I'm glad to be here with you.
I enjoy preaching here. This is one of the places that
pulls the gospel out of me. I can say that. When I preach
here, it's like you pull it out of me. You know, there was a time when
I used to be the youngest speaker. I think I'm the oldest one now. There was a time when I went
to the doctor. I was young and my doctor was
always way older than me. Not now. I go now, I go to the
doctor now, he's a young man and I feel like I've got to tell
him it'll be all right. I do. I feel like I've got to
say, it's all right. Because I can tell he's nervous. He's that young. He's nervous.
I'm like, oh, it's OK. I've been here more than you
have. And I thought of that after I
looked at Kevin over here. I was thinking, young man, I
was there several years ago. I want you to turn to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. The title of this
message is Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say Something. That's what we're here for tonight
is to say something. I'm here to say something. And
let the redeemed, each one of us, say something. The redeemed of the Lord have
a lot to be thankful for. I can't even begin to put that
into words. To be saved from the wrath to
come. To be saved from sin. Saved from the curse of the law.
Saved from the power of Satan. Saved from my wretched self.
Saved. Redeemed. Wow. They are redeemed
and they are to say so. They are to say so when they
come together. They are to say so when they
are given the opportunity publicly. Say so. Don't be ashamed. Say so. We sing the song, Redeemed,
how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. We are a purchased people. Purchased by the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son. We are not our own, and I thank
God I'm not my own. I made a mess out of that. We're
not our own. Now in this chapter we have a
description of the redeemed of the Lord. They are a people scattered
all over the world. They are in trouble, you'll see
this. They are always crying unto the
Lord in their troubles. You know, we need to continually,
we need to continually call upon the Lord for mercy in trouble. To call upon Him for mercy. The
Lord delights to show mercy. You'll notice in this psalm,
when you go home, just read the whole psalm, when you go home,
every time they cried, He's delivered them. His mercy never failed. Forty-five years, I was counting
it up today, about forty-five years ago, I heard the gospel
around that period of time. God's mercy has never failed
me. Faithful, new every morning. In the redeemed, in verse 1,
they are told to give thanks unto the Lord for His goodness
and His mercy. You know, a thankful heart A
thankful heart is a heart given of God. It's a work of God. An unthankful man is a lost man.
But a thankful man, a thankful woman who is truly thankful to
the Lord is a work of God. And he says here in verse 2,
let the redeemed of the Lord say so. They are to continually
say that the Lord has saved them, the Lord has redeemed them, and
how he has redeemed them from the hand of their enemy. with the power of God, one or
the other. Now in this psalm, we have four
illustrations of God's goodness and God's mercy to his redeemed. And we see the redeemed, we see
the spiritual condition of the redeemed in this psalm. And we see that the Lord has
gathered them, and they are all over the world, the east, the
west, the north, and the south. And this is the condition that
they are found in. They are lost. Have you ever
been lost? Has God ever gotten you lost?
They are lost. They are captives. They are fools. That's an offensive word, isn't
it? But nevertheless, one of us were fools. And those who
believe not are still fools. That's a hard word. That's hard,
but it's so, isn't it? It's so. Not to believe God. Could a person be a bigger fool
than to call God a liar? That's a fool. That's a fool. They are fools and they're in
deep trouble in deep water in the ocean. Now here's the first
illustration. The first illustration of God's
goodness and mercy is seen in saving these travelers, these
wanderers, these wanderers. They had lost their way and they're
in the desert. They're lost. It says in verse
4, they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way, alone, alone. They wandered. They found no
city to dwell in. You know, we can read it like
this. They wandered in the wilderness,
in the desert, the way to a city of habitation they found not.
They couldn't find one. They couldn't find it. No inhabited
city where they might find food and shelter. They're lost. They're
lost. I tell you this, the Lord will
not let his children find rest and peace in anything but Christ. He's going to get them lost.
And they're going to realize they're lost. And the only rest
and peace they're going to find is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God's going to bring them to that end. He will bring them
to that end. These were lost in the wilderness.
They could find no city to dwell in. The food and water exhausted.
They were faint and in despair and prayed to all the dangers
of the desert. This is our spiritual condition.
This is us. This is a description of us. It's us. Sounds familiar to me. But let me make this point here.
It says they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way.
They found no city to dwell in. Now, we don't know this. We don't
know this until God makes us to know this. We think we're
all right. You see, God brings us into this
condition and reveals this is who you really are. This is where
you really are. You're lost. He must open our
eyes and give us life and life from our spiritual darkness and
deadness before we realize we're lost. That we are in a wilderness. This world is nothing but a wilderness.
That's all it is. There was a time, listen, there
was a time when this world was a playground. Didn't you see
it as a playground? Didn't you see this world when
you were a teenager and grown up and young man? And one day,
one day, you heard the gospel. And you realize it was a wilderness. It wasn't a playground no more.
