The sermon 'God’s Holy Character' by James Lundquist focuses on Psalm 36, highlighting the stark contrast between the wickedness of humanity and the holy character of God. It begins by describing the wicked as those without fear of God, indulging in deceit and rebellion, and grading themselves on a curve compared to others rather than God's holiness. The sermon emphasizes that all people are naturally wicked until saved by God's grace. A sharp shift in the Psalm showcases God's mercy and covenant, which is described as a promise of eternal love and faithfulness to those who believe. God's righteousness, faithfulness, and judgments are portrayed as steadfast and deep, providing protection and abundance to believers. The sermon encourages believers to marvel at God's mercy, find shelter in His promises, and live in humble dependence on Him. It concludes with a prayer, highlighting the need for continued reliance on God's loving kindness and righteousness.

The sermon text today is Psalm 36, starting in verse one. An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked, there is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes. When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates, the words of the mouth are wickedness and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed.

He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not abhor evil. Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains.

Your judgments are a great deep. O Lord, you preserve man and beast. How precious is your loving kindness, O God. Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your pleasure.

For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light. Oh, continue your loving kindness to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the workers of iniquity have fallen.

They have been cast down and are not able to rise." Our God, God Almighty, the Holy, Holy, Holy One, that was so merciful to call us out of darkness, out of wickedness, into Your marvelous light. Oh please, grow us and be glorified during this time. Believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to give power to your word. Sanctify hearts to redeem people. Thank you for this time.

Amen. Psalm 36, the Psalm of David starts out with the complete wickedness of people. But the focus is on God's supremacy overall. The focus is on God's holy character. The focus is on God and His mercy.

That God is the only one, the only one that can take the wicked from being enemies to then being welcomed in his house with his abundance, with eternal life as his children. To take those deserving of wrath into His abundance. As we'll see here between verses 4 and 5, we are going to see one of the greatest contrasts that Scripture has between the wicked and God. Between man in our natural state and God. So let's start by looking at verses 1-4 and look at the complete wickedness of people.

Verses 1-4 of Psalm 36. The Psalm is, To the chief musician, A Psalm of David, The servant of the Lord. An oracle within my heart, concerning the transgression of the wicked. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes. When He finds out his iniquity and when he hates, the words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit.

He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not abhor evil." Reading that about the wicked, we have to ask ourselves, who are the wicked? Who are the wicked?

All the wicked are those that are not born again, are not redeemed, are not saved. Those that by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, have not repented and believed the Gospel as contained in the Bible alone. That's who the wicked are. And biblically, as I thought about this and I look at that, biblically, doctrinally, I believe, I know that was me. But those that were saved especially at a young age, not against being saved at a young age, I'm thankful for that.

I was saved at a young age. I've had many years since I was 9, 10 years old. I look back and I really was this me? I believe it. I know it, doctorally.

But do I really believe it? Do you really believe it? Whether you were saved young and didn't have as many years of baggage or not, do you really believe this was you? And the more you believe this was you, the greater, the more wonderful, the more precious verses 5 through 9 will be. So if you struggle thinking that, was I really this wicked?

Yes, your heart really was that wicked. If God hadn't saved you at a young age, no telling how it would have come out, but it did come out, the wickedness of your heart. So fight to understand this is how wicked you were. And that it was there, however it was shown, however it was demonstrated, that you were that wicked without Christ. Or if you don't have Christ, it's still you.

It doesn't matter what you think of your life, how good you might think it is, it's still you if you don't have Christ. And this oracle, not a word we use often, This oracle that God has given David is a message of God. That's what you can think of. It's a message of God concerning the wicked and what they believe and how they live. And this message of God concerning the transgression of the wicked.

Transgression, when we hear the word transgression, we often just substitute sin and that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. Often you can just do that. But I want to see that when we dig into that word transgression, it's more than just sin. This word is stronger.

It's really meaning a deep rebellion. Sin, even in our Christian context, as we talk to one another, We can use that flippantly. Oh yeah, I'm still a sinner. Yeah, I sinned. Da-da-da.

