Psalm 107, and tonight we'll
be looking at verses 10 through verse 15. The title of my message
is The Rebel Brought Low. The Rebel Brought Low. The scripture says, such as sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction
and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God and
contemned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore, he brought
down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was
none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break
their bands and sunder. All that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. For he had broken the gates of
brass and cut the bars of iron and sunk it. Now as we've gone
over this psalm last week, We remember that this psalm has
an intended purpose. An intended purpose. And I pray
that every time that we preach from this psalm, and every time
you read this psalm, you should keep this in mind. All give thanks
unto the Lord, for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. This is the cause of this psalm. This is the reason for the psalm.
That the believer, the redeemed of the Lord should say something.
that the redeemed should give thanks unto God. You know, I found it to be an
impossibility to give thanks and murmur at the same time.
If we are truly thankful for the goodness of our God, then
surely we would not murmur. If we would complain, surely
we could not give thanks. I do pray that I would have a
heart of thanksgiving, a heart of praise, part of adoration
to God. This psalm is written specifically
for the redeemed. Only the redeemed of the Lord
can say so. Only the redeemed of the Lord
can give thanks because we have experienced His mercy, haven't
we? We've experienced His mercy. He has redeemed us from the hand
of our enemy. You realize that the law was
our enemy. Curses everyone that continues,
not in all things, written in the book of the law to do that.
We were cursed under the curse of the law, but God sent his
son, made of a woman, made under the law for what purpose? To
redeem us from the curse of the law. He did this by being made
a curse for us. He redeemed us by his blood. And then in verse three, you
know this, he gathered us. He gathered us. The only way
a man knows of his redemption is that the Lord gathers him. Our Lord told Nicodemus, you
must be born again. You know why? I chose him. I chose you. I redeemed you.
You must be born again. There was no option here. You
must, you will be born of the spirit of God. And he was. That's our case, too. We were
born again. We were chosen of God, redeemed
of the Son. All that the Father had given
me, Jesus said, shall come to me. And when they do, I will
know why I was cast out. Why, this is the Father's will.
That of all he had given me, I should lose nothing. Behold
the great things that the Lord of grace has done for us, given
us the power to believe on him. And we know this, that all who
are redeemed, the elect, all who are called, we are kept by
the same power of God. We are kept. I tell you this,
often I doubt I'm being kept. Often I fear. Disappoint I long
to know. Often it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? And yet,
you know, the answer always comes back to me. All of these years,
Yes, I do. I do believe. I now believe. Because we are kept. And as we go through these texts,
we went over last week verses four through verse nine concerning
this character of the wanderer. I told you last week there are
five characters in this psalm. Five characters in this psalm
and it describes Those that are redeemed. Every one of these
characters, every believer in Christ can identify with all
of these characters. You remember the first character
we went over last week was that of the wanderer. They wandered
about in a destructive way. That's how we were. Wandering
in the wilderness, had no idea of the way how to get to God.
We went astray. from the womb speaking lies.
We were lost, considering our way was the right way. We wandered about in a destructive
way. We had no refuge. We were hungry
and thirsty for righteousness. And then what? We fainted within
ourselves. We found we had nothing. We were
lost and had no way to God. And so then what? We cried like
the wanderer. Then they cried unto the Lord.
And what? He delivered them. That's us. He delivered us. He showed us
the right way. What's the right way? Christ
is the way. Christ is the way. No man comes
to God but by me. We know the way, don't we? We
have a refuge. Christ is our refuge, our rock,
our foundation, our shelter. He is our bread. He is the spiritual
bread and blood. We feed and drink on that by
faith. And so we no longer need hunger
for righteousness. We have all the righteousness
God requires. And we desire this, verse 8,
O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and the wonderful
works of the children of men. He satisfied the longing soul
and filled the hungry soul with goodness. That's us, isn't it?
Well, tonight I want us to deal with this next character, the
rebel. Look at this in verse 10. Verse
10, such as sit in darkness and the shadow of death, being bound
in affliction and iron. Who are these that sit in darkness?
