Well, the title of our sermon, Despair and Delight. As I said before, the Bible is full of seeming contradictions. Not actually contradictions, but seeming contradictions. Let's consider three. In Genesis 3, verse 15, God says, in cursing the serpent, The seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head. That is the first promise that Jesus will come. But it is a curse. It is a curse of the serpent. And I've read some people who say, this can't be a promise of Jesus. This can't be a promise of blessing because it's a curse. You can't have something which is a curse and a blessing at the same time. Seeming contradiction. Or we take a saying of Jesus in Matthew chapter 20. Very famous, Jesus says, so the last will be first and the first will be last. Well, how can the last be first and the first be last? Because the first are first and the last are last, right? Seeming contradiction. Or thirdly, what we're actually gonna consider today The law of God. Romans 4 verse 15 tells us that the law brings wrath. The passage we read about the tax collector, the law has brought him to misery and despair. And yet, in Psalm 1 verse 2 and in Psalm 119 verse 174, the psalmist described the law as a delight. And in Romans 7 verse 22, Paul says, I delight in the law of the Lord. Well, which is it? Is the law, does it cause despair? Or is it a delight? You can't have it both ways. Seeming contradiction. The answer to these three paradoxes, just thought about that word, didn't we children? Paradoxes, seeming contradiction but actually isn't. The answer is that you have two opposing things But they are in different relations. They are in different relations. Now that may not make sense to you, but I'm going to illustrate it so it will. Take a fruit. Grapes. Okay, grapes. Now grapes, for human beings, are a healthy snack. Freddy may ask for crisps, but get grapes instead. Because it's a healthy snack. Here, have some grapes. But if you start giving your dog grapes, it'll probably kill it. Grapes are highly poisonous for most dogs. In fact, I know this because someone told me who has a dog. If you tell the vet that your dog has eaten a grape, they will immediately knock it out and give it a stomach pump. That's how dangerous grapes are for dogs. So what is it? Are they a healthy snack or are they poisonous? Well, it depends on your relation to them. Are you a human being? Or are you a dog? Do you see, we have this in the three examples we gave. Genesis 3.15, is it a curse of the serpent, or is it a blessing? Well, it's both. It's a curse to the serpent, but it's a blessing to mankind. Makes perfect sense. The destruction of the serpent will be of good for mankind, so when the serpent is cursed, this can be a promise and a blessing for mankind. Or a second example, the last will be first and the first will be last. Well, how does that make any sense? Well, I think we can take a general meaning from that phrase, that some of those who are considered in this world to be the most important and the richest and the best, held in the highest esteem, when Jesus comes again, There will be people who are not considered in high esteem, who are hated, who are persecuted, who are considered by God much higher. than the people that this world considers important. Do you see those who are first? Some of those who are first in this world will be last in the next. And some of those who are last in this world will be first in the next. We thought about it in the prayer, didn't we? Those ladies who become Christians from Islamic households and are persecuted, they are considered as worse than the dust beneath the car wheels of their husbands and brothers and fathers. but they shall be clothed in gold in heaven. And so to our main point, the law of God. Does the law of God cause misery and despair? Or is it a delight? It's both. We're gonna take this question for the rest of our service under three points. Firstly, despair. Secondly, grace. And thirdly, delight. So firstly, despair. The law brings despair and misery. The law brings despair and misery. Misery, agony, distress, discomfort, a downcast spirit, a lack of love for life, a feeling that is something weighing you down. This is what the law of God should bring to all of us in our natural state. And it does sometimes, and doesn't other times. But it does sometimes. For the people who are being weighed down by the law of God, happiness is elusive. The law of God can weigh down the soul. John Bunyan wrote a book called Pilgrim's Progress. And in Pilgrim's Progress, it's physical pictures and names, word pictures, that help us understand spiritual realities. And in his book, there's this man called Christian. And he starts reading the Bible. And when he starts reading the Bible, he realises his sin and how he is going to be judged. And from that moment, a burden appears on his back, which weighs him down. So he's walking around like this. It's weighing his body down, making him sad. miserable everyone else is saying oh what are you doing christian don't be silly it's fine he said no my sin that is a picture of how our souls are to be the tax collector in our parable verse 13 of chapter 18 of luke