"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted” (Psalm 89:14-16).
One of the attributes of God, which we seem to neglect and not take into account, is that the Lord is just. He does not in any sense reward us with any kind of harshness or vengefulness or vindictiveness. He is just; He is obliged to be just.
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of your throne”. So God clearly demarcates between evil and good, righteousness and unrighteousness, and those who are His children do likewise. They do not compromise with evil, they have a true sense of justice. They do not want injustice and oppression to be perpetuated, and today we see many people just turn and look away when they are confronted with evil or injustice or greed or graft or corruption. No, God obviously visits those who have no regard for moral values in judgment. That is why we dare not have an inanimate God. We dare not have a God of our own making. We dare not make an image and call it God.
God is God. His holiness is so basic that when you come with people who do not even know that God is holy, you simply cannot fathom such people. They do not have a true sense of direction, they cannot have it. Their compass is false. They are totally misdirected in their ways because God is not in their hearts. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes into our hearts, we love to see justice in our courts of law, in our judges, in our magistrates, on our streets and in our offices. We do not want to gain any undue advantage over some weak person. We don’t want to see the poor oppressed. We don’t want to turn away or look the other way when someone is doing harm to another.
Today we are confronted with a situation where people do not want to get involved. On the other hand, a Christian is involved. He is involved with these issues of Righteousness, of Judgment, of Love, and of Mercy. The Bible tells us that Mercy and Truth shall go before His face. So if God is with you and God is directing you, the same will happen to you.
Mercy, oh, how marvellous! Mercy for a sinner! Mercy for the man who has grieved God and broken His heart! Mercy for the one who has been responsible for breaking the heart of God. Your sin and my sin are responsible for Calvary. Your sin and my sin came upon the sinless body of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore, through His death and resurrection, there is mercy offered for us. Truth says: "Now this man has fallen short, this man can never enter the Kingdom of Heaven, this man has gone contrary to My law, the truth. This man has trampled down the truth, so there can be no place for this man in Heaven.”
Now Mercy says: "Yes, because this man has acknowledged that in the Cross of Jesus Christ his sin has been dealt with, because this man has confessed the truth about himself that he is a sinner and has come short of the glory of God, there is mercy for him.” What a wonderful God we have! Mercy for the sinner. Mercy for you and me.
Therefore we rejoice in God our Saviour. You remember the song of Mary: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46-47).
What is the cause of our rejoicing today? You know the excitements pass over so quickly and leave an aftermath of pain and sorrow, a sense of guilt and shame. Most of the joys of this world are evanescent, ephemeral; they pass away and leave a bitter taste behind. But a man who rejoices in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, his is an enduring joy. You know it is to be experienced, it cannot be explained. So you had better take hold of Jesus and experience this joy””the joys which are for evermore, the pleasures which are at God’s right hand. You know today’s religion seems to be getting pleasure as quickly as possible, and at any price and at the cost of anybody. You want to tread over bodies, tread over lives, walk over virginity, but obtain pleasure.
Now that kind of pleasure, that selfish pleasure does not satisfy. It can only bring guilt and sorrow and a backwash of disease and misery and death. Here we are told: "In your righteousness shall they be exalted.” For those who love God’s righteousness, for those who are willing to pay the price to establish, and to work our righteousness, there is a price to be paid. "You will be hated,” the Lord Jesus Christ told us. "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22).
Now there is a price to be paid for righteousness. People may hate you, slander you, and look askance at you, but "in your righteousness you shall be exalted.” As we are full of Jesus, He sets us apart as the sons of God. We are clothed upon by His righteousness. I do not mean, my friend, that this is a theoretical righteousness, but this is a practical righteousness which I am referring to. When the Lord Jesus was touched by that woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years, virtue went out of Him. You know power went out of Him, and she was healed. His righteousness is a healing righteousness, it is not a condemning righteousness; it is not a Pharisaic righteousness; it is a river of blessing””a river that brings righteousness.