Psalm 112 this evening. Psalm 112 you'll recall that
we looked at verses 1 through 3 last time. We'll read them and you'll remember.
If you're like me you'll remember a little bit about what we talked
about. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. We saw how
that's both Christ and us. And also in verse 2 it says,
his seed shall be mighty upon earth. That's also Christ and
us. Paul said, he said seed and not
seeds because that's Christ. And also, he said, if you are
Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to God's
promise. So how beautiful. What a wonderful thing that the
same wonderful truth applies both to him and to us. Truly,
as he is, so are we in this world. He prayed, my father, my father,
and we also prayed to the same father. His seed shall be mighty upon
earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth
and riches shall be in his house. We looked, tried to get some
perspective on what that is, wealth and riches. It's different
things to different people, different things according to your nature,
different things according to perspective. It's a relative
thing. and his righteousness endureth
forever. Verse 1 is a beatitude like the
ones in Matthew chapter 5. A beatitude is the pronouncement
of a blessing. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. Turn with
me to Matthew chapter 4. Let's look at that in the context
of who the Lord says is the man who is blessed of God. He very
in some detail there describes the
man who is blessed of his God. Beginning in Matthew 4.12. Now when Jesus had heard that
John was cast into prison He departed into Galilee, and, leaving
Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the
sea coast, in the borders of Zebulun and Nephthalim, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Nephthalim, by the
way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the
people which sat in darkness, saw great light. And to them
which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. Now the reason I started there
is because our text, verse four, where we're really beginning
tonight, says unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion
and righteous. And so we see that the fulfillment
of that Truth right there that light will arise in the darkness
for God's people and it's prophesied elsewhere. We'll see In our verse
the fulfillment of that is just the Lord going there Just he
just showed up And fulfill that prophecy right there And he did
something when he got there. We'll look at that, but let's
continue in Matthew 4 verse Light is sprung up, verse 17, from
that time Jesus began to preach. He is the light. And his word,
as David said in another psalm, thy word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path. He began to preach. And to say, repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men. And straightway they left their nets, and followed
him. And going on from thence, he saw two other two brethren,
James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship,
with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And he called them.
And they immediately left the ship, and their father, and followed
him. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. and healing all manner
of sickness and all manner of disease among the people, he
began to do these miracles. And look what happened. His fame
went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick
people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those
which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic,
and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there
followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from
Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond
Jordan, and seeing the multitude. You see what happens here. There's
a prophecy fulfilled just in the Lord going where he went.
He said he went there that it might be fulfilled. Great light
sprung up in darkness. And then he began to preach.
And he began to do the miracles which were taught in the New
Testament, were given by God Even to his disciples to confirm
the word to show people that this is God speaking not man
And our Lord did these miracles and great multitudes began to
follow him follow him all throughout throughout from all these regions
and Seeing the multitudes were chapter 5 He went up into a mountain
and when he was set his disciples came to him unto him And he opened
his mouth and taught him saying bless it So you see what this
is in verse one of our text in the psalm. Blessed. Blessed is
the man. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. These are spiritual blessings
in spiritual poverty. And for those who are spiritual
mourners, So this beatitude in our psalm, and then we see that
prophecy fulfilled. Great light to those in darkness,
and Christ is that light. Just him going there, fulfilled
the prophecy. So we have a beatitude, and then
we have verse four. Unto the upright there ariseth
light in the darkness. So blessed is the man, what man? We see it in Matthew 5, those
beatitudes, but we have these descriptions in Psalm 112 of
the blessed man also that we'll look at. You remember the last
verse of Psalm 111? They stand fast forever and ever.
Let's see, where am I? That's not the last verse. Verse
10 of Psalm 111, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. A good understanding all Have all they that do his
commandments, his praise endureth forever, the fear of the Lord.
And then Psalm 112, 1. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord. Blessed is the man in whom wisdom has begun, because
it matters to him now what God said, what God does. His seed shall be mighty upon
the earth. Blessed is that man. This is
a description, you see, of the man who the blessing is pronounced
upon in verse one. He fears the Lord. He delights
in the commandments of the Lord. Paul said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. Paul was a blessed man. Blessed
of God. And the whole rest of this song
is about just how blessed that man is. His seed verse 2 we saw
how that that seed is Christ and also they that are Christ
in Galatians 3 29 So the family of God, it's God's sheep God's
people the generation of God the generation of the upright
shall be blessed God's generation and They're mighty Over all the
earth Mighty his seed shall be mighty
upon earth And we see that to be true Multiply millions. We got a big family, don't we?
