Psalm 107. Does anybody in here
ever do any complaining? Do we ever do anything but complain? That really ought to be the question.
But there are times when we feel sorry for ourselves and bitterly
murmur and complain about our situation. Why? What right do we have to
complain about anything? I mean anything. No right whatsoever. There's absolutely nothing that
we have, no talent, no possession, Nothing that we have that we
have not received as a gracious gift from God. There's nothing
that it can be said by us that we have earned it or done anything
to deserve it. Nothing that we have. The scripture
says, what do you have that you have not received? Nothing. Everything we have we receive
from God graciously, undeservedly. We've received every single thing,
like Donnie said, from the buttons on our shirt to the shoelaces
on our shoes. We owe to the grace of God. We are what we are. We
have what we have by the grace of God Almighty. And we don't
deserve the least of His favors, the least of it. And what do
we have that we have not received, but yet there are times that
we act and we glory as if we had not received it. And then when God removes something,
then we get to murmuring and complaining. But there is something
we have earned. The Scripture says the wages
of sin is death. That's about what we've earned.
That's about what we have wrought for ourselves in this life. There's
something we deserve, and our supposed wisdom and strength
has gotten it for us, and that is judgment. And that's what
God ought to give us. He really ought to. Separation
from God. The Scripture says your iniquities have separated
you from your God. He ought to turn his back on
us forever, forever, and leave us to ourselves. He really should.
But he doesn't. He doesn't. And this is why Barnard
said, everything this side of hell is mercy. Anything. A drop of water this
side of hell. If the Lord had sent Abraham
down to touch the tongue of that rich man with a drop of water,
that would have been mercy, wouldn't it? undeserved grace and mercy. But you see, the Lord has brought
us up. We're a people like those children of Israel you read about,
a rebellious and stiff-necked and hard-hearted people, and
that Lord has graciously and mercifully and freely given and
given and given and given all of our lives, yet we rebel against
Him and murmur and complain of Him. We're just like those children
of Israel in the will, just like them. We murmur, we find fault,
and bitterly complain. I'll give you some examples.
God gives us a house, and we complain about cleaning it. God
gives us a job. A lot of people don't have jobs,
and we complain about going to it, don't we? God gives us all
our possessions, and yet we cry for more, just like poor little
brats, don't we? I know many won't mind me saying
this, but the other day she came home and she was kind of all
hot and bothered about having to wait and stand in line at
the grocery store for a long period of time. She says, there
were people behind me, had grocery carts just piled full, two or
three people in front of me, and I had to wait so long. And I thought to myself, I didn't
tell her right then, she'd have been terribly embarrassed, and
she agreed. There's daddies and mothers over
in these famine-stricken countries that get up early in the morning
and walk for hours to stand in line for a bowl of rice or grain,
don't they? They don't mind waiting in line.
And we've got all these things heaped upon. Ninety-nine percent
of our lives are spent in pleasure, happiness, and prosperity, yet
when the slightest problem comes along, we start complaining.
99.9% of our lives are spent in happiness and prosperity and
peace and in goodness and pleasure. It's like a little child, like
Hannah, for instance. She spends the greatest part
of every single day being pampered and loved and cheered and just
being Just having blessings and love
poured out upon her. You let her come under the rod
just for ten minutes. Fifteen hours and fifty minutes
of her waking hours spent in happiness and just being served. Ten minutes she may be chastened,
and the world's coming to an end, you know. They don't love
me. No, if we didn't love her, we wouldn't chasten her. We wouldn't
chasten her. And we have a problem, and what
do we quickly say? The Lord's forgotten me. He's
left me. Left me. Why is he doing this
to me? Oh, my. Why is he doing this to me? We
spend most of our lives for ourselves, don't we? Most of our lives are
spent for the big M-E, the big I, me. Occasionally, we give
a thought to God. One hour, two hours, three hours
a week, maybe. And that, not very wholeheartedly,
on a Wednesday night or a Sunday morning, just an occasional thought,
one hour to God, and we expect Him to pamper us for 24 hours
of every single day, don't we? It's kind of like a teenager.
