But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair I hope that in some favored hour,
at once he'd answer my request. And by his love's constraining
power, subdue my sin and give me rest. Instead of this, he made me feel
the hidden evil of my heart. And let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he
seemed, intent to aggravate my woe. Crossed all the fair designs
I schemed, blasted my boards and laid me low. Lord, why is this? I trembling cried. Will thou pursue thy worm to
death? Tis in this way the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
faith. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes of
earthly joy that thou might find mine all in me that thou might
find mine all in me I'm thankful for that. I pray
the Lord would bless that. He did bless me with it. Very
thankful. We'll begin the message. We'll
go to God in prayer again. I ask for your prayers for me
as I desire to preach this to you. I find out that when I prepare
a message or read a message and want to deliver it to you and I don't think there's enough
paper to write the message that should be preached. And when
I get to what I have, it seems so small, so little, so insufficient
in itself. And it is. In all honesty, it
is. But I need Him. I need Him to fill me with His
Word, and I pray that He'll fill you with it. I pray the Spirit would give
me liberty to preach this text as it must be and should be preached. And I find that I have no power
in myself to do that, so pray for me that the Spirit would
give me such as you need. And pray the Lord would open
this text to your heart, because I believe it's very applicable,
very applicable to our hearts at this present time. Please remember those people
who suffered great loss this week in Texas. I can't fathom. pain of those parents who lost their
children. Sometimes we want to put such
thoughts away from us because it's too hard to think, but they
can't. They can't put those thoughts
away. They've lost their children. It reminds me of a When 9-11 happened, Milton Howard
preached a message from Deuteronomy. He said, I am the Lord, and there
is none else. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. We do not always understand God's
providence, but God is much wiser than we are. His providence is a direct result of His commandment,
His rule, His decree. We don't make excuses for God.
You don't need to. I'm God, He said. There's none else. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and
I heal. It is to this God we bow, and
we submit ourselves, not fully understanding His will, but we
submit to it. And I hope the text will bear
that out in some measure this morning. Regardless of our situation,
we must bless the Lord. Why? It's right. It's good. Is
it not good? It is. I pray the Lord will bless
those families and use this. I know He will. I know He'll
use it for the good of His people and the salvation of His elect,
just like He does everything else. So pray for them. Pray for those that are traveling
and Joanne, how's she doing, Amy? Right. Okay, continue to pray for Joanne
as she heals. Let's go to God in prayer. Our
gracious Father, we come boldly before Thy throne of grace, seeking
mercy and grace in time of our need, seeking help, Father, as
we've come to worship, we've come to praise, we've come to
honor Thee for the perfect work that you have given in Jesus
Christ, the perfect salvation that you have purposed, that
Christ accomplished, that the Spirit now gives and keeps. Father, I confess that in myself
I have no strength, no power to deliver the message, but I
rely upon your grace and mercy and strength to send your Spirit Fill my heart with the words that your people need. And fill
their hearts with the words that they need, that they might feed
and find comfort and refreshment. They might find instruction in
the time of their difficulties and afflictions. Lift up those
that are sorrowing, those that are grieving, those that are
in pain. Pray for them, Father, that you would comfort their
hearts. Lord, use it for your own glory. Forgive us our sins. We pray
this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Now, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 103. Title of this message, Blessing
and Benefits. Blessing and Benefits. Sang that hymn. How vast the
benefits. How vast the benefits that we
have in Christ our Lord. And it is this motive, this is
the motive the psalmist is going to give. He's going to instruct
us to do something. And then He's going to give us
the motive for it. The instruction is this, bless
the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. He is here commanding His own
soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And
all that is within me, bless His holy name. Notice this, he doesn't cease
after one, he says it again. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And, listen, forget not all his
benefits. David was a man like us. You that believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, He was the same as you, a sinner saved by grace. And we read of His life, He was
surrounded by troubles. God does not hide the troubles
and afflictions of His saints. You read any history of God's
people and they are flooded with afflictions, trials, difficulties. And here David, in affliction,
pours out His heart and commands His soul to do something, and
this is what He commands. Bless the Lord. What an instruction
to us in the midst of our difficulties and trials of this life. Here's
something that you should be doing. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord when times are
good. Bless the Lord when times are evil. Bless the Lord at all
times. At all times. Bless the Lord. Now, what does that mean? If we're to bless the Lord, you've