We can use that because we know it's biblical language. Do you ever think of it as just sin is really a deep rebellion? It's a deep rebellion. It's saying, I know better. I know.

God doesn't know. God's ways are not that good. And this deep rebellion, but here with the wicked saying they have this deep rebellion. A deep rebellion unlike the Christian that faces in and repents, the wicked keep this deep rebellion. The wicked do not fear God.

They do not dread God. They have no contempt. I mean, sorry, they do contempt. They have lots of contempt with no awe of God's majesty or dread of His wrath. And it's not even so much that they say there is no God.

Many do, but some might say that there is a God. It really comes down to that they don't even care what God would think about it. And they don't believe God will do anything about it because they walk around, they've been given many years, how many years have been given, continuing in their sin, and they're like, I'm fine. I'm fine. God's not going to do anything about it.

He can't do anything about it. He's powerless to do anything about it. I'm me. I'm free will. What's he going to do about it?

He's not going to judge. No understanding of his holiness. He's not going to judge sin unless I'm really bad. Now, I understand if I'm really bad. If I'm one of them, I understand it, that God would judge them.

Oh, he'll judge the murderer. He'll judge the rapist. He'll judge the kidnapper. He'll judge the evil leaders. He's going to judge them.

And often we get caught in that as well, of God judges them, Or as Christians, we often think highly of ourselves because we compare ourselves to others. We grade ourselves on a curve. We really are great at this. Grading ourselves on a curve, the wicked especially grade themselves on a curve. Homeschoolers may not know what grading on a curve is, because your grades are your grades, and you're only compared to you.

But what it is is, say a classroom of 30 people take a test. I take a test, say I got the highest grade, thinking good of myself. I got the highest grade, say it was a 70. Say the highest grade in the whole course was a 70. Well, normally that's what, a C-ish or so, something like that, depending on your grading scale.

It's a C-ish or so, where 95 to 100 is an A, but that 70-ish, I get the A. Because grade on a curve, I get the A for having the greatest. And the person with the 65, instead of getting a D, gets a B. And the person with the 50, instead of getting an F, gets a C. And it's great on a curve like that.

And that's the way we tend to deal with our sin. The wicked especially. Hey, compare to them. Compare to them. I'm good.

I'm great. When our comparison is not with each other, it's with God. God is holy. He is perfect. He's demanded.

He is commanded that we are to be as holy as He is holy, as perfect as He is perfect. We are not. And when God by His grace reveals that to you and gives you the gift of faith to repent and believe and you see that, You come to the end of yourself, you're saved. The wicked it is not so. The wicked just see themselves.

I'm good. I'm not that bad. Look at that. I'm doing all right. I'm the enlightened one.

I'm the tolerant one. As the wicked start flattering themselves, we see in verse 2. They start flattering themselves. Flattery is doing something, saying something, usually to somebody else in order for them to do something for you. So you're not being kind to them, you're not saying good things to them because you really believe in and want to encourage them.

No, you're doing these things in order to get something back from them. It's very disingenuous. It is sin, it's called flattery. You're flattering them. Well, in this case, the wicked are flattering themselves.

They're saying great things about themselves, how good they are. I'm not that bad. I'm enlightened. I think better than most people. I'm tolerant, especially those religious people.

I'm tolerant. I love all people. Look how good I am. And they think they can control sin, they think they have this self-control, they wouldn't even call it sin, they just have a greater self-control. Other people get in trouble for this because they just don't know how to control it.

I figured out how to control this and how it doesn't hurt anybody else. That's how the wicked think. And God says what has happened to them in 1 Timothy 4, they have seared their conscience with a hot iron. Irons are pretty hot if you've ever burned yourself. Why, God used that analogy to sear their minds, carterize their minds.

Nothing else is going to get in there. It's going to stay in there, those wicked thoughts of self-flattery, of I'm good, I'm fine. God's not going to do anything about my sin, even if they believe there's a God, or they completely say there is no God. They're not able to detect, recognize, or hate sin. You might think, oh, I'm not that bad.

