Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I'd like to read the first five
verses. Psalm 103, verse 1, Bless the
Lord. O my soul, and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. who satisfies
thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagle's." Our Father, we ask this evening
your blessing upon your Word. O Rock of Ages, have mercy. Thank you for your kindness.
your long-suffering, your mercy and compassion. For Christ's
sake. Amen. The words of this psalm flow
from the heart of a man that has been taught of God. One that has been regenerated
in power and grace. One that knows something about
his frailty, about the emptiness of his own being and his own
ability to be able to do anything to reconcile himself back to
God. This psalm just rings of praise
unto him who is worthy. One who alone can save a sinner. And it expresses the very cry
of one that God has shown mercy to. It begins with this blessing of
the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Man was originally created to
bless the Lord and to praise Him with a heart of gratitude
for His greatness. To be able to fellowship with
God. Adam walked with God. A man. A creature. He walked with God and knew God.
Praise God, bless God. But in the garden, man died. And he lost that ability. He died spiritually, which eventually
led to his physical death. He lost that ability to do what
a man was created to do. Fellowship with God. I mean, just the very thought
of that. To be able to actually fellowship with God. Walk with
God. To know God. To look upon Him. Be accepted by Him. But from a new heart, the psalmist
pens these words under the inspiration of God's Spirit. Bless the Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D. Bless the Father. Bless the Son. Bless the Holy Spirit. Praise. Bless. That's what it is. Praise
with a heart of gratitude. Thankfulness. Appreciation. Bless the glorious person of
the triune God who is holy, just, and good. Bless the Lord! Oh
my soul! This is a personal thankfulness. Intimate. It's praise unto Him
in a way that my mouth can't express. A believer does not
express by their mouth what their heart truly feels and appreciates. I was just thinking while I was
singing that song a moment ago, Hiding in Thee, O Thou Rock of
Ages, Lord, You who have shown mercy and compassion have been long-suffering, gentle,
kind, compassionate, hiding in you. We bless Him spiritually. And again, I don't know how to
express that. Bless the Lord, O my soul. He's talking to Himself. He's
speaking to Himself. He's telling Himself to do something
that is of the highest of all honors. No greater honor than to have
a heart to bless the Lord. To speak unto Him from the soul. That part, that being of a man
that is eternal. To say something from the soul
that only a believer has a heart to do or knows anything about
or has any desire for. You know, men, and I'm sure wisely
so, often speak guardedly. to others. They play their cards
real close to the chest. But to be able to not hide anything
from yourself. To not want to put anything in
the closet to yourself. To be open and honest with yourself. Bless the Lord. Bearing his heart. Bless the Lord. I'm talking to
me tonight. Marvin, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, all my soul. And he continues to encourage
himself in this exhortation. And all that is within me, my new will that he's given me. willing in the day of His power.
A new affection that I didn't have before. I didn't love Him
before. I didn't know Him. My understanding
of the Scriptures, of Christ set forth in Scriptures, and
my judgment of asking the Lord, put a watch on my mouth and guide
my steps and order my heart. Lord, keep me. I feel the presence of sin within
me, and it wars against the new man of my heart. But there's
a new creature that's within that truly has this desire. Be appreciative. Bow. Kneel in heart. That new man, that new me, that
soul, that new creature from above that doesn't sin against
God. That one is born from above. It's the life of Christ that
the Holy Spirit has imparted. That new man blesses the Lord. And the new man says to the new
man, bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless His holy name. Bless His
character. That's what it means when it
says bless His holy name. Bless and praise the holiness
of who He is. He's omnipotent. He's all-powerful. He's able to do exceedingly and
abundantly more than we ask or think. All power has been given
unto the Son that He should give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given Him. He can get it done. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, His sovereignty. Bless the name, His character
of being subject to no one. I'm God, he said. There's none
else. I'm the Lord. No other God's
before me. Bless the name of His immutability.
He's perpetually the same. Let me tell you what I think
concerning His immutability. It's what I'm trying to read.