Big family in Christ. Blessed is that man. How are they blessed also? Wealth
and riches in their house. That which is truly valuable
is ours. And our righteousness, the last
part of verse 3, endureth forever. Our righteousness can't fail
like Adam's did. Because it's not the righteousness
of man, it's the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness
of God, Paul said. In Romans 3. Which righteousness Christ is
for his people. He is the Lord, our righteousness.
So in other words, we have Him, wealth and riches. and his righteousness,
his robe. Now in verse four, what is this
light? Well, we know what the darkness is, don't we? The darkness
is us by nature. Ephesians 4, 17, Paul said this,
I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind,
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. So the darkness has to do with
understanding or lack thereof. Ignorance, he said, the ignorance
that is in them, the blindness of their heart, who being past
feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work
all in cleanness and greediness. So darkness has to do with evil.
darkness, our black hearts, our wicked black hearts by nature.
And this natural darkness makes us blind to the truth of
God. The word of God is useless to us. It means nothing to us. We couldn't understand it, even
if we wanted to, and we don't even want to. That's the darkness
of our hearts. Isaiah 8, 20, to the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, It's
because there's no light in them. See, by nature we're dark. And
we don't speak according... Our ways are not God's ways.
Our words are not His words. Nothing that we are or say or
do is like God or according to the truth of God. It's because
there's no light in our wicked hearts by nature. But God promised
a long time ago that that light would come. to those in darkness. Isaiah 42 16 he said I will bring
the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in
paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them. Does that sound like what happened
to you? Blind by nature, forsaking our own mercy, self-destructive
blind. That's blind. But he made the darkness light
before us and crooked things straight. These things will I
do unto them and not forsake them. Isaiah 9-2. Listen to this. The people that
walked in darkness have seen a great light. This I believe
is the particular passage of scripture that was referred to
in Matthew 4 there. Where the Lord just showed up
somewhere. That's all it says. He just showed up. And it says
that he did so that this might be fulfilled. People that walked
in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them hath light shined. So what is the light? Who is
the light? It's Christ. Just his presence.
And of course his word he began to preach. And the fulfillment
of this as we saw is in Matthew 4.12 and I want to read part
of that to you again Matthew 4.12 if you're still there look
at it with me Matthew 4.12 and when Jesus had heard that John
was cast into prison he departed into Galilee and leaving Nazareth
he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is upon the seacoast in
the borders of Zabulon and Nephilim that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying the land of Zabulim and
the land of Nephilim by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee
of the Gentiles the people which sat in darkness saw great light
and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death because
this darkness is not just you know darkness is inconvenient
And you might stumble and hurt yourself a little bit. This darkness
is death. This darkness is self-destructive
death. The region and shadow of death
unto them, light, is sprung up. And that light's a person. And
from that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent. For the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. And when you have light, you see, repent means change
your mind. But what are we changing it from
and to? If you change your mind, you
got to change it from something to something. And we don't know
up from down. We don't know right from wrong
until the light comes. And then when the light comes
and says repent, we know what we turn from. Saul knew exactly
what he was turning from, didn't he? His heritage, his works,
his pride. He said, I leave it all behind
me and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ. He knew what he was turning from, and he knew
who he was turning to. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in him. Now that the light is on, we
know. We know what we are, and we know who he is. That's when
the word comes hands turn from yourself to himself we can see
and by his grace obey John 8 12 listen to this John 8 12 then
spake Jesus again unto them saying I am the light of the world that's
why him just showing up in those places in those regions was fulfillment
of that prophecy Those that sat in darkness saw a great light,
because they saw him. I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life. Remember, it's the region of
the shadow of death. This darkness is death, and the
light is life. This is desperate darkness, and
this is vital light. necessary light. And the difference
between light and darkness is simply the presence of Christ. And the difference between darkness
and light in you, in me, is Christ in me, the hope of glory. The
presence of Christ in me. For his people, for the righteous,
as our text says, in him He is a great light. And as we saw
in all of these verses now, it's the light of understanding, wisdom. It's the light of knowledge,
of hearing the word of God and understanding it. Then opened
he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.
That's what we're talking about. It's like turning a light on.
Now I see, now I get it. I know what I am before God.
I know who God is and I know the only way, the only hope for
a sinner is by Christ and his precious blood. It's the light
of hope. Hope is like a ray of light in
darkness. When a ship is lost at sea, what
hope do they have? The lighthouse. They see that
light. Otherwise, what else is there? What else will guide them home?