Or I wasn't that bad. Was I? Really? If you're not a Christian, ultimately, God's not had mercy on you, but it's because ultimately you hate God and love sin. You have to think that way about Christians.

And have compassion on them, have pity on them, because I was that way. I never thought of myself that way before I was saved. I may not have really thought of myself that way for several years after I was saved. Really started understanding how wicked I was, what the depths of my heart were. But this sin, this wicked sin, it says here that it becomes public then.

And it drives them, it owns them. They are slaves to this wickedness. And it's not only in this heart anymore, they're speaking wickedness, they're proving themselves as fools, they enjoy evil, they love evil, they accept evil to the point where they should be resting, they're now devising and planning wickedness. They're planning sin. They're planning their transgressions.

Romans 3, Romans 3, 10-18, we'll be going with Romans here in a couple months, in a little over a month. Paul's been laying out who we are, how wicked we are, and when he comes to Romans 3, he's really going to dive in that, You listen to these words he used, of none and all. In this section, 10 through 18, not a single original thought. It is 100% Paul quoting Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the last verse he's quoting Psalm 36 verse 1. Listen to this about the wicked.

There is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.

There is none who does good. No, not one. He leaves no room. God leaves no room for you to think highly of yourself, what you used to be or what you still are. Their throat is an open tomb.

With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes." The utter, complete wickedness of people. Men, women, boys, girls, in their natural state before they are saved. The godly, The godly fear the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. The godly, those who have been redeemed, not of their own works, nothing of themselves, by God's grace alone, are humble.

They hate sin more and more. We rest in Christ. We apply the Word of God in every aspect, every circumstance of our lives. Now, between four and five, we have this sharp, very sharp, sudden shift in this Psalm. Read 5 through 9.

Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Let me start back. He does not abhor evil. Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the great mountain. Your judgments are great deep. O Lord, you preserve man and beast. How Precious is your loving kindness, O God. Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.

They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, and you give them drink from the rivers of your pleasure. For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light." Verses 5-9, we see the merciful, loving kindness of God. There is no transitional phrase between four and five. There is no but God.

There is no sala. It is a sudden shift in the thought here. I believe what God through David wants us to see, he wants us to see this stark contrast. He wants us to see that there's not even a hint of comparison between men and God. That there is a complete and utter contrast, an infinite unmeasurable depth of contrast.

That's what we need to see here. Say Ephesians 2, but God shouldn't be, oh, it should be there. This here wants to drive it home, this contrast that we have here. This word mercy in verse 5, your mercy, in Hebrew it's 248 times in the Old Testament. And it's also used, we don't see the word mercy, but we see the Hebrew word also used in seven and ten as loving kindness or steadfast love.

This is deeper. When we think of the word mercy, we think of not getting what we deserve. And the word used here is deeper than not getting. Use that. Use that definition.

It's easy to remember. It helps you remember. But here it's really deeper than not getting what we deserve. Let me give you some help. In Nehemiah 9, the people of Israel spend in our Bibles a chapter or more confessing sin.

And Nehemiah 9 says, they said, now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy. Covenant and mercy. When we look at this, I didn't look at all 248, But when we look at these, often throughout the Old Testament, mercy and covenant, covenant and mercy are linked together. It's not just that we're not getting what we deserve, we're getting covenant, eternal. He keeps it, mercy.

And when we connect it with loving kindness, the same word, the same word in Hebrew, loving kindness, steadfast love, giving us this picture of God's covenant-keeping. That is a distinction of Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, that we believe in the covenant of God. A lot of Baptists don't. We do. We believe in God's covenant.

We're covenant people. God keeps this covenant. He keeps these promises. He keeps His mercy, His loving kindness, His steadfast love towards His people forever and ever. In 5 and 7, in that loving kindness, David is praising God for His covenant keeping.

And in Verse 10, he prays that God's covenant keeping for mercy and love and kindness would be there. We also get a sense of this in Luke in the New Testament. In Luke 2, it's not Hebrew, it's Greek in this, but we see this in Zechariah. So Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, he lacks faith in that they're going to have a son. God makes him mute.