I keep picking on teenagers. I know how they are. I was one. I live at home and just given
the food that they eat and the clothes that they wear and the
money that they spend and the cars they drive and the gas to
drive the cars and so forth. And it's like one of them coming
in one night at the meal, and mama's fixed something they don't
particularly care for, and I don't like that. Some of you parents, maybe ought
to try some shop treatment sometime. Let them scrounge their own food
up. Don't give them any more money for gasoline. Don't let
them have the family car. Don't let them, make them go
out and buy their own detergent to wash their own clothes and
so forth. And they quickly appreciate what
you've done for them. But that's us. And we don't very
quickly. We might for a minute appreciate
what God's done for us. And I tell you what, in light
of what I just said, salvation better be by grace, hasn't it?
It better be by grace. It sure better. Well, look here
at Psalm 107. This is a psalm of thanksgiving. He says, Oh, give thanks. Oh,
give thanks unto the Lord, for He's good. He's good, for His
mercy endures forever. His mercy better endure forever,
hasn't it? Because we're going to need it
forever. We're going to need it until the day we die, until the
day He makes us perfect and holy and unblameable. Actually, holy
and unblameable and unreprovable without sin, just like Christ.
Until that day, we're going to be murmuring, we're going to
be complaining, we're going to be sinning, we're going to be rebelling.
And His mercy better endure forever. right up to the bitter end. If
you say it right up to the, until we walk in the heaven itself,
it better endure forever. His mercy must endure forever. You know, it says that 97 times
in the Psalms. It speaks of God's mercy. It
says it 26 times in one Psalm by itself. His mercy endures
forever. Look at that sometime, Psalm
136. Go over that sometime. See how
everything that he he talks about is of the Lord's mercy. It's
of the Lord's mercy that we're not obliterated now, consumed,
taken out of the way. We need to be out of God's way,
really. We do. God needs to put us out
of our misery and everybody else's. And I would say he is, but he's
long-suffering. And we deserve hell, and he gives
us heaven. We deserve death. He gives us
life. We deserve judgment. We get justified. We deserve punishment. We get
reward. He says, I am your reward. We
get Him. We deserve to serve our Father
Satan for the rest of our days. We serve Him pretty much in this
life. And we deserve to go be with Him from then on. But we
get Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. It's
of His mercies that we're not consumed. It's all owing to God's
infinitely enduring mercy shown to us by the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ came and did what He did. And
oh, give thanks, He said, for He's good. He's good to all them
that call on Him, first of all, in truth, in the gospel, in Christ,
and His mercy endures forever in Christ because of Christ.
And I tell you what, especially if God is mercifully and graciously
revealed the gospel to you and revealed Christ to your heart
and let you in on this mystery, I tell you what you ought to
do. You ought to say so. That's what he says there in
verse 2. If God has redeemed your soul
from going down into the pit, you ought to say so. Let the
redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of the enemy. God hasn't left us alone. We're
the enemy. I tell you, if God leaves us
to ourselves, doesn't redeem us by the blood of Christ, we'll
succumb to the enemy. Who's the enemy? Us. We're the
enemy. We'll drag ourselves right down
into hell itself. Satan's the enemy. Sin is the
enemy that's got such a grip on us. But he's redeemed us from
all our iniquities and from the hand of the enemy. Us, Satan,
and sin. He's redeemed us by his precious
blood. And look at this, verse 3. The
Lord did some gathering like a great harvester. He went out
and gathered his people, gathered them from out of the lands, from
the east and from the west, from the north, from the south, out
of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. The Lord has brought us all out
of so many things and in such various different ways. The other night, Brother Rick
talked about how the Lord had dealt with him and brought him
to the point, to where he is now. And I was listening today
to Brother Henry and Roberta and Joe and Nancy talk about
where the Lord had brought them from, how the Lord has cut the
sea and land to find his people, in search of his sheep, and gathered
them from all points to bring them together into one big happy
family. One family. That's what he said
there. He's gathered them from the lands,
from the east, from the west, from the north and the south.
And they were wandering. Where were they when he found
them? Verse 4. Wandering. Wandering sheep. Wandering in the wilderness in
a solitary way. What does that mean? That means
our own way. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Our own way.
