And our text will be found in
the first eight verses of this psalm. And I'll, the Lord willing, I
want to go through this as just verse by verse. And may the Lord
bless it to our hearts this morning. The title of the message is The
Goodness of God to Wilderness Wanderers. the goodness of God
to the wilderness wanderers. The scripture says, O 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. Now, a psalmist, he begins with
a heartfelt desire that everyone give thanks unto God for His
goodness and His mercy. But specifically, now truly,
every one of you should give thanks to God. There is no question
that you owe thanks to God, even for your life, your breath, and
all you have. Every man should give thanks
to God. Now we know this, that not every
man will give thanks to God. Tipping your hat to God is not
giving thanks. That's not giving thanks. But every man should give thanks,
but the psalmist here instructs a special group of people. to
give thanks for the goodness and the mercy of God. He says
in verse 2, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord
give thanks for the goodness of God. So who are these that
are to give thanks? These redeemed ones. Well, they
are ones who have not been redeemed with silver and gold. These are
not men who have bought their salvation by any works or merit
of the flesh. These are not men who are redeemed
by law. These are not men who are so
foolish and deceived as to believe that by religious works or obedience
to the church and its laws that they should be redeemed to God.
For the Scriptures are plainly clear. Without the shedding of
blood is no remission. Now this is plain enough for
everyone here to understand that there is no remission of sins,
there is no redemption from sins, except by blood. Blood. In Micah chapter 6, In verse
7, we have a man, a worldly man, who supposes works could make
him acceptable. This man Balak, he says this,
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before
the high God? And notice, this man is going
to list works of the flesh and gifts of earth. He says, Shall
I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year
old? Will the Lord be pleased with
ten thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall
I give my firstborn for the transgression of my soul? Surely this is the thought of
the wicked. This is the thought of the natural man as to how
to please God. Shall I give what I have of the
earth? Shall I give my work? Shall I
give even my firstborn? Will that please God? No. It all belongs to God anyway. You're giving back then only
what belongs to Him. That will not redeem you. That
will not save you. And the answer comes plainly
to this man. He said, The Lord hath showed
thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee? I tell you, everybody in this building
knows what the Lord requires. You have the law of God written
in your hearts. And you know what is good. You
know what is right, and yet you still refuse to obey it. You know what's right to do justly,
to love mercy and walk humbly with thy God. Yet none of us
have done that. Every one of us knows that, but
none of us have done that. In Romans, Paul goes through
this. In chapter 1 and chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter
3, the apostle Paul, all his purpose is, is to show forth
that all men are without excuse. You look at the creation of the
world, you see the power and justice of God. And yet, what
do you do? By nature, we transform the glory
of God into a creature, into a four-footed beast, or a figment
of our imagination. That's what man does with that
knowledge. Yet, are you without excuse? You're without excuse
because you know there's a God. Every man knows this. In chapter
2, he says, you Gentiles, you that never heard the law of God,
you do those things which are contained in the law, because
the law is written in your hearts. And he said, you Jews are without
excuse because you had the law of God, and yet you still, like
the Gentiles, would not obey it. Therefore, the conclusion
is, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are altogether become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. The house of Adam. All of Adam's race is full of
wickedness. Shall then God count righteous
what is really wicked? You and I do, but God won't.
Does God judge with deceitful weights? No. God's justice is holy, it's
pure, and it's righteous. God's justice cannot be set aside
to show you mercy. In other words, God's justice
must be satisfied to accept any one of us. If there's anyone
to be redeemed, he must be redeemed by the satisfaction of God's
justice. Therefore, we who are redeemed
of the Lord, By nature, we're in the hands of our enemies.
