May I please God to bless us
together as we meditate in his word this morning. Let us turn
to the book of Psalms and Psalm 105 and we'll read verse five. Psalm 105 and we'll read verse
five. Remember his marvelous works
that he has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. It is a wonderful blessing for
all of us that God in his mercy has given to us the Bible, his
word and the wonderful detail that it contains and the wonderful
we might say repetition that it contains to remind us again
and again of the Lord's goodness and mercy to his ancient people
Israel and of course that doesn't stop there because the ancient
people Israel really represent the whole church of God and therefore
that includes us today and how grateful we should be to realize
that we have the Bible, the Word of God to read in our own language.
And it has been so now for centuries. And to think that there are still
millions, if not billions of people in the world who have
never seen a Bible, have never read a Bible, have never had
a Bible, and yet we are so wonderfully privileged and favored. And so
we have the book of Psalms, mostly written by David and wonderful
history which they recount. And we have that in this 105th
Psalm which we read this morning. A history really of parts of
Israel's life, especially when they were in Egypt and as they
came out of Egypt through the wilderness. And so we're thankful
that we have a record of this. And it starts with a very important
consideration. The psalmist says, O give thanks
unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among
the people. That really is a statement which
is attributable to all the true living Church of God. It's something
that we should desire constantly to be thankful for. Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord and to call upon his name. That means to
pray unto God and to make known his deeds among the people. And
that means exactly what it says. It doesn't mean that we are to
hide these things. We are to declare them. We are
to demonstrate that we have a great God, a God who is, a God who
hears, and answers prayer and a God who deserves our thanks. Because as we consider our situation
today in this COVID epidemic, severe as it is, yet the Lord
in his goodness and mercy has still privileged us to gather
together in our homes and to come together through the means
of broadcasting and to meet around his word and to be able to bless
God for the privilege and blessing that we have. And so we have
this opening statement of the psalmist. His concern was indeed
to praise and to bless his God. And what a mercy and what a favor
if today on this Lord's Day, although perhaps meeting in these
difficult situations in one way and yet surrounded with a favour
and mercy of God. And so David goes on to say,
sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous
works. There is, I'm sure today, a failure
of doing this, a failure of talking of all his wondrous works. We're very backward, aren't we,
in acknowledging what God has done acknowledging his goodness
and mercy toward us that's why the first verse says make known
his deeds among the people these are really commands from almighty
god they're they're gracious commands and they're commands
which god gives us to be able to respond to and as we're able
to respond to it to bring honour and glory to our great and holy
God for his goodness and mercy which we have received and I
trust we have received because if we have received then we have
good reason to hear these words being directed to us today and
if we have not heard them then to be concerned that we may hear
them because all of God's people, without exception, all of God's
children, without exception, will have reason to thank him
for his deeds and his wondrous works toward us individually
as the deeds and works of God come and touch our eternal soul. That really is the great blessing
the gospel. That really is the reason why
we worship today, so that our souls may be blessed. We may
have the evidence that God is mindful of us, where God is blessing
us, that God is doing us real and eternal good. And so here
the psalmist speaks about this, that make known his deeds among
the people and talk he of all his wondrous works glory in his
holy name let the heart of them rejoice that seek the lord such
words as this really directs us back to the words of moses
just before moses was to be taken from this earth when he went
up the mountain and god took him he wasn't allowed to go into
the land of Canaan, but before that time he was able to write
down the wonderful truths that God had given to him and displayed
to him through his life and especially to Israel over the time which
they journeyed through the wilderness and the deliverances they had. And in the book of Deuteronomy,
which is a wonderful account, a record of his goodness and
mercy to his people, in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, and in
the sixth and twelfth verses, this is what we read. It was
Moses' words, the words of a dying man, the words of concern to
the people that the Lord had given him to be under his control
for all those years. And so he tells them and these
words and there are many words that you and I can read in that
blessed book of Deuteronomy which I command thee this day shall
be in thine heart then beware lest thou forget the Lord which
brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt and from the house
of bondage and he goes on Further on in this same book of Deuteronomy
and in the eighth chapter of the second eleventh verses, this
is what he says. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no, Beware thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping
his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command
thee this day. And in that following on from
that sixth chapter and in that sixth verse Moses instructs the
children of Israel that how they are to remember and how they
are to speak. and how they are to teach. And
it's very good words for us to just ponder on. In the sixth
chapter from the seventh verse we read, And thou shalt teach
them, that's the children of course, teach them diligently
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest
in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down,
and when now rises up. If you just think of that for
a moment, that's basically a continual desire to bring before the children
the work and mercy and favor of Almighty God. And so he says,
you see, in this way and that shall teach them diligently. It means what it says and how
we fail so much in being diligent in speaking the great truth of
God to our children and talk to them when we sit down when
we're out for a walk and when we lie down and when we get up
it should be upon our lips and thou shalt bind them for a sign
upon thine hand and they shall be as front knits between thine
eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and
on thy gates. And it shall be, when the Lord
thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which he sware
unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give
thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not. He goes
on, we can read on, but nonetheless there's just a very few words
there in that sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. It's a wonderful
blessing therefore to recognize the truth of these things. And so the psalmist goes on and
he says then in the fourth verse, seek the Lord and his strength,
seek his face evermore. wonderful statement, a wonderful
word of encouragement to us really in the day and age in which we
live. You see the Word of God never becomes out of date, it
never becomes old-fashioned. We can never think well it doesn't
refer to me, it does refer to every one of us that we may continue
to seek his face and his strength and to seek his face evermore. So then we come down to these
words we read for a text this morning in the fifth verse. Remember
his marvellous works that he hath done his wonders and the
judgments of his mouth. It's good surely to recognize
that the psalmist and we think it's David of course who writes
like this to remember his marvellous works that really means works
of God that will make us marvel, stand amazed at the wonder of
them. Well, we have very many examples
of these in the Word of God, right from the beginning of Genesis,
when God, of course, created the heavens and the earth, when
everything was made by Him, and God Almighty spoke the world
and everything in it into being. It was a wonderful demonstration
of the power of God, something which our little minds really
cannot fully understand. But it's a blessing today if
God has given you and me faith to believe the truth of God. Believe it. Believe that God
was able to do it. He did it. And God is able still
to do great things today. God's power and God's skill has
not ceased. because God remains the same
yesterday and today and forever. May that be an encouragement
to us and a strength to us as we press on through life. We are therefore to remember
this, remember his marvelous works. Well, we can go back to
creation, We can go back through the Word of God and we have so
many, many occasions in the Word of God when the Lord did great
and wonderful things. You young children can remember
perhaps one of the greatest occasions in the history of the world when
the Lord sent that flood upon the earth, that flood which destroyed
everything apart from those who were safe in the ark and God
knew precisely what he was doing because he told Noah to build
this ark and had given him instructions how to build it and he was building
it many many years it wasn't something which just happened
overnight many years he was building it a demonstration to the sinful
world that God had directed Noah to do this And of course people
didn't believe it. They carried on in their sinful
way. They carried on ignoring the truth of God until the Lord
came and shut Noah and his family in the ark. And then the great
fountains of the deep were broken up and the rain came down and
every single living creature died. What a very solemn occasion
that was. It was a marvellous work of God. Well that's just one event of
course in the Word of God which is recorded. There are many other
wonderful victories that God brought about and of course none
less than what we read in this 105th Psalm of Israel's wonderful
deliverance from the Egyptians. All those plagues which God brought
upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And yet again and again, Pharaoh's
heart was hardened. And it's just like people today.
The Lord in his sovereign mercy has brought this plague upon
our nation and the nations of the world. But what has happened?
