is bound, yes, heavenly so. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord for truth He's
given, for the word of prophecy that has drawn the veil from
heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Good singing. The song's worth
it. The song's worth singing. All
right, go back to Psalm 103 with me. This will be a two-part message
from this psalm, the first twelve verses tonight. And beginning
with verse 13 on Sunday morning, we'll try to finish it up. I
didn't want to give verse 13 just a mere five minutes at the
end. This is truly one of my favorite psalms. And whenever
I am feeling especially thankful, Whenever I feel especially thankful
to the Lord for His mercy, His goodness, His grace, this psalm
always comes to my mind. Is it yours? Some of you are
nodding your head. This is a psalm of blessing,
blessing the Lord. The word bless means to kneel
in adoration. It means to fall down before
the Lord. as being overcome by his goodness,
being amazed by his mercy and his goodness to you. Before we
get into this, turn over to 2 Samuel 7 and look at this. I immediately thought of this
in 2 Samuel 7 when thinking about this falling
down before the Lord David. The Lord through the prophet
Nathan was telling David what all he was going to do for him.
where he found him in the sheep coat, following up the sheep
and where he put him on the throne and what he was going to do for
him the rest of his day. And David was absolutely overcome
and fell down, blessed the Lord. Verse 18 through 22. Then went
King David in and sat before the Lord, just plopped down.
And he said, Who am I? Oh Lord, God. And what is my house that thou
hast brought me hitherto? And you say that would make this
house into this house, God's house. And this was yet, look
at verse nine, this was yet a small thing, my sight, oh Lord God,
but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great
while to come. Is this the matter of man? Oh
Lord God. And what can David say more unto
them? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant. For thy word's sake,
and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great
things, to make thy servant know them. Wherefore, thou art great,
O Lord God, very none like thee, neither is there any God beside
thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. So
that's blessing the Lord. being overcome with his goodness
to you and just falling down before him. That's what the word
bless actually means. It means to to fall down to kneel
in adoration before him. Go back to our text. So David
says, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. And all that is
within me. bless his holy name bless the
lord oh my soul can you say that with david every believer in
here can say this with david my soul bless the lord oh lord
i fall down before you oh David wrote in one psalm, three times
in that psalm, he said, Oh, that men would praise the Lord for
his goodness, for his wondrous works to the children of men.
All men don't, but God's people do. They bless him for his wonderful
work. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. I
have more reason than anybody in here to bless the Lord. You
disagree with me, Kelly? Good, I was hoping somebody would.
Do you have great reason to bless the Lord with all that's within
you? I'd like to do that just one
time in my life, wouldn't you? With all my being, all my mind,
heart, soul, and strength, wouldn't you? We will someday. Every now and then he lets me,
just a little bit, but not nearly enough. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Verse 2,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. So often we're prone to forget
all the benefits the Lord has bestowed upon us, and everything
is a gift, isn't it? The air we breathe, the homes
we live in, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the water we
drink, everything. Our families, everything is a
gift. Every good and perfect gift comes down from us. And we wake up every morning,
and these blessings are still there. And so we presume upon
them. We take them for granted. And
we forget no one. We forget, oh, my soul. Don't forget His benefit. That's when we grow tired of,
well, we get a little weary of hearing the gospel and coming
here because we've forgotten all of its benefits. The greatest
benefit of all, I've already said this, is that you're here
tonight. I was driving somewhere late this evening and the traffic,
you know, was just zooming here and there, people getting off
work and going somewhere. Very few people will go into
God's house tonight to worship God. Very few people. But God has chosen you. The lot
was cast in the lap. You may have thought that you
decided to come to church. You didn't. The whole disposing
thereof was of the Lord. This is the greatest benefit
of all. Thank you. Don't forget this
benefit, of all benefits. Verse 3, He forgiveth all thine
