All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn me to Psalm 106. Cheryl, could you give me a water, please? Psalm 106, 107. See, my mind
is already breaking. 107. Entitled this message, The Redeemed
of the Lord. The Redeemed of the Lord. The scripture says, Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy and
gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west
and from the north and from the south. of the Lord. This psalm, in my study, most likely came
from the time when David brought back the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, Israel had lost that
Ark because of their sin. And that Ark was the center of
their worship. It was the only place where God
would meet with the sinner through a high priest. It was the only
place where the offering was to be sprinkled for the atonement
of the people. They lost that ark. They lost
the worship of God. And ever since that time, they
were not able to worship God in the way He prescribed. And
here it is, David now being commanded and led of the Lord to restore
that ark. They restored the worship. Their
worship with God had been restored. The sacrifices, which were to
picture the Lord Jesus Christ, were restored and His people
worshipped. And what was the result of this?
All give thanks. All give thanks for the Lord. He is good. He is good. When I thought of this, the Ark
of the Covenant, what a blessed picture this is of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You remember that ark was made
of incorruptible wood. Oh, what a picture of Jesus'
perfect humanity. It was overlaid with gold. What
a picture of His perfect deity. And you remember what was inside
of that box, that ark. It was the unbroken law. That's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? Isn't He the fulfillment of the
law of God? by His obedience? You remember
the manna, the pot of manna was inside the ark. What is that
but a picture of Jesus Christ who said, I am the bread of life?
You see that old rod, that stick of Aaron, it budded and produced
almonds and they put that in there. What is that but Jesus? Is He not the tree of life? He
is. He's the one that budded. He's
the one, His offering in His life, it brought life. And this
is a whole picture of His salvation. And that, what lid, that lid
that covered the ark. It was made out of pure gold.
And I like this, it was beaten. That, it was beaten into shape. Where those two seraphims were
leading their wings across the top. of the mercy seat. What a picture of Christ who
is God manifest in the flesh and yet he was bruised for our
iniquity. He was beaten. And you remember it was upon
that lid where the blood was sprinkled for the atonement.
What a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is our propitiation
for sin. He is our mercy seat. He is the
only acceptable sacrifice. It was by the shedding of his
blood that he satisfied the justice of God that was against us. Behold,
he is the mercy seat. And so as Israel now sees this
ark coming, they see it brought in. restoring the worship of
God. And what was their response?
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. He has restored
our worship. He has brought redemption and
atonement. And so as Israel gave thanks,
how much more then are we to give thanks for a much greater
atonement than that in the Old Testament? That in the Old Testament
only pictured what we now are able to see by faith, Jesus Christ,
who is the source of God's redemption and mercy. So in this psalm,
we see the heartfelt thanksgiving of every one of God's redeemed. And these are the only ones gonna
give thanks, those who are redeemed. And to those who have no redemption,
the things of Christ are virtually meaningless. Most people want
to hear about themselves. Well, we who have been redeemed,
we give thanks because we understand the greatness and the goodness
of God in providing redemption. Who are those to give thanks?
He says this in verse two, let the redeemed of the Lord say
so. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Those who have been redeemed.
Who are these? Who have been redeemed? Let me tell you who they're not. These are not those who have
been bought with silver and gold from their vain conversation.