And as we've seen, it's the light of life. We don't have a spark of light
in us by nature. The scripture says we're dead
in trespasses and sin. No life, no light. John 1, it says, in him was life
and that life was the light of men. It's the light of freedom. You
remember when the Apostle Peter was in prison? Turn to Acts chapter
12 and let's look at that because it's so beautiful. The spiritual teaching in this,
Acts 12 verse 5. This has always been a favorite
passage of mine since we went through the book of Acts many
years ago. Light in the darkness, Acts 12,
5. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing
of the church unto God for him. That's clear isn't it? They were
praying for him. Who was praying? The church,
the people of God. Who were they praying for? The
apostle Peter. Who were they praying to? Unto God. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers.
You see that? Herod would have brought him
forth. You know what Herod's fixing to do. So we see what God's people are
doing. We see what the Apostle Peter's
doing. We see what Herod wanted to do. He would have brought
him forth and chopped his ugly head off. That's what he wanted
to do. But he would have done that.
He didn't do that. Because they were praying to the God of heaven
and earth, who turns the hearts of men in his hand like the rivers
of water, whithersoever he will. So Herod would have brought him
forth. And we see what Peter's doing. He's sleeping. Between two soldiers. I don't
think I could sleep between two soldiers. I can't even sleep
on an airplane, much less between two soldiers that are about to
carry me out to get my head cut off. But the Lord just gave him
peace. If the Lord gives you peace,
you'll sleep. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep. For thou, Lord, only makest me
to dwell in safety. Wherever you are, you're safe. bound with two chains and the
keepers before the door kept the prison and behold the angel
of the Lord came upon him the messenger of the Lord came upon
him and a light shined in the prison that's my testimony right
there did you know that a light shined in my prison I was in a dark place and the light came on one night
And he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Wake
up, arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from
his hands. And the angel said unto him,
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he
saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out, and followed
him. And wist not that it was true which was done by the angel,
but thought that he saw a vision. This can't be real. So the light is freedom also,
isn't it? And Christ is all of these things to us. Wisdom, hope,
freedom, life. And the difference now, the difference
we see clearly between light and darkness is Christ. That
thief on the cross, we see all these examples in the scripture.
Saul, now he knows what it means to repent. He knows what to turn
from and what to, who to. That thief on the cross, darkness,
railing on and mocking the Son of God, and then all of a sudden
light. Don't you fear God? Seeing we are in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly, but this man doth nothing amiss. And the difference is Christ
himself. There's light and darkness hanging on two crosses. One man
mocking and despising and railing on the Son of God, and one saying,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You're a bleeding, broken, shamed,
by all accounts, defeated man, but I see something else. I see a king. And I pray that
you would remember me when you come. You think about the faith
that the Lord had to give that man. For him to say that to that man on the cross next to
him. That the Old Testament prophesied
that he would be beaten more than any man. His form was marred
more than any man. And he said, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. When you're on your throne, don't
forget me. Light. Light and darkness. And
the difference? Darkness, light. There's a person. There's a man.
The God-man. The Son of Man. The Son of God
hangs between them. And He is the difference. But... I know that Christ is
the light. But is he my light? Is he my
light? What's the reason? If he's light
unto me, how can he be light to me? Well, it's because of
the rest of our verse. I see that Christ is that light.
There's no other light. He is the light of the world,
he said. and being light himself light
he's able to give light he's the one that said in the beginning
let there be light because he is the light the life was the
light of men the light of the world he is able to give light
he said let there be light nothing was made without him John said and there was light And you remember
how Paul preached that, didn't he? He preached that in 2 Corinthians
4, 6. He took that truth of Christ declaring from the beginning,
in the beginning, in the first creation. He said, let there
be light, and there was light. And Paul compared that to what
happens to a sinner when God saves him. He said, God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. God the Son, without whom was
not anything made that was made. Commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. He said let there be light. Well, that same
God has shined in my heart To give another kind of light the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God That can only be
seen in the face of his son Turn there with me. Let's look at
the context of that. It's become more and more important to me
that as I preached. We're familiar with these passages,
with these verses and phrases of verses. But let's look at
the context of that. 2 Corinthians 4. It's so beautiful
and so instructive. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
1. Christ is the light, but is he
my light? Is he your light? Will he shine in our hearts?
Or are they too black? Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience, In
the sight of God, you see manifestation. Remember, light and darkness.
We're turning the light on, Paul said. We're making it clear.
We're not hiding. We're not deceiving. We're not about that. But if our gospel be hid, if
there's somebody that can't see it, if it is darkness to some,
it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Bless the
light. of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Oh, our verse is so full in it
in Psalm 112 there. Light is sprung up. For we preach not ourselves.
It's the light of the glorious gospel of Christ that they can't
see. Because that's who we're preaching.
