Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I named the message,
Blessed Benefits. We as God's people, we are daily
loaded down with benefits. We are actually pressed down
and overflowing with the benefits that we have in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. He's so very, very good to us
and so merciful to us, takes care of us every day, provides
for us every day, just what we need. And everything
for us is found in Christ, whether it be our physical needs, but
more importantly, our spiritual needs. They're all found in Christ. And I marvel when the scripture
says in Ephesians chapter one, verse three, that all spiritual
blessings are in Christ. And brother Zane, we have that.
We have that in Christ. That's remarkable. That's amazing. I was talking to a fellow today
and I was saying, you know, all the promises of the Old Testament
are for God's people. And they're yay and amen, the
scripture says, in Christ. So when you're reading the scriptures
and you see promises that God makes to his people, cling on
to those. First thing you should say, grab
a hold of those. Plead them. Plead them to God, too. Plead
to God with those precious, precious promises. And when we consider, we who
are the redeemed of the Lord, when we consider the great things that our Lord
has done for us and the many blessed benefits we have in and
through him, it's not hard for us to praise him, is it? It just
flows. We can be so far down and we
start thinking about Christ And we start thinking about the blessed
benefits we have in Christ, and we may still be down, but spiritually
we'll be lifted up. We'll be lifted up, filled with
joy. When we consider the great salvation
that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the flesh wrought out for
us, a full pardon, a free pardon for us. But oh, the price, our
Savior bleeding and dying upon the cross for us. For we believers
say, for my sin, I as a believer say, for my sin, Christ died
for my sins. He hung on Calvary's cross to
redeem my eternal soul. And if you're a believer, you
can say my sins too. And it's all being wrought out
by him as he dies on Calvary's cross as our substitute. Willingly
too. Willingly. With joy, brother,
amen. And then when we consider the
blessed benefit of being justified before God, so that you and I,
sinners, I'm a sinner from the top of my head to the bottom
of my feet, right? But we're saved sinners, brother.
And we're justified in Christ before God. When we consider that, that unholy
sinners can stand in the presence of God in Christ, holy and unblamable
because of his precious shed blood? Oh my, my what joy will
flood our souls. And then we consider this, that
it was our great God who drew out salvation's plan. He planned
it. He purposed it, and he executed
it. My, oh, my. For you and I, brother,
and for all the elect of all the ages, he did it for us. We weren't even, before the foundation of
the world, before he created anything. We were in his mind,
but we weren't even a being. And when I think here, I was
born in 1964. I came into this world. But God
had planned before the foundation of the world, and put your birth
date in there, God had planned before the foundation of the
world, that one's mine. And Christ had already gone to
the cross. and redeemed our eternal souls.
And we were born into this world dead in trespasses and sins.
We had no clue. We had no clue that that was
truth. And we were, by nature, running away from God. And as
we grew and got into our young child age, and we showed our
nature, which was a rebellious nature. Oh, we inherited our
father's nature. And then when we got in our teen
years, we manifested that even more. And then in our adult years,
well, we thought, I can do whatever I want. I'm an adult now. And
you know, it's only the restraining hand of God that we didn't destroy
ourselves. Amen, Brother Zane. That's all. That's the only reason. Because
he watched over us. My, oh my, his hand was upon
us even when we weren't even thoughtful of him. And then there
came the time of love. Mine was in the 30s, the time
of love. Oh my, born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, right brother? Given faith to believe. Now we
didn't understand a lot, but we knew we needed Christ. And
we fled them, and I was thinking about that verse today, and I
just love it so much. Psalm 110, three, thy people
shall be made willing in the day of thy power. The first time
I ever read that was in a Robert Murray McShane sermon. I'd never
heard it. It's been in the scriptures for thousands of years, but I
didn't know it was there. And I read that, and oh my, the
unwilling are made willing. Isn't that wonderful? And now
we praise his name. So think of those blessed benefits
right there. And think of this too. Think
of this too. I could close after this, but
I won't. We're gonna keep going. Think of this though. All our
sins are absolutely forgiven. Every single one of them, even
the ones we haven't committed yet. And God, yeah, God says,
I don't remember them anymore. And they're under the blood of
Christ. Oh my, that precious, precious flow of the blood of
Christ that cleanses us from all sins, makes us white as snow
in God's eyes. My, oh my. Justice and the law
of God, the justice of God, the law of God don't have any claim
on us anymore. That's a blessed benefit, isn't
it? And in the wrath that was due us, now this is a blessed
benefit. fell upon Christ instead of us.
