Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 107, and reading for
our text, verse 9. Psalm 107 and verse 9. For he satisfieth the longing
soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107 verse 9. Now text is
the reason for the praise of verse 8. O that men would praise
the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the
children of men, for he satisfies the longing soul. This is the
reason why in this instance that the Lord is to be praised and
thanks is to be given to him. The text is a closing verse to
the first section of this psalm so it really gathers in all that
is said right from the beginning of the psalm to the text And
this then is the crowning blessing of that section. There are several
sections to the psalm and each one an experience or typical
of the experiences of the people of God. Varying experiences. Experiences where they fall down
and there is none to help. And the turning point each time
is prayer. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses."
A reminder that we go from one trouble to another trouble, and
one time where we cannot help ourselves to another. And yet
you think, well, wouldn't we learn the lesson? And if we fell
down, there was none to help first, that surely we'd go to
the Lord first. We don't learn that easy, do
we? Very often we turn to Him the last, go to Him the last,
but there's a reminder here that it is often the path of the people
of God. They would mourn over their backward
hearts, slowness to learn, and yet the Lord's goodness to each
time come in for them and answer their prayer and deliver them. And really though our text is
the crowning verse for the first section, the last verse is a
beautiful verse. It really sets us to realise
that what is set forth in this psalm is to be observed. observed in our lives, in our
experience, is not just something that the psalmist wrote and the
psalmist experienced and we observe in the Word. We observe in our
lives and those are precious times when we find the Word of
God actually describes our path and our way that we come in with
the psalmist. that which the Lord has brought
us through interprets the word of God. The psalms especially
are the breathings of the soul. Some of the psalms we are told
what the accompanying providence or the outward things that were
happening. The psalmist tells what is going
on inside. We might look at what someone
else is going through but we can't tell what they're going
through in their souls, what is actually between them and
the Lord. One thing that I would say regarding
these psalms is, being the experience of the people of God, very often
the only time that they're written is when they're being brought
out, the other side. This psalm has again and again
through it that cause for praise and exulting in the Lord. But if it were the time when
they're falling down, that they're in their trouble, then it's like
those in Babylon. How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? There's a time of singing. There's
a time of mourning. There's a time when we might
say with Jacob, all these things are against me. And there's a
time then when we're able to see what the Lord was doing. And sometimes then we'll go,
and this is how I found it, I'd start reading a psalm and feel
so encouraged because the language that was used just suited me. I could come right where that
psalmist was and he was coming where I was. Then as I read through
the psalm, he left me behind and he started to get into language
and experience that I had not experienced yet. And so I discounted
the whole psalm as if that could not be for me. And yet afterwards
I realized that the psalmist was in that place, I was in that
place, and in due time the Lord brought me out and so I could
then sing or read the whole psalm and walk in the whole psalm.
So don't be discouraged. If you can walk a few verses
in a psalm and there you stop, turn it into prayer and ask the
Lord to bring you on further in that psalm, bring you to the
conclusion so that you can also praise and also thank the Lord. And so that is the pattern of
this psalm and in observing and then understanding the loving
kindness of the Lord. If we have the children and we
give them something nice and pleasing, they don't need to
understand much. They can see the love, they can
think it is a pleasant thing, but if they do something wrong
and they're smacked for it, they're chastened for it, then it takes
some understanding to understand that actually there's probably
more love in that chastening than there was in the gifts that
were given. And we read in Hebrews 12, that
the Lord chasteneth every son whom he receiveth. It is a blessing,
and yet many of the Lord's dealings with us, they do have to be understood
to trace in it a loving kindness of the Lord. So then our text
is the crowning blessing, really, of those that are redeemed and
gathered, described in verses 2 and 3, of this section. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and
gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south. So with the Lord's help, I want
to look at three points. Firstly, a redeemed soul. And then secondly, a soul gathered
and led forth And lastly, a soul satisfied and filled. Firstly, a redeemed soul. That is how this section begins. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Say what? O give thanks unto
the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. The redeemed are to say so. What is it then to be redeemed? Set free by a payment of a price. The redeemed of the Lord. Those that the Lord Jesus Christ
has redeemed. That He has paid the price that
is required to redeem them. Over in Australia we had a system
where you could buy things in the store and yet not pay for
them. And you could just pay a bit
off as you had the money. And when the full price had been
paid, then you went and redeemed them. And you could take your
goods and take them home. To take them home before the
full price was paid, then you would be charged with shoplifting.
