Go with me if you would now to
Psalm 106. Psalm 106. I preached from this chapter a
few weeks ago here. And I preached from this chapter
last Thursday evening in Pikeville. And the text for that message
was verse eight. It says, nevertheless, he saved
them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power
to be known. And that's a wonderful verse
of scripture. But I started looking at the
end of this chapter, which also says, nevertheless. It says it
again. And as I read what is written
concerning our God toward us, I entered into the end of this
chapter and it just struck me what glorious words are in the
pages of this book. I mean, glorious words. We read through them. We read
down through them. We flip past them. We flip through these. But when
God opens our eyes to what this actually says, opens our heart,
opens our soul to it, when He allows us to truly enter into
it, the glory of what this says. The glory of what this says.
It's like Job and David and Solomon said. All three of them said
this. All three of them said this.
They said, these things are too wonderful for me. This is just
too wonderful for me. Look with me at verse 44. Psalm
106 verse 44. It says, Nevertheless, he regarded
their affliction. When He heard their cry, and
He remembered for them His covenant, and repented according to the
multitude of His mercies. Is that not wonderful? He regarded. He heard. He remembered. And he sighed. He breathed strongly to console
himself. That's what repented means. That's
what that particular word repented means. It means to sigh, to breathe
strongly. to console one's self. It does not mean, as most of
them do, a change of mind. He is the Lord. He changes not,
and that's why we're not consumed. He does not just change his mind.
And that word repentance does not mean he changed his mind.
That particular one means to sigh, to breathe strongly, to
console or comfort oneself. Now what is he sighing over? You think about that. What is
God sighing over? What was he consoling himself
in, in that very moment? Verse 45 says, He remembered
for them. I love those two words. He remembered
for them His covenant. And He did that according to
the multitude of His mercies. He looked on them and He saw
what they were. There He is, God, seated on His
throne, looking at them, the children of Israel, all their
wickedness. And He saw what they were doing.
He saw what they were. He saw what they were doing.
And He, in that moment, remembered. He remembered. It's all been taken care of. I have already paid for every
bit of that. I see what they're doing. I have
already suffered. It's done. It's done. I've already suffered
the wrath, suffered the punishment for everything they're doing. It's all taken care of. Now let's
look back through this chapter. Let's skim it again. We did a
few weeks ago, but let's just skim a few verses. The heading
at the top of my page for Psalm 106 says the story of Israel's
rebellions. These are the things that they
did while they were in the wilderness for 40 years. But as we read
these, let's not just read the history of what Israel did. Let's see if we see ourself in
this. This is not just what they did. This is what we do. This is what we do, have done
and still continue to do. Look at verse 13, Psalm 106 verse
13 says, they soon forgot his works. Oh, how soon we forget. Did you know we have already
forgotten His works? We hear about them, we forget.
We hear about them, we forget. We forget, we forget, we forget. It is all on purpose. Every day, there's not a day
on this earth that is not on purpose. Everything that has
happened so far today has happened on purpose. Anybody have anything
bad happen today? You know what the answer is?
Nope. It's all good. It's all on purpose. It's all
according to His will. But how soon we forget all that. How soon we forget all that.
Something happens. Something happens. Man, I wish
I'd never heard that. Why? It was His will. It was
on purpose. And it's for the good of His
people. How soon we forget that. Instead of remembering that with
everything that comes along. Dwelling on that. Finding hope
in that. Finding comfort in that. What
do we do? What do we do instead? Look with
me at verse 25. but murmured in their tents. This is what we do. We go back
home to the privacy of our tent. And as soon as we get there,
we start murmuring. Murmuring and complaining. Is that not
us? That is so us. We see everything that's taking
place. Everything that's taking place. And we just cannot wait
to get back into our tent. So we can sit there and murmur
about it. Sit there and complain about it. That's so convicting
to me. Why do we do that? It's because we've forgotten
His works. We have forgotten His purpose. We've forgotten His will. We
have forgotten His sovereignty. We've forgotten His control over
all these things. The birds that are flying, there's
not a sparrow out there that can fall to the ground unless
he gives permission to do so. All on purpose. Look back at
verse 13 again. This is one of the worst things
a child of God could do. The end of verse 13 says, they
waited not for his counsel. They didn't seek his will. Is
this not us? They didn't seek His direction,
didn't wait for His answer. Didn't wait for His perfect,
all-wise answer to come at His perfect, all-wise time. They
just said, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. That's
us. Verse 25, the end of it says,
They hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord. And that's That's me daily. I'm not going to speak on your
behalf. I'll just say that's me. Verse 13 says, They soon forget
his works. They waited not for his counsel,
but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in
the desert. They lusted after the things
of this world. They went after the things of
this wilderness, and they tempted God in the process. After all
of his goodness to them, All of His kindness, their flesh
said, I'd just rather have that. I'd just rather have that. Now, here's a great warning to
every child of God. This is a great warning to me,
a great warning to all of us. Verse 15 says, And He gave them
their request. If we murmur and complain and
lust and tempt long enough, He may just give us our request.
He may just give it to us. Now, thank God. Thank God. It is not to the loss of our
soul. He may just give us our request. We want that. He may just give
it to us. But thank God it will not be
to the loss of our soul. No one can pluck a child of God,
a child that he chose, a child that he bought, a child that
he has secured. No one can pluck that child out
of his hand, not even us. I cannot pluck myself. out of
his hand. So thank God, it is not to the
loss of the soul. But verse 15 says, it is to the
leanness of the soul. He gave them their request, but
sent leanness into their soul. If there is one thing, honestly,
that I could stress as a warning tonight in this message, it would
be this. When we tempt Him, try Him, lust
after the things of the world and things that take us away
from Him. He may give us the request of
our soul and in return send leanness to us. He may send spiritual leanness, malnutrition
to us. This word talks about God's people
delighting themselves in fatness. Isaiah 25 says, The Lord is going
to make for His people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees,
of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees, well refined. It talks about being satisfied
with fatness and being joyful. And every bit of that is found
in His Word. It's found in His Spirit. It's
found in Christ Himself. And when Gabe Stoniker's murmurings
and complainings and lusts and requests, when these things draw
us away from His Word and His Spirit and Christ Himself, it
leaves us with leanness in our soul. Leanness in our soul. And when there's leanness, there's
no feast of fat things. There is no delight. There is
no wine on the leaves. Wine makes the heart glad. There's
no gladness. There's no marrow. There's no
satisfaction. We all know this feeling. We all know it well. We know
this state so well. When there is no joy in the word,
do you ever read the word and just want to find joy in it?
But when there is no joy in the word, when there is no comfort
in the spirit, When there's no peace and no rest and no contentment
in Christ Himself, that is leanness of the soul. That's what it is.
When it's not there, that is leanness of the soul. And if
the Lord in His goodness would let us recognize it, if He would
let us just see ourselves, just hold up the mirror of His Word
and let us see, I'm lean. And these are fat things. If
He'll let us see that, then He will renew us. And He'll bring
us back. He'll put joy in the Word. He'll
put comfort in the Spirit. Peace and rest and contentment
in Christ. Well, verse 16 says they envied
Moses and Aaron. They envied the calling that
God gave them. And what that means is they wanted
the glory. It was all about Their glory
instead of God's glory. And that's this flesh. Verse
21 says again, they forgot God, their Savior, which had done
great things in Egypt. Verse 24 says they despised the
pleasant land. They just. Just didn't mean anything
to them, I'm sure that's great and all, but I'd just rather
stay here. I'm fine with this. The end of verse 24 says, they
believed not His word. And this is us. Promise after
promise after promise. Glorious promise. But we doubt,
we question, we want to believe all these things that God has
given us. We want to believe that all these
things are on purpose. It's all for good. We want to
believe that. But in the moment of uncertainty, we doubt. We
fall towards doubt. Verse 29 says, Thus they provoked
Him to anger with their inventions. That means their deeds. All of
their deeds, all of their endeavors, everything they did provoked
Him to anger. That's His flesh. Verse 39 says, Thus were they
defiled with their own works, and went a-whoring with their
own inventions. They set their love and their
affection on other things. And verse 43 says, Many times
did He deliver them, but they provoked Him with their counsel
and were brought low for their iniquity. And if you have the
margin, the center margin, brought low says they were impoverished
or weakened. They were impoverished and weakened
because of their iniquity. They did it to themselves. They
brought it on themselves. Verse 44 says, nevertheless,
he regarded their affliction. Regarded means to see, to consider,
but it means to see and consider joyfully. joyfully, to gaze upon with enjoyment. That's amazing. That's amazing. How could he look on his people
in the midst of all their iniquity and have joy in them? How could
he do that? The cross. The cross. That's where the sigh comes in.