the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast. Sometimes, if you're a child confronted with your parents, or if you're an employee confronted with your employer, or just with an authority figure, or perhaps not with an authority figure, somebody though that you respect and you have wronged them in a terrible way, Sometimes you may not even raise your eyes to look at them. You just, with your eyes down, telling them what you've done. Because you are sorry. And you're worried about what they're gonna think. You're hurt that you have wronged them. This is what this tax collector is. He will not raise his eyes to heaven. He will not look up like the Pharisees. I'm glad I'm so good. He's hurting. has his eyes on the ground, and he says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Not, God, fulfill me. God, bring success to me, use me greatly. No, be merciful to me, a sinner. He felt the law of God weighing upon his very soul. You may say, I don't feel that. Perhaps some of you children don't feel that. Well, maybe that is because you're bold in your sin. It is not a good thing to be brazen to not care about your sin. That is wickedness. God brings his law to you afresh today. You should be miserable about it if you have not repented of your sins. The more an unbeliever realizes their sin, the more they will be broken by it in their hearts. Or if you could see your full sinfulness, On the first moment of hearing the scriptures, you and I would be on the floor with our faces to the ground, even if I think, if I knew what I know now about my own sinfulness before I was a Christian. I despaired before I was a Christian. I was miserable and afraid, but I would have been traven in my fear. God reveals to us, in a sense, mercifully, bit by bit, our sinfulness. Because otherwise we would be so miserable. Or if we could see our full sinfulness. And for Christians too, how have we backslidden? Where have you fallen this week, this month, this year? For all of us, we must apply the law of God. Our ears must hear the bad news. Not that God's law is a bad thing. Do you know God's law is a perfect thing? Do not allow yourself to think that it's a bad thing. It's perfect. It is given to man so that if they keep it, they will live in peace and happiness and joy. But the law is bad news for you and for me, for you're not Christians, because we cannot keep it. Not because God prevents us, but because we're wicked. We must apply this bad news to ourselves and be broken in heart. Jesus says the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Have you done so? Have you loved him? A faithful, loving father who dotes on his son or his daughter deserves to be loved back, don't they? And a child that spurns a loving father or mother is manifestly a wicked child. Or a wife who cares so much For her husband, she loves him dearly when there is almost nothing lovable about him. And yet if he still continues with the drink, if he continues coldly in scorning her, in ignoring her, in spiting her, he is a wicked man. And we, with what God has given to us, how have we loved him? Have we done it with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Or does the finger of justice point at you today and accuse you, you have not loved Him as you ought? We need to ask ourselves, have we kept His Sabbath day? The fourth commandment that we read in Exodus 20, keep the Sabbath day holy. Have we kept it? Have we coveted? Coveting is desiring something that someone else has in lust. I should have that. Do you know, they shouldn't have that. They haven't worked as hard as me. They're not as nice as me. I deserve that. I should have had a better upbringing. I should have more money. I should have the better job. They don't deserve that. That's what I should have. This isn't fair. Do you know what coveting is? Coveting is saying, God, you got it wrong. You should have given that to me. We have all coveted, have we not? next to each and every one of God's 10 commandments, his law that we read earlier. For each one of us, if we might have a sheet, say God's angels are putting together a sheet. It's a pre-prepared sheet with the 10 commandments on it, and it's got a box for name, and your name is written there. For every single one of us, by each commandment will be a big red cross. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, all the way down to the last one. We have not kept God's law. It accuses us. Sinner. Sinner. You have not loved God. We have not kept his Sabbath. We have broken it. We have lied, cheated, stolen, lusted, coveted, showed disregard for God's authorities. Children, you are sinners too. Sinners too. God's law, which if we kept it would be for our good, is like a millstone that is tied around our necks and we are thrust into the ocean and it pulls us down, not because it is wicked, but because we failed to keep it. It should bring us deeper and deeper into depths of misery if we have not repented. Do we have no morality? Do we have no conviction that we can break God's law and feel nothing? Have we lapped so far into our own sins, thinking they're okay, that we have stopped realizing how abominable they are, how we are so selfish, how we are so