Oh my. How are we redeemed? By the precious,
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we're born again
by God, the Holy Spirit's almighty power. We have truly tasted, haven't
we sister? We've truly tasted that the Lord
is gracious. We tasted that. Oh, my. God's people tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Because we sit there and go,
he had mercy upon me, the undeserving sinner. Oh, he's so full. Oh,
just taste that sweetness, beloved, that spiritual sweetness of salvation
in through Christ Jesus our Lord. And then what happens? Then our
lips are filled with praise. My oh my, for our wonderful,
merciful Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnated in the
flesh. Who saved us? God saved us, didn't
he brother? It wasn't no mere man. God saved,
God himself saved us. All him. Second person of the
Trinity. God, the word of God. He saved us. Oh. In the book of Acts, he finished
the work, amen. In the book of Acts, it says
we're redeemed by God's blood. That's because Jesus Christ was
no mere man. He's God incarnated in the flesh,
the sinless one, the holy one, even the demons. We know who
thou art, thou holy one of God. Oh my. Now David, David was inspired
to write many psalms, and here's one. Let's read Psalm 103. We'll
read the whole psalm to start. Look at this. Then we'll look
at some of the verses more in depth. Look at this. Oh my, we
could sing this, couldn't we? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. My. Why? Because of all these benefits
that we have in Christ. Look at this. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. See, you can bring
it up here. Who forgiveth? How much? Amen, brothers and. All. Look at that. All. All thine
iniquities. I read that. That's for me. God's
people can look at that and go, that's for me. And who heals
all thy diseases. Now, some false preachers out
there say, OK, look, look, it says healed all diseases. That's
not physical diseases. That's spiritual diseases. Brother, he's healed all our
spiritual diseases, hasn't he? All of them, man. All of them.
Now we're fit. Now we're fit for heaven. Oh,
my. Who redeemed our life from destruction. We were on the broad road. headed
for destruction. Oh, my. Now we're on the narrow
road by the grace of God, who crowned thee with loving kindness,
all his loving kindness, and tender mercies, all his mercies.
We've tasted the tender. Oh, my. Who satisfied thy mouth
with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord, that being Jehovah right there, executed righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. They
saw him part the Red Sea. They saw his mighty hand of deliverance. They saw the death angel go through,
and the results, they didn't see the death, they had the blood
on a lantern, but the next day they heard the wailing of the
Egyptians, who'd lost their firstborn. Now they saw the mighty ways,
the mighty delivering hand of God, the mighty ways of God.
My, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
plenteous in mercy. Now we've tasted that, haven't
we? Oh, we've tasted that in Christ. Oh, amen, brother. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not, look at this, now
look at this, look at this. This is in Christ, marvel at
this, beloved of God. My, oh my, and sinner friend,
flee to Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
Look at this. He had not dealt with us after our sins. We don't
get what we deserve, brother. He not dealt with us after our
sins. If we got what we deserve, we'd be in hell when we die.
But we don't get what we deserve. Look at that. He had not dealt
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Oh, amen. What's the wages of sin? It's
death, isn't it? Oh, my. Like James just said,
hallelujah. He don't reward our wages, because
the wages of sin is death. And that's not just physical
death. That's spiritual death as well, if you're not born again.
People often say, you ever think of this? People often say, well,
you guys preach, it's all negative. No, it's not negative. No, it's
not all negative. I can tell you a positive thing.
If you're not born again, you're going, I'm positive if you're
not born again, you're going to hell. Right? I'm positive if you don't trust
Christ, you're going to hell. Right? But what we're seeing here, these
are blessed benefits. These will make the saint's heart
rejoice. How can it be negative when we
think our Savior died for us? We're the ones deserving of the
punishment. He had not dealt with us, brethren,
according to our sins and iniquities. My, He's so merciful. He's so
merciful. My, oh my. For as the heaven
is high above the earth. The heaven is so far, so high
above. They're still discovering parts
of the heavens. It just keeps going. Look at this. For as the heaven
is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that
fear him. It cannot be measured. It can't be measured. As far
as east is the west. Here we go, brother. Now, if
you go east around this globe, you'll always be going east.