Our own way which is A way we think that is right, but the
end thereof is death and destruction. We're headed toward the precipice
of a cliff, and the Lord, mercifully and graciously, stops us and
says, Here the two shall you come, and no further. Now turn
around. You're coming with me. And He
picks us up and puts us on His shoulders and carries us back
and puts us in the pole and says, You stay there. You stay there.
Wandering in a solitary, solitary way. The way that seemed right
to us. And it says here that we found
no city to dwell in. That's what Brother Rick was
talking about, never finding any true rest or peace or happiness
or contentment in the things that we were looking for at one
time, whatever it may be, whether it be like music like he was
talking about or whatever, work, a career, whatever it may be. Never finding any peace or contentment
or satisfaction, no city to dwell in, no place to rest your weary
feet, no place. No contentment. Look at verse
5. Hungry and thirsty. Not really knowing what you're
hungry for. Thirsting, but not knowing what you need. Not knowing
what you really need to eat and drink. Christ. Hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted in them. You
know, we're hungry and thirsty mostly for this world. Aren't
we? Hungry and thirsty not after
righteousness, but after this world. And not really knowing.
Ready to faint. Like the Scriptures talk about a man ready to halt.
Ready to quit, ready to hang her up, ready to forget, and
hang it up. Then, verse 6, they get down
in the pit, and they finally get into such trouble and such
a mess, then they cry unto the Lord. Then, and what do they
say? Lord, if you'll get me out of
this mess, I'll serve you. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. That's what we do. Lord help
me, get me out of this mess. Why should He? Huh? And we're
going to see here in a minute how they get right back into
it. But why should God hear anybody that ignores Him and rebels against
Him all their life? Huh? So why should He? Because He's gracious and merciful
and loves us. That's why. Because His character.
That's what His character allows Him to do. And it's He Himself
anyway that causes us to call on Him finally. He brings us
to that point. He brings us down that we might
be lifted up. It's he himself that does it.
It's the goodness of God that leads us to a point to where
we will repent and cry unto the Lord, Lord save us or we perish.
And then what does he do? He delivers, delivers them out
of their distresses. And then he leads them forth
by the right way, leads them like that poor, dumb, foolish
You know, we're all, this is all that we like sheep have gone
astray, black sheep. That fellow sung that song, I'm
the black sheep of the family. That's all of us, black sheep. And that old poor wandering sheep
out there in the wilderness in search of greener pastures, that's
us, isn't it? Wandering out there in a solitary,
our own way. And He calls to us in various
forms of providence and maybe through His Word all of our lives,
and, Where are you going? What are you doing? And we say
something like, I know what I'm doing. Leave me alone. I know
where I'm going. Yeah. Yeah, you do. And we get stuck
in such a mess and such a fix until finally there's no place
to look but up. And He comes to our rescue. The Good Shepherd
finds His sheep, wanders out, leaves the ninety and nine. That
is His Father's throne. with all the multitude of the
heavenly host and leaves them to come down here in search of
those black sheep. They're wandering, caught in
the picket, caught in the pit, down in the pit, ready to be
destroyed. And he gets them and brings them
home. The Good Shepherd uses his rod
of conviction and his staff of direction and points them in
the right way. Look at it here, verse 7. He
says that he leads them forth by the right way. What's the
right way? Christ. He leads them to Christ,
along with the rest of the sheep. He puts us back in the fold,
saying, you just follow Christ. You stay right here. But they
get right back out again. And he leads them to a city of
habitation. A city of habitation. You're
talking about a city. Now, I have not seen, nor heard, neither
have entered into the hearts of man that things got prepared.
What a city. We sing that song, Zion. We're
marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We
just don't know. We don't know what's awaiting
us. If we did find it, we wouldn't worry about anything in this
life. Oh, my soul, if we knew what awaited us. Paul said, Paul
came back from that place. He came back from that city.
He said, I knew a man one time that ascended into the heaven
of heavens, the third heaven. And he came back, and you know
what he said? Oh, I'm in a strait. I'm in a strait betwixt the two.