The hearts of people are hardened. They do not bow down before God. They do not acknowledge. It is
God who's brought it about. And in their foolishness, they
think they have the ability to beat this virus. Well, of course,
it's only as God gives them the ability to do that left to ourselves. We have no ability. And it is
a great work of God, which the Lord has shown forth, something
which the world has never seen before. And in our day and age,
in the late history of the world, the Lord has seen fit to demonstrate
once again his power and we should not underestimate therefore the
power of God and we should recognize the power of God in a foolish
as a man rushing around trying to find these solutions to the
things which God has brought about well we should consider
that today but we should not forget the great works of God
great works naturally to our nation. It's good to remember
how God has delivered us not only in the recent world wars
but farther back we can go in history especially perhaps that
famous victory in 1588 when the Lord delivered us from the Spanish
Armada in a wonderful way and if you read historical accounts
of course mostly they failed to recognize that it was the
hand of God that brought the wind and the storm about to destroy
that armada. Of course, they just attribute
it to the things of nature. Well, all the things of nature
are, of course, controlled by the power of Almighty God. And so the Lord wonderfully delivered
us on that occasion. And we should not forget that
the monarch on the phone, Queen Elizabeth, in those days did
acknowledge that she was dependent upon God. Well, God did wonderfully
deliver us. And we could go through a long
list, we won't go through the list today, but you can think
of it, you can ponder it, and to realize what a mercy the Lord
has had. And then perhaps in our own lives,
remember his marvelous works that he has done. It's good,
you know, when you and I, in our natural lives, have the evidence
of God's marvelous works. We can think of it, first of
all, perhaps, although not the important side, but first of
all, perhaps in the things in our natural life. You young people,
perhaps, as God has helped you with your schoolwork, your university
work, your examinations, and those of us who are older can
indeed look back and remember, perhaps, occasions when God wonderfully
helped us on such occasions and gave us the wisdom that we needed,
a wisdom which we thought perhaps we would not receive and yet
God in his gracious providence blessed us and gave us ability
and gave us understanding and brought to our remembrance things
that were needful. What was it? marvellous works
of God. These things are good to remember,
and they're good if you and I can remember them and praise God
for them. We should think of how wonderful our God is, how
merciful our God is toward us. Remember. We're not to forget
them. We do tend to forget these things,
but we should endeavour to remember them. And of course, on an occasion
like today, Remembrance Sunday, as we refer to it, is a day when
we can perhaps sit down and remember what God has done for us in our
natural things in our life. Perhaps those who are older providing
houses, perhaps providing flats, perhaps providing accommodation
in a wonderful way. We should be very thankful for
these provisions and then perhaps providing us with husbands and
wives, perhaps providing us with friends. These are all of God's
goodness and mercy which we need to remember and not to just pass
them by and if we do remember them know we come back then to
what we've referred to previously if that is so it's good then
that we can make known his deeds among the people that we can
say hey i remember this that god did for me i remember this
occasion when god appeared for me when god helped me when god
brought about that which seemed impossible you see these occasions
of recollection and to remember God's goodness will be for the
honor and glory of his great and holy name. We should never
take these things to our own ability. I think often and say
sometimes that we should always remember that God has given us
ability. God has given us our brains to
do things. We should never therefore boast
that we are more clever than someone else, because if God
has given us ability, it's only because of his mercy toward us.