Isn't that what our text tells us? It says, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. Who are they? Whom He hath redeemed
from the hand of the enemy. These redeemed folks are people
who were by nature in the hand of the enemy. The hand of the enemy. When Adam
sinned, When he sinned, his eyes were fully opened as to what
he was doing. Eve was deceived, but Adam was
not deceived. He fully well knew when he ate,
the justice of God would fall. I tell you, our Father murdered
us. There's no other way around it. He was not deceived. And seeing He was our federal
head, we were held captive then from the beginning by sin and
Satan, and truly we were held captive by the Law of God. The
Law of God was our enemy. The Law of God ordinances were
set against us. And there was no hope of our
obedience to God, no hope of self-redemption, If you give your life and call it for the service of
God, if that's your redemption, hell is your reward. Why? Your blood's corrupt. It's not
acceptable. It doesn't satisfy the justice
of God. Therefore, we were sold under
sin, captives to sin. And behold, there is no one,
there is no one escapes this by nature. But, I tell you this,
is hope. In this message is hope. Because
there are redeemed ones. God says there are. Let the redeemed. There are redeemed ones. There
are some that God would redeem or buy from the hand of the enemy. And the only one that God has
sent to redeem is Christ the Redeemer. The only one God has
sent to redeem is Christ Jesus the Redeemer. He was sent to
pay the debt. What is it to redeem? Well, I don't know if much people
do it anymore, but pawn shops, you know, you had something,
you didn't have any money to pay your bills, well, you'd go
there and you'd sell it. and they give you a ticket, and
you'd have a certain amount of time to go and purchase it again,
to redeem it, to buy it back. Well, I'll tell you this, in
this sense, God's people sold ourselves. You sold yourself for your sin. You sold yourself. And yet God
says, I send one to redeem you, to buy you. to pay the redemption
price. And Christ come in the flesh,
He came in the flesh to be the second Adam. Adam, our representative,
fell by one man. Sin entered into the world. And
death by sin. So death passed upon all men.
For all have sinned. You know when you first sinned?
When Adam sinned. That's when you first sinned.
And so then, this is how God saves. That's how God cursed. The curse fell on us all by a
representative. This is how God saves. By a representative. And then He sent Christ. And
Christ says, Lo, I come in the volume the book is written of
Me to do Thy will. What is the will of God? It is
to redeem us. To redeem us from the curse of
the law. to pay the price that the law
demands. You see, Christ didn't redeem
us from Satan. Now, He delivered us from Satan,
but He didn't pay Satan anything for us. You know who God paid? Himself. Remember when Abraham
was bringing Isaac up to offer him, and he said, Father, here's
the knife, here's the fire, where's the sacrifice? And Abraham said,
God shall provide Himself a Lamb. And I tell you, God did provide
Himself a Lamb. God did satisfy His own justice
on the behalf of His people. And the spotless Lamb of God
offered His precious blood in the stead. He paid the price,
even the blood. For without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Christ came to pay the price. and the price, the blood of His
precious Son, you who are redeemed, you should give thanks, because
this is the greatest display of God's goodness that there
ever was. This is the greatest display
of God's goodness that shall ever be. Scripture says, for scarcely
would a righteous man Die for one who is righteous, yet peradventure
for a good man some might even dare to die. But listen, God
displayeth His love for us. God commendeth His love for us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. He displays it by the death of
Christ. If there is ever to be seen any
goodness of... Now you can see the goodness
of God somewhat in creation and how this world is made, but I'll
tell you what, that's temporal. This world is going to pass away.
So that display is going to be gone. But I'll tell you this,
this is an enduring display. Even the death of His Son. And
this is the Word, but loved and cherished by the redeemed. Those
loved of God, purchased by the blood, justified from the law,
declared to be righteous by God, and righteous by the imparted
nature of Christ indwelling us in the Holy Spirit. Let us who
are redeemed say so. Say what? Thanks. You know, it is utterly impossible
to murmur and give thanks at the same time. Can't be done. So what should the redeemed say?
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. For He is good. We who are redeemed know that
God is good. For His eternal mercy, which
we have seen and received, to this day we still experience."