I want to go. I want to leave. Go be with my
Lord." He said, for you, it's good that I remain. It's good. But I tell you, if we knew what
awaited us, what God had prepared for them that love Him, the things
He prepared for them, I tell you, we wouldn't root so deeply
right here. Here we have no continuing city,
but we look for one who's builder and maker is God, God Himself. Is it any wonder that we ought
to, verse 8, praise the Lord for His goodness? That's what
he says. He says that four times in this
psalm. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and
for His wonderful works to the children of men. How we need
to thank and praise our God more often and quit complaining and
murmuring, don't we? How we need to praise Him and
thank Him. I think everything would look
a little brighter if we just might, you know, and everything
the scripture says, give thanks for this is the will of God concerning
you. Everything, give thanks. Like I said a moment ago, very
briefly, if I did not love her, I would not chasten her. I'd
leave her alone. She'd become a wild, rebellious child and
young person and destroy herself. But I love her and therefore
I chasten her. And it's hard, no chastening
for the moment seems pleasant, but it's good for her and God
He chastens us according to His infinite wisdom in various different
ways, and we need it. And He does it because He loves
us. Verse 9, He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry
soul with goodness. He frees us from guilt and shame
by seeing our sins punished in Christ and fills us with goodness.
Scripture says, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness. They'll be filled. They'll be filled. Verses 10,
such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound
in affliction and in iron because they rebelled against the word
of God. Contempt the counsel of the Most High God. You know,
unbelief. Unbelief. To ignore God's word is rebellion. Yes, it is. Just to ignore God's
word is to rebel against Him and to despise Him. That's to
contemn the counsel of the Most High. And we did that for years.
Still do it. We still ignore God's Word to
a great degree, don't we? To the greatest degree. Ignore
God's Word and rebel against the words of God's eye. It's
just too hard. He's a hard thing. No, they're
not hard things. They're good things. The best things for us. The best possible things for
us. But we rebel against the words
of God, contend the counsel of the Most High. And that's the
reason we're in darkness. The shadow of death, that's the
reason the shadow of death frightens us so much. We don't resort to
the Word of God enough for our comfort and our peace and our
encouragement. Bound in affliction and iron. You know what that
iron is? The will. The will of iron. He's an iron. He's a stubborn, rebellious.
Yeah, that's us, all right. A rebellious will. And therefore,
look at verse Therefore, he brought down their
heart with labor." So we, you know, many of us have labored
in religion and self-righteous works and so forth, and there's
none to help. Our labors become bitter to us. They become bitter to us. Then,
verse 13, we cry again. We cry unto the Lord in our trouble.
And what does he do? He saves us again. He brings
us out. He brings us out of our distresses.
He saved them out of their distresses. Verse 14, He brought them out
of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands
in sunders. That is, He punished our sins
in Christ, removed the curse of the law from us, and delivered
us from the bondage of the law into the glorious freedom of
God's children. Oh, that man would praise the
Lord for his goodness. and for his wonderful works to
the children of men. Verse 16, he broken the gates
of brass and cut the bars of iron and sunder. Every now and
then the heavens seem like brass, but he breaks them down every
now and then and lets a prayer get through. He ought not to
hear us at all. He ought not to hear us at all
because we don't give him very much time to it. People think God just waiting,
saying people think God just waiting around to do something
for them. It's just kind of ringing in his hand. I wish so and so
would call on me so I could do something for him. Oh, I wish
they'd let me do something for him. Every now and then. Oh,
Lord, what is it? What do you need? How can I help you? That's
blasphemy, isn't it? God shouldn't, shouldn't hear
a word we say, shouldn't answer a prayer we pray. We pray very
few, very few, but yet he does. Oh, that's the reason he says
four times. Oh, we ought to praise the Lord
for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men.
Broken those gates of brass, broken down that gate and allowed
us access into the very holy presence of God by the blood
of Christ. Broken those gates of brass where no man could enter
once before, and cut the bars of iron and cinder, broken this
iron wheel of ours and made us willing in the day of His power. You know, we were fools, verse
17. Fools because of our iniquity. Right? Fools because of our transgression. Fools. That's us. Just foolish
people. Foolish sons. We've all been
foolish. Because of our iniquities, we're
afflicted. Everything we've got, every trouble we've got, we've
earned it. We've got no right to complain. Everything we've
Every bit of trouble and affliction so we earn it. We earn it. And our soul, we get in such
a sad state, our soul abhors all manner of meat. Verse 18,
draw near unto the gates of death. You think it's all over? Then
they cry again. Cry unto the Lord in their trouble
and he saves them again. Saves them out of their distresses.