unloving towards our neighbors, how we gossip, how we feel good sometimes when others are put down. Have you ever had that? Have you had that recently? Of course you've had that. Sometimes others are put down and we feel good. I had that recently. It made me realise how wicked I am. How could you possibly think that? That another would be put down and you think there's a feeling inside you because it raises you. We can say with the Apostle Paul, oh wicked man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? The law of God breaks us. It bends our heads in sorrow, because unless we have fallen to our knees in despair, on our faces, eating the dust of the ground, unless we are on the ground, Christ will never come and pick us up. Does he not say, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick? I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Is not God gracious in bringing this conviction to us by his law, so that we may not pass sleeping and snoring in our sins to the pits of hell? And so secondly, grace. Firstly, despair. Secondly, grace. Romans chapter eight and verse three, Paul says this, What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, the law of God can't make us right with God because we are sinful, because we can't keep it. If you had never committed any sins, If you had not been born in sin, and you had always kept the law, then you would be reconciled with God. But you haven't, and I haven't. We're born in sin, we commit wicked acts, the law cannot do it because our flesh, our sinfulness, is weak to it. And do you know, because of this, the law is a wonderful gift from God. Because if we would notice the law of God, It will be obvious. It tells us, you can't do this. We won't even try if we recognise its holiness and God's holiness. We won't even try. You won't even start out thinking, right, I'm going to keep the law of God and merit my own salvation. It's a hill too high for us to climb. I'm not sure if this ever happened as a child, but I could well imagine it happening. We have in our, well we had when I lived there in our, in my parents' home in Sheephay, a very poorly designed staircase where you can't get any large pieces of furniture around the corner. So if you're going up, you have to lift the furniture up and somebody has to go up the first flight and basically carry it, or multiple people. And if you're moving something downstairs, someone has to hang the piece of furniture over and someone at the bottom stops it and allows it slowly down. As a child, I was, and I'm sure many children are, rather confident in my own abilities and my own strength. And so if we were moving a big chest of jaws down the stairs, I might have said, Dad, let me, let me, I'll go to the bottom, you let me hold it and I'll lower it down. And he might say to me, well, let's just see if you can lift it first. And so we go to where it is in the house and then try to lift it and I can't lift it at all. You see, that's gracious, isn't it? Because if he'd gone, fine, you go down there and I'll drop it down and he drops it down, I'm gonna be squashed, flat as a pancake. Do you see, God's law is like that. God has given it to us so that we can see this is too heavy for me. If he didn't give us his law in the Bible, it would be in our hearts, but we might be tempted to think we can keep it, because we don't see it laid out as it is. But as he gives us the law in the Ten Commandments, we know we cannot keep it. And when Jesus describes, it's not just about not committing adultery, it's about not lusting in your heart. It's not just about not murdering, it's about not being unjustly angry against anyone in your heart. Then we go, wow, this is too much. Give me the grace of Jesus Christ. Give me another way. But the verse in Romans 8 does not stop at that point says this, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. This verse is merely saying God sent his son to keep the law so that any who have faith in him do not have to keep it for their own salvation. We know we can't. God has shown us this way is too hard and he opens up another way through the cross, through the righteousness and sacrifice of Jesus. He opens up another way whereby we can be saved. Galatians chapter three, Paul speaks of this same thing. Galatians chapter three in verse 10 to 14. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Right? Anyone who has to keep the law for their righteousness is under the curse of God. Why? Because they fail to keep it. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. If you have to keep the law for your righteousness, you're cursed. But Jesus Christ, that curse which is resting on you, if you have faith on Jesus, is taken from you like a garment and put on Jesus on the cross if you have faith on him. And his righteous garment is taken off him and it's put on you, and he suffers and dies, and you are righteous. is grace. That is the grace that saves. Romans 5 verse 8 says, God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God says to us, you need another way. You can't keep this law. Let me show you. More specifically, His grace says, here is another way, come by Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Some in the world may say, I am not weary and heavy laden, I am free, I am liberated. The French motto of the revolution, liberté, égalité, fraternité, it's all great. Well that's because Jesus is not speaking to those people. He's speaking to them in the sense that if they are to have faith, he will save them. But he is speaking to people who are weary of the law. Weary, knowing they cannot keep it. weary of this world, heavy laden, seeing that they are not righteous, but that they cannot be right with God by themselves. And Jesus says to those people, come unto me, come unto me, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. May the Lord Jesus be exalted. He is the only one God's law has never found fault with. Not one lust, not one false word ever passed his lips, not one unjust thought ever formed itself, ever started to form itself in his mind and heart, not one moment when he failed to love God, not one instance on the Sabbath where he made unholy God's special day. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. And through faith in Him, He can save you. Through faith in Him, He can save you. The tax collector had faith and he was saved, but he needed to be broken. He needed to be weighed down by sin. He needed to be weary. and through faith he received the rest of Jesus Christ. Which brings us to our third point. Delight. Delight. This is where we come to consider how the paradox can be so despair yet delight. Do you see? There is despair for those who are not in Jesus Christ, because the law to them means judgment. It makes them miserable. But there is delight for those in Jesus Christ, because they are freed from the bondage of sin to keep the law. Christians can delight, children, Christians can delight in the law of God. They are no longer chained to sin, but they are freed to keep the law. Consider the fourth commandment, you shall keep the Sabbath day holy. Now our confession This Bible unfortunately doesn't have a confession in the back, and I'm not used to carrying one around anymore, but I nevertheless can remember some of what it says in the chapter of religious worship. It says that the Sabbath day is to be spent wholly in public and private exercises of worship. Wholly to be spent in public, private exercises of worship, in works of piety, necessity, and mercy. Now consider, for the believers here, consider, before you were a Christian, as one under the condemnation of God, did this commandment bring you any delight? I don't think we're so convicted, or I think unbelievers are less convicted of this commandment nowadays because preachers preach it less. But it is true, you shall keep the Sabbath day holy. Do you know John Bunyan, the one I've been talking about, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress? One of his despairs that brought him to Christ was he was afraid of God's judgment because he had broken God's Sabbath day. As unbelievers, it can only bring despair, it does not bring delight. Consider the rest of Bunyan's analogy, though, of the sweeping. I didn't give it in the end. Oh well, I'll give the whole analogy. He has this analogy of, there's a man called Interpreter, who's with Christian, And he takes Christian to a room. Remember these are pictures to illustrate spiritual realities. And there's a man in the room who's sweeping the floors. Sweeping the floors, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping. And there's loads of dust on the floor. And when he starts sweeping, the dust gets kicked up and it's all flying around. He's not sweeping it out of the room. He's not able to do that. The dust is just all in the air. It's in his eyes and it's murky and disgusting and filthy in there. And Christian asks the man interpreter, what does this mean? Interpret it for me. An interpreter basically says, well, the broom represents the heart of man. And the broom and the man with the broom represents the law of God. Do you see, there's sin, the dust on the floor already. But the broom, the law, sweeps it up and makes it more obvious and shows the filth that you might not have noticed before. But then, it is described in the old version as a damsel who comes round the corner, just meant a young lady, a maid or something, with a bucket of water. And she throws water onto the floor. And all the dust settles down and congeals in this water. And as the man sweeps, the water and the dust goes out of the room and the room is clear. Do you see, the woman and the water are grace. Before there is grace, the Lord just whips up that dust and shows the filth that is in a man's heart. When grace comes, that filth can be washed away by the Lord, not by keeping the law, but in that the Christian delights in the law of God now. And accompanied by the Holy Spirit of faith, That filth can be swept out of his or her heart. So, consider this with the Sabbath day. Before, as unbelievers, it was no delight to us. It was a burden. You children, perhaps you think this day, the Sabbath day is a burden. We have to come to church, and we have to go twice, and we have to have the Bible study. I hope you don't think like that, but maybe you do. It's a burden, it's weary. But you know, Christians