Turn back to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I've enjoyed my stay,
my visit here. If I happen to burp during this
message, you can blame Stan and Sherry for that. They haven't
let my tank get dry since I've been here. But I've really enjoyed
myself. I've had a good stay. Psalm 103. This is what I call the sinner's
psalm of praise. Psalm 103, the sinner's psalm
of praise. When I read over this psalm last
week, I read over it several times. As I read, I couldn't
help but think of David. David's the writer of this psalm.
I couldn't help but think of him sitting down and penning
this psalm and him thinking of Psalm 51, that great psalm of
repentance, you know, where he had sinned with Bathsheba. And
there in Psalm 51, he says, Lord, have mercy on me. Blot out my
transgressions. Wash me from my sins. Wash me
throughly from them. Cleanse me, he says, from my
iniquity. And he says, Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. That's what that is pleading
for fifty one well. Some years go by here David sits
down I think some years ago by he sits down and. God has answered
his prayer he said God hasn't dealt with me after my feet and
God has rewarded me according to my name. I can just see him
sitting there and some tears streaming down his face as he
writes this song of praise to God for showing mercy to him
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's nothing that is
more proper than to begin a service than by praising and blessing
God. That's the way we ought to even
start our mornings, is by blessing God, blessing him that he's let
us breathe another day, blessing him that he's let us know his
gospel, know his son. And this is how our worship services
should begin and end. It's in praise of God. You notice
that's how David does his psalm. He says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that's within me, bless his holy name. And he says
in verse 22, Bless the Lord, O all his works and all places
of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And you'll notice here also,
David begins and ends it with a blessing, but he also makes
no request. You notice that in reading this
psalm? He makes no request in this psalm. He sits back. David is so overwhelmed with
God's mercy in Christ. He's so overwhelmed that God
has dealt with him in such a way that he makes no request, but
all that he can do is bless God. Thank God for the mercy that
he's been able to partake of in Christ. He makes no request
in this song. God is so gracious to us. I don't, I don't want those to
sound like empty words or religious words. God is so gracious to
us. God is, I tell you, his blessings
to us cannot be reckoned up in order. You can't begin to count
God's blessings and God's mercies because they're more than the
hairs of our head. You know, God has mercy on us
in things we don't even realize. He saves us from dangers and
from straits that we don't even comprehend. I mean, there are
principalities and powers and darkness that would take us down
if he would let it, but he doesn't. His mercies to us are innumerable,
and we are to spend our lives, the believers, to spend his life
blessing his holy name, giving praise to his holy name. David says in another place in
the psalm, give unto him, give unto him the glory, the glory
that's due his name. Oh, that God would enable us
to do that. That he would enable us just
to give unto him the glory due his name. Praising him who's
given to us all things. You know, everything we have,
everything we have spiritually and materially, God's given to
us. There is nothing that I can hold up and say, I've gotten
this on my own. Nothing. Not one thing. He's given me everything. He's
given me the wife I have, my children, my home, my job, all
the spiritual blessings that I have in the Lord Jesus Christ
that enables me to stand before God accepted. He's given it to
me. He's given it to me. Never take
lightly that which God's given to you. Especially the gospel. Especially the gospel. You know,
not everyone has the gospel preached in this evening. There's a lot
of people that's meeting this evening, but very, very few are
going to hear the gospel. And God has blessed you. He blessed
this congregation with a man who I know faithfully preaches
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, don't take
that lightly. He hasn't given that to every
man. He hasn't given that to every congregation. He hasn't
given forgiveness of sins to every man. He hasn't given eternal life
to every man. Never take lightly that which
God's given you. You are most blessed to have
the gospel of his Son preached to you and believe it. The fact
you believe it, that's of God. That's what Paul says in Ephesians. Faith is a gift of God. The fact
that I believe it is a gift of God. Now, David starts here in
verse 1. He says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Here
we find the spirit. David gives us here the spirit
of worship. He gives us here the spirit of
worship. David says, All that's within me, all that makes me
up, all that I'm made up of, David says, all that's within
me. All that I can muster up, bless his holy name. This matter of worship is an
all-consuming matter. It's the whole man. It's the
whole man in worship of God. It's an all-consuming matter.