We're not preaching ourselves. But Christ Jesus the Lord. He's
the light. He just talked about the light
of the gospel. What's that? We preach Christ. He's the only
light there is. And ourselves, you're a servant
for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our heart. That's why
we're preaching Him. Because He turned the light on
in us. And as we preach him, he's going to have to turn the
light on in you, lest this gospel be hid unto you and your minds
blinded by Satan. The only hope, if you're in that
case, is if the one who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
shined in my heart and shines in your heart to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. You see the context
of that verse now. The gospel of Christ, we preach
him who is light and him who is light must come and say, let
there be light in your heart. And what are we going to see
when he does the glory of God? Boy, how can we even talk about
the glory of God? When our Lord said, the hour
has come. We know what hour he was talking
about, don't we? He's going to Calvary. He's about to go shed
his precious blood for all of his people and redeem them from
their sins. And you know what he said? Glorify thou me that
I may also glorify you. I know that has something to
do with God's glory right there. The cross. Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory in anything else but Christ crucified. When he gives light, we see the
glory of God in his faith, we see who he is, we see what we
are, and we see how God can be just and justify sinners, which
is the last part of our verse, we'll see in a minute, by Christ,
his person and his word. So Christ is the light, but many
will die in darkness while Christ is the light. So is he my light? Will he come where the darkness
is so great? Well, I know this from our text
in Psalm 112. See the next word there? Unto
the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. But is that
me? Well, I know this. He's gracious. He's gracious. I tell you this,
if I'm ever going to have any light, he's going to have to
be gracious. And he is. We don't deserve any
light. Why don't the reprobate receive
light? Why doesn't light come to everybody? Why don't they
receive light to understand? Well, in Romans 121 it says this,
because that when they knew God, They glorified him not as God. And think about that. It wasn't
that they didn't know to glorify him as God, they knew God. They
knew that he was to be glorified and they refused to do it. They
refused to give him the glory. They still do. And religious
people are the worst ones about refusing to give God glory. Neither were thankful. They weren't thankful to God
for what he'd given them, and they didn't glorify him as the
only one that can give what we need. But it became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. God cut off what little light
he was given. You know, there is a light, that
light of every man that entered into the world. His word. Everybody, you know, it says
they knew God. They knew enough to know that
He's to be glorified. Where'd that come from? Well,
God gave them some light. But not the light of the knowledge
of His glory in the face of His Son. Because when He gives that
light, you're going to glorify God. But then, He took away even
that light. that he had given them. And their
foolish heart was darkened. They were reprobate. Why didn't that happen to everybody?
Or why isn't everybody given light? Well, we see why they
weren't given light. Because. Because they refused
to glorify God. Because of their sin. Because
they didn't deserve it. They didn't deserve any light.
But wait a minute. I don't deserve any either. So
why would I receive light? Because he is gracious. That's why. Because he is gracious. David said in Psalm 139 11, if
I say, surely the darkness shall cover me. And you know, we might well say
that because if it ought to cover anybody, it ought to cover me. To whom much is given, much is
required. He has blessed us so richly.
He's given us so much light. And yet, do we glorify Him? But David said, if I say, surely
the darkness shall cover me, if God's going to cover anybody
in darkness, it's going to be me. But even if I say that, even
the night shall be light about me. Because He is gracious. Darkness. That's what we are
by nature now. The earth was without form and
void and darkness was over the face of the deep. That's a picture
of us. The new creation is, the old creation is a picture of
the new creation. God makes us new. He sheds, shines
His light upon us. He makes us rich and abundant
and able to bear fruit, to bear fruit to his glory. But before
there wasn't any fruit in the earth, before God planted Eden,
before he said, let there be light, before he divided the
night from the day. So that's us. We're darkness
by nature. David spoke about night. And
we have in this world, we have night, don't we? And all through the scriptures,
The sun is a picture of Christ, the day star that arises in our
hearts. That's Christ. Weeping may endure
for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Why? Christ comes
and shines his light upon us. All through the scriptures, but
while we're in this world, there's night, isn't there? There's day
and night. You know, when Judas went to portray our Lord Jesus
Christ, I wanted to read you this passage because it's so
interesting. It says in John 13 27 after the sop Satan entered
into Judas and then said Jesus unto him that thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew
for what intent he spake this unto him. Judas knew what he
was going to do and the Lord knew what he was going to do.
They didn't understand. Some of them thought because
Judas had the bag, he was the treasure that Jesus had said
unto him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast.
