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Well, if you haven't taken your
Bible and done so, please take your Bible. Go to Psalm 112.
And as we do on Wednesday night, we are studying through the book
of Psalms. We are working our way week by
week, progressively, through this wonderful hymn book that
God has given, the book of Psalms, the book of praises. And we come
to Psalm 112. Now last week, we looked at Psalm
111, which is the works of God. Tonight, we come to Psalm 112,
which are the works of the godly man. The works of the godly man. Follow with me as I read it.
I want to set it before you, and then I will preach it briefly,
and then we'll pray together. Praise the Lord. How blessed
is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty
on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth
and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures
forever. Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He
is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with
the man who is gracious and lends. He will maintain his cause in
judgment. For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered
forever. He will not fear evil tidings,
for his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear until he looks
with satisfaction on his adversaries. He has given freely to the poor.
His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor. the wicked will see it and be
vexed. He will gnash his teeth and melt
away. The desire of the wicked will
perish." Perhaps there is no phrase in all of the Old Testament
that describes one who follows and loves the Lord more than
this phrase. A God-fearing man. It is used over a hundred times
in the Old Testament. A man who fears God. A God-fearing man is a follower
of God. A God-fearing man is a lover
of the Lord. Tonight, we come to a psalm that
is going to teach us that a godly man is a God-fearing man. Now, there is a book written
by Thomas Watson called The Godly Man's Picture. If you've not
read it, I highly recommend it. I'll loan it to you. The very
beginning of that book opened with these words. Godliness puts
a man in heaven long before his time. Christian, aspire after
piety. It is a good ambition. Look at
the saints' characteristics here and never depart from it until
you have got them stamped upon your own soul. This is the grand
business which should swallow up your time and your thoughts. Being a godly man, being a God-fearing
man, being someone who pursues piety, you pursue godliness. After all, you remember the Apostle
Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, and Paul
said, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Your
life and my life should be disciplined for the purpose of godliness. Or later on in 1 Timothy 6 verse
11, we are told that we must pursue godliness. This is the God-fearing man. True godliness, I want to tell
you, still by way of introduction, is not an outward thing. I suppose
it might be easy to kind of Look religious on the outside. You
could go to church. You could shape up your life.
You could carry a Bible. You could say the right things.
That's not true godliness. True godliness is an internal
matter in the heart. It is a supernatural gift from
God. And true godliness is an extensive
thing that will permeate all of life. Not that you're going
to be perfect, but it will affect every sphere of your life. True godliness is a very intense
thing. It is consuming. It is a focused
ambition. It is a pursuit. That's why Paul
uses the Greek word agonize for discipline yourself for godliness. Oh, this is the glorious way
to live life. Boys and girls, I want to tell
you throughout the sermon today, this is the best way and the
happiest way for you to live your life. to be a God-fearer. Psalm 111 and 112 are like twin
psalms. Last week, we saw Psalm 111,
which extol the works of God, and we saw that, what God does,
and his majesty, and his power, and how we study the works of
God. Well, today, in Psalm 112, we
learn the works of the godly. The works of the godly. I want
to sort of think of it in this way, of painting a profile of
a godly man. What is the profile of a godly
man? What is the profile of a godly
woman? What is the profile of a godly
child? What does it look like for someone
who is a God-fearer and someone who loves the Lord? You see in
your outline there, verses one to nine, I wanna show you the
godly man. And then in verse 10, as we come
to the end of the Psalm, I need to show you the ungodly man. So let's begin, number one, with
the godly man, and we'll look at these marks as we work through
it together. It all begins in Psalm 112 with
the simple command, praise the Lord. Or you know the Hebrew,
hallelujah, hallelujah. Interestingly, it's an imperative
command. It is a plural, meaning it should
be done corporately. When we praise God, it is commanded,
it is corporate. We are to praise Yahweh, Jehovah. We are to worship only one, and
he is the exclusive God. We ought to do it early and often
and with all of our hearts. But notice in verse 1, do you
see how the man of God is described? Verse 1, how blessed is the man
who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. That word blessed is the best
way to live your life. Boys and girls, if you want to
live with the smile of God upon your life, If you want to have
the favor of God, if you want to have the smile of God, as
it were, the countenance of God for you, toward you, in joy,
this is the way to live life. This is the best way, the happiest
way, the most fulfilling way to live your life. Boys and girls,
listen very carefully. Don't believe what the world
says. believe what God says in the Word. How blessed is the
man who fears the Lord. Now, the fear of God refers to
the holy reverence for God, a holy reverence. It is a humble love
for God. When we talk about fearing God,
it means that there is a reverence, there is a humble love for God,
