All right, go with me if you
would back to Psalm 107 Psalm 107 We begged the Lord in prayer
to bless the conference with his spirit leading up to the
conference we had last week and We begged our Lord and begged
our Lord to bless that meeting. Bless the men who would come. Bless the word as it was preached. We gathered for an entire weekend
around the word of God. And we begged the Lord to bless
it. Bless the gathering. And I believe
the Lord heard our prayer. I believe the Lord answered us. I was so blessed. I was so personally
blessed. I've been just thinking on it
in the last few days. And by the end of the service
on Sunday, we were headed out of this building. Everybody was
headed over to the Renaissance Center. I could not stop repeating
this verse of scripture to myself. Psalm 107 verse 1 says, Oh, give
thanks. unto the lord for he is good
for his mercy endureth forever i just felt so full did you feel
spiritually full i felt happy i was just happy And my heart was ready to give
thanks. I kept repeating this verse over
and over again. I showed it to a brother on the
way out. I said, I want you to read this. I hope this is Wednesday
night's message. I hope the Lord keeps this in
my heart and causes me to want to consider it. I hope we just all come back
on Wednesday night just to give thanks for what has just happened. Oh, give thanks. Oh, give thanks. I want us to
reminisce for just a second. OK. Friday night. This is what we heard. Matthew 11, 28, it says. Come
unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. Not just
labored over life. Everybody's labored over life.
Everybody is. Everybody is labored over struggles. Our Lord is talking about laboring
over sin. Labored over sin. You ever labor
over your sin? You ever carry the guilt of your
sin? the burden of your sin. That call went out from the Lord
himself. He said, come unto me. You just
come to me. We all have things that burden
us. Every time they enter this mind,
we think, get out as quick as possible. Let me think about
something else. Whatever it is, our Lord said, come unto me.
You bring it to me, I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest
for it. I'll take it upon myself and
I'll give you rest. Right after that, we heard 1
Peter 3, 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, the sinless for the sinful, the
sinless one suffered for the sinful ones, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the Spirit. That's the gospel. That is the
gospel. Christ once suffered for sins. All of these sins that plague
all of his people, from conception to the grave. All of the sins
of all of his people, Christ once suffered for sins, the just,
the perfect, the right, the good, the pure one, for the unjust,
the wicked, the evil, the sinful, me, that he might bring us back
to God. That's the gospel. Oh, give thanks. I listened to that and I thought,
oh, give thanks. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We heard such clear gospel this
past weekend. As the scripture says, we were
fed angels' food, heavenly bread. Saturday morning, this is what
we heard. 1 John 4, 17 says, Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. As He is, so are we. in this
world. We had a man tell us about God's
sovereign amazing love for his people. This was his outline. His perfect love. His predestinating
love. God predestinated a people to
cross the path of his love. He is propitiating love. That means covering love. Covered under the blood of love. He has proclaimed love. The declaration of this gospel.
The announcement. The notification. That's what
the gospel is. It's a notification. It's not
a call to action. It's a notification. And the permanently fixed love. God's love for his people. Right
after that, we heard 1 John 2 verse 1. My little children, these
things write I unto you that you sin not. Do we have any excuse
for sin? God forbid. These things write unto you that
you sin not. And if any man sin, We have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We have someone who will intercede
for us. We have someone who will plead
the payment that he made for us. I love the thought that as
we carry out the rest of our life, you know what the rest
of our life is gonna be filled with? Sin. Sin, sin, we are sinners. And we will carry out the rest
of his life in sin, committing sin. But when Christ made the
payment for the sin of his people, he paid for all of the sin of
his people. And even the sins I have yet
to carry out, they're paid for. And as I go through them, as
I live out my life and go through them every single time, God the
Son says to God the Father, I paid for that. I paid for that one. daily, continually making intercession
for us. We have an advocate with the
Father. Oh, give thanks. Oh, give thanks. We were so privileged
to hear things that men and women hardly ever hear. The truth declared
from a pulpit. That's such a strange thing.