How does he do that? By sending his word. That's Christ
chiefly. He sends Christ down here, sent
his precious son, his word for our deliverance. And he sends
this word that we're looking into tonight and heals them and
delivers them from their destruction, deliver them from going down
into the pit. Why? Why should I? Found a ransom.
Found somebody to pay the price. Found somebody to pay the debt
that they owe, to pay for their iniquity, their sin. Found somebody,
Christ, put him down in the pit and they're dead. and delivered
us. He sent His Word and healed us
from this sickness called sin that was killing us and delivered
us from destruction. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men. And here it is, let them sacrifice
the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing,
with singing. I tell you what, I bet you in
that heavenly choir, I know one woman that's going to be singing
the loudest, Mary Magdalene. Christ said, her sins, which
are many, they're forgiven. And those who are forgiven much
will love much. And I tell you what, if you know
where you've been brought from, you remember where you've been
brought from, even now know what you are. and see that how good
that God has been to you, how merciful and gracious and kind
and long-suffering and what he's done for you in Christ, I tell
you, I'll be singing at the top of your lungs. At the top of
your lungs. Oh, that's what he's saying there,
four times. Oh, that men would pray. That's us. It's kind of
a general rebuke, really. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. We give lip service, don't we?
Lip service. You draw near to me with your
lips, the Scripture says, but their hearts are far from you.
That's us still. Then we get in a pickle. Then
we start giving him some lip or some, from the heart, start
crying out. It's just to get out of the mess
we're in. But he kindly and graciously delivers us again. Shouldn't have to, but he does.
Let him sacrifice. Anybody that knows anything about
the goodness of the Lord and his wonderful works to them in
their lives, they ought to sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving
and declare his works. with rejoicing. I ought to tell
everybody, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Oh my, ashamed
of him, the song says. Oh yes I may, when I've no sins
to wash away. Ashamed of him whom angels praise? Yet we are, aren't we? Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Let them say so and sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
declare His works with rejoicing, being proud of Him. Ashamed of
ourselves, yes, but very proud of our Lord, what He's done for
us. Look at verse 23. Well, they
that go down into the sea in ships, they do business in great
waters. Violets, you can enter into this.
These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
You know what I thought of when I looked at this verse? I thought
of Philippians 3.10. You know, we quote that verse quite a bit. You can turn to it if you want
to. Philippians 3.10. We quote just
part of this verse most of the time. Paul said, Oh, that I may
win Christ and be found in him. Verse 9. Not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. What I want, Paul said, is to
know Him and the power of His resurrection. I want to know
what He has wrought for me. I want to know the power of it.
I want to really experience the saving benefits of Christ's work,
His person, His resurrection. And look at this, and the fellowship
of His sufferings. Fellowship of His sufferings. You know, the Scripture says
in one place, it's given unto you not only to believe on him,
but what? Suffer. Suffer. Fellowship of his suffering.
Fellows in the same ship. Peter, one time, when they mistreated
him and somebody else, they came back and they rejoiced. They
were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for Christ's name. Somebody said Peter was crucified
upside down because he didn't feel worthy to be crucified in
the manner that his Lord was. But hold and see if there's any
suffering or sorrow. Like my sorrow, Christ's sin.
There's no affliction taking us as such as is common to man,
but Christ suffered more. And we have a high priest who's
touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He knows, he knows. We're not going to suffer like
he did. Nobody's going to suffer. And this is the kind hand of
God. Oh, my son. You're the only one
that's going to be able to hear this, really. Blessed. You're
going to be blessed. The world thinks that's foolish,
don't they? They think that's foolish. Whom the Lord loves,
he chastens and he does these things for our good. He does
these things for our strength. Encouragement and to wean us
from this old world that we're soon about to leave. But they're
deep waters. That doesn't make it seem like
it's going over our head any less. It doesn't make it seem
like we still go down, don't we? Say, Lord, save me or I'll
perish under this trial and this affliction. Deep waters. They that go down into the sea
and ships, they do business in great waters. Fellowship of his
sufferings. These see the works of the Lord.
