If you would, let's begin our
service, opening our Bibles to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. We begin reading in verse 21 and
read down through verse 29. Psalm 37. The wicked borroweth
and payeth not again, but the righteous show it mercy and give
it. For such as be blessed of him
shall inherit the earth and they that be cursed of him should
be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and
he delighted in his way. Though he fall, he should not
be utterly cast down for the Lord upholded him with his hand.
I've been young and now I'm old. Yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken or his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful. and lendeth, and his seed is
blessed. Depart from evil and do good,
and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loveth judgment,
and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but
the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall
inherit the land and dwell therein forever." Turning our hymnal to page 30.
Page 30. Bless the Lord and sing His praises,
Bless the Lord now, O my soul. Join the song, O heaven-raises,
Let the anthem loudly roll. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that
is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord for love victorious,
Love that conquered on the tree. For His grace is good and glorious,
Flowing out from Calvary. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that
is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, He walks beside
me, and He lights the path before. Every need is now supplied me,
from His bounteous heavenly store. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that
is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord for truth he's
given, for the word of prophecy that has drawn the veil from
heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Let's turn over to 34, page 34. Song has great words. Immortal
and visible. Immortal, invisible, God only
wise, Enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious,
The Ancient of Days. Almighty, victorious, Thy great
name we praise. Unresting, unhasting, and silent
past life, Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in mine. Thy justice, like mountains I
soaring above, which are fountains of goodness and love. To all life Thou givest, to both
great and small, In all life Thou givest the true life of
all. We blossom and flourish as leaves
on the tree, And wither and perish, but not changeth thee. Come, Father of glory, Thou Father
of life, Thine angels adore Thee, All praise we would render, O
help us to see, Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee. All right, let's open our Bibles
now to Psalm 112. Psalm 112. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his
commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth. The generation
of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in
his house, and his righteousness endureth forever. Unto the upright
there ariseth light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion
and righteous. A good man showeth favor and
lendeth. He will guide his affairs with
discretion. Surely he shall not be moved
forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance. He should not be afraid of evil
tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart
is established. He should not be afraid until
he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given
to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever.
His horn shall be exalted with honor. The wicked shall see it
and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth
and melt away. The desire of the wicked shall
perish. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our great father, we bow in your
presence. We bow before your throne with
fear and trembling, knowing that we come before the God of all. Yet we're thankful that we can
come before your throne of grace boldly. confidently in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that this evening
that you would condescend to meet with us and enable us for
this hour to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, I pray
you'd bless your word as it's preached. You promised to honor
your word. And I beg that you would bless
your word as it goes forth this evening. Enable us to see clearly
the Lord Jesus Christ and all of His glory and His sufficiency. Enable us to see Him as everything
that we need. Every blessing you have for a
sinner is found in Him. Father, give us faith to believe
Him, to see Him, to cast our soul upon Him. Father, how we
thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank You for
a Savior who did not try to save but accomplished the salvation
of his people. We thank you for giving us this
gospel to preach, the gospel of Christ that blesses the hearts
of your people, that saves your people, enables us to see something
of the glory of God and his purpose to save sinners through the obedience
and sacrifice of his son. Father, how we thank you. And
I would ask you that you never let us take this glorious privilege
for granted, What a blessing that you've given your people
here all these many years. A place we can meet together
in love and unity. To have your gospel preached.
Father, we're thankful. We pray that you continue to
bless your word as it goes forward. From the pulpit, on the internet,
on the radio. Father, bless your word to the
hearts of your people. Use it to call out your sheep
from this area. We thank you for the many physical
blessings of this life. You've blessed us beyond measure. Father, we beg your forgiveness
for ever murmuring and complaining against your goodwill. After
all you've done for us, forgive us, we pray. Father, for those
who are in a time of trouble and trial, we pray for them.