We don't give our best to the praise of men and then our leftovers
to God. It's all of me in worship of
God or none of me. It's all of me or none of me.
The Lord God is worthy to be blessed and praised by us in
the highest sense of the word. In the very highest sense of
the word, you cannot bless or worship him too much, you know
that. You can worship your family too much. You can worship your
children too much, your husband too much, your wife too much,
your home too much, your job too much. But you cannot, you
absolutely cannot worship God too much. You can't do it. You
and I haven't even began to scratch the surface of this thing of
worshiping God. Let others, let others forbear. Let others stay home. Let others
worship what they will, but you who believe the gospel, you bless
the Lord. You bless his holy name. You
bless his holy name. And notice here how the psalmist,
notice here how David dwells upon his holy name. Now, most men would probably
dwell upon his love. The baby in Christ may dwell
upon his mercy, but here we have an experienced believer in what
he dwells upon. And that which most describes
God, that which most describes his whole character, his holiness. He says, bless his holy name. His holiness is his chief attribute. It's his chief attribute. It
most describes him. That's why David said in one
place, give thanks, give thanks at remembrance of his holiness. Give thanks after remembrance
of it. I tell you, because God is holy, that means perfect.
That's the reason he shows love and mercy to sinners. It's because
he's holy. He's perfect. He's perfect in
love. He's perfect in his justice. He's perfect in his mercy. Give
thanks after remembrance of his holiness. And then he says in
verse two, bless the Lord. And notice David's talking to
himself. Not every man's crazy that talks to himself. And he's
talking to himself here and he says, bless the Lord. Oh, my
soul. He's kind of like waking his
soul up, he says, oh, oh, my soul, bless him and forget not
all his benefits. Well, this is a tribute to our
depravity that we would forget if we would forget his benefits.
You know, he says in Isaiah in one place, he said, would the
mother forget her sucking child? And you know what he said? Yes,
she would. But I will not forget that. And David's saying here, oh,
and forget not all his benefits. We have to stir up our hearts
to admiration because we are so prone to forget. We are still
full of sin. We still have that old man that
we have to carry around with us. God could bless us today,
he could answer a prayer that we've been seeking for, and a
week down the road, we forget about it. That's why David says,
stir up your heart. He says, stir, oh my soul, forget
not all his benefits. We are so prone to wander. Therefore,
when we come to worship, when we come to worship, we must stir
up our hearts to worship and recall and not forget all his
benefits. Not just some of them, not just
the good ones we wanted. I mean all his benefits the scripture
says even now are you sons of God my what a benefit what a
benefit even now are you the sons of God we are not to forget
any of his divine dealings with us none of them they're all worthy
of praise even when he chastens us even he just dealing with
us as sons as sons and daughters Even when he chases us, he's
worthy of praise. And he says here, forgetting
on all his benefits, all we have he's given to us. Paul says in
Corinthians, what do you have that you didn't receive? What do you have you didn't receive?
And then David in verse three, he begins to name the benefits. He begins to mention the benefits. And you'll notice he doesn't
mention the material blessings that God had blessed him with.
You know, David was the king. David had great blessings. God
had blessed him with much. But you'll notice here what he
mentions. You'll notice the benefits here he mentions. He says in
verse 3, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy
diseases. These are the benefits worthy
of mentioning. Everything else just fades into
nothing. What greater blessing, what greater blessing can a man
have than to have all his iniquities, all his sins forgiven? Now you
tell me. All of them. What greater blessing
can he have than all of them? Listen, you have to be a sinner
to appreciate this. You have to be a guilty sinner
to appreciate what David's writing about here. "...who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." You see, sin
is an assault on all that God is, and yet He forgives us through
the blood and the righteousness of Christ from all of us. I mean,
He's put away some pretty bad sin. through the blood of Christ. And He forgives us of all our
iniquities upon the grounds, listen, He forgives them upon
the grounds of satisfaction. Not just because I'm sorry for
them. God's been satisfied on our behalf. It's not just because
I weeped and cried a little bit over them. But it's because Christ
weeped and cried It's because he suffered over. You see, Christ
satisfied the justice of God on behalf of his people. Therefore,
God can and does forgive his people of all their iniquities. All of them. He forgives them
of all of them. And not only does he forgive
them of all of them, but he heals all thy diseases. He healeth,
he says here, all thy diseases. He not only does, he not only
forgives us, but he also does the work of a physician. He does
some healing here. Like that woman with the issue
of blood, you know, she had tried many physicians, he said. She
had spent all her living upon these physicians and she was
none the better, but rather grew worse. And then it says she heard
of Christ and she said, if I could just touch him, I know I'll be
healed. I'll be made whole. And she did. She touched the hem of his garment
and she was made whole. He healed her of her disease.
