That first song we sang, early
let me seek thee, early let me do thy will. It has to be one of the greatest
of blessings. When God saves a sinner in their
youth, from youth to serve the Lord, to know the Lord from youth
and not serve yourself and serve sin. It's a great blessing because
the Lord saved me in my youth. I was just a young man. And I'm thankful for that. I'm
thankful that I didn't spend all these years serving myself
and then meet God. His mercy endureth forever. Now, I titled this, Giving Thanks
for Enduring Mercy. Giving Thanks. You know, because
the Lord is good, He will show mercy. The Lord's mercy flows
out of His goodness. It comes out of His goodness.
And because He is eternally good, unchangeably good, His mercy
endures forever. It never changes. You know, we
can wear each other out, can't we? We can just wear each other's
kindness out, mercy out, but not our Lord. You cannot exhaust
His mercy. You cannot exhaust it. And if
you'll notice, every time something is mentioned, it is followed
by 26 times. His mercy endureth forever. And as I read this over and over, I can see David, and I believe
David wrote it, it doesn't say who, but you know in verse 1,
Oh give thanks, that sure sounds like David. That's the way he
started many of his Psalms. But we can say this about everything
in our lives, as David says here when he thinks of each thing.
We can say, His mercy endureth forever. Think about this, when
you get up tomorrow, or the fact that we're here. You know why
we're here? Because His mercy endures forever.
He's merciful to us. We can say, I had a good meal
today. A lot of people across this world didn't. We've had
a good meal today. You know why? Because His mercy
endures forever. You're going to get up in the
morning, you're going to have employment, be able to go to a job, and make
enough money to pay the bills and put food on the table. You
know why? Because His mercy endureth forever. So every time David
thought of something, he attached this to it. His mercy endureth
forever. That's why. That's why. Now in verses 1 through 3 we
are to give thanks to Him who is good, to Him who is God of
gods, and to Him who is Lord of lords. We need to be specific
about the one we worship and the one we give thanks to. We
need to be specific. Oh give thanks unto the Lord
Jehovah And this is speaking here of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For He's good. He's good. The very first verse
sets the tone of the whole psalm. It sets the tone of this whole
Psalm. It's one of thankfulness for His goodness and His mercy
to us continually. It's continually on us. His mercy
shall follow us, as David said in Psalm 23, all the days of
our lives. Mercy's following you. You're
surrounded by God's mercy. You're hedged about by God's
mercy. And we ought to be thankful for
that. You know, the one thing I know about thankfulness, when
you're thankful, you're not complaining. You can't complain and be thankful
at the same time. Those two don't go together.
It's like, I mean, there's two opposites. So when you're thankful,
you're not complaining. And when you're thankful, you're
thanking the Lord for His mercy and His goodness. And because
He's good, His mercy flows to us continually in all situations,
in all situations. HE'S KILLING THE FIRSTBORN IN
EGYPT! HE'S MERCIFUL! BECAUSE OUT OF THAT HE'S DELIVERING
HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL! HE'S MERCIFUL! EVERYTHING GOD
DOES IN THIS WORLD, EVERYTHING HE DOES IS AN ACT OF MERCY TO
ME AND YOU! IT IS! AND WE MAY NOT BE ABLE
TO COMPREHEND IT OR SEE IT RIGHT NOW, BUT IT'S AN ACT OF MERCY
TO US! because His providence is an
act of mercy. I'll get to that in a minute,
I'm getting ahead of myself. Oh give thanks in verse 2, I don't
know how far we'll get here but we'll just get on this horse
and ride and see where we stop. Oh give thanks unto the God of
gods for His mercy endureth forever. There's only one God and I thank
God, I thank the one God that I know Him. There are many who
are worshiping the God of their imagination, even in so-called
Christianity. They imagine God to be one way,
and He's not. He's another. You thought I was
all together like yourselves. Like my brother was telling a
man about God choosing a people, and the man hated it and denied
it. And he said, well, read the Bible.
He said, I don't need to read the Bible. Where did you get your information
from? Dictionary? What we believe, the gospel we
believe, the doctrines we believe, come from the Word of God. It's
right out of the Word of God. There's only one God, the rest
are little g-men, or angels here, it could be speaking of angels.
THE ANGELS ARE COMMANDED IN HEBREWS CHAPTER 1 TO WORSHIP HIM. LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD, ALL
THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM. AND YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE HE'S
GOD. YOU DON'T WORSHIP ANYONE SHORT OF BEING GOD. IF JESUS
CHRIST IS NOT GOD, WE DON'T WORSHIP HIM. IT WOULD BE IDOLATRY. BUT IT'S RIGHT TO WORSHIP HIM
BECAUSE HE'S GOD. HE'S THE LIVING GOD. AND GIVE
THANKS THAT YOU KNOW HIM. There's a lot of people who don't
know him. There's a whole lot of people who don't know him.
I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Matthew 11.
I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and you revealed them
to babes. But to some, they are hidden.
You hid them from them. That's the God of the Bible.
That's who he is. OR GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD OF
LORDS. This word here LORD, capital
L-O-R-D, has to do with Him being the GOVERNOR. He's the GOVERNOR
of the UNIVERSE. The GOVERNMENT, it says in the
Word of God, the GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDERS. The GOVERNMENT
of this WHOLE WORLD, of what's going on RIGHT NOW, is on the
SHOULDERS of Jesus Christ. He's GOVERNING the WORLD. HIS GOVERNMENT IS ALSO MARKED
BY GOODNESS AND MERCY. NOW, THE NATURAL MIND CANNOT
SEE THAT. THE NATURAL MIND TRIES TO LOGICALLY
UNDERSTAND GOD AND UNDERSTAND HIS MERCY, UNDERSTAND HIS WORKINGS,
AND IT'S IMPOSSIBLE. IT'S TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE. There
has to be a spiritual revelation to a spiritual mind to have any
comprehension of the Lord's mercy in His acts. And then in verse 4, we give
thanks to Him for His great wonders. Boy, when I was looking at that,
I thought, how many times do we ignore the wonders of God? We're surrounded with it. We
are completely surrounded Everywhere we turn, there's a wonder of
God. There's a wonder of God. There's a wonder of mercy. And
it's right in, it's right before us. It's right in our presence. WONDERS PAST FINDING OUT, WONDERS
IN CREATION, which we'll speak of here just in the next verse,
but WONDERS OF CREATION, the WONDERS, I tell you, you sit
and you look, I sit out, you know, about in a deer stand and
I just sit there and I look at, I just do, I look at creation,
I listen to those birds sing, they have my attention, they
have my attention, creation does have my attention because MY
FATHER CREATED IT! MY LORD CREATED IT! When the
prophets of old spoke of God, they always spoke of Him as the
Creator. And the wonder that's in all
of creation and so much of it, we don't even see. We don't even
see. But it's such a wonder, the wonder
of providence. You know, everything all over
this world, all over this world is working together for our good.
It's working together for our good. You know when you see these
things going on like right now over there Israel fighting and
wars going on and who knows what that's going to turn into but
you know what that's doing? It's just bringing about the end.
All these things have to come to pass. Everything that's happening
everything that's happening has to happen to bring about the
end. God has purposed it in every event and His mercy toward us is in
it. His mercy is in it. And what
a wonder of grace! I tell you what, you and I are
wonders of grace. We're a wonder of grace. It's
a wonder God saved me. Isn't it? You feel that way? It's a wonder He saved me. It
just amazes me that God saved me. The older I get, the more
amazed I am that God Almighty saved me. I KNOW MANY THAT HE
HAS PASSED BY, I MEAN PEOPLE CLOSE TO ME, I KNOW HE HAS PASSED
BY AND HE SAVED ME! That's a wonder, that's a wonder. And what wonders, listen, what
wonders our Lord did while He was here. He did many wonders. Raised the dead? No one did that. He raised the dead? Healed the
blind, the lame, the sick, fed thousands, still feeding them.
Fed them with a few loaves and fishes. What's that to Him? You
know, the disciples said, well, we only got, we got a lad's lunch
here. All we got's a few loaves and fishes. What's, that's more
than enough in His hands. More than enough. And then verses
five through nine, we give thanks to Him for His acts and creation. I'm so thankful I am I'm thankful
that the Lord controls the universe you know it says by him he all
things made by him and for him and by him all things consist
and that word consist means maintained he maintains creation he takes
care of it when you and I are gonna live on this earth for
just a little while every one of just a little while and we'll
be gone And there'll be another generation and it'll go on like
that until time shall be no more. And He will maintain this earth
as long as it exists. He'll maintain it, He'll take
care of it. But listen here, to Him that by wisdom made the
heavens. Christ is called the Wisdom of
God. And it says, ALL THINGS WERE
MADE BY HIM. So the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the Wisdom of God, IN WISDOM, made the heavens. How much do
we really know about the heavens? I mean, how much do we really
know about these planets? I mean, there's trillions of
them out there, trillions of them. And you know that every
one of them God was not filling up space. He's not just filling
up space. Every one of them has an effect
on the other one and the other one and all of them eventually
have an effect on this earth. Every one of them. That's astounding
to me. They're not just floating out
there for us to look at. They have an effect on this earth. All of them. The ones we, I mean
the galaxies that are out there. God made them for a purpose and
they're serving God's purpose. And it has to do some way with
this earth and His people. And that's God's mercy on us.
That's His mercy on us. And to Him that stretched out
the earth. You know, in Genesis, two times it appears to me that
in the Word of God, this earth was under water. When God first
made creation in Genesis, it was covered with water. And then He called forth the
dry land, and it appeared. It appeared, the mountains appeared.
God did that, the Lord Jesus Christ did that. He made the
heavens in wisdom, and He stretched out the earth above the waters,
and He made the great lights, The sun, he's going to talk about
here, his sun and the moon. You know, many things we take
for granted when in fact they are due to the enduring mercy
of the Lord. Don't you think it's a mercy
that that sun shines every day? How long do you think life on
this earth would last without that sun? It'd be over with. Move it a
few degrees, one way or the other. One way we melt the earth, the
other way we're frozen. You see the wisdom of God in
that? His wisdom. He made the sun to rule by day,
and He did so for His mercy, and that mercy has to do with
YOU! Every time that sun comes up, that's the mercy of God.
on us today. That was God's mercy on us today.
If we live to tomorrow and that sun comes up, that's God's mercy
on us tomorrow. His mercy is just raining down
on us, shining down on us, the sun. Think about that tomorrow. You go out standing in the sun
and think the mercy of God is just shining down on us. You
take the church out of this world and that sun is gone. You take
the church out of this world, you take God's people out of
this world and this is over. This world owes a great debt
of gratitude to us because we are the only reason they are
still here, that this earth is still here. The sun to rule by day. The sun
is an emblem of the sun of righteousness shining in his strength. I've
thought about that. Out of all those stars, and you've
got the moon, and there's one light that lightens the whole
universe. There's one light, there's one
sun that shines on this earth. One sun! There's not one up north
and one down south and one east and one west. There's not four
suns, there's one! And from that one sun, everything
grows. From that one sun, everything
has light. What an emblem of the Lord Jesus
Christ we have every day going right over our heads. The Son
of Righteousness going right over our heads. We can look at it every day and
just see the mercy of God in Christ going right over us, shining
on us every day, every day. And He says here, that sun to
rule by day. The Son of God rules this, He
rules heaven and earth. Just like that sun is, He calls
it the ruler of heaven. As it goes over, it rules the
day. And the moon and stars to rule by night. The moon is an
emblem of the church who receives her light from what? The sun. The moon doesn't produce
its own light. It receives its light. It's a
reflection of the sunlight. The sun shines upon it. The scripture
calls us children of light. We're children of light. The
church is the light in this world. It's the only light this world
has. It's the church that's in it. You take away the church
and it's utter darkness. Now there's a reason for everything
that's in creation and everything, I don't know how everything does
this, but everything points to Jesus Christ. Everything has
a relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no reason to
be ignorant if we just, Lord open our eyes. Elijah said, Lord,
open this young man's eyes. And when he did, he saw all those
chariots of fire on the side of that hill. He said, there's
more with us than there are with them. But until the Lord opened
his eyes, he couldn't see anything but a hillside over there with
a bunch of trees maybe on it, maybe even been barren, I don't
know. But the Lord has to open our eyes that we might see. And
then verses 10 through 15, WE GIVE THANKS TO HIM FOR THE REDEMPTION
OF HIS TRUE ISRAEL FROM THIS WORLD AND FROM OUR SINS. Listen, to Him, it starts here
in verse 10, to Him that smote, that word means to strike, strike
Egypt. He sent them 10 plagues and then
He struck down their firstborn.