You couldn't do that. you also might have something
like we used to have say tickets on a cereal packet and if you
gathered a number of these tickets then you could go and redeem
them for some goods or put them towards something. The token
itself wasn't worth anything but it was because it was said
that it was worth something that if you had these evidences, these
tokens, then they were worth that to redeem something. You could redeem these tokens
for some goods. And we're the people of God,
they're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. But the tokens
of that, that which they are given here below, those tokens,
that's not the blood itself, but it's the blessings and the
fruits that flow forth from that. They are the tokens, they are
the evidences of what Christ has done and accomplished. There is a people that are redeemed
of the Lord. Maybe they're very clear on that.
There is a people on the earth that has been right from the
beginning of time that are described in this text or this section
that are the redeemed of the Lord. Our Lord refers to them. He says, Thine they were, that
is, the fathers, and thou gavest them me. They are chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world. They are classed as his people
in the naming of our Lord. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. It tells us
he has a people and that they are sinners. and that he shall
save them from their sins. And the way of saving from sins
is by redemption. And that is taught right through
the word of God. God had respect unto Abel's offering,
but not unto Cain, because Abel's was a blood offering, and Cain
was of the fruits of the field, his own labours. We have the
word that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
the children of Israel in Egypt. Nine signs that reduced Egypt
to complete ruins, as Pharaoh's servants told him, but could
not release the children, could not set them go at all, and they
remained bound in Egypt. And they must have wondered,
what must happen before we are set free? And maybe it is with
you. Things happen in your life, things
happen in others, And you begin to wonder, what must happen before
I am set free? What must happen before my hard
heart moves? What must happen before the Lord
blesses my soul and sets me free from sin, from the world, from
condemnation, from the law, from the sentence of death? What must
happen? And the children of Israel must
have thought that. But the Lord devised the way,
they didn't, and the Lord specified every part of how that they should
be brought out at the Passover. The lamb, the blood had to be
shed, the lamb had to be slain, the people had to put the blood
upon the lentil and the doorpost, they had to shelter beneath that
blood. and they had to rely upon the promise of the Lord, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I see it, they're
inside, they cannot see it, but they're sheltering beneath it,
and that same night they're thrust out of Egypt. That did it, and
there is pointed so clearly in our Lord, when the night that
he was betrayed, with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer. He was prefigured there, the
Passover Lamb, behold the Lamb of God. And so then he instituted the
Lord's Supper as they were eating. And the Church of God is never
to forget that precious blood that was shed at Calvary that
redeemed them, that set them free, that delivered them from
the Egypt of this world, from the bondage to sin, from being
held in fetters that nothing else but the precious blood of
Christ can set free from. Again, the children of Israel
had redemption reinforced on them. You can read it in Numbers
3, the latter part of that chapter. When the firstborn of the children
of Israel, now it's the firstborn that would have been slain if
the blood had not been on their doorpost, but the firstborn were
to be redeemed by the Levites. The Levites were the Lord's people. They were to be numbered, and
the firstborn to be numbered, and they were to be matched one
for one. One Levite to redeem the firstborn
of the children of Israel. But then there was, I think,
273 extra, the firstborn. And so then there was paid five
shekels according to the measure of the sanctuary, into the sanctuary,
to redeem those that were over. And the message is, it is a one
for one redemption, particular redemption. It is very specific
in the scriptures, not a general redemption. Christ did not die
for every man, woman, and child in this world. He laid down his
life lovingly for his sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep. And he says to the scribes and
the Pharisees who were not receiving him, ye are not of my sheep.
