If you would, let's go back to Psalm 5. Psalm 5. I appreciate all of our musicians and those that lead the singing and really kind of keep that off of me. I'm sure you appreciate that too. But I know it's difficult to get up here and do those psalms because they are new. And most of them are monotone. Some of them are very repetitive, but I've really enjoyed a lot of the ones we've learned so far, especially Psalm 3. We all do that sometime just to do it. But, you know, when you hear Psalm 5, like what we just sang, it sounds pretty harsh, doesn't it? I mean, really, it's a prayer really to destroy the enemies of God, and people struggle with that. We're going to look at that this morning, but just to remind you of the background, the book of Psalms is 150 individual songs. They're not chapters. And just like we sang that song from the hymn book this morning, this is what the Jews did with these psalms. They were psalms. In fact, many of the psalms have instructions to the musicians in the beginning of it. And the psalms are divided into five books or five scrolls. and each book has its own unique theme. Book 1 is Psalm 1 through 41, and the theme is human suffering and the need for divine deliverance. We're going to see that in virtually every psalm in this first book here. We see it again in Psalm 5. We looked at it last week. And so, we looked at the holiness of God last week most specifically, that God is separate. He is above us. He is wholly separated from sin. And today, with that thought in mind, we're going to look at the justice and mercy of God because you really can't separate those things. And so let's read this Psalm of David here, Psalm 5, with special focus on the last half. Psalm 5 verse 1, give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God. For unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before my face, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher," or an open grave is what that means. They flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee, for thou, Lord, will bless the righteous with favor without compassion with a shield. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you for all those that have come this morning. Thank you for our visitors being here. I pray that you will bless them in a special way. Lord, I pray that you just enter me as sin himself. Fill me your Holy Spirit. Just make preaching powerful and clear. And I pray that you would just examine our hearts today to see where we are with you. I pray if there's some that are lost, even those that are listening online, I pray that you would save them, draw them into saving faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that Christ would be the only one magnified here, and that, Lord, your word would go forth. And we'll thank you and praise you for it. In Christ's name, I pray you sing, amen. So, I want to start by just prefacing a few things in the introduction. But, you know, ultimately, the Bible is not about us. It's not about us, it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about God. And I know that, I think there's so many, even pastors in churches that maybe preach it this way, but they preach it kind of along the lines of maybe some type of self-help or, you know, overcoming our challenges or, you know, and certainly it's got those types of good things in there, but that's not really what it's about. That would be like taking the cherry off of the sundae and saying that we've read the Bible, we've preached the Bible, you missed the whole sundae. It's about God. It's all about God. And specifically in this text I mentioned last week, that when you see the word LORD in all caps, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, in our English translation, that is a translation of the covenant name of God, Yahweh. And it's often thought that Yahweh only applies to God the Father, but it also sometimes He talks about God the Son, and that's the case in this text because it calls Him both God and King. That's true of Jesus Christ. He is the only King that is also God. And when we read the Bible, we should read it from the perspective of trying to know who God is on a deeper, more personal level. And I just want to warn you against something that we're all capable of doing. And that is kind of having a narcissistic view of Scripture, where when we read it, we kind of insert ourselves into the story as being the hero. You know, we can be the giant slayer. We can be the one that slings our stone. You know, we're not the scared Israelites over there worrying we're going to die. We're the champion. No, God, Jesus Christ is the giant slayer. He's the king. He's the hero. He's the protagonist. And so, but if we're not careful, we'll read the Bible and read ourselves and, well, I can slay my giants today. You might miss. You probably will miss. Well, you got more stones. Well, you'll miss them too. It's all about the Lord. And so, If we're not careful, we can have a narcissistic way of looking. Isn't it a sad indicator of the human heart that we can read the book that reveals God, we can read the book that God inspired and gave us, it's about Him, and read it and actually think it's about us? Isn't that sad? But sometimes, when we come across text like this one, it makes God seem harsh. Or, you know, some people maybe want to push it aside or sugarcoat it because it doesn't match up with