We know these things have not come as an accident or outside
of your control. These evil tidings do not make
you afraid. Father, bless your people in
a time of trouble. We pray for your hand of healing,
comfort, mercy. We pray that you would fulfill
your promise to never leave nor forsake your people. Give them
a special portion of your presence in their heart. All these things
we ask and give thanks in that name, which is above every name,
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Blessed is the man, O Lord, who
was chosen by your grace. Your election and your love cause
our hearts Sing your praise, cause our hearts to sing your
praise. God of love, you sent your Son
to redeem your chosen ones. Precious Savior, precious blood,
for our sin your blood atones. For our sin your blood atones. When the time of love has come,
God the Spirit comes to some. By grace we cannot resist God's
elect, our cause to come God's elect, our cause to come Come
to Jesus, yes we do Come to Christ alone for grace, By God's sovereign
grace and power, We the Son of God embrace, We the Son of God
embrace. Blessed Father, blessed Son,
blessed Spirit, three in one, we for grace our praise return. Thank you, Lord, for all you've
done. Thank you, Lord, for all you've
done. All right, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 112. I titled the message this evening,
The Blessed and the Good Man. This is another one of the Psalms
called a Hallelujah Psalm. It begins, Praise ye the Lord. The word there is Hallelujah.
This Hallelujah or praise the Lord. This praise the Lord Psalm
is praising the Lord for the blessed man and for the good
man. So first, I want to look at the blessed man in verse one.
Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord. that delighteth greatly in His
commandments." Now we see right from the get-go, this can only
be talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the man. In every way, He's the man. Remember
when Pilate brought Him out and presented the Lord to that crowd,
He said, Behold, the man. This is the man. And Christ is
the man because He is the only man who was what man was created
to be. He's holy. perfect, righteous. David says the blessed man is
the one who fears the Lord and delights greatly in his commandments.
Now that can't be anybody but our Lord Jesus, can it? Fearing the Lord is to reverence
the Lord. Anyone that has a true reverence,
a respect, a fear of the Lord, they're going to obey God's law.
You know, if you fear the Lord, you reverence the Lord, you'll
have no other gods before the Lord. You won't bow to any graven
image. You won't take the name of the
Lord your God in vain. You'll remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy. And the only man who ever did
that was our Lord Jesus Christ. And he didn't just obey the law
because he had to. Christ obeyed the law because
he delighted in it. And he didn't just delight in
it. David says he greatly delights in God's law. It was Christ's
delight to love God with all of his heart, with all of his
soul, with all of his strength and all of his mind. That was
his delight. And it was Christ's delight to
love his neighbor as himself. It was Christ's delight to honor
and magnify the Father by obeying the law. And it was Christ's
delight to obey the law for his people. Christ didn't come and
obey the law for himself to make himself holy or righteous, he's
already holy. It was his delight to obey God's
law so he'd make his people righteous through his obedience to the
law for them. And he could greatly delight in God's law. He could
obey it because that's his nature. He's God in human flesh. So he, since he's God, since
he's holy and perfect, he can delight greatly in the law and
he can keep it. Now that is the blessed man. To be God and man. To delight in God's law. To fear and reverence the Lord. That's the blessed man. And this
can only be talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the blessed
man. But now I have to tell you, by
God's grace, I would say of myself, I'm a blessed man. After all
the Lord's done for me, all he's given for me, that the Lord would
have mercy and patience on somebody like me. I mean, I'm a blessed
man. I would say that about you. You
think that about you. I'm a blessed person. Well, how
can that be? If Christ is the blessed man,
how can we say, I think I'm a blessed person? Well, all of God's blessings
are found in Christ. All of them. And he is so full
of blessings. that he blesses his people too.
The only the Lord Jesus could say he delighted greatly in God's
law and he obeyed it perfectly. He's the only one who could say
that name. But look at Psalm or Psalm Romans chapter seven,
Romans chapter seven. Every believer can honestly say
what the apostle Paul says here in Romans chapter seven. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Every believer can say that.