Christ heals us. of our spiritual deadness. He
heals us of our deafness. He gives us ears to hear his
voice in the message. He heals us of our blindness.
He enables us to see something of his glory. He heals all thy
diseases. These are spiritual diseases,
and he takes them away. Not everybody can see his glory,
but those whom he heals can. They can. And you'll notice here,
the pardon granted is present one. It says he forgiveth. And
you don't have to wait 20 years down the road to see if you're
going to do all right and then be forgiven. And you're not going
to have to wait until you leave this life and stand before him
to see if you're forgiven. He forgives now, who forgiveth
all thy iniquities. Tell you what, if he doesn't
forgive us now, it's going to be too late then. And then he
says, and it's continual, it says, for he still forgives,
he forgiveth. That's continual. That word forgiveth
means continual. He forgives me today, and he'll
forgive me tomorrow. And then it's divine, for it's
God who gives it. And it's far-reaching. It's far-reaching
because he says it's all thine iniquities. is far, far reaching
all that iniquity, and it's effectual. He says here, who he was. If
he heals you, you're healed. By his stripes, we are healed. Not shall be if we are healed.
By his stripes, and then he says in verse four, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction. Now, I know it doesn't look like
we're on our way to destruction. You know, we live in some nice
homes, and we all look like we're doing well. It would be hard
to convince somebody that it's in destruction, wouldn't it?
But I tell you what, we were on our way to destruction. We
were children of wrath, even as others. That's what it says
in Ephesians. We were children of wrath, even
as others. And he has redeemed our lives
from destruction. He's taken us off that road of
destruction and put us on the narrow way. He took us off the
broad way. It's like the brand being plucked out of the fire.
There's a lot of brands left in there, but he's plucked some
out of the fire. He's taken some and lifted them
up out of the mire. He's taken some of the beggars
and set them among princes, but he hasn't done that for everybody.
But it says here, it is Christ who has redeemed our life from
destruction. Christ is the Redeemer. He has
redeemed us. He has bought us by His blood. We sold ourselves under sin,
and He bought us back. He bought us back. By His own
blood, He has redeemed us. As I said this morning, though
redemption cost us nothing, it cost Him everything. It cost
him everything. By purchase and by power, the
Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us from spiritual death in which
we've fallen. He's redeemed us from the curse
of the law and set us on high. Set us on high. Had he not, had
not the death penalty of sin been removed, and had he not
removed it from us, forgiveness would do us no good, because
the law says He's got to die. He's got to die. Christ died
in our stead. He died in our stead. Redemption
gives effect to all other blessings. Election. Election. You know, God could have nothing
to do with us apart from the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Before there was a sinner, there
stood a Savior. I heard, I believe it was Joe
Terrell one time, said if that hadn't been true, the Bible would
only be about three chapters long. Because when Adam fell,
that would have been the end of it. That would have been the
end of it. Redemption is the fountain of
all true peace. It's the fountain of all true
peace. If you have any peace at all, now listen, if you have
any peace at all, it is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The peace I have is not through my repentance. It's not through
my faith. It's through his blood. It's through his blood. That's
what he says there in Colossians. In Colossians 1, he says, making
peace, making peace through his blood. That's how we have peace
with God. Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's through the blood that justice is satisfied.
And the fire of God's wrath cannot burn on me now. Because it burned
on him, it burned on him. And all the peace and security
that we have is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, I used to think of this matter of eternal security, you
know, they used to call it once saved, always saved. I used to
think that this matter of security was when I accepted Jesus as
my personal Savior, that I couldn't be lost again. I tell you what,
my security went back a whole lot farther than my acceptance
of him did. It went back, it went back to the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. That's where it went back to.