We never deserved it. We never worked for it. It's
God's free favor. And we should always desire to
acknowledge everything that you and I have and possess God has
given to us. in our natural things and in
our ability to do things. It's the Lord's goodness and
mercy. Never look down on anybody else. Praise God if he's helped
you and enabled you to do things and to be blessed in that doing. Well, there we are. There's just a very brief rundown
perhaps of natural things, but then we need to come more Importantly,
to the favours of God to us in a spiritual way, because this
is really what you and I need to remember. And it's good today
if we look back in our lives and remember his marvellous work
in our souls. And it is a marvellous work. And you might ask me, well, why
is it a marvellous work? It is a marvelous work simply
because there were we spiritually dead in trespasses and in sins
with no true spiritual life. What a mercy, what a blessing
to remember if God has given us the wonderful gift of spiritual
life so that we can recognize the truth that the Apostle Paul
wrote when he addressed the Ephesians and he told them very simply
this, and you hath he quickened, that means made alive, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. Yes,
and he goes on according as in time past he walked according
to the course of this world. well what a mercy what a blessing for us today
if in our lives we can now look back and remember remember God's
hand upon us perhaps stopping us doing something we wanted
to do something we were very keen to do it and yet God stopped
us Sometimes God stops us in various ways. Sometimes he brings
illness upon us, which stops us doing things. Other ways perhaps,
sometimes the Lord causes the weather to stop us doing things. Perhaps even like this virus
which has occurred and has stopped us doing things. We should realize
it is the hand of God and it is his marvellous work. We may not perhaps recognise
it at the time as his marvellous work, we may be rather as it
were annoyed and cross and angry, but nonetheless as we're able
to look back and see this is a marvellous work of God upon
us and what a favour, what a blessing it is, an eternal blessing if
the Lord has therefore brought into us all the wonderful favour
of life the wonderful favor of light it is the light of the
gospel and the light of the gospel shines forth in the face of jesus
christ it is a glorious picture and a glorious word for which
the apostle wrote to the um corinthians jog a word which i never weary
in referring to and it's in the second of Corinthians in the
fourth chapter in the sixth verse for God who commanded remember
that for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
wherever we were in a dark condition we couldn't see anything spiritually
you may have known something naturally We may have known the
historical word of God, but when God shines, there is a marvelous
work, a work to truly praise God for, hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And he tells us, who are blessed
with this, that we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
Oh, the apostle desires to put the crown upon the Saviour's
head, not on his head, not on anybody else's. He desires to
put it on the head the Lord Jesus Christ and that would be a great
blessing for us today if we're able to come before him and to
remember his marvelous works that he has done to our soul
so that we've been blessed with a wonderful favor of divine life. You know it's a good thing to
remember Apostle Paul's statement we refer
to Moses and what he was able to declare but the Apostle Paul
also gives us the clear word that the Lord was with him and
he tells us very clearly in the Acts of the Apostles when he
was before King Agrippa if ever there was an occasion to testify
of the Lord God it was on that occasion he was before the king
and other very learned people and he wasn't afraid He demonstrated
the power of God in his life. He tells us in the 26th chapter
of the Acts, towards the end of his testimony, he says in
verse 22, having therefore obtained help of God, he reflects and remembers and tells
King Agrippa this great truth. Having therefore obtained help
of God, I continue unto this day." Witnessing both the small
and great, didn't matter who it was, he was able to witness
of God's power and mercy towards him, saying none other things
than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come. We have a glorious prophecy throughout
the Word of God of the coming of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he reminded the Jews and
the Gentiles also of this great and wonderful truth that those
things the prophets of Moses did say should come that Christ
should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise
from the dead and should show light unto the people and to
the Gentiles. Well we are very thankful for
the faithfulness of the Apostle Remember his marvellous works,
these marvellous works that he was able to declare. Of course,
we have that terribly sad position of King Agrippa when he referred
to the things that Paul spoke and he said, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. Well, none of us, my friends,
want to be found in that place, being an almost Christian. Agrippa
had heard from the Apostle's lips the great and glorious truth
of the Saviour and it moved him, but only naturally. He hadn't
received the blessed gift of eternal life. Almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. Well, what a blessing for us
today. If you and I can remember the marvellous works of God that
brought us to that blessed position where we knew in ourselves, in
our heart, that we are a Christian, that God has given us grace to
believe on his name, given us grace to realise that there is
none other name given by heaven whereby we must be saved. Only
through the wonderful life and death and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, remember his marvelous
works that he has done. Well, it's good then for you
and me today to remember, and I hope we can remember, his marvelous
work of grace toward us, toward our soul. You know, the hymn
writer has a very blessed line, and I'll tell you what it is.