there is a devotion to God. And we might even say that fearing
God even includes a humble submission, an obeying of what he wants us
to do in the Word. And this is the best way to live
life. It is the happiest way to live life, a holy reverence,
a humble love, a true devotion, fearing the Lord. And if you
fear the Lord, verse one says, you will greatly delight in the
commandments of the Lord. Now, you have your Bible open. You brought your Bible with you
today. Boys and girls, many of you have your Bible there in
front of you as well. If you and I greatly delight
in the word of God, look at the bottom of your page, you'll see
what will happen. Number one, you will read. this
book. You will study this book. You will love, oh, you will love
the Word of God, the commands of God. Indeed, if we delight
in God's commands, we will talk about these things. What is there
in the Word that we can talk about and encourage and edify
one another? If you greatly delight in God's
commands, next you, you memorize, you will memorize the word, and
then you will follow the word. And, and certainly that means
you'll contemplate, you'll think about the word and value, treasure,
and prize the word. Do you remember how David began
the Psalter in Psalm 1? The man of God's delight is in
the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. This is what Jesus did. I think
Psalm 112, verse 1, pictured the life of Christ. A God-fearing
man, a man who delighted in the Word of God. His whole life was
consumed with studying and memorizing and living and obeying and talking
about the Word of God and the truth of God. May that be descriptive
of you and me as the man of God as well, marked by the fear of
God. But in your outline, you see
there, I want to give you some marks. The portrait of this godly,
God-fearing man, because the rest of the psalm is really going
to sort of flesh out what does the godly man do? What is this
God-fearing man like? What happens? What portrays him? In your outline, number one, there are upright children. There
are upright children, and I think the emphasis here is on the legacy
and on the descendants of this man. Look at verse 2. His descendants
will be mighty on the earth, and the generation of the upright
will be blessed. It actually sounds like Proverbs
chapter 14. Verse 26, in the fear of the
Lord, there is strong confidence and his children will have a
refuge. In the fear of the Lord, there
is strong confidence and your children will have a refuge. Now, listen carefully. I don't
think this verse is a guarantee that a man of God is gonna have
the mightiest, godliest children in the world. The book of Proverbs
makes that very clear. These are not hard and fast promises
and guarantees. But I do think that there is
the blessing that comes to the godly man in that as he teaches
his children, as he teaches the grandchildren who God is and
what God has done and the gospel of grace, he says, come, my children. Listen to me, and I will teach
you the fear of the Lord. He knows, Proverbs 3, 33, the
blessing of God is on the house of the righteous. He knows that. He knows that as I live a godly
life, my children will see the reality of God. And they will
see my joy in the gospel. And they will see how grace has
transformed my heart. And they will see love for Christ. And guess what every parent can
say? I have led my children to Christ. Because I've brought
them to the cross. And God will save whomever he
wants. That's what the godly parent
does. You can't save your children. You can't make them saved. You
can't, you can't make them pray a prayer that will automatically
save them. But what we can do, according
to the psalm, is be a God-fearer and delight in the commands of
God so that the generations to come, the generations to come
will see this and be influenced and be affected by it. That should drive us to prayer,
much prayer. As we teach, as we love, as we
shepherd, as we discipline, we pray that there are upright children
and a godly legacy that comes as we fear the Lord. So not only
is that, number one, we pray for upright children. Number
two, we have an unblemished character. Look at verses three and four
and five. Verse three, wealth and riches
are in his house and his righteousness endures forever. Light arises
in the darkness for the upright because he is gracious and compassionate
and righteous. And it is well with the man who
is gracious and lends. He will maintain his cause. in
judgment. Now, verse three is interesting. The health, wealth, prosperity
preachers, as you could imagine, love this verse. They love this. Look, if you're going to be godly,
if you're going to obey God, verse three, wealth and riches,
there it is. They're going to be in your house
right there. The point of the psalm is not
about your luxury. The point of the psalm is your
integrity. That's the point. The point is this. The man of
God is a hard worker. The man of God is a man who is
going to work hard for the glory of God, and God will provide
for his needs. There will be wealth in his home
because he'll work hard. In fact, didn't we read that
at the beginning in Philippians 4? My God will supply all of
your needs. according to his glorious riches
in Christ. So, this is a wisdom statement
that, yes, God will provide. He will bless those who fear
and honor him and work hard and live lives of integrity. Verse 4 even supports that. Light arises in the darkness
for the upright. Even as this world is plunging
into darkness and disaster, the upright have light. We have discernment. We have a biblical worldview.
We have the lamp of Christ and the lamp of the Word of God. But do you see, verse 4, the
three triad of character traits that mark the man of God? Church
family, examine yourself. This week, this is tough. This
is hard. Is this who I am? Does this mark who I am? Verse
four. Number one, you're gracious.
