Good morning everyone. Glad to see everyone here this morning. I hope that you remember the sermon from last week. Brother Jeff felt that it was important that he take a break from the book of Peter to preach on the importance of growing in the knowledge of God. and the blessing that we have as believers of being able to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. And he has said that we do not know more about God only for the reason because we are not seeking to know more about Him. that God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, and He delights in making Himself known to us. He delights in glorifying Himself by revealing Himself to us through His Word. And so we have the privilege as believers of knowing God. And he read that famous text in the book of Jeremiah where it says, do not boast in the things of this world, but boast in this, that you know the Lord. So this morning, I'd like to build on that and probably repeat a lot of those things that he said last week. And please excuse me for that, because I was in nursery, so I didn't get to hear all of it. And so please turn with me to the book of Psalms, the 111th Psalm. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon calls this book of the Bible, The Treasury of David. And he has a commentary written on it called that, The Treasury of David. And truly, whenever we begin to study the Psalms, we find that it truly is a treasure, a treasury filled with stores and stores of precious gems for us to mine and to uncover and to enjoy. So let us read this short psalm. I wish we all knew Hebrew because this psalm is an acrostic. And so each half verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And so my sermon this morning has 22 points. Just kidding. So let's read this psalm together. Please set aside all the distractions of this world, the thoughts and the worries you have about work and about school and about family or all these things, set them aside for now as we look into the word and pray that the Lord will open your heart to receive the truth of himself and that you'll be able to become more like Christ through the word. It says, praise ye the Lord, or hallelujah, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He has given meat unto them that fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His covenant. He has showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage or the inheritance of the heathen or the nations. The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever and are done, accomplished in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. His praise endures forever. Let us pray. Lord, we come to you in awe of you, in awe of the work that you have done to save us, to bring us an eternal redemption through Christ. Lord, whenever we look upon your works and the thoughts that you have had towards us, Lord, what can we do but praise you? Lord, truly we have nowhere else to go but you. We say with Peter that where else shall we go, Lord, you have the words of eternal life. So Lord, please reveal those words to us today, and may we see Christ here in this text. May we see Christ, and may he be lifted up that you might draw all men to yourself. We pray these things in his name, amen. This psalm begins with a call to praise. And then the rest of the chapter is giving us reason after reason after reason why we ought to praise the Lord. It begins with the Hebrew word that we all know, hallelujah. But oftentimes we think of this as more of an exclamation. We think of it kind of on the same grounds as amen. We say when we hear something good, we say amen or hallelujah. And, but we don't often recognize that this word is a call to praise. This word in the Hebrew is in the imperative form. It is a command for all of the people to praise the Lord. It is a command for us to obey that we would praise the Lord, that we would join the psalmist here in praising the Lord. So he calls us to praise. And he does not only call us to praise, but he demonstrates for us right praise. He says, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. Let us look at that for a moment. Let us not dare to bring the Lord our half-hearted praise, to bring one part of our heart fixed on the things of this world while we try to gaze with the other upward to heavenly things. A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways, James says. And the God of all the universe is worth more than half-hearted praise. We cannot serve two masters. Even so, we cannot praise two masters. If we seek to give all of our attention to the things of this world and only give part of it to Christ, then we are doing ourselves and Him a grave disfavor. If we are going to come to church to praise the Lord with a half heart, we are coming like Ananias and Sapphira, holding back part of the offering for ourselves, but claiming we have given it all. And you know the danger of that as demonstrated in that story. As is demanded of our love for Him, even so is our praise. What is the greatest commandment? That we would love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our might. And that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. But even so, as we are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, we must praise him also with all of our heart. So, the psalmist here is demonstrating for us right praise. He's calling us to praise and saying, this is how you do it. You do it with all of your heart. You