Grandest theme, let the tidings
roll. I like that. Go with me now to Psalm 116. Psalm 116. Let's begin reading in verse
one. We'll read down to verse eight. I love the Lord because he hath
heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The
sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold
upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then
called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee,
deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low and he helped
me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. And verse eight will
be our text tonight. It says, Thou hast delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from
falling. That's a good verse, isn't it? You can see why, as I read down
through this, I was, I mean, you can see the outline. You
see our outline for tonight, right? Thou hast delivered my
soul from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from falling.
It's just amazing to me how when you slow down, we read these
psalms, we go through these psalms. I plan on going through whole
psalms still, but when you slow down, there's so much in here. There's so much to enjoy and
meditate on and rejoice in. David said, the Lord has dealt
so bountifully with me. And I believe that's what I see
in going through this psalm like this. The Lord has dealt so bountifully
with us. He's just dealt so bountifully.
The Lord has dealt bountifully with me. He said, he delivered
my soul from death. My eyes from tears. That means
he did something for my heart. Out of the heart, the tears flow. My soul from death, my eyes from
tears, and my feet from falling. In all three of those things,
he did it. The Lord did it. The Lord dealt
bountifully with me. Why would he deal bountifully
with us? What have we ever done to deserve
his bountifulness? Nothing, nothing. It's just amazing. This whole thing is a notification
of what he's done for us. It's just amazing. He's dealt
so bountifully. It occurred to me that all three
of those things are literal, not figurative. He is speaking
in literal terms. Thou has delivered my soul from
death. Literally, literally Ephesians two says,
and you have, he quickened who were dead. You were dead. You were dead. Romans 5 verse 12 says, by one
man sin entered the world and death by sin and so death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned. Yes, all men and women
eventually die. But they're born that way. Death
passed upon all men and women in that moment. Psalm 23, verse four, it says,
we're literally right now walking through the valley of the shadow
of death. Hebrews 2, 15, it says, all our
lifetime, we're gonna be subject to bondage through fear of death. In Adam, all die. If men and
women could ever understand that, they would do away with works
religion. If they would just get ahold
of that, if they would just get a hold of that. Men and women
are born into this world dead in trespasses and sins. And if
mankind would just understand that, he would do away with works
religion. If people truly realize that
they are dead before God, I know that we are animated in some
form of physical life, but spiritually speaking, we are dead before
God. If people realized that in the Garden of Eden, this flesh
died, the soul died, the soul that sinned died. The soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die. And it did. If men and women
were not wrong on the fall, they wouldn't be wrong on it all. The people who are right now
in this world are dead people. In their nature, in their flesh,
the souls in this world are dead souls, dead to God, spiritually
dead. But turn over to John chapter
five. I love this verse so much. I'm
so thankful for this verse personally and. As a preacher of the gospel,
I just I'm so grateful for this verse. John 5 verse 25 it our
Lord said. Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour is coming and now is. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. That's power right there. That's
sovereign power. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead, I love that, the
dead, shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. What glorious news that is. The
voice of the Son of God makes dead people hear and live. What does he say to them? When
he speaks to dead people, what does he say to them? This is
what he says. Lazarus, come forth. Gabe, come forth now. Not when it's a convenient time,
right now. Every time, that's what he says. Loose him and let him go. That's
what he says. Look unto me and be ye saved. What a thing to hear. What a
thing to hear. Nothing thrills me more than
to watch some poor soul who spent all their lifetime in false religion,
the bondage of false religion, and all of a sudden they hear
the truth, they come to know the truth, and the truth sets
them free. Look at John 6 verse 40. John 6 verse 40, this is the
will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise
him up at the last day. He said, I am come that they
might have life. And not just life, but life more
abundant. Life more abundant. Life in Christ,
we already know that. Life in Christ is more abundant. We already know that, but soon
we're gonna experience it and we just can't imagine it's gonna
be so much more abundant. Eternal life, immortal life,
incorruptible life, sinless life. How did he give that life to
us? By his own sacrifice and death. That's how he gave that
life to us, by his own suffering and death. He died that we might
have life. The life was in the blood, in
his blood, and he gave his own blood that we might have that
life. Turn over to 1 John 5. 1 John 5, verse 11. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. and that
you may believe on the name of the son of God. By the death,
burial and resurrection of Christ, our souls have been delivered
and by faith, we know that and we believe that. We believe on
Christ, we believe his word, we believe what he said he did
and we're confident. We're confident we have eternal
life in him. He said that we do, and we do.