It's this, one great work exceeds them all. Do you know what that
is? You young people, do you know
what that great work is? It's the wonderful work of redemption
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world to complete
that great work of redemption. That means to save his people
from their sins, to deliver them from the curse, which said the
soul that sinneth it shall die, eternally dead in trespasses
and sins, to be saved, to be redeemed. It's a wonderful word,
redeemed. with a precious blood of Christ,
says Peter in his epistle. Well, what a mercy it is today. If you and I can remember what
it meant as we look back in the history of Israel, as we read
together those plagues, and we read together that last plague
when all the firstborn were slain on that Passover night, And where
was safety? You young people, where was safety? Where were those Israelites who
were safe? They were in their houses. And
how had they got into their houses? They passed through the door.
And what was round the door? The blood of that slain lamb
put on the doorposts and put on the lintel. And you see those
who passed under that blood into their houses were safe because
the avenging angel, he passed by and didn't slay the firstborn. Now today, today the great and
blessed truth is that you and I are only safe under this great
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his most precious and
valuable blood to redeem our souls and so to remember his
marvellous work of redemption. May you and I be able then even on this Lord's Day, this Remembrance
Sunday, to look into our lives and to find now good reason to
remember what he has done for our never-dying souls, to free
us from the curse, to deliver us from all our sins, to free
us. And as we've sung in that second
hymn, the hymn writer says, loose him and let him go. The Lord
does loose his people from those chains that Satan chains us down
with, the sins which do so easily beset us. He desires to keep
us captive. He desires to keep us imprisoned. What a wonderful blessing when
the Lord Jesus comes and delivers us and looses our chains. And they're only loosed as we
see by faith the Lord Jesus Christ dying in redeeming us from all
our sins now this morning. May we have reason then to remember
his marvelous works that he hath done. And let us be very honest,
if we cannot remember such an occasion, if we cannot remember
such a period in our life, may we earnestly, earnestly pray
unto God that he will come to us and bless us that we might
seek the Lord with all our heart and with all our might and all
our power as God gives us grace to seek that we may have the
evidence that we are amongst indeed the children of God. You know when Paul the Apostle
wrote to his son Timothy in the faith. He wanted to assure Timothy
of the truth of these great doctrines that he had spoken to him of.
In the second epistle of Timothy, the second letter he wrote to
him, in the third chapter, the 10th and 11th verses, we read
this, because it describes what Paul had to pass through. It
wasn't an easy life Paul had, it's not an easy life for the
church of God, but it's a good life because it brings us at
last safe home to glory. And so he reminds Timothy that
he should remember what is telling him, but thou has fully known
my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering,
charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me
at Antioch and Iconium at Lystra. What persecutions I endured,
but out of them all the Lord delivered me." What a wonderful
testimony, what a true testimony. He could say, couldn't he, remember
his marvellous works, The works of God who enabled him to walk
his life in this earth uprightly in accordance with God's will
and purpose. He truly lived his life after
he was converted, after he was called by grace, after the glorious
light of God had shone into his heart on that Damascus road. He was able to be found serving
the Lord. He lived his life unto the Lord,
not unto himself. He didn't count his life dear
unto him. He desired to do the will of
his blessed Saviour, who indeed had done the will of his glorious
Father. And so let us today, this day
of remembrance, come to this situation and remember his marvellous
works. know the Apostle Paul again when
he wrote to the Corinthians in the second epistle in the ninth
chapter the last verse of that chapter this is what he says
thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift the
gift of God the Lord Jesus Christ the gift of the Savior eternal
life the blessed work of the Holy Spirit, to remember his
marvellous works that he has done. And so today, may we be
blessed to meditate and to remember what the Lord has done, and therefore
be able to come and to conclude with those few words at the very
end of this psalm, 150th, 105th psalm. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, man.