It was a wilderness. But God had to bring us to this
point. He had to reveal this to us before
we would know it. You know, over in Hosea, listen
to this. In Hosea 2, 6 and 7. Therefore, behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find
her pass. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but
shall not find them. Then she shall say, I'll return
to my first husband, for it was better then than it is now. Isn't
that like a prodigal? He took all that inheritance
and he went away and he wasted it. He wasted it. And then he
came to himself and he said, I'm going to go back to my father's
house. I had it better there than here. God has to bring us
to that point. Because until then, it's the
playground to us. We are enamored with the world.
Listen, a sinner does not know he's lost until God saves him. He does not know that he's dead
until God gives him life. He doesn't know he's in darkness
until God gives him light. He doesn't know he's in the wilderness
until God makes him to know he's in the wilderness. Until God
strips him and makes him to see this is who you are and this
is where you are. You're lost. You're lost. Until the Lord saves us, we don't
know what it is to be lost. But boy, when He saves us, when
He saves us, He makes us to understand we are lost, we are undone, that
He's right. There's none good, no not one,
especially me. I wrote that out over my Bible,
even me. You know, it's easy to say, I
know my neighbor's no good. I like when the disciples said,
the Lord said, when are you going to betray me? And everyone of
them said, is it I? Is it I? Well, you know the Lord's doing
something when you apply the Scriptures to yourself first
before you do everybody else. And when the Lord does this,
listen, when this happened then, not until then, not until then,
then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. Lord, I'm lost. I'm lost. Save me. Save my soul. I'm lost. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.
Their distresses. They cried, and He saved, and
this is how it goes. They cried, and He saved. They
cried. You'll notice this all the way through this. They cried,
He saved. They cried, He saved. And when the Lord has saved,
He's redeemed. When he saves them, he saves
them one by one. And when he saves them all one
day, when he saves them all, he leads them by the right way.
They've been going the wrong way. All we like sheep going
straight. Every man, every man has gone
his own way. And that way always, always leads
away from God. Man's way, our own way, never
leads to God. It never leads to Christ. It
never leads to peace. It never leads to Him. It leads
away from Him. Every time. Every time. I don't walk my way. Lord, save
me from my way. Lead me in the right way, the
straight, narrow way, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I am the way. The truth and the life. No man
comes to the Father but by me. I'm the way. Amen. And when God saves, when
He gets us lost and we cry unto Him for mercy, then He leads
us by the right way. And that way is Christ. That
way is the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he does this, you see
there in verse 8, when he does this, they are to tell how they
were found and led by the right way, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
they go to a city of habitation, God's Zion. You know, you're
in, all you who believe, all you who believe the gospel, you
are in, you are in God's Zion. You are in the City of Habitation.
You are in the New Jerusalem. You're it. You're it. And when He does this, look at
verse 9, He satisfies them and fills them with goodness, or
in other places, good things. He satisfies them. See, they
were wondering, they were hungry, they were thirsty. He brought him to this point. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. He makes us to hunger and thirst
after righteousness. He makes this world become bitter. You know, man drinks iniquity
like water. That's how much we like it. But
God has to make that water in tomorrow bitter. It has to become
bitter. It's like one time when I was
in school, high school, I went over to a milk machine and I
put my money in, got me a carton of milk, took a drink of that.
Man, that stuff was sour. I never bought another carton
of milk out of there for the rest of all the time I went to
school. I never bought it. I couldn't
take it no more. God's got to make you sick of
this world. He's got to make you sick of yourself. Job said,
I abhor myself. Have you ever abhorred yourself? I'm sick of myself. I'm sick
of my life. I'm sick of my sin. God has to
bring us to that and make us to hunger and thirst after the
righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. Listen, make us to hunger
and thirst to be right with God. I want to be right with God. That's what I want. I want to be right with God.
And I know how I can be right with God through the blood, the
righteousness, the person of Jesus Christ. And I thank God. I thank God. He made me to know
that. He made me to know that this world that I'm living in
is a wilderness. It's poison. The whole world,
Scripture says, lies in wickedness. I've learned it does. It does. There's not one ounce of good
in it. Not one. But He satisfies them. When He
saves them, He satisfies them and fills them with goodness. Let me ask you this. Is Jesus
Christ enough? Are you satisfied? I can say
at my age right now, I am as happy I'm as happy as I can be. I'm as content as I can be. I'm
not content with my knowledge of Christ. I want to grow in
that. I want to grow in knowledge of Christ. I want my walk with
Christ to be more real, stronger. I want it to be more consuming.
