The title of the message is,
The Word of the Redeemed. The Word of the Redeemed. The Scripture says in Psalm 107,
verse 1, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his
mercy endureth forever. First of all, I would have us
see that this psalmist, the psalmist here, begins his psalm with the
word or the letter O. O. This word is put there for
emphasis, to stress something. He says O as though it was from
the bottom of his heart. His desire and purpose of writing
this psalm was that everyone who hear it He says, oh, give
thanks, give thanks unto God, unto Jehovah the Lord. This is truly a great privilege
of man to give thanks unto God. It is a privilege of man to give
thanks unto the Lord, His Maker, His Creator. And yet I know this,
this morning, that those who are here and are lost have no
desire or ability to give thanks to God. Now, this is just a privilege. It should be a privilege to give
thanks to such a high Creator. Look around you. Look at the
world and its creation and how glorious it is. How beautiful. I took a walk the other day and
I prayed. I'm not usually one for noticing
flowers or things like that. I've read men that do. And I
would love to have that. I would love to have that to
be able to notice the intricacies and the beauty of God's creation. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's
beautiful. Consider the things that He has
made. so that we can inhabit this planet. Do you realize that there are
no other planets like this one ever? They've been searching,
and they'll keep searching, and they think, I think there was
an app you can put on your phone to walk on Mars. Do you know
how boring it would be to walk on Mars? It's barren. It's a desolate place. Who really
cares about Mars? It's dead. You people want to do things
and go all these days. They've got the best planet right
here. You can walk down the street on this planet. Yesterday the
wind was blowing through and it was a little rough, but oh
how good sometimes a breeze feels. You watch the trees moving and
the wind. It's beautiful. God has given
you the ability to live on His planet and to enjoy His oxygen. He's given you strength to enjoy
great things. I enjoy watching my children.
I enjoy watching them grow up. I enjoy watching them learn things. I enjoy those things. Who gives
me such things to enjoy? It is God, my Creator, if you
have anything of joy, It is because God allows you to enjoy it. Should that not be enough to
render thanks unto God? Is God not good? God is good. And everything He does is good.
Give thanks unto God. And yet man by nature will not
give thanks unto God. Usually it's a backhanded kind
of thanks. Well, thank you, Lord, for that, but, you know, this
wasn't all that great. Thank you, Lord, but, you know,
this thing is just really, you really done bad by this. That's
natural man's way of giving thanks. Giving thanks. You see, Adam,
our father, was the first man of God that God made. He made
him upright and holy. Adam, by nature, did fulfill
such praise and thanksgiving daily for the things that his
maker gave him. And he's the only one that's
ever done that, that was created of God, other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. Adam truly did commune with God.
Now, you and I, we have no experience of this by nature. Why? Because Adam sinned against God. And the moment Adam sinned, he
ceased to thank God. He ceased to enjoy communion
with God and ran from God, hid from God. So rather than give
thanks, man by nature, like his father, is against God. In the day Adam disobeyed God,
he surely died. He died spiritually. He became
fully corrupt in his heart, and he was full of hatred and animosity
towards God instead of thanksgiving. Even so, when He died, so did
we die in Him. When He died as our representative,
truly, we died in Him. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. For all have sinned. By one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. So then by Adam's sin, his whole
race died and ceased to give God thanks. So then what should be the most
reasonable thing? Which is to give thanks to God.
That man should give thanks to his maker, must now be stressed
to us. Instead of it being something
reasonable, it's something I must exhort you to do. It's something
I must encourage you to do because it's not natural to give thanks
to God. Because man failed. What was
natural to Adam when he was created after his sin became foreign.
Even so, it was against his very nature to give thanks to God.
Instead of giving thanks, man by nature rather blames God. Isn't that what Adam did? He said, the woman you gave me. He blamed God. He blamed God
for his troubles. But the psalmist reminds us of
this truth. You should give thanks unto God,
for the Lord is good. This is a reason. This is the
reason you should thank God, is because God is good. People think that God is good
because of what He does. No. God is essentially good and
therefore all that He does is good. Everything God does is
good. Now whether you can reconcile
it in your mind or not, that doesn't matter. God is good. And you should give thanks unto
God for He is good. Remember, I've told you the story
about the king's friend who shot off the king's thumb and was
put into the dungeon. He always had that saying, it's
good, it's good. And the king, when he got angry
at him for shooting off his thumb, the man said, well, it's good.