How did he know that? Therefore ye receive not my word. My sheep, they hear my voice
and they follow me. The Lord has a redeemed people,
a redeemed of the Lord. And may our desire be this evening,
may our prayer be, Lord, numbered with them, may I be, now and
to eternity. May I be amongst those that were
redeemed. those that were given by the
Father to thee to redeem. Now say the hymn writer he saw
me lost and ruined in the fall and loved me not withstanding
all and that we might have that real desire and ask of the Lord
that we might be the recipients of the blessings that flow from
that redemption. The Lord says that He will and
He has the commandment to lay down His life and take it again
and it is to redeem His people. Redeem them from Satan, from
sin, from condemnation. Redeem them unto heaven and bring
them to be with Him where He is. And the people of the Lord
that are redeemed then will have a gathering in time. So our first point, the redeemed
soul, won't just remain a redeemed soul, they will be gathered in
time. And so I want to look at that
in our second point. In verse three, we read, and
gathered them, gathered them out. out of the lands, from the
east and from the west and from the north and from the south.
And we have then in the verses, verses 3 down to verse 7, a description
of those that are gathered. And they gathered first in time,
they gathered first here below. And we would remember, of course,
this is Old Testament, but it'd be very clear in Isaiah clear
right through the Psalms that the Lord has always intended
it to be in every nation and kindred and tongue. The Ruths,
the Rahabs, they testify to that in the line to Christ, Gentiles. And it is so today in every nation,
kindred and tongue, the Lord will be gathering a people unto
him shall the gathering of the people be. None can come unto
me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. When our Lord was on earth, there
must have been a wonderful sight, amazing sight, to see thousands
gathering unto him, to hear his word, to be with him. And really,
we might say as well, The times are really reviving in our land. The days of Whitfield, especially
when he was preaching to the miners and when he was preaching
in the open air, some 30,000 used to gather to hear him preach. And a gathered people, it's a
gathered out. One here, one there. and brought
to Zion, brought to Christ, brought to Him, and gathered them out,
out of the lands. And I always felt this to be
precious in a way. Living in Australia is where
I was called. He's left the South last, but
what a mercy that that wasn't left out. And in every point
of the compass, the Lord has a people. May we never in our
minds rule out any and think, well, the Lord hasn't got a people
there in every nation, kindred and tribe. But then we have a
picture of this people, a description of their experience. And we read in verse four that
they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. In other words,
they were pilgrims. When we read in Hebrews 11, that
long cloud of witnesses, those that walked, lived, died by faith,
we read a summary there. In some of them, we have the
instances, like Noah, of how he built the ark, Abraham brought
out, gathered out from Ur of the Chaldees to go into a place
he did not know of before. And yet then we have this in
verse 13, a summary of faith. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, that is, not having seen Christ
in the flesh, come in the flesh, but having seen them afar off,
the promises of the seed of the womb, the price of of blood,
Christ coming, the sacrifices, they saw them. Abraham saw my
days, says our Lord, and rejoiced at it. We're persuaded of them
and embrace them. I wonder how many of you are
seeing promises are far off. You say, I can't lay hold that
that is a promise to me. But you're embracing those promises. You want those promises. You
plead those promises. There are sacred times when you
can look back and you can say for years, I plead, I longed
for such a promise and the Lord has given it to me. The Lord
has appeared for me and fulfilled it. Sometimes we can see the
grace or blessings in another and we cover earnestly the best
gifts and we say, if I had that person's faith, if I had their
blessings, and by and by the Lord can turn it round and say,
you might know what you felt, what you said those years ago,
I've given that to you now. And sometimes it's not realised
until it is shown what the Lord has done, what the Lord has changed
and appeared for you. But we have this picture of those
then embracing these promises, but they do something else. They
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And
we read here, for they that say such things declare plainly they
seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful
of that country from whence they came out, gathered out, gathered
them out of the lands. Now I am speaking of the world,
this world, that lieth in sin and wickedness. This world that
is a godless world. They are a world in which they
say, depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
This world in which the Lord said of his people, I have given
them thy word, and the world hath hated them. That's the only
thing. There is need to be for the world to hate the people
of God, is the people of God to have the word of God, and
walk by it, and love it, and esteem it, and the persecution
will be because of that. You think even in Jeremiah's
day, even the Jews and well even our Lord Jesus Christ who spake
so perfectly the word of God and yet they took his words and
they crucified him. But we have a people then that
are described as these gathered out that they are now pilgrims. They are those like the children
of Israel in the wilderness, gathered out. They wandered in
the wilderness into solitary ways, put in another place, a
sparrow alone upon a housetop. Then the Lord first began with
me, and he made me, brought me to seek the things of God, to
go to every service I could, and to be seeking for my soul
seeking the word of God. But he worked in another way
too, which I didn't recognize at the time. And the things that
I was doing, the choirs I was in, the youth orchestra I was
in, and various other things, things that I used to love, being
in auditorium, on stage, or perhaps listening to an orchestra playing,
and it all became just vanity and empty. And I couldn't understand
it. I couldn't understand myself.