Who are these that are bound and captive? Verse 11, because
they rebelled against the words of God and contemned the counsel,
contemned the counsel of the Most High. Now, I want us to
see four things about this rebel character and how it relates
to every believer. First of all, we're going to
see the character of this rebel, the character of the rebel. Secondly,
we're going to see his position. The character of the rebel is
found in verse 11. He rebelled against the words
of God. He contemned the counsel of God.
That's his character. His position is found in verse
10. He's in darkness under the shadow of death and bound. And the third thing is his conversion. His deliverance is found in verse
11. 13, and they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them. And then I want us to see the
deliverance of this rebel. The Lord saved them, and he brought
them out of darkness. He brought them out of the shadow
of death. He freed them from their chains. So let's see these
in order. First of all, the character.
Look at that in verse 11. They rebelled against the word
of God, who contends the counsel of the Most High. Now, the character
of the rebel clearly differs from the character of the wanderer
and the next one we're going to discuss next, this coming
Lord's Day, the fool. The character of the fool and
the character of the wanderer differ from the character of
a rebel. The character of a rebel differs
greatly because the character of the fool and wanderer, they're
like the rebel in that they disobey the word of God. But the wanderer
is somebody who strays off of the right path. Remember I told
you that illustration of a man walking in a desert. He's walking
on a road and the wind blows up and the path is gone. No fault
of his own. Just it's gone. He's lost. The fool is ignorant. He's foolish. He doesn't even know He doesn't
even know that he's disobeyed. He's so foolish. But the rebel is one that departs
from God with full knowledge of what he's doing. One that knows full well what
God has said in his word. He knows the difference between
the counsel of God and the word of God versus the counsel of
his own flesh. He knows the difference and willfully
chooses his own counsel. He's a rebel. Give you an illustration of a
fool and a rebel. Adam and Eve. The first fool
and the first rebel. Eve was the first fool. You see,
she was duped. She was foolish to even entertain
his conversation. But yet, by and by, she listened
to him foolishly, and she was deceived. Oh, but Adam, friends,
make no mistake, our father was not deceived about what he was
doing. As a matter of fact, Paul tells us this in 1 Timothy chapter
2. He says, Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived
was in a transgression. You see, Adam took that. When
Eve foolishly came to him with that fruit, he knew what she
had did. And yet, because his love for
her was greater than his love for God, he rebelled against
God and cast us all into death, knowing what he was doing. Now,
after he had done that, all of that knowledge was gone. All
of the knowledge that he had before was gone now. He was dead.
But he knew what he was doing. He rebelled. And now we know
that all men are born rebels because of Adam's rebellion.
All of his race are born haters of God. Men are not neutral in
this matter, and I don't care how much they claim to be. We,
by nature, are haters of God. I know this because God's Word
says it. Romans 8, 7, because the carnal
mind is enmity. It doesn't say it's at enmity.
It is enmity against God. Here's the evidence. It is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Therefore, they
that are no flesh cannot please God. All of us are born with
some understanding of God. We just are. All of us know something about
God. We know something about God because
of two things. First of all, creation. All men
know there is a God by creation. And secondly, we know there is
a God because His law is written in our hearts. Paul tells us
this in Romans chapter 1. He said, because that which may
be known of God is manifest in them. God has showed it to them. For the invisible things from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even the eternal power and Godhead. You see that God is invisible. You will not be able to see him.
Yet we know he exists. We know his power and his authority
by his creation. By the things that are made.
He made all things by the word of His power. How powerful is
that? We all know this. God, whoever
He is, made us. How rebellious is a man to believe
he came from an amoeba? How arrogant do you suppose he
is to say, rather than coming from being created by God, that
he just came out of the mud? Yet this is how we are by nature.
They hate God so much that they'd rather be created by an amoeba
than be created by the hands of God. Because that they knew God, they
glorified and known as God. Neither were thankful, but in
their vain imagination, their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fooled. And what did they do
with the knowledge of God? They changed what they knew of
God, the uncorruptible. They changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image made like man, birds, and beasts. That's how bad men hate God.