I want to be fixated on Him. I do. I do. I pray God to make
that grow into a fire. I'm satisfied with Him. He's
enough. He's enough. Jesus Christ is the fullness
of all the goodness of God. I have all of God's goodness
in Him. I have the fullness of His goodness in Jesus Christ. Now the second illustration of
God's goodness and mercy to His redeemed is seen in the captive
being set free. It says in verse 10, such as
sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction
and iron. These are prisoners. These are
prisoners waiting on execution. They're in a dungeon. They're
in a dark dungeon. They're sitting in the dark.
They didn't have what we have nowadays. They were in a dungeon
and there's no light. And they're sitting in darkness.
That's where they are. They're prisoners bound by affliction
and iron. They're bound by the law. They are legal captives of the
law. The law of God used to at one
time meant nothing to me. I mean zero. It meant no more
to me than your traffic, your speed limit means to you. Ain't
nobody worried about breaking the speed limit in here. Two
or three miles over, two or three miles under, ten miles over.
As long as there's not a cop setting up the road there, it
means nothing. And there was a time that the
law of God meant nothing to me. Then there was a time that it
that the convicting power of God's law scared me to death. I can tell you the truth. I was
scared to death. I preached from here a few weeks
ago, and there was a time I got up and checked the locks on the
door at night. I was that afraid of dying. I thought I was going
to die and go to hell just as sure as the world. When I heard
Henry preach for the first time in my life, I realized God didn't
have to save me. That scared me to death. That
scared me. He may just leave me alone. He
may just leave me alone. That's the worst thing God could
ever do to you, is leave you alone. It says here in verse
11, listen, because they are in the shadow of death, they're
in darkness, shadow of death, they're bound in affliction and
irons. Here's why, in verse 11, because they rebelled against
the words of God. How many times, let me ask you,
those of you who believe, and you can't even count the times,
but how many times did you sit and hear the gospel preached
and get up and walk away from it and rebel against the words
of God? You turned your back on it. You
turned your back. You had nothing to do with God.
He had nothing to do with you. You were none of his counsel.
You were none of his counsel. You contend the most high. You
held God in contempt. You held God. Amazing. You held
God in contempt. You know what rebellion leads
to? Captivity. Just go out there and break the
law. Just go out there and do it. Sooner or later, you're going
to be in jail. You're going to be a captive. We are born rebels. Every one of us is born rebels.
We have a natural enmity in our minds against God. We naturally
hate God. I told a man that one time, and
he was just a rascal, but boy, I made him mad. I told him, I
said, you hate God. He said, I don't hate God. I
said, you hate God. And he walked off. He was angry. I tell you, it's something when
you realize When you realize that you have thumbed your nose
up in the face of God. Children of wrath by nature,
even as others. No difference than you and Charles
Manson. Not a bit of difference, but
not by nature. And because of our rebellion,
we are captives to God's law. God said to Adam, don't eat of
the tree. You can eat of all these trees,
but not of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam ate of
it. Now he's a legal captive to God's
law. And scripture says, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. Have you sinned? Boy, that's when you realize you're
in trouble. When you realize you're standing before God's
law and He's not going to let you go. He's not going to let
you go. But in God's goodness and mercy,
in His goodness and mercy, He brought them down. He didn't
leave you alone. He didn't leave you in the dungeon.
He didn't leave you in darkness and ignorance. He says in verse
12, Therefore he brought down their hearts with labor. That
word means misery, sorrow. He brought them down with repentance. Lord, forgive me. They fell down
and there was none to help. As long as you got one ounce
of someone to help or something to grab hold of, Christ will profit you nothing.
But He's got to bring us down and He will bring the redeemed
of the Lord. This is the process He brings
them through. This is the spiritual condition
they are in. And He makes them to know it.
He makes them to know it. They fell down and there was
none to help. Has God's noose ever been put
around your neck? Has it ever been put around your
neck? Have you ever stood before God
condemned? Condemned. Well, when He did this, in His
goodness and in His mercy, He brought down their hearts with
misery and sorrow, and with repentance they fell down and there was
none to help. Then they cried, then, then, then, then. Notice
He keeps saying, then. They weren't going to do it until
then. You're not going to cry until God breaks you. You're
not going to cry until God strips you. You're not going to cry
until God kills you. You're not going to do it until
you're lost. Then, then they cried unto the Lord in their
trouble. Lord, I'm in trouble. You ever
been in trouble? Lord, I'm in trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble. And He saved them out of their
distresses. He gave them peace. Gave them joy. Then they cried in their trouble.
