Sunday Morning, October 11, 2020 AM

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Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC “​Praise the LORD for the God-Fearing Man​” (Part 1) Psalm 112

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All right.
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Good morning, everyone. It's good to have everyone here this morning, especially thankful to have
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Wiley back with us. The sound of her playing just fills auditorium and prepares us for worship.
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We have missed you a lot, so we're glad that you are back. A few announcements as we get started this morning.
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Come back tonight for evening service at 5 .30. We're picking back up with Sons of Issachar stuff.
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Okay. That's at 5 .30. Wednesday, tag at 6 .30. Again, meal for tag families only before that at 5 .45.
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Looking ahead, next Sunday evening, we'll be having that hymn sing. If you're interested in sharing during that time with special music or something, see
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Lisa, and she'll kind of work you into the service. And then Sunday morning, in the morning, we'll be having
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Lord's Supper. That's next week, the 25th. Our fighter verse for this week is found in the book of James, chapter 1, verses 19 and 20.
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Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
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For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Good verse to memorize this week.
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Joel DeForest mentioned to me a couple days ago that he heard from a family at First Southern Baptist Church that their church is going to be screening a new film that First Stone Ministries has helped produce called
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In His Image. That's on Tuesday, October 13th, so this coming Tuesday at 7 p .m.
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there at First Southern. It discusses God's design for gender and sexuality.
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So really timely film that's been put together in concert with the
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American Family Association. So if you're interested in that, attendance is free.
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So you can go to First Southern to find more about that. Offering plate is still at the back, so give your tithes and offerings back there.
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Any other announcements that I'm missing this morning, we're going to close with a video, Operation Christmas Child, okay?
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All right. After that video, we'll have a time of prayer and preparation, and then Michael will close us in prayer.
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We're here in the middle of Puerto Santa Ana in Ecuador, close to the Amazon. Kids are receiving the shoebox for the very first time in their lives.
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When I was 10 years old,
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I received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox in my hometown in Bato, Ecuador. I remember my favorite thing in that box.
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It was like this black jacket, super cool, that I was wearing until I turned 16,
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I think. I understand when I received the shoebox that God was taking care of me in a particular way.
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He was putting his eyes on me. When I understood that, I just felt that I needed to give something back.
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So after I received my shoebox, I decided that I want to do something, but I was not a preacher back those days.
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I was 10. So the easy way was become a clown. So I was a clown.
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I used to do a lot of puppets and those kind of stuff, trying to just turn the gospel with the shoeboxes and all those things.
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When you understand that God could call anyone, but he decided to call you, it makes me feel like I need to do my greatest and just put all my energy as the people that were part of the party that I was in when
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I was 10. I want to be the same thing now. I want to give all my energy because you never know who around all of those children are becoming pastors, are becoming servants.
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We're not just giving gifts to the children. We are opening doors for them to understand that God has an entire life for them.
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God has a plan with every single children that is receiving this shoebox. Today, I have the privilege to be the senior pastor in the
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Hechos Pente Nueva Church in Embato, Ecuador. This simple shoebox gives me the chance to see my great father loves for me.
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That's the reason that all Sunday mornings I'm so excited to go to the church and share the gospel and preach.
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It gives me the chance to see that there are many people just like me that are in need, maybe just of a hug or just to hear that Jesus loves them.
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And now I'm able to do that because someone just heard God's voice and put a black jacket on my shoebox.
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Man, it's just so crazy that people are just so willing to give something from themselves. But that is
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God. It's God working through people for other people and for the ones that are packing shoeboxes.
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Man, thank you very much. You are doing a huge, huge work just hearing
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God's voice. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning and we know that you are a good and faithful and loving and holy, righteous and merciful
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God. And Lord, as we consider your graciousness towards us, giving your only begotten
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Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place and for our sake, to be raised from the dead, to die no more, to ascend to your right hand and reign there until all enemies have been placed as a footstool beneath his feet, we give you thanks.
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We give you thanks. You are deserving of all of our praise and every gift that you provide for us in this life.
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We see correctly and only rightly in the light of the gift you've given us in Christ.
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So today, as we've gathered together to praise you, to worship you, to hear a word from your word,
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Lord, I pray that you would do your work in us, that you would have your way among us, help us to truly worship you in the way that you deserve, in spirit and in truth.
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We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?
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I was really encouraged by that man in the video, just the joy that he was serving the Lord with. And so I would encourage all of us today, no matter which way you serve the
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Lord, serve him with joy and gladness in your heart. And anyway, let's read together.
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Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 48. We'll be reading verses 12 to 14.
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And the words are up above us. Read with me together. Walk about Zion.
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Go around her. Number her towers. Consider well her ramparts.
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Go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is
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God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.
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Our first song this morning is All Hail the Power of Jesus Name. Good morning.
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We'll be in Deuteronomy chapter 22, reading the first 12 verses.
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Deuteronomy chapter 22. You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and hide yourself from them.
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You shall certainly bring them back to your brother. And if your brother is not near you or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house and it shall remain with you until your brother seeks it.
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Then you shall restore it to him. You shall do the same with his donkey and so shall you do with his garments.
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With any lost thing of your brother's which he has lost and you have found, you shall do likewise.
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You must not hide yourself. You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fall down along the road and hide yourself from them.
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You shall surely help them lift them up again. A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the
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Lord your God. If a bird's nest happens to be before you along the way, if any tree or on the ground with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.
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You shall surely let the mother go and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
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When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt for bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it.
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You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
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You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.
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You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with which you cover yourself. Here we have the word of God.
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Would you please pray with me? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this day to come together to worship you.
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Thank you for the grace and mercy you shed upon us each day, and thank you most of all for the grace we find in Jesus Christ, and it's his name we pray.
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Amen. You may be seated. It's good to have our whole praise team here this morning, so I'm thankful to the
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Lord for that. We're going to continue our song service together in our little black hymnals,
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Hymns Modern Ancient. If you would, turn to two different numbers, first page 56 and then page 128.
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We'll sing, I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say, and then following that we'll sing Grace is
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Mine. I heard the voice of Jesus say, behold
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I freely give, the living water, thirsty and weary, and worn and sad.
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I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad. I came to Jesus and I drank, oh that relief stream.
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My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now
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I live in him. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
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I am his dark world's light. Look unto me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright.
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I looked to Jesus and I found, in him my star, my sun.
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And in that light of life I'll walk, and lovely days are done.
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Grace is mine. What grace is mine, that he who dwells in endless light, call through the night to find my distant soul.
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His God's poor mercy that would plead for me, is calling me across, and this darkest dark night is over.
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Well let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, I thank you for gathering us here today.
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Thank you for the day that you have made, and we rejoice and we are glad in it.
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We give you the praise for giving us your son
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Jesus Christ as our Savior, as our Sovereign. Thank you for answering our prayers this past week as we've walked day by day with you.
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We thank you that we can find our contentment in you, our satisfaction in you.
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And I pray today that as we look at your word, we would do so in submission to your truth, that we would go forth from this place as the amen on earth of your will that is in heaven.
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We pray these things looking to Christ, the only one with whom you are truly, thoroughly, everlastingly, well -pleased.
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In his name, amen. Open your
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Bibles please and turn with me to Psalm 112. Psalm 112.
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We are looking through Psalms 111 through 118.
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These Psalms teach us how to praise the
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Lord. The word hallelujah is the operative word throughout these
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Psalms. And we are taught in these compositions what
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God wants in praise, how he wants to be praised, what is it in him that we should find praiseworthy, why we ought to praise him.
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As those who have been made in the image of God, we are especially designed, especially designed for praise and worship.
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If we're not praising our maker by the grace of our Savior, we're not living.
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So we ought to be especially interested in this matter of everlasting importance, praising the
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Lord. As we look at Psalm 112, there are some similarities to Psalm 111.
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They are both alphabetical acrostics going through the whole alphabet of Hebrew.
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Both of them begin with the heading, hallelujah, praise the Lord, that stands above and outside of the acrostic.
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Everything that follows afterward is about praising the Lord. Where Psalm 111 talks about praising the works of God, Psalm 112 is about praising
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God for those who fear him, praising God for his works, praising
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God for his people, more specifically, praising God for the God -fearing man, praising
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God for the God -fearing man. If you're able, I invite you to stand with me as I read
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Psalm 112. Hear the word of the Lord. Praise the
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Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments.
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His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed.
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Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
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Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.
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It is well with the man who is gracious and lends. He will maintain his cause and judgment, for he will never be shaken.
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The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings.
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His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.
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He is given freely to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor.
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The wicked will see it and be vexed. He will gnash his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.
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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Well, you may have heard there's an election coming up, and the question that keeps pollsters and political agents up at night is this, what rubric are people using to make their decision, or whether they're going to vote at all?
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That's what everybody's wondering. And they're known to get those things wrong and to not understand what's going on.
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But what rubric are people using to make their decision? Is it just merely how much they hate the other side?
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Is it how much power or wealth that they stand to gain, they believe that they will achieve based on their vote?
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Is it a consideration of how much more evil one man is over the other by someone's preferred moral standard?
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Is that what it comes down to? Now, the fact of the matter is neither man is a
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God -fearing man. Not really. Neither one of them is a God -fearing man.
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That's obvious. But it's also true there was a difference between Claudius and Nero.
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And if I was voting, I'd vote for Claudius, not
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Nero who came after him. One is not as bad as the other, but it comes back to the point, how do you know?
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What is your moral standard? And by what are you informing your convictions? We are reminded again in this season that the religious capital of our ancestors has been largely spent.
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If we want to see bright days again, it will not come,
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I do not believe, as a flash in the pan revivalist excitement, though we would wish it would happen in our time frame.
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We would wish it would happen in our experience. We would wish it for those that we know and love and care about in the here and now.
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But the way that Christ built his church and the proof in history is that bright days come by the grace of repentance.
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Bright days come by the grace of repentance. Repentant husbands and repentant fathers and repentant wives and mothers and children, repentant churches bowing the knee to Christ rather than to paganism.
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It's only the grace of Christ's resurrection advancing through families and through churches and thus through communities and then to nations.
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It is only the work of Christ triumphing in his saints that will paint the streaks of dawn across our night.
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This means in this repentance, this means a return, a return to a culture defined by the
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God -fearing man. A culture defined by the
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God -fearing man, defined by Jesus Christ.
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And that's what Psalm 112 presents to us. The blessed culture of a
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God -fearing man. And when we think about the ways in which our culture praises the great men of our time, it all comes down to what they get things done that we like.
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The praises of the great men are all only about did they get something done.
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Pragmatism, right? Well, they got it done so they are great. It doesn't matter their moral character. It doesn't matter what they believe.
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Did they do something impressive? If they did, then they're one of the greats.
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Who cares what they believed? Who cares how they otherwise lived in their lifestyle? In contrast to that, we have
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Psalm 112 where the praise is not of men who can get things done, but the praise is to the
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Lord for God -fearing men.
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The focus of the praise, as you look through there in Psalm 112, what you see there is that there are praises being offered up to God for the
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God -fearing man. God gets the glory for the God -fearing man. For his grace -saturated, covenant -honoring character,
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God gets the glory. It's going to be vital for us to remember this heading of hallelujah here in verse 1 at the very, very beginning.
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It says, praise the Lord. And everything that comes after that is what? Well, it's praising the Lord. Praise the
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Lord for this. Praise the Lord for that. What are we going to praise the Lord for? We're going to praise the
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Lord for this. There is a stark difference. And we should praise the
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Lord for the portrait of excellence that is the God -fearing man. And we should praise the
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Lord for the trusting and steadfast heart of the God -fearing man.
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God gets all the glory for all of that grace. Everything about the
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God -fearing man exalts and magnifies the Lord, so praise the Lord. And everything about the
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God -fearing man that is good is understood as gracious blessings from the Lord as part of his covenant, so God gets all the credit.
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And thirdly, the ideal covenant -keeping God -fearer that we see here in Psalm 112, this is no theoretical prototype.
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The God -fearing man for whom we praise the Lord is none other than Jesus Christ. It's none other than Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he has done, we may become more like him and then we will know the praiseworthy blessings of this psalm in our own lives.
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At the heart of the message is this, that the God -fearing man will never be shaken.
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The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the
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Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear. At the heart of this portrait of a
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God -fearing man is a fearless man. Fearless is the
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God -fearing man and for that we praise the Lord. We say hallelujah. We begin with a contrast of a
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God -fearing man. If you have a handout, you can see on the back that there is a structure to Psalm 112.
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In addition to being an acrostic going through the alphabet, it is also a chiasm, which means it is a series of concentric poetic parallels which move inward to the main point.
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The main point I just read to you about the God -fearing man being fearless, but the outermost parallel frames the whole composition and tells us what we're talking about.
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Here's what we're learning about. We're learning about the blessedness of the God -fearer.
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Hey, look at this person who fears God. Look how blessed they are. Praise God for how blessed the
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God -fearer is. That's the whole theme of the Psalm. We must confess the goodness and the glory of God in this matter.
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Now, that's what verse 1 tells us. We're going to learn about the God -fearer, how blessed they are, so praise the Lord. And then the last verse stands as an exclamation point, a contrast that only emphasizes the first verse.
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It's a reminder that the God -fearer is not without trouble. The one who fears God is not without danger.
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The one who fears God is not without enemies in his life. But while he, the
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God -fearer, triumphs like forged steel in a burning world, the wicked melts away without hope.
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That's the contrast we need to look at this morning, a contrast for which we ought to offer praise to the
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Lord in agreement with the psalmist here. So first of all, the God -fearer is blessed, verse 1.
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Praise the Lord, how blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments.
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So this man is blessed. How blessed? We'll see next week. I'll come back next week. Or just read it for yourself.
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There in verses 2 through 9, just read how blessed the God -fearer is.
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Amazingly blessed. But in verse 1, we are told why he is blessed.
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All the blessings are amazing, but why is this God -fearer so blessed? Because he fears the
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Lord. At the end of Psalm 111, we are told that the fear of the
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Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. Similarly, though in a more personal and intensified way, we have the first verse here in Psalm 112, and we see that this wisdom -saturated man, this commandment -loving man, this
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God -fearing man is blessed. And as we consider this man, as we see glory where we find grace, we are to join with the psalmist and say, hallelujah.
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We say, praise the Lord. Praise be to God. First of all, who does the man revere?
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Who does the man fear? Well, that's obvious. He fears the Lord. Now, the
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Jewish children learning this psalm, going through their alphabet, the choir of the
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Levites who practiced it to sing it for the children, the congregation of Israel when they had occasion to sing it together, either around the tabernacle or maybe as they were bored and marching to war, whenever they're singing this psalm together, they are being focused upon the
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Lord. They are compelled to fix their attention upon the Lord. Praise the
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Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Baal was not the fountain of wisdom.
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Asherah was not the pillar of truth. Chemosh was not the stream of blessing.
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The Lord was to be feared, not the nations with their iron chariots, their many horses and their kings and their gods.
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The Lord was to be feared. The God -fearer need fear none else besides.
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The man who fears the Lord is a man who knows that the Lord his God, he is
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God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant and his lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love him and keep his commandments.
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That's what the God -fearer knows. The Lord Yahweh, the one true
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God revealed by Jesus Christ through the scriptures, he is the one who is to be feared.
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But what does that mean? What does it mean to fear the Lord? We have a difficult time understanding that.
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And one of the reasons we have a difficult time understanding what it means to fear the Lord is that we live in a world that has an allergy to something called reverence.
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And if you're allergic to reverence, then you're going to have a real hard time even understanding, let alone appreciating, fearing
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God. But let's start with reverence because we still have a few connections to reverence still yet in our day.
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Funerals used to be reverent. Some still are. Churches used to be reverent.
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Some still are. But think about how reverence works in the context of a funeral or in the context of going to church.
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It impacts everything, doesn't it? Reverence impacts everything from your choice of clothing, to the volume level of your voice, to the speed of your walk, to the topics of your conversation.
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I mean, there were certain things in the name of reverence that you wore or you did in certain ways that you acted and spoke at funerals or at church.
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And today we understand those things as what? That's called what now?
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It's called tradition, right? It's called tradition now. And what good is tradition for tradition's sake?
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Well, not much. Not much. And acting out reverence without any true reverence in the heart, well, that's no good either, is it?
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But while we think of yesteryear and we think of the time that all those traditions and everything else, now we're all wondering where the fear of God has gotten to.
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Where did the fear of God go? Well, it wasn't bound up with the traditions.
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It wasn't bound up in the semblance of fear and reverence.
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But now that the traditions are all gone, it's, I think, even more clear that the fear of God is largely gone as well.
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It just made it more clear. So it's not simply traditions.
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It's not simply the activities that were once associated with reverence and once associated with the fear of God, though that's a helpful understanding because fear impacts everything.
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Reverence adjusted everything we did when we went to church, when we went to the funeral home. But fear is like that in that fear is not easily contained.
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Fear is not an easily contained emotion. Think about how fear works. It takes over mind and mouth.
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It takes over expression. It takes over behavior, doesn't it? Folks observe the impact of fear.
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It manifests in fight, flight, or freeze. When you're really afraid, you're caught off guard and you're super scared, you might go into fight mode and attack whatever scared you, or you may run away, or you may just freeze and you can't move.
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But in any one of those cases, what is it about fear that makes it significant? It is just taking over everything, isn't it?
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It just takes over your thinking, takes over your behavior. So when the scriptures speak of the fear of the
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Lord, God is selecting a human emotion that is very effective in describing what he wants from his worshipers, what he wants from his children in terms of honor and respecting him and revering him.
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The fear of the Lord in the scriptures is always something good. It is never something that is involved with torture.
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It is evidenced by the wise. It is evident in the life of the believer.
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It is the fruit of a Christian, but it is nonetheless fear, which means it's comprehensive.
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Fear takes over a life. That's what fear does.
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It takes over a life. It's difficult, isn't it, to understand the fear of the
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Lord? As I said, it's because we have so little reverence in our day, but we do still have reverence. There is still a religious kind of fear that is evident in one way or another.
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The closest spiritual expression to the fear of the
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Lord that we have currently in our culture, I think the most accessible that we have in our culture, is the fear of COVID.