He killed their firstborn. God killed the firstborn. It
didn't matter if it was a day old or if it was 90 years old. God killed the firstborn. But
in this striking down the firstborn, you know what came out of that?
The Passover Lamb. Christ, the firstborn. He's the
firstborn. A picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Passover. And it was established at that
time. They're gonna come out. He's gonna strike down the firstborn
and he's gonna he's gonna break This is gonna be the last plague
all the other plagues Pharaoh hardened his heart. This is one
of broken This is the one but it's also the one that delivered
Israel out of Egypt The Passover lamb taking the place of the
firstborn bloodshed Without the shedding of blood. There's no
deliverance out of Egypt The Lord put a DIFFERENCE at
that time between Israel and the Egyptians. And the Lord's mercy is evidenced
by sending them a Savior, Moses, which was a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, as far as being a deliverer. And then we see the POWER of
His grace in verse 12, He brought him out with a STRONG HAND. And with a stretched out arm,
it's like a mighty arm. You know who that arm of the
Lord is? In Isaiah 53, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
The Lord Jesus Christ. That's the arm of the Lord. And
with that mighty hand and stretched out arm, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He delivered His people out of this world, out of Egypt, which
represents the world. WE GIVE THANKS FOR CHRIST, THE
ARM OF THE LORD, THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION. He's that arm, He's that power. WE GIVE THANKS TO HIM WHICH DIVIDED
THE RED SEA INTO PARTS, REMOVED THE BARRIER TO THE PROMISED LAND,
You know, God brought him out of Egypt and Egypt was glad to
see him go after God killed the firstborn. He was giving him
gold and everything. I mean, he was giving him all
kinds of stuff to get out of here. You know, God knows how to bring
you down. He knows how to bring people
down. And here they leave, then they come up against the Red
Sea. Well, there's just so much, there's
so much in this. You can take verse by verse and
just preach a sermon by itself. But they come up against the
Red Sea. That's a barrier to them entering the promised land.
How are they going to get across? You got Pharaoh's army right
on their trail. But what power and mercy did
the Lord show at the Red Sea? He made them stand still. They
had to stand still and know that He was God. They were totally
helpless. They knew it. They knew they
were dead. And then God parted that Red
Sea. You believe that? You believe
God actually did that? I do. I believe God actually
parted that Red Sea. And they went across on dry ground.
The ground bent under that sea. You can imagine how muddy that
would have been. They went across on dry ground. God parted it. And He led them by a way that
they knew not. They didn't see that coming.