The actual truth of what the Word says declared from a pulpit. Sunday morning This is what we
heard Mark 2 verses 3 through 5 and they come unto him bringing
one sick of the palsy which was born of four carried by four
other men and When they could not come nigh unto the Lord for
the press they uncovered the roof where he was and When they
had broken it up They let down the bed where the sick of the
palsy lay When jesus saw their faith when he saw what he had
done For them and in them when he saw what he had given them
saw his own work in them When he looked at what he had done
in them When jesus saw their faith he said unto the sick of
the palsy son Your sins are forgiven you Your sins are forgiven. You will be forgiven son. You
are forgiven. Because I'm going to take your
sins upon myself. I'm going to bear the. The burden
of your disease, the. Punishment of your sin. In my
own body. Right after that. We heard 2nd
Peter 3. Verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward. Usward, usward, usward. Who is God patient with? Who
is God long-suffering toward? The usward. The us word not willing that
any of the us word should perish But that all of the us word should
come to repentance God has a people God has a chosen people and not
one of those people is going to be lost not one of those people
He's not willing that any of them should perish, but all of
them should come to repentance. Not one is going to be lost.
The only response I know to give to that is, oh, give thanks.
Oh, give thanks. Now, here's the truth of the
matter. No heart will be ready to give thanks for those things,
those things that were declared to us, these things straight
out of God's word. No heart will be ready to give
thanks for these things until God makes that heart ready to
give thanks for these things. No heart will. No heart will. Only those who are called will
come. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. You know how we can
know if we're called of God? We'll come. Only the called will
come. Only those who have truly been
made to know that they need an advocate. Men and women have
no idea that they need an advocate. They're ready to march right
on up to the throne of God. I'm so proud of what I've done.
I'm so proud of who I am. I'm proud of my deeds I'm proud
of my family tree and proud of everything and God's got to be
proud of me, too And I'm ready to go stand right in front of
him. Let's go. I'm ready to go meet God buddy.
Hold up We need an advocate we need an advocate we need a mediator
between God and men and Only those who have been truly
made to see that they need an advocate will ever rejoice in
having one. Only the us word will repent. Only the God's chosen us will
repent. That's why verse 2 says right
here in Psalm 107 verse 2 says let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Who will truly, I mean truly
in the heart, give thanks to God for so great a salvation
as this? The redeemed of the Lord will.
The bought, the paid for, the reinstated. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. While many people in this world
have no interest in these things, none, no interest in these things. You try to tell them if they
don't save for retirement, they're going to end up in a cardboard
box and they get all worried about it. And what are we going
to have to do to? But you tell them you're going to go stand
before a holy God who must punish sin and he's going to deal with
it eternally. And they're just not concerned
about these things. Most people are not concerned. It'll be fine.
It'll be fine. While the world many people in
this world could not imagine spending a whole weekend in their
mind wasting a whole weekend. Listening to the things that
were declared from this word. While their souls have no pleasure
in these things. Isn't that what Solomon said?
Remember your creator. Before the evil days draw nigh
and your soul has no pleasure in these things. While that is happening for men
and women who have been left to themselves
Let the redeemed of the Lord cry, O give thanks, O give thanks
unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Now in verse 2, I have a reference
in my center margin for the redeemed. Let the redeemed. The reference
is Isaiah 62. Turn with me over there to Isaiah
chapter 62. Now in Isaiah 61, this is where
the Lord Jesus Christ said in verse one, this is Christ speaking. He said, the spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. That's who the gospel's for,
not the proud, the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. That's who the gospel's for.
To proclaim liberty to the captives. That's who the gospel's for.