How? When it's all over. They see
the wonders of the Lord. They see His wonders in the deep,
His deep, dark, and hard trial. They see that deep. And He commanded
them. He raises the stormy wind, finally,
and lifts up the waves thereof. And they mount up to heaven.
In the end, they go down again to the depths of it. Their soul
is melted, up and down, up and down. Their soul is melted because
of trouble, and reel to and fro, and stagger. like a drunken man,
and at their wits end. You ever been at your wits end?
My margin says their wisdom is all swallowed up. At the end
of their rope, don't know what to do, don't know what to think.
Run out of answers. You ever been there? At their
wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble. There it is again. He brings
them out. Brings them out of their distresses. And he makes
that storm a calm. He gets up out of that ship,
says, Peace, be still. He's in the ship. Fellowship.
We're in the ship called Christ Jesus. Fellowship of his suffering. He's down. He's in the ship.
He's in the hold of the ship. And the waves are tossing to
and fro, and you're staggering and reeling. The Lord saved me.
Don't you care if I perish? Why are you doing this to me?
And he finally gets up and says, Peace, be still. And the ocean's
calm. And he brings them unto their
desired haven, the haven of rest. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness, for his goodness. You see, if he didn't
bring us down into the deep waters, we wouldn't have much confidence
or much praise for the ship, would we? We wouldn't think much
about the ship. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. Let them exalt him. also in the congregation of the
people. Let them exalt Him, the church,
today and days to come. We have great reason to thank
our God. And I think about the Lord's
goodness to some folks and to myself, to some people. He gives us so very much, everything
we You know, it ought to be enough. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness. But it ought to be enough, just thinking
of what the Lord has done for us. It ought to be enough to
make us be right here at the opening of every time His door
opens. And to be singing the loudest
praises. Children that have gone childless for a long time and
have children, or women that have gone childless for a long
time and have children, and various different blessings that the
Lord graces His people with. And then He gives them. That
ought to be the time when they sing the loudest praises. It
should be right here. Right here. I tell you, like
I said a while ago, talking about Mary. If you've been forgiven
much, you'll love Him much. And boy, you'll want to sing
His praises at every opportunity. Let them exalt Him also in the
congregation of the people. and praise Him in the assembly
of the elders, forsaking not the assembly of yourselves together."
Why would you want to, anyway? We're talking about the One who gave Himself for us to, washed
us from our sin in His own blood. How we ought to praise Him with
songs of loudest praise, the song says. Well, look at verse
33. Let's hurry here. for the people
of this world. God is making short work of this
world. He's soon going to be a wasteland.
This is what He's going to do. He's going to turn the rivers
into wilderness. God is going to dry up the water that people
drink someday. All right, if you don't give me thanks for
the water you drink, you'll have no more. Just like the children
of Israel, you know, murmuring in the wilderness. Don't give
me thanks for the food, you'll not have any anymore. That's
what we were talking about today. People just like to complain
about the weather. I don't care what the weather is, they like
to complain about it. Too hot, too cold. Too wet, too
dry. Too this, too that. My soul. God in his wisdom gives every
season, gives every time according to his all-wise purpose for the
dispensation of all things, and yet we find fault with everything. Everything. Well, someday he's
going to dry it up, drive up the water, Make the sun cease
to shine and say, there, now you like it. And then they'll
cry unto him and he'll say, they won't hear you. Stop mad. Some
people. That's the reason we need to
be crying now, don't we? He'll dry the river, he'll turn
the rivers into a wilderness and the water springs into dry
ground. You think about that. Richard,
you just have to dig a hole in the ground and get water. Everything
we, our lives depend upon water. All we've got to do is dig a
hole in the ground. Fresh, cool, cold water comes out. It sustains all of the life on
this earth. And God just freely gives it.
We complain about being too much iron in it. He's going to dry her up someday.
That's what we'll deserve. Not for us, though. He'll make
a fruitful land in the barrenness. and for the wickedness of them
that dwell therein." But look at what he does for God's people.