He can't talk. And then when John the Baptist is born, they come to the temple, and he's named John. God opens his mouth and the Holy Spirit gives him this prophecy. And in this prophecy about salvation coming to Israel, he says this, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. God's mercy towards you is a covenant that He laid out.

When we talk about our names being written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He wrote that. It is written. That is His covenant that I will have mercy on everyone written here forever and ever and ever. My loving kindness will be towards them forever and ever and ever.

My steadfast love will be steadfast toward them forever and ever and ever." And David continues. This mercy is in the heavens. It extends to the heavens. And it comes from heaven to repenting and believing previously wicked people and talks about His faithfulness reaches to the skies that surround all people. And in Psalm 89, 8, it says, O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like you, O Lord?

Your faithfulness also surrounds you. Surrounds God. I've said this before. God is omnipresent. That means God is everywhere.

But yet, he still says that his faithfulness surrounds him. Well, God's not bound by anything. He's boundless and his faithfulness surrounds him everywhere he goes. He is faithful to himself, and he's faithful to us, and it reaches everywhere to his people. And then David continues about God's righteousness in verse 5, that it's as firm, as steadfast, as immovable, as a great mountain.

That's fantastic because we have no righteousness if Christ is not steadfast righteous. Christ was steadfast righteous. So our hope is firm. It is steadfast. It is immovable in Christ Jesus.

Not in myself, in Christ Jesus. And since God is holy righteous, we are to trust Him. We are to trust Him in His judgments in verse 6. His decrees, His plans, they are always right. Judgments, always right.

His judgments, what God determines is right. What God determines is evil, does not change, therefore it cannot and is not dependent on my input. It's not. We can pray for things, and we are to pray for things. We pray that His will is done.

We pray for Him to be glorified. But it's not ultimately dependent on any of my input. That means we don't pray. It's not dependent on cultural shifts. Oh, look, the people are believing this now.

I used to say this, you know, I've always said this is evil. Maybe it's really good. No, that's not God. His word, His righteousness, His judgments are always right. Whatever culture says is tolerant and merciful doesn't affect God.

Even as Christians, when we were studying Joshua, I know I was challenged. I was challenged in my thinking. Is God really merciful? Look at all those women and children. Destroyed the destruction.

We look around and we're going, God, I don't know if I would have done that to that person. And I start putting my thoughts, what I think is merciful, in that, oh God, you're not merciful enough, I would be way... No. God's judgments, what He determines is merciful, is right and for His glory. There are no exceptions.

Don't make any room for exceptions in your mind. There's no exceptions for cancer. There's no exceptions for a child's death. My family and others here have experienced the death of a child. As time goes on, definitely it helps.

It has helped over the years. No exceptions for tragedy. No exceptions for long-term infirmities. We're praying for people with those. Doesn't mean God's decrees are not right.

No exceptions for bad governments, for disabilities, for the poor, for the wicked dying, and going to eternal hell forever. There are no exceptions. God's judgments in all of those are right. Are right. And they are, we don't understand them, do we?

And David tries to get that point across by saying how deep they are. They are deep. Great deep. We think of that like an ocean. You know there are places in the ocean we have never seen.

We can't get to them. We don't have the technology. Maybe someday we'll have the technology to get there, but for now we don't know. It's a mystery Or space as much as we can see. And we can see way more.

It's that new telescope that's way on the other side of the moon. Further from the moon than we are from the moon. Just amazing technology. It has opened our eyes to how big the universe is. And we still can't see the end of it.

That's the way God through David is trying to explain His judgments. They're a great mystery. They're great deep. But you have to believe He is ordering everything. I think it was Gary praying it this morning from Romans 8.28.

Do you believe he's working all things for his glory? That can be tough. But he is. Everything is for his glory. And do you believe it's for your good then?