their idea of what God is supposed to be like. Again, we don't get to choose who God is and what He's like. We can either submit to who He is and worship Him for who He is, or we can try to create a God that matches our idea of who should be. And in fact, that's no God at all. That's just an idol that we have conjured up. We don't get to do that. So what we have to do is we have to get in the text and see what it actually means and what it's talking about. But I'll say this, I said this last week and I'll say it again, I'm glad that God isn't like us. I'm certainly glad that God isn't like me and I'm glad Leah wasn't sitting here because I would have got a hearty amen from that one. Let me say this, this text really highlights the holiness of God, the justice of God, the wrath of God against sin and against sinners. And so it is a good thing in the sense that, listen, if God is corrupt, we have no hope. If God is a liar, we can't trust Him and therefore we have no hope. If God can be bribed, we have no hope today. If God only cared about money or if He was greedy, we would have no hope. If He was unjust, we would have no hope. If He was unloving or uncaring or uncompassionate, we would have no hope. So on the onset, let me say, aren't you glad that God is just and He's also merciful? Let's not try to change God to be more like us. Can you imagine, let me just kind of frame it this way before we get into the text. Can you imagine living in a world and in a society with no laws at all? No judicial system, no court system, no prisons, no law enforcement, no punishment for evildoers. Can you imagine living in a society like that? It would literally be survival of the fittest. Only the strong are going to survive in that situation. They're going to exploit and control everybody else. Aren't you glad we don't live in a society like that? You know why we don't live in a society like that? Because we understand the concept of justice. Because even men in his fallen state, men and women in their fallen state, they're not so marred that they've lost that part of being created in the image of God. We understand justice. and we don't want to live in a society that's unjust. Well, that can only be true if God is just. So I'm thankful that God is just. And most of the time, I would say that when people see God as being harsh, it's because they have a very light view of sin. Many times in this situation, they view God's mercy as holding... God's justice as holding His mercy hostage. However, without a view of God's justice, His mercy doesn't even begin to make sense. I want to read a quote to you by Gerald Wilson. It's just a short paragraph. It was so good though. Gerald Wilson said, Yahweh's holiness has two sides. Not only is it incompatible with evil, demonstrated by His rejection of evil and judgment of the evildoer, it is also characterized by His relentless goodness toward His creation and those humans who live in it. By relentless goodness, I mean that from the beginning, God's only intent was and still is to bless His creation. Judgment and mercy, therefore, are not two competing characteristics of Yahweh, but are two inseparable consequences of His holiness. Relentless goodness is the flip side of incompatibility with evil. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. God's holiness offers sinful humanity. both its greatest problem and its greatest hope, because a holy God cannot wink at sin or turn a blind eye to it. Sinful humans find themselves under His judgment and in need of salvation and reconciliation. And so it's not that His goodness and His justice are at odds. They complement each other perfectly. And I said this last week, you cannot have true love without justice because injustice is unloving and we wouldn't want to live in a society like that. And so I'm glad He's just. And so our view of God typically comes from who we are and where we are in our life. Now think about this. The righteous love, righteous judges, and righteous rulers. Who are the only ones that don't like righteous leaders and righteous rulers and righteous judges? Well, it's the unrighteous, isn't it? So it all depends on who you are, I guess, and how you look at things. And that's really what this contrast is about in this prayer at the end of Psalm 5. The psalmist makes an appeal to both the justice and the mercy of God. And so when we see psalms like this, and texts like this, and even prayers like this, for the enemies of God to be destroyed, what are we to do with that? How are we to view that? How are we to view the justice and mercy of God? That's what I want to look at this morning. How are we to view the justice and mercy of God? Well, number one, and I've got a few things this morning I'll be done. Number one, we should desire, when it comes to the justice and mercy of God, we should desire, number one, that the sovereign should be vindicated, that God should be vindicated through His justice. Look at verse 8. David says, lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before my face, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulchre, an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Listen to this language here in verse 10. Destroy thou them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions for they have rebelled against thee." So David describes in sad detail these people and they're not good people. David's