It won't meet west. And if you go west, you'll never
meet east around this globe. You'll always be going west,
right? But if you go north and south, you're going to meet north
pole and the south pole. But praise God, God gives us
an analogy that if we're going around this world west, we're
never going to meet east. So look at this. As far as the
east is from the west, they never meet. They never meet. They're so far. Oh, praise the mighty name of
Jesus. Oh, this is wonderful. Look at
this. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. They are gone. They are gone. He remembers them no more. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. Think of how much we rebelled against our fathers.
Think about how our children rebelled against us. And we had
pity on them, didn't we? We showed them mercy. Even if
they didn't reciprocate it, we still showed them mercy. We pity
our children. But look at this, so much more
so the Lord. Oh my, the love that we feel
for our children pales, absolutely pales. Doesn't even come close,
an inkling of closeness to the love and the pity God has for
his people. Look at this. So the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. The fear of the Lord is beginning
knowledge, right? But fools despise wisdom and
instruction. For he knoweth our frame. Oh,
look at that. He knows. He made us. He created us. And
look what it says. For he knoweth our frame. He
remembereth that we are dust. He remembers we're just dust.
Animated dust, Spurgeon used to say. My, oh, my. As for man, his days are as grass.
What happens? The grass grows every week. And
Neil comes over, cuts the grass, right? That grass just keeps
growing, doesn't it? But it gets shaved right down
again, doesn't it? Well, that's like man's life. We think we're something. We're
nothing, are we, brother? Well, just worms, man. Look at
this. Oh, my. As for man, his days
are as grass, as the flower of the field. So he flourishes.
He flourishes for a little while, and then the flower is gone.
Let's think of some of these spring flowers, tulips, they
come up, they're out for what, two, three weeks, and then they're
gone. Even some of our perennials that
come up, they come up for a season, and then they're gone. My oh
my, that's how we are. That's how we are. For the wind
passes over it, and it is gone. And the place thereof shall know
it no more. Do you know, after we die, there's
a few folks who remember us. But in 200 years, there are hardly
anybody who remembers us. Unless somebody's doing genealogy,
and they go, oh, that old fellow there lived in, that old fellow. Zane Wayne, good buddies there
in church. Oh, yeah, those guys are long
gone. Well, we're in glory then, aren't
we? But there comes a time when no one remembers you. Think of
all the people that lived on this earth. Gone. Think of whole families wiped
out. Gone. No one remembers them. Oh my. But the mercy of the Lord, now
look at this, Brother Zane. Now this is something to be,
this is a benefit, this is something to be thankful for, isn't it?
This is something to have great joy over. But the mercy of the
Lord is what? Is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him. There is that word again, those
words again, them that fear him. But look at that, his mercy,
brother, will never cease towards his people. Oh my, that's wonderful. Never cease. And his righteousness
unto children's children. To such as keep his commandment,
and to those that remember his commandments to do them, the
Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom
ruleth over all. Now see that? A lot of people
don't believe that. A lot of people don't believe
in the present reign of Christ. I was listening to some folks
talking about dispensationalism this week, and it was interesting. They say that God can't come
back until they rebuild the temple. Is our God restrained by something
man has to do, Zane? Is he ruling right now, brother?
And he can come back whenever he wants, right? Amen! He's been ruling from eternity,
hasn't he? But they think that they have
to rebuild the temple and then God can come back. God's not
restrained by anyone. You see the foolishness of that.
Now we do believe there's going to be a catching up. Yeah. There
will be a catching up. When those of us who remain alive
will be caught up. That's at the very end. That's
when the Lord Jesus is coming back. And it's not secret, if
you read 1 Thessalonians, It's not secret, is it, brother? It's
public. He comes back with a shining
of an archangel and a trump of God. Oh, my. But look at this. He prepared his throne in heaven
and his kingdom will flow for all. Now, is that just since
Christ came? No, that's from everlasting.
His kingdom is a set kingdom. He's always been king. And he
always, there'll never be a time when he's not king. So that's
why we, I like to tell people, they say, well, what do you believe?