I thought, why this? I used to enjoy this. I used
to like doing this. But now I don't. And I just want
to get out of that atmosphere. And the Lord in that way put what
Solomon says, vanity of vanity, said the preacher, all is vanity.
And there's a stamp of vanity on it. No, I tried and tried
to keep going with the choir, but in the end, I had to depart
from them. I couldn't continue. And really,
it was because of the hymns that they were singing. The way that
they were singing them, those hymns were made precious to me,
though the words meant a lot. And to have them sung and went
on stage, said, well, this is sung at the football stadiums,
or perhaps you're practicing in the middle of a line, you're
told to stop and to sing it slower or faster or in a different way. And I just couldn't do that. And it's a better thing when
you're brought out And it's because of the things of God, because
of the tender conscience, because of the preciousness of the things
of God, because of the incompatibility between an exercise and a living
soul and a world that knows not the Lord and walks after the
things of this world. And one seems to be in a real
solitary way, and that many do not understand. And you try and
explain. And they don't know. When I tried
to explain to the choir why I had to leave, they couldn't understand.
And they didn't really accept it, but I had to because I didn't
go anymore. But it is the description here. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way, found no city to dwell in. And the Lord will
have it so. The Lord says, this is not your
rest. It is polluted. This is not where
the people of God are to remain. And I know I may have mentioned
it before, but I always think of taking a service at the Pilgrim
Home, and there was a man just in front of the lectern, and
I didn't know him. And as I was speaking, his face
shone. He loved the Word. He was drinking
into the Word. And I said to him afterwards,
I said, You're just in for convalescent or you're in here permanently."
Or he said, he said, I'm in permanently. And then his face changed. He
said, but not permanently. He said, my home is above. This
is not my home. And just to see his face shine. And you know, three months or
so later, the Lord did take him home. That is a lovely, a blessed
prospect to realize this is not our rest. We may go from one
home to another home, and the home we're in lasts before we
are taken, but it's a precious thing to have a heavenly home.
And that would be reflected that while here below we are brought
to be pilgrims, to heaven bound, sojourners, passers-through,
this is not our rest. And to actually feel that, and
to know that, to be that prepared people for a prepared place,
and to be thinking of that place. We might have a loved one, and
we might think, well, we'd like to have a nice bungalow for them,
and a nice place in their retirement. We don't tell them about it,
and we do it all, and we get the building all right and nice
for them. Then we spring it on them and say, look, we've done
this for you. And I said, but I don't want to go there. I'm
happy here, happy where I am. I don't want to go. But if they
knew you were doing it, if they felt their need of it, and they'd
be all the time thinking about it and asking, is it ready yet?
And when can I go into it? And then when they were told
why they'd been thinking about it, longing for it, how glad
they would be to go into it. And so it is with the people
of God. If the Lord has a mansion for us, a prepared place in heaven,
he will bring us to desire to want it, to think of it, and
to long for it. And also, he put a thorn in the
nest here below, so he do not settle down as if this was a
rest. The Thessalonian church, when
they were called, were called to wait for his son from heaven. And may we be the same. But then there's the description
here. of their being, in verse 5, hungry and thirsty, their
soul fainted in them. So here's an appetite, here's
the blessing and the beatitudes, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, which
we saw in our middle hymn. A thirst for something that the
world does not thirst for, does not want for. An appetite for
something the world has no appetite for. By nature we do not understand
our own righteousness as filthy rags. We think our work's acceptable
to God. We have no need of the provision
from the Lord. But here is a soul that is redeemed
and they're hungering and thirsting. after righteousness. Those two
are the things that go together. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ that puts away sin, that blots out sin. It is the righteousness
of Christ that fits us and clothes us for heaven, so that we may
stand there unashamed. The righteousness of Christ does
not cover our sin. Our sin is blotted out by the
precious blood of Christ. But without righteousness we
cannot stand before God. Nothing unholy, unclean can ever
enter heaven and we cannot appear naked, it must be clothed. Adam and Eve were ceremonially,
as it were, clothed with the skins that came from the animals
whose blood was shed. In the hemrider, without a seam,
these garments wove, bequeathed in everlasting love. Their time
began, ordained to be, a royal robe to cover thee. They said
they cast lots for his pasture. Let us not rent it. No, it is
not rent. It is to be a covering for his
people that have no righteousness of their own. And so we have
this hunger and thirst. Hunger and thirst for the Word.
Mine ear hath there opened, he that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now we come to verse
six. And we find them in trouble and
in distress. And this path that they're walking
in, this is their trouble. But this is sanctifying to bring
them to prayer. In their trouble, they cried
unto the Lord. In their trouble. Not when they
got out of there, but when they're in their trouble. May we always
remember that whatever trouble we are in, there is a cry in
that trouble. And then the Lord brought out
of the trouble. And then we have in verse seven,
that this people is not only a soul gathered, but a soul that
is led. He led them forth by the right
way that they might go to a city of habitation. In John 10, the
Lord says of himself as the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. When he putteth forth his sheep,
he goeth before them. Moses, he asked the Lord that
he might see his glory and he said that I shall make all my
goodness pass before thee in the way and that goodness is
entering in the Lord Jesus Christ in that which he does why the
praise here the oh that men would praise the Lord it's for his
goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men
And when we see the goodness of the Lord, goodness to suffer,
bleed and die, His wonderful works of redemption, we see what
He has done for His people. And then added to that is that
those whom He has chosen, He will call them and quicken them
and gather them and draw them. It is His work. Dear friends,
may you trust in the Lord, trust in His leading, trust in His
direction. He leads in the way of teaching
and sometimes, well I think with the prophets, sometimes they
had to go down to the river, hide the girdle in the river,
there's a lesson in there, cleaving. left outside, separate from a
man, hidden, and it's good for nothing. He was led down to the
potter's vessel, potter's house, and there he had to learn lessons
there. And there are things that we are led into, and those things
that I've known, where the Lord started a matter and finished
a matter. And at the end, beginning to
the end, I looked upon it and thought, that has not been for
my temple good. been nothing material as to why
I had to do that, why I ventured in that, and brought it to the
end. But there was spiritual profit. There was a blessing for my soul.
And I still remember the first time of realizing that. Because
I'd known so much of the Lord's provision and leading, guidance,
help in providence, I could see providential things. Then to
realize the Lord had done something not for my body, not for temporal
good at all, but just for my soul. And the realization of
that is so soft and such a wonderful, blessed thing, to realize that
the Lord was doing these things for my soul. Some of you might
be tried and tempted, are we just in receipt of blessings
providentially? You can see those. And you try
to, is this the only thing? Is the Lord only doing this?