response in verse 10 is, destroy them, O God. And it can also be translated, let them bear their guilt. That's how the psalm that we sang, that line was in there, let them bear their guilt, O God. And so in other words, God, give them what they deserve. But here's what we have to get about this statement. And that is that this statement is not motivated by revenge or a personal vendetta. The whole key to this in verse 10, look at the last, very last line of verse 10. For they have rebelled against thee. That is the problem. that the psalmist has with this. You know, so many times when we get upset about another person's sin, it's usually because it's offended us, right? They have done us wrong, and we're so anxious to rise up and defend self. That's not what the psalmist is doing. He's defending God. God, they have rebelled against you. They've broken your law. They've blasphemed against you. They have cursed you. Give them what justice demands. Give them what they deserve. Is that an unrighteous prayer? Is that an unholy prayer? I don't think it is. Everybody gets upset when they're done wrong. Somebody commits injustices against us. It's just a natural reaction. But we should be offended because people sin against God and they rebel against God. Now think about this. As God's children, that ought to be our just gut reaction to sin being paraded in our society. They are rebelling against God and they are spitting in God's face. I mean, just to give you a few obvious examples in our day. When I see any kind of sexual sin glamorized and glorified and celebrated, that bothers me. Certainly we see it within the LGBT and that community, and again, adultery is sin. Fornication is sin. God made sex to be between a married man and woman. Period, paragraph, the end. But when we see that paraded like it's a good thing and God's celebrating that and somehow God is sitting on the front porch of heaven applauding that, that is absolute nonsense. They did not get that God from the Bible. They got it from their own lust is what they did. That grieves me. I'm not mad because they sinned against me. I said, man, y'all are spitting in God's face. What are you doing? I think about it whenever I'm at a store somewhere, maybe pulled up at the red light with somebody blaring music that glorifies the things that God hates. They are celebrating a sinful lifestyle. Or think about it when it comes to abortion. I'm sure that many of you saw the images this week that Ohio passed a law that again legalizes abortion in the state of Ohio. They were celebrating and hugging each other in the streets and crying because they have now been given their right to murder their child. What in the world is wrong with us? They're spitting in God's face, and they better be glad He's merciful. God help us all. We see it not only in situations like that, but we see it in the garbage that comes out of Hollywood, cursing God and giving Him the middle finger. These things ought to grieve us because they grieve God. And when I hear people say things like, well, you know, I'm a Christian and I've got my own personal views, but you know, they're not hurting anybody and it's their life and it doesn't hurt me. There's no way that person's a Christian. I don't say that much. There's no way a saved person is okay with things that blatantly offend God. That's very problematic. The psalmist was grieved by that. We ought to be grieved by the sin that grieves God. But let me say this. Don't confuse my passion for arrogance here. Because before we get on a high horse, we need to understand that this should be the immediate reaction for our own sin as well. Our sin ought to grieve us because it grieves God. And as Christians, The greatest concern over our sin shouldn't be the consequences. It should be the fact that we have offended God. When it comes to our reaction to God's justice, we ought to desire that God would be vindicated by His justice. You do realize that God will be glorified in the judgment of sinners. Listen, He's glorified by the salvation of sinners. but He'll be glorified in the judgment and the justice of sinners. Now, you say, well, how's that? Because one day, the Lord is going to judge this world in righteousness, and listen to me, not one sin will go unpunished. Not one. In all the thousands of years of human history from Adam to present day until the judgment day, not one sin will go unpunished. Every sin ever committed is going to be judged before the great white throne of God. Every secret act of rape will be punished. Every unsolved murder where the murderer thought they got away with it. Every lie that they thought they got away with. Every act of thievery. Every injustice will be brought to justice. Why would anybody be upset about that? I'll tell you who'd be upset about it. Rapists, murderers, and liars. That's who. Does that bother you to hear that? That God's going to judge the world in righteousness? God is going to make everything right? Is that not good news? That God is going to make everything right? That He's going to take that which is crooked and make it straight? He's going to take that which was done in darkness and bring it into the light? He's going to take the lies and expose them in the light of the truth? How is that not a good thing? How is that not good? The only ones that will be upset by that news are the villains. I mean, think