And the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God to comfort all that mourn over their sin. What am I gonna
do about my sin? What about my sin? The gospel
comforts all that mourn. Verse 3 says, To appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, a
total exchange, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. That he's done for his people
was so that he might be glorified Now isaiah 62. I love this verse
one says for zion's sake Will I not hold my peace? And for
jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof
go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness. This is
all speaking about Christ. And all kings. Thy glory. And thou shalt be called by a
new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem
in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken. No more you're going to be called
forsaken. Neither shall thy land anymore be termed desolate. But thou shalt be called Hephzibah. That means my delight is in her. And thy land is going to be called
Beulah. That means married. For the Lord
delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Now look down
at verse 10. He said, go through, go through
the gates. Prepare ye the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway. Gather out of the stones. Lift
up a standard for the people. Behold the Lord hath proclaimed
unto the end of the world Say ye to the daughter of Zion Behold
thy salvation cometh Behold his reward is with him and his work
before him and they shall call them the holy people the redeemed
of the Lord and Thou shalt be called sought out You're not
going to be called forsaken anymore You're gonna be called sought
out. A city not forsaken. All of God's
people are sought out. All of God's people. That's who
the redeemed of the Lord are and that's what the redeemed
of the Lord are. Sought out. A city not forsaken. And that's why all of their hearts
are ready to give thanks. They're all ready to cry out
to God giving thanks. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed. Every sinner whose only hope
is the payment of his blood. What's your hope? What's your
hope before God? Well, I was baptized as a teenager. Nope. What's your hope before
God? Well, I finally straightened
up and I went back and apologized to all those people that I was
mean to. Nope. Every sinner whose only hope
is the blood of Jesus Christ. This is my only hope I deserved
to die and Christ came and died in my place Became me trade places
with me stood before God is me God looked at him and saw me
and Judged me in him and and through his blood my payment
is made my record is clean only the redeemed of the lord that's
my my hope let the redeemed of the lord say so whom he hath
redeemed from the hand Of the enemy In just a moment. We're going to close this with
the song. It says sing. Oh sing of my redeemer With his
blood he purchased me On the cross he sealed my pardon Paid
my debt And made me free He made me free. There's nothing else
for me to add to it. There's nothing to take from
it He paid my debt. Oh give thanks doesn't that just
make you want to give thanks Oh, thank you Go back to psalm
107 Now i'm going to be quick with this but
let's consider each line in verse one And it'll help us more clearly
see what we're giving. Thanks for verse one says. Oh
give thanks Unto the Lord Unto the Lord every bit of this
is by the doing of the Lord Salvation is of the Lord Salvation is of
the Lord It's all by the doing of the Lord our redemption started
in the mind and the will and the purpose of the Lord our God
before this world ever began and He was all in his will and
his purpose before the world was ever formed I've told you this before and
I'll tell it to you Lord will in a thousand more times. It's
one of my favorite thoughts Before there was ever a sinner There
was a Savior You talk about he is good He
is so good. Before there was ever a need
for a sacrifice, there was a lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord.
He's the one who started this. He's the one who deserves all
the glory in this. Look with me quickly at 1 Corinthians
1. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse
26. It says for you see you're calling
brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many
mighty not many noble are called. What does he mean by that. He
means not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty and
not many noble are called. But God hath chosen. The foolish
things of the world. What is the foolish of the world? That's me. And that's you. And
that's this means that everybody considers to be so foolish. The
preaching of the gospel. You're just going to stand up
and preach the gospel. God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
Based things of the world and things which are despised hath
God chosen Yea, and things which are not to bring to nothing Things
that are that no flesh should glory in his presence but of
him Are you in Christ Jesus? Our only hope is to be in Christ
Jesus. This is our only hope to leave
this world in Christ Jesus. I used to hear that and hear
that and hear that and I had one question in my brain. How
do you get in Christ? I used to think that all the
time. You have to be in Christ. You must be in Christ. How do
you get in Christ? Verse 30 says, of him are you
in Christ Jesus. That's the will of God, the doing
of God, the work of God. You mean I don't have a say in
the matter? No, it's of God. Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom. Christ is all of our wisdom.