I believe in the present reign of Christ. He's reigning right
now. He don't need to come back and
reign on this globe of dust. He doesn't need to do that. He
already reigns. He's already victorious. He's
king of kings and lord of lords. Right now, this earth is called
his footstool. What's a footstool? We pour our
feet on them. His kingdom is in heaven. His
reign is in heaven. His throne is in heaven. Look
it. He's prepared his throne there
in the heavens. That's where it is. Oh. In this kingdom of all, I
mean every single, there's not an insect that crawls on this
ground without him knowing it. And that thing crawls on the
ground according to his will and purpose. And even the microscopic
things, like Neil said one time, even the microscopic things that
we don't even see that are in the ground, they are all working
for God's glory and for our good. My, it's amazing. And then look,
he just breaks out. He breaks out. Bless the Lord,
ye angels, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his
commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless
the Lord. Bless ye the Lord, all ye hosts,
ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Look at that. Whose
pleasure? His pleasure. Now, if they're
doing his pleasure, that means he's ruler. Because servants of a king do
what he tells them to do. Somebody's in charge here, and
it's not man. It's God. It's God. Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now
look at that. In all the places of his dominion. I'm going to
ask you a question, Brother Jay. Is there anywhere that's not
part of his dominion? Amen. The things we see and the things
we don't even see. The heavens that we see and the
heavens that we don't even see. The deepest sea that we have.
You go down, man, they're just starting to sin. 10, 15 years,
search some things down there. They're finding translucent,
translucent fish down there. No one, yeah, no one, no one
even knew they were down there. They thought, oh, it's too deep
for anything to live. Nope. I was looking at ants and stuff
and all the different insects and the different shapes of them
and the different various things that they do. Tom was telling
us about his bees and how intricate they are and how ordered they
are. And he says it screams of intelligent
design when you open up that hive and you see those bees working
away. And they're all doing, think
of this, they're collecting honey because that's what they were
made to do. But they're not just collecting honey, they're collecting
honey according to the good pleasure of God. When you start looking at it,
that little ant crawling on the ground is going to wherever he's
going according to the good pleasure of God. My, oh my. People say, well, come on, Wayne,
that's a little too. No, it ain't too much. It ain't too much,
I'm telling you. It's got to be that way. Either
God is sovereign over all, or he's not sovereign at all. And
I'm here to tell you, he's sovereign over all. How do we know that?
Well, let's go back and look at that verse right there in
verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and
his kingdom ruleth over all. I could lose that little ant
running around on the ground there. Oh my, isn't it wonderful? So we see here in this hymn,
this hymn is actually a hymn of continued praise. It just
builds up into a crescendo. It's amazing, but he continuously
praises God. Remember he said, forget not
the Lord's benefits. So he's looking, and now he's
mentioning the benefits of the Lord to us. Oh my, and he's singing
these things, oh my. It's a psalm of continued praise.
And then it also, what it also does, it gives us a comprehensive
view of the goodness of God. The goodness of Jehovah. Do you
know he has the rain fall on the just and the unjust? And
he feeds, think of this, he gives food to people who hate him. He gives water to people who
hate him. He's so benevolent? He's so good? Oh my. And this shows us Jehovah's goodness
in the great works of creation, the great works of redemption,
the great works of providence, and the great works of grace.
Oh my, look at Psalm, look at verses one and two again. Bless
the Lord. How can we not but bless the
Lord? How can we not but cry out to him, O my soul? That's
deep from within us. And all that is within me, bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. So, look how this psalm starts
beautifully. He's blessing the Lord. He's
praising the Lord. And he's praising the Lord from
his soul. And he's giving honor to the
name of God. And then he says, again, bless
the Lord, which was Jehovah, bless Jehovah. Oh my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. You know, Robert Hawker brought
this up, that it was an ancient custom in the church at the beginning
of service to call upon the people, lift up your hearts, beloved,
and let your lips praise and worship our great God and King,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said that they would bless
the Lord before service even started. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my, and then look at verse
two. Now we easily forget. That's why we have to have the
gospel set before us all the time, because we so easily forget.