got to understand what it means. How do we bless the Lord? Now, when we first think about
blessing somebody, we think about adding to someone. Right? When somebody, when you have
a need, and somebody comes along and supplies the need, you say
what? That you've been blessed. They
blessed you with the money you needed, or they blessed you with
the comfort you needed, or they blessed you with the forgiveness
that you needed. Whatever it is, they added something
to you. That is not the idea of this
text. There is nothing we can do to
add to the Lord. When we give praise unto God,
we are only giving what is required, what is necessary, what belongs
to Him. If I praise Him, the Scripture
says that praise belongs to the Lord. So you are only giving
Him what is His. You are not adding anything to
God. So no man can add anything to
God. Don't you realize this, that
God is completely satisfied? You and I have never experienced
that. We have glimpses of contentment, don't we? There are times when
we feel content, but we don't know what it is to be completely
content. God is absolutely, always, perfectly
satisfied. There's nothing that disrupts
His satisfaction. Everything that happens. When
things happen to us, we're disrupted. Our joy is disrupted. Our peace
is disrupted. But do you realize that that
never happens to God? He is always perfectly content. But the root word, bless, gives
us an idea of what the psalmist means for us to do. It means
to kneel. It means to bow to God, regardless
of our present circumstance. Here's instruction. Kneel. Bow yourself down. And notice
David must command his soul to do this. Bless the Lord. Kneel before the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me. We must bow down to God as sovereign. Why? Because the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth. Don't you realize that? That
God reigns. Now this, to the believer, should
be the most satisfying thing, that God rules. Our God, who
purposed our salvation in eternity, who loved us with an everlasting
love, who sent His Son into this world to die in our stead, to
send His Spirit to us who had no desire for Him, no love for
Him, and yet He sent His Spirit to us. He gave us life. He gave us faith. Is it not just reasonable then
to kneel, you that believe, regardless of what happens? It's the most natural thing for
the new man to do. To kneel. To bless the Lord. To bow down. So then David commands
his soul to kneel before the Lord God. To bow down and give
Him praise. And notice this, David summons
all of his faculties. Bless the Lord, O my soul. This has to do with his being. Not just his inner soul, but
rather, where does all the animations and actions come from? It comes
from the heart. It comes from the soul. David
says, O soul, bow down and all that is within me, my whole being,
should bow before God. Friends, let us recognize that
if we engage our lips only, what good is that? What good is it
just to acknowledge God as Sovereign? David doesn't want to just acknowledge
it with his lips, he wants to his whole being be engaged in
this. This morning, I would pray that
God would make our whole being engaged in praising. and kneeling
and bowing down to God. I don't know about you, but I'm
prone to murmur and complain. Aren't you? The first sign of
trouble. Instead of blessing the Lord,
I kick. Instead of praising Him, thanking
Him, I'm so quick to complain. Let me not talk of sovereignty
and then complain of my lot in life. That is totally inconsistent,
isn't it? Isn't it inconsistent? We should engage all of our hearts
and souls and minds in this activity of worship. Our Lord says that
God seeketh such to worship Him that worship Him in what? Spirit
and truth. With the soul and heart and in
truth. A lot of people trying to do
it with their soul and they don't know anything about truth. They
don't know the gospel. How can you bless the Lord, kneel
to the Lord and not know His truth, the gospel? Yet some people
have a cold understanding of the gospel and have no heart
for it. We are to have both. May the Lord God in grace give
us the strength this morning to kneel. to vow to bless the Lord with
all of our souls. And notice this, it's personal.
David said, he didn't say, bless the Lord, O your soul. He said, bless the Lord, O my
soul. Now listen, we must not forsake
the corporate worship of God. This is vital. This is something,
when I was younger, the Lord had blessed the church, I believe,
in such a way that corporate worship was something of a necessity. It was necessary. And God's people
enjoyed the coming together and fellowshipping around the gospel
of Christ. But it seems today it's more
of a loose connection. Nobody seems to have a need to
be among God's saints. They could just listen to it
whenever they want to. They could just, you know, plug it in, tune
in whenever they want to. We have this benefit of being
on the internet, and I think it's a wonderful benefit. I think
God's people, there are some people that can't find a place
or don't know of a place, and some people are just stuck, and
they can't move to where there's a place. I know it's a benefit
to some. But I think sometimes just like,
you know, they were afraid of the printing press. You know,
when the printing press came out, Some pastors were so afraid
that nobody would ever come to church anymore. They just printed
all out and they'd read in their homes. Listen, some people did. Some people quit and forsook
the assembling of themselves together. Why? Because they had
all the reading material they wanted. And the same way is true
today. We have this technology now where
it goes out and some people just are content to sit there. Scriptures are clear about that.
Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as a manner
of some use, but exhorting one another. You
know, I was telling somebody the other day, just you being
here is an encouragement to me to continue to preach. Do you
think that I would have much encouragement if nobody showed
up? If I was standing here by myself, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have any encouragement
to continue. But yet God gives encouragement by just you being
there. So corporate worship is important.
It's vital for the church. Yet in this corporate worship,
we must, each of us, bless the Lord. Each of us. Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and all that is within me. This morning, I can't make
you bless the Lord. I have no power for you to see
the greatness of God and the holiness of God and the mercies
of God. I can't make you see these things.
I can't make your soul kneel. But you know what I long to this
morning? I long for me to kneel. Myself I Should bow before God
How many times we've done that we sit in a message and we said
man I wish so-and-so could heard that oh I wish so-and-so would
would kneel and bow David doesn't concern himself about anybody
else We should concern ourselves about
my own soul am I kneeling am I bowing? Bless the Lord, O my
soul, I must kneel before Him this morning, but my kneeling will not do any
of you any good. You and I must personally worship. This psalm is a personal psalm.
It's a personal one. This worship is and must be personal. Listen to this, God commendeth
God commandeth everyone everywhere to repent. God commands you to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to me, He commands it.
He commands it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Is that not an outstanding text? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. whom I am chief. God commands
us to bow. And listen, the only way you're
going to bless the Lord is through faith in Christ. The only way
you yield to Him and kneel to Him is to come to Him by Jesus
Christ. You can do all the kneeling you
want to. There are churches that, you know, do all kinds of ceremonial
kneeling. I think that there's one instance
in the Catholic Church where there's a ceremony and they have
to kneel and make the sign of the cross 27 times. No, it's not a ceremonial kneeling. It's a spiritual one. And the
only way our kneeling to God is this. Believe His Son. Trust in His Son. Rest in His
Son. Give glory to God for His Son
that Christ came into the world and He has accomplished salvation. We preach a victorious Savior.
We don't preach a weak effeminate Savior. Our Savior came into
the world and He humbled Himself. He became the lowest of men in
order to save us, but after He saved us, where is He now? Where
is your Lord now? He is seated on the throne of
God, ruling all things after the counsel of His own will.
The only thing that gives Him praise and honor is this, that
you should believe on His Son. You that believe, what are your
commandments? We're not lawless, are we? John
tells us what our commandments are. He said, and this is the
commandment, that you should love one another and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. These are your commandments.
This is how we bless the Lord, through faith in Christ. Notice
David is now going to give us motive. kneeling, motive for
bowing down. He says, and this, forget not
all his benefits. I don't know, maybe I am alone,
but I am quick to forget. The slightest trouble comes my
way, I forget immediately. Scripture says we're like broken
cisterns that can hold no water. I know that this is not the greatest
oratory spectacle of preaching ever exhibited. But if it were,
how much would you retain when you walk out the door? I had a lady I was talking to
the other day and she was very upset that she can't remember.
She hears a message and she's blessed by it. But when she gets
done, she says, I can't remember everything that you said. I want to grab a hold of it.
And it's like, I can't remember. That's why God sends us again. Because you need to be reminded.
You need to remember. And so David here says, look,
remember, don't forget. And so we leak out, so we need
to be reminded. And so God sends us to tell you
the same story over and over again. Have I not preached Christ
over and over again to you? Have I not set forth Christ over
and over, and then you hear the same thing over and over, and
yet you go, It's amazing. It's astounding that you just
don't leave. Because the spirit that's in
you needs and feeds on that word. You constantly need to be reminded
of what? His benefits. Listen. David is causing you not to focus
on your affliction, but the benefits. We like to look at the affliction.
We like to look at the difficulty. But rather, if you're looking
at that, you find it more difficult to bow. Instead, focus on the
benefits. The benefits. David lays out
the benefits that we have here as a result of the work of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this first one. I think
this is the one, the foundational one. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. I like the way, you know, I read
the King James for a reason. There are other translations.
You can read them. Sometimes it may help, but this
one I like because of the language. The ETH. I've told you this many
times. It's a present perfect tense.
