My goal this morning is to talk
to you who have a saving interest in the Savior. Those whose hearts and minds
have embraced His glorious person. You know who He is. You believe
on Him. You've embraced him and you rest
in him. I wanna speak directly to those
who are the heirs of God. Who are the heirs of God? They
are they who are led by the Spirit. They're led by the Spirit. Because
you're sons, he said, God has sent forth the Spirit of his
sons into your hearts. crying, Abba, Father. There are some in this world
who truly have eternal life. I've been hearing about it since
I was old enough to understand. Sitting in churches and missions, one time down in Yucatan, Mexico,
clear out in the jungles of Yucatan, listening to these things, contemplating
about these things, and talking about these things. And I know
that there's some in this world who truly have eternal life.
There's some who are born again of the Spirit of God and made
meet to be partakers of the inheritance with enlightened saints. You
have become enlightened just as they are. You believe those
things that Moses believed, and Elijah believed, and Isaiah believed,
and Hosea believed. You believe those things that
the Apostle Paul believed, that Peter believed. You've made meat by the Father to be partakers of the inheritance
of enlightened saints, you're true believers, true Jews, circumcised,
not in the flesh, but in heart. You have blessed eyes to see,
blessed ears to hear. You got ears that want to hear,
eyes that want to see, a heart that wants to rejoice. You have a new heart that's touched
by the word of the gospel. And I often speak of the election
of God and of his predestination of the saints and of God's eternal
purpose of grace, whereby all his elect shall be saved. I often
speak of those things, but none of these things are of any value
to you apart from a work of God in you, which enables you to
believe. Just knowing the facts is not
salvation. Resting in the person, that's
salvation. If your understanding doesn't
bring you to rest in the glorious person of Christ, you don't have
faith. That's what faith does. That's what it does. You can talk about predestination
all you want to and you can talk about all these things and argue
with them in the street. A lot of people do. But I don't
see those people rejoicing in Christ. I don't see those people
longing to worship. I don't see those eyes that want
to see and ears that want to hear. A heart that wants to rejoice. Listen to this. We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work of salvation is a work
that spans eternity. You wanna talk about, people
talk about, well, I went down there and got saved. Well, I
don't know anything about that. But I can tell you this, if you're
gonna talk about salvation, you're gonna have to talk from eternity
to eternity, because that's how far it spans. This is the chief
work of God, the salvation of sinners. the eternal God. It began in eternity past in
the purpose of God to save a people for the glory of His name. It
was put into action at the creation of the world. It was spoken of
by all the prophets. To Him give all the prophets
witness. It was manifested as the virgin
born son of man appeared in Bethlehem. It was accomplished by the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's even now in
its last stage as the elect of God are being called out of darkness into his marvelous light. I know that all around me there's
a world of living men and women. They're married and given in
marriage just like the Lord said. They're taken up with the things
of this world. They're taken up with their blood
kinfolk. They're taken up with all kinds
of things, education and pastimes and sports and who knows what
else, jobs. There are businesses being run
and governments being established and thousands of other things
that take up their time and their minds and their lives. There's holidays and vacations
and sports and education and just the daily grind of trying
to survive in this present evil world. But in the midst of all
these things, God's doing a work. He's not the least bit hindered
by it. We're upside down because of
the presidency today, aren't we? Are we just upside down? You reckon it hindered God any?
Not one bit. Now I'll tell you something else.