I do. I do. Look at this. Bless the
Lord, bless Jehovah, bless Yahweh, oh my soul, and forget not all
his benefits. Do you know from the beginning
of our day to the end of our day and even while we're sleeping,
he's blessing us? Someone says, well, how can that
be? Well, he gives us breath to breathe. He can take it away
just like that. My, oh, my. Gives us health. Sometimes we have inflictions,
but they're for our good. You ever notice when we're being
afflicted by something in our body, we cry out to God a lot
more than when we don't? Oh, my. I know it's so for me.
I know you've told me, brother, it's so for you, too. But it
just seems like we cry out more to him then. Oh, yeah. Amen. Draws us closer. And we'll
suffer. He told us, you're going to suffer
for my cause. You're going to suffer in this
world, trials and tribulations. And we're going to suffer with
this body of flesh. This body of flesh causes me
more trouble than anything else. Oh my. But never forget, God
has saved us. It's God who saved us, and never
forget who He is. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the second person of the Trinity. And the psalmist brings forth
that we're not to forget the benefits that we have in the
Lord. All those things we looked at, justification, redemption,
we know sanctification, all these blessed, all spiritual blessings
in Christ, all the promises, yea and amen in Christ. My, and
then the scripture says, we're daily loaded down with benefits.
If you drink coffee, I drink tea in the morning. If you drink
coffee, next time you drink coffee, praise God for it. Because that
coffee was grown by somebody, but God gave the increase, right? And that coffee bean was grown,
processed, brought to your home, all by the providence of God.
So you can enjoy that cup of java. Isn't that wonderful? And for me, I'd enjoy that cup
of tea. It's wonderful. So praise him. Praise his mighty
name for that. Every day, we get to wake up
and have that if you want. Thank God that we can turn the
tap on and have water. That's a benefit, beloved. Flip
a light on and have electricity. A lot of people don't have electricity
in this world. Third world countries, some of
them don't even have that. My oh my. So never forget, it's the Lord
who keeps us, it's the Lord who saved us, and it's the Lord who
keeps us. And it's the Lord who provides for us. Now we're going
to see in this psalm some of the benefits that we have. I'm
going to wrap it up pretty quick because we already went through
quite a few of them. But let's look at verse 3. Here's
what a blessed benefit this is. who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases. Now, I'll tell you what. Imagine
all the sins that we commit in a lifetime. I look at myself
and all the sins I've committed in a lifetime, they amount up
to billions. Billions of sins. Just, oh yeah. Thought, word, and deed, right?
Sins of the heart, sins of affection, sins of omission, the old timers
used to say, sins of commission. Sin, sin, sin. Now, that's a
lot more than my brother who said, well, we sin at least once
a day, isn't it? Oh, my. Again, even after we're
saved, we're sinners, but praise God, it's not counted against
us. My, oh, my. And all those sins that we've
committed in our life, if we were not in Christ, would condemn
us. Because the wages of sin is death. And then hell. My, because we broke God's law.
The law of God says the soul that sins, it must die. That's
why the substitute sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ's sacrifice
in our place is so precious. Because he died for us. He died
in our room and place. The sinless one. Dying for sinners. My, oh my. And God's law, it
demands satisfaction, doesn't it? And God is satisfied with the
sacrifice of Christ. Seize us in him, brother. Can
you and I pay for one of our sins, brother? Not one. He paid
for all of them with one sacrifice. The shedding of his precious,
precious blood. And then to hear him say, all
is forgiven. Look at this. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases. So marvel, if you're a born-again,
blood-washed saint, the benefit of this salvation is a complete,
finished work, and all our sins are forgiven. It tells us right
here. Who forgiveth all. Now don't ever forget that little
word there. A-L-L. All. thine iniquities. Who have we sinned against? We've
sinned against God. And so God himself must forgive
us. And he says here that if you're in Christ, he forgives
you all your iniquities. All of them. And then it says,
who healeth all thy diseases. Now these Word of Faith guys,
they get a hold of this and they say, well, look at that. You've
got to name it and claim it. No. No. I'm praying for a dear
brother of mine up in Canada, Bob, and I know you guys are
too. And he's got cancer, and they don't give him much time
to live. But I pray, Lord, if it be your will. You can heal
him. You can heal him if he wills.
And I was talking to his wife last night, and she says, pray
for a miracle. I said, I'll pray for a miracle. But if it's the
Lord's will, here, heal him. But if not, here, take him home.