Verse 35, he turns wilderness into standing water. It's the
world's wilderness and he leaves us beside the still water. God's
people, they consider this world a wilderness, a dry and a dusty
and dark land, but he makes it in Christ and through his gospel
and through the fellowship of his people, he makes it He leads
us beside the still waters. And he turns dry ground into
water springs, well springs of salvation, springing up. And
there he makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare
a city for habitation. And he sows the fields and plants
vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesses them
also, so that they are multiplied greatly and suffereth not their
cattle to decrease. I don't know if anybody in here
has lost a head of cattle. Have you? No, never missed a
meal. It's very obvious that we haven't
missed a meal. David said, I'm young or I have
been young. I now I'm old. I've never seen
God's seed forsaken or his seed begging bread. Ever seen the
righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread? Never. Nobody
in here has had to send their children out on the street to
beg for bread. My soul. John Warburton, you
say he'd go into his house and he was a poor beggar of a man
for so long, had 14 or 15 children, and had no food to eat, didn't
know where the next meal was coming from, but eventually the
Lord blessed him abundantly. He said he used to go in and
open up the cabinets, the cupboard, and just sit down in a chair
and look at all the food in that cabinet, thanking God. Lord,
thank you. Oh, thank God for your peanut
butter and your crackers. Think about it. Thank you for
everything. Just do that. Try that tonight.
Go home and open up your refrigerator and all the cabinets and just
sit down and thank God. No. All men will praise the Lord
for His goodness, for His wonderful works that you will see. It doesn't help but give us a
rocket woman said when she got a Dry, crusty piece of bread
and a glass of water. She said, all of this and Christ
too? We don't deserve that. What we deserve is a cup of God's
wrath rained down upon us. Affliction. That's what we deserve.
Verse 39, But we get diminished and brought low through oppression
and affliction and sorrow. And He causes us to grow through
the furnace of affliction, but it's to burn the dross to make
us into fine gold, wean us and reveal us, reveal faith. Well, He pours contempt upon
princes. Not many wise men, not many mighty,
not many noble are called. He pours contempt upon princes
and causes them to wander in the wilderness. There's a lot
of wise and mighty people in this world wandering. a ram,
like chickens with their heads cut off. They know a lot, but
they don't know Him, so they don't know Him. Wandering around
the wilderness of this world where there's no way for their
own way, yet, look at this, verse 41, He sets the poor on high,
a poor old truck driver on high. King and priest, that's what
you are, Joe Parks. George Bush is a pauper. Joe
Parks is a king. Sets the poor on high from affliction,
makes them families like a flock. Sets them in God's family. The
righteous, did I tell you what? When the righteous see this,
those that God has made righteous, the imputed righteousness of
Christ, they rejoice. Oh, they rejoice in the mercy
and grace of God. And all iniquity stops their
mouth. When you see yourself and you
see God's goodness and you see all you want to do, like who
was it that put his hand over his mouth? Abraham. I've uttered things too wonderful
for me. That's what I feel like right now, most of the time.
Oh, sit down and let somebody else say this. Who so is wise and will observe
these things, they'll understand. You understand? Understand what he's been talking
about here? We've been talking about the
long-suffering, the mercy, the grace, the goodness of God. You
understand? Are you wise of that understanding?
Do you observe these things? Do you understand it's all due
to this good old, beautiful, Old Testament word called love
and kindness, which means grace. Grace. Oh, that man would praise
the Lord for his goodness. for his wonderful works to the
children of men. Well, let's sing that song, shall
we? Number 221. Thank you, Lord. You know, the
chiefest blessing of all, the greatest blessing of all is salvation.
The song says some thank the Lord for friends and home, and
we should. For those mercies are sure and
sweet. But I'll praise him for his grace.
In prayer and thanksgiving, I will repeat, thank you, Lord, for
saving my hell-bound soul. Let's stand and sing this, and
then we'll get down the stairs together. Some thank the Lord for friends
and home, for mercy sure and sweet. But I would praise Him
for His great mercy. In prayer I will repeat. Do you mean it? Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and free. Last verse. I trust in Him from day to day. I prove His saving grace. I'll sing this song of praise
to Him until I see His face. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation and praise.