That's my security. The blood of Christ is my security. He's my security. Is this not
our plea? That when Jesus Christ died,
he died for me? Is that not it? If we enter glory,
if we enter glory, it will be because he has redeemed our lives
from destruction, from the power of Satan, from the power of the
law, from the power of sin, and from the power of the grave,
if we enter glory. Those are the grounds we will
enter glory on. He has redeemed our lives from
destruction. And we'll sing, worthy is the
Lamb that was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood. That's
what we'll sing. We won't sing about no cavern
over there. And we won't sing about mom over there. We'll sing
about Christ over there. We'll sing about worthy is the
lamb that was slain. He wasn't bruised. He was slain. He was slain. And now does this
not call forth all that's within me to bless his holy name? Now doesn't that call forth all
that's in you to bless his holy name? He has redeemed our lives
from destruction. He didn't do that for everyone.
He didn't do that for everyone. And not only has he redeemed
our lives from destruction, but who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. You know, I hear people talking
about wearing a crown, a gold crown. I'm not worried about
some gold crown. But I tell you, this crown This
crown of loving kindness and tender mercy, I want it. I want
it to follow me all the days of my life. Right on into glory. And then you know what's waiting
there? A crown of righteousness that Paul speaks of. I'm not
talking about some gold crown. I mean, this is a crown. This
is the crown I want. Loving kindness and tender mercy. What greater honor is bestowed
upon the believer than to have God's love and mercy upon him? There's no greater honor and
not his wrath. And not his wrath. When David,
in Psalm 51, asked God to blot out his transgressions, you know
what he asked him to do? He asked him, he said, Lord,
blot out my transgressions according to thy lovingkindness. and your tender mercies. He didn't
ask God to do something that was unlike God to do. He was
saying, Lord, brought him out, brought out my transgressions
according to your loving kindness and tender mercy. It's just like
you do it. And you can do it. It's loving kindness and tender
mercy, the only appeal that we can make for forgiveness is based
upon the grounds. Listen, it's based upon the grounds
of mercy for Christ's sake. Do you know that's why God has
forgiven any sinner He forgives? It's for Christ's sake. God doesn't
forgive me for my sake. It's for Christ's sake. It's
for the glory and honor of His Son. I just benefited from it. I just benefited from it. For
Christ's sake. And because of His loving kindness
and tender mercies and redemption that we have in Christ, we're
free. We are free, free at last, free
in Christ, set at liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. And not
only does he crown us with loving kindness and tender mercy, but
he also satisfies thy mouth with good things. Notice there in
verse five, only he who made the soul can satisfy it. Only God can satisfy. As I said
to you this morning, men have sought out many things in which
to satisfy himself, but in vain. The soul can only be satisfied
when it is made one again with God. That's the only time that
a man could truly, truly be satisfied. When he's made one again with
God in Christ. And it's only the blood of Christ
that can quiet a guilty conscience. I heard a man say this. I think
it was Scott Richardson. It takes a perfect sacrifice
to quiet a guilty conscience. And we have that in Christ. We
have that in Christ. You'll notice here, he satisfies
with good things, David says. Not the rich things, not everything,
not material things, good things. Good things. All that my soul
needs, he supplies. Everything that truly, listen
here, one writer said this, everything that truly satisfies must have
the nature of God in it. That's why a believer, he's satisfied
in Christ and with Christ, because there is the nature of God. And
the results of this, the results of this is renewed strength.
Renewed strength. The burden of sin gets us down. It gets me down, and I know you're
just like me. It's got to get you down, too.
Our shortcomings feel like heavy weights at times. It feels like
you're just not going to make it. You know, I think whenever
one day if I lay down to die and I'm going to die in faith,
I'm going to shout, I've made it. I've finally made it. Because
it feels like you're not going to make it at times. At times
it's sin, and sin gets you so whetted down. But he says here
that he's going to satisfy us with these good things, these
things of forgiveness in Christ and assurance in Christ. He's
going to satisfy us with these things, and it gives strength
to the inner man. And it enables the man, once
again, to rise up and bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. And David says, you might be
oppressed. He says there in verse six, the Lord executes righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. You're going to suffer
persecution. David said, I know, I know he's
looking back and he's, he's thinking of the persecution that he has
suffered. And he knows that God, in righteousness and judgment,
has dealt with his oppressors. He says here, the Lord executes
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He will
avenge his elect in his own time. He'll do it in his good time.