They didn't see that coming. And He made Israel to pass through
the midst of it. Aren't you glad that God has made you to believe? Aren't
you glad He's made you to pass through the blood? That Red Sea
of the Blood of Christ. Because you know, you and I,
if it was left up to us, we wouldn't do it. But He made us willing
in the day of His power, just like He did Israel. That whole
2 million people standing there, God made them willing to cross
that Red Sea. And they went. They went. HE MADE ISRAEL A PASS THROUGH
THE MIDST OF IT. ALL HIS CHILDREN PASSED THROUGH
THE RED SEA. AND ALL GOD'S CHILDREN PASSED
THROUGH THE RED SEA OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, EVERY ONE OF THEM.
BUT I WANT YOU TO NOTICE SOMETHING HERE. THIS KIND OF STOOD OUT
TO ME TODAY. THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING THAT
JUST KIND OF JUMPS OUT AT ME FOR THE FIRST TIME WHEN I'M STUDYING
TO PREACH. WE KNOW THE WORD OF GOD SAYS
THAT THE GOSPEL is a saver of life and the life to some and
a saver of death and the death to some. What was a savior of
life to them became death to the Egyptians. It became death. You know the blood of Christ,
we are justified by His blood. We are cleansed from our sins
by His blood. But there are some who are going
to be damned by it. They said, let His blood be on us and on
our children. Pharaoh tried to take his army
through that Red Sea with no faith, no confidence, no knowledge
of God. He said, who's the Lord that
I should obey Him? But he's going to try to go the same way, dead
as a hammer spiritually. what became Israel's deliverance
became their doom. And the cross of Christ which
is our deliverance is becoming the doom of many. It will become the doom of many.
It will become the saber of death and the death to many. He says here that Israel passed
through the midst of it, and that was due to the mercy of
God, but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the
same place that he delivered them. They went through, and
Pharaoh's like, well, we can do that too. No, you can't. No,
you can't. You're going to drown in it.
It's going to kill you. God's going to kill you. It made me
think of Lamentations 3.22. The DIFFERENCE, the DIFFERENCE
between Israel and Egypt, the WORLD, the DIFFERENCE between
GOD'S PEOPLE and those who are NOT GOD'S PEOPLE, here's the
DIFFERENCE, it's the LORD'S MERCIES that we are NOT CONSUMED. That's
why. Because His COMPASSIONS FAIL
NOT. I'm just as rotten as anybody that's ever perished. I'm just
as rotten as anybody that ever perished. I know that. And then verses 16 through 22,
we give thanks to Him for leading us through this wilderness as
our shepherd. Verse 16, to Him which led, and
that word, you know that word led there means to walk. He walked
with them through the wilderness. This is the way by the cloud
and by the fire, He walked with them through the wilderness.
He guided them through the wilderness, just like He guides us through
this wilderness. He's guiding us too, you know.
We get up in the morning, we go about our day, we have plans,
we're going to do this, we're going to do that, but you know
the Lord is guiding us. He's guiding every step we take.
Every step. To Him which led His people through
the wilderness. He doesn't take His children
out of the world as soon as they are saved. He leads us through
this wilderness. You know, He saves some early
and they live a long time. But He guides us through this
world, this wilderness, this old world which is wilderness.
He guides us through it. He's our guide. He leads us.
He walks with us. God walks with us through this
world as we go through this world, live out our lives. He walks
with us. He's not in some far off distant
place. He's in you. God's in you. You know, knowing that, I have
to say this. It makes me really think about
where I go when I know the Lord's in me. I don't want to go any
place that I'm not comfortable taking Him. That's the truth. I don't want to go anywhere that
I don't feel comfortable that I can bring Him and sit down. Because
He's with me. He's in me. He's in me. He led His people through the
wilderness because of His mercy. You know, He could have took
them through a shortcut. But He led them all the way through
this wilderness. He had children among the children
of Israel. He had children that were His. He took care of them. Verse 17, To Him which smote
great kings, that means old established kings and kingdoms. They'd been
there a long time. And He smote them. And He killed
them because of His mercy to Israel. And he slew, that is,
he smite with a deadly intent, famous kings. And he did that
because of his mercy to Israel. Everything God does, if He kills
a nation, it's His mercy to you in some way, in some way it is. And he slew famous kings, they
went from famous to infamous. Sihon, king of the Amorites.
for His mercy endureth forever. These are the two kings they
met when they first went into the promised land. They were
mighty kings. They were established king. Og
was of the giants. And I mean, you know, people
of Israel, you know, when they first went in, spied out the
land, they came back all except for Joshua and Caleb. And they're
like, we can't take that land. They're too big. They're too... What in a world is size compared
to God It's nothing. It's nothing. Look at a man. Look at a man.