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Think about it. Everything from the election to the protests, from sports to the economy, is related to, dependent on, and fundamentally altered by the dominion of COVID.
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Not the disease. I'm not talking about the disease. The disease is a thing, and take your precautions as your convictions demand.
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I'm talking about the dominion of COVID, not the disease. To the degree that we fear
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COVID is the degree to which we delight in COVID statutes and mandates. Have you noticed?
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The dominion of COVID, not the disease, but I'm saying the dominion of COVID is like all other idols.
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It is the work of men's hands and men's imaginations, and does not deserve our reverence.
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It's a good, helpful illustration to the degree that you fear COVID that makes all these other things different about your life, doesn't it?
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And that's not unique to COVID, okay? To the degree we fear death, all of a sudden makes all these different impacts, and we change the way we do all these different things based on how we fear death.
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How we fear man will make comprehensive, exhaustive changes to our lives based on how we fear man.
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But God alone is to be feared. And when man fears the Lord, when someone fears
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God, it takes over a life. That's how fear works. The man who fears the
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Lord is the man whose marriage and family, his prayers and passions, his successes and failures, his business affairs, his bodily exercise, his car repairs, his responsibilities as a citizen, all of it is related to, depended on, and fundamentally altered by the
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Lord. Nothing can be done without praise to God, prayers to God, pondering
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God. That's what it is to fear the Lord. Fear takes over our life.
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Everything done and thought and said is done so in relation to the one whom you fear.
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This is the kind of man that God blesses. We see the thoroughgoing nature of God's blessings upon and through the
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God -fearing man in the rest of the psalm. You see how the man is ascendant. He has integrity. He has generosity.
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He has victory. He has faith. But all these things are soaked with God's grace and dripping with God's glory.
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And that's why, when beholding the God -fearing man, the worshipers of God say, hallelujah, praise the
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Lord. Look what God did in that person's life. Now, what do you think about that kind of man?
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What do you think about that kind of man, the God -fearing man? Would you respect such a man?
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Would you celebrate such a man? What if he were your neighbor? Would you make a really great neighbor?
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I would think so. I would love to have a God -fearing man as my neighbor. What if he were your mayor?
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What if the God -fearing man described in Psalm 112 was the mayor of your town, mayor of your city?
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I'd be praising the Lord a lot. What if he were your father? What kind of home would you come up in?
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Imagine the blessed impact of a God -fearing man in all areas of life. Is that the kind of person you want to be?
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A God -fearing person submitting to God in all areas and thus blessed by God in all areas.
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You see, this is exactly what was being aimed at with the use of Psalm 112 in the original audience.
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Why are they teaching it to children, the alphabetical acrostic? Why are they teaching this to children? Why are they singing it together as congregations of believing
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Israelites? Why are they doing that? Because here is a vision of culture.
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This is what the culture should look like, oh little Israelite children. This is how you should grow up and this is what you should desire.
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This is what your society should look like, oh Israelite children, oh worshipers of God. Culture is religion externalized.
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Culture is downstream from religion, downstream from what we worship, who we worship, how we fear.
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If you fear man, thus goes the culture. If you fear death, thus goes the culture.
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If you fear God, thus goes the culture. And so here is a vision of an ideal kind of man, something to desire a neighbor to have, a mayor to have, a father to have, your own personal ambition to be a
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God -fearing person. But this psalm is doing more than simply crafting an ideal or a guiding light for developing culture.
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It is a prophetic anticipation of Jesus Christ. The blessed stalwart
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God -fearing man is none other than our Savior. If you really want to know what it looks like to fear the
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Lord, then just look at Jesus Christ. If you want to see what a blessed man who fears the
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Lord looks like, look at Jesus Christ. All we have to do is consider the ways and the character of our
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Savior. He refused the devil and rebuked the Pharisees and retrained his disciples and regaled the masses all with his absolute commitment to the
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Word of God. He was incessantly bringing everybody's attention back to the
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Word of God. That's how you know he feared the Lord. That's what Jesus did, how he revered his
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Father. Everything from politics to farming, from cultural divides to sickness and sorrow,
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Jesus related all of it to the Word, the will of his Father. And when we consider
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Christ as the God -fearing man, what do we say? Hallelujah. Praise the
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Lord. The God -fearing man has been given to us, and we see him as we follow him.
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That grace, that blessing is made evident in his people. Now, who the man reveres is obviously the
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Lord. What does the man relish? What does the man desire? It says, verse 1, how blessed is the man who fears the
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Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. And when we consider that the God -fearing man is the one who greatly delights in God's commandments, we say, hallelujah, praise the
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Lord. Consider the God -fearing man. He is inclined towards God's commandments.