It means it was, it is, and it's going to be. In other words,
God has forgiven you your sins. That's great benefit, isn't it? Do you realize that forgiveness
was eternal? When God chose you, and I say
when loosely, because I don't, that's the only thing we can,
can you understand eternity? I can only understand it as eternity
past, eternity future, but there's no such thing, is there? Yet when I say when God chose
you, when did God choose you? Can you pick a specific time
in the past? No, He always chose you. I don't
understand that. But it's so. He always loved
you. He always put you in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He always purposed to save you
and forgive you of your sins. And listen, when Jesus Christ
died for your sins, the scripture here, look at verse 12 of this
text, this has to do with this benefit. As far as the east is
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression
from us. Is that a benefit? Is that not the greatest benefit?
If he never gave you anything else, is that not the greatest
benefit? If everything else went bad, your whole life was nothing
but tragedy and sorrow and difficulty and affliction. If you had that,
wouldn't you have everything? You would have everything, wouldn't
you? You would have acceptance with God. You would have peace
with God. You would have eternal life with God. You would be holy
if you had His forgiveness, His pardon, if He removed your sins
from you. Look, He didn't remove your sins
just over in the corner. That's how we think about it
sometimes. We know that God forgave us, and yet we just think He's
going to come back on us. He buried the hatchet with the
handle sticking out. That's how we see God forgiving
sins. That's not how God forgives sins. When Jesus Christ bore
your sins, He took them as far away as the east is from the
west. And you can't even measure that,
because that just keeps going. Just keeps going. He forgiveth. When He died, your sins were
put away forever. And yet when you came into the
world, you came in as a rebel, you came in full of sin from
the top of your head to the bottom of your feet is nothing but sin. Those little babies you got in
the back, they are nothing but sin. Isn't that something? That's how we come in the world.
We don't come innocent and then become sinners. We're born that
way. Full of hatred and rebellion
against God. And yet, even before then, God
purposed to forgive you. You didn't know it. You didn't
want it. And then God gave His Spirit
to come and save you. Give you life. Gave you life. You were running
in the opposite direction and He found you. He found me in
my rebellion. He didn't wait for me to get
better. He found me in my rebellion. I was like that infant cast out,
polluted in His own blood. And He said this, when I passed
by thee, it was a time of love. He said, I washed you. I cleansed
you. I forgave you. So He has forgiven me. He is
right now forgiving me. Isn't that wonderful? Do you
need it this morning? I do. I do. I need His forgiveness now. now and all throughout the rest of
my days I'm going to need his forgiveness. Well that's good
because that's one of the benefits. That's the benefit of Christ's
blood. The scripture says he ever liveth
to make intercession. When you sin, do you think about
needing intercession? You don't think about it. You
don't even, at that time you don't want it. You want to have
your way. That's alright. Even then He's
interceding for you. Is that not the greatest love
you'd ever known in your life? That He pleads my case even when
I don't recognize or know it, He forgiveth all, I like that,
all thine iniquities. How could he do that? Because
Christ has paid them. Christ has satisfied the justice
of God. The only way He can forgive you
is this, that sin be paid. God doesn't wink at my sin. Christ paid for my sin. And He so far removed it from
me that He'll never condemn me of it. Now I condemn myself constantly. That's part of the new covenant
in case you don't know. We like to talk about a new heart
and He forgives your iniquities. But you know what God said about
you? He said you're going to hate yourself. Is that not true
of you? That belief? You loathe yourselves. Well here's a benefit. He never
loathes you. He never despises you. He always
forgives your sins. Do you deserve that? Texts don't show anything about
me deserving it. He does this by grace. Who forgiveth? He just does it of His own grace. He forgives all our sins. When I think about this, forgiving
all our sins, the great day of atonement is one of the best
pictures of that, isn't it? Carrying our sins away. When
the priest comes in, and he's covered, and he's in the linen
cloth now, and he confesses the sins on the scapegoat. All the sins of Israel were confessed
on that scapegoat. And the strong man takes that
scapegoat, and he starts walking. And he just keeps walking, and
walking, until nobody can see him anymore. Scripture says he
goes into a land uninhabited and leaves that scapegoat there.
And then the priest takes another animal and he kills the animal
for the sin offering. See that both of them picture
the Lord Jesus Christ. When He died on the cross, He
bore my sins and He shed His blood for my sins. And then the
high priest, he takes off those bloody robes, puts on the garments
of the priest, he takes that blood and he presents it in before
God and sprinkles it on the mercy seat. That's exactly what our
Lord Jesus Christ did when He rose again. He put back on those
priestly garments, those garments of divinity, Presenting himself
before God as our intercession, and you know what he that priest
came out and the sins of Israel were forgiven They were told How do you know your sins are
forgiven is Christ risen is he still risen I Don't know if he
can forgive me now. Well is he still risen? He's
he's still there The only way you're not going to be forgiven
is if somehow he's not there and Is He there? Listen to this benefit. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. Secondly, He healeth all thy
diseases. Now, believers, I know this,
we are filled with physical sicknesses and sorrows. Isn't that a result
of sin? It's a result of Adam's sin.