For your good, what's happening in Ukraine right now, is it for ultimately his glory and good that there are 30 million people in Pakistan flooded out. The worst floods in who knows how, one third of Pakistan is flooded from all the rains they've got. Do you believe that's for his good? For God's glory. That God decreed all that.

Turn to Turn to Isaiah 55. Turn to Isaiah 55. And I was here last week at the beginning of Isaiah 55. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

You can't buy God's righteousness. You can't buy His holiness. You can't buy the understanding of God. And down in verse 6, Isaiah says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he, God, will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my, " this is God's thoughts, not Isaiah's, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor 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." Everything is according to His order. Everything He determines from the beginning of the end.

He numbers all our days. Everything exists by the will of the Lord alone. And He provides what He says is good when He preserves us. And then with this consideration of God's mercy that God has shown us through David, this consideration of God's mercy, His faithfulness, His righteousness, His judgments, His preservation. David has to.

He's left with this. He has to. It's been piling up the character of God, the holiness of God. In verse seven, he has to crowd. How precious is your loving kindness, O God?

As he's looked at the wicked, seeing where he's been, And he sees who God is, and he knows God saves. David is left with how precious is your loving kindness, O God. How precious is your mercy, O God. Same word. How excellent, how valuable, your unfailing love, your mercy, your steadfast love.

How precious. Therefore, in verse 7, dwelling on this, therefore, our trust, our hope, our rest, our comfort, our peace, our protection is under you. How precious. Therefore we have you as our shelter. Psalm 91.

Psalm 91, 4-6. Psalm 91, 4-6. He, God, shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday." clearly see what he doesn't say.

He does not say there will be no terrors. Doesn't say there will be no arrows. Doesn't say there won't be any pestilence. Doesn't say there won't be any darkness and destruction at noonday all day long. No, He says, I'm your refuge, because these things are going to happen.

There are going to be trials. There's going to be testing. There is evil. There are wicked people. There is Satan roaming around, seeking whom he will devour.

These will happen, but you can take shelter under my wings. You can take refuge under me. Comfort and peace and rest. Remember, the wicked don't rest. They're on their bed divides in evil.

You can. That doesn't mean that we don't have sleepless nights. We will still have sleepless nights. That does happen. There are real trials, real heartaches, real hardships.

But take shelter under the wings of God. Matthew, Henry, God's loving kindness is precious to them. They relish it. They taste the transcendent sweetness in it. They admire God's beauty.

Those that are thus drawn by love will cleave to Him. Remember in Joshua we talk a lot about these leaders. They just clung to God. They cleaved to Him. And in verse 8, we, the previous wicked enemies, are now welcomed into the abundance of God's house.

Welcome into the abundance of His house, to have a place at the table, and are satisfied abundantly with a never-ending abundance of God forever and ever. Jesus in John 10 says he tells us that he came to give life and that we would have it more abundantly. This abundance that we have at the table, we talk about the feast to come, the wedding feast, there's an abundance now. Jesus came and you would have this abundant life now. And then when we look at this abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, the literal is that we are abundantly satisfied with your abundance.

That God is abundantly abundant towards us. Makes me think of John 1 where it says Jesus is grace for grace. An unending grace. He can suspend all the grace to all of us and to all the world, and it doesn't diminish the smallest bit. His abundant abundance is towards you.

We have riches in Christ, and God is generous with those riches. Generous. These rivers of pleasure and delights, this fountain of life. At the end of Revelation 22, when John sees heaven, he sees this, he says, he sees a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, here's the key, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. This river of life proceeds from God the Father, from the Lamb to you, even now, these rivers of pleasure.

Is this how we think of God day in and day out? Not just the good times, Not just when we're at the highest of heights. Sometimes that's easy. Sometimes we can be prideful at those highest of heights. But is this how we think of God?