That's where His sigh comes in. Hold your place right here and
look with me at Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 verse 1 says, Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
wearied and faint in your minds. For the joy that was set before
him. Because it was his joy to do
this for his people. It was his joy completely redeemed
them because of the joy he saw as a result of what he was going
to do for his people. He took that sin, all of that
iniquity, laid it on himself, endured the cross with it, despised
the shame, he put away all the shame, and then he sat down on
the right hand of the throne of God. When God looks at His
people, and this is glorious, when God
looks at His people, He always, and He always has, looked at
them in Christ. Always. Always. He has always seen them in the
accomplishment of the cross. That is good news as we finish
up here in a minute, close our Bibles and walk out that door
and get in our cars and go do whatever we're about to do for
the rest of the evening. When he looks at us, he sees
us in the accomplishment of the cross. He sees us in Christ. Now go back with me to Psalm
106, verse 44 says, Nevertheless, he regarded their
affliction when he heard their cry." If we ever wonder about
the new nature that God puts in the heart of His people, if we ever want to see the evidence
of that new nature, that is it. That right there is it. Here's
what it is. They cry. They cry. That is the new nature. They cry out in their affliction. It's something they never did
before. Never did before. The old nature
will not cry. The old man, the scripture talks
about the old man and the new man. The old man will not He
will not cry. He will not cry. He will learn
a few facts. That old man's a smart man. Maybe
even acknowledge a few truths. But he will not cry. He will
not cry. He will not cry out in all of
his affliction and distress. He will not cry out, God be merciful
to me the sinner. He may understand that God saves
sinners, and as the article that we quote so much says, not be
a saved sinner. He will not cry. The next chapter
is proof of this. In Psalm 107, it says, O give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Now he's talking to the redeemed,
about the redeemed. The redeemed. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the
enemy. Verse three, gathered them out
of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north
and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. This is the
redeemed. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. And he delivered them out of
their distresses. And it keeps saying that over and over. They
got themselves in trouble again. They were sinners again. Then they cried unto the Lord
and he delivered them out. They cried, they cried. In the
goodness of God, he causes a sinner to cry in the first place. He
causes them to cry. And then the goodness of God
hears that sinner when he cries. He makes him cry, and then hears
him when he cries. Back in Psalm 106, verse 44 says,
Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when he heard their
cry. And when he heard their cry,
verse 45 says, he remembered for them his covenant. and repented according to the
multitude of His mercies. Now I told you this story not
long ago and I want to tell it to you again
because I don't know of a greater illustration of regarding a sinner in his
iniquity. hearing his cry, and remembering
a covenant. I don't think there's a better
illustration of what our God has done for us than this story. And back in the early 1900s,
there was a missionary to Sudan, Ethiopia, named Paris Reedhead, in Africa. And he and some men
were walking through the jungle one day and they heard a very
faint cry, somebody help me. And they listened for it and
they followed the voice. It got a little louder and a
little louder until finally they came up on this man who was laying
in the jungle in the very, very last stages of leprosy. Just
lay in there. And Mr. Reed had said it was
the most horrible thing he'd ever seen in his life. His skin
and his face was gone. Just eaten away rotten away. He said he had no arms. He just
he just couldn't do anything but lay there crying. Somebody
help me. He said, oh, the sorrow I felt
for that man. The pain I felt for this poor
man. He said, all I could do was stand
there looking at him. That's all I could do. I could
not do anything for him. I just stood there looking at
him and listened to him cry, somebody help me. And he said,
I've never felt more helpless in all my life As I looked at
this rotting, vile, decaying man, he said, this thought went
through my mind. If I could pick this rotting
man up and press his skin and his face to mine, and take all of his flesh-eating
rot into me, and impart all of my health into him, if I could
do that, I would have some true understanding of what my Lord
Jesus Christ did for me. And he said, I can't do that
for that man. But that's exactly what Christ
did for me. That is exactly what he did for
us. That is the covenant he made. When he remembered this covenant,
when he regarded their affliction and heard their cry and sighed,
consoling himself, he remembered his covenant that he made. He
said, I will trade places with you. That's the gospel as simply
as I know to tell it. Christ traded places with us. He became all of our rot and
made us to be all of his health. And he said, I'm gonna do that
with my own blood. I'm gonna give my life, give
my body for your body. Lamentations 3 says, that is
why I have hope. That's the reason I have hope.
It's because of the multitude of your mercies. David said in
Psalm 51, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. And that's what he did. That's
what he did. He did not look at us and say,
if you don't straighten up, I'm going to deal with you. He consoled Himself by remembering. I took care of it. I completely
took care of it. Because of that covenant, when
He looks at us now, right now, in the sinful state that we are
still in, right now on this earth, rather than, as Exodus says,
sending the blast of his nostrils to us. Rather than sending the
blast of his nostrils, he breathes a consoling sigh. We're safe. The price has been paid. They
are redeemed. They are secure in the multitude
of my mercies. The last verse in this chapter
is our reply. Verse 48 says, Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the
people say, Amen. Hallelujah. That's what praise
ye the Lord means. Hallelujah. What glorious words. What glorious words. All right,
let's all stand together.