do it with all of your attention. Not dividing your attention to the things of this world, but setting it wholly upon Christ and the work of God and what He has done. And bringing redemption to His people, in particularly. Then he encourages us to praise in all areas, in all assemblies, in front of all audiences. He says, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. So in the church service, whenever we are all gathered together with the upright, with the righteous, with the believers, we can rightly praise with our whole heart together. and in the congregation, which presumably is before the whole nation, which is before the people, the lost people and the believers. We ought to praise with a whole heart, exalting Christ in everything we do. This is also, this psalm is often sung during the Passover. And so, The commentary, some of the commentaries that I found in the Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon, he points out that the psalm was sung in the home and the assembly of the upright would refer to the home, the worship and the eating of the paschal lamb in the home. And the father, the parents teaching and training their children to praise the Lord with their whole heart in respect to the redemption that they have received during the Passover. And in the congregation we would refer to the great feast that the whole people would gather and join together on the last Sabbath of the week long of Passover. And so there's these two aspects of our praise in this private congregation, in the more private assembly, and in the great congregation in public. Making it known that Christ, that the Lord is worthy of our praise. That He is not a God to be ashamed of, that we hide away, but one that is openly put on display as glorious, as worthy of our hearts, as worthy of our love and affection. It's also interesting to point out that this psalm, as I mentioned, is an acrostic. It is the first perfect acrostic in the book of Psalms. There's a couple others in chapter 9 and 10 that are acrostics, but they have some variation. There's a couple lines in there that don't quite fit the script of being an acrostic. But Psalm 111 and Psalm 112 are perfect acrostics. They have exactly one line per letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And as we may know, acrostics are oftentimes used to teach children, like Psalm 119, the great acrostic about the scriptures, about the importance of the word that were used to teach children to love the Bible, to love the word of God. Even so, these acrostics were used to remind our children, the children of the works of the Lord. You remember in the book of Deuteronomy, whenever God commands the people to set landmarks of what the Lord has done. And so whenever they bring their children and they see these stones set up, and they say, why are these stones set up here? And then He said, then you will be able to answer to your children. We were once in bondage in Egypt. We were slaves to another nation. But the Lord came and He brought us deliverance. He brought us redemption. And He gave us a new land, a promised land. And He gave us to inherit the land of our enemies. He gave us victory over our enemies. And gave us this goodly land. And these stones are set up so that we would remember the redemption of the Lord. Even so, this acrostic is given from the parents to their children that they would teach them how to praise the Lord and why to praise the Lord. It is an embodiment of remembering the landmarks that have been set up, remembering the works of the Lord, remembering what He has done on behalf of His people. So let us keep this in mind that this is in the context of the Passover, which we remember from Exodus chapter 12 is that where God delivered the people of Israel, the firstborn of Israel from death, and then eventually delivered them out of bondage to Egypt, that being the night when the angel of death would come and slay all of the firstborn of Egypt, but pass over the house of the Israelites who had applied the blood of the Passover lamb to their doorposts. And so even so, let us remember this, this as the archetypal redemption, that redemption foreshadowing the redemption we have received as believers. So let us continue as he goes on to the programmatic text of verse two, where he gives us kind of the theme of this text, the theme of this chapter and chapter 112. He says, the works of the Lord are great. They are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Do you take delight in the works of the Lord? Do you find pleasure in the works of the Lord? Are you satisfied in knowing Christ, in understanding what He has done? Is this your treasure? Have you found Christ to be your treasure above all other things? Have you found Christ to be that treasure hid in a field? wherein when a man has found it, he goes and willingly and joyfully sells all that he has and buys the field, knowing that he has gained more than he is ever going to lose. Have you found Christ and the knowledge of the Lord to be this great treasure, wherein you can willingly and joyfully give up the things of this world that you might have it? And you cannot go another day until you do have it. And you cannot go another day until you know more and more of the depths of the value of this treasure. You can dig and dig and you're never going to get to the bottom of this pit of jewels. Have you seen Christ in this way? This morning I hope to describe