Number two, you're compassionate. And number three, you're righteous. Well, that's fascinating because
if you remember last week, Psalm 111, verses 3 and 4, that's what
God does. God is gracious. God is compassionate. God is righteous. So, if God
has saved us, then we ought to imitate our God. Does your character as a God-fearing
man or woman, does your character emulate that of your God? Does
it imitate that of your Savior? Like, be imitators of God as
beloved children and walk in love as Christ also loved you. Ephesians 5, verse 1. May it be that God would help
us to have that unblemished character. There's no magic pill. I don't
have a magic pill up here that I can give you to give you that
unblemished character. but that's the sanctifying work
that the Spirit of God does in our lives progressively as we
grow in Christ. Third, a portrait of the man
of God in your outline, he will have unconquerable courage. I
don't know about you, but we need that in our day. And as
times get tougher, and our culture gets darker, and persecution
gets nearer, you and I are gonna need unconquerable courage. Look at verse six. He will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered
forever. You know, verse six is so helpful. He will never be shaken. What
a great phrase. That the godly man will never
be moved. He will never be shaken. He will
never be distorted. Why? Well, here's the problem. We often fear men so much because
we fear God so little. And one fear will cure the other. If we fear God more, we will
fear man less. How do we live with courage? How do we live in this world
to never be shaken, where the righteous man will have a legacy? He'll be remembered forever.
How do we do that? How do we live in anxiety-free
life? How do we live a worry-free life? How do we live a fearless life? I have the sure cure for anxiety
from God. It's Psalm 55 verse 22. Cast your burdens upon the Lord
and he will sustain you. And that's quoted in 1 Peter
chapter 5. Be anxious for nothing but in
everything. Well, that's Philippians 4, but
1 Peter 5 also talks about casting your burdens, your cares upon
the Lord because he cares for you. So we want to have that
courage. We want to know that as a man
of God, I will not be shaken. The righteous will be remembered
forever. Fourth, what is another mark
of the man of God? This portrait of the man of God. This unshakable trust, you see
it in your notes there. Number four, an unshakable trust
in God, verses seven and eight. Real quick, many of you know
the name David Paulus, and he died a few years ago to be with
the Lord. He was a biblical counselor with
CCEF. He wrote a book before he died,
a small little paperback book on suffering. And much of what
he wrote, and much of what he said, as his days on earth drew
to a close, a suffering man with his cancer, he died, and he would
often say, I go to Psalm 112, verse 7, a lot. If I'm trusting
in God, if I'm a man who fears God, I don't need to fear a bad
report. When the doctor calls me, when
those medical tests come back, When they tell me I have only
a few months left to live, I don't need to fear. I don't need to
fear a bad report. And you think, how do you get
there? How do you do that? How do you have an unshakable
trust? Verses seven and eight. Here
it is. Look, verse seven. He will not
fear evil tidings or bad news. Literally in the Hebrew, bad
news. Why? Because his heart is steadfast. His heart is steadfast. This
is a word that means you are cemented deep in the promises
of God. You are cemented deep. You're not just, you're not just
a rolling stone. You're a pillar, deeply cemented,
as it were, in the house of God. He has a steadfast heart, trusting
in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will
not fear. Now, as a biblical counselor,
let me be quick to tell you something here. There are bad reports. There is bad news out there.
There is. The psalm does not ignore difficulties. This is
not minimizing problems of life. The Bible doesn't do that. This
isn't trivializing the real difficulties of life. What it is doing is
anchoring your heart in the character of God and in the promises of
God. And when you're there, you don't
need to fear. You don't need to fear. when
you put your heart on Christ. A little book that I had from
David Powelson on God's purpose in your suffering, he wrote this,
you put your heart on Christ and you put your heart on His
character and you put your heart on His promises. That's how you
get to this place in the Psalm where you don't fear a bad report. It is because the Word of God
is unshakable that your heart can be unshakable as well. And
then just one more, one more portrait here in number five.
We're just looking at the man of God, the portrait of the man
of God. What is the kind of life, the kind of works of the man
of God? Number five in your outline. He is a man of unrestrained generosity. A man of unrestrained generosity. Verse 9, what does the psalm
say? He gives freely to the poor.