That they would put Him so low as to be made like a bird or
something they can control or kill at their will. Make God an image. And make an
image. Now why do they make an image?
Because they can put that image here or they can put that image
here. Or they can put that image under
here. They can cover it. It doesn't see, it doesn't move,
it doesn't require anything from them except what they imagine. So men know that there is a God,
yet they rebel. Secondly, Paul says this in Romans
2, is that the law of God is written in their hearts. You read the laws of men and
see how closely they resemble the law of God. How'd they get
that? Written in their hearts. They know it's wrong to steal
and to lie, commit adultery, fornication. They know this naturally. And yet, what are men set to
do? Evil. They're set against their own
conscience. So remember in our text, we're
not speaking about those I want us to know this as I'm speaking
to us who are redeemed. We who are redeemed, we are redeemed. We know this about ourselves.
This is true of us. In fact, it was in this rebellious
nature that God found us. God found us not when we loved
him, but when he hated him. This is where God finds all of
his elect people, in their rebellion. Is this not true when God gathered
us by his grace and power? We confess this, that we were
rebels. When this is what it is to make
a rebel, he rebels against the word of God. Either the written word, the
word of creation, or the word written in his heart. But surely
what men hate the most is the word of God's gospel. The word
of God's gospel. This is what we hated the most. Salvation is of the Lord. We didn't mind the gospel that
included us. We didn't mind a God that needed
our help. We desired a God that we could
be, that we could contribute. But you tell us of a God who
doesn't need us. A God who only saves by grace
and not by works. A God who doesn't need your work
or your religious deeds. I tell you that You are a sinner
in no hope of pleasing God by your religion. Men hate that. Scriptures are clear about this.
All have sinned and come what? Short of the glory of God. No matter what you do, you're
going to come up short. No matter how religious you are, you're
going to come up short. No matter how sincere you are, you're going
to come up short. I tell you that there is none
righteous, no, not one. None that understand it, none
that seek it after God. They're all together become unprofitable.
There's none that do it good, no, not one. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, by the works of the flesh, by the religious traditions and
ceremonies of men, shall no flesh glory in his presence. Men don't like that. I don't like to hear that. Why? It's true. You know how I know it's true?
Because I don't like to hear it. I don't like to hear what are they
doing but rebelling against the word of the Lord. That's God's
word. We see then the character of
the rebel. The character of the rebel is this. despises the word
of God. He hates the idea of salvation
by grace. He despises the fact that he
hates God, refuses to acknowledge it. Now then, the position of
the rebels in verse 10, this is their condition or their position
of everyone who rebelled. They sit in darkness under the
shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. The men
are living in rebellion. He believes himself to be free.
Isn't this true? You talk to the wicked and they
think you're bad. They believe that you're in shackles.
How could you live under such bondage of the gospel? How could you live in such a
way as not to be free to sin and enjoy yourself? They see
you as in bondage and think themselves to be free. They see you as the
fool and they see themselves as the wise. It's not how men talk as they
live in, I'll have my own way. And they believe this. They think
that if they're just sincere, God's gonna see their sincerity
and overlook their sins and their faults and their shortcomings.
And they believe Christians be so ignorant. Listen to what it
says in Isaiah chapter 36 in verse 14. He says, don't say
it to the king. Let not Hezekiah deceive you. Remember, Rabbi Shackley came
in and surrounded the kingdom there, and God had already sworn
to protect them. These were God's people. And yet he said, don't let God
deceive you. Don't let Hezekiah tell you,
Lord, I'm going to save you. And he said, man, look at those
other kings, those other gods. They didn't save them. They won't
save you. There he stands, beating his
chest, all proud and rebelling against God. But you know the
end of that story? God did deliver his people from
that Assyrian king. So who was the wise and who was
the fool? Who was bound and who was free? Now, the appearance
of the thing, it looked as though Israel was bound. It looked as
though Israel was losing. But don't look at how it appears.
Look at how it really is. They're bad. You're free. They're ignorant. And you're
wise. The rebel is one so enslaved
and bound. Psalm 107, verse 10, it says,
they sit in darkness, in the shadow of death, bound in affliction
and iron. All men who rebel against God
are as one who is in a dungeon under the sentence of death.
They are as men blind to their condition and their nature until
God opens their eyes. Imagine you had a rose and a
blind man was arguing with you about how it looked. And he thinks he's so wise. And yet he can't see a thing.
This is how the law is taught. But friend, this is how we were.
How did we treat believers? How did we calm the sin and look
down on them? When we were in the rebellion
of our sin, we're not any different by nature than they were. Men are not free in sin, but
rather they're bound to it. Let me see one man free himself
from sin. Impossible. We're bound to it. By nature, he's bound to it.
Oh, man is free from sin, but rather is bound to it so that
he can never free himself. Our sins have enslaved us under
the iron bars of God's justice. And because an evil sentence
is not executed speedily, the heart of man is fully set to
do evil. Only God would even cause the
light now to shine in the darkness of their hearts. May it cause
the rebel sons of Adam to see their hopeless and helpless condition
of ever escaping the justice of God in their works. May God
show you that you are under the shadow of death and bound in
affliction. This is the condition of every
rebel. who will not come to Christ.
You're held to counsel of God in contempt. But every one of God's people
who are rebels, they're no different by nature, but the difference
is this. God reveals that we are rebels. There's one thing I know about
myself. I, by nature, am A rebel. I am a rebel. Now then, notice
the conversion of the rebel. Because God has chosen a people
and given them to Christ, and because Christ has redeemed them
by the blood of his cross, it is necessary, it is necessary,
it is necessary, no matter how rebellious they are, it is necessary
that the Holy Spirit gather every one of them he has redeemed. And here's how God will take
the willful, spiteful, stubborn rebel that has long rejected
his word and shunned his counsel and make him a willing subject. This is how he's going to do
it. Therefore, in verse 12, look at how God does it. We've seen
the character, we've seen his position, now we're going to
see his deliverance. This is how God delivers the
rebel. Therefore, God brought their
heart down with labor. They fell down, and there was
none to help. Every rebel God will save, he's
gonna bring him here first. He will bring the rebel down
with labor. The rebel by nature is proud,
exalts himself above God. Therefore, God must bring him
down. God must cause him to bow the
knee. He must bring him down. Illustration
of that prodigal son is a great illustration of this. Imagine
the arrogance of this son. He's an heir. This father is
obviously wealthy beyond imagination. This father in the parable is
obviously some monarch of some sort. And this son has everything. He's got everything. He has lack
of nothing. And what does he do? In rebelling,
he says, you're dead to me. Give me my inheritance. He said, give me my inheritance.
You don't get an inheritance until the father's dead. And yet, he was telling his father,
you're as good as dead to me. Give me what I've got coming.
And notice the father. He gives him his inheritance. The son then becomes dead to
the father. And he goes out and squanders
his inheritance. And there he is. He had spent
it all on righteous living. Harlots and drunkards and anything
he could do to satisfy his plans. In rebellion, in spite against
his father, he did what his father would not allow him to do. And
he spit it off, and he finds himself in the hog pen. Worst
place for a Jew would be in a hog pen. They weren't allowed to
eat the hogs. He was in trouble, he couldn't
eat the hogs. Matter of fact, the owner wouldn't even let him
eat the stuff the hogs eat, he ate the husks. He labored until he was brought
up to nothing. And you remember what he said? He said, oh, in my father's house,
my servants fare better. His servants fare better than
I do. Oh, I'll tell you what. Let me just go back, and I'll
just be a what? But he came back. How did he
come back? Did he come back proud? Well, let's negotiate. Father, I'm going to come back.
If you do this, then I'll do that. I know he came back. He said, Father, just let me
be a servant in your house. And that's how we come back. Just put me in the corner of
your house. Just give me crumbs from your
table. That's how a sinner's brought
down. He's made to see He has nothing. He has nothing to owe
for God. We come to God begging for mercy,
not merit. Grace, not works. We come to Christ pleading only
that He give me His blood to cleanse me. Give me His righteousness
to robe me. Could I be the least in your
house, not the greatest? This is how a rebel comes home. He's brought low to see this. He's brought low to see there's
no hell. I remember a man who was a believer
in Christ in New Zealand. He was walking home from church
and the city was miles and miles to get to and from church. I think he had to walk, he had
to get up, before the sun come up he had to get up to leave
to go to worship. He'd do this every Sunday, every Lord's Day.
He'd get up and he'd walk all the way down to worship and come
back. As he was coming home from worship, he got bit by a black
mongrel. You know what he did? He sat
down and died. You know why? There's no handle. Have you been there spiritually?
But there's no handle. No hope. Verse 13, Then they cried unto
the Lord and were in trouble. This is the only place a rebel
will cry when there is no help. If you've got something, you'll
never come to Christ. Why do you children not come
to Christ? Because they still got something. When God brings a rebel to the
end of himself and has nothing, I know this, then he will cry
for mercy. But consider the graciousness
of them. They cried unto the Lord in their
rebellion. The trouble their own rebellion
caused them. And He saved them. Tell me if this is not true of
you. When you cried, what did he do? He saved us out of our distresses. We're crying to God. We see the filthiness of our
iniquity, our sin. We cry even because God's made
us to cry. Isn't that right? When you cried
to God, who did it? You didn't do that, did you?
He brought me down in labor. He made me to cry. And notice,
lastly, the deliverance. As the conversion of the rebel
is brought to the end of himself, he cries unto God and hears the
deliverance. When the rebel It sees his sin
and the vanity of his works. He cries. And what does God do? Look at verse 14. He brought
them out of darkness. What does that mean? They got
light. They had no light. They had no
sight. They cried because they had none. And God gave them understanding. What do you understand? You understood
this? I'm a rebel. No help. He's the one who saved me. And
he gave me light that there is one who has already saved me. Well, who's the light? Who's
the light? It's Christ. He is the light
of the world. It's Christ. He gave us light. And we saw Him. And notice this
in verse 16, He had broken the gates of brass and cut the bars
of iron in sunder. Isn't that what Christ did? Isn't
that what Christ did at Calvary? We were bound by sin, and what
did He do? He cut that. How did He do that? He bore our guilt. You can't set a prisoner free
unless the sentence is paid. He couldn't cut the bars of iron. He couldn't cut the shackles
unless the sentence was paid. He paid the debt. He died in
our stead. He bore our guilt and shame. I was reading someone, I read
someone say this, well, you just need to throw off guilt. You don't need to feel shame. That's not what it means. You
can't throw off guilt. If you're guilty, can you throw
it off? How do you throw off guilt? If you're guilty, how do you
throw it off? You can't unless what the sentence is paid. And
the guilt, our real guilt, Christ bore in his own body on the tree. God took your rebellion and transferred
it to his son. And there at Calvary, he endured
the wrath of God for our sins. And at Calvary, he says, it is
finished, the death of guilt. Now listen, you who believe,
you are free from the guilt of sin. That doesn't mean you're
going to stop feeling guilty. No. You know why? Because that's true. Nobody said
that's not true. You and I were guilty. But my
hope is, he bore my guilt. And God was satisfied with his
offering. We don't quit feeling shameful. But I know this, He bore my shame.
And now I bear His image, His righteousness in the inner man. God has given me this. So I am
free from the guilt of sin. I'm free from the power of sin.
Does this mean you're going to stop sinning? Is that what that phrase
means? No. What it means is this. I am now capable of believing. I am now capable of obedience
to the law of Christ. which is faith and love. We are
capable of these things now in the inner man, in the new man,
the new creation, which is holy without sin. You'll get this
that John said this, brethren sin not. Now why would he say
that? Because you still sin. But yet later on in the text
he says this, whosoever is born of God sinneth not. How do you,
how do you reconcile those two things? Well, John is talking
the second part because the inner man is without sin. What is the
outer man? The old man of sin. What changed
about the old man of sin when God saved him? Nothing. You know what he still is? A
sinner. He's a rebel. He's a rebel. If the Son shall set you free,
you shall be free indeed. But I want to speak to you who
are free in Christ. I want you to remember that the
old man of rebellion is still in us. The old man. Yes, we have
a new nature that wars with him. But we must not fool ourselves
into thinking we are beyond the ability of this rebellion. Remember
Jonah? What he did. He rebelled. Moses. Speak to the rock, Moses, what
Moses did. He rebelled. Smoke that rock. David. David desired to take
that Ark of the Covenant and bring it back. What a noble venture.
But David said in rebellion, I'm going to bring it back my
way on a new cart. You see, we still have that old
man of rebellion in us. Surely the children of God are
still prone to rebellion. Go to Isaiah 63, look at this. I know I'm still real close. Remember, I went away a little
bit. Isaiah chapter 63, look at this. In verse eight, he says, for
he said, surely they are my people, children that will not lie. So
he was their savior. In their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel of His presence
saved them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them. And He bared them. He carried
them all the days of old. And they were so gracious. And
they loved Him with all their heart, with all their soul, with
all their mind. Everyone see that? What does verse 8 say? Oh, that should break our hearts. They vexed His Holy Spirit. Therefore, He was turned to be
their enemy and fought against them. How many times has that
happened? Delivered us from our rebellion,
and yet we still rebel. He loved us. He pitied us. Yet we still are so prone to
rebellion. What does God do with His rebellion?
He chastens us. Does He not? He chastens us. I'm free. Free from the justice
of God. free from the guilt of sin, free
from the power of sin, but I'm not yet free from the presence
of sin. God chastens his children,
but what is the hope of such a redeemed rebel? My hope is
this, it is the covenant of God in spite of my rebellion. Last place, look over Psalm 106,
just a page over from our text. Psalm 106, verse 43. Many times, many times He did deliver them.
What'd they do? They provoked Him with their
counsel and were brought low for their iniquity. Do you and I in confession and
sorrow within our souls say this too? when our sin is just too
much. Have you ever felt that way that
you sin too much? It just can't, I can't imagine
him to be merciful anymore. How many times have we rebelled?
We think surely his anger is too great for his mercy. Surely
the fool might have mercy. He's duped. The wanderer might
have mercy. He went astray. But for the rebel,
One who knew better and still ministered. Is there any mercy
for him that cast God's word behind him? I'm talking about
redeemed people. We cast the word of God behind
us. We know what God says and we
still will have our own way. Here's our hope, verse 44, nevertheless. Oh, how many times they were
bailed. Nevertheless, in spite of all they did, in spite of
all their rebellion, he regarded their afflictions when he heard
their cry. Here's how God will have mercy
on the rebel. And he remembered for them what? His covenants. Oh, my hope is in the covenant. the covenant of the father with
the son. Son, I have chosen the rebel. The son in the covenant says,
I will redeem the rebel. In the covenant, the spirit says,
I will gather the rebel. I will humble him. I will give
him faith. And this, I will keep him in
spite of his rebellion. He remembered for them His covenant
and repented according to the multitude of His mercies. He
made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captive. And so then, if this is our condition,
let us say in verse 47, save us, O Lord, if we have rebelled. Save us, O Lord, gather us, gather
us from among the heathens. to give thanks under thy holy
name, to triumph in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting. Let all his people say what?
Amen. Praise you, Lord. What's the condition of the rebel?
What's his nature? He holds the word of God behind
his back and rebels against God every time. What's his condition? He's in darkness. He's in blindness.
He's in bondage. What's his deliverance, his conversion? He cried to the Lord. God brought
him down. When God brings him down, he
calls him to cry. And God hears his cry, delivers
him. He gives him light, sets him
free. And even because of this old
nature still abides in us, he gives us still hope. What's hope? Covenant. Eternal covenant. Christ is my hope. God keep us
from rebellion against evil. I stand in his mystery.