love the Sabbath day. They are delighted to go to church because they get to worship God. They get to exalt Jesus. They get to obey this commandment and they delight in it. We can set this whole day aside for worshipping the triune God. One God in three persons, this God who saved us, who is purity itself, and we get to exalt the Lord Jesus on his throne in our hearts and in our minds. We're sometimes drawn, aren't we, to delight in heroic and good people. Sometimes stories of very heroic soldiers in the Second World War who gave their lives for the sake of the freedom of our nation, it draws us to those people. Or we consider Corrie ten Boom in the same war, who was hiding Jews in her basement from the Nazis, at great personal cost to herself. These good heroic deeds, these good heroic people, it draws us to them, doesn't it? Makes us think they're good. I want to meet them. How much more so Jesus? How much more so do we delight in Jesus? He is oh so much better. Never to have sinned, to have humbled himself from the courts of heaven, to a stable, to a cross, to the mocking and the spitting and the beating, to the wrath of God himself. Is it not our joy and delight to praise him on this special day? Does he not fill your heart with love and thankfulness? And that he, this incredible man, should love you and me. How can this be? Not just a pitying love. Oh, I take pity on them. He takes pleasure in us. I can't speak with much clarity on that. I don't understand that. But it's true. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy. So what a pleasure it is to sacrifice my day-to-day work, to sacrifice my day-to-day activities, to spend the whole day in public and private exercises of worship. With Joy Christians, we are willing, aren't we, to sacrifice our normal work. We're willing to sacrifice the worldly things that we normally do. We're willing to sacrifice our conversation about the football, to converse about Jesus. We're willing to sacrifice our sporting activities to be at the worship services, whatever it may be. It is a delight to sacrifice them to worship God. In fact, I shouldn't really be using that word sacrifice, because it's not a sacrifice, is it? It's a joy. It's a blessing. Take the third commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Christians in history have found it a joy, a delight, to keep that commandment at enormous personal cost. Some being put on the rack, which means their arms are put in one sling and their legs in another and they're being pulled apart and yet they will not denounce Jesus Christ. Early Christian martyrs were brought before rulers and emperors and told, deny Jesus, deny God as the one true God, we should be taking God's name in vain, and they say, no. Some of them thrown to the beasts, some of them burned, some of them put in the gladiator pits, but they found delight in sacrificing to keep the law of God. The Bible says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you go through various trials, and they did. And they were delighting to keep the law of God. I'll finish with a story. A story which shows two people for whom God was worth more than all the world. And to keep his law was a true, delight. This third commandment, not taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. John Bradford, dubbed the Manchester Martyr, and a man called John Leith lived in the 16th century. They were Christians and they were commanded by Bloody Mary to recant their Christianity. to recount their Protestant Christianity, their faith in Jesus Christ. That is to say, no, I don't believe Jesus is God, or I don't believe Jesus is the only way to salvation, or I don't believe that works are part of salvation. They were asked to break the third commandment, but they did not. The story is as follows. I read from an article. On the morning of July the 15th, 1555, at 9 a.m., two men were led to their execution at London's Smithfield in the reign of bloody Queen Mary. They were condemned to be burnt alive as heretics. One was a young man of 19, called John Leith. The other was about 45 years old, and his name was John Bradford. Among Bradford's final words at the stake, where they were to be burned, were these, oh England, England, repent. Turning to the young man who was about to suffer with him, he said, be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a happy supper with the Lord tonight. Then, embracing the wood of his execution, he repeated our Saviour's words. Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. Thus says Fox in his book of Martyrs, like two lambs, they both ended their mortal lives, being void of fear. What a testimony. To them it was a delight to keep the law of God. they were joyful to be sacrificed for their Saviour to keep this third commandment. What a delight it is for the sinner saved by grace to keep the law of God. If only we took this warmth of spirit into all our lives, because it is true too often we do not find delight in the law of God, but as Christians be thankful it is there. It is there in our hearts. And the longer we live, the more we delight to find joy in God's law, until the joy of heaven, when it shall be endless delight. Amen.