Everything that is taking place is right on time. It's right
on time. It's according to how it's scheduled. God doing a work which this world
is completely oblivious. They don't have a clue what God's
doing right now today. It's been going on in these last
days since the resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a great work. It's a
divine work. It's a supernatural work. It's
a work of God in the midst of man. In the midst of this present
evil world, there's a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation of peculiar people. A people who, unlike the rest
of the world, show forth the praises of him. They praise him
for his salvation. They don't brag on the flesh,
they don't brag on themselves, they don't brag on the moment
that they did something. They show forth the praises of
him who called them out of darkness. There are now people which in
time past were not a people, but they're now the people in
God which had not obtained mercy, but now. have obtained mercy. And there's some in this congregation
that truly know the Lord. I know that there is. I see that
witness in your lives. I not only hear it with your
mouth, but I see it in your lives. I see it in your faith. I see
it in your worship. I see it in your eyes and in
your heart as you come in here and you worship God. You hear
things. I see tears rolling down your
face. Some in here that truly know
the Lord, and to know the Lord is to have eternal life. Now
what I want to do this morning is to take of the treasure house
of God, just a few gems, just a few jewels that he has, and
to show them to you that have an interest in him. I want to
show you that David talks about this quite a bit. He talks about
the benefits. Forget not all the benefits,
he said, that the Lord has given to you. Don't forget these things. These things are things to dwell
on. These things are things to think about. Turn with me back to Psalm 68.
Now if you're here this morning and
you've not yet believed these precious things can only be had
in Christ. If you have Christ, you have
all these benefits. Psalm 68, 18. Thou, talking about
our Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. And I love this. Yea, for the
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Now all of the gifts given to
men are given of God based on the resurrection, ascension,
and enthronement of his dear son. All these gifts arise from
this. He's just and justifier. But
there's something here that he's isolating that we need to understand. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
four and let me show you how Paul interprets this passage
here in the Psalms. He hath ascended on high, he
led captivity captive, and he received gifts for men. Now, here in Ephesians four,
And here's the first thing I want to show you concerning these
benefits, those daily and often taken for granted benefits, Ephesians
4, 8. Wherefore, he saith, when he
ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he that ascended, what
is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all that. But what of these gifts he received
from men and gave to men? Look at verse 11. He gave some apostles and some
prophets and some evangelists and some pastor teachers. Now the apostles and prophets
were given as the foundation of our faith. They not only prophesied
of Christ and described him in such a way that you couldn't
mistake him and told all the events of his coming, but they
stand as the foundation of our faith. We have no other information
on God except the word of God. These things were given to us.
We were given to understand these things. They were given to us
by our ascended Lord. We're given this privilege to
know these things. We're given these things. And these things are called here
in Psalm 68, a daily benefit. And to them that are perishing,
this is foolishness. But He not only gave us the foundation
of faith, but He gave us evangelists and pastor teachers to show us
this. To take the word of God and show
these things to you, that's the whole purpose of pastor-teachers. That's the whole purpose of the
evangelist. And to those that are perishing,
this is total foolishness. To the natural man, they're foolishness,
they're unnecessary, and they're not received. If the preaching of the gospel's
a source of antagonism or it's offensive to you, it could be
because you're not understanding what it is. If you understood what it was,
what a treasure. What a treasure. If you understood
that this is the gift of God to you, Somebody said he just harps on
that one thing all the time. All the time, he just harps on
that one thing. What if that one thing wasn't given to you? Huh? I think like my Phibby chef,
if he just, if he put canned peas on the table, I'm sitting
at the king's table, I'm robed in royal apparel, I'm accepted. I'm part of the king's house,
I'll eat canned peas. And tomorrow night if he serves
them the same peas, I'll eat them too. Oh, my soul. To have, to hear, and to submit
to a faithful pastor, you receive great benefits from God. Our Lord through the preaching
of his gospel daily loads us with benefits. Loads us with
benefits. Faith cometh by hearing. Didn't
say it came by hearing, it said it cometh. It cometh by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. That word by which we're born
of God is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. He daily, daily loatheth us with
benefit. These gifts of our ascended Lord,
they're gifts, it's not your bank account that preachers talk