My, oh, my. But it doesn't stop us from praying
for that, does it? No, no, not at all. No, we don't
know. We don't know. But the diseases
here is not this name it and claim it stuff. You ever notice
those guys who do the name it and claim it? What happens when
they get a toothache? Where do they go? They go to the dentist. Their name-it-and-claim-it doctrine
is no good. I had an uncle who believed in
all that name-it-and-claim-it. He died of COVID, died a horrible
death. My, oh, my. He thought God would heal him.
So he didn't want anything to try to help him, and he died
a horrible death. My oh my. I'll tell you what,
that doctrine is just so horrid. That word of faith stuff is just
so awful. Yeah, puts man in front of God,
makes man the sovereign and God at his disposal. Well, we know
that ain't true just from what we've looked at tonight. My oh
my. So disease here are not bodily
diseases, although the Lord is the physician of our bodies.
No, This is spiritual diseases. Spiritual diseases. My oh my. We know because, look, it's tied
in with the forgiveness of our sins. See, you've got context,
context, context. Right? Look at this. Who forgives
all thy iniquities, who heals all thy diseases. They're connected. Well, how are all our iniquities
pardoned? By the blood of Christ. How are
all our spiritual diseases healed? By the blood of Christ. It ties
in together, beloved. And in the preaching of the gospel
of God's free grace in Christ Jesus, peace with God is preached. Peace with God, pardon of all
our sins and iniquities through the precious blood of Christ,
a righteousness. A righteousness is preached.
That's an alien righteousness to us. It's in Christ. It's Christ's
righteousness. My, oh my. And what does the
blood of Christ do? Oh, it heals us. Our stripes are healed by his
precious blood, aren't they? Oh, all our sins and iniquities,
all our spiritual sickness. And we are sin-sick sinners,
aren't we? That's what we are. You know,
people freaked out about the pandemic, right? There's been
a pandemic in this world for 6,000 years. It's called the
pandemic of sin. And there's only one cure for
it. And that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
other cure for that. And it's got a 100% kill rate. Right? It does. Now folks always
fear, well, how many people are going to kill? Sin kills 100%.
100%. My, oh my. My, oh my. But we preach salvation through
Christ Jesus. Look at this in verse 4. Look
at here. Look at this blessed benefit
right here. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Who crowneth
thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Now you and I
know very little of God's wrath. People speak about God's wrath,
but we know very little about it. We know very little about
it. And really, only those in hell
know about it, and one other person, Christ Jesus our Lord. You know why? Because he bore
that wrath for us in our room and place when he died on Calvary's
cross. And because Christ was forsaken,
and God's wrath fell upon him as our substitute, then we will
never experience the wrath of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Because why? Because look at our text. He
is redeemed by life from destruction. He's redeemed us, brother, from
destruction. Oh, that's wonderful. Now look at verse four again.
Look at the latter part. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Another benefit
of the Lord. Another benefit of our salvation,
which will cause us to bless the Lord. Our great God crowns
us with lovingkindness and mercy. Oh brother, he's showing us so
much mercy, hasn't he? So much kindness. Oh my, it's
overflowing, isn't it? And think of all the blessings
of the everlasting covenant, the sure, think of the sure mercies
of David, scripture talks about. That's all comes to us in Christ. In all spiritual blessing with
the saints, we're blessed in Christ. And God forgives us,
why? For Christ's sake. Crowning with
these blessings brings forth an application and enjoyment
of them. It's not like the supposed crowns people talk about all
the time for works and stuff. They ain't talking about that
at all. They're not talking about that at all. It's the benefits
of these blessings being crowned with these blessings. Forgiveness
of all your sins. Healing of all our spiritual
diseases. Our life redeemed from destruction. by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. My. And we have an abundance
of benefits, don't we, brother? We're surrounded by them as believers.
We don't know how blessed we are. We have no idea. We really don't. The little bit
we know about it, we sure praise the Lord. But we're so blessed,
beloved. We're so blessed. Surrounded
and loaded down with benefits from the Lord. Now look at verse
five. Look at this, who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like eagles. God gives his people
full satisfaction. The world rushes after its glories.
It rushes after pleasure. It rushes after fame. But no matter how much it receives,
it's never satisfied. Always more. Rushes after money.