If God has revealed himself to you and saved you, you can say,
I delight in God's law. God's law does not seem to me
to be a grievous, hard thing. God's law reveals that something
about the character of our God reveals his holiness, reveals
his justice. The believer can honestly say,
I delight in God's law. that I can't keep it. Look what
Paul says just one verse earlier, verse 21. I find then a law,
this is like the law of gravity, something that cannot be changed,
that when I would do good, my desire is to obey the law, that's
what I want to do. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. It stops me from being able to
keep and obey God's law, even though I delight in it. Well,
how can a person delight in God's law? I mean, truly delight in
it, even though we can't keep it? Well, the answer is in the
new birth. What Paul said, I delight in
a law of God after the inward man. That new man born of God
has the nature of Christ. He's born from the seed of the
word of God. He has the mind of Christ, the
nature of Christ. And that's how a believer loves
God's law. It's after the new man, after
the inward man. And I love God's law. I just,
this being perfectly honest, I love God's law. I see every
commandment. It's good. It's right. It's best. It's best for me. It's best for
society. I love God's law. But I'll tell
you another reason I love God's law. I see it all fulfilled. I see it honored and magnified
in Christ. If Christ hadn't kept the law
for me, I couldn't love God's law because it would be a sentence
of death to me. but since I see the law fulfilled
in Christ, honored and magnified in Christ the Savior, I can say,
I love God's law. Now that's a blessing that we
can only have in Christ, the blessed man. Now verse two, his
seed shall be mighty upon earth. The generation of the upright
shall be blessed. Now this blessed man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is mighty. He's mighty in power. He's mighty
in the power to be able to obey God's law, to establish righteousness
for His people by doing what no other human being ever did.
He obeyed God's law. He's mighty in His power to save.
His blood cleanses His people from what? All sin. I mean, that's powerful to remove
all sin, the stain of sin, the guilt of sin, the filth of sin. His blood cleanses His people
from all sin. Because there's power in the
blood. He's so mighty to save that by his one sacrifice, he
redeemed a people nobody can count on. I mean, you think of
that. One man did that. The power,
the might to save. And the gospel that we preach
is the power of God unto salvation. Because the gospel declares Christ
the mighty Savior. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
so mighty that He makes His seed mighty upon the earth. Now, who
is the seed of Christ? Well, it's all His people. Remember
that night that God took Abraham out? One night, took him up.
Boy, there was no artificial light, no pollution. Boy, the
sky was clear. And He said, Abraham, look up
there at those stars. Count them if you can. So shall thy seed
And he's not talking there about natural seed. He's talking about
spiritual seed, his believers, the children who are believers. And those believers, the children
of God, they're born from his seed. That's why they're mighty,
because they're born from his seed. God's people are mighty
because they're joined to Christ, the mighty one. They're mighty
because they're under the rule of the mighty conqueror. They're
mighty in righteousness. Their righteousness is perfect. It's a mighty righteousness because
it's the righteousness of Christ given to them. They're mighty
in holiness. They're sanctified, made without
sin in Christ. And it can never be solid. It
can never be dirtied. It's a mighty holiness. They're
mighty in life. They're so mighty that their
life is eternal, everlasting life. They're mighty in faith. Now, we might think that can't
be described. I'm not mighty in faith, I'm
weak in faith. Well, that's true. Every honest person will say
my faith is weak. But if you're God's, if the faith
you have is faith that God has given you, it's mighty. It'll
never quit. It's mighty because it lays hold
on Christ, who's the mighty one. They're mighty in faith. They're
mighty in love. They're mighty in joy. The seed
of Christ is mighty. He calls them the seed. He also
calls them the generation of Christ. You know, in the scripture,
they start getting ready to list a genealogy. They said, these
are the generations of Adam. These are the generations of
Jacob. And they start listing the genealogies. The generation
of Christ is his children. All those children have descended
from his seed. And they're blessed. He calls
them here the upright. They are blessed because they've
been made upright. Now, they didn't come into this
world that way. No, they came into this world falling at them.
But now they stand. They've been made upright. They
stand upright in Christ. See, those are the blessed people,
aren't they? in Christ through union with
Christ. And in verse 3, this blessed man, he has all wealth
and riches. Wealth and riches should be in
his house. And his righteousness endureth forever. Now we would
all say of some millionaire or someone, oh, they're blessed
to have all that wealth and riches. I don't know. A lot of times it looks to me
like it makes people miserable. I don't know. but not this well,
not these riches. These are the riches of Christ.