And the king threw him in the dungeon. You remember the king
went over to Africa hunting, and then his whole crew got ate
by cannibals. And the king was left uneaten
because the cannibals wouldn't eat him, anybody who wasn't whole. And so he runs back to his friend
and he said, Yeah, it's good that you shot off my thumb. And
it's good. I'm sorry. And the man said,
No, it's good you threw me in the dungeon. He said, how is
that good? He said, well, if I was with
you, I would have got eaten. You see, everything God does
is good. It's good. O man, give thanks to God, for
He is good. This is just not speaking of
His actions, but of His person. God is not chargeable with sin,
nor is He the author of sin. But we know this, that God has
purposed that sin should come into the world by Satan and by
Adam, for the Scriptures are plain, all things are of God,
and yet God is good for still allowing it to come. Does that not twist your mind?
Does that not cause you to say, well, I can't figure that out?
It's not for you to figure out. Don't try to wrestle with it.
God is good no matter what He's done. He's not chargeable with
sin and yet He's allowed it into His world. For what purpose?
To show His deity, to show His grace and mercy toward sinners. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. And men should give thanks unto
God. Because not only is He good, but notice this, His mercy endureth
forever. Now this word endureth is not
in the original. So it should read, for His mercy
forever. Give thanks unto God for His
mercy forever. Do you not see that God's mercy
is nothing like your mercy? You should give thanks that God's
mercy is not like my mercy. And I give thanks that God's
mercy is not like your mercy. Because our mercy is changeable,
it's mutable, isn't it? We can have mercy on someone
one day and then come back on them again. But God is not like that. God
is merciful forever. Forever. Behold God who is infinitely
good and holy and just, and whose eyes are purer than to behold
iniquity, yet He is also a God of infinite mercy. Have you not considered that
if God were to have left Adam alone in the garden, If God were to have left His
whole race with no hope of salvation, if He had left us to be like
the fallen angels who are kept in chains of darkness, that God
would not be any less good. Isn't that right? God's goodness is not based on
what happens to us. His goodness is essential. God
is goodness. His goodness is essential to
His being. And yet in His goodness toward
man, God did purpose to display another attribute. Mercy. Mercy. The whole of creation should
give thanks unto God, for the earth is full of His glory. Yet,
now notice in verse 2 that they're the only ones who give thanks. Who offer thanks are those who
have experienced His goodness and mercy. Look at that. Let
the redeemed of the Lord say so. Whom He hath redeemed from
the hand of the enemy. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Who is going to give thanks to
God this morning? Who's going to give thanks to
God? They're redeemed. They're redeemed. Herein is the
display of God's goodness and mercy in the redemption of His
people by Jesus Christ. This is the manifestation of
all the glory and mercy and goodness of God is the redemption of His
people. The redemption that is by Jesus
Christ. All of those who are redeemed
of the Lord Jesus Christ are the elect of the Father who were
given to Christ before the world began. Go over to John chapter
10. John chapter 10. Jesus speaking in the figure
of the shepherd and his sheep. A parable. Jesus declares plainly in verse
14, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. and other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Now notice, he goes over here
and these Jews, they refuse to believe him. And Jesus said,
they asked him the question, he said, how long do you make
us to doubt? Are you the Christ or not? And he said, I've told
you. I've told you plainly. But you believe not. For the
works that I do in my Father's name bear witness of me." Listen,
but you believe not. Why? Why is it that you do not
believe? Because you are not of my sheep. You are not of my redeemed. That's why you do not believe. My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me."
Who gave these sheep to Jesus Christ? The Father gave the sheep
to Jesus Christ, and He said, I lay down My life for who? The sheep. And he gives the sheep eternal
life. And he says to his sheep, you
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck you
out of my hand. Why? The Father which gave you me
is greater than all, and no man will ever pluck you out of his
hand. Behold, then, that Jesus Christ
has come according to the Scripture, that He was born of the virgin's
womb, the seed of the woman, that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh and as a man represented us. He represented us before
God. And so then, all of His actions
were ours. He did them in our stead, in
our place, so that all of His faith, all of His faithfulness,
He was obtaining for us. He was working for us. He was
doing this in our place. Scripture says He was born of
a woman made under the law. For what purpose? To redeem them
that were under the law. To redeem. To buy. Not only did God give you to
Christ to be your representative, but Christ must have also purchased
you, bought you with a price. The only way His elect could
be redeemed is that the price of sin and justice be paid. That's the only price that God
would accept was blood. Jesus came to fulfill our righteousness
and to suffer the death of the cross as our substitute. Substitute. I'll tell you what,
if you want a word for the gospel, there it is. Substitute. You under the condemnation of
God and Christ said, I'll be His substitute. I'll take His
punishment. And upon the cross, The Father
imputed all the guilt of our sin to His Holy Son and poured
out His wrath on Him. There is no greater display of
hell than the cross. It was hell that Jesus Christ
suffered. He suffered as our substitute,
for the Scripture says He has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all. I believe it's in Romans chapter
5. Yes, it is. Romans chapter 5
and verse 11, it says, and not only so, but we also joy in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, listen, by whom we have now received
the atonement. Do you realize in the New Testament
that's the only time the word atonement is used? Matter of fact, it's better translated
reconciliation. That's why it's translated in
all the other passages of Scripture. Reconciliation. By Jesus Christ,
by His paying our sins on the cross, we have received reconciliation
with God. That's what redemption has bought.