Want more money. I got a brother who's got a lot
of money in Canada. He wants more. He could retire and never
work another day in his life. Gotta have more. Slave to it. Yeah. But God's people. Oh my. We're blessed, beloved. We're so blessed. My, look at
that verse there. Who satisfy thy mouth with good
things. Well, only God is good, isn't he? And we have the benefits of the
good things of God. So that thy youth is renewed
like eagles. Every believer shall be satisfied with Christ and
shall someday see Christ in glory face to face. And when the worldling
dies, think of this, when the worldling dies, he loses all
his fame, he loses all his money, he loses any blessings that he
has upon this earth. But for the believer, when we
die, we gain to be in the presence of God. We gain to be in the
presence of the king forever. All because of his mercy. all
because of his grace. Now let's go down to verse 10.
Look at this. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. This verse
clearly brings forth, as I said earlier, we do not get what we
deserve. We do not get what we deserve.
I don't want what I deserve. Do you, brother? No, we don't
want it, do we? No, no, no. And look at this. All of our
sins are forgiven. He won't deal with us according
to our sins. He won't reward us according
to our iniquities. Remember what the law says, right?
The soul that sins, it shall die. That's physically and spiritually. That's being tormented in hell
forever. But because of the precious blood
of Christ, now we're going to die physically. Everybody's going
to die physically. We'll be glad, because it's gain
for the believer, isn't it? It's gain. Look what it says
here. So we don't get rewarded according to our iniquities.
We get to be in glory. Because why? Because God's already
dealt with our sin. In Christ Jesus our Lord, the
great substitute for sinners. It's wonderful. Now what cause
this can bring to the redeemed sinner? This is fact, beloved. This is fact. Our great God has
not rewarded us according to our iniquities. No. He sent his
own son to die in our ruined place. Now that's great love,
isn't it? That's great love. And what a relief to the saint
of God that he will not deal with us after our sins or reward
us according to our iniquities. That's a benefit. That's a great,
great benefit. Oh my. And the reason why God
does not reward his people according to our iniquities and according
to our sins is because Christ bore them all for us. He bore
them all. And remember, the chastisement
of our peace fell upon Him. Right? How do we have peace with
God? Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
through Him dying on Calvary's cross in our room and place.
Oh my. And he made satisfaction to divine
judgment. Doesn't that just blow our minds?
Let's just be honest. Doesn't that just make our minds
kind of fizz? He fully satisfied divine judgment
and divine justice and the divine law in our room and place, so
much so that God says, I'm not going to remember your sins and
iniquities anymore. all for his good pleasure, brother,
and all according to his will, right? Oh my, I'll tell you. Now, and no wonder, no wonder
David is crying in the psalm, bless the Lord, oh my soul. No
wonder he's doing that. Now look at verse 11 and 12. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Look at that. This illustration
we're given, this is the greatest distance that can be conceived. You go east, you never find west. You go west, you never find,
and then the space between heaven and earth, just in case that's
not enough for us, he adds the space between heaven and earth.
Well, that's infinite, isn't it? They're still finding out
how far it goes. I saw one time a video and they
said, this is as far as we know. We know there's a lot more out
there, but this is as far as we can show you. Oh my goodness. Oh, so much more. So much more. And this is a representation
of the largeness of God's mercy that's shown to his people in
Christ. My oh my. The abundance of God's
mercy, which is shown towards his people. So we can see here
that our benefits are boundless. They're boundless in Christ.
As far as the east is from the west, so far as you remove their
transgressions from us. They're gone, beloved. They're
gone, never to be remembered again by God. Oh, never to be
brought up again. Well, you messed up again, Wayne.
Never, nothing like that. We already feel like failures,
don't we, as God's people. But God don't say, well, you're
a failure, Wayne. Put your name in there. No. He
says, you're my son. And you cry, I have a father.
Because I sent the spirit of my son into your hearts. Now
you cry, I have a father. Now we know what sin is. Now
we repent. Right? Now, now we're born again. Oh my. My, oh my. So there's a great
gulf between us and our sins now. There's a great gulf which
will never be bridged. Think of that. It'll never be
bridged, brother. The great scapegoat has carried away all our sins
and he's carried away all the sins of his people and they're
never gonna return to us or never be charged against us ever again.