Notice this, what he does in verse 14. He brought them out
of darkness. He brought them out of their
darkness and ignorance and brought them out of sin and the shadow
of death and break their bands asunder. Sin has no more dominion
over you now. You're not under the law. You're
under the grace of God. And that grace of God reigns
through the righteousness of that man, Jesus Christ. It rained. Well, the older I get, that's
just like music. I'm not a musician. I'm not a singer. But I'm telling
you, that's music. And I pray God give me the ability
to put a tune to it. Put a tune to it. Sin does not
have dominion. He's talking about this, that
sin nature that reigned in your heart as a king. does not have
dominion over you now. It's not your Lord. Jesus Christ
is. He reigns in your heart. He is
enthroned in your heart. He is. He brought him out of
darkness in the shadow of death. He brought him out. The preacher
didn't bring him out. I can stand here and tell you
the truth. And God used me to tell you the truth. But He'll
be the one to bring you out. It'll be between you and Him.
and break their bands asunder. Now, therefore, there's no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Those who were captives and prisoners
and they were in iron and sitting in a dungeon. You'll be glad when you're about
to take your last breath. That'll mean something. That'll
really mean something when you're about to die and you're about
to meet God. Boy, that'll mean everything,
won't it? That'll mean everything. He has
set the captive free. It says in Psalm 146.7, the latter
part of that, it says, the Lord looseth the prisoners. Go. Go. Can you imagine when He came
in there and the soldiers opened the door and said, Barabbas,
go. Really? Go. You're free. You're free. Now what are they to do? What's
a free people to do? Someone's been let out of jail.
You know sometimes you see these prisoners let out. They've been
in prisons for so long they've become institutionalized. They
don't know what to do. They'll do something to go back
in. They can't make it out in a free world. What are we to
do? We've been set free. We've been
set free from law. We've been set free from captivity. We've been set free. What are
we to do? Here's what we are to do in verse 15. They are to
praise the Lord for His goodness. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men from which He took us. I didn't come from the angels.
I came from a bunch of simple Wretched, God-hating human beings. That's where God took me from.
The whole world's a prison, and He came in and set me free. Just took me out. Lifted me like
a brand and plucked out of the fire. Set free. Here's what we're to do. Tell
how the Lord delivered us by His grace, His power, His blood,
His righteousness. And we must often repeat the
old, old story of deliverance. That's what we do every time
we preach. Now here's the third illustration.
Here's the third. It's of God's goodness and mercy.
It's shown in saving fools and fools. Verse 17 through 22, we
were all fools before the Lord saved us. We were fools. Not
to believe God's a fool. And fools bring affliction and
sickness on themselves by their own foolish choices, you know
that? How many people you've seen and watched just destroy
themselves by their foolish choices? Drug addictions go on, you know,
you can go right down the line. How many ways can a fool destroy
himself? There's a lot of ways, a lot
of ways. But it says here, fools because of their transgression,
because their iniquities are afflicted. The life of sin has ruined them. Their foolish life of sin has
brought them near to the gates of death. And they draw near
to the gates of death, and God says, bring them back. He doesn't let you go through
that gate, because once you go through that gate, you ain't
coming back. That gate only swings one way. And they cried to the Lord in
their troubles, and he delivered those fools out of their trouble.
And then the fourth illustration, I'm going to wind this down.
God's mercy and God's goodness and God's mercy is seen in the
way. And there's two illustrations I will use on this one. First
of all, in the way of duty. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in great water. You know, trouble
comes to the best as well as to the worst. It meets us in
the way of duty as much as it does in the way of sin. Trouble
does. Adversity and tribulation come
to the upright as well as the disobedient. Remember the disciples
did what the Lord said. They got in a ship, went across,
and the storm raised up. But I also see here, I see a
ship of fools. I see a whole ship of fools. We cannot get out of the mess
we are in, can we? We're in deep water. We're in
over our heads. Unless the Lord saves us, we're
going to perish. We're going to perish. Notice in verse 25, it says,
and this is the Lord dealing with His redeemed. He commandeth
and raiseth the stormy wind. He does that. He does that. He commands and raises the stormy
wind which lifts up the waves thereof. God must disrupt our
lives in order to save us. He's got to do that. They reel
to and fro and stagger like a drunken man in verse 27 right through
wit's end. God ever brought you to your wit's end? The end of
yourself? And then they cried unto the
Lord, and He saved them. He saved them. And notice last
of all, here's how He saved them. Verse 20, He sent His Word. He
sent His Word and healed them, delivered them from their destruction.
God sent His Word. He sent the incarnate Word, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. He sent His written
Word that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. And He sent His preached
Word, what you're hearing right now. And that's how He delivered
them. That's how He saved them. You're
not going to be saved without the Word. He's going to send
His Word. He's going to send a preacher.
He's going to tell you the Gospel. And He's going to reveal the
Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope. This is the redeemed. This is the redeemed. Let the
redeemed of the Lord say so. Let Him say how the Lord has
saved Him. And everyone who is wise will recognize that the
way the Lord has saved them, the way the Lord has brought
them, has been according to His loving kindness. He brought you
down. He got you lost. He made you
understand your captivity. Set you free. The way he's dealt with you and
the way he has saved you, you and I both understand this. It's
according to his loving kindness and tender mercy. All right.