about all the time. It's not your life going smooth
without any waves. That's not what it is. The benefits
are those things which he's given you to enable you to believe,
to enable you to know. Paul said, I know your election
of God. Well, how on earth could he know
that? Our gospel came not unto you
in word only. You didn't want to stand out
in the parking lot and argue about it. It came in power. It came in the Holy Ghost. And
it came with much assurance. You was assured that Christ was
an able Savior. It comes in assurance. All right, here's the second
thing. We have great benefits given to us by our ascended Lord
according to his accomplished Redemption, look with me at Psalm
103 again. I'm talking about the benefits
of our Lord's accomplished redemption. Psalm 103, verse two. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. What have you
gotten that you haven't received? It's a holy gift, isn't it? What benefits? Well, look at
it, verse three. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Is that a benefit? Oh, my soul. He put away my sin. He cast it behind his back, wherever
that is. He hid my sins so far, he says,
and he says this so that I can have some perception of it, in
the depth of the sea. Who healeth thy diseases. Now
forgiveness of sins is a benefit of redemption. In Ephesians 1,
7 it says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace. And if I'm truly
a believer, God has forgiven me all mine iniquities. I have no past sins, I have no
present sins, and I have no future sins. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And then it says, he healeth
all our diseases. And this is not talking about
natural illnesses, though he is the healer of those too. If
you have a doctor who treats you, that doctor is given wisdom
by God to treat you. These are spiritual diseases,
the leprosy of sin, the paralysis of our nature, the destruction
of misery in our ways. We'll self-destruct. All God
has to do is leave you alone. He don't have to cause you to
do anything, just leave you alone. You'll self-destruct. Every natural son of Adam is
in a downward path of destruction. He will, if God doesn't intervene,
self-destruct. He healeth all our diseases.
Verse four, Psalm 103. He crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies. Oh, my soul. Loving kindness. It's hard to even say any of
it. God loves me. I can't imagine. I can't love
myself. He loves me. But in the days to come, he might
show you his glory and his kindness, and his kindness, his love, his
mercy, great mercy to his people. He's kind. Luke, we're anything
but kind. Somebody says something, pow,
right back in their face. Don't even think about it. I'd listen to the boys out in
the boat the other night and they'd go, brothers, they'd chew
them back and forth. And that verse come to me and
I told them, be kind one to another. God's loving kindness. You know
what he calls it? A crown. A crown. Here's these believers, he pictures
them in Revelation and they're all standing around the throne
and they're all crowned. What kind of crown could they
have? Religion says it's rewards. That's a sign of your rewards
and he puts this on your head. Why come they threw it down his
feet? It's a crown of loving kindness,
mercy. The love of God is a crown which
he puts on the head of all who believe. Listen to this, 1 John
4, 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world that you might live through him. Herein is love,
not that you love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. What a benefit, God loves
his people. You know what that means? That
means that nothing can separate you from God. That's what that
means. Read Romans chapter eight, those
last verses. Nothing. He crowneth thee with love and
kindness and tender mercies. how tender our Lord is with sinners. Somebody said one time, grace
is God giving to you what you don't deserve. That's grace,
unmerited favor. Mercy is God not giving to you
what you do deserve. That's mercy. And there's a crown given to
his saints of love and kindness and tender mercies. Verse five,
here's another benefit. Who satisfied thy mouth with
good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Now,
everything that you have in the way of sustenance is the gift
of God. Everything. But this goes past
that. He's not just talking about what
you eat at your table. He's talking about what you're
eating in here this morning. And he satisfied thy mouth with
good things. Good things. Oh, man. It's bad
enough now, but I remember years ago the things that come out
of my mouth. I just, mm. But he satisfied your mouth with
good things. What I'm talking to you about
this morning is the good things. Good things, eternal life, mercy,
love, kindness, justification, redemption, my soul. These are
good things and we can talk about them. We can talk about them
with understanding. Listen to this over Matthew 12.
Our Lord, here comes these religious Pharisees in and they're ranting
and raving and doing all this. He said, old generation of vipers,
how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you
that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. God satisfy thy mouth with good
things. Good things. We talk about His
grace and His love and His mercy and His son and His glory and
we speak of the redemption, our redemption. We speak of His righteousness,
that accomplished righteousness. We talk about pardon and salvation
in Him of His glorious person and the accomplishments of Christ.