iniquities. It gets better. He forgiveth
all thine iniquities. Now, listen to me. I hope I can
make this clear. The problem with this world,
every problem that the world has, The source of everyone's
personal problem is sin. See, man is guilty before God. Of sinning against God, of sinning
against mercy, sinning against grace, sinning against His goodness,
not acknowledging their Creator, not being thankful, ignoring
God, who just freely, freely, freely gives and bestows and
gives and bestows. And man does not like to even
think of God in all of his knowledge. And man is guilty of robbing
God of His glory, Man is guilty before God, and therefore man,
contrary to what preachers are saying, man is under the wrath
of God Almighty. Not under his love, but rather
under his wrath. And for this reason, men and
women try to find happiness, but can't do it. No matter how
much they accumulate, no matter where they go, or what they do,
or what all they get in this life, they're not happy, and
they never will be. They can't find that peace. They
can't find that contentment. Why? God won't let them. There is no rest, God said, for
the wicked. Their iniquities have separated
them from God, God who is love, God who is mercy, God who is
grace, God who is peace, God who is all of these things. Man
without God cannot have any of those things. But God has been merciful to you in that
greatest need of all. The thing which gives us the
peace we really need is forgiveness of sin. God has completely, eternally
forgiven us, A-double-L, all our iniquities. And so I can say to every believer,
and I'm talking to those who are in Christ by faith, I can
say to every believer in here with the utmost confidence Smile. God loves you. Smile. All your iniquities are
gone. Verse 3, he says, he healeth
all thy diseases. He healeth all thy diseases.
If anyone is healed, the Lord did it. Deuteronomy 32, you know
the verse, quoted often. The Lord says, I wound, I heal. I kill, I make a living. For this reason, I absolutely
despise hearing all of these people talk about being cancer
survivors, as if they did something, some heroic struggle and fight,
that they actually defeated something. Again, robbing God of His glory.
If they are healed, it's not because they fought cancer. Does
that make the ones who succumb to it losers? No, the fact that they are healed
is because God Almighty healed them. And it says, I heal all
thy diseases. Well, what about a believer who
dies from a disease? Like he said, I completely healed. They're
healed forever. They're healed forever. All God's
diseases. Verse 4 says, He, God, redeemeth
thy life from destruction. You're looking at somebody whom
the Lord kept from destroying himself. And I'm sure you could say the
same. Couldn't you? But now, by God's mercy and grace,
I believe I have reason to live. Don't you? Like Paul said, I
believe I can say, for me to live is Christ. Before, for me
to live was me. But now, for me to live is Christ. The fact that I do is Christ. And the fact that I want to is
Christ. And all of my life now I want don't always do this,
but I want it is in my heart. God knows. God knows your heart.
Your heart's desire is to win Christ and be found in him. To
know him. To grow in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. To win Christ. That is And to
know him and to love his people. He redeemeth thy life from destruction.
And with the God, he would do that for some more. He redeemeth
thy, if God leaves us alone, will destroy ourselves, every
one of us. He crowneth thee, verse 4, with
loving kindness and tender mercy. crown of thee with loving kindness."
That's an old word for grace, an Old Testament word for grace.
And tender mercy. Whenever I think of this verse,
I always think of an old crippled fellow back in 2 Samuel 9. You want to go back there? Now,
this is my favorite story. 2 Samuel 9. I always think of
this fellow. Don't you? When you think of
somebody showing great mercy to an undeserving person, not
only that, but loving kindness. Omah Fibbership, you know it.
I'll not read the whole story. If you have not read this before
someone, if you have not heard this, go back and read this whole
chapter. And hang around. Maybe we'll
preach from it in the near future. Second, Samuel 9. You know the
story. Old Mephibosheth was an enemy
of David the king and deserved to die like all of David's enemies,
Saul's sons. And he was crippled, lame from
a fall. And yet because of a covenant,
an agreement David made with this man's father, his dear friend
Jonathan, whom he loved as his own soul, all of which is a picture
of God's covenant with his Son, Christ, for the enemy's sake. And David had Omah-Phibosheth
brought in. Verse 7, And David said unto
him, Omah-Phibosheth, who thought surely David was going to destroy
him like he did all his enemies, he said to him, Fear not, for
I will surely show thee kindness. for Jonathan, thy father's son."
