June 19, 2016 His Word is Sweeter Than Honey by Steve Mixsell

Psalm 19 and the Sweetness of God’s Word

Heavenly Father, we are gathered around you, our hearts are prepared to hear what you would have us to hear from you this afternoon. Lord, it is precious, precious time for you to be with us. We are walking in a heart that is ready to hear well.

Our spirits are ready to obey your word. Lord, we pray for our future, our broken heart. And so that you would bless the work of this hands. I pray, Lord, that this love and passion for your word would come true, that we would be risen to a higher level of loving the Lord Jesus Christ and the word that you have given us about him.

I pray, Father, that by your spirit, through the use of your power and confidence in the Lord and not his flesh, that you, Father, by your spirit, would put power to his word as he preaches us truth, your truth, Father.

So bless this place, bless all of you who are here. Bless our brother, Stephen, and all the believers who have said, in Jesus' name, amen.

Good morning. Please turn to Psalm 19, beginning at verse 7. And while you're going there, I feel compelled to go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for your precious word.

Father, I thank you for this truth, this vital truth, that your word in the heart of the believer, in the mind of the believer, on the tongue of the believer, should always be sweeter than honey. Father, it's a precious truth which protects us from error, protects us from spiritual malady.

It's protected me at times when I was in churches that did not proclaim your word in every way well. Father, and I just am struck with my inadequacy at declaring all the ways your word is sweet today.

And so I humbly ask that you'll grant that I may have one good tongue to preach, one good mind to preach today, clearly, to declare your word, the word you would have me speak for your people, to their benefit, and that you'll not let any failing, any of my idiosyncrasies or outright failings, hinder you from doing good to your people.

I ask that your word will go forth and bless the hearer and benefit the hearer and glorify your son. And I ask it, Father, for the advancement of your kingdom. I ask it in your son's name for his purposes, for his glory.

And I thank you and praise you for all that you are and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 19, beginning at verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Our text for today clearly declares what is, in my estimation, one of the most central and pregnant truths in all of Scripture.

A truth, it's one of the essential truths which is at the core of any sincere Christian walk. A walk which is truly pleasing to our Lord. It's a truth which has many theological and practical, many theological implications and practical applications.

And perhaps most importantly for today, it's a truth which, if rightly understood and deeply held, has a tremendous protective power against theological error and also a great preservative power against many of the great and dangerous maladies of spirit which can plague even the most ardent servant of God.

And of course the truth to which I'm referring is the truth that to the believer, the Word of God is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Let me say it again with greater emphasis. To the true believer, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God should be, must be, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

This truth is intimately related, I'm convinced, and inexorably intertwined with another great truth and that is that the healthy Christian walk is characterized by and enabled by the joy of the Lord.

As the Holy Spirit tells us through the pen of the Apostle Paul, when issuing a warning in Romans 14, 16 and verse 17, verses 16 through 17, I think this warning is very illustrative. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, warns those who in their zeal to spread their knowledge concerning various practices, the observance or non-observance of days and their freedom from dietary restrictions.

They seek to spread this knowledge within the Church of Christ and Paul warns them that even if they are correct in the knowledge they seek to spread, they still run the risk of doing harm to their brethren.

And two separate ways, I think, can be seen in our text. The first is by causing their brethren to stumble through being emboldened to do something which violates their weak conscience. But the second, which is perhaps less apparent from our text but I believe nonetheless there, is that they may do damage by muddying or damaging their brother's understanding of a much more crucial truth through the inartful and immature way in which they attempt to teach them a secondary, and perhaps we might even say tertiary truth.

Paul reminds them, yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good, and I say in parentheses, your correct understanding and practice of a secondary truth, a less important truth, not an unimportant truth, a less important truth.

Do not let your good, your correct understanding, be spoken of as evil. Why would it be spoken of as evil? It would be spoken of as evil because in your emphasis of this truth and your seeking to inartfully ram it down the throat, so to speak, of your weaker brother, you obscure the greater truth that the kingdom of God is not primarily about eating and drinking, but it's about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Therefore let us pursue those things which make for peace and the things by which we may edify one another. The Holy Spirit goes on through the pen of the Apostle Paul to emphasize this again. He touches on it again later, just a few verses later, when he prays for his hearers in Romans 15, 13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in the hope, may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Believing is characterized by joy and peace. And again, please observe, dear brethren, that joy is prominent among the fruits which the Holy Spirit will produce in the heart of every believer who rightly understands the Word of God and knows well the God of that Word.