Peter said that. We have been redeemed. Not with
silver and gold from our vain conversation. Yet many believe
themselves to be redeemed by their conversation, by their
life, by their lifestyle, by how they live. Those who are supposed to be
under the law, these are not redeemed. Why? Because you can't be redeemed
by the blood of bulls and goats. They cannot take away sin. These
are not those who are so foolish and deceived to believe that
they are to be redeemed by their religious works. Is there any
here who desires to be redeemed to God by what they've done or
what they can do for God? The scripture is clear. The price
of redemption is too expensive for us. There is nothing we have
to pay. The price of redemption is only
blood. Men like a bloodless religion,
you know that? They do. I remember one time these politicians
and women were gathered together and they said, we don't want
no bloody religion. Okay. What does God say? Without the
shedding of blood is no freedom. Without the shedding of blood
is no pardon. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. No forgiveness. Go to Micah chapter
6. Look at what this man, this king
here. In Micah chapter 6, this king Balak, Balaam came
to him, and Balaam was a hired prophet. He couldn't curse Israel. He's getting paid for it. And
he said, I can't curse them. God won't let me. And so this king, Balak, he asked
Balaam this question. He said, wherewith shall I come
before the Lord and bow myself before the Most High? When I read that, I was I was struck by his response
here. Everything he begins to list
now is earthly things. He said, wherewith shall I come
before the Lord? What is the price of my reconciliation
with God? Now listen, he says, shall I come before him with
burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with 10,000 of rams and with 10,000 rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of
my body for the sin of my soul? When I read this, I thought of
the rich young ruler who came to the Lord. And he said this
very question, what must I do that I might inherit eternal
life? What must I do? Bailuck is coming with this same
question. Where with what I got to do? Do I need rams of a year
old? Do I need 10,000 rivers of oil? Do I give my firstborn? He's
willing to give his own kid for the sin of his soul. And
you remember what the Lord's response to that rich young ruler
was? How do you read the law? Tell me. Well, he said this. Well, you got to love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength, with all your might. and love your neighbor
as yourself. Christ said, OK, do that. The answer that he gives this
king is the same that the Lord gave that rich young ruler. What
is this? Look at his answer. He has showed
thee. You already know this. The law
of God's written in your heart already. Listen. He has showed
thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require
thee but to do justly? Okay, be holy. There you go. Go do that. And not only be holy,
love mercy. If we were holy, I promise you
the sin of our heart would be looking down on other people.
Because they ain't as holy as we are. See, you can't do either one.
You can't do justly, and you sure don't love mercy. And walk humbly with thy God.
How can two walk together except they be agreed? You and God are
not agreed. We are not holy, we are not sinful. None of us have done this. None
of us have obeyed. We have rather rebelled against
God. What did Paul say? There is none
righteous. You got that? None righteous.
Look around the room. You see any righteous people?
Look in the mirror. See any righteous people? None righteous. You see, I can't look down my
nose at you. Because I'm in the same condition
you are. By nature we are in this condition.
None. No, not one. There is none that understand
it. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all together
unprofitable. He put all of our works together
and they don't profit us before God. Look at verse 11 of that Micah.
God's asking this question. He says, shall I count them pure
with wicked balances and with a bag of deceitful weights? You
know they used to sell things in weights, they used to use
a scale, right? And if they were wicked people,
and they were trying to buy something from you, they'd put a heavier
weight on this side, so you'd have to put more over here. And
if they were selling something to you, they'd put a lesser weight
over here, and then they would sell you less. God said, I don't
deal with men that way. God doesn't deal with men but
by strict justice. Holy justice. God's justice,
listen, cannot be set aside to show mercy. This is what men
want. Men want God to put aside His
justice so He can love them. God can't do that. God won't
do that. He must, His justice must be
satisfied if we are to be reconciled to God. He must, justice must
be satisfied before we can ever be received of God. But this
thing cannot be done by our offering or our deeds. Redemption cannot be bought by
anything we can do or offer. Therefore, back in our text,
therefore we by nature were captives. Isn't that what he said? He said,
let the redeemed of the Lord say so who he hath redeemed from
the hand of his enemies. We who are redeemed understand
we were captive. We were captive. You know when Adam sinned, Eve
sinned, she was not deceived. You know that? I mean, she was
deceived. Satan deceived her. She was tricked. But you realize
when our father sinned, he was not deceived. He knew full well
what would happen. And he rebelled against God as
our federal head. And we all were held captive
by sin, by Satan. We were under the curse of the
law. We were spiritually depraved without hope of escape. Even from the fall, there is
no man that has escaped this. So let me ask you this morning,
what will you bring to God that you might be redeemed. Name it. What is it? Men like
a checklist. In religion, they want a checklist.