What kind of comment is that? How much kind? Read on. "...and will restore all the
land of Saul, thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually." On down it says, "...as one of the king's sons."
Not only did he spare his life, but he gave him all that he had
lost. And not only that, he adopted it. And told him that he would
eat at his table for the rest of his day, safe, secure from
all harm. Sitting there around the king's
table, just as if he had never been one of the king's enemies,
but always one of his, equal with Solomon, equal with the
rest of his son. And what did Mephibosheth say
of this? Well, he blessed the Lord. Look at it. Verse eight.
He bowed himself. He fell down. He said, What is
thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog? Oh, my. Who crowneth thee. Go
back to the text. Who crowneth. Not only forgives
your iniquity, but crowneth thee with lovingkindness. and tender
mercy. Tender mercy. I love the sound
of that, don't you? Tender mercy. Not just mercy. Well, I'll spare you, but tender mercy. Tender mercy. Verse 5 says, He satisfied thy
mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the
eagle. Good things? Well, you want to
turn to Psalm 34 with it? Psalm 34. Good things? So that
the youth is renewed like the eagle. You know, sin will age
you rapidly. Sin mars this image that God
created. I bet you, well I'm quite certain
of it, that when Adam walked out of that garden, he aged. Well, he lived 930 years. He
aged 100 years. Right like that. Sin. Sin. Sin will age someone. Prodigal. I believe the prodigal
son went away young, robust, in the prime of his life. But
the scripture says he wasted his success. That means he wasted
his life. Tried to destroy himself. And
he wasted away, not only spiritually, but physically. I believe he
grew old rapidly, mind, body, and soul, until finally he wasted
all of his earthly goods and his health and strength and all
that, and was feeding like an old hog in a pig pen, feeding
on the husks. Now, you know he got down skin
and bone, haggard looking, old looking, and he grew old very
rapidly, didn't he? Well, he came back. And I believe that after a while
of sitting back at the father's table, his guilt is gone. Well, he's forgiven. And he's sitting at the father's
table, and the father's smiling at him. And after all those good
meals, and he's getting fat, I believe his youth returns to
him, don't you? So it is with God's people. I have literally
seen people in this room right here, come in here, looking over
their mouth, and right now, look younger than they did when they
came. That is so. Look at Psalm 34,
verse 9 and 10. This is my favorite Psalm. 9
and 10, it says, Oh, fear the Lord, you saints. There's no
want to them that fear him. No want The Lord is my shepherd,
can you say that? I shall not want. Read on. The young lions, these robust,
strong lions in the woods who seem to fend for themselves,
yet they lack and they suffer hunger. But not I, not God's
people. They that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. Go over to Psalm 84. This is
good. Psalm 84. They that fear the
Lord shall never want, that is lack, any good thing. What good thing? The word thing
was in Italian. You know what I'm saying? Any good. The best part is right
here. God's Word. God's Word. This
is what, this is the milk of God's Word that renews your youth. God's Word, the worship of his
people. David here in this psalm, Long
before, he was away from it, and he longed for that more than
anything else. Have you ever been away from the house of worship
for any length of time? That is unavoidable, unavoidable. And he couldn't any longer be
back with God's people worshipping him. And when he got back, oh,
it was so good. David longed for that. Good worship,
good things, good, his worship, his people, these are the best
people on the planet. After you've been out in the
world with those people, this is an oasis, isn't it? It's kind
of like rubbed shoulders with these folks. Ah, my, you experience
a smile, you experience mercy and kindness, a kind word and
grace and all of love you actually experience among these people.
You won't find it out there. This is the best part. These
are good things. Look at Psalm 84, verse 11. It
also applies to anything. The Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good will he withhold from
them that walk of God. No good. Don't you delight to
give good things to your children? The Lord will not withhold any
good anything. The sky is not the limit. The Lord will not withhold any
good, anything in this world. Now, let's make that very plain. Anything in this world is truly
good. that God created to be enjoyed and God created all things
for us richly to enjoy and anything that's truly good. You know I'm
not talking about abundance of wealth but good things. He will
not withhold. Anything worth having is what
God created. And he will not withhold it.
First, go back to our text. It says that, Lord, satisfy thy
mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the
eagle. Verse 6, the Lord executed righteousness and judgment for
all that are oppressed. Righteousness and judgment. The
Lord executed that for all that are oppressed. All who are oppressed
by all of his people. Who are oppressed by sin, Satan,
and the world. all who are oppressed by their
own guilt that is God's people. The Lord Jesus Christ came down
here and executed righteousness so that they would be accepted
in him. So there's no condemnation to
be in the book of condemnation. And this is also speaking of
the Lord God, who's the judge of all who will judge righteously. The scripture says this so often
in scripture that the Lord judges his people in righteousness.
That doesn't mean that they're standing before him and he's
judging their sins and all that. No, he did that in Christ. This
word judgment means deal with. He will deal with them righteously
in a good way in a perfect way he'll deal with them as far he
will never deal with them when I see in a moment as his enemy
in their feet but he deals with them as far and he deals with
everyone Concerning. Yes, the Lord said. That don't
not only applies to the Lord Jesus Christ, but to all his
people. The Lord judges righteously all who are oppressed now. Everyone in here experiences
some of this oppression at the hands of the world, whether it
be your employer. Or just your no good rotten neighbor. or just anybody don't you. This
world is a violent. Wicked. God hating place. And I didn't nearly tell it like
it is. It's cruel. Full of hatred wrath malice. And this world does not treat
God's people Not well at all. Not at all. Christ said, you'll
be hated by all men for my namesake. And just the common ordinary
fellow, even if he doesn't know you, can be pretty mean at times. I was riding down the road the
other day, well, yesterday or the day before, and minding my
own business. I wasn't doing anything wrong.
I was just driving along honestly. I wasn't doing anything wrong. And for some reason, the fellow
behind me just didn't like what happened. So he pulled around
me in a big tuft, you know, and and shot me some real obscene
gestures and gestures. I wanted to chase him down, but
by the grace of God, I didn't want to chase him down. But I
didn't. I thought Man, what did I do
to deserve that? I wasn't driving that bad. The world is a mean place. It
really is. You go into work and your boss
is just rough on you. And our Lord said, vengeance
is mine. I will do that. Nothing goes unpunished at the
hands of the Lord. Not one single injustice is gotten
away with. Scripture says they shall receive,
every sin shall receive a just recompense of the world. God
will see to it. This is why he says don't you
take vengeance because it won't, you won't end it. It'll just
keep coming back on you. Reprisal and so forth. You can't
end it. Don't you do it. God Count on
it. And the vengeance you exact won't
be enough. These people that commit these
horrible crimes, murderers and rapists and so forth, that we
grow so, we get so angry at, we want to see them suffer the
worst suffering they can. Well, God will render vengeance. He will. Count on it. Oh, my, look at it. Moses, he
made this known to Moses, verse seven. He made it known unto
Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Moses and the children
of Israel saw God's justice, didn't they? Against the Israelites? They saw. Every one of those
pursuers, including Pharaoh, that oppressed them for four
hundred and something years. They saw him dead at the hands
of God's justice, our enemy. His ways, his chief glory, God
made known to them his ways. What is his chief glory? Remember
when Moses asked the Lord, Show me your glory? The Lord showed
Moses his The Lord showed Moses his power, his provisions, and
so forth, able to bring water from a rock, and so forth. What
was the greatest glory of God that he showed Moses? Look at
the next verse. He says, The Lord is merciful.
The Lord showed me his mercy. The Lord is merciful, full of,
break that word down, full of mercy. Aren't you glad, because our
greatest need. And like the children of Israel,
we're not much better than the Egyptians. And our greatest need, we're
sinners against the same God, against the same goodness. And
our greatest need, God has a lot of it. Like water. I thought about water.
You know, we can live without food. You know, It never fails. Tonight I need a drink of water
more than any other. John's not here. Did you see
me turn around? Where's John? That's all right. Forget it. Too late now. I've
already swallowed my tongue twice. Water. You know, we can live
for days without bread, but we can't live one day without water.
You sure couldn't preach once. Water. We can't live without
it. That's why it's called the water of life. You know that.
Think about it. The world is two thirds. The thing which sustains the
life. Our life. The world is two thirds. And God is mercy. Full of mercy. My life eternal life depends
on this. Eternal life, my life depends on God's mercy. I'm telling
you, because I'm a sinner every day. I wake up a sinner. His mercies
are new every day. I'll be a sinner till the day
I die. His mercies are everlasting. I'm going to need God's mercy
if I live 70 years. I made it just as much. Someone and I were talking about
this. We all have all of us at times feel like we've send away
God's mercy and grace that we have been so sinful that Surely
God's not going to have mercy on me this time. He's not going
to spare me this time. But someone liking that to going
down to the ocean with a thimble, taking a thimble and going down
to the ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and getting a thimble full of
it and saying, well, I sure hope you don't run this place dry. That God's mercy, there's an
old hymn that says that the ocean of his fullness. Mercy, full. I need it. God is full of it.
New every morning and it endures forever. Thank God. God is gracious. Look at the next time. God is
gracious. Oh, like Mephibosheth. God not
only spares us, but he lavishes us with gifts. Not only does
he just forgive us, but he lavishes us with gifts. What's that song?
He'd give us, and give us, and give us again. Just when you
think it can't be anymore, you can't give him anymore. He does. He does. Gracious, meaning he's
full of grace. He is, look at this, oh I love
this, he's slow to anger. You happy about that? He is slow
to anger. Now listen, a slight display
of God Almighty's anger and wrath is devastating. Though men don't
acknowledge it, these hurricanes that came through, man is another
fool isn't he? Why all of a sudden are we getting
hit hurricane after hurricane after hurricane? My wife brought
this point up to me that Pensacola, Florida is a is well known as
a homosexual capital of the state of Florida. They have a holiday
every year and they just clear the beaches and just open that
city and give those people, if you want to call them that, the
key to the city. And they just run wild down there. God destroyed
Pensacola. That's no coincidence. No mere coincidence at all. One
slight display, he said there in Psalm 2, better kiss the sun
lest ye be angry, and his wrath is kindled but little. Flood,
how much rain does it take for God to just fill this place up
with water? Is there any doubt in your mind that God destroyed
this world by flood? Forty days and forty nights of
rain? It would cover this earth like that. And his wrath, when
his anger is vented just a little bit, it's devastating. Bless
God, he's slow to anger. Huh? You see, God is angry with
the wicked every day, Scripture says. He's angry with this world. It's not like these false prophets
say that God, smile, God loves everybody. It's not so. You've heard this before. Someone
had it. Noah did not have a bumper sticker
on the back of his ark saying, smile, God loves you. Those people on the wrath of
God, and they were dying because of their sin. God was angry,
and he showed it. Destroyed. And God is someday
going to unleash his anger to the fullest and destroy this
planet. But not us. Not us. Because we found grace.
Like Noah, we found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's been
merciful to us. And you. But God. Blessed God, he slowed to unleash
that anger. He ought to be angry with me. He slowed anger. And he's plenteous in mercy.
Why bring that up again, David? Because this is salvation. God's
mercy is our salvation. We're going to realize that.
We're going to realize that. Someday I realize that it's of
the Lord's mercy. These mercy plaintiffs and I
love the first man he will not always chat. Neither will he
keep his anger forever. You know that God's anger. Let
this be a surprise to you that we're speaking of God's anger
is over two hundred fifty times. Two hundred. more than the word. God is angry it is an expression
of his holiness and his justice it is it's given them to his
holiness. But and there have been times
when I know that the Lord is angry with me. And he does he
gets angry with his children. Yes sir, you read it for yourself.