Is that not so, you who are redeemed? You know how to still experience
the goodness of God? The very fact you are here, still
believing on the Son of God, is a display of His goodness. That's it. It's displayed to
you every day of your life. His goodness is manifest to you. you who are redeemed. Therefore,
believer, no matter what providence or circumstance, no matter our
troubles, our trials, our pains, our sorrows, our sufferings,
which we shall endure, which we shall experience in this body,
the Lord did not deceive you, did He? I tell you, we're no used car
salesman. I'm not here to sell you a bill
of goods. I'm here to tell you this. Believe on Christ, you
shall be saved, redeemed, accepted by God. But when you are, expect
trouble, because it's coming. You should expect it. Why? Because this is how God grows
us. This is how God nourishes us
and keeps us in the faith. Trial of your faith being much
more precious than gold, which perisheth. And so no matter what,
you should say this, God is good. God is good. A preacher, I'm
dying. God is good. God is good. A man, I'm suffering. God is good. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. Don't hold that back. God is
good no matter what. And I'll tell you, God is only
good to those who are in Christ. This is truly displayed. Now
God is good regardless, but only those in Christ see it. You remember when Moses asked,
he said, let me see thy face. And God said, oh no, you can't
see my face. You'll die. He said, but this
is what I'll do. I'll pass by you and let you
see the hinder parts. In other words, the effects of
my glory. You see, when a wind hits the
leaf in the tree, you don't see the wind. You only see the effect. And I tell you, believer, we
who have not seen God face to face cannot see God who is an
invisible God. We surely have seen the effects
of His goodness in our salvation. And notice where he put Moses
to see this. He put him in the cleft of the
rock and covered him with his hand. What is that but Christ,
who is the cleft of the rock, our refuge, our divine shelter,
by which we know and experience the grace of God only through
faith in Him. That's the only place you'll
ever see God is in the face of Christ. As God commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, He has shined in our hearts and
given us the light of the glory of God. Where? In the face of
Jesus Christ. That's the only place you'll
ever see it. And when God put Him in that rock, He said, I
will display all my goodness. You know what His goodness was?
Here it is. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And I
will by no means clear the guilty. There's the goodness of God.
Man, that don't sound good. Not to you that aren't redeemed,
but to us. That sounds great. Why? Because He didn't pass by my
guilt. Christ suffered for my guilt
and my sin. And He's had mercy on me because
He would. He's had compassion on me because
He would. Therefore, I'm saved. And I tell
you, I say so. God is good. God is good. The result of His goodness is
always the salvation of His people. Now, I want us to see this. In
verses 3, God declares His goodness in this, that He will gather
His people from all lands. Those that He redeemed from the
law, the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us, He
says He will gather them out of the lands of the east, the
north, the west, the south, from everywhere. God promises to gather all those
He's redeemed. And we, who are redeemed by the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must understand that
we have been gathered in the faith because Christ, who died,
is now risen. You know, people don't mind a
dead Savior. Nobody minds a dead Savior or
a Savior in the tomb. Or in the cradle at the, you
know, you got those little manger scenes. Nobody despises baby
Jesus, you know. Why? Because He's controllable.
A dead Savior is controllable. A Savior in the manger is controllable. But I tell you this, my Savior
is not dead. He's alive and He's risen. He's Lord of everything. And
He moves everything after the counsel of His own will. And
nothing happens in this world without His direct permission.
You breathe in and you breathe out only at His command. Now people have a problem with
that kind of Savior. I don't. I'm glad. You know why? Because when God exalted Him
and raised Him from the dead, He exalted Him to be a Prince,
a Lord, and a Savior. I don't know how many people today
are walking around confessing Jesus to be their Savior, who
definitely do not hold Him as Lord. You can't have one without the
other. If He is not your Lord and Savior,
I tell you He is not your Savior. God has made Him both Lord and
Christ. And this is what the Lord and
Christ is doing. In Acts chapter 5, He says this,
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. So what
is Christ doing on the throne? He is moving all things to give
to Israel. Repentance. and forgiveness. And now then, look at this. When
He gathers His people, this is the experience. Now in verses
4 down through verse 7, we see the experience of everyone that
He gathers. Every one of His redeemed that
give thanks for the goodness of God, this is their experience.
Look at this, verse 4. They wandered in the wilderness. This is the first experience
of God's goodness. Without exception, this is always
where God finds His people, in the wilderness. What does this
mean? It is speaking to us of the barrenness
of our hearts. God always finds His people in
the very teeth of their sin. He finds them in the very barren
wilderness of their own heart. What is a wilderness? What is
that? It's a place where no food grows
naturally, It is a place where no amount of labor can grow food. Your heart is a place naturally
that does not grow any righteousness. And no matter how hard you work
at it, it's a place that you cannot grow any righteousness.