Look at a man seven feet tall. You say, man, he's big. Well,
put him up against one of these pine trees and say that. That
pine tree is way taller than that man. Keep it in perspective. Put him up against God and see
how big he is. If you've got a little God, you
might want to run. But if your God is God, you can
laugh at him. You can laugh at them. Depends
on who your god is. And he gave their lands for a
heritage. And we need to understand why God drove them out. I tried to remember this verse
last week, and Tommy Googled it, and then I got it. But in
Deuteronomy 9, 4, listen, Speak not thou in thine heart, after
that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying,
For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess
this land. But for the wickedness of these
nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Everything
God does is right. The judgments of the Lord are
right. If He's driving out a nation, if He's destroying a nation,
it's right. And He's doing it because of
their sins. Not for our righteousness, but because of their sinfulness.
But then He turns around and gives their land as a heritage,
which He promised to Abraham. And God keeps His promise. That's
why it's good to learn the promises of God and take them to Him in
prayer. He honors His promises. THE PROMISED LAND, NOW LISTEN,
AND HE GAVE THEIR LAND FOR INHERITANGE. THE PROMISED LAND WAS A GIFT
FROM THE LORD, NOT A REWARD FOR THEIR EFFORT. ETERNAL LIFE IS A GIFT OF GOD. AND WHAT IS AN ACT OF JUDGEMENT
ON SOME IS AN ACT OF MERCY ON OTHERS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS. Even the heritage unto Israel,
His servant, He gave it to Israel, His servant. And in verses 23
and 24, We give thanks to Him for His redeeming grace, who
remembered us in our lowest state. Israel couldn't have been lower
when God delivered them out of Egypt. A bunch of slaves, they
were slaves. What state were you in when the
Lord saved you? A low estate. He's never saved
anybody that was not in a low estate. Worthless. Worthless. Who remembered us in our low
estate because of His mercy, His enduring mercy. He purposed
to have mercy before the world began and we can't wear it out.
I won't do anything that surprises Him. My whole life has been before
Him even before creation. And He has redeemed us from our
enemies. He has redeemed us from Satan. You know everybody in
this room who believes, everyone who believes that the Lord has
saved, everyone, and you know this, were captives of Satan. We were captives of the spirit
of darkness. Every unbeliever in this world,
everyone is a captive of Satan. They may be children of the best
saints around. I mean, they could be Isaac, Jacob and Esau. Same parents. Cain and Abel. You know the scripture
says that Cain was of that wicked one, the devil. That's powerful. Same family. One's a child of
God and one's a child of Satan. The one thing I do know about
when Satan has a hold of someone, they don't even know it. They
don't even know it. He hath redeemed us, purchased
us, bought us. And the scripture says, If the
Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
And last of all, we give thanks to Him for His continual care
of us. He says here, Who giveth food
to all flesh. He feeds His creation every day.
I thought of this. We have lost loved ones, don't
we? And we have people lost that are close to us. You know the
Lord feeds them every day. And for that, I'm glad. They
don't know it, but I know it. And He feeds them every day.
And then we give thanks to Him who is God over all, blessed
forever. He's our God. The God of heaven and earth is
our God. That's who our God is. That's who He is. Oh, give thanks
unto the God of heaven, and for this reason, for His mercy endureth
forever. So everything you do, everything
that comes your way, you just attach that to it. For His mercy
endureth forever.