Scripture calls them the unsearchable riches of Christ. They call them
the riches of his glory. Scripture speaks of the riches,
both of wisdom and knowledge. These are things that are found
in Christ. Here's one that will interest a sinner, the riches
of his grace. Oh, he's rich in mercy and grace,
the riches of his kindness to his people, all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge, all these wealth, these riches, they're
hidden in Christ. The Lord is so wealthy, he has
all riches, every spiritual blessing that there is, all those riches,
all that wealth is found in one place, in Christ. Yet, he's not
stingy with his people. You know, most rich people are
stingy. Brother Clay Curtis says, rich
people don't tend to get rich by giving their money away. You
know, most rich people are stingy people. Not the blessed man. He's so wealthy, he gives all
his riches to his people freely. He just gives it to them freely.
He just liberally And he never diminishes his wealth one iota,
even though he gives everything he has to his people, he doesn't
diminish his wealth one iota. The Lord overall is rich unto
all that call upon him. He's rich, he gives liberally
to all that call upon him. The Lord is so wealthy, he makes
his people wealthy too. God's children have these riches.
through union with Christ. This is so important, union with
Christ. God's children are joint heirs
with Christ. That's how all these riches belong
to God's children. We're joint heirs with Christ.
We have the riches of his grace and kindness in Christ. They all come to us in Christ.
The treasure of wisdom and knowledge, we have that by knowing Christ. The beginning of wisdom is knowing
Christ. We have that in Christ. We have
a hope of glory, a good hope of glory, through faith in Christ. See, it's all in Christ. And here is His greatest wealth,
the greatest riches that we have in Christ, His righteousness. David says His righteousness
endureth forever. Now, that has to be important.
It's repeated twice in this psalm. It's repeated many times without
Scripture. His righteousness endureth forever. See, this is talking about Christ's
righteousness, the righteousness that he gives his people, the
righteousness that he earned as the man that he gives to his
people. Christ is the one in his righteousness
that purchased all these blessings. He purchased them for his people. It was his obedience in life,
in obeying the law. But it didn't stop there. It's
also his obedience unto death. See, his people could not be
made righteous unless Christ died for them. The Apostle Paul
said in Romans 5 verse 19, by the obedience of one. His obedience
in life and his obedience unto death. By the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous. Christ is our righteousness. Now look to Him. Look to Christ.
Trust Him. Don't think you're going to be
made righteous by sinning less than you ever did before. That's
not how righteousness comes. Righteousness comes by trust
in Christ, through faith in Christ. I tell you, don't despair over
your sin. Hate it, hate it, but don't despair
over it. Christ came to save sinners.
So don't despair over your sin, but trust Christ. Why did he
come? He came to make his people righteous. Now trust him. Now what riches
it is to be able to say, I trust Christ. That's riches, the riches
of God-given faith to say, I trust Christ. I'm righteous in Him. I find my hope, my comfort, my
peace in Him. Now that's true wealth for the
soul. Man has not yet come up with
an accounting system to put a value on that. because it's invaluable. That's wealth for your soul.
And then the blessed man is the light of the world. Verse four,
he says, under the upright, there arises light in the darkness. Now you know how the Lord called
himself the light of the world. The only way we have light to
see who God is, is by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. The only
manifestation we will ever see of God, even in glory, is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only manifestation of
God we'll ever see. If you would see God, you must
see Christ. The only way we have light to
understand how it is that God saves sinners is by seeing who
Christ is. See, if we don't see who Christ
is, we're going to think we've got to keep the law. We've got
to observe all the ceremonies. That's how salvation comes. And
we'll think that Until we see Christ and we see him, we'll
say, oh, now I see. Now I see how it is that Christ
saves sinners, how God saves sinners. It's in Christ. This
light is only in Christ, and he came not to hoard this light
up for himself, but he came to give his people light. In John
12, verse 46, he said, I'm come a light into the world. that
whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness. He didn't
come to keep men in darkness. He didn't come to say, oh, no,
wait a minute. You're not one of my elect, so I'm not going
to give you light. No. He came to give light to all who would
believe on him. Now, I know who's going to believe
on him, don't you? It's his people. He's going to give them light.