When Adam sinned, he began to die physically. And he eventually
did. He died. And this is true of
all of us. We have physical maladies. And
we desire this. And I desire this. And I desire
it for you. That God would heal our physical
maladies. And how many times has He done
that? You ever had a cold? Why didn't
you die? Don't think that a little cold
couldn't kill you. If your immune system was sufficiently
low, it'd just kill you. Well, who sustained you? Who
healed your diseases? All the diseases you'd ever had
and now you're still living. Who does that? We know God does
that. And one day God is going to deliver
us from all physical maladies, isn't He? When? When you die. When you die, you are delivered
from every physical malady forever. Your soul is ushered into the
presence of God where you rejoice and sing. I like that hymn we
just sang, How Vast the Benefits. It says this, More happy but
not more secure are the glorified spirits in heaven. I tell you
what, they are a heck of a lot happier than I am. But they are not more secure.
And one day God is going to raise this body and this is going to
be true physically. He healeth all thy diseases.
One day this body is never going to suffer maladies and sicknesses
and diseases. Isn't that a wonderful thought? But this is much more. He has
healed us from the natural disease of sin. He has healed us from
the natural disease of sin. When Adam sinned, he immediately
died from that disease. The scripture speaks of sin like
leprosy. The sin of leprosy. Scripture says that we are all
as an unclean thing. a leper. But the scriptures in Leviticus
13 show us that only true lepers are healed. Now, there were some
men that had little scabs on them that they could just brush
off, you know. They didn't have leprosy. It
was just a scab. So they brushed it off and they
were fine. But you know who God truly heals?
He only heals a true leper. One portion of that scripture
in Leviticus says this. He says if a person had leprosy,
and they had one spot of good flesh left, he says they're unclean. But notice this, when he said
there's no good flesh left, He said, then the priest will declare
him to be clean. In this true view, you got any
spot left that's good? Is there anything good about
you? Anything good about your flesh?
No. When God convicts a sinner that
he's a sinner, he realizes he's got nothing. And it's this that drives us
to Christ. Isn't it? Isn't that what did
it? God exposed our sin and He led us to Christ. And what did
Christ do? The same thing He did to that
leper that came to Him. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. You know what He said? I will. Those two words must have been
the greatest words that man had ever heard in his life. I know
you can. Will you? He didn't know. This is how we
come in. When I came as a sinner, I knew
God was going to save his elect, but I didn't know he was going
to save me. I came and I said, Lord, if you will, please, if
you will. You know what he said? He said,
I will. And the scripture says immediately
he healed all his diseases. Now you know eventually that
man got sick and died again. That man got sick and died, physically. But you know what? Christ did
heal him of all his malady. Which is what? Sin. He gives
us a new nature, doesn't he? A holy nature that can't be contaminated
with sin. Look at John, 1 John. Look at 1 John with me real fast. First John. Let's see. I didn't have this written down,
so give me a second. Look at verse 9. Look how much he has healed thee
of all thy disease of sin." Look at this. Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit what? Sin. For his seed, this is why, his
seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born
of God. Does that jive with your experience?
Now your experience is, that's all I do. All I think and feel. Paul said
this, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. So how can these
two things be true? How can he say, O wretched man
that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And yet John says, Whosoever is born of God
does not commit sin. How's those two things? Because
of this, that God has created a nature in us that doesn't sin.
He has healed us of all our maladies. All our disease of sin has been
healed by giving us a holy nature that is created after God in
righteousness and true holiness. I know the struggle that's in
you. That's because the warfare that ensues when God gives us
a new heart, that old nature, you know what he did with that?
Nothing. That which is born of flesh is
what? Flesh. But that which is born of spirit
is what? Spirit. There are two natures in one
body. struggling against one another. Like Rebecca had those two children
in her womb struggling with one another. But listen, here's the
benefit. The one is not going to contaminate
the other. Isn't this a great thing? When the flesh falls into
the ground, what goes to heaven? Why do? The new man that is created
after God in true holiness, I do. But yet, who died? I did. I died. But yet, I didn't. Now one day,
that flesh is going to be raised incorruptible. Going to be made
just like the new man. And then there will be one man.