about it. How many superhero movies have come out in the last ten years that just crushed it at the box office? Because people love a good story where those that were victims of injustice are saved by the hero that comes along and brings justice. Well, I've got news for you. He's coming back and he's bringing justice with him. And the only people that will be upset about that are the villains. We should rejoice in the vindication of God. I'll say this, if you're on the wrong side, you ought to be worried about it. But if you're not, it's a great truth, it really is. But this brings me to my second point. When we think about the justice and mercy of God, we should desire that God be vindicated. But number two, when we think about the justice and mercy of God, we should desire that sinners should be emancipated. Look at verse 11. I love this conjunction here, verse 11. There's a total shift in the text here. He says, but let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. And so listen, anyone paying attention to this list of trespasses in verse 9 and 10 should realize that's not just somebody you saw on the news. That's not just somebody who had their mug shot posted up online on the Sheriff's website. Anybody paying attention should read this list and said, hey, that's me. I've been unfaithful to God. I've told lies. I've transgressed the law of God. I have rebelled against the Lord. That's me. He's going to destroy me. Nobody can ever be saved until they come to a realization that they're lost. That's just the case. You won't even seek the right cure if you get the diagnosis wrong. And the diagnosis, according to God, is that people outside of the grace of Christ, people outside of salvation in Christ by grace through faith, you're lost. You're undone. You're under the wrath of God. That's what it says. And anyone paying attention look at this and say, hey, I'm guilty. That's me. That's not just somebody else. This is why before we go on a witch hunt, we need to examine ourselves and realize without the grace of God, we would be in the same boat. Christians have absolutely no reason at all to look down their nose at sinners. None. Because the only difference between us and those that are in hell is a five-letter word called grace. That's it. And so before we get too gung-ho in cheering on the destruction of the wicked, we better make sure we're on the right side. And even when we are on the right side, we still ought not to get arrogant about it because if it wasn't for the grace of God, we'd still be on that side. I think about, I know this is somewhat comical, but I think it's a great illustration of what I'm talking about. There was a Snickers commercial. It's probably been 15 years ago that commercial was on TV, and I just happened to think about it. But in the commercial, these Roman soldiers are having a meeting, and their centurion is giving them this big speech about how they're going to go destroy the barbarians. And, man, I'm telling you, they're getting fired up. I mean, every time the centurion says something, they're just, yeah! You know, they're so excited. Well, some of the barbarians that they're about to destroy, some of their spies are in the bushes watching this meeting take place. And one of them, I guess, was just kind of goofy. He was just real emotional, not very logical. He kind of got caught up in the emotion of the moment. So the next thing he knows, he's out of the bushes and he's kind of come to the back of the Romans and he's cheering them, yeah, we're going to destroy the barbarians. And all of a sudden they turn around and look at him and he's realizing what he just did. Snickers goes, want to get away? But what we're doing is we end up cheering for our own destruction when we get too hot and excited about that. So we need to remember that. Every time we point a finger at someone else, we have three fingers pointing back at us. However, verse 11 gives a clear contrast between the lost in verses 9 and 10 and the saved in verse 11. So what's the difference? Well, the difference is that this saved group in verse 11 had already put their trust in the Lord. They had already come to a place of repentance and the Lord had already saved them. And I know some of you inquisitive folks are probably saying, well, hey, wait a second. This is pre-Christ. Christ had not come to the earth yet. He had not died on the cross for sin. He had not rose from the dead. So who did they have to put their faith in? I want you to understand that both Old and New Testament Salvation has always been by grace through faith in Christ. Now, I understand that in the Old Testament, they did not have nearly as a complete picture of Christ as we do. But they were still saved by faith in the coming Messiah. We're saved by the faith of Messiah that's already come. That's how that works. I mean, we see the gospel as far back as Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. that the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent. Well, where did that happen? What happened on the cross when his heel was bruised? And so, that's what I'm talking about. They had put their faith in the coming Messiah. And so, when I said that God was going to judge every sin, I wasn't kidding. Jesus paid for sin on the cross. And so, He will forgive us if we repent and believe the gospel. That is salvation. That Christ will pay for