You want to know what His blood bought? It bought reconciliation
with God. This same word is used in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 19, to wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now are we ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's
stead, be you reconciled to God. What's the basis of this reconciliation? What's the grounds by which I
can be reconciled to God? He says it, "...for He hath made
Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." There's the grounds of reconciliation. Atonement. Redemption. Full payment for sin. Therefore, by his one offering,
he did what no earthly priest could ever do. He did what no sacrifice of man
could ever do. He actually paid for sin. In Hebrews chapter 8, the covenant
that God made with Israel says this, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. And
their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. God says, I
promise. Listen, this is God, as though
God were raising His hand and swearing. He says, I will not
remember your sins. And we say, how is that possible? I can't forget them. Can you?
They're always right there in front of me. Right now as I'm
preaching to you, sin is all I do. Sin is mixed with all I
do. How is it that God will not remember? How can God be just and not remember
my sins? Because they have already been
paid for. Therefore, God will not ever,
will not ever come back and demand payment from me. Ever! Never! Never! He will demand
payment from me. Why? Because He'd already paid
for them. He says, I'm satisfied with Jesus'
death, and I raised Him from the dead, I sat Him on the throne.
What more do you need? What more do you need? What more
evidence do you need? Your sins are gone. Should that not be enough? Should that not be enough? And yet I know this, it's still. troubles me. Well, that's why God gives us
examples of it. You redeemed of the Lord. You
should give thanks to God in every waking second. Why? Because he hath redeemed you.
And he shows us a picture of our redemption. Oh, you go through
this chapter and He shows us example after example after example
of what He has done for us to manifest this redemption. He
has manifested it over and over and over again to us. Type after
type and picture after picture. Shadow after shadow. And every
one of them resembles our experience. Every one of them. Look at this
experience. Look. I'm back to your text. He's redeemed
them. He says that the redeemed of
the Lord should give thanks for His goodness and mercy because
He's gathered us. He's gathered us. The elect and redeemed of God
were scattered all over the world in every nation, tribe, tongue,
and people. The elect of God were no different
of any of Adam's race. We were sinners. Fallen, depraved
sinners. Paul says in Ephesians chapter
2 that we were dead in trespasses and sin. We were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others. We were haters of God just like
everybody else. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ. Do you not see that when Christ
suffered and died, you suffered and died as He was your representative? And when He was risen from the
dead, even so were you risen in your representative. And so when you came into this
world dead in trespasses and sins, He quickened you by grace. by grace. You were wandering
along in your sin, not seeking God, but He found
you. Where did He find you? They wandered in the wilderness
in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in. God, according to His love and
mercy at the appointed time of His grace, He gathers His elect
and He always finds them in the same place, in the wilderness. I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to be as honest as
you possibly can with yourself. I don't care if you're honest
with me. Just be honest with yourself. When has sin ever satisfied
you? When have you ever sinned and
said, Whoa, man, that's enough. I can't take anymore. Oh, it's
so great. I don't need it anymore because
it was so great. Sin never satisfies. Sin is always like the desert
wilderness. It is barren and it cannot make
you happy. It cannot satisfy your soul. It cannot give you what it promises. It promises happiness. It promises
joy. It promises peace. But it is
a mirage. And as soon as you get there,
And you take it, you have nothing but sand in your mouth, and it
makes you even want more of it. It's never a satisfying thing. Sin is never satisfying. And
that's where God found me. He found me in the waist-howling
wilderness of my sin. I was wandering in a desolate
way. I was going my own way. And I'll tell you, your own way
is a very desolate way. You follow your own lusts, your
own passions, as the world tells you to, as your flesh wants to. And I'll tell you, you'll end
up ruining your life. Who here doesn't have examples
of that in their own family? Who? whose family is so perfect
that they don't have anybody to look to as an example of what
sin does. And yet, that doesn't change
us one bit, does it? We head in the same desolate
direction as those around us. Oh, not me! You know, that happened
to him, but that won't happen to me. No, uh-uh. I'm going to be different. He
banged his head against the wall and it hurt him, but when I do
it, it's going to feel good. Well, you are really a fool,
aren't you? I was. He found us wandering in the
wilderness, and what then did he do? He said, they hungered and thirsted,
and their soul fainted in them. Every one of God's elect will
experience this. This is something that the lost
people of the world will never experience but by God's grace,
is to hunger for righteousness, to know our need. You see, people
are wandering in the desert of sin, and they're content to wander
in the desert of sin. But God in His grace, when He
comes and gathers us, He makes us discontent with sin. Isn't that what He did for you?