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His will is bent toward them. He is pleased with their justice and wisdom.
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He desires to know the ins and the outs of God's commandments. He likes them.
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He moves with them, and he would readily do them. That's what it means when it says that he delights.
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But it's not a slight inclination. It's a sharp inclination. He greatly delights in his commandments.
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This is not a mere hobby. This is a consuming passion. He is diligent in the application of them.
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He is speedy in his obedience to them. He is exceedingly passionate about their meaning.
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As fire sucks in air, so the God -fearer takes in God's word,
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God's law, God's commandments. When it comes to God's commandments, the
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God -fearer is quite simply the biggest nerd. He knows all about them.
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He knows how they all connect, and he can't wait to explain it to you. But he greatly delights in the commandments of the
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Lord. You see this at the end of Psalm 111, where the fear of God and the obedience to God's law are laid in parallel.
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So also here at the beginning of Psalm 112. Now, the fear of the Lord and the love of his commandments aren't exactly synonymous, but they are thoroughly symbiotic.
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They go together. Jesus did not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God.
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That type of passion for God's instructions, God's statutes, God's case laws, God's commandments was to be the hallmark of the true
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Israelite. What a situation Israel found themselves in when Moses had died and leadership had been passed to Joshua.
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What will happen now? The Lord came to Joshua, Joshua chapter 1 verse 7, and he said this, only be strong and very courageous.
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Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go.
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And that message was essentially the preaching of the prophets to the people. They're preaching to the priests and to the kings of Israel throughout her history.
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It's worth asking, why is there apparently such a passionate delight in the commandments of the
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Lord? Is there genuinely that much capacity for joy and pleasure in learning and following rules?
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But you see, law keeping was never to be isolated from God fearing. And in fact, the law keeping was to flow from the
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God fearing. Without there being a true reverence and worship and solemn but praising love of God, without there being the fear of God, the desire for God in all areas of life, without that being there prior, then all of the rule keeping was just that.
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It really was about relationship, not regulation. But that's what the man fearing Pharisees missed entirely while Jesus was so hard on them.
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Jesus wasn't against rules, he had plenty. He was against the lack of the fear of the
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Lord. We can't miss that about our relationship with God. Are we in a covenant relationship with God through Christ?
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Are we born again? Are we saved? Then hallelujah. Praise God. Do we in that born again state desire to do
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God's will? Has he written his law upon our hearts so we have a desire to follow Christ and do what
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God commands us to do? If so, then hallelujah. That's the grace of God. We give him the praise for that.
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God gets the glory for the work of Christ being wrought out in us as he saves us and sanctifies us.
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We see that Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who trusts in him.
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That means that our standing with God is entirely based upon Christ's work alone. And yet, the dynamic of relationship and obedience to the
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Lord has not been thereby erased.
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Consider the words of Christ. Luke 6 46, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what
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I say? The answer is you do not fear the Lord. That's why.
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John 14 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Right?
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Out of the relationship you have with God comes the fruit of that love, that relationship.
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First John 3 2 through 4, beloved now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
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We know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.
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Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness and sin is lawlessness.
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What is sin? It is lawlessness. Sin means I don't have to conform to God's character expressed in his law.
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I don't have to conform to God's character revealed in Jesus Christ. That's what sin is.
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I don't have to conform to God. I make up my own standards. And this is an important point because as we look through Psalm 112, we think about the blessings that the man who fears the
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Lord enjoys. We have to keep that in mind that the God -fearer is the covenant keeper.
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Because the man loves and worships and reveres God, he delights to do all that God has commanded.
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And thus as a covenant keeper, he is greatly blessed. That's the arrangement
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God made with Israel. Keep my commandments and I'll bless you. Fear me and I'll bless you. Well, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this ideal here in Psalm 112.
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We understand from scripture that all of the covenant promises and all the covenant blessings are found in him.
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Because he is the God -fearing man who keeps all of the commandments and thus all the blessings and promises are his.
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So as we abide in him, as we obey him and fear him, as we love him, we experience without fear the blessings he has won in his death and resurrection for us.
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This is what the man receives, the Lord's covenantal blessings. How blessed is the man who fears the
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Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. The little children learning their alphabet through Psalm 112 are being told what?
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Fear God. Be blessed. Fear God. Be blessed. What are they hearing?
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If they would be God -fearers, they would be God -favored. And that's, as you have the time, read
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Deuteronomy 6, 1 through 9, in which we have the Shema, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the
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Lord is one, him only shall you serve. This is part of the remedial education every family was to provide for their children, that you would speak of the commandments of God as you went out and came in, as you laid down, as you get up, that you would write it on the doorpost of the house and put it everywhere.