to you the Christian philosopher, and I hope that be us. I hope that we as believers would seek to be the Christian philosopher, seeking to plumb the depths of the knowledge of God, seeking to know more and more in Christ, that we will be able to go on into the mature things and grow and grow and grow, that we will be able to enjoy the meaty and weightier things of the Word of God. Oh, that we could so value the truth of God and the knowledge of Christ, that it was the object of our pursuits and our desires. Oh, that our greatest dream and richest joy would be found in knowing Him. Oh, that we could say with Paul, I count all things but dung that I might know him and have fellowship with him in his suffering." The works of the Lord are great, and they are worth seeking out. They are worth discovering. The great commentator, Dalich, a great Hebrew scholar, reads this text this way, the works of the Lord are worthy of being sought after in all of their purposes. They are worth being sought after. So let us seek after them. Let us dive into this text and find out what works of the Lord is he talking about? What has the Lord done that is so great, that is so worth knowing, that is so worth selling all that we have that we might receive it, that we might purchase this great jewel? So he goes on to assert his works His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever. There's something I'd like us to be looking for as we're going through this text, that there is a correlation between the works of the Lord and the very nature of the Lord. We see in His works the nature of the Lord revealed. He's not going to do something that is contrary to His nature. And so whenever we are looking at His works and He is describing His works, He's going to be comparing them to the very nature of the Lord. As we see here, He says, His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever. Attributing something to His works, and then attributing something to His very nature. This verse, verse three, also kind of deviates from the rest of the verses. It has a variation. It says, his work is honorable and glorious, while all the other verses say his works, plural, are all these things. So I think this psalm has a particular work in mind. It has a particular work in mind, which is the source, I would say, of all the other works. That because the Lord has decided and decreed from before the foundation of the world to accomplish this one in particular work, therefore He has done all the things that He did before and all the things that are thereafter. What do you think that work is? What are they celebrating here in this psalm as we had mentioned. They would sing this psalm during the Passover. So this psalm, this work that is had in mind is that which is mentioned in verse 9. He sent redemption unto his people. We have here before us the characteristics of this great work of redemption that God has done for us in Christ, which was foreshadowed in the Passover. Whenever we look at the Passover lamb, we see that Christ is there. We see that Christ is figured in that lamb that is sacrificed, and that whatever the justice of God is going to be carried out It is going to see the blood of Christ applied to us and pass over. So this is His work that is here had in mind. And this work, along with all the rest of His works, which flow from this one work, as we'll describe later, is honorable and glorious. What does it mean to be glorious? This word literally means weighty. This word is, the work of the Lord is a far greater weight and value than all of the rest of the works, especially the works of men. Whenever we compare the works of God to our works, oh how they pale in comparison. Now let me drive this point home with Isaiah chapter 55, a verse that we all know but oftentimes is quoted out of context. We all know the verse where it says, my ways are greater than your ways. And my thoughts are greater than your thoughts. As far as the heavens are above the earth, so great are my thoughts and my ways above yours. But what is the context of that verse? What is he talking about? Well, let's read the previous verse in Isaiah 55, verse 7. He says, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, let him repent and turn to the Lord, and the Lord will have mercy upon him. And let him turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And then he says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So the context of that verse of what thoughts is he referring to? What ways are he referring to? what ways of His that are so far greater than ours. It is that work of redemption, that work of pardoning those who would repent and turn to Him. These are the ways and the thoughts that are far greater than ours. For we, how often do you hear someone say, oh, the Lord could never, He could never forgive me. You don't know the things that I've done. You don't know all the bad things that I've done. He could never forgive me. Do you not realize that His ways are greater than your ways, and His thoughts are greater than your thoughts? And if you'll repent of your sins and turn to Him, He will have mercy, and He will abundantly pardon." What a glorious God we serve, one that will abundantly pardon every sinner, no matter how great your sins are. For His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Whenever someone does us wrong, what is our first thought? You're at the top of my list now. As soon as I get a chance to wrong you back, I'm going to do it. But after years and years of us wronging God, sinning against Him, defying His law, hating Him, He has shown us abundant mercy. He is gracious and full of compassion. And He will forgive if you will turn from your sins and look to Christ. Truly, His ways are not our ways. I'm so glad they're not. For if our ways and God's ways were the same, then He would just be just as vindictive and mutable as we are. but He is a God full of mercy and grace. His works are honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever. We see in this work clearly displayed God's righteousness. It is seen in God's ordering of the events thereof, It is satisfied in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is demonstrated in the punishment of those who would turn away from Christ. And it is borne forth in fruit by us believers growing in holiness. The righteousness of God is clearly displayed in the work of redemption. It is clearly displayed and it is satisfied. Here we see an essential attribute of God's nature. He is righteous. And this is clearly displayed in all of His works. Let's go on to verse 4. He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. His works are memorable. One commentator says, if the works of the Lord are too great to be understood, they are also too great to be forgotten. The works of the Lord are too great to be understood, and so they are also too great to be forgotten. Let us not forget the works of the Lord. The righteous will be always in remembrance. The praise of the Lord ceases in a land of forgetfulness. Let us set landmarks in our own hearts and in our homes that we would always remember the works of the Lord. Let us wake up each morning and remind ourselves of the work of Christ in the Scripture. that we might remember the great and glorious and honorable works of the Lord. He has caused them to be remembered. He has given us the Holy Spirit that we might always have these works in remembrance. Those truths that are taught of the Holy Spirit are sustained by the Holy Spirit, one great theologian said. Whenever we have the works of God always in remembrance, it is feeding grounds for praise. Whenever we remember the works of the Lord, we will always remember to praise. And then he goes on to say, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Now, I love this verse. He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. So the Lord is glorified whenever His works are remembered, are the objects of our memory. And then He goes on to say, He is gracious and full of compassion. And so in this very verse, is shown the works of the Lord being remembered. The first part of the verse says that the Lord has made his works to be remembered. He has done his works in such a way where they cannot be forgotten. And then he references Exodus in the following part of the verse. He is gracious and full of compassion. This phrase is seen throughout the scriptures as a reference to the deliverance of the Lord, to his redemption of the people. And so David here is remembering the works of the Lord that he has made to be remembered by making this reference. And so let me read a couple verses that use this similar language. Exodus chapter 34 verse 5 through 8 in the context of God revealing himself. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. This being Moses whenever he asked to see the glory of the Lord. And the Lord descended And the Lord passed by before him, Moses, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, or full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, And that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped." Nehemiah chapter 9. in this prayer that Nehemiah makes. Verse 31. Nevertheless, for your great mercy's sake, you did not utterly consume them, nor forsake your people. For you are gracious and full of compassion. Also, it is used several times in the book of Psalms. In Psalm 116, Verses 4-5, Then called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech you, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yet our God is full of compassion. Chapter 145, verses 4-8. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of your majesty, and of your wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of your terrible acts, and I will declare your greatness. They will abundantly utter the memory of your great goodness. and will sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy." You see, in the context of all these verses, there is that of the Lord's deliverance. The Lord delivered the people of Israel. in the book of Exodus. The Lord did not consume the people as he's recounting the history of Israel in the book of Nehemiah. And whenever David cried out that the Lord would deliver his soul from his enemies, the Lord was gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. What a glorious God we serve. He has given meat unto them that fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His covenant. This word for meat here is also the word for spoil. Or whenever you have a battle and you have victory over your enemies and you take a great spoil of them. You take riches and you take wealth and you take servants. as a spoil of your enemies or as whenever the people of Israel went out from Egypt and the people were ready to get rid of them and so they gave them all of their silver and all of their gold and all of their treasure so that they would leave. The people