His eternal covenant mercy, His faithfulness, His righteousness, His judgments, His preservation that causes you to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who called you out of wickedness into His marvelous light. Is this the God we think of that did that? Do you really believe, do I really believe, God is abundantly providing His abundance to me from the rivers of pleasure, His rivers of pleasure, from His fountain of life and leading me with his light, do you believe that not just that he's doing this, but that he's not doing this out of compulsion, he's doing this out of his generosity, and that this is his disposition, this is the way he wants to treat you. He's your father Jesus is your groom The Holy Spirit is your Comforter your transformer. It's going to make much of Christ By being the conduct of this generosity of his abundant abundance Christian it is Think this way believe this way act this way Go back to this to help you in your trials.

And then in verses 10 through 12, David has this prayer of dependence. Prayer of dependence says, Oh, continue your loving kindness to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the workers of iniquity have fallen. They have been cast down and are not able to rise.

This beautiful prayer that God would continue would prolong His loving kindness, His steadfast love to His people. He knows it's a covenant mercy, it's a covenant loving kindness. He still prays for it to continue to happen. Let, please, he knows the history of Israel. He knows the history of Israel.

He's heard the prophecies of Israel. He's by no means naive to what could happen. Please God, prolong, continue your loving kindness. The expository Bible commentary, quote, the godly live by God's unfailing love and righteousness. Therefore David prays that the qualities of God's wisdom may continue toward the upright in heart.

His upright in heart are his children. Those he has saved, those He has been merciful and gracious to, those He has given faith to, to believe in Christ alone, and give them new hearts to repent and believe the Gospel. This prayer of righteousness toward us. Toward us. This is a great prayer for your brethren.

Wonderful prayer for your brethren. And I've said this before. I just want to die. I, Every Sunday morning, every Sunday morning, when I get off by myself at some point in the morning, I pray for each of you. I pray for you by name.

I pray for you by family. I pull out my prayer guide and make sure I don't miss anybody. And you're prayed for every Sunday morning. You're prayed throughout the week. But every Sunday morning, you're prayed for.

And the prayer this morning went something like this. God, would Rebecca and Martin be abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house? And would they see your continued loving-kindness to them? Would the Davises and the Davises, nobody gets shorted because there's multiple names. With the Santles and Santles and Santles.

Right? Don't get shorted. Sometimes It's all the children's names included, sometimes just family, but each one of you, this morning we're prayed for. Lord willing, even if I'm not here next Sunday, I'll still pray for you. And the following Sunday, I'll still pray for you.

Every week, because my dependence is on God, not on my ability to preach. Oh, no. It's not my ability to preach, not my ability to get words out right. But I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, that each one of you would be abundantly satisfied with the fullness of God's abundance, or the fullness of His house, and that His loving kindness would continue towards you. And for those that are not saved, have not been redeemed, would they know, would they know God's abundant satisfaction, fullness of his house, and know God's eternal loving kindness.

Then David has a very specific prayer to be protected from pride. When proclaiming the mercy and love of God, and he says, there's no room for pride here, and God, I need protected, right? We sing a song, there is no room. We sing a song, Where is Room? Similar to this, in one of the verses, Sinner, where is room for pride?

Has not Jesus paid at all? Did he not show charity to one ruined from the fall? On the cross he paid your ransom. Every debt has been erased. You had nothing, yet he lavished you, riches, by his lavish grace.

Help us. There is no room for any pride here. Who we think we might be. Go back. Anytime I get stuck with some pride, I need to go back.

Psalm 36, 1-4. I need to go to Romans 1. There's lots of lists in Scripture. This is one of them I should go back to and tell my thinkers probably. And David is rightly concerned about the influence of the wicked on him.

We have wicked influences all around him. He's rightly concerned about it, and we should be too. And we should pray against that influence, that I'd be influenced by your righteousness, your loving kindness, your abundance of mercy. I should be satisfied by you, God, not by me or anything I think I've accomplished. We need that.

We need to help against that influence by meditating on the Word of God like this Psalm, Psalm 19, Psalm 23, any of it, to help us meditate this sword of the Spirit as it's called. For battle, this is a battle to know Scripture, this sweet great reward. And be close, keep it close to our heart, Keep it close to our mind. And instead of the wickedness where it then comes out in folly and foolishness, may it flow from the heart through our mouth, showing the transforming power of the Gospel, to repent, to forgive, to be gracious and merciful, to help, to encourage one another. Christians, we boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christians know they've been saved by grace and not of themselves, lest they should boast in themselves. Christians, we have a humble dependence on God. A humble dependence. We have no pride. We only boast of Christ.