They want to say, well, do this and God will love you. Stop doing
this and God will love you. You check that off. Well, I'm
joining church. Check. I started attending church. Check. Now you take that to God
and see how it gets you. Well, I'm offering all this time
and money. Take that to God and see where
that gets you. We who have been redeemed understand
we had no hope of redeeming ourselves. None. We were captives. There is no
hope of our obedience to God, no hope of self-redemption. Because
everything we touch is defiled. Everything we touch is tainted
with sin. And if God kills us, he just gives us our just reward. It won't redeem you. But let
me tell you of one. I want to tell you of a Redeemer. One who was sent of God to do
for us what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. Jesus Christ to redeem us came
into the flesh to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
He came to be the second Adam, the representative. We fell in
a representative rebel, Adam. If there's any hope for you and
me to be redeemed, it must be by the work of another Adam,
another representative. That's why he came. He came to
be a representative. so that He should redeem us to
God. He came in the flesh to fulfill
the will of God. The will of God. In Hebrews chapter
10, He said, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book is written
of Me. You found that to be true? The volume
of the book is written of Me. That's a bold statement, isn't
it? The whole thing is about Me. I find that to be true. And the volume of the book is
written of me. To do thy will, O God. In the preceding verses he says,
by the witch will. By the witch will we are sanctified. We're made holy by the will of
God. By the purpose of God, which
was that Christ, by his own precious blood, should redeem us, sanctify
us, make us holy. You read that in Ephesians chapter
one, that was the purpose of God from the beginning. That
we should be, what? Holy. Without blame before him. He chose us for that purpose. But how he would do it? is beyond
what men could imagine. The imagination of men in religion
is always that man offers something to God for his sin. Every religion. In this religion, it is God that
makes the offering for man. And the offering, the offering is his own son. his own son, that he should redeem
us by his spotless blood. So then, we who are redeemed,
is it not then our hearts to give thanks for such a redemption? We sing that hymn, Redeemed How
I Love to Proclaim It. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. redeemed through his infinite
mercy, his child and forever I am redeemed, redeemed. And so then as we see this, give
thanks because what? We've been redeemed. Not with
silver and gold of your vain conversation, not with your religious
works, not with your good deeds, not because you're a swell person.
You're not. We're sinners. give thanks because
He hath redeemed us by the blood of His Son. And notice this, give thanks
unto the Lord for He is good. What is the greatest display
of God's goodness? How do you know God is good? The greatest display of God's
goodness is His redemption. The greatest display of his goodness
is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus said this,
scarcely for a righteous man some would dare to die. Perventure for a righteous man,
one would dare to die. Perventure for a good man, some
would dare to die. But God commendeth his love for
us. God displays His goodness in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ God, He didn't wait for
you to get better. How many people say that? Well,
when I get better, ain't gonna happen. I ain't gonna get better. My experience as a believer is
that I seem to be getting worse. It's not really that I'm getting
worse, I've always been that bad. It's just now I'm being able
to see more of it. He died for us while we were
yet sinners. He redeemed us. This is the word
that we love to hear. It's the one we set our hearts
upon, those who have been redeemed, those who love God, because we
were purchased I tell you what, I like the idea
of slavery. People kick against slavery.
I'm a slave. Are you? I am. Just depends on who's your master. We've been bought with a price. the precious blood of Jesus Christ
that justified us before the eyes of God, that procured our
righteousness. Christ procured our righteousness. You understand that all my righteousness
is what He earned. The only offering I have to give
unto God is the offering that He gave. I don't have anything else. He
justified me. He made us righteous. And I know
this, when he comes to those he has redeemed, he will even
give us this righteousness. John says, as he is, so are we
in this present world. Now how is he? How is Christ? Can you see him in his glory
and his beauty and his righteousness? John says, that's how I am right
now. He said, you can't see it. Don't try to look for it. You're
not going to find any assurance in it if you try to look for
it in yourself. By faith, we know this to be true. It gives
us that righteousness. So what do we give? Thanks. Isn't that the offering that
we're to give? The sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise? In other words, to give thanks
adds nothing to the redemption. You give me something freely,
and I receive it, and I say thank you. That adds nothing to what
you gave me. What Christ did for us, He redeemed
us. But our thanksgiving and our
praise and everything we do adds nothing to that redemption. Nothing to that righteousness. He didn't leave anything for
you to do. He said it's done. It's finished. And so what do we do? Thank you.
Thank you. We give thanks unto the Lord.
Because in His redemption is the greatest display of His goodness. And we are redeemed. We surely
know this, that God is good. We know God is good. Listen.
Look at your text. For His mercy endureth. How long? How long will His mercy toward
you, who are redeemed, how long will it endure? I didn't ask
how long your love and affection toward Him will endure. Even
our faith, even though our faith will endure, it fluctuates. What doesn't is mercy. He said, Behold, I am God, I
change not. It's hard to grab ahold of something
like that, isn't it? Because you and I change all the time.