I looked it up. Moses, it says the Lord was angry
with Moses. The scripture says the Lord was
angry with Aaron. The scripture says the Lord was
angry with Solomon. The scripture says the Lord was angry with
David. Do you get angry with your children? Sure you do. What kind of parent
would you be if you didn't? Well, you'd be a 21st century
parent, wouldn't you be? But there have been times when
I know the Lord is angry with me. Now, it's not anger in the
sense of hatred. It's not anger in the sense of
he's going to bring down his justice on my head. No, sir.
But it's divine displeasure. It's righteous indignation. It's
a parental anger. And he chides. He chides. You know what chide means? You've
done it to your children. Child means to grapple with.
It means to lay hold of. Like he did old Jacob. It means
to wrangle. Have you ever wrangled your child?
Have you ever been wrangled? Sam? Has your dad or mom ever
wrangled you? Not nearly enough. Chai is what
the word chai means. It means to To grapple to wrangle
with, lay hold of, and shake, and say, Lucy, listen to me. My old dog Abner, he's getting
old now, he's eight, nine years old now. I love that old feller. And you know, I'm seldom angry
with him. I'm seldom angry with Abner. But early on, when he
was young, A young girl. He growled at one
of the other dogs, trying to share the food bowl with him.
And that's what dogs do. Is that OK? It's not OK with
me. You see, I have determined that
we have peace in my little kingdom. And anybody who destroys that
peace, anybody who growls at anybody, I'm going to growl at
them. Well, Adler did that. And I chided him. Or whatever thought I was never
going to reach out. I grappled it. And he thought I know he
thought he's going to kill me. But I didn't shout him for it.
And you know it's like your children when you were disciplining your
children you thought that that's going to kill me. He's going
to literally kill me. Mom's beating me to death. There
might be three three little whacks on the leg. I'm dying. And that's a you know the Lord
angry with us grapples with us and his anger and you know Chad
it does it seems like it lasts a long time. Look at it says
he will not child forever he won't keep his his anger or not
he won't keep his anger it won't know that's. It's not our mercy
for him. He won't keep it. He grows angry,
as he should, shouldn't he? My dad was constantly angry with
me. He should have been. I'm just glad he didn't know
about the other 90% of stuff that he didn't find out about.
It really made him angry. Aren't you? Well, he hath not. Look at this.
He hath not dealt with us after our sin. He hath not rewarded
us according to our iniquities. God hath not dealt with us. Oh,
he's chiding me. He's chasing me. He's punishing
me. No, no, God doesn't punish in the sense of we think of punishment. No, he's chasing me. Brother
Marvin made that clear, didn't he, in talking about chasing
me and always of the Lord being an instruction, a lesson learned. If you're chasing severely enough,
it's a lesson you will not soon forget. If your daddy does beat
you with an inch of your life, you will not do that again. Well,
you won't want to do it again. A severe lesson is the only kind
of lesson you really learn. But now the Lord has not dealt
with us according to our sins. We haven't gotten a fraction
of what we deserve. No, sir. He hath not dealt with
us according after our sin, nor
rewarded us according to our iniquity. We don't get what's
coming to us. Thank God that Christ got what
was coming to us. And we, and here's, the world
talks about unfair, unfair. This is really unfair. Christ
got rewarded for what I did wrong. Christ got punished for me. He took my blame. Now, that's
unfair. Thank God. Thank God. He hath not dealt with us after
our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity, but He did Christ.