of Israel made a great spoil of the people of Egypt. They went out with all of their riches and with all of their goods. Even so, the Lord has given spoil unto us believers. The Lord will give us victory over our enemies. The Lord will provide for his people and give them victory. So this also makes a correlation between the past acts of the Lord and assurance of the future works of the Lord. It says, the Lord has given meat or spoil unto them that fear him, unto his people, and he will ever be mindful of his covenant. He has fulfilled His promises, He has been faithful to His people, so we can be assured that He will continue to be faithful to His promises. This meat is also a reference to the Paschal Lamb, the Lamb in the Passover. Even so, the Lord, who in accordance to His eternal covenant, has sacrificed our Passover Lamb for us. Christ Jesus the Righteous. Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed, and that is Christ, according to the book of Corinthians. Christ has been the essence of God's covenant since before the world, and specifically in all of these covenant promises throughout the book of the Pentateuch. In the book of Genesis, chapter 315, whenever we see the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent is Christ. The one that would be the promised seed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The book of Galatians tells us that this is Christ. whenever David is promised a seed that would sit upon his throne and rule forever and ever, this is Christ. The Lord will fulfill his promise and we now can rejoice that he has given us Christ, that he has sent that seed, and that seed is now sitting on the throne of David. He has given the blessings of Abraham to all that believe through the Spirit of God, and he is ruling and reigning forever. And we await the full consummation of his kingdom, with great joy, I might add. He has been faithful to his people, so let us set up those landmarks of his faithfulness and let them be an assurance to us that he will fulfill his promises. He will not deviate from his purposes. He is not mutable as we are. He has displayed to his people the power of his works. that he may give them the inheritance of the heathen." So we have here in these last three verses three things. We see that the Lord is righteous and that he has made a promise and he will stick to that promise. Lack of righteousness will not allow him, permit him to go back on his word and lack of grace will not change His mind from showing favor to us, and lack of power will not prevent Him from giving us the full blessing of the work of Christ, of completely finishing the work that He has begun. He is righteous, and He has stuck to His word, and so we have seen Christ sacrificed on our behalf He is gracious and He did not spare His only Son for us. And even when we were yet sinners, He died for us. It's easy to die for a righteous man, the book of Romans says, but God commended His love towards us while we were yet sinners. And now we can be assured that the Lord is able to fulfill his promise. He is faithful, he has given us Christ, he is gracious, he has given us his salvation, and he is powerful, and he will fulfill the work, he will continue and finish, perfect the work that he has begun in us in Christ. So we as believers have great joy in knowing the nature of our God. He is faithful and He is of power to redeem us. We do not have to worry of having the thought, oh, I do not know if He's able to save me. I do not know if He's able to save me, but truly He is able. He has displayed His power, particularly in the resurrection of Christ. We see that Christ was raised by the power and glory of the Father. And in this resurrection of Christ, we see that He has accomplished our redemption. Christ raised to manifest that He did not die for His sin, but He died for the sin of another. And that He rose, He's manifesting that the righteousness and justice of God is satisfied in Him. If Christ is continuing to have to suffer, then He is suffering for His sin. But he was righteous. He had no sin. And so when he died, he must have died for the sin of another, which is the sin of us, his people. And when he rose from the dead, he manifest that the full wrath of God was satisfied in his death. The works of His hands are verity and judgment. All of the Lord's works are done in justice, and this is not in contradiction to His grace. But only because of Christ representing perfectly His people can God now be just and a justifier of those who would believe in Him. Because Christ has died, God is not only just in forgiving us and giving us, attributing His righteousness to us, But the Bible teaches that God would be unjust in condemning those who are truly in Christ. If you were truly in Christ by faith, then a million years down the road, God is not going to uncover those sins that he had swept under the proverbial rug. and remember that He is still mad at you. But the Lord is the wrath of God, is perfectly satisfied in the work of Christ. Because when Christ died, it was not men killing Him, but it was the Father. What did the song say? that we sung, many hands were raised to wound him, but none would interpose to save. But yet the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. Justice fell upon Christ. The wrath of God fell upon Christ in his death. That wrath of God that we deserved is now satisfied in Christ. Now, for all of those who would look to Christ, turn from their wicked thoughts and ways, as Isaiah 55 says, and that would trust solely in Him, denying their works, but looking solely to the work of Christ, they will find Him as a gracious and merciful God who is able to redeem us. Not only able to pay for our sins, but He is able to deliver us from its power. And soon we await the day when He will deliver us in power from sin's presence. And He will give us the inheritance of the nations. He will give us to rule over the nations with Him. This privilege have all of His saints, Psalm 149 says, that of judging the nations and ruling over them. We as believers have the privilege of ruling and reigning with Christ now during His kingdom. All of His works are done in justice. What a glorious thing! Truly He is not like us. All of His commandments are sure. This can either refer to his precepts, that of the law, or they can refer to his decrees that he has decreed sovereignly before the foundation of the world. All of his commandments are sure, for from both not a single jot or tittle will be removed. Though the flesh of man perish like the grass of the field, And though even the heavens and earth pass away, Christ says, but yet not one particle will be removed from the Scriptures, and we know also from God's sovereign decrees. For why would they need to be changed? Why would the sovereign decrees of the Lord from before the foundation of the world need amendment? All of his works are done in justice and in verity. All of them are decreed with the most astute wisdom and the most keen eye, the most sound knowledge. He does not have to step back and say, okay, I made a mistake, now I have to change my ideas. And nor does he have to change his purposes, and nor does he. He is not likened to us that as one day comes, so does another purpose. We have one vision for our life one day, and then the next day comes another. But he is single-minded. He is single-minded in fulfilling His purposes, which purposes are the redemption of His people. And thus we see them played out through all of history. We see them figured in all of the events of history. In the Ark of Noah, we see the redemption figured in the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to David. In all of these promises, we see Christ as we've already said. And He will not vary from His purposes now. And so we know that if He has begun a good work in us, He will perfect it onto the day of Christ. What a glorious thing. We believers have a most glorious hope of a God that is able to save, willing to save, gracious to save, and faithful to save. He will do so. He will complete this work. These commandments, they stand fast forever and ever, and they're done in truth and uprightness. Just that Hebrew parallel reiterating what he has said in verse seven. These commandments stand fast forever and ever. Not one thing will be added to them. The book of Ecclesiastes says, I know that the works of the Lord stand forever. Not anything could be added to them or taken away. So when the Lord does something, it will stand forever. His works are those of gold and silver and precious stones, though ours oftentimes be that of the hay and stubble which burns up with the using. But His endure forever." In verse 9, that great work that he has been describing, He sent redemption unto His people. Now, think of this. He did not say He sent a deliverer or a redeemer, but He sent redemption unto His people. Now, let me clarify that. Whenever God sent us Christ, He did not send us a deliverer who was just going to go and try his best, and if he succeeded, then great, and if he failed, then Sorry. And nor did He send us a Redeemer who was unsure if His price would be sufficient to redeem His people. But when He sent Christ, He sent as sure of a Redeemer, as sure of a Deliverer, as sending redemption itself. Whenever he sent Christ, it was a guaranteed eternal redemption. Christ was going to fulfill His purposes. He was going to satisfy the eternal decrees of the Father. His price was going to be a perfect amount to redeem His people. His strength was going to be sufficient to bind the strong man and to deliver those who he had had in bondage for so long. Isn't it glorious that now we are serving a king who is righteous, who is just, and all that he does is done in truth and in justice? Isn't that glorious? Whenever you remember the bitterness and the gall of your sin. And you remember the pain of serving the prince of the power of the air for so long, serving one who only desired your demise, who whenever you were going about to sin, you were going about to destroy your own soul. But now we serve a gracious and just master who is fair and right and loving His burden is light and His yoke is easy. He desires for us to come and sit at His feet and learn of Him. To take off the weight and the burdens of our sin and to enjoy the freedom of Christ. What a glorious King we are serving. One so unlike all the kings of this world. He has commanded His covenant forever. That decree, His covenant that He made with Christ before the foundation of the world, that we see reiterated time and time again from Genesis 3.15 to Genesis chapter 22 and chapter 24 and chapter 26 and chapter 28 and then the book of Exodus and then in 1st and 2nd Samuel, we see these promises time and time again And we see Christ time and time again. And He will fulfill this covenant that He has commanded, decreed forever. And holy and reverend is His name. Truly, we can end this with a prayer, truly holy and reverend. He is set apart from all other gods. There is none like Him. All the gods of the nations are idols, they are nothing. They have mouths, but they speak not. They have ears, but they hear not. They have hands, but they cannot save. But we serve a God who is set apart, who is holy and worthy of our praise. He is single-minded in our redemption, so let us now be single-minded in our praise and worship of Him. He has been single-minded from before the foundation of the world, going about to redeem us. And so now let us join in his praises. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This beginning means two things. The fear of the Lord is the most premier, the primary, and the best of wisdoms. It is the most glorious of all of the sciences. And if you're going to have wisdom, you must start with fearing the Lord, with having Him in reverence. And he adds, a good understanding has all of those that do His commandments, all of those that obey these commands, these precepts that are just and right and fulfilled in truth and uprightness. All of these have a good understanding. If you want to be wise, obey the Lord. If you want to be wise, fear the Lord. And if you lack wisdom, ask of Him. And He who gives to all men liberally. And then He closes this, going back to where we started. His praise endures forever. This means that His praiseworthiness endures forever. His glory, His weightiness, His value endures forever. His praise is going to endure forever. That means there are always going to be people praising Him. And so I encourage us to be those people. God is always going to be praised, whether it be by the host of heaven, whether it be by the rocks, if they cry out. If we hold our silence, Christ says, even the rocks will cry out in His praise. The Lord will be praised, and so let it be us that are uttering His praise with wholeheartedness. Let it be us as His saints that are bringing Him the praise forever and ever. Let us be single-minded as He has been in our redemption, as He has been single-minded in glorifying Himself and bringing us sinners to Himself. Now, very quickly, in application, there are four types of people in this world. There are those who care nothing for knowledge or holiness, thus the unbeliever. There are the legalists. who want holiness without knowledge. They're the dry theologians who care nothing for holiness but only want knowledge. But then they are the sincere believers, and I pray we would be, who want holiness through knowledge. Sanctify them, Lord, Father, through your truth. Your word is truth. We are sanctified, we are made holy through growing in knowledge. By growing in truth, there is not an increase in holiness without an increase in the knowledge of the Lord. And so, let us, as we are remembering, as we are learning about the nature of the Lord in this text and the glories of His works, let them mold us and shape us to become more like Him. So let me read Psalm 112 very quickly. These Psalms are very related. It says, hallelujah, blessed is the man that fears the Lord. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom in verse 10, and then in verse 1, blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that delights greatly in his commandments. You see the connections here. His seed, the seed of the righteous, will be mighty upon earth. or the seed of Christ will be mighty upon earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches will be in His house, and His righteousness endures forever." So just as God's righteousness endures forever, those who are His will endure in righteousness, will persevere in righteousness. Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. Our darkness is exposed. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous." You see the connections here. He's describing the people of God here who have grown in knowledge through understanding His works and seeking to plumb the depths thereof. And now they are growing in righteousness and becoming more like him by being gracious and compassionate and righteous. A good man shows favor and lends. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he will not be moved forever. The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. You see all the connections here that are to be made. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. Get this, I love this verse. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Whenever evil tidings come to the righteous, they will not be moved, they will not be vexed, but they will be constant, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He will not be afraid until he see his desire upon his enemies. He is waiting for that day when he will receive the end of these promises that have been made. He has dispersed. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Again, it is stated, his horn will be exalted with honor. The wicked will see it. and be grieved, and he will gnash with his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish. Do not follow after the wicked man's desire, because he will go all of his days seeking this desire, but at the end of the days it will perish away. But if you pursue after Christ and knowing Him more, at the end of the days your desire will take on substance. It will take on full flesh, and you will be able to enjoy fully your desire, your joy, your dreams, your joys. So let us pray.