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That you would fear the Lord by keeping his commandments and thus we will be blessed. Same with Deuteronomy 28, verses 1 through 9, as the beginning of all the blessings that God has upon his covenant -keeping people.
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It says, if you will keep my commandments, if you will fear me, he specifically says, if you will fear me and keep my commandments, here's all the blessings.
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And he says, it will be in the context of all the nations will see how blessed you are, as you fear me.
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So God taught this pattern to Israel and through Israel to the world.
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So when Christ, the true Israelite, stands in for all the people of God in the new covenant, keeping all the commandments of God, all the promises of God are yes in him, and all the blessings of God are found in him, what is there for us to do but to behold the most blessed
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God, the most blessed God -fearing man who greatly delights in the commandments of the
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Lord. What are we then to do except say, hallelujah, look at him, the most blessed man.
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He has all the blessings of God. He's won them all in his perfections and his righteousness.
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And then we abide in Christ, fear the Lord, share in his blessings. This is the promise that we're going to explore more in the rest of the verses.
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But finally, in verse one, in verse one, why should we praise the
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Lord? Because of how blessed the man is who fears the
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Lord. Why should we praise the Lord? Because this God -fearing blessed man greatly delights in the commandments of the
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Lord. The only way that even begins to make sense, praising
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God for what's going on in this man, the only way that makes sense is if we rightly apply the doctrine of grace.
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The transformed state of this blessed man reveals God as gracious, and the
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Lord gets all the glory for that grace. And as a man's life is captivated by God, transformed by the
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Word of God, that man reveals who God is. As the image of God is renewed in us, who is being displayed?
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The Lord gets all the glory for that. The righteous authority, the compassionate generosity, the fearless victory rolling off of the
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God -fearer indicates just what kind of God we revere. After all, we become like that which we worship.
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We become like that which we worship. And the character of God revealed in the law is made manifest in the lives of those who delight in God.
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Supremely, we see that in Jesus Christ, do we not? He is the image of the invisible
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God. He is the exact imprint of His nature. No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten
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God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. The Word became flesh, and He reveals
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God, and so He directs the worship of God. So when we behold the blessed,
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God -fearing, commandment -loving man, and praise the
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Lord revealed by such a man, what are we doing but beholding Christ and praising the
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Lord? And then additionally, behold those whom Christ has raised from spiritual death, who is filled with His Holy Spirit, so that when we look at a church that fears
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God, we praise God. We praise the Lord for Him being revealed among His people.
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Now, lastly, look at verse 10 with me, because the contrast is the concluding exclamation point on this whole matter in verse 10.
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To hear the contrast, I'll read verse 1 again, and then verse 10. Praise the
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Lord, how blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. The wicked will see it and be vexed.
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He will gnash his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish. After 19 stanzas of alphabetically arranged praise to the
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Lord for the blessed, stalwart state of the God -fearer, Psalm 112 concludes with three stanzas of contrast.
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And with this brief rundown of the wicked man's demise, the psalmist concludes with a resounding exclamation point.
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The contrast is complete. Look here at the wicked man.
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He is in hateful opposition to the God -fearer. We see that. The wicked man resents the blessings that are upon the righteous, and the wicked man loathes the commandments of God.
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What of his vexation, his diminishment, his damnation? This, all describing the wicked man, this is presented to the children learning their alphabet.
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They're learning their letters, and they're learning that they should fear
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God and give praise to God for His grace, that they are not thus doomed.
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They fear the Lord. And why should we be afraid of those who are vexed and gnash their teeth and melt away, whose desires will perish?
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Why should we be afraid of the wicked? All the wicked have gone this way, jealous
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Cain, pompous Pharaoh, envious Balak, the hateful kings of Canaan, the likes of Ahab, Nebuchadnezzar, and Haman.
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They are all but a vapor in the wind, a brief flash in the pan, and their smoke is soon dissipated.
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And all who have ever raged against Christ fall subject to these same three stanzas of judgment.
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The wicked man looks at the God -fearing man in his ascendancy, in his integrity, in his free generosity, in his victory, in his unshakable stalwart faith, and his blood pressure goes to the roof.
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He can feel his heart beating in his eyes. He envies the character, the name, the liberty, the success, and the confidence of the
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God -fearing man. But oh, how he loathes the God whose commandments expose his heart as morally wrong, his soul as guilty and condemned.
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The wicked man sees the blessed state of the God -fearing man and he rages against him.
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What do you think was going on at the trial of Jesus Christ? There was
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God's man and the wicked foaming at the mouth, gnashing their teeth, and spewing hatred. Why?
