Take me back to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Can a message be too simple? Can a message be too simple?
A true gospel message. A message that is centered on
Jesus Christ crucified. Is it possible for a message
like that to be too simple? I used to know a man who sat
under the gospel for a while, but he decided he just couldn't
do it anymore. Because he said it didn't challenge
his mind enough. It just wasn't complicated enough. For the true gospel preacher,
simple is the goal of every single message. That's his own personal
challenge. Is it possible for this message
to be more simple, meaning more singular? than the last message. Is it
possible to view Christ more clearly and more openly than
we did in the last message? That's the goal of the true preacher. And that's the desire of the
true hearer. Can I see Christ more clearly? Can I hear Christ more simply,
more directly, more uninterruptedly than I did the last time I heard
him preached? Tell me the story simply. as to a little child,
for I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled. Tell me the story
slowly that I may take it in, that wonderful redemption, God's
remedy for sin. Just tell me that same old story. For that reason, for the sake
of the story, for the sake of the simplicity, I fall in love
again with Psalm 103 every time I hear it. Just somebody saying,
turn to Psalm 103. I love it. I love this Psalm.
A brother read this in my study recently, and it blessed my heart
so much. It just blessed, just reading
it, just going down and reading it, it blessed my heart so much. And tonight, I just want to go
through the psalm, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, and hearing
about all of His benefits to us. Now one of the things that
makes this psalm so sweet is the fact that David never asked
for one thing. In 22 verses, he never asked
the Lord for one thing. All he did was bless the Lord,
and bless the Lord, and bless the Lord. That's all he did.
Verse 1, he said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within
me, bless His holy name. Bless means kneel before. It means adore. Praise. Salute. Thank. Who? The Lord. The Lord. The Lord means Jehovah. God Almighty. Bless the Lord. Who do you want
to bless the Lord, David? He said, I want me to bless Him. I want me to bless Him. Bless
the Lord, O my soul. We pray publicly on behalf of
us. When a man stands up publicly,
he's praying on behalf of us. We preach on behalf of us. But I don't want to get lost
in the crowd of us. Some of the us may be worshiping
Him tonight. I don't want to miss out. I don't
want to get lost in the cracks of the us. I don't want to be satisfied
with others blessing His holy name and then find out in the
end that I didn't bless Him myself. David said, I want to make sure
that my soul Blesses His name. Verse 1, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. All that is within me, my mind,
my heart, this mind is so fickle. This mind prefers to think about
anything but my Lord. If anything will come, it will
flip to that. Lord, would you please cause
my mind, please cause my heart, cause everything that is within
me to bless your holy name. Kids, children, I pray God might cause me to
bless His holy name, and I pray God might cause you to bless
His holy name. One of these days, I pray one of these days God
causes you children to truly in your soul bless the Lord. I mean truly kneel before Him,
truly praise Him for being God, for being the true and living
God, for being a just God and a Savior. I pray that one day
the Lord reveals to you what that means. A just God and a
Savior, and I pray He causes you to bless Him for it. I pray
He causes me to bless Him for it. Verse 1, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. What
is His holy name? Moses asked Him that one time.
He said, What is your name? Who should I tell them sent me? And the Lord said, I am. You tell them I am hath sent
you. I am Jehovah. I am God. I am Jehovah Jireh. You tell them I am Jehovah Jireh
has sent you. Abraham took his son to the top
of that mountain to offer him as a burnt offering to God. That's
what God told him to do. And he took him up there to offer
him as a burnt offering. And just before Abraham plunged
the knife into his son, God said, Abraham, Abraham, look behind
you. There is a ram caught in the
thicket. And Abraham laid hold of that ram, and threw him on
his son, and slayed that ram, and the blood of that ram ran
all over Isaac, and it ran all over that altar. And Abraham
cried at the top of his lungs, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. What do we need to be saved?
The Lord will provide. What do we have to offer God? The Lord will provide. What must
we have in order for God to be satisfied? The Lord will provide. He will provide. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Throughout
the Scripture, He's referred to as Jehovah Rapha. the Lord our Healer, Jehovah
Shalom, the Lord our Peace, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness,
and many names. He's given many names that describe
Him, but the one that we've been commanded to call Him today was announced by an angel when
Jehovah was manifest in the flesh. The angel said, call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Jehovah
Jesus. The Lord Jesus. The Lord our Savior. Verse one, bless the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh my soul, and all that is within
me, kneel before, adore, praise, salute, thank His holy name. No other name given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Verse two says, bless the Lord,
oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Benefits means
good services. It means acts of kindness. What are his acts of kindness
to us? Verse three says, he has forgiven
all your iniquities. He's forgiven all your iniquities.
Every sin you have ever committed, He's forgiven it. If He has called
you to Himself, if He has given you a heart to bless Him, to
kneel before Him and praise Him and bow to Him, then every sin
you've ever committed, He has forgiven it. How did He do that? He took it. Verse 3 says, He has healed all
your diseases. How did He do that? He took them. Verse 4 says, He has redeemed
your life from destruction. How did He do that? He took it. He took that destruction. He
took it all. We naturally hear that and we
think, but I still sin. If He has forgiven all my iniquity,
why do I still commit sin? And I still get sick. If He's healed all my diseases,
why do I still get sick? And I'm still gonna die. How can I be redeemed from destruction
if every man and woman on this earth is appointed to it? It's
because we're still living life in a sin-infected flesh. When Christ bore the sin of all
of His people, He bore all of the sin that this flesh would
ever commit. It still commits sin and Christ
bore it all to the grave. When He took the diseases that
His people Had to bear all of the diseases that sin brought. He took every disease that would
happen to the grave. On the cross, His entire body
was more marred than any man. Not only did He bear all of that
sin, He bore all of the effects of that sin. He bore all the
sickness. Everything that sin brings on
us, He bore it all. All the sickness, all the death,
all that happens at the end of a believer's life is he lays
down that body of death. He lays down the body of sin. So there's nothing to fear. That's
something to rejoice in. No more sin, no more sickness,
no more death. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The
end of verse 4 says, He has crowned you with loving kindness and
tender mercies. That's the crown that God's people
wear. Loving kindness, that means grace.
Loving kindness and tender mercy. If God has truly given us a heart
to bless the Lord, a heart to kneel before Christ and adore
Christ and praise Christ, then we're among the ones who have
been crowned with grace and mercy. Grace and mercy. He has given
us what we did not deserve. And He has not given us what
we did deserve. He gave us what Christ deserved. He gave Christ what we deserve. That was God's loving kindness
and tender mercy to us. Verse five, it says, who satisfies
thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagles. David said, oh, taste and see
that the Lord is good. If God does not put that taste
in a sinner, then a sinner will never taste it. A sinner may
want to taste it, a sinner may try to taste it, a sinner may
think he's tasting it, But if God does not put it in there,
a sinner will never taste it. If God does put it in there and
a sinner does taste that the Lord is good, then a sinner will
never untaste it. If God puts it there, he'll never
untaste it. David said, oh, taste and see
that the Lord is good. He said, how sweet are thy words
to my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Do you believe
he meant that? And can we say that with him?
To the person that God has never put that taste in his mouth,
he can't say that. Honey is sweeter. But to a sinner
against God who needs mercy, to a soul whose only hope is
God's grace, honey has nothing on it. It's sweeter. Peter said,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may
grow thereby, if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Verse 6, it says, the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for
all that are oppressed, to every soul that is suffering under
the hard bondage of sin. Not every soul is. Some aren't
suffering at all. Some love the bondage of sin.
But to every soul that is oppressed, suffering under that hard bondage,
He has provided a just, right, perfect way of escape. What is that way? Verse 7, He
made known His ways unto Moses, His axe unto the children of
Israel. He said, Moses, slay a lamb. Moses put a serpent on a pole
and lift it up. Moses strike the rock. That rock was Christ. That serpent
was Christ. That lamb was Christ. Our Lord
said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Moses, lift that serpent up and
all the people will be healed. You tell them to look to the
very thing that is killing them. Christ made to be our sin. You tell them to look to him
and they'll live. Moses, strike that rock and every thirsty soul
will be refreshed. They will drink, they will drink.
They'll live. Verse 8 says, The LORD is merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will
not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. He
hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. Well, how has He dealt with us?
How has He rewarded us? According to His mercy. His mercy through the lamb, His
mercy through the pole, His mercy through the rock, mercy through
His own blood, the mercy that He provided for us. How much
mercy does He have? I believe this would be a truly
good question for every person to ask. Is there still enough
mercy for me? Is there still enough mercy for
me? Verse 11 says, for as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
fear him. The heaven is space, outer space. How high is outer space? How far does it go? At what point do you hit that
wall that says no more? Man could never find that out.
Never could mankind ever reach the end of it, never. That's
how much mercy He has for us. Verse 12, it says, as far as
the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. If one went in a straight line
east, and one went in a straight line west, They would never meet
up ever again. They would never touch each other
ever again. That's how far Christ has removed
us from our sin. So, so far removed, so gone. Verse 13 says, like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Have you ever pitied something Seeing something or seeing someone
and it just grabs your heart. You just felt something indescribable
for their condition. Has that ever happened to you?
Your heart just, just gone out to them. I'm sure you've seen someone
that is, that I'm thinking of someone in my mind. I, my heart
went out to somebody. I saw somebody, and I'm sure
it's happened to you. You've seen somebody, and it's like
your heart leaves your body. Your heart just goes out to them.
Oh, you see the sad state they're in? And I'm sure you've entered into
the mindset of what it would be like to be in their shoes
and live life as they know it. Live life in that condition.
And you just pity Him. You pity Him. And inside you
say, I truly, sincerely wish there was something I could do. Well, our Lord looked at us and
it grabbed His heart. And He felt something indescribable
for our condition. He pitied us. And he said within his heart,
there is something I can do. And he did it. Verse 13, like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his
days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place
thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and
His righteousness unto children's children." to such as keep His
covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them."
I pray that's the so. I pray that's the case. As long
as the ministry continues here, I pray that this gospel, in His
goodness, in His mercy, is to children's, children's, children's,
children's. May that be so. How do we keep
His covenant? It's to such as keep His covenant
and to those that remember His commandments to do them. How
do we keep His covenant? We don't. The covenant keeps
us. But every soul that the covenant
keeps, God gives that soul a love for the covenant, a love for
the covenant of His blood. We have a love for the covenant
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the soul that that
covenant is keeping lays hold on the covenant and pulls it
close, keeps it close. And that soul confesses, this
covenant is my only hope. This is all I have. All I have
is His covenant to me. And every soul that's found in
that covenant will remember God's commandments and will do them. What are His commandments? Love
the Lord your God and love all who love the Lord your God. Love
God with all that is within you, and love your brethren with all
that is within you. Verse 19, The LORD hath prepared
His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. He is seated on His throne. He is the ruler over all. kneel before, adore, praise,
salute, and thank Him. Verse 20 says, Bless the Lord,
ye His angels that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of His Word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His
hosts, Ye ministers of His that do His pleasure, bless the Lord
all His works in all places of His dominion. And along with
all that, may this right here not get left out, bless the Lord,
O my soul. May God give every soul here
a heart to say that. I mean truly in the heart. Bless
the Lord. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul.
Thank the Lord. I praise you. I kneel before
you. I bow. I love you. Bless the Lord. All right, let's
all stand together.