We don't know anything but change. And God said, I don't change. If I love you now, it's because
I always loved you. If I love you now, I'm going
to always love you. Why? I don't change. How high is this love? And it never goes down. It never changes. And surely this goodness is displayed
in the giving of his own son to redeem me. Therefore, you who are redeemed,
listen, God's goodness should never be based on your circumstance. Your view of God's goodness should
never be based on your situation. No matter our troubles, our afflictions,
our trials, our pain, our sorrow, our sickness that we endure.
No matter. It doesn't matter. Whatever you
who are redeemed endure in this life, it is only out of necessity
that you endure it. Now what Peter says, if we through
manifold temptation, he said, if need be, we through manifold
temptation. Only if it's necessary. So what
we're experiencing is only necessary. But regardless of what we say,
we feel, let us say so, the Lord is good. And you can't see that by looking
at the circumstance, you can only see that by looking at the
Redeemer. You can only see it by looking
at Christ. I've said this many times, but
Ecclesiastes, look at this. Ecclesiastes 9. This has been a very helpful
passage. Solomon, the wisest man next
to the Lord Jesus Christ that ever lived, he said this, for
all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that
the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of
God. In other words, salvation belongs to the Lord. My righteousness,
my work, everything is in the hand of God. God overrules everything
for our salvation. And listen to this, no man knoweth
either love or hatred by all that is before him. You will
never know the love of God or the hatred of God by your circumstance. The wicked prosper and the righteous
suffer. Can you tell the love or hatred
by their circumstance? No. Oh, Asaph in Psalm 73, he
had trouble with this, he said, He was suffering. He was suffering. And it was only when he went
into the sanctuary, it's only when he saw the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the suffering of the Redeemer, did he understand
God was good to him. That's the only way you're going
to know God's goodness. God is good, essentially good, and His
goodness is only revealed in His Son. Remember when Moses
asked to see the glory of God. He said, show me thy glory. And
God said, look, you can't see my face. He said, show my glory.
He said, you can't see my face. And he said, what I'm going to
do, he said, I'm going to show you, proclaim my name before
you. And what would he say? The Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, heaping mercy for thousands.
Forgiving iniquity and transgression and by no means clear the guilty.
You see that? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? See, God said I'm going to show
mercy and at the same time I'm not going to clear the guilty.
How can you reconcile those two things? God said that's who he
is. I'm merciful but I'm just. You know the only place Moses
could see that was in the cleft of the rock? God says I'm going
to show you this. I'm going to put you in a place
by me, a cleft of the rock and I'm going to cover you with my
hand. Listen, the only way you know how God can be just and
justify you is in the cleft of the rock, Jesus Christ. It's
the only way. It's the only way. God in goodness
made man good, but he lost his good estate. Yet God in goodness, because
God purposed to display his goodness and glory to his elect, God in
goodness put us in Christ Jesus. You who are redeemed, I want
you to understand that you were put in Christ Jesus so that you
might know the glory of God, how God can be just and justify
the ungodly, how God could redeem you. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 30, but of God are you in Christ Jesus. You that are
redeemed, you were redeemed in Christ Jesus. Why? Because God put you there. Do
you put yourself in Christ? Go ahead, tell me. Do you put
yourself in there? No, I couldn't. God put me there. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. By nature we were blind to this
goodness and we couldn't see it. But everyone that Christ
redeemed, notice, go back to your text, look at this. Only those that are redeemed
by the blood of Christ will give thanks Only those redeemed see
the goodness of God in the redemption of Christ. Only those who are
redeemed experience the eternal mercy of God, and we give praise
to Him. Why? Because He hath redeemed
us from the hand of our enemy. Listen, in verse 3, this is the
experience of everyone who's redeemed. Listen, and gathered
them out of the lands, from the east, from the west, from the
north, and from the south. In other words, this, everyone
Christ redeemed, he is going to gather them. He will. His people, his elect people,
we who are among them, we're scattered. Scattered. I don't know who God's elect
are, do you? That's why the apostle said,
make your calling and election sure. I don't know who God's elect
are, I just know they're out there. I know he has them. And I have
this promise, he will gather them. He will. I wouldn't preach otherwise.
If I didn't have that confidence, if the gathering of his people
depended on me, I'd quit. I'd quit. And every other preacher should
too, if that's the case. But I know this, Christ said,
this is the will of him that sent me, that of all he has given
me, I should lose nothing. That's the will of God. He said, they shall come to me.
They shall come to me. When are they going to come to
him? Whenever he calls them. Whenever
he calls them, they'll come. They'll see their sin, they'll
see their need, and they'll cry to Him, and He'll save them.