It's a wilderness. It's barren. It's empty. And
no matter how hard you try, you can't do it. Jesus tells us plainly,
that if a tree is corrupt, the fruit will be corrupt. You know what? True religion
is always simple, isn't it? It's not complicated. If your
heart's corrupt, everything you do is corrupt. It's not complicated. And God always finds us wandering
in this wilderness, lost, outcast. Man by nature is cast out from
the presence of God, wandering about in the wilderness. We are
as sheep gone astray and everyone is turned to his own way. And such are the lost and hopeless. Are you such a soul as this? Is your heart a barren wilderness? Number two, He gathers in His
goodness and gives repentance to those who are in a solitary
way. This word solitary just means
lonely, alone, alone. These who are in the wilderness,
God takes away everything from them. They are alone. He isolates
them so that they can find no help or comfort in any fellow
creature. You see, when God gathers a people,
He makes us to feel our weakness, to know our helplessness, and
then He begins to take away every crutch that we lean on. Every person that you hold dear,
if God ever has mercy, He'll take them away from you to lean
on them. You'll find that they have no
strength just like you. curses everyone that trusteth
in the arm of flesh. In fact, we who are made to feel
our sins and look to others for help, surely we were seen as
crazy and mad men. You remember Pilgrim? He had
that burden on his back and he went around the city begging
for help. Desiring to know how to get rid
of this burden. And you know, they kind of went
along with it for a little while, but then it just started to wear
on them. And they started thinking, he's
a madman. Why? They didn't have a burden.
He was the only one who had a burden. He was in a solitary way. He
was by himself. This is what God does. And God does this for good reason.
He does this so that we should find no relief but in God alone. Which leads me to the next mark. They found no city to dwell in. When the Lord causes us to see
our sin and feel our burden of guilt, we see that no man is
able to help, but we also see that no thing is able to help. We begin to see the barrenness
of this world. We begin to see the fruitlessness
of this life. Now Solomon, Solomon in all his
wisdom found three things that men under the sun find joy in. If there's any earthly joy, Solomon
found it and he summed it up by three things. Wisdom. Wisdom makes a man joyful. If you're a wise man, that's
much better than being a fool. He said, riches. If a man have
riches, then his soul, you know, he's not worried about all of
his starving to death and so forth. And that's good. That
can make a man happy. Pleasure makes a man happy in
this world under the sun. But he said, I've gotten all
these, and you know what I found? I found they were nothing. They
were empty. I found out that they were barren,
that they could not provide what they promised. Have you not found that to be
true in everything you put in your mouth in this world? It
only satisfied for a moment and then when it's gone you needed
more and more and more. It's vanity, it's empty. And
God shows us that this world is no place to dwell in. Have
you found that out? Has God showed you that? And next we see the wilderness
wonder is made to hunger and thirst. Verse 5. Hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them. This is no mere passing hunger. Now, I had breakfast this morning. I guess about 7.30. I'm getting
pretty hungry. My stomach is starting to growl. But I'm not starving to death. These words are indicated as
a man who is about to pass out for hunger and thirst in the
middle of the desert with nobody or nothing to give him aid. This is exactly like it is a
man who has found out of his sin. He is exposed before God
with none to help. If God ever gathers you, He's
going to make you hunger and thirst after righteousness. You notice this? Look at that.
What fainted? What fainted? Was it His body? Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted. You see, this is telling us it's
a spiritual hunger. It's not a carnal hunger. It's
a spiritual one that cannot be satisfied with any fleshly thing,
any earthly religion. It can't be satisfied. It can't
be quenched. It's not something that just
passes. It's something that must be satisfied, and I must have
it, and I must have it now. What is it? The righteousness
of God in Christ. I must have it. If God has ever
gathered you, He'll make you see that. See the necessity then
of such grief and conviction of sin is not then to destroy
the wanderer. Listen, believer, if God wanted
to destroy you, who would have left you alone? He would have
left you eating the sand of the world thinking it's wine, thinking
it's pleasurable. He would have left you to the
devices of your own nature and heart, but He didn't. This is
the glory of His goodness. He did not leave me alone. He
did lead me in the wilderness. He did show me my sin. And then,
in mercy, in mercy, hungering and thirsting, my soul fainted
within me. Then, verse 6, they cried, if
God would never lead you to the wilderness, you'll never cry
to Him for mercy. If you've got someplace else
to go, you'll go. But I'm like the apostles. Lord, to whom shall I go? You
have the words of eternal life. I can't go anywhere else. When you get to that point, then
you cry. Only then will you cry unto God. And I'll tell you, I cry unto
God desiring His salvation that He gives to His people. I don't
want any other salvation but the salvation God gives to His
people. If you read Psalm 106, you can see this. This psalmist,
he says the same thing. Praise ye the Lord. Give thanks
unto the Lord. He's good. His mercy endures
forever. And he says this in verse 4.
Remember me. O LORD, with the favor that Thou
bearest Thy people, visit me with Thy salvation, that I may
see the good of Thy chosen. You know what I want? I want
the good of God's chosen. I want that salvation and no
other. No other salvation can do. No
other salvation can satisfy my soul that hungers and thirsts
for righteousness. I must have that one. The one
that is of mercy. The one that is of grace. The
one that is of forgiveness of sins. That's the goodness and
grace I need. I need that mercy. Why? Because I'm a sinner. I'm like Israel. My God has led
me all this way, and what have I done but murmur and complain? What have I done but kicked and
rebelled? And you know, even in spite of
all that, what did God do to Israel? Same thing He does to
deliverance wanderer. Look at this. Then they cried
unto the Lord in their trouble. And He delivered them out of
their distresses. He delivers those that cry unto
Him. Are you made such in one as to
faint and see the wilderness of your nature, to cry unto God? Because only then will He deliver
those in trouble. If God never brought us into
trouble, if we have never been made aware
of our sinful state and need of Him, we never would have cried
to Him, but now we do. Now we do. And you know what
I found? This is my testimony to you. I have found Him very
faithful to always deliver me. In every trouble God has delivered
me. Now, deliverance is not what
we think it is. I read this this week and it
has been very good to me. To understand that God does not
always deliver us out of the trouble, but His deliverance
is sustaining us in the trouble. That's deliverance! You that
had trouble, are you still here? That's deliverance. That's deliverance. I picture, I told Rick this morning,
I picture most of my life as a man submerged in water with
my lips sticking out of the water. What other part of my body do
I need out of the water but my lips? That's deliverance. As long as I'm still believing
on Christ, that's deliverance. God says this, I will be with
you, where? In trouble. He is a very present
help in trouble. And so though He's not delivered
you always from the whole trouble, He sustains you in every trouble,
doesn't He? Who? The wilderness wanderer.
Those who find no home in this world. No joy in our sins. God is hedged about our way,
and look at this, in verse 7, and He led them forth by the
right way. What is that right way? Jesus
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
God but by Me. You know, I'm in the right way. I'm in the right way. Why? He
led me. He led me in the right way. that they might go to a city
of habitation. Friends, I am on my way to a
city of habitation. It's not this world. This world
is no habitation for me. I am on the way to a habitation. A city whose builder and maker
is God. And I'll tell you, this experience
of the wilderness wonder is not just our conversion, but rather
our whole existence, our whole life. The more we walk in this
world, the more we see the barrenness of our own nature and the goodness
of our God to deliver us. Therefore, men should praise
Him. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Say what? Thanks
be to God. For He hath redeemed us from
the hand of our enemy. He has gathered us, how? Through
the wilderness, through pain and suffering of our sins. And
we cried to Him and He delivered us out of all our distresses. Believer, what have you got to
be distressed about? Can you name something you've
really got to be distressed about? Because even death to you is
not a distress, it's actually a gift. Because only death will usher
us into the presence of God. So what do you have to be worried
about? What is it that troubles you? As long as you believe in
Christ, there's no trouble. God sustains us in that. I pray
that maybe God would even gather some of you by His grace. You that are lost, you know what
I pray for you? I pray God brings you into great trouble. Because that's the only place
He finds His people, in trouble. I pray He'll deliver you from
it. May God add the blessing, the reading of His Word and the
study of His His gospel. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.