Of His glorious eternal appointments. Those are good things. No evil
gonna come from that. Those are good things. We're not hunting for things
to say. Problem is, we can't say enough. We can't say enough. You remember the, who was it,
the Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon? And when she got there,
she'd heard all about him, heard all about his kingdom, heard
all about him. And when she got there, he took
her on a little tour and showed her, she said, the half has never
been told. But that's not talking about
that Solomon, that's talking about our Solomon, talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, our wisdom. Verse six, the Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. In Psalm chapter 10, verse 18,
he talks about taking up the case of all them oppressed by
that man of the earth, that man of sin, that antichrist who's
working is after Satan. God's salvation is a righteous
salvation and he's both just and justifier and he's our counselor
and he takes up our cause. You read in the book of Jude
when they were arguing over the body of, who was it, of Moses,
He dares not bring a railing accusation. And we're talking
about one of the highest angels there is. And he dared not bring
a railing accusation. He said the Lord would be okay
when he was talking to Satan. He takes up our cause. He's our
counselor. And we're always called on to
remember our benefits freely given to us by our Redeemer.
We're to think on these things and glory in these things and
be thankful. My soul, every epistle Paul wrote,
he just starts right off talking about the mercy and grace of
God and how thankful, how thankful he was for his own and how thankful
he was for these churches and for their pastors and for everything
in them. And then thirdly, turn with me
over to Psalm 116. Psalm 116 and verse 12. David asked this question. I
want us to ask this same question to ourselves, every one of us. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits toward me? Huh? I'm a bankrupt beggar. I got
nothing. I got nothing to give. I got
nothing to, what am I gonna? I think on these treasures, these
vast treasures and benefits that the Lord's given me, what am
I gonna render to Him? What am I going to give to Him?
How am I going to show my thankfulness to Him? What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? He saved us by His grace. He loved us with an everlasting
love. He cared for us. He took up our
case. He died in our room instead.
He ascended into glory and now sits at the right hand of God,
making intercession for us. He clothed me with His righteousness.
He put away my sin. He called me by His grace. He revealed to me the mystery
of His redemptive will. Now what am I going to render
unto Him? That's the only thing David could
come up with. He said, I'm gonna take that
cup of salvation. He gave it to me. I'm gonna take
it. I'm gonna be thankful for it.
I'm gonna be thankful for it. And I'm gonna call on his name.
And let me tell you what that means. That takes in all worship
is to call on his name. all worship, whether it be at
home, whether it be on the job, whether it be driving down the
street in your car, or whether it be when we're all together
in here on Sunday mornings. It takes in all worship. It takes
in all prayer. It takes in all these spiritual
things that He's put upon our hearts. I will call upon the
name of the Lord. Now the prophet here considers
the Lord only as the author and giver of all his benefits. And
with some understanding of this, he has nothing to say of his
own merits, he has nothing to say of anybody else's, but he's
moved by the Holy Ghost to give all the glory to God. When he calls on his name, that's
why he's calling. to give him all the glory. All
the glory. He knows he cannot offer in return
anything proportional to what he's received, but out of a grateful
heart and a sense of God's mercies,
he wants to express it. And so he does. And that's all
we can do. That's all we can do. What shall
I render to the Lord? I'm gonna tell everybody I know
about his grace. I'm gonna tell everybody I know
about his love and his mercy, his kindness, his generosity,
his benefit. And so he says in verse 13, I'll
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
Now in ancient times, and this is more than likely where this
phrase came from, I know he's inspired by the Holy Ghost, but
the Holy Ghost used things that men can understand. And in ancient
times, at the end of a celebration or a feast, the master of the
house would take a cup of wine, and he'd raise his glass, and
then he would thank everybody, and thank the Lord for what he'd
been given. what he'd been given. The cup
of salvation is an offering of praise and gratitude for all
his benefits. And calling upon the name of
the Lord is how we express it. We express it in worship, in
prayer, in faith, and in gratitude.