That's guaranteed. Isn't that wonderful? Sure takes the load off of a
preacher. I don't have to do any of that.
He gathers them. He gathers them. And I know this. He said, my word that goeth forth
out of my mouth, it shall not return and be void, but shall
accomplish the thing whereunto I send it. He shall, without
fail, gather His people from their sins. Therefore, only those who have
experienced the calling and quickening power of the Spirit give thanks."
You know why we give thanks? Because I understand that my
gathering took the power of God. My gathering was not something
that was something I could do or contribute to. My calling
was totally of the power of God. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. Look
at what it took to gather you. Those who are redeemed, when
He gathers you, I want you to see that it is by the power of
God. Look at verse 18. Chapter one. He says, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope, the confidence,
the surety of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory
of the inheritance of the saints. That's what you know. You know
these things. How do you know them? And what
is the exceeding greatness of his power to us, who believe
according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him on
His own right hand in heavenly places. It took the same power
to raise Christ from the dead as it did to enlighten you, to
give you life. And now in chapter 2 he begins
to make that illustration. Look at this. This is the power
of God. Look. In verse 1 of chapter 2.
And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. This is the exceeding greatness
of his power. You were dead and he said live. And you what? Resisted. Turned him down. No thanks. I didn't say no thanks. You can't
do anything. You didn't even know he was doing
it. And he did it. You know, I didn't know, I didn't
know I was really saved till after it was already over. And you hath he quickened who
are dead and trespasses in sin. Look at verse eight, you see
the effect for by grace you are saved through faith that not
of yourselves. When you hear men talk about
decisions and making choices and accepting God into your heart,
that makes me want to throw up. No, it takes much more power
than that. More power than you got takes the power of God to gather
you. And notice this, he said, I will. I will gather you. Not a question. A fact. I will gather, wherever
you are. Wherever you are. I am more convinced that I know
this, God does not need me to save his people. Surely he uses
the preaching of the gospel, but out of necessity, out of
his will, not necessity. God will save his people and
he will save them through the preaching of this redemption. Are you redeemed? I don't know. Well, have you
been gathered? I don't know. Do you believe
on the Son of God as all your salvation? You've been gathered
and you are redeemed. Not by your hand. You let the
redeemed of the Lord say so. You redeemed of the Lord? But
what do you say? Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. And I found it true. You can't truly give thanks and
complain. I do pray God would reveal his
goodness through the offering of his son
for such vile sinners as we are. Lord did not leave his church
without a picture. God loves his pictures, doesn't
he? All through the Old Testament,
but he left his church too. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. This is a picture of how we were
deemed and how we were gathered. It's a picture of the goodness
of God in the offering of Christ Second, in 1 Corinthians chapter
11. Verse 23, Paul said this, for
we have received of the Lord that which I delivered unto you
that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he betrayed took
bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said,
take eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in
remembrance of me. And after the same matter he
took a cup which had substance. This cup is the New Testament,
the new covenant in my blood. This do you as oft as you drink
it in remembrance of me. What are we doing here with this?
We're just remembering. This is for you who are redeemed
so that you might remember. And so there are two messages
being preached here today. I'm preaching this message, and
this will preach itself. Jesus Christ came and his body
was broken. And as we eat that bread, it's
a picture of our union with him, isn't it? As that bread takes
part of our body and becomes part of our body and nourishes
us and strengthens us, gives us life. You eat bread to live. It's what it is to, by faith,
to receive Christ. And that blood, that cup is a
picture of his blood. I was talking with a pastor this
week about testator. You know, man makes a will, right?
And that will is binding, but it's not in effect until he dies.
Jesus Christ said the will of God was to save his people, and
he made that will effectual when he died. The difference between
Christ and some other man dying is this. When a man dies, he
can't make sure his will's done. When y'all die, you got a will,
but you can't tell if anybody's gonna follow it or not. See,
Jesus Christ risen from the dead, he stands by to make sure his
will's done. So he's the testator, he died,
and he lives to make sure his will's done. Isn't that amazing? And so this blood is the seal
of that covenant. And as we drink it, what does
it do? Union with us. Cleanses us from all our sin.
That's what the blood of Christ, just a picture. But it's for
you who are redeemed. And so as we prepare this, let's
partake of this. And as we do this, we will remember
him. Remember his redemption. Remember
his goodness and give thanks.