And you know whenever he does it, whenever he avenges his elect,
whenever he takes care of those who are oppressing us, at the
same time, he'll reveal unto us his mercy in Christ. Because
you'll notice in verse 7, in verse 7 he says this, he made
known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. When was it he made known his
ways to Moses? When he was delivering the children
of Israel from Egypt. when he was dealing with Egypt
for what they had done to Israel, and at the same time he was manifesting
to Moses his way of mercy. That's when Moses said, Lord,
show me your glory. And the Lord said, OK, I'll make
all my goodness pass for you. And here's my glory. I'll have
mercy on whom I have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I have compassion. He revealed his sovereign mercy in Christ. He dealt with those Egyptians
in wrath and in judgment, and he dealt with the Israelites
in mercy. He delivered them while he destroyed the Egyptians. And if you and I find out the
way of salvation, he's going to have to make it known unto
us also. He'll have to reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? We're not going to figure it
out. We're not going to figure it out. He's going to have to
reveal it. He's going to have to reveal it. And David says
here in verse nine. He says he will not always chide.
He'll not always chide. Neither will he keep his anger
forever. It's true that the father is going to chase in the children.
He says that he says, I chase in. Those whom I love, as he
says, Revelations three, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase. He deals with us. Notice he says
chastened, not punished. He punished Christ. He chastens
his children. He doesn't punish them. He punished
Christ. He chastens us. But he'll not
keep his anger forever. As soon as the erring child repents,
the matter's forgotten. He doesn't remember our sins
against us. He doesn't remember yesterday against us. It's forgotten. And remember this, and I'll close.
I don't have time to deal with all 22 verses. I don't want to
scare you. It says here in verse 10, He
hath not dealt with us after our sins. Boy, that's a statement and a
half. He's not dealt with us after our sins. If God was to
deal with us after our sins, we wouldn't be here this evening.
We'd be in hell. We would be there. He's not dealt with us
after our sins. He would consume us in his anger,
but he hasn't. You know why? And you know why
he's not dealt with us after our sins? Because he dealt with
Christ after our sins. If a man tastes of the mercy
of God, he's going to taste of it because Christ tasted of the
wrath of God in his place. That's why. He's dealt with our
substitute for our sins. It says in Daniel, the Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for himself. It says in Isaiah 53, he bore our
sorrows and our grief. He was wounded for our transgression. If you look at the suffering
Savior on the cross, He's suffering for our transgressions. Nothing
that He did, but everything that we did. Everything we did. And then He says in verse 10
there also, Nor has He rewarded us according to our iniquities.
You see, it's in the reverse. He has rewarded us for what Christ
really deserves. And He rewarded Christ for what
we deserved. He hasn't rewarded us according
to our iniquity. He blessed us, oh how he's blessed
us, in the Lord Jesus Christ. My, how he's blessed us. Now,
now you can see, you can see why David starts out this psalm,
and he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within
me, bless his holy name. My, you know, it goes on to say
there that he has removed our iniquities from us as far as
the east is from the west. It's not high as the heavens
is from the earth. He remembers our frame that is dust. It do
us well to remember that too. I can see why David, when he
sat down, when he sat down and he penned this psalm, and he
said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that's within me, bless his
holy name, because he hasn't dealt with me after my sins,
nor has he rewarded me according to my That's worthy of praise. That's worthy of praise. Terry,
would you come and lead us in our closing song? Let's sing a little bit of number
thirty six. A mighty fortress is our God. We'll sing the first and second
verses of it. Let's stand and sing this. A mighty fortress is our God
A bulwark never failing Our helper He amid the floods Of mortal
ills prevailing For still our ancient foes God seeks to work
us low His craft and power are great And armed with clue all
day On earth is not His equal Did we in our own strength confide
Our striving would be worthy We're not the right men on our
side. The men of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus, it is He. Lord Sabbath is His name. From age to age the same. And he must win the battle. Thank you. You're dismissed. you