What about my soul? What about my need for eternity? I can't deny what He's done for
me in providence, in leading, healing, providing, helping,
but what about my soul? Dear friend, watch still, watch
on, and you might find even with those things for providence,
there's still spiritual lessons. Remember though, the parables
that were told to the Jews Those parables had spiritual lessons
in them, but many went away. They never had that. But the
psalmist prays, open mine eyes that I might behold wondrous
things out of thy law. And the disciples came and asked
the Lord to expound to them these parables. So may we turn this
into a prayer that the Lord would lead us and lead us into his
truth lead us into paths of righteousness as the Good Shepherd, where we
shall feed, where we shall be found in the right way, that
shall end up in the city of habitation above, and where we are able
to discern that, may we be able to discern our character here,
not only a redeemed people, but a gathered people, and it may
be we can see our being redeemed from being gathered. and we know
our redemption by what the Lord has done in gathering us, because
he doesn't gather those that are not his to do what he will
with, but he gathers those whom he has purchased. So, just another thought under
this second heading, and that is thinking of when the Lord
comes again, or when, in the case of most, it will be when
they die. The Lord shall gather them then.
We read that when the Lord shall come with power and great glory
in the clouds of heaven, he shall send forth his angels and he
shall gather his elect from the four corners. And we have the
same gathering, the same gathering unto him. Wheresoever the carcass
is, there shall the eagles be gathered together, Where Christ
is, there his people will be. Where his people are, there Christ
will be. They won't be separated. The
Lord knoweth them that are his, and he will gather them, and
they shall be gathered unto him, an innumerable multitude in heaven. And what a gathering that shall
be, what a blessing that that shall be, a real physical gathering
together. And so here below, this is mirrored
as well in the gathering together of the people of God. Forsake
not the gathering of yourselves together, as the manner of some
is so much more as you see the day approaching. The disciples,
when they were persecuted, they were let go, they went unto their
own company. When the Lord begins, that work
of grace, there will be a drawing to the people of God. Ruth said,
thy people shall be my people, thy God, my God. Where thou dwellest
will I dwell. There will I be buried. And it all shall part thee and
me. She ought but death. And she
claimed, she claimed to Naomi, she claimed to the people of
God. And that will be the effect of this gathering. It's not just
a gathering and ending up just being a Christian here or there
and isolated. There'll be a wanting to meet
together. And they that feared the Lord
spoke often one to another. And it reflects that desire of
the people of God, not only to be gathered out, but be gathered
into the fold. and into where Christ is and
his people are. And that will be the desire,
not just then to be in the assembly as a congregation, but also in
the church of God, around the Lord's table, and with those
that are professing the faith, that all of them around that
table were redeemed at the same time, in the same place, for
the same way, with the same precious blood, of the Lord Jesus Christ
at Calvary and their holy hope is centered in that precious
blood shed for them. And so that will be the leading
forth of the Lord for his people. He'll bring them into the assemblies
of the people of God. He'll bring them into the church
of God on earth. and you'll bring them to the
Church of God above triumphant, a soul gathered and led forth."
Lastly, I want to look at the specific words of the text which
is a satisfied and filled soul. Satisfied and filled soul. The Prophecy of Isaiah. We have
in chapter 55, a beautiful invitation to those that thirst. How everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that had no money,
come ye buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which
satisfieth not. That's not the satisfaction here. It is an invitation to that which
does satisfy. And we may say in this, invited
to the gospel table, invited to the gospel message, the gospel
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, that which is good news
to those that are deep in debt, that which is the word of God
and the preaching of the word. In the Psalms here is the beautiful
Psalms of Psalm 65 and verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. This is where they
shall be, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. You
may say thy house, the Lord Jesus Christ, destroy this temple in
three days or raise it up again. But also the house of God, where
the people of God gather together. And that is reflected as well.
in Psalm 36 and verse 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the fountain
of life, in thy light shall we see light. We read that it had
pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
belief. Why is it that the Lord has ordained
that his people gather together, regularly gather together, gather
in his house? Why was it when they gathered
in the upper room, the Lord himself met with them, then were the
disciples glad when they saw the Lord? Why is it that it is
said, that man shall not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God? Why is it that we have
the beautiful illustration of the Lord walking on the way to
Emmaus, meeting the two in their trouble, sorrowful and downcast,
and He begins to speak with them? He chides them first, fools and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. But then in all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself, and their heart burned within
them, he was preaching them a sermon from the Old Testament, pulling
out all of those things of himself, all the types, all the shadows,
all the appearances to Jacob and the ladder and the wrestling
and to Gideon and to Abraham and the three men and the Lord
that remained with him. All of those appearances of the
Lord, they wrestled a man with Jacob until the dawning of the
day. Thou hast wrestled with God and
with man and hast prevailed. Their heart burned within them.