They're the upright, those who've been made upright, who stand
in Christ, who've been made righteous in Christ. God gives them light. as opposed to darkness in Adam,
as opposed to the darkness of our flesh. And this light is a whole lot
more glorious than just turning on the light in a dark room.
You know, I came in this evening, this place is dark. I flip those
lights on, I see everything. I'm not afraid to walk around,
I'm not afraid I'm going to run into something. But the light that David's talking
about here and the light that certainly the Savior is talking
about, he talks about himself being the light of the world.
It's much more glorious than just physical light that lets
us see. Christ the light arises where there is gross darkness.
His people are in gross darkness. It's not just that they can't
see, but they're in the filth of their sin. They're lost. They're so lost, they don't know
they're lost. They're lost and they don't,
they can't see the way of salvation. They can't see the way of righteousness.
They're, they're in such gross darkness. They can't even see
the filth of their sin. They think they're clean and
pure. They're in darkness and they just, they can't see the
way of forgiveness. They don't even know they need
forgiveness. I mean, that's how the gross darkness that they're
in. And this darkness causes despair. Darkness of living under
the sentence of death. And their darkness leaves them
in great misery. Janet hates, hates, hates this
time of year. It gets dark too soon. There's
too much time of the day that's dark. Well, spiritually, that's
got people. They're in gross darkness. Indeed,
when they think their despair cannot get any worse, then Christ
the day star arises. He arises in their heart and
gives them light. And now they see. Now they see
themselves as they really are because they see themselves in
the light of Christ. How did Job know I'm an unclean
man? I just need to put my hand over
my mouth and How do you know that? That my eyes have seen
once I've seen the Lord, now I know I'm unclean, I'm undone. When Christ, the day star rises,
they see Christ, they see the salvation is in Christ. They see the only way they can
be forgiven is in Christ. They see the only way they have
life is in Christ. They have light to see and to
enjoy salvation in Christ, they enjoy it. Now they have light
to see. This light to see is not just
physical seeing. It's an understanding. When Adam
fell, our understanding was darkened. But when we see Christ, now we
understand. I understand how God can be merciful
to me and still be just. Now I see it's through the sacrifice
of Christ. God can be just in showing mercy
to me because he gave Christ the justice, the punishment,
the death that I deserve. And when Christ the light arises,
that oppression of darkness is lifted. Oh, such a blessing to
have light in Christ. And then this blessed man, David
says, is full of God's grace and love. The end of verse four,
he says he's gracious and full of compassion and righteous.
Now, you know what grace is. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. Now, if God's going to be gracious,
he's going to give us life that we do not deserve. He must also be true. God can't
be gracious by ignoring our sin. God must be true. And what I
mean by that is this. God cannot be gracious at the
expense of his justice. See, David says here, God is
gracious. He's full of compassion. But don't forget this. He's also
righteous. Now, why did he point that out here? that God's gracious,
He's full of compassion and righteous. We pointed that out to show us
when God shows grace, when He pours out His love upon His people,
He must do it in a way that's true. He must do it in a way
that's righteous. Now, both grace and truth can
only be found in Christ. You see, God is gracious to His
people when He gives them what Christ deserves. Christ, by His
obedience, He earned righteousness. He earned life for His people.
So God in grace gives them what Christ earned for them. But something's
got to still yet be done with their sin, doesn't it? If God's
going to do it in truth and righteousness, something's got to be done with
their sin. That's when the Father made His Son. Sin for us. And
Christ bore the punishment and the death that His people deserve. See, that's the truth. The grace
is God giving His people what Christ earned. and his truth,
that's giving Christ the death that his people deserve. So grace
and truth are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the blessed
man. The blessed man has a salvation that's done in grace and truth. And he's done this for his people
because the Lord Jesus Christ is full of compassion. And you
know that word compassion means love. It's a tender love. God loves His people in Christ.
He loves them with an eternal, immeasurable, never-ending love.
