues,
a sharp sword be thou exalted. Oh God, above the heavens, let
thy glory be above the earth. They have prepared a net for
my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have
digged a pit before me into the midst where they are falling
themselves. But look at verse seven. My heart
is fixed. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing. And give praise. Now. The Lord, when he gives
us. Faith to set our affections on
things above and to look to Christ, we can say. I'm I'm persuaded. That he's able. I got all my
eggs in one basket. He's going to keep me. My heart
is, I can't go anywhere else. I can't look anywhere else. Christ
alone is the hope of my salvation. Now go back with me to our text.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, when these lions were roaring around
Him and they were digging pits for Him, His heart was perfectly
fixed on the Father. Look at our text. In verse six, surely he shall
not be moved forever. The righteous shall be an everlasting
remembrance. The father remembered the son,
and for Christ's sake, he remembers us. He shall not be afraid of evil
tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting
in the Lord. You know, we should be prudent
and smart in these days of this coronavirus that we're dealing
with, but we shouldn't be afraid. We shouldn't, you know, and if
you find yourself getting afraid, it's probably because you're
watching too much news. You know, be smart. Don't be foolish, but
don't let the world grip you with a spirit of fear. It's not
from God. That's their mode of operation,
isn't it? Fear is a powerful motivation
that the world uses to manipulate men. And what's the Lord saying
here? Don't be afraid. Be smart, that's what you do,
but fear is of the heart, isn't it? Don't let them intimidate
you with fear in your heart. He shall not be afraid of evil
tidings. His heart is fixed trusting in
the Lord. His heart is established. He
shall not be afraid until he see the desire of his enemies. Now the father said to the son,
sit down here at my right hand until I make thine enemies, thy
footstool. And the whole world is at enmity
with God. And some will be made by grace
to sit at his feet and listen, and some will be brought by his
justice and his judgment to find their neck under his foot. But
he's going to make all of his enemies to be his footstool.
Now, let me ask you this. Now, he's not afraid of his enemies.
Who's your greatest enemy? Sitting right there in the same
seat you're sitting in, isn't he? And what is our hope? What is
the desire for our enemy? I know what your desire is for
your enemy. I'm talking about your old man,
your nature, your fleshly nature, and your desire is that he would
not sin. That's the desire that you have
for your old man, don't you? Lord, I would not ever sin again
if I could have what I want. And one day, one day, that old
man's not gonna sin anymore. Until then, the Lord's saying
to you and me, trust the Lord, don't be afraid, until, until
your desire be seen by your enemy. Your enemy's gonna be sinless
one day. He's gonna go back where he came from. And you're going,
that's the glory of heaven, isn't it? The glory of heaven is not
as the world says, I want to go to, I want to go to heaven
so I can see, you know, some lost, some loved one that went
on before me. No, the glory of heaven is number
one. We're going to see Christ. Number two, we're going to be
without sin. We're going to see him out to be made like it. And
that's the desire for our enemy, isn't it? Look, go back with
me to that text. His heart is established. He shall not be
afraid until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath despised, he hath given,
dispersed, I'm sorry, he hath given to the poor. Oh, I'm so
thankful the Lord gives to those who are poor and needy. We're not going to get anything
till we don't have anything. We're not going to know anything till
we don't know anything. We're not going to see anything till
we're blind. You know, people, people think they got it all
figured out. You come before God, Lord, I don't know anything.
I can't do anything. I don't have anything. That's
when God show blessed are the poor in spirit, poverty stricken,
those who don't have anything for theirs as the kingdom of
God. We come before God empty-handed, don't we? And he disperses. He hath dispersed. He hath given
to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever.
His horn shall be exalted with honor. And you know what the
horn is a picture of? Animals that have horns, that's
the part of that animal you want to stay away from, isn't it?
Because that's their weapon. And the horn is used in the scripture
to demonstrate strength. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the horn of God. And the horn shall be honored.
The horn shall be lifted up. His strength and his glory and
his grace, his ability and his work. Now verse 10 is a very,
very sad testimony. The wicked, the wicked. The unbeliever shall see it.
You see that word grieved? It's the word angry. The wicked will hear what we've
heard this morning and read what we've read this morning, and
they'll be angry. Why? Because the gospel of God's
free grace in the glorious person and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who gets all the credit, robs the wicked of his
righteousness and he will be angry. He'll be angry. The wicked shall be angry. You
see, the gospel is either going to make you mad or it's going
to make you glad. And those who are neither mad
or glad, they just had never heard anything. The wicked shall
see it and be angry. He shall gnash with his teeth
and melt away and the desire of the wicked shall perish. Perish. God, make me, make me
glad that there's a good man, the blessed man in whom I have
all my goodness and all my blessings. Amen. All right, we're going
to take a 10 minute break and then we'll be back. you