These wicked will continue in their prideful flattery Unless God does to them like He did to you. And pray for that. Have pity on them by praying for them. Oh, they're against you. Oh, they are your enemy.

And You do have to be wise on how you deal with them. There are times they need shouted down. There are times they need verbally, at a minimum, verbally spoken against. We need to pray that we be protected from them. We pray against temptation.

In Lord's Prayer, a lot of it's them. A lot of it's in my own heart. But a lot of it's the wicked. A lot of it's in my own heart too. Unless God saves them, they will fall, God tells us through David here.

They will be cast down by the Holy Judge forever and never rise. Let me give you two applications. When you see this stark contrast, what goes through your mind? I've drilled down to that a few times. That's where my mind has really been of what goes through my mind when I see this contrast.

Do you marvel more now than you did a week ago. We need to marvel more and more and more. That's going to happen by us understanding more and more and more the depths of our wickedness. We're going to get a heaping spoonful of that going through Romans. But we need to understand more.

But then we need to understand deeper and deeper, know God, know our Christ, His righteousness, His faithfulness, His covenant mercy and loving kindness, the abundant, abundant fullness of His house, His disposition towards you, in order to marvel and fear and have us awe of God. If you've lost that marveling, then God would be infinitely merciful, loving, and kind to you. Be honest with yourself. And here's my encouragement to you right now. Repent.

Repent right now. In a few moments, take the Lord's Supper. Repent. It is a sin to not marvel at God, because if we're not marveling, that means we've got a little bit of pride left in me. And I know I do, But direct it in that way.

Just continue to fight that. It's an easy pride to get. And then keep marveling. Keep marveling. How?

Number two, Are you eating of the abundant abundance of your Father? Are you at His table eating of that abundance and being satisfied by Him? Are you? If not, you're in danger flattering yourself. I'm not saying you're wicked, I'm not saying your salvation can be taken away.

By no means it can't. But that sinful pride can come up, and you can deceive yourself of who you think you are, who I think I am. Where are you finding shelter for your trials? Where are you finding shelter for what goes through day in and day out? Is it under His wing?

If it's not, if it's not, then that means your hope is somewhere. And wherever that hope is, it's going to fail you. And you're going to look for another hope. And if it's not God alone, in Christ alone, that hope's going to fail you again. You know, continue this cycle.

I'm feeling better now. Look at this. I've got hope in this. And I've got hope in that. Things, all right.

I can see light at the end of the tunnel, then that fails you. So you have to get a different hope. A different hope. That hope could be your spouse. That hope could be your job.

That hope could be your children's education. Hope can be many things. And those things, your spouse is a fantastic gift of God towards you. Eventually, at a minimum, between Rebecca and I, most likely one of us dies, And one of us is left here. God's eternal.

His word stands forever. His covenant mercy, His covenant kindness, His covenant steadfast love towards me stand forever. Christ died once for sin. But I would know His covenant, mercy's feast on His abundant, satisfying Word as we saw in Psalm 19. Feast on Christ and His abundantly satisfying riches.

Go read and pray through Ephesians 1 again. It wasn't that long ago that we were in Ephesians. Go back to that. Read through that. And see the riches you have in Christ Jesus for the glory, for His glory, for the glory of His marvelous grace.

Go see those, see the riches God has for you through Christ. And be satisfied. Refresh yourself with the river of God's pleasures and fountain of life. Refresh yourself in Christ. Let's pray.

God, I'm the one that gets to stand here and say these marvelous things about you. What a privilege it is. God, only by the power of your Spirit can any of us believe what Your Word says. Can any of us find it satisfying? Not me.

So God, would You please make us abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, how generous of you. And God, I believe, I believe that you will continue your loving kindness to us forever and ever. Amen.