Trying to pray. Trying to pray for you. Try and
pray for other pastors. Asking the Lord's blessing on
this assembly, and I find myself somewhere else, Gary, all of
a sudden. I'm just thinking about something that
just doesn't even matter. And I think, Lord, if You changed and marked iniquity,
who could stand? Lord, if you were not long-suffering
to me, for Christ's sake, where would I be? Bless the Lord, O
my soul, concerning His holiness, His purity, absolute holiness,
His faithfulness. He never forgets. He never fails. He never falters. His goodness. Nothing defective in Him. What
He does is right. Right is determined by what God
does. Whatever He does. I heard someone say one time,
He doesn't do that which is right. What He does is right. If you
want to know what right is, what did the Lord do? His patience. That power of control
that He has that causes Him to forbear. Oh, the preciousness of His long-suffering. His grace. That perfection that's
exercised only to His elect. In His salvation, I will have
mercy. I will have compassion. I will
be gracious unto whom I'll be gracious. His mercy. There's a general mercy that
the Lord has. You can stay right there in Psalm
103, but hold your finger. Turn over to Psalm 145.9. Psalm
145.9. There's a general mercy to all
creatures. To all of His creatures. Man,
animals, plants. Look at Psalm 145, 9. The Lord is good to all, and
His tender mercies are over all His works. A tree grows because God is merciful. He gives a tree life. Life. Acts 17.25, seeing He giveth
to all life and breath and all things. Secondly, there is a
general mercy also exercised toward all mankind. Matthew 5.44,
"...for He maketh His Son to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." Why does the
evil, why does the unjust have their crops rained on just like
the just? Because there is a general mercy
that Almighty God exercises toward all of His creatures A believer takes a breath. That
was God's heir. God is merciful. But there's
a sovereign mercy reserved for the heirs of salvation. And it's
communicated to them in covenant mercy through Christ, the Mediator,
and it's known through the preaching of the gospel. That's the only
way that it's ever disclosed. The gospel that Paul said he's
not ashamed of, for it is the power of God and salvation.
The gospel of free grace. The character of his love. Love,
that's his nature. God is love. 1 John 4.8. And
it communicates that blessing to His people. Love. His wrath. He's a just God. Jealous God. That divine character
that shall absolutely punish sin. God's going to deal with
sin. Either in a sinner or in a substitute. But He's going to deal with sin.
Bless the Lord. Oh my soul, and all that is within
me, bless His holy name. Back in Psalm 103, verse 2, bless
the Lord. Oh my soul, and forget not all
of His benefits. Oh my, what an order. Let everything within me remember
His acts. His works, His doings toward
me. Boy, you talk about getting lost
in the wonder of that thought. How should we ever count the
ways that God has been merciful to His people? I need to be reminded of His
benefits toward me. What are those benefits? Well,
I can truthfully say, I can express the ones that the Lord has written
down. Verse 3, here's one of them. "...who forgiveth all thine
iniquities. Oh, the blessing do him for the
forgiveness of sin." You know, it's only a believer that contemplates
having his sin forgiven that God would not charge him
with it for this reason, that Christ was made sin for His sheep. That the Lord bore in His body, He was made sin upon that cross The indescribable
substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was actually made sin. And upon that cross, the holy,
harmless Lamb of God, who knew in Himself no sin, was actually
made sin. And upon that cross hung sin
as our substitute. And God Almighty absolutely dealt
with sin for all of His elect at the cross and forsook Him. Hid His face from Him. and killed Him. He killed Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ absorbed
the sword of God's wrath in Himself. And He put sin away for all that
the Father had given Him. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. who forgiveth all thine iniquities." He now justly, justly and mercifully,
justice has been satisfied, mercy is extended because Christ has
put away the guilt. And God justly forgives sin. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all of His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Oh, the blessing that is due
unto Him for Christ's sake, He forgives. For Christ's honor,
He forgives. According to His eternal purpose
to show mercy, Through the shed blood of His Son, He forgiveth
and forgiveth and forgiveth and forgiveth. Sins of commission
and omission. What I did and what I should
have done. To healeth all thy diseases. First God has healed the disease
of my soul by putting away my guilt through
the blood of His Son. Man was born diseased from the
sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Putrefying sores. Knocked and bound up. And that
disease has no cure. No cure. One thing can be done
with it. Kill it. You don't cure it. Not that old man. That's why
Christ died. He died that we would not. He
died that God might show mercy. But for a man to live, he must
be made alive by new creation. A new man. He must be born again. He must be born from above. He
healed it all by diseases. That disease that I was born
with, the remnants of it is still there. It's still here. The presence of it, but the guilt
of it. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul. That disease that destroyed man. Let me tell you, that disease
It causes pain even to an unbeliever. Sin. From the fear of being exposed. Men love darkness rather than
light. You know why? Because they're
sinners. An unbeliever doesn't get away from it. Fear. Doesn't want to be caught. Have
you ever noticed every time somebody just gets real honest and confesses