Body, soul, and spirit. He has healed all our maladies. Notice this, verse 4, "...who
redeemeth thy life from destruction." We who have come to Christ have
seen that God is just and holy. We see this, "...that the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die." Isn't that what we saw
when we came to Christ? I believe that. I know that's
true. Everyone outside of Christ will
perish. You understand that? That's the
truth. God is holy and just and sin
must be punished. Justice must be satisfied. The law of God demanded our death. And those outside of Christ are
bound for destruction. Scripture says, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not, listen
to these words, shall be damned. Shall be damned. Spurgeon had
mentioned this one time in a message. He had said, the people in hell
have these words, shall be damned. And after 10,000 years, the words
are still just as vibrant, just as real, shall be damned. And after 20,000 years, these
words are vibrant, shall be damned, continually, constantly damned
forever. I know men hate that. I'm just
telling you the truth. We who believe understand that.
But we thank God this, that through Christ, He hath redeemed our
life. You see, my life is hid with
God in Christ. It's hid. None can remove it. He delivered my life. Because He is my life. He is
my life. Is He your life? He delivered my life. He redeemed
my life. How? By the death of His Son. This is a benefit. If God has
given you life, who could take it? Do you realize nobody could
take your physical life unless God take it? How much more your
spiritual life? He redeemeth thy life from destruction. Will you ever taste destruction,
you that believe? This is a benefit. This is a
great benefit. I will never taste death. Now I'll die physically, but
I'll never taste the death of the sinner. Why? Because Christ
tasted it for me. Christ endured it for me. You realize this is a benefit
that God cannot demand twice payment for sin? Isn't that a benefit? If Christ
died for my sin, God cannot justly condemn me. This is a horrific thing for
free will religion. They believe Christ died for
all the sins of all men except one, unbelief. If that's true,
they're all damned. I'm thankful for this. He died
for all sins of His people, even unbelief. Do you struggle with
belief? Do you sometimes doubt, fear? That's alright. He's redeemed
you from that. You'll never taste death for that. Look at this, and crowneth thee
with loving kindness and tender mercies. Crowneth thee with loving
kindness. How much does he love you? Consider
the benefit of having the love of God. Can you measure it? Can you measure the duration?
How long has God loved you? How long will He love you? Will anything remove His love
from you? Paul said, I am persuaded that
neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able, now they're going
to try, shall be able to separate me from the love of God that's
in Christ Jesus. You are crowned with loving-kindness. I don't feel that. It has nothing
to do with your feelings of it. I want to feel His love, don't
you? I enjoy those times where I feel His presence and I feel
His love. But listen, this crowning me
with loving-kindness doesn't depend on how I feel about it.
He crowneth me regardless of how I feel about it. He does. That's how He gives
His love. It's not like you and me, giving
love and taking away our love because of some thing somebody
did. He said, no, I crown you with
it. Loving kindness, endless and
tender mercies. It's not just mercies. I like
that. Tender. There's not a pain you have.
He does not know or feel Himself. Scripture says He is touched
with the feelings of our infirmities, so His mercies are not just mercies,
arbitrary, they're tender mercies. This is a benefit. This is yours. It's not something you earn,
something you merit, something you keep. It's something God
gives you. His love and tender mercies.
Don't you know everything He does for you is a tender mercy? who satisfied thy mouth with
good things." Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. Isn't that the bread that satisfies your mouth with good
things? I tell you what, there's nothing
like good food. Nothing like a good steak. Boy,
I like a good steak if it's really done right. You know what, that don't satisfy
me for very long. I'm hungry again. But there is
something that satisfies my soul when all else around me is falling
apart. Christ. His blood is enough. His righteousness
is sufficient. And listen, who reneweth thy
strength. He said, thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. This old body is getting old. It's dead. But there's a part
of me that'll never get old. And that's the part God made.
It is constantly renewed. Constantly refreshed. By what?
Gospel. I want to hear again how Christ
died for my sins. I want to hear again how He rose
again from the dead in victory. I want to hear again how He intercedes
for me, how He cares for me in the midst of all my afflictions
and troubles. These benefits are not earned,
they're given. Oh, don't forget His benefits. You remember them. In every affliction and trial,
what do you do? Bless the Lord. Oh my soul, please
help me to not forget Your benefits. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Glenn, dismiss in prayer, please.