Only because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did by dying in
the room and place of his people. Doesn't that fill your heart
with joy? Oh my. Doesn't that make you want to
bless the Lord? Oh, bless the Lord, oh my soul.
Oh my. It stirs up in us to bless the
Lord. And then look at verses 13 to
17. Now here, look at this. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for men, his
days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it's gone, and the place
thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting, and never stops, to everlasting upon them that
fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children. Oh,
marvel at verse 13. Our great God pities us. His
eye Towards us is not full of wrath as a judge. It's full of
love and compassion. Everlasting love, everlasting
compassion, everlasting understanding as a father. And there's nothing
too heavy to lay upon him. There's nothing too small to
lay upon him. Nothing. And he'll never demand
too much of his people. He'll bring us through whatever
we go through. And sometimes we don't remember war but dust,
but he never forgets that. He never forgets that. We think
we're strong sometimes. And we think in our youth, we
think, oh, my strength's going to last a long time. I remember
being young. I was strong and being young.
Now, you know what? I can't do a quarter of the things
I used to do. My mind wants to do things, and
my body says, you ain't doing that. Right? And so like Vicki and I do, we
do things in bursts now. 20 minute bursts. My oh my. And then sit down, have a half
an hour break, and then another 20 minute burst. Right? Amen. Amen, brother. Oh my. But our God knows we're but dust. He remembers. Scripture tells
us here. So let that bless your heart. He remembers we're dust.
He knows who we are. Look at verses 15 and 16. As
for a man, his days are as grass, and as a flower of the field,
so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it's gone.
And the place thereof shall know it no more. So before even the
mower's blade comes, the hot eastern wind has dried up the
grass, and it's gone. It's gone. How a little thing
can carry as frail beings as we are here today and be gone
tomorrow, it shows us that our lives are like a vapor. In comparison
to eternity, it's like a vapor. Here today, gone tomorrow. Blink of an eye, brother, yeah.
Then look at verse 17. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. Do you
fear God? And I don't mean with a slavish
fear. I mean, do you reverence God? Scripture says, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and instruction. My, we were once fools, weren't
we? All of us. One time we despised. But now
we're made wise only by God, but we still don't know a whole
lot, do we? We just know a little bit. We're just scratching the
surface. Oh my. But look at this. The
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. It'll never cease.
It'll never cease. Upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children. We see here God's mercy
to his people is everlasting. And what do we say? Bless the
Lord, oh my soul. Bless the Lord. So let we who
are the redeemed Look upon this world as a place that we won't
be staying for very long. We're just passing through. It's
just like walking through a meadow before you get to the mountainside.
My, oh, my. And we see them flowers blooming,
and then they're gone in the fall and in the winter. My, oh,
my. but His mercy, His mercies from
everlasting. We see here the endless chain
of grace, the endless chain of grace to God's people in Christ.
Sin's forgiven, its power subdued, the penalty's paid, we're redeemed
of the Lord, God's law is honored, He supplies us with everything
we need, Our very nature's changed as we're born again. We're given
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust him. He
keeps us from falling. He gives us benefits every single
day. And his mercy, praise God, will
never cease. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. With such
blessings that we've looked at tonight, how can we complain?
I know we still will, but how can we? But how can we, really?
So when we start complaining about things, we should go to
this psalm. And remember the many blessings
that we have in Christ. See, this is a well for us to
drink from. The scripture's like a well to
drink from. Satisfying our souls. Oh my. So with such an abundance
of blessings in Christ, how can we consider ourselves anything
less than the most blessed people in this whole world? We truly
are. We're the most blessed people.
So let us sing with the sweet psalmist of Israel. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the time you've given us tonight to look through thy word,
and oh Lord, we see here tonight, you're so faithful. You're so
faithful. You have planned and purposed
our salvation, and you've executed it, and we are saved, redeemed
people, all according to thy mercy and grace, born again by
the power of God, the Holy Spirit, we praise you, Holy Spirit of
God, for the mighty work you've done in us. We praise you, Lord
Jesus, for the mighty work you did for us. And Father, we praise
thee and thank thee for the mighty work that you planned and purposed,
and that was accomplished by your Son, our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the only reason we love you
is because you first loved us, in Jesus' name, amen.