He dealt with Christ according to our sins. He put Christ through
hell for our sins. And He rewarded Christ for my
iniquity. And I get rewarded for his righteousness. You think about that. Isn't that
mercy? Isn't that great? Isn't that
wonderful? And look at this. This psalm
is wonderful. Verse 11, For as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
fear him. You remember us looking up in
the sky the other night, Gabe? David and I were out sitting
under the stars the other night, and we both thought about the
fact, the unbelievable fact, that there's no end to that sky. Now, there's no end. It does not end. Can you fathom that? We can't
fathom anything that doesn't have an end. His mercy has no end. As high
as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his mercy. I thought about this, too. I
thought about the brothers of Joseph. You remember old Joseph
was put in charge of the storehouses. There was a famine that went
through the land. And the Lord revealed to Joseph
to store up corn for the time of famine. Seven years of planting.
Seven years. What if we had seven years like
we had this year of hay, putting up hay? Your barn, you'd have
to build ten more to hold the hay. This has been a bumper crop
this year. Amazing. I wonder if people are
thinking, And now I doubt it they're out there on board that
they put it up. Well. Oh Joseph for seven years how
the poor. That you know how much we're
in the store what kind of storehouse. What kind of storehouses where
you're going to say. They were the vast most the best. Best. Granaries, this world has
ever known. Kansas, those places, never seen
granaries, silos, like Joseph today. Seven years of corn. Okay, along came the famine.
And Reuben and Simeon and all his brothers, you know, they
came and got sacks and old Reuben, this probably happened,
Reuben ran out of his corn. His sack went And I bet he thought,
I wonder if Joseph will give me another sack. I wonder if
he'll give me another sack. Well, I'm going to go home if
I don't. So he went and Joseph said, another
sack? You want another sack? Come here,
Reuben. Come here. And he took him in the warehouse. Opened the door. Get you a sack. Get you two sacks. Go get your wagon. Go get your
wagon. As high as the heaven is above
the earth, so great is his mercy. Bring you a sack. You'll get
it full of mercy. Bring you a wagon. For them that fear him, that's
a key word, and that fear him. Not these that presume upon his
mercy, but that those, this is for those who know they don't
deserve it. Those that fear his judgment, no, they get mercy. And in closing, as far as the
East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Is there anything in your past
you'd like to forget? Anybody? You say. All of my past. We can't forget. We just can't. It just keeps us thankful for
God's mercy. It keeps us coming to him for
mercy. It keeps the gospel sleeping.
But now what you can't forget God has. Completely. You bring it up to Him. And He
says, Why? I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember. Like that old
scapegoat. I love that story of the scapegoat. You know, people Those who really
needed forgiveness, they came and they confessed their sins
and laid their hands on the head of that scapegoat. Christ is
our scapegoat. Those who really needed, those
who had a notorious past and present came and laid their hands
on the head of that scapegoat and the Lord said, I'm going
to take this scapegoat. I'm going to buy a fit man, take
this scapegoat out into the wilderness and your sins deposited on him
are going to be deposited as far as the east is from the west.
I'll take them away, put them away, forever out of my sight
and out of your sight. Boy, they're hoping that goat's
gone. I like what old brother Jack said. Old brother Jack said,
you know, God, Christ is our scapegoat. He laid the iniquity
on him. He laid all iniquity of all God's
people on the head of our scapegoat, Christ, that pit man, and he
took our iniquity and took them away. They separated them from
us as far as the east is from the west, and old brother Jack
said, and God ain't gonna go goat hunting. All right, stand
with me. Bless the Lord, O my son. Our
Lord, we have great reason to bless you. Every child of God
in this room has from the heart should be able
to just bless you all down before you amazement at your wondrous
love and mercy and grace and kindness and tender mercies and
just how you just daily load us with benefits and heal our
diseases and all of these things, Lord, and have not dealt with
us according to our iniquities and rewarded us. Oh, Lord. Teach us, teach us just how good
you've been to us. Remind us, Lord, that it's not
ever. Take these things for granted,
these good things, the best things. And forgive us when we do, and
keep us coming back for more, Lord. We're poor and needy. We're so thankful. You're merciful.
It's in Christ's name we're met here tonight. Amen. You're dismissed. you