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Because of his example. I mean, just the present obvious existence, just the existence of a blessed, godly man is enough to function as a condemnation of those who oppose the
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Creator. That's why there's no neutrality. There's no neutrality.
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As the wicked behold the happiness of the godly, they feel the weight of the eternal misery. May God use it to bring repentance.
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You see, look at this description again. In this life, it says, the wicked will see it and be vexed.
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He will gnash his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish. Vexation, gnashing of teeth, perishing, what does that sound like?
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These are the descriptors that Jesus Christ used to teach on hell. There's a lot of rage going on for various reasons, but when we see people raging against the
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God -fearer, raging against the blessedness of God -fearers, when you see that, know that this person is in danger of hellfire.
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They already have hell in their hearts, and they'll have it forever unless they repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for their salvation.
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And you need to pray for someone full of this rage who are gnashing their teeth. They need to be born again.
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They need a new heart like Saul of Tarsus got. What will happen to the wicked man and all of his plans?
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Spurgeon writes, the heat of his passion shall melt him like wax, and the
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Son of God's providence shall dissolve him like snow. And at the last, the fire of divine vengeance shall consume him as the fat of rams.
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How horrible must that life be, which like the snail melts as it proceeds, leaving a slimy trail behind.
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The wicked man's desire is not at all toward the commandment of God. The wicked man eats daily from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, determining right and wrong for himself, driven along by the fear of man or the fear of death.
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The fear of man, which is inane, and the fear of death, which is insane. But whatever his desire is, as it changes often, it opposes
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God, and it will not be achieved, is the promise here in Psalm 112.
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When the wicked man dies, there may be pomp and circumstance and a choir singing his praises, many liars lining up to induct him to the hall of the saints, but the charade will not be honored by heaven.
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The wicked man will see the victory of the righteous and gnash his teeth in rage.
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Spurgeon again says, while the righteous shall endure forever and their memory shall always be green, the ungodly man and his name will rot from the face of the earth.
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This is the point of the contrast, verses 1 and verse 10. The contrast of the portion of the
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God -fearer and then the portion of the wicked. What's the difference between what the
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God -fearer receives and what the wicked receive? The difference is spelled out by faith alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone, and for that, the glory of God alone.
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And that's why we say hallelujah. The contrast we're looking at in Psalm 112 is also in the first Psalm, and I'll conclude by reading that for us,
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Psalm 1. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the
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Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.
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In whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
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Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, for the
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Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
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Praise be to God. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word. What a joy it is to have a clear and eternal right on the money word for everything that goes on in our life.
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Thank you for the truth of your scriptures. Help us to lean into your word and desire it and feed on it.
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May you be praised in our lives. We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Local assembly here at Sunnyside and a part of that is just appreciation for music to worship the
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Lord. And I got an appreciation for that, my upbringing.
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I thank you and just want to share. Music is such a wonderful thing to express back worship and praise to the
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Lord. It could be great hymns of the faith. I think how great thou art.
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Holy, holy, holy victory in Jesus. Amazing grace on Christ's solid rock firm health, firm a foundation, always wonderful hymns.
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Also new hymn writers. I think twilight Paris. We have, we will glorify.
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We have the Gettys and Stuart Townsend. We have cross the lands. Let the earth resound.
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Christ is risen. Indeed. These wonderful songs of faith. And so as we close there, we're going to have a song from Bob Coughlin.
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When I think of him, I think of him playing, playing on the piano, show us Christ. We say, and, uh, but today let me read to some words before we sing this song from Bob Coughlin.
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Oh, great God of highest heaven, occupy my lowly heart, own it all and reign supreme.
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I was blinded by my sin, had no ears to hear your voice. Then your spirit gave me life, opened up your word to me through the gospel of your son, gave me endless hope and peace.
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You are worthy to be praised with my every thought. Indeed.
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Oh, great God of highest heaven, glorify your name through me.
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Stand if you would with me and let's sing to the Lord. Oh, great God. Oh, great
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God of highest heaven, occupy my lowly heart, own it all and reign supreme.
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So sin remain, let me cease your holy war.
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You have loved and purchased me, make me yours for heaven.
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Oh, great God of highest heaven, glorify your name through me. Stand if you would with me and let's sing to the Lord. I did not know your love within, had no taste for heaven's joys.
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Then your spirit gave me life, opened up your word to me through the gospel of your son.
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Gave me endless hope and peace.
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Help me now to live a life
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That's dependent on Your grace.
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Heal my heart and guard my soul
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From the evils that I face.
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You are worthy to be praised
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With my every thought and deed.
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O great God of highest heaven,
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Glorify Your name through me.