David said, the Lord hath dealt so bountifully with me. Number
one, because he delivered my soul from death. If we trust Christ, we trust
that. He delivered our soul from death. Turn with me over to Luke 7. Luke 7, our text said, thou hast
delivered my soul from death and mine eyes from tears. You've delivered my eyes from
tears. And I couldn't help but think
of this account. See if you don't love this account as much as
I do. Verse 36, Luke 7, verse 36. And one of the Pharisees
desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's
house and sat down to meet and behold, a woman in the city,
which was a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat
at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment
and stood at his feet behind him, weeping and began to wash
his feet with tears. and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Can you not envision this woman? Do you have this scene in your
mind, just seeing her just crying and crying and crying all over
the Lord's feet? Why was she crying? Why was she
crying so much? She was a sinner. She was a sinner, a sinner in
need of a savior. She was a sinner in need of mercy. She was a sinner in need of forgiveness. Verse 39, now when the Pharisee
which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying,
this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what
manner of woman this is that touched him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. And he saith,
Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast
rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my
feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou
gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath
not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore
I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she
loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with
him began to say within themselves, who is this that can forgive
sins also? And he said to the woman, thy
faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Can you imagine him, you
have that in your mind? Can you see him wiping her tears
while he said that to her? Can you see him doing that? Revelation 7 and Revelation 21
both say that the Lord our God is going to wipe all tears from
our eyes. Turn to Isaiah 25. Isaiah 25, verse six. And in
this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
a feast of fat things, and a feast of wines on the lees, of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And
he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast
over all people. and the veil that is spread over
all nations, he will swallow up death in victory, and the
Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke
of his people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the
Lord hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that
day, lo, this is our God. We have waited for him and he
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for him. We will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. God himself is going to be the
very one who wipes every tear out of the eyes of his people. And what's he going to do with
those tears after he wipes them? Is he just going to rub them
away? What's he going to do with them? Psalm 56 verse 8 says he
is going to put every one of them in his bottle and then write every one of them
in his book. The tears of his people. Think about the compassion of
this man. Think about the love and the
pity and the tenderness of this man. Every time one of his little
ones sheds a tear, he writes it down in his book. That's beautiful. Turn to Psalm 62. Brother Roy Baldwin's favorite
psalm. I bet you he really likes it
right now. Psalm 62, our text, said, thou
hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. Psalm 62, verse one, it says,
truly my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. How long will you imagine mischief
against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall you be and as a tottering fence. They
only consult to cast him down from his excellency. They delight
in lies. They bless with their mouth,
but they curse inwardly. My soul, wait thou only upon
God, for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my
salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you
people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. The rock of our salvation, our
rock of ages, the rock that cannot be moved, Cannot be moved. I love how Moses said in Deuteronomy
32 verse 31, he said, their rock is not like our rock. And it's
so. Their rock can crumble. They
can fall off of their rock, not our rock. They that trust in
the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth
forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from henceforth
even forever. Even forever. A vessel wrecked one stormy night
off the coast of England, and all were drowned except an Irish
boy, because the waves swept him onto a great rock. I love
this story. Bob gave it to me. Bob found
it and sent it to me. And this is one of my favorite
things to tell. This vessel went down off the coast of England. Everybody drowned. But one Irish
boy, because the waves swept him onto a great rock, in the
morning he was rescued. And they asked him, lad, didn't
you tremble out there on the rock during the night? He said,
sure I trembled. But the rock didn't tremble once,
all night long. That's good, isn't it? Would
you have been afraid out there all night? You better believe
it. But thank God I was standing on the rock. And that's Christ. That rock is Christ. He is our
salvation. He is our foundation. He is our
hope. He is our security. He's our
safety. He's our everything. He holds
us up. We're being upheld by the word
of his power. Sure foundation in soul, heart,
and body. We are delivered forever. We
are delivered forever. We are safe forever. We are secure
forever. To our Lord be all the glory
for that. Amen.