He must love His people that way. Christ must be full of compassion
and love for His people, for Him to willingly suffer and die
for His people like He did. The Father must love His people
with an immeasurable love if He would sacrifice His Son in
order to redeem them. Oh, He's full of compassion. He's full of love. Now this blessed
man, he's the man who's full of God's grace and full of God's
love. And the people who are the objects
of God's grace and love, they're not lying when they say, I'm
a blessed man. To be an object of God's grace,
an object of his love, that's a blessed man that we have in
Christ. He's the blessed man. Now second,
let's look at the good man, verse five. A good man showeth favor,
and lendeth. He will guide his affairs with
discretion. Again, this good man can only
be talking about Christ. Remember that rich young ruler
that came to our Lord and called him good master. And the Lord
said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but one, and
that's God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God,
and he is good. Everything about God is good. God is good in His purpose to
save sinners. That God would purpose to save
sinners who would sin against Him and spend their life shaking
their fist in the face of God saying, I'll not have this man
to reign over me. Yet God would purpose to save
them. That's good, isn't it? God is good in His patience with
men. How long does God suffer with
me? Sometimes before He saves them. Sometimes He suffers with
them long before He punishes them. But either way, He's good
at His patience with men, isn't He? He's good at His patience
with His children. You don't have to think very
hard to think of something that you're ashamed of. I'm in real
shame. Thankful, God's not like me.
If God's like me, I'd cast me out. God's good in his patience
with his children. He's good in his mercy and his
grace to sinners. He's good to the believer and
unbeliever alike. Sending rain on this earth, keeping
this earth full of air and water and sustaining life on this earth.
He's good in the different gifts that he gives to men. He gives
people great minds of science and they come up with inventions
and things that help all mankind. Good at giving gifts to people
to be doctors and nurses and you know, help heal bodies. God's
good. We could just never end the list
of all the different ways that God is good, his goodness to
men. I can't tell you all the ways
that God's good, but I can tell you where all of God's goodness
is found. and grace in Christ. God's goodness is only found
in Christ because of what Christ has accomplished for his people.
God is so good, he shows favor to his people. As he says, the
good man show a favor. And that word favor means both
mercy and grace. God's chief goodness is his sovereign
mercy to sinners. And that goodness, saving mercy,
is only found in Christ. If you would have that mercy
and grace, you have favor from God, I'll tell you what to do.
Go to Christ. It's all in you. Christ is so
good, David said, he lendeth to his people. I looked at that. I thought, lendeth. Christ does not lend to his people. Like, you know, we loan somebody
five bucks and they pay you back tomorrow. You go to the bank
and they lend money to you. You've got to pay them back with
interest. That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking
here about God's generosity, how generous God is to his people. Verse nine says, he hath dispersed. He's not talking about lending.
He's dispersed. He's given. He hath freely given to the poor.
His righteousness endureth forever. His horns shall be exalted with
honor. His power, His name, His reputation should be exalted
with honor because of how freely He gives to His people. So I
was thinking about this word, lendeth, and I looked it up,
Strong's Concordance. And it does not really talk about
financial transaction. It has to do with being joined
together. That's what the word means. You
know how Christ freely gives everything that He is, everything
that He has to His people. You know how He gives it to them?
by joining Himself to Him, by becoming one flesh with His bride,
so that she has everything that He is. Now that is good, isn't
it? That's good. That the Son of
God would join Himself to the likes of you and me. Oh my, that's
good. And Christ, the good man, guides
all of His affairs with discretion. And the word means wise judgment. directs all of his affairs with
wise judgment. Why? He never makes a mistake. He never does anything wrong.
Everything he does is good and right. Now Christ is the good
man. He's so good. He's not going
to make a mistake. Now you trust your soul to him.
He's not going to make a mistake. You trust all of your soul to
him. You're not going to make a mistake.
You trust your life to Him. Let's just trust all of our affairs.