You know, they were satisfied, satisfied with living bread,
satisfied with the word of God, the bread of life sent down from
heaven. The Lord said in John 6, except
ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have
no life in you. And many were offended. They
said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then the Lord
clarified him, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,
and they are life. Jeremiah says, thy words were
found, and I did eat them. They were to the joy and rejoicing
of my soul. And may we be clear on this,
this satisfaction This wanting no more, this having our cup
full, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. And he is found in the house
of the brethren of the Lord. There the Lord comes and there
the Lord speaks to his people, reveals himself to them, and
that satisfies them. It is through the preaching of
the word through the Lord meeting with his people in the word,
like he did with the eunuch, reading Isaiah, not understanding
it, don't know whether it speaks of himself, the prophet, or another
man, and yet through one sermon, Philip comes, he begins at the
same scripture, and preaches unto him Jesus, and he's brought
to believe in and trust in the Lord and to walk in the ordinance
of baptism. We need to be clear on this.
Some look for visions, some look for wonderful happenings in Providence. You think of our Lord with the
rich man and Lazarus, and the rich man opening his eyes in
hell, and he said of his five brethren, you send Lazarus to
them and warn them. And the Lord said, they have
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. Oh no, he said, if
one were to rise from the dead, then they could believe. And
the Lord said, if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they believe, even if one did rise from the dead. And of
course, our Lord did rise from the dead, and the Jews still
didn't believe. They sought to cover it up. But their point
is this. Our Lord created the world with
his word. And the word is that which he
feeds, quickens, and nourishes, and satisfies his people. Paul
says of the Thessalonians that they received the word preached,
that not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word
of God. And it is that faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And where faith is brought
to, view the Lord, to see him suffering in our place, to see
what he's done for us, accomplished for us, and to see the beautiful
plan of salvation and our interest in him. That satisfies the soul. A belief in that says, my works,
I need them not. I need nothing but this blood,
nothing but this righteousness. This is all I need. This is all
that my soul longs after. And it's only the Lord that can
bring that sweetness and power and satisfaction through sometimes
just one word, just one word. sweet and precious it is. Them
were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. And these
gospel days, when we see the Lord in His word, and then our
heart burns within us. And you know, you might say,
well, how will I know if I had a blessing like that? Well, the
word of our text is that He satisfied the longing soul. You know, if
you're hungry naturally, and you go to a meal, and you have
that meal, And you leave it, and someone says, oh, we've got
some more things here. And I say, look, I've had enough.
I'm fully satisfied. I don't need anything more. And
this is the witness of receiving that blessing. You're satisfied. You know, my dear mother, when
she was dying, dying of cancer, and I used to creep up the corridor.
And in the night season, and she used to be praying aloud.
And I used to try and write down some of her prayers and longing
so that the Lord would open the ark and take her in. And it was
just incessant prayer and crying to the Lord. And then there was
silence. And then she said of the blessing
that she'd had and that she was a miracle of grace. And the difference
was amazing. There was no more crying. There
was no more begging. There was no more pleading. She
was completely satisfied and could only speak of the blessing
and the peace she had. The difference was so remarkable. And here, if we are satisfied,
we're no longer crying. You get a lion who's roaring
after its food once it's got its food. There's silence and
it's got what it wants. And may we know that blessed
satisfaction with what the Lord has given us and blessed us with. Maybe we've longed or hungered
and prayed many a day, but then comes a time when we're able
to say, all is settled, and my soul approves it well, and under
a blessing, under the favour of the Lord, we are satisfied
with what he has granted to us. Well, may the Lord add his blessing
and grant us to be that satisfied soul, a filled soul, and a soul
that Praises the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men, even to us. Amen.