on TV, oh, I've disrespected my wife, I've disrespected my
husband? You know why they say that? Because
they got caught. They didn't even say anything
before they got caught. And for a believer, it causes pain because
he feels the very presence of it. And he's sinned before God. My sin, David said in Psalm 51,
is ever before thee. Paul the Apostle, he never said,
O wretched man that I was. O wretched man that I am. Christ
Jesus came into this world to save sinners, Paul says, of whom
I am chief. I am less than the least of all the saints. God's people bless the Lord,
because He's healed the disease of their soul. But secondly,
He who healeth all diseases, the great Physician, until He's
ready to call us out of this world, He sustains us, He keeps
us, He heals us. You know why we temporarily get
well? Because of God's mercy. allows
us physical diseases. Charlie Payne, one time, was
getting ready to go in for an operation. Somebody asked him
how he felt. He said, well, he said, in just
a little while the Lord will either heal me temporarily or
perfectly. That's right. He heals all our
diseases. But I know this. In that day,
He'll heal all the diseases of His people completely. And He'll take them out of this
world. And the Lord's will to be with Him where He is and to
behold His glory is going to be realized. And they're going
to know it. Listen to me, believers. One
day, we're going to be with Him. And this is going to be realized
how real it is. And we're going to know it. And
in that day, we'll know something, maybe completely, of how much
we owe. I know those four and twenty
elders in Revelation 4 cast their crowns before Him, said, Thou
art worthy to receive all honor and glory and praise, for Thou
hast redeemed us. I still say there will be some
remembrance of what He's done based on that Scripture right
there. Thou hast redeemed us. They were in heaven in Revelation
4, casting their crowns before Him who had done something for
them. He had brought them back. They
knew something about redemption. So they had to have known something
about being redeemed from sin. Now, I don't know the fullness
of it, but I'll tell you this. We'll go through eternity knowing
Him who has paid our debt. Verse 4, who redeemeth, who buyeth
back thy life from destruction, crowneth thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies. He has delivered His people from
going down to the pit. How? He's eternally found a ransom. That's what he said. By purchase
of blood, the Lord Jesus paid the debt owed to God's broken
law. Paid it in full. Shed His blood. But the Scripture sets forth
that not only has He redeemed us from destruction, who crowneth
thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, And the believer
ever cries, Lord, we're not worthy. We're not worthy of the least
of all Thy mercies and of all Thy truth that Thou hast shown
unto Thy servant. We're not worthy. And he crowneth
them and crowneth them and crowneth them with loving kindness and
tender mercies and reminds them, as Solomon wrote in Song of Solomon,
You've ravished me with one of Your eyes. He's stolen my heart
from me. Just crowns them with loving
kindness and tender mercies. Bless the Lord all my soul. Don't
let me forget all of His benefits. Because He's purposed to show
mercy. That's why. Because He's purposed
to crown His own with His loving kindness. I'm going to show you
mercy. I'm going to be kind to you.
Reason being, because I've chosen to do so. Who satisfieth last benefit for
this evening, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Who satisfieth thy
mouth, who gives you a heart from which your mouth speaks
of a satisfied soul, Lord, you've dealt well with your servant.
Lord, you've shown mercy to me. And I'm the first to admit, I
don't know how much. I don't know how to express it.
I don't know what to say. Lord, I don't know how to be
as honest as I should be. I don't know how to think it. Lord, I thank You for Your kindness,
mercy to me. You satisfied my soul with good. And even now, I can't realize
how much. I need no other but You. I want
no other but You. I love no other but You. And
as I would desire to. But as Peter said, Lord, You
know all things. You know I love you. You know
I do. Lord, You know I have a heart
for You, who satisfy Thy mouth with good
things, so that Thy youth is renewed like the eagles, so that
Thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Turn to Isaiah 40. 40, 31. But they that wait, and what
a blessing that is upon the Lord, shall renew their strength. The margin says, so change their
strength. They don't look to themselves
anymore. There has been a change. They're weak now. Paul said,
when I'm weak, I'm strong. They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. Those that have been given a
heart to bless the Lord. Made to remember something of
His benefits toward them. The benefit of being forgiven of the iniquity and transgression
of sin. All their diseases healed. Like I said, we are failing creatures. I know that. We hurt. Age, the cause of sin, takes
its toll on this body. Things that we used to be able
to do, we can't do anymore. Why? Because we're failing. We
don't think like we used to. Not as sharp as we used to be.
And know it. Lord, You've sustained me to
this moment. And one day, I'm going to be
well. One of these days, I'm going
to be whole. One of these days, I'm going
to be perfect. Not even a spot of sin. Those that He's redeemed from
destruction, crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies.
Those whose spirit is satisfied with good things, the Lord's
things, pure things. They're new, the Scripture says,
every day in Christ. Day to day, the Lord blesses
His people, and they flourish in Him, lifted up in soul, spirit,
in the strength of the Lord as an eagle flies majestically. They rest in Him. 2 Corinthians 4.16, for which cause
we faint not. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul.