Once again, the help of God would
like us to turn to the psalm that we read together, Psalm
103, and the text you'll find in verse 2. bless the Lord. There are times on the mountaintop,
there are times down in the valley, there are times of bitterness
and there are times of sweetness, there are times of experiencing
the seemingly distant presence of God and there are times of
experiencing that close presence of God, there are times of experiencing
clarity in providence, the clarity of the way and there are times
when we seem to walk in darkness, there are times of fear, there
are times of peace, there are times that are perplexing and
there are times in which things seem to be very clear and the
Christian life is a constant process of ups and downs and
darkness and light, closeness and distance. And yet the promises
of God, they remain the same. The Christian life is that teaching
process, that God weaning us from the world and drawing us
closer and closer to himself, showing us more of ourself, showing
us more of himself. And as he deals with the people
of Israel as he brings them, as he delivers them from the
bondage of the Egyptians and he overcomes all of their gods
by the various plagues and then brings them through that great
deliverance through the Red Sea and brings them on that wilderness
journey and so it is a type for those who have come from the
darkness, those who have believed in the Lord Jesus, experienced
that new birth, they have been delivered from the slavery of
sin, the slavery of Satan, that kingdom of darkness, and they've
escaped. Christ has led them through and
now they're on a journey with him. as the children of Israel
were led by that cloudy pillar of cloud and then fire. So the Lord leads and directs
his people by his spirit, by his word, by providence, and
he is constantly teaching them. There are times when we sing
like Moses and Miriam, those praises of deliverance. that
the Lord, we see his hand really working in our lives, we see
him really accomplishing things, marked occasions in our lives
that we can really know that the Lord has done this, the Lord
has worked here for me and he has done great things for us.
where we are glad and there are times when the Lord works more
subtly in the life of believers and we see that day by day we
experience his unseen hand in providence, in help, in direction
and in guidance but there are those times especially in salvation
when there is that great deliverance but also in our lives when there
are those times when the Lord really works, we see real answers
to prayer and we're able to testify and sing of his praises and there
are times just like the children of Israel where we grumble and
complain when we don't see God acting as fast as we believe
that he should act. The children of Israel, for three
days, they waited for this water. And when they get to that water,
they find that it is bitter and unsuitable for drinking. They
no doubt thought, well, why didn't he give us water on the first
day? On the second day? Why wait until the third day? Often the Lord waits until we
are at that extremity, our extremity and then he works. When the cup
is empty then he fills that cup. When we have been brought down
to nothing then he begins to build us up and so the Lord knows
exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it in the lives
of his dear people. Often we forget how dear we are
to him. Often we forget that he loved
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Often we forget
that Christ carried his people through to the cross. Often we
forget the wrath of God that was endured by him on our behalf. As Jesus says, there is no greater
demonstration of love than this. And a man lay down his life for
his friends. And often when times are difficult
and the way is perplexing and the time in which we are left
to wait for our answers to prayer, the flesh begins to fight. We
think in our minds all manner of horrible things. And Satan
no doubt fans those flames of doubt, those flames of complaining. The children
of Israel, they grumbled and they murmured. Those murmurings
and that despondent spirit. And we begin to think like that. And it's like Satan comes along
and he fans that. Yeah, keep thinking like that.
Keep going through that process. Yes, he doesn't like you. Yes,
if he was a God who was near at hand, he would have dealt
with it by now. The Lord knew exactly what he
was doing when he brought the children of Israel those three
days into the wilderness and then brought them to that bitter
water. And if you were to read the next
chapter we would read that they began to grumble and complain
again. They began to murmur about the way. the difficulties that
there was no bread, that there was no meat, that they would
rather go back to Egypt with the cucumbers and the watermelons,
that they'd rather go back to slavery than to walk in this
wilderness journey. They had lost sight of the covenant
that God had made with Abraham. They had lost sight of what God
had promised them at the end of the journey, and they were
just focused upon what they were experiencing at that time, instead
of looking at the greater picture of all that they had in God and
how it is with you and me. We just focus on what we have,
the here and now, rather than looking outside the picture,
looking outside at what we have in Christ Jesus, what we have
at the end of the journey, that we have that glorious promised
land, that glorious sight of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
face to face, or then we will see him as he is. And so David,
in his experience, seeks to encourage himself in the Lord. In Psalm 42, He begins, as the heart pants
after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My
soul thirsts for God, for the living God. He then goes on to seek to encourage
himself, to speak to himself. We as human
beings are body, mind and soul. Mind and soul and heart are so
entwined it's very difficult to dissect what is soul what
is heart and what is mind but you know when you are able to
think and you try to encourage yourself It's like you speak
to yourself in your mind and David seeks to encourage himself. He looks at his present condition.
He looks at the downcast disposition that he is feeling. Maybe he
is cast down, he is depressed, he is anxious. And then he asks
himself the question, why? What is the reason for me feeling
like I am? How often that needs to be done. We need to ask ourselves the
question, why is it that I am feeling like this? Why am I depressed? What is the root cause of why
I am feeling like I am feeling? Why are we cast down? Oh my soul,
why are you disquieted within me or out of joint? Then he encourages
himself. hope in God hope thou in God
for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance oh
my soul my soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember
thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites and from
the hill of Mizar. Remember, remember we looked
at this morning in Deuteronomy, remember all the way the Lord
thy God has led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to remember,
to look back, to remind ourselves of the goodness of God. to remind
ourselves of all that we are in Christ Jesus, it is God who
has redeemed his people in Christ, it is God who brought us from
the darkness, from our previous life where we were in sin, it
is God who brought us out Abraham, what did he do for his deliverance? Nothing. It was God who appeared
to him and took him from the Ur of the Chaldeans. And for
you and me, what did we do? Nothing. It was God who revealed
to us himself our sin and the Lord Jesus Christ and brought
us out. And surely that is a reason to
be encouraged. That is a reason to look back
and to remember all the way the Lord has led you up until this
point. To remind ourselves of the goodness
of God and those experiences that we have had over our lives. There may not be many but surely
there is some. Especially that deliverance,
the forgiveness of sin. That is worth remembering. That
is worth rejoicing over. that surely there are others.
Those answers to prayer that you have had, those times of
provision, those times of blessing, those times of closeness, those
times of clarity, those times of revelation in the word, these
are all blessings of God that he gives to his beloved dear
children. in the olden days or days gone
by it was the habit of many people to write diaries, to write down
their experiences, things that happened daily, things that troubled
them, things that they were blessed with in the word and they were
things that they could look back to They could read over and they
could encourage themselves just like the book of Deuteronomy,
a reminder of all the way that the Lord had led the people of
Israel, a book of remembrance. It's not done so often nowadays. People don't seem to maybe have
time or maybe it's that we don't experience such of the goodness
of God or we don't acknowledge that all the things that we receive
come from God. But in times gone by, it is actually
good reading, to read of the experiences of the people of
God. And even in our own lives, to look back and to encourage
ourselves. Why am I cast down? When God
loves me so much, when God has done so much for me, why am I
cast down now? Hoping God, continue trusting
in God, realise that you will one day praise him again. He
will bring you through. If he doesn't bring you through
in this life he will bring you through in the next life and
you will be praising him for all eternity. And so he continues. Why art thou cast down O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God for I shall
yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. You see when our soul is sick,
when our soul has become despondent, when our soul has become unwell then that will affect
our whole countenance. Remember the Shunammite lady,
when she came to Elijah, he said that this is nothing but sorrow
of the soul, or sickness of the soul, when she came to him about
her son who had died. And he knew that what was going
on came from the inside. It was affecting her external. And you see, when our soul is
sick, when it's not in the right place, when it's distant from
God, when it's grumbling and complaining, when it's out of
joint, then that affects our whole countenance. And David
says that we're to encourage ourself, to speak to ourselves
in our minds, or maybe even outwardly, if you're alone. Why are you
feeling like this? All that the Lord has done for
you. Why are you so cast down? Why are you so depressed? Why
are you so cold? Why are you so hard? I don't
know if you've ever done that. Maybe you have. I know I have. Why am I feeling in this way
when the Lord has been so good to me? encouraging ourselves
and reminding ourselves of all the way the Lord has led us in
our experiences. One of the signs of soul sickness
is a forgetfulness of all that the Lord has done. The hymn that
we just sang, the one after it, it says Something like, my memory
bad, but what is sad can folly still retain. It's so true, isn't
it? All the things of God, when we're
so sick, seem to vanish from our mind and we begin to focus
on everything that is worldly, foolishness, We forget all the
benefits of God and we focus upon all the things that we don't
have, the things that we are troubled with, the problems,
the issues of life, the coldness that we feel, and we forget all
the benefits of God. Just as our body gets sick, just
as our minds get sick, So our soul also gets sick. Often when we are unwell we do
become forgetful. Our minds are overwhelmed and
we forget. And so it is with soul sickness
we forget the benefits of God. all the past mercies, all the
deliverances, all the experiences that we have and we begin to
be like a ship that has lost anchor and we begin to drift
and drift and drift and before we know it we're far away from
the shore far away from God, far away from his word, far away
from prayer and we become like a ship washed upon the ocean
in the storms of life and everything we've ever experienced is forgotten. And we become then overloaded. We spoke on, as I spoke on Wednesday,
about casting all our care upon the Lord. You become overloaded. like a ship that is overladen
we're heavy in the water we're riding low in the water being
nearly overwhelmed with the experiences of life that's because we are
sick our soul is sick we're saved yes But we are sick. We've distanced
ourselves from God. We've forgotten all of his benefits. We're drifting on an ocean of
self-pity and despair. And we've lost sight of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We feel like giving up. I don't know if you've ever felt
like giving up. The way is too difficult. The
Lord has forgotten me. And you just feel like they say
throwing in the towel and giving it all up and it's like the people
of Israel. Oh let us go back to Egypt. It
was better there. Everybody seems to be enjoying
themselves there. Everybody seems to be provided
for there. God has left me and we've given
up everything and we just want to give it all up. the scripture
says, hope thou in God, for you shall yet praise him. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. In our soul sickness we can become worldly, can become lukewarm. It's like our soul can become
contaminated. Sometimes we hear, don't we,
in the news of the rivers that have been contaminated with foul water. That pure river has now become
contaminated by filth. And our souls can become contaminated. We've become worldly and distant.
It can become hard. We can become bitter. We can become lustful. When these
sins take root in our soul it's like they become sick and contaminated
and filthy. the sins of jealousy, if you've
ever been jealous. You know, jealousy, we say, don't
we, jealousy is as cool as the grave. Once you begin to experience
those sins like lust and jealousy and envy and hatred and such
sins like that, they swell within your mind. They spiral out of
control. one thought becomes another thought
becomes another thought until it's grown into a massive big
deal. There was once a lady who was
filled with jealousy over a particular thing that somebody had and it so affected her daily
life In the end she had to go and see the person and to confess
what she was feeling. She had to tell them that she
was experiencing great jealousy over something that that person
had. And that person didn't even realise
that the thing that they had would cause jealousy. Sometimes
it's like that. The things that we have cause
jealousy and if we do experience jealousy it is good that we get
rid of it, that we offload it, that we confess it either to
the person or to the Lord Jesus Christ because otherwise it would
just swell and swell and swell and it will become hatred. You
will end up hating a person just because of the things that they
have, just because of maybe what they look like, maybe the clothes
that they wear, or the car that they drive, or the house that
they live in, or their lifestyle, or even their knowledge, their
intellect. You can become jealous over anything. And it just swells
and swells and swells until it becomes hatred. And you become
filled with bitterness and envy. you forget all the benefits that
you have in Christ Jesus and you become obsessed with all
the things that everybody else has got and you don't realize
what you yourself have got and when all that the Lord has given
to you it is a consuming, a consuming sins. Tom as you know is a tree surgeon
and he used to tell me of certain trees that they look nice but
then when you put the chainsaw into them they're full of water
and rottenness and as you start the chainsaw start cutting water
begins to spew out and the tree might look nice but it's filled
with with rotten stinking water and deadness. And that's what
sin does to believers. It just grows and grows and grows
inside and we become bitter and hateful and jealous over things. And David says Forget not all the benefits of
the Lord, all that the Lord has done for you, all that the Lord
has saved you from, all that the Lord has delivered you and
blessed you with, are far more than anything that
anybody could ever have in this world. The salvation of your soul, We
think of the Lord Jesus. The foxes have holes but the
birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man had nowhere to
lay his head. We don't read of the Lord Jesus
being jealous or filled with envy or of the homes of his disciples
or the lifestyle of his disciples or anything that his disciples
had. No, the Lord Jesus was willing
to take that lowest position and to walk in obedience to his
father to bring about the salvation of his dear people. And so he says, forget not all
his benefits. In the gospel according to Mark,
It tells us there, the Lord Jesus tells us there that it's in our hearts that
sin begins. Even in the life of a Christian,
think of David. David was a man after God's own
heart and yet sin began in his heart. He looked at Bathsheba
And there the sin manifested itself, lust manifested itself
and it grew and it grew and it grew until it was acted upon. And so it's there in our hearts
like the factory of sin even in the lives of a believer as
we battle the new man and the old nature. It battles against
each other and sin must be nipped in the bud while it's there in
the heart. Just because we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ
doesn't mean that we are exempt from the sins of the people of
this world. What goes on within our hearts
is secret yet the Lord sees it. He says that which comes out
of a man is that what defiles him. From within, out of the
heart of men proceeds evil thoughts adulteries, fornications and
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
the evil eye or it is an evil thought, blasphemy, pride and
foolishness. All of these things come from
within and defile a man. And so our souls can become sick
as we distance ourselves from God, as we manifest these thoughts,
these thought processes within our minds, they get bigger and
bigger and bigger, like a swelling abscess within. And our soul
becomes sick. When we are sick, unwell, in
our body or in our mind. We go to the doctors. The doctor
prescribes the medication that is needed or the surgery that
is needed. But what about the soul? The
soul we know is that invisible part of a person yet that soul
can become sick as just as the body and mind. And so the medicine
for this sickness it is for the believer. It is confession. It's
confession and repentance. Drawing near to God again in
prayer and in the word. To walk closely with the Lord. To remind ourselves of the goodness
of God in Christ. And to count our blessings if
we are filled with that sin of envy. or if you are depressed about
the difficulty of the pathway that you are walking and Satan
is tempting you to say in your mind, well, why is this so hard? Then David says, really count
your blessings. count your blessings. There's
a hymn isn't there that says count your blessings count them
one by one then you will see what the Lord has done to count
our blessings, to look back over our life especially to that point
of salvation and to trace the hand of God and to count those
times when the Lord has favoured you and blessed you and upheld
you and provided for you and do not forget all our our all
his benefits that we have been benefited with or blessed with
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of this the first one
that he comes to, the greatest blessing that can ever be experienced
by a person in this life is not winning the lottery, it is the
salvation of your soul. our forgiven, to be forgiven
of all of our iniquities. We think as the psalmist looked
at those who were wicked and how their lives seemed to prosper
and how they seemed to have even no pains in their death, yet
when he went to the house of the Lord he was reminded of their
end. He understood that when the wicked
dies their sin goes with them and they are judged but when
he considered the house of God, when he considered the sacrifices
of God, when he considered all that he had in God then he realized
that his sin was done away with. that his eternity was secure. He had faith in the coming Christ,
the perfect sacrifice. You have faith in the past Christ,
the Christ who died and rose again and now lives for evermore,
who forgives all of thine iniquities. We read this morning that those
sins are cast behind the back of God as far as from the East
is from the West. They're unable to be found. They've been done away with completely
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You stand in the sight of a holy
God as justified before his law, who forgives all of your iniquities
and heals all of your diseases. Now, as I was thinking about
this, the commentators said, well, he's not speaking about
your body, but speaking about your soul, that your soul, he
heals the diseases of your soul, which is true. Those backslidings,
those lukewarmnesses, those lusts, those jealousies, those sicknesses,
those distances, the Lord heals them and restores the soul. But
also if you look back over your life, why are you still alive
today? How many times have you been
unwell? How many times have you had to
take antibiotics? Maybe you've even been on IV
antibiotics. Some of you have had malaria.