He made me discontent. In other words, all those things
that once I enjoyed, I found that I needed something
that these things could never provide. I needed righteousness. And what did I do? Well, I went
searching for righteousness. I tried to find every religion
I could possibly find. I went to... Man, you don't know
how many times I walked down an aisle. Why? Because there was a need. I knew
I had a need. And I couldn't fulfill it. And
religion couldn't fulfill it. I made as many decisions as I
wanted to. That never saved me. What I needed
was what I could not provide. I needed something that only
God could give me. And I hungered, and what we do
after this hunger? We cry out to God. We come to the end of ourself
and say, I cannot go any further. I must have Christ. I must have Him. Listen, the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
You realize that I must have Christ, or I die. I must have
Him. I cannot merit Him. I cannot
earn Him. I must be given to Christ. God must do something for me
that I cannot do in all my power. He must give me life. And that's
exactly what He did. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. And listen, He delivered them
out of their distress. What distressed his people? Sin
distressed me. But I cried and he delivered. Can you find me one instance
in scripture that a sinner came begging Christ
for mercy and didn't find it? There ain't one. He's turned away self-righteous
men, but he's never turned away a
beggar in need of righteousness. Man, that's good. That's good for who? For beggars. And he led them forth by the
right way. Where did he lead us out of our
distresses? He led us to the city of refuge. You remember those six cities? that when a man accidentally
killed his neighbor, he was to run, flee to those cities. And he was safe in the city. As long as the high priest lived,
he was to remain in the city. But as soon as the priest had
died, he was free to go anywhere. We flee to Christ and find out
the high priest has died. And now we're free to go anywhere.
And where do we go? To Christ. I don't want to go anywhere else. Do you? Is there any place, believer,
you would rather be found? Is there any other place that
you can find rest? He hath redeemed us. And he leads us in the right
way. The right way is not our way. The right way is Christ. The right way to glory is Christ. He led us forth by the right
way that we might go into the city whose Builder and Maker
is God. Do you not see that I should
give thanks unto the Lord because this mercy that He's shown me,
His mercy that He redeemed me, this mercy that He found me,
this mercy that He fed me and led me in the right way is going
to bring me to glory. because His mercy doesn't ever
end. Our faith is constantly weak. Our love is constantly cold and
indifferent, but His mercy forever. His mercy's forever. And He feeds us. He feeds us. For He satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul. I thought this interesting. Do you realize that if you were
to eat rabbit meat, as much rabbit meat as you want,
fill this room with rabbits, you know you'll starve to death? Rabbit meat is just too lean.
There's not enough fat in it. Those of you who like to diet,
I guess you can have rabbit meat. You could lose a lot of weight.
Be careful, you'll starve to death on it. Even so, it is with sin, isn't
it? You can eat as much sin as you want, but it'll never satisfy.
I tell you this. In the Old Testament, they used
to give the fat to the priests. Why? The fat is the best part. It's the most flavor and nourishment
come from the fat. Oh, friends, eat the fat of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen, God says, Even I am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions. And I will not remember your
sins. Now, when God wills something,
doesn't it come to pass? God said, I will not remember
your sins anymore. This is the meat that the children
of God eat. All that men should praise the
Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children
of men. You're redeemed. You should say so. You should
say thanks be to God. Thanksgiving is truly the most we could do. And truly, it's the least we
could do. Give thanks. You're redeemed. For God hath taken you from the
wilderness and fed you with the manna of life and giving you
a refuge. Is that not reason enough to
give thanks? May God help us to give thanks.
Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.