Galatians 5, 22 and 23, well known to most of us, I hope, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.

This last verse, I believe, contains a warning that any understanding or application of the Word which causes a sustained disturbance or disruption of the believer's joy or any of the other fruits of the Spirit in the life of the believer, such as was held by the Judaizers who sought to reimpose the keeping of the law or some of its elements as necessary for justification or perhaps even greater sanctification, any such understanding or application of His Word which causes a sustained disturbance or disruption in the believer's joy or other fruits of the Spirit is in some sense a wrong understanding or application of His Word which is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

And of course, please note that I am not saying the Word of God should never cause you sorrow for true and godly sorrow is an element of the true repentance frequently brought upon us when the Holy Spirit illumines His Word in our hearts to bring conviction of our sins and failings.

However, please note that even this godly disquiet and sorrow that His Word will, I would say, frequently bring into our heart. Remember, the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit. These He will not despise.

What produces the broken and contrite spirit? The Word of God having its reign in your heart. So there will be sorrow, but it's very important to understand that even this godly disquiet and sorrow should always give way rather expeditiously, I'll say.

I have quickly, I'm changing it to expeditiously. I just don't want you to focus on days and minutes. But I will just say expeditiously and leave it at that. This godly sorrow and disquiet should always expeditiously give way to the joy which knowing that no matter how large our failure His grace and mercy are larger.

And we are truly and fully forgiven because of what Jesus did. As Nehemiah says, quoting a small portion of what Josh read, and remember, this is in the context of godly repentance, as they were ignorant of the law before Ezra read the law.

And Nehemiah, who was governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites taught all the people and said to the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.

They wept because they were ignorant of it and had been in profound violation of it. And yet, in the midst of their weeping, they are told, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.

For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Ezra and Nehemiah reminded the Israelites of this very truth, even when they repented their deep and profound disobedience.

Upon hearing the word of God and bowing their heads to the ground and worshiping him and sorrowing with godly sorrow, they reminded them that this true and godly sorrow must pass quickly and give way to the joyfulness of the redeemed and forgiven, because the joy of the Lord is the believer's strength and health, I might add.

The joy of the Lord, which is our strength and a fruit of the Holy Spirit, I would argue, has its primary source. Not the only source, but its primary source. The sweetness that comes from the word of God when it is received by a humble and repentant heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 25, beginning at verse 8, says, Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he teaches sinners the way. The humble he guides in justice and the humble he teaches his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

And in Psalm 119, beginning at verse 14, hear this truth from Psalm 19, amplified greatly by the psalmist. In Psalm 119, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways.

I will delight myself in your statutes, I will not forget your word. Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may keep your word. Open my eyes, that I might see wondrous things from your law. I am a stranger in the earth, do not hide your commandments from me.

My soul breaks with longing for your judgments at all times. You rebuke the proud, the cursed, who stray from your commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.

Princes also sit and speak against me, but your servant meditates on your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. My soul clings to the dust. Revive me according to your word.

The psalmist, amid this world which drives us down, asks for the Lord to open his eyes, that he might see wondrous things from his word, that he might understand his word as sweet, and that sweetness might revive him, revive his spirit.

The psalmist acknowledges that he is dependent upon the bountiful grace of his master in achieving his goal, that his eyes may be opened, that he might see wondrous things from the word of God. To the end, that he might rejoice and delight in every part of the word of God, and thereby have his soul, which clings to the dust because of its own sinfulness and the sinfulness of the world around it, revived by the sweetness of the word of God.

Toward this end, I want to help show us that our psalm today emphasizes that all of God's word should be sweet to the believer, not just merely some of it. So let me make a few observations from our text.

I hope this will not seem pedantic for those of you that were here in part one. I did emphasize, I tried to show that in Psalm 19, excuse me, wrong page there. In Psalm 19, all of the commendations applied to God's word.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is, and so on.

All of the various commendations apply to every part of his word. So it's not just the law of the Lord which is perfect. It's also the testimony of the Lord. It's also the judgment of the Lord, and so on.

However, one of the interesting things I find, and it is not accidental, I think, just as the correspondence between some of these commendations to the various parts are not accidental, although they apply each to every part of God's word.

Note that the part of God's word which he says is sweeter than honey, beginning at the second half of verse 9, it's the judgments of the Lord which are first true and righteous altogether, and the judgments of the Lord are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

The judgments speak of the judicial decrees of God. The statement of the case. These are the facts against you. These are the areas of the righteous requirements of my law you've fallen short of. And these are the judgments that will come against you.

I think if we were to choose a part of God's word to say it's sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, this would probably be the last place we would choose. And again, I don't think it's an accident. Although the sweetness applies to all of the commandments, testimonies, the fact that he's chosen to say it's the judgments of the Lord, which are not only true and righteous altogether, but are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, is to show us that all parts of his word must be sweet.

Even these hardest, these hardest parts are sweet. Remember Josh a few weeks ago preached about God's judgment, his eventual judgment which fell not only upon Ahab, but upon his entire family. Seventy sons of Ahab were hunted down and killed.

They were beheaded, and as a symbol that all may know God's judgment, the evil king who did it piled their heads at the city gate for an entire day. And Josh commented about how texts like these are hard to hear, and they are hard to hear.

They are hard to hear, but they're also sweet. And you say, how can something like this be sweet? And I just want to take a quick look, because sometimes we miss this. Several of his texts which first produce revulsion or fear and trembling, if we will look at them deeply, look at them more carefully, produce sweetness.

Despite the fact that Ahab is introduced as a man of unsurpassed evil in 1 Kings 16, in the 38th year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel and Samaria 32 years.

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before them. The most evil man that's ever ascended to the throne. Nonetheless, God showed him immense mercy, stunning mercy. So often we pass over that.

He did not judge him immediately. He did not judge he and his wife who introduced not only worship Baal themselves, but introduced Baal worship institutionally to Israel. What did he do? He sent a prophet.

He sent a prophet and he sent a powerful judgment attesting to the veracity of that prophet. He sent Elijah to announce a drought of three and a half years. We know that from James 5 17 that it was three and a half years.

In this three and a half year period where they were driven to desperation by the drought, did they repent? No. Instead, Jezebel and Ahab sent out the servants to hunt Elijah as we learn in 1 Kings 18 10.

They sent out servants to every nation to hunt for him. And of course, the text doesn't specifically say that, but it was to kill him. And yet God again not only withheld his judgment against Ahab and Jezebel, but he granted them in a sense even more mercy in the form of another mighty display of his power over and judgment against the false God who they worshiped and whose worship they brought all Israel into.

1 Kings 18 36 41, the triumph over the prophets of Baal. And I trust you guys remember it. I won't go into it. But Elijah stood alone against hundreds of prophets of Baal and triumphed and judged them and by the power of God demonstrated in consuming the sacrifice, he slayed them.

Again, despite this mighty display of the truth of God and the power of God over their false gods, they did not repent, but instead they sent out servants to hunt down Elijah. 1 Kings 19 2, and yet again God's judgment did not fall upon them.

In fact, his mercy and grace were demonstrated again when he stopped the drought. After that great victory over the prophets of Baal, he withheld the drought. He ended the drought. And then on two separate occasions when mighty kings made war against Ahab, kings he could not hope to defeat when looking at his order of battle compared to theirs, God delivered him, delivered Israel.

The first occurred in 1 Kings 20 13, and it happened when Ben-Hadad heard this message and he and the kings were drinking at the command most that he said to his servant, the message was that he would not give them the full tribute he asked for.

Although Ahab was ready to give him most of the tribute, he asked for a little bit too much and then Ahab, even though he despaired of victory, said we can't go that far. Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab when Ben-Hadad and his army of many kings is on the way.

Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab, the king of Israel, this wicked Ahab, saying, thus says the Lord, have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Again giving him a demonstration that his way is false, his worship of Baal is wrong, it's evil, and I am the Lord who is showing you mercy and all Israel mercy. Then again in a later campaign, 1 Kings 20 28 to 29, when beset by another group of enemies, actually the same king, coming back, reinforced, then a man of God came to the king of Israel and said, thus says the Lord, because the Syrians have said, the Lord is a God of the hills, but he is not a God of the valleys, therefore I will deliver this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

And they encamped opposite each other for seven days. So it was on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel killed 100 ,000 foot soldiers of the Syrians that day. And yet again Ahab did not repent to his merciful and mighty God.

God continued to grant him space and time to repent, and it was not until he killed Naboth in order to seize his vineyard that God finally formally declared a decree, a judgment against Ahab, against Jezebel, and against Ahab's family.

And yet again, even after this heinous act, and God's decreed judgment against Ahab and his family, God, at Ahab's superficial and outward acts of repentance, granted him further time to repent by withholding execution of his proclaimed judgment, despite knowing that Ahab would not avail himself of this opportunity to repent.

In 1 Kings 21, 19 -29, thus says the Lord, Have you murdered and also taken possession, speaking of the vile murder of Naboth? And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood.

Lick blood, even yours. Then Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy? And he answered, I have found you, because you sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring calamity upon you, announcing the judgment of God.

I will take away your posterity. I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, bond and free. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the house of Bashar, the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger and made me to sin.

And yet, verse 27 tells us,. And so it was when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about mourning. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, See how Ahab has humbled himself before me?

Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son, I will bring calamity on his house. So I hope you can see this underlying sweetness of the word, that even in this judgment against the most wicked of men, just about that we can imagine in scripture, the one who executes the judgment is overabounding in mercy.

He executes judgment in a mercy-bathed manner, which brings about this judgment very slowly and provides ample time for repentance. We can see this in God's declaration at the second giving of the law of Moses, in Exodus 34, beginning at verse 4.

So he cut two tablets in stone like the first one. And Moses rose early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him. And he took in his hand two tablets of stone. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

And I just want to pause and say that if you know your God, don't be disturbed in spirit by statements that he visits the iniquities of the fathers on succeeding generations. Just as we've seen in Ahab, the actual wicked man was shown ample mercy before judgment fell.

These declarations that the effects of your sin may affect future generations do not mean that God is somehow short-changing or being unfair or executing judgment in an unjust manner upon these generations.

There is an effect of sin which lingers over, but no, just as was illustrated in this manner of executing judgment against Ahab, that against Ahab's children, the judgment is executed in the same way.

It doesn't have to be explicitly stated in the text. No one ever gets justice from the Lord untempered by mercy. He makes the rain fall upon the just and the unjust. Judgment will come for those who do not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, but judgment never comes except in the context of superabundant, long-suffering mercy.

Never. And in fact, of course, that scripture I just read about the second giving of the law, we all know what happened with the first giving of the law. Idol worship, tablets of stone thrown down, and yet God again gives the law and proclaims his mercy.

And what is this little study in God's abundant mercy to Ahab, and of course by implication also Jezebel, but a microcosm of the great and ultimate judgment that he executes in the lives of everyone who enters the world who will not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eternal condemnation in hell. It's true, I think. I don't know. I have not searched the scriptures carefully, but nothing pops into my head as any competing truth which should be more difficult for the Christian to swallow, so to speak.

It's almost certainly true that this is one of the most difficult and in some ways unpleasant truths to contemplate, that all who do not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ will suffer, just as Ahab suffered, a comprehensive judgment.

It's comprehensive. Just as Ahab's judgment went out to his 70 sons, the ultimate judgment we will all face, or I shouldn't say we, but who all will face who don't bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ is comprehensive.

It lasts forever. It's a thought which is in some sense horrible to contemplate. They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. And of course, it should be difficult.

Don't misinterpret what I say. Don't become a cold hyper-Calvinist. Who has no compassion for those who do not know the Lord. God forbid. But also, you might ask me, must we find this truth sweet? And I think the answer is yes.

We should find this sweet. And we must, if we don't find it in some way sweet, we must seek a way to find it sweet. That's one of the reasons I had Josh read Revelation, the text from Revelation. This scroll that was eaten was a scroll of God's word, but also of God's judgment.

And it was sweet on John's tongue, but it made his stomach bitter. Understand that these truths, these terrible judgments of God and comprehensive judgments of God, terrible not in that they're unjust, they're bathed in mercy, but these comprehensive judgments of God against sin and transgression only occur in the context of mercy.

Over-abounding mercy. They are made more just by the mind-boggling mercy God shows. Remember that the perfect man, our Lord Jesus Christ, even in exercising his role as judge over all the earth, when condemning the Pharisees and unbelieving Israel, nonetheless greatly lamented, and I put in parenthesis, perhaps even to tears, because I think you can hear that in his double lament, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, after declaring in Matthew 23, beginning at verse 33, judgment, speaking directly to the Pharisees, but by implication all of unbelieving Israel, serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Assuredly, I say to you, all of these things will come upon this generation. And then he laments greatly, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather you, to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

I hope you can hear the lament of our God, the perfect man, the perfect God, man, Jesus Christ, over those who we know will not repent. This is not a purely sweet truth. It is a bittersweet truth. So I think we can see how we find this truth bitter.

How can we find this comprehensive judgment sweet? I already told you the beginning of the answer. Never forget. Always reemphasize to yourself and it's a good tip for good exegesis. There are so many parts of scripture where something that is apparently caused to make you to tremble at first glance has an underlying sweetness.

Don't be satisfied until you've mined deeply his word and found that sweetness. I can think of one example. I always try, anytime I'm preaching on a text, I always try to never miss one of these areas where the Lord has showed me.

One that comes to mind is remember in Matthew when God warns us and it's a terrible warning. There's two actually. I'll touch on both of them. One is to be careful that you do not cause one of these little ones to believe in me to stumble because it would be better for you for a millstone to be hung around your neck and cast into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

Then there's a related text where he says do not despise, do not lightly, do not think lightly of one of these little ones who believe in me because their angels always see the face of your father. I thought a lot about that text over the years and I'm firmly convinced that it has one meaning and that is that the messengers, the angelic beings who are his primary executors over those children are always in the throne room waiting for his glance, the jerk of his head signaling go.

Someone is lightly regarding one of these little ones. Go. Put a stop to it. It should cause us to tremble but don't stop there. Do you not see that it's God's passionate love for the least of his servants that makes him so interventional that the angels are like guard dogs obedient who at one whistle of their master will speed to the protection of their charges?

It's because of the great love with which he loves the least of his servants and therefore axiomatically, undisputedly, no matter where you are in your service to the Lord, where you feel you are, if you're walking less well with him than you were last year, he still has that same love for you.

That applies to you, little one. His passionate love for you is an interventional love and your angels always see the face of your heavenly father. It should be a sweet truth as well as a truth that makes you tremble and there are many, many more.

These are things that can be found by comparing scripture with scripture, by being well theological in your reading of God's word. So how can I find the terrible and comprehensive judgment of God against those who will not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, sweet?

Remind yourself that Jesus, as the word of God tells us in John 1, 9, is the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. Jesus has given light to everyone who will not receive him.

Remind yourself, as it says in John 3, beginning at verse 17, that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but for the reason that the world through him might be saved. But even though this light has come into the world, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. The reason people reject Jesus is not a lack of understanding. It's because they hate the light.

They flee from the light. Remind yourself, as Jesus said in John 18, 37, for this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

If anyone will go to their final day without bowing the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because they love something more than truth. They love their own self-image. They love a list of things. They love power and praise of men.

Anyone to whom truth is important will hear Jesus' voice. Remind yourself that only those who actively resist and suppress the truth over and over again throughout their entire lives will face his judgment.

Romans 1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, plain in them. For God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Because although they knew in some sense God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. And of course this truth is echoed in the first part of Psalm 19, which tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God.

There's nowhere on the earth where this obvious wisdom has not gone out. Remind yourself of these things. Remind yourself the depth of God's mercy to even the most wicked of men, allowing the rain to continue to fall for year after year after year on the unjust as well as the just, sending them good things and commanding his servants to show mercy and love even to the wicked.

Matthew 5 beginning at verse 44 says,. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. He not only loves them, but he's commanded all of his servants to continue to show them acts of love. Remind yourself that he commands all of his servants to have lives characterized, characterized by performing acts of love and mercy, so that perhaps even the most wicked man may, seeing their works of love and mercy, glorify God in the day of visitation.

1 Peter 2 beginning at verse 12,. Have your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, the unbelievers, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Going deeper and seeking to find his judgments, including his ultimate judgment, sweet, let the terribly comprehensive and unending nature of this judgment remind us of the degree of mercy he has shown each of us.

Having his own son, the degree of mercy, the cost, having his own son, our glorious Lord, drink to the last dregs the full cup of wrath which we were rightly owed in order to purchase our merciful redemption.

Remind yourself, in seeking to understand and appreciate the incredible cost of our salvation and the wonderful heroism of our beautiful Lord, remind yourself that he, the perfect sinless man, prayed importunately and with bloody sweat that if there were any way possible that this cup would be removed from him, though he knew that it was foreordained.

That's how terrible it was. No rational man could not but tremble at the idea of bearing the awesome weight of sin. Even the perfect man could not simply obey without asking that if there was any way possible it could be taken away.

Remind yourself of our Savior's cry on the cross as he bore the awful weight of sin and bore the full weight wrath of your sin, that your sin was due. Hear his forlorn cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And yet remind yourself that despite this terrible suffering, an unimaginable suffering, a suffering which is equal to or surpasses the suffering you and I would experience in an eternity in hell, that nonetheless he set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem and drink that cup to the uttermost.