Why are you here today? Because the Lord has healed your
diseases, your sicknesses. only by the mercy of God that
each of us are here this morning, this evening, we are well. There
are times when the Lord could have taken us. If you look back
over your life, maybe you've experienced accidents. Maybe
you've had near-death experiences. Maybe you've had illnesses that
are so severe that you were brought close to death. But now today
you are here in the house of God, worshipping the Lord. because the Lord has healed your
diseases and your sicknesses and is able also to heal your
soul. Yes, the sin that you have committed
is able to be placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, the The soul sickness that you have
experienced is also able to be rested upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and you're able to be healed from those diseases who redeemed
thy life from destruction. When we say we've been saved,
we've been saved from what? We've been saved from the judgment
of God from hell. We've been saved from falling
under the wrath of God for all eternity. The Lord has given
to his people eternal life. They've been redeemed, brought
with the precious blood of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He's redeemed thy life as he
redeemed the people of Israel from the people of Egypt. How did he do that? By the blood of the lamb. The
Passover lamb. The people of Israel were redeemed. That lamb died. The angel of
death passed over. And the Egyptians throughout,
the people of Israel, they were redeemed. And you and I have
been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's redeemed our life from destruction and he crowns thee. with loving
kindness and tender mercy. Not just kindness and mercy,
but loving kindness. The Lord Jesus Christ loves his
sheep. He loves his people. He bestows
on them loving kindness. He is merciful, but not just
merciful. He is tender in that mercy. And so he crowns the life of
his people with loving kindness and tender mercy. Who satisfies
thy mouth with good things. It can be translated filling
thy soul with good things. That soul that was sick The Lord
satisfies it with good things. And we are unwell and we're improving. People begin to bring us, they
give us some fruit to help us to get better, good food. And
the Lord also satisfies the mouth or the soul of his people with
good things. Countless blessings. His word,
he feeds them and encourages them and strengthens them. Psalm 23. He says, Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in
the house of thee. Lord forever. David there experiences
that his mouth is being filled with good things, a table prepared,
all the bounties that God has on offer, his cup running over. The Holy Spirit of God outpoured
upon him to strengthen him and uphold him, to comfort him and
to help him. And so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. He experienced that renewing
strength. Sometimes when you're lying in
bed unwell, you think, am I ever going to get better? Will I ever
be normal again? David had that hope. He said
that I would be like the youth, I would be renewed like the eagle and given that strength sufficient
for each day. We know on that great day when
the resurrection shall come that each will be given a new body,
a new body without illness, without sickness, without disability, a body that is able
to stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and to dwell
with him forever and ever we will be renewed. Behold I make
all things new And although we fight today against the old nature,
we experience soul sickness and bodily sickness, we experience
the trials of God, the testings of God, the bitter waters, the
sweet pastures, or the green pastures, sorry, the ups and
downs of life, yet in glory, there will be that steady presence of the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. who forgives thine iniquities,
who heals all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies
thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagles. It's like a progression of the
greatness of God in the lives of his people and as thy days. so shall thy strength be.' Well
may the Lord bless to us his word and if we are in that sick
soul condition and we come to that true sorrow and repentance. If we are despondent and grumbling
and complaining about the experiences that we are passing through,
may the Lord help us not to forget all the benefits that we have
in Christ. especially that greatest gift, the gift of saving grace
that has redeemed our soul from destruction and made us heirs
of the kingdom of God and children of the heavenly King. May the
Lord bless these words. Amen. May the Lord help us as we close
the service by singing hymn number 14 from Hymns of Worship. We
render thanks to thee, O Lord. It is a comely thing. And to
thy name, O thou most high, do praise aloud to sing. Hymn number
14 from Hymns of Worship to the tune 131. O'er the ramparts we watched
were so gallantly streaming? thy faithfulness with pleasure
every night. We gratefully bless thee. He shall enter the cedar grove
that is in the mount. Those that within Jehovah's sight in our God's holy place. Back in old age, when others
prayed, their bowels went free. And he from all unrighteousness
exalted me. May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us all now and for
evermore. Amen.