your sin, He will remove your sin, He will forgive you, He will remove your sins as far as the east is from the west, because He paid for our sin on the cross. And so, if you want to pay for your sin, that's up to you, but you have to face the judgment of God. That's the good news of the gospel. that the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on the cross, when He died as the God-man, that God the Father, as I say so many times, He placed our sins in Jesus Christ and then He punished Jesus for the sin we committed. So those sins were paid for. They weren't swept under the rug. And that way God can pardon us without sweeping our sin under the rug and without Himself becoming an unrighteous judge because He's not unrighteous. And so when you look at this, verse 11, These people are shouting for joy. They know that God isn't going to judge them. He is actually going to defend them. Romans chapter 4 and verse 8, it says, Blessed are, oh how happy, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And so if you've been set free from sin and know the joy of the Lord, it ought to be your desire that others know freedom in Christ as well. If you experience this freedom, it ought to be your desire to communicate that, to share the gospel. And so communicating and concerning our view of the justice and mercy of God, we ought to desire the vindication of God, but we also ought to desire the emancipation of sinners. And so, you know, if you say, well, you know, I'm saved, but I just don't feel, you know, led to share that. I don't feel led to share the gospel. Let me put it to you like this. I really question whether you believe that, if that, in fact, is your mentality. And I say this because let's say that you came to me and you said, Pastor Vaughn, listen, I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that I have the cure for cancer, but I just don't feel led to share it with anybody. Here's the thing about that. You either A, don't believe that anybody has cancer, and therefore nobody actually needs that cure, or you B, actually don't believe that you have the cure. But to say that you believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that you have the cure for cancer, but you don't feel led to share it with anybody, that is a contradiction in terms. If you really believe that there is a hell, if you really believe that God is going to judge sinners, and that people are going to suffer for all eternity, and that even in this life they're going to live separated from God because of sin, and you know that the cure is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and all somebody has to do is repent and believe in that gospel to be saved, you're going to tell somebody. Now, I realize that everybody's different. I realize that everybody has different talent, different areas. I'm not saying you have to do it like I do it. But somehow, someway, you're going to have that desire. And by God's grace, your faith is going to overcome your fear at some point in time. And so we ought to desire that sinners be emancipated concerning the justice and mercy of God. But then thirdly, and I'm done. Concerning the justice and mercy of God, we should also desire that the saints would be elevated. Look at verse 12. He said, For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous with favor without compassion as with a shield. And so ultimately, when we're talking about things like justice and mercy, we're talking about what a person deserves or doesn't deserve. These types of terms, they're actually appealing to a person's innocence or their guilt, what they deserve, because justice is when somebody gets what they deserve, and mercy is when somebody gets what they don't deserve. And so, here's a huge tip. When a saved person goes through life understanding that all they really deserve is justice and judgment from God in hell, it changes everything. If you really believe, I mean, I'm not talking about giving lip service. If you really believe that because of your sin, that your sin is so heinous against God, that you really believe that the only thing that you actually deserve is the judgment of God in hell, it changes everything. It changes the way that you look at everything. Really, you have to come to that conclusion in order to be saved in the first place. But even after you're saved, it changes the way you look at things. Because if you go through life thinking, you know, I just lived my life so good, I deserve a bigger house. You know what you're going to do? You're going to be miserable until you get a bigger house. And then you know what's going to happen? You're going to say in about a year or two, you know what? I deserve a bigger house than this. There's no bottom to that well. You're going to go through life and say, you know, with my education, I should have a better job. I should have a better paying job. I should be able to do this or I should be able to do that. If you start thinking about your life in terms of what you deserve and what you deserve is anything but hell, you're going to be a miserable person. You ain't entitled to anything and I'm not either. But when we understand that, it changes us. It will defend us from pride. It will cause us to see every good thing in our life as undeserved gifts instead of deserved awards or accomplishments. You know, when we understand what we deserve based on where we are and where we were headed based on where we're going now, how could we do anything but just say, thank you, Lord? How could we look at our life and say, man, look what I've done? Look at what I've accomplished. Look at the cars we're driving. Look at how successful I've been. Every good and every perfect gift comes from God. Our health, the ability to do our job, the family He's given us, the provision He's given for us. But if we're not careful, if we don't understand that, We might become jealous and covetous when God blesses our brothers and sisters in Christ because that's really kind of what it's talking about here in the shift and in the immediate context in verse 12. And sometimes, you know, it can get confusing. You know, I guess it's tempting if we're not careful. Guys, I want to just warn you about this. We can all be guilty about this. If we're not careful, we can look at a lost and dying world and scoff at them and say, I just can't believe that. Gosh, they're just so sinful. They're so wicked. They're just stupid. Sin makes people stupid. It does. But we can look at that and think that somehow we're better than they are. When again, it really just comes down to the grace of God that saved us and changed us and gave us a new heart. And so, if we're not careful, we can do that. And I know this is going to be a shock to you. If you're taking notes, you want to get this. This is profoundly deep. Don't be shocked when sinners sin. Just don't be surprised or shocked by that. Sinners do sin. And they need the grace of God to save them. But sometimes it's easy to do because there's such a clear line there. But sometimes even within the community of faith, even among believers that are saving Jesus Christ, sometimes there's a little competition in our hearts and it shouldn't be that way. And sometimes it can be confusing when two Christian people seem to be doing their best to live for the Lord and one seems to prosper while the other is going through harsh trials. The truth is we don't know what God is doing in the lives of each individual. But here's what we do know. that whatever suffering we endure in this life is nothing compared to eternity. That God has a plan and a purpose and that God is still good and merciful. It ought to bless us when God blesses our brothers and sisters in Christ. Stop playing the blame game and stop playing the what I deserve versus what they deserve game. It's just a recipe for disaster. I think it was President Roosevelt that one time he said that comparison is the thief of all joy. Comparison is the thief of all joy. When really what we need to do is when we go through trials, we say the Lord is in control, He's leading me through this, He's going to bring me through it, He's got a purpose for it, He's going to be glorified through it, and we're going to be given rewards in heaven for it, and just be glad when God blesses our brothers and sisters in Christ in a different way than He's doing us. It ought to bless us when God blesses our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so in closing, when it comes to the justice and mercy of God, we ought to desire that God be vindicated, we ought to desire that sinners be emancipated, and we ought to desire that saints be elevated. If this is your attitude, your life is going to be so much better. You're going to have so much more joy. And if you don't feel this way, You need to check your heart. Listen, who would want God to be unjust? See, the problem is that we look at God so many times through a tainted sinful lens of our own depravity. And we look at things and we say, that's really not that bad. I mean, it's not hurting anybody. God said it was sin. Therefore, it's wrong, it's evil, and it's an offense to Him. It has nothing to do with the consequences. It has nothing to do with the practical aspect of it all. It's an offense to God. It's wrong and I don't want to do it. We ought not to want to do it. We don't want to celebrate it when other people do it. Listen, that's not loving. I tell people all the time, you know, when I used to do some open air outreach at, you know, the gay pride parades and stuff, it's so ironic because they would come up to me and say that my God is hateful. And I just would just compassionately turn it around and I said, oh no, no, you've got this all wrong. Your God's the hateful God. And they say, well how can you say that? Because your God lets rapists into heaven piecemeal. Here you go. He turns a blind eye to rapists. That's your God. He turns a blind eye to pedophiles. And I just went down the list, and without exception, not one time did anybody have one thing to say after that. They turned white as a ghost and walked away because they realized their version of love is an unjust love. It's amazing when people find out their worldview was a house of straw. God is a God of love and mercy, but He's a God of justice, and that ought to thrill us. And if it doesn't, it's probably because we're the villain. Aren't you glad He's a God of justice? Aren't you glad he can't be bribed? Aren't you glad he's not greedy? I'm glad that we serve a God like that. But again, the only way to escape the justice of God is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that he made on the cross for sin. That's the only thing that can remove our sin, that he could forgive us and give us home in heaven.