Christ is all of our righteousness. In order to stand before God,
I must be perfect. I must have a perfect righteousness. If I don't, He's going to cast
me out. What is my righteousness? It's
Christ. I'm going to stand there in Him. He's made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification. He's our purity, our holiness,
and He's our redemption. He's our payment. That according
as it is written, He that glorieth, Let him glory in the Lord. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so and they all will all the redeemed of the Lord will
say the only glory that I have is in the Lord. That's the only
glory I have is in the cross of Christ. That's it. Look at
first Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15 verse nine,
it says, for I am the least of the apostles, am not meet to
be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God,
but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which
was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God. which was with
me. What do we have that we have
not received? That's all that we hear in the
gospel. That's all we hear in God's word. What we undeserving
sinners have received from the hand of the Lord. That's the
gospel. What we have just received from the hand of the Lord. Give
thanks unto the Lord now don't go back to our text But the next
line says Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good He is
good, why do we give thanks to the Lord he is good Everything
that he has done for us everything that he has done in us everything
he has done with us and good He is good His hand is good. His ways are good. His works
are good For the sake of time don't turn but over in Acts chapter
10 It says that he is telling the story of our Lord and how
he came and it says he went about doing good And I love knowing
that about him Everything he did was good. He is good. That's why he does good. He can
only do what is good and right because he is good. Every single thing that he has
done concerning us is good. Every single thing that revelation
and that conviction of our own sin. That's so good. That is
so good. Even when He brings us at our
lowest point, just grieving over our sin. That's so good. And
the reason is because it points us to Him. It always brings us
right back to Him. That stripping away of every
idol that we have. We, in the flesh, look to something. Praise something. Desire something. Every crutch we're leaning on.
That stripping it away, that is so good. Painful, but it's
good because it leaves us with nothing but him. We're going to go through the
rest of this life with hard times. Tribulations, trials, troubles. Hard times people think well
once you know, once the Lord saves me, it's all uphill from
there It's going to be hard times Trouble heartache all the sorrow
that sin can bring us sin will bring us But for the redeemed
all of those things work together for good for the redeemed All
of those things work together for good. And the reason is because
all of those things drive us to Christ. All of them. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. All right, go back to our text.
There's one more line. Psalm 107. Verse one says, Oh, give thanks
unto the Lord for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. Some of the commentary writers
pointed out that the word endureth is in italics, which means it
was added by the translators for it to be more readable for
us, and it's a good addition. It is true that God's mercy will
never end. It's never ending. It endureth
forever. But if we take it out and read
it like it was originally written, We can enter into the fact that
God's mercy for his people not only has no end, it has no beginning. It says for his mercy forever. God's mercy ran eternally in
both directions. Never was there a moment in existence
when God did not look on his people in mercy never never What
that means is in Christ Never did he look on his people outside
of Christ? We were sinful just like everybody
else and We're all cut from the same lump, but never did God
look on his people without seeing them covered in the blood of
Christ On the cross God saw us in Christ. We said this just a moment ago.
I'm going to say it again on the cross You know why Christ died? You
know why Christ died on that cross? Why God judged him and
forsook him? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? You know why? It's because when
God looked at Christ, he saw me, he saw you, if he put us
in Christ. He saw what we were and he dealt
with Christ accordingly. He dealt with us in Christ according
to what we deserve. And he died. Because of that,
God sees Christ in us. How can he accept this into his
presence? How can he accept this sinful
creature into his presence? It's because with that substitution,
every single time God looks at us, he sees his son. He sees
the work, the holiness, the purity of Christ in us, and he deals
with us accordingly. He says, well done, well done. That's mercy. That is goodness
and mercy. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Let me close by reading this
poem to you. I was far By nature and by choice. How very far from God. Yet now by grace. Brought near
to him. Through Christ's redeeming blood. Now I'm near. So very near to
God. I cannot near or be. For in the
person of his son, I am as near as he, as near as Christ is,
that's how near I am. And dear, so very dear to God,
more dear I cannot be. For the love wherewith he loves
his son, such is his love for me. 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. All right, let's all stand together.