Whatever it is that's going to happen to us today and tomorrow
and the days and weeks and years ahead, let's just trust all those
affairs to Christ. I cannot handle them with discretion
wisely, but He does. Let's just cast them all upon
Him. Now, we know this good man that
David's talking about has to be the Lord Jesus Christ. We
know that, don't we? Has to be, can't be talking about
you and me. Romans 3 verse 12 says, there's none that doeth
good. No, not one. So that eliminates
all of us from being the good man. Yeah. Scripture often describes
the believer as good. And it seems like there's many
times in scripture, it talks about the good man, the steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord. It sounds like that's
talking about a believer. Could be talking about Christ
though, but Acts 11 verse 24 describes Barnabas as a good
man. Scripture says he's a good man,
full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. Now how can that be? There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Yet how can the word of God describe
a believer as a good man, a good woman? It's going back to this
word Linda, being joined The believer is joined to Christ. And that's how we're good. Being
joined to Him. Because as He is, so are we in
this world. That's how we're the good men.
And God's people are good people. They're good because they're
blessed in Christ, the good man. Look at Luke chapter 6. God's
people show favor. They're merciful. They're gracious.
Our Lord said, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain
mercy. You remember our study there
in the Beatitudes. They're not going to be merciful so that
God will be merciful to them. They're going to they have already
obtained mercy. God's already been merciful and
gracious to them. That's why they're merciful to
others. And God's people are generous. I mean, you just got
to be careful when you talk about something that you'd like to
see done or something you'd like to have around God's people.
Now God's people are generous. Look here at Luke chapter 6 verse
30. Give to every man that asketh
of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not
again. As ye would that men should do
to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love
you, what thank have ye? For sinners also love those that
love them. And if you do good to them, which
do good to you, what thank have you? Why should anybody thank
you for that? For sinners also do even the same. And if you
lend to them, of whom you hope to receive, you lend to somebody
hoping to receive the principal and interest back, what thank
have you? For sinners also lend to sinners
to receive as much again. But, oh, love your enemies and
do good. and lend, hoping for nothing
again. And your reward shall be great, and you shall be the
children of the highest. For he is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil." Aren't you glad God's kind to the unthankful? Now, love your enemies. Do good. Lend, hoping for nothing again.
Now, how can you forgive freely? Love your enemies. How can you
do these things? Well, the key is verse 36. Be ye therefore
merciful as your father also is merciful. See, that's how
God's children are. Good men, good women. They're
a chip off the old block, just like their father, which is in
heaven. And God unquestionably guides all of his affairs with
discretion. And, you know, generally speaking,
his people do, too. Now I know we're never going
to have enough wisdom in this life. I pray for wisdom every
day. I pray for understanding every
day. We're never going to have enough in this life. And we're
still going to do a lot of foolish things. We're going to make mistakes
because we're not in control of everything. We don't know
everything there is to know and we're going to make mistakes.
But generally speaking, believers show discretion. They show discretion
in their lives. It comes from being joined to
Christ. The believer trusts Christ. They trust their soul to Him.
What can be more wise than that? A believer worships Christ. They seek the opportunity to
worship Christ. What can be more wise than organizing
your life around the public worship of God? Believers are honest,
hard-working people. What can be more honest than
going out and earning your bread by the sweat of your brow and
coming home and enjoying it with your family? Just being an honest,
hard-working person. That's wise. And all of that
comes from being joined to Christ. That's not the wisdom of this
world. That comes from being joined to Christ. Now, verse
6 in our text, Psalm 112. Certainly, he shall not be moved
forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance. See Christ, the good man, he's
never going to be moved. He's never going to change. And
why would he? He's perfect. Why would he change?
And his people will never be moved either, and they're never
going to be moved because the Lord will never forget them.
The Lord always has them in remembrance. He always has remembers them
in the sacrifice of Christ. Remember that thief on the cross?
He asked the Lord, Lord, remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
would you remember me? You know, the Lord did, didn't
he? He remembered him. How could he forget a child for
whom he died? Couldn't do it. He'll always
remember his children and they won't be moved because he won't
let them go. Verse seven, he should not be afraid of evil
tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart
is established. He should not be afraid until
he see his desire upon his enemies. Now Christ, the good man, he
never afraid of evil tidings. Because remember, he guides all
of his affairs with discretion. Well, what are all of God's affairs?