His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor. That means a godly man is a giver. The context, financial giver. He loves to give. He gives and
gives and gives. Look at what the psalm says in
verse 5. He is gracious and he lends. Why? Because in verse 3, he's
a hard worker and God will provide him with wealth and riches. Not for him to increase his standard
of living, but for him to increase giving. Giving. The man of God says, God has
given so much to me. Where can I give? Where can I
give to others in need? Now, much could be said on this. Oh, if we had more time, we would
turn to 2 Corinthians 9. Remember that? God loves a cheerful
giver. It's that whole chapter on financial
giving in the New Testament church, right? This giving, God loves
a generous giver, a gracious giver, a cheerful giver. The
Old Testament support for that is Psalm 112. That's right where
Paul goes in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 9. God, God will supply what
you need. So give and give generously. This is the portrait. This is
the portrait of a man of God. Now, brethren, this is good for
us to look at the psalm and examine our own life and say, here's
the portrait of the man of God. He fears God. He delights in
the command. Does my life look like that? And are there holes here? Are
there areas of my life where I can grow? Are there areas of
my life where I can confess, where I can come to God and receive
his power and his grace and his forgiveness and the enablement
that I need so I can live this out? Boys and girls, let me say one
more time, this is the best way to live life. Mom and dad could
support that. The older men and women here
would happily affirm that. This is the best way for you
to live your life. This is the happiest, the most
cheerful, the most glorious way to live your life. But I have to, because I'm an
expository Bible preacher, I can't end there. I have to go to verse
10. Let's end there with the ungodly really quickly. This
is one of the, well, the toughest verses. And I think there's a
lot of what's often called personal eschatology here on the wicked.
Verse 10 describes the wicked. It describes the ungodly, verse
10. The wicked will see it and be
vexed. What does that mean? That means
they will be hotly angry. The wicked see what? They see
the favor of God upon the righteous. They see what God has done and
is doing to the godly. And the wicked respond with anger. And the next phrase says, and
the wicked will gnash their teeth and melt away, and the desire
of the wicked will perish. We could talk about this more
later. I'm convinced this is speaking of hell. And I don't
know how, I don't know how to explain it fully, but I think
this verse teaches that those in hell will be able to see the
blessing of God upon the righteous in glory. And they will not repent
in hell. It will only increase their agony
and their anger in hell. And they will gnash their teeth
and they will melt away in their desire will perish. Jesus actually picks up on this
phrase when talking about hell in Matthew 25 verse 30 when he
describes the ungodly, the ungodly as those who are thrown into
the outer darkness and in that place there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. It's like a wisdom psalm. There's
the godly and the ungodly. There's the godly and the wicked. There are those who are the God
fearers and those who are the God haters, but you can't ride
the fence. You can't be both. And so the
call today is, like Moses said, consider your end. Consider eternity. Look at your life. Consider your
heart. Seek the Lord. Seek Christ. Fear God. Turn to Him by faith
alone. I can't end just there, because
I've not preached Christ yet. This psalm is a perfect portrait
of Christ. This is your Savior. This is
who He is. He is the godly man. This is
your savior. He's been parading in front of
you the whole night through this psalm. He's been pulling back
the curtain, showing you his glory. He is a God-fearing man. He delights in the commands. He has mighty descendants. He is gracious and compassionate. He is one who is never shaken. He does not fear bad news. His heart is upheld, and he does
not fear. He is one who will be exalted
in honor." This is your Savior. This is who He is. Christian,
look to Christ. How do you live the Christian
life? How do you live this out in your life? Answer? Fix your
eyes upon your Savior. Look to Him every day, every
morning. As the Puritans would often say,
even in their families, begin your day with God, continue your
day with God, and end your day with God. Look to Christ. He
is our great example. Great psalm. Great psalm for
us to look at tonight. I do want to end with where I
began. Thomas Watson, the great book,
The Godly Man's Picture. I told you how the book began.
I want to tell you how that book ends. It's the very last couple
of lines in this few hundred page book by Thomas Watson. And as you seek to live out this
godly life, Christian, hear this encouragement from Thomas Watson. How fervent is the love of Christ
towards you. He loves you in your worst condition. He loves you in all of your afflictions. Christ loves you even in the
midst of all of your fears and in the midst of all of your blemishes.
And all of your shortcomings cannot wholly remove Christ's
love from you. Oh, then how the bride of Christ
should increase in her love for Christ. Perfect love for Christ
will be the excellence of heaven. Our love will then be like the
sun in full strength. But we're not there yet. So let the motive of Christ's
love for you ignite your passion. to live a godly life for him. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for the portrait of
the godly man, the godly woman. We pray, oh God, that you would
work this in all of us. And Father, every one of us in
this room has fallen short, every one of us. There's not one of
us here who can say, we've done this. We've got it. We've nailed
this. We've got all this down. For
we have sinned and we have failed. But we run yet again to Christ,
our champion, our savior, our Lord. We come to him who died
for our sins. We come to him who stretched
out his hands in love and took all of our sins and all of the
punishment upon himself. that we deserved. We pray that
we would look to Him, and the great love of Christ would then
motivate us to greater godly living in our lives here. We
thank you and praise you for this psalm. In Jesus' name.
The God-Fearing Man
Series Psalms
Teaching on Psalm 112
| Sermon ID | 732515512286 |
| Duration | 35:05 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 112 |
| Language | English |
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