Go get some food for us. Preparations, buy some things
that, or that he should give something to the poor. He then
having received the sock went immediately out and it was night. Why are we
told that? Because there was more than just
night time in the land. There was darkness in the heart
of Judas. Darkness. Night had fallen in
his wicked heart. And we see that in ourselves. Just as the sun hid in darkness.
You know, we sing that song. Well might the sun in darkness
hide and shut his glories in. When Christ the mighty maker
died. For man the creature sinned. And when he was betrayed, there
was great darkness about. It was night. And that same darkness
was in the heart of the Apostle Peter. Same darkness. It says that Satan entered into
Judas Iscariot. Did not our Lord say to Peter,
get thee behind me, Satan? Did our Lord not say unto the
Apostle Peter, Satan hath desired thee? Just like he entered into Judas
Iscariot, he's desired to have you too, Peter. But why, then,
could Satan not have the Apostle Peter as well? You know, it didn't
look good for Simon there for a while. If Satan entered into
Judas and Judas spiraled down, he went and sold the Son of God
for 30 pieces of silver. And when he realized what he
had done, repentance was not granted unto him. And he went
out and hung himself and went straight to hell. We have that
on the authority of God's word. He was a devil from the beginning,
our Lord said. And it says repentance was not
given. And then the apostle Peter, it
didn't look good for him either, did it? He was boasting of his
own ability to stand by the Lord, even though he said all these
disciples will betray you, but I won't. The Lord said, I must
go into Jerusalem and suffer and be killed. And Simon rebuked
him. Simon rebuked the Son of God.
It don't look good for him, does it? He said, that's not going
to happen to the Lord now. And the Lord had to say to him,
get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
because thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the
things that be of men. Not looking good for Simon, is
it? And when Peter boasted that though all of the disciples would
deny the Lord, he said, I never will. And the Lord said to him,
Simon, you're the one. You're saying all of them will
and I won't. I got news for you. You're the
one that's going to betray me. That's going to deny me. Well,
it don't look good, does it? Is Simon going to be just like
Judas then? No. Why? Because he's gracious. The
one who is the light is gracious. And he said unto him, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you. Satan hath desired
to have you. Now, you know, we know what Satan
said about Job, don't we? We know how he is because we
have some we have some scripture about that. You remember what
he said about Job? He said, Job, he don't love you. He doesn't fear you. The only
reason it looks like he does is because you've given him so
much stuff. You've blessed him so much. You
take away what you've given him and he will curse you to your
face. That's the kind of thing that Satan says. I wonder, reckon
what he said about Peter then. He had some ammo, didn't he?
Does he got any on us? What could he have said about
Peter? You yourself said he's not going
to stand with you. He's going to deny you. You yourself
said he'll deny you. He's useless. He's worthless.
He doesn't care anything about you. You yourself said he doesn't
savor the things of God, but just the things of men. Satan had desired you, Peter.
There's the devil saying, let me have it, let me have it, let
me have it. He's no good to you anyway, let
me have it. He hath desired you, Simon, that
he might sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that thy
faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. How gracious, how gracious he
is. Though there is great darkness
in our wretched hearts, He is that great light that shines
in our hearts. There's night and day now in
this world, but not in that one. There's no night there, and there's
no need of the sun, because the Lamb is the light thereof. We
have darkness now, but not forever. And one final thought, our text
says he is gracious, three things, gracious, full of compassion,
and merciful, no? And long-suffering, no? And righteous. If we ever have any idea how
important that is, How can God be all of this? How
can he be righteous and yet full of compassion? Not only is he both, but he's
full of compassion and righteous. His righteousness doesn't mitigate
his compassion. Does not righteousness demand
strict justice though? Justice can't be compassionate.
If you say to a criminal who deserves the death penalty, I'm
going to let you live because I feel sorry for you. Then justice
is not done. If you carry out upon him the
sentence of death, then where is compassion? Our God declared in Isaiah 45,
21, and 22, there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. And
then he said this, the one who is just, holy, righteous, perfect,
inflexible, said I'm a savior too. And then
he said this, look unto me and be you saved all the ends of
the earth for I'm God. There's none else. There's no
other God like me. Even the just and holy and righteous
God has compassion upon me, upon
you, upon the worst, the vilest, the most wretched of all sinners,
because it is Christ that died. Justice is satisfied by the precious
blood of Christ, and God is gracious unto me. He's gracious, full
of compassion, and righteous in Christ Jesus, our Lord, our
Savior, our Redeemer. not only can be just and yet
justified, that's exactly what he does. His perfect, holy justice
is satisfied in Christ. And wretched, vile sinners who
sit in great darkness have, do, and shall see great
light. Because God is gracious in His
Son. Let's pray.