You know, somebody might tell you, you know, mind your own
business. That's not your affair. What are God's affairs? Everything. Everything that happens in God's
creation is His affair. Everything that happens in His
creation is directed by His wise hand. Then when something happens
in God's creation and news comes in, His people call out to Him
in prayer. Wayne's never afraid. He's never
terrified by this. He never wonders, oh, what will
we do now? He's the one that's directed in the first place.
He knows the end of it. The end of it for his people
is good. God's people don't have to be
afraid of evil tidings either. God's not afraid of evil tidings.
He's not afraid of them because these things are under his control.
God's people do not have to be afraid of evil tidings. And when
you get evil tidings, bad news, you know, I say evil tidings,
but something we think is bad news, Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Remember who's
in control. One year ago, tomorrow, it was
a Wednesday, Wednesday, early afternoon. One year ago, tonight,
today, I was in my study. I was having a good day. I was
studying, and Lord's blessing, I just felt like I had understanding. I had my message all done. I
was working on Sunday's message. I had the bulletin done, everything
going so well. Janet comes bursting in the study. She said, Frank, we got to go
to Lexington. This man's been in Iraq and he's back. I was afraid. I'm just telling
you, I was afraid. But my comfort in that drive
to Lexington and over the next days and weeks was this. I know
he's in control of this thing. I don't like it. I don't like
it. I don't like seeing my daughter
in this much pain. I don't like Janet having to live up here
in Lexington for months and me being here. I don't like it.
But I'm not afraid. Because I know who's in control
of this thing. I know who's directing it. The
one who's directing it is directing all of his affairs with discretion.
In our enemies, you get evil tidings of our enemies, their
plans and purposes to hurt you and to destroy you. They're real. Those are real people, real enemies,
real things that would hurt you. But now you don't have to be
afraid of them. They're not going to be around for long. God's
going to see his desire on them. They'll be destroyed. Verse 10
says the wicked shall see it. They're going to see this blessed
man. They're going to see this good
man, how he blesses his children, his seed in him. The wicked shall
see it and be grieved. He should gnash with his teeth
and melt away. The desire of the wicked shall
perish. You don't have to be afraid of
their desire. It's going to perish. It's going to melt away. And
the wicked will gnash their teeth. And I used to always think that
means they're gnashing their teeth in suffering or, you know,
whatever. I don't believe that's what that's
talking about. Do you? They're going to gnash.
What is it they're going to see and be grieved about and gnash
their teeth at? They're gnashing their teeth
at sovereign grace. They're gnashing their teeth
at God freely. giving salvation to undeserving
sinners. And they gnash their teeth at
it. Oh, they hate it. And they just, oh, they gnash
their teeth at it. But what did the righteous say?
Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank God for Christ,
the blessed and the good man. I hope the Lord will bless that
to you and enable us to trust him. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed man. All blessing is
in him. How freely you give it to your
people. How we thank you for your goodness to your people
in Christ, your goodness and giving us everything we need,
everything that you require to stand before you accept it. Father,
how we thank you. Cause us not just with the lips,
not just a religious catchphrase, but cause us to truly be able
to say from the heart, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord for his goodness,
his mercy, his grace to his people. How richly you blessed us in
Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you give
us the grace and the faith to believe him and cause us to rest. Rest in our Lord Jesus Christ,
knowing he has done all things well and he continues to do all
things well. It's in His blessed name, Father,
we pray. Give thanks. Mike, you can leave
us in a song. Let's stand up and bless the
Lord. That's what the song says. So
let's do that. 33, number 33. Stand up and bless
the Lord, ye people of his choice. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God with heart and soul and voice. O I above all praise, above all
blessing high, Who would not fear His holy name, and laud
and magnify Oh, for the living flame from
his own altar brought to touch our lips, our minds inspire and
wing to heaven our thought. God is our strength and song
and his salvation ours. Then be His love in Christ proclaimed
With all our ransom powers. Stand up and bless the Lord,
The Lord your God adore. Stand up and bless His glorious