The subject of this psalm, the
66, like so many others, is praise to God for His great
salvation. That's a good reason to praise
God, isn't it? As Bobby just sang, praise the
Lord for full salvation, complete salvation. Salvation that's dependent
not on you, but on the triune God. Isn't that comforting? Anybody
that has any awareness of what they really are, not just what
we've done, but what we are by nature, rejoices in that blessed
fact that their salvation from beginning to end is of the Lord. That's what David praises God
for, his great grace and mercy. Look again here in Psalm 66 at
verse 13. I will go into thine house with
burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which
my lips have uttered, and my mouth have spoken when I was
in trouble. When I was in trouble. We've
often seen, and perhaps there's a time that we did it ourselves,
that when the trouble is over, that trouble which when we were
passing through we made promises to God, oh, if you'll just bring
me out. If you'll just deliver me from
this, I'll thus and thus. And usually, when the trouble
is passed, so is the promise. It's forgotten. You have an example
here in Luke chapter 17. Turn there for just a moment,
and then we'll come back to Psalm 66. Here in Luke chapter 17 at
verse 11, And it came to pass as he went
to Jerusalem, that is, the Lord Jesus. This would be the last
time he went to Jerusalem because this time he would lay down his
life for his sheep. And as he's going, we read that
he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he
entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were
lepers, which stood afar off. They had to. They had to stand
afar off. That was the law. They'd been
to the priest. The priest examined them and
said, you're unclean. You're unclean. You're forbidden
to go back to your home, to your family. You're forbidden to ever
go to the temple. or to a synagogue, you're forbidden
to socialize with any other people. You must dwell without the camp. You must dwell alone. And if
for chance someone that's not familiar with our laws approach
you, you must warn them. You must cry out to them, I'm
unclean, I'm unclean, don't come near me. That's why we read here
that they stood afar off. Does that not sound familiar?
Because as you well know, this leprosy is a picture of what
we are by nature. Wherefore, remember that ye being
in times past Gentiles in the flesh you were called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ. At that time you were
without Christ. Past tense. Is that your present
state? You were without Christ. but
not anymore, or are you yet without Christ? That at that time ye
were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world. Ye were sometimes far off, just
like these leopards." Verse 13, and they lifted up their voices
and said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Nothing else is more important.
There's nothing we need more. There's nothing else that can
help us except your mercy. Please, can you hear them? All
ten of them. All at once. Jesus, pause. Pass me not, O gentle Savior.
Hear my humble cry. Have mercy on us. Verse 14. And when he saw them,
he said unto them, Go, show yourselves unto the priest. And it came
to pass, as they went, they were cleansed. Can you picture that? In obedience to our Lord's command,
there they go down the road. Ten lepers going to the priest. They thought, well, the priest
is the one who pronounced us unclean. He's the one who said
we were outcast. Why are we going to him? And
one glances at the other. You're clean. Your leprosy is
gone. And they look at one another,
your leprosy is gone. You're cleansed. Verse 15, and
one of them, one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned
back, and with a loud voice, oh, they all cried with loud
voices when they wanted mercy, but now just one voice, returns
and gives glory to God. And with a loud voice glorified
God and fell on his face, at his feet, the son of God, giving
him thanks and he was a Samaritan, a Samaritan. And the Lord said,
were there not 10 cleansed, were there not 10 cleansed, where
are the nine? Where are the nine? Where are
the others that wanted mercy? Where are the others that cried
for my mercy? Where are the others that pleaded
for me not to pass them by and I didn't? Where are they? Only
one? Only one returns to give God
thanks and he a Samaritan? And so it is. David says in Psalm
66, he takes his place with that
lone Samaritan. He says, I'll fulfill my promise. God delivered me from my trouble
and I'll pay my vows. I'll honor him with sacrifice
and the praise of my mouth. Look what he says in verse 16.
Come and hear all ye that fear God. Come and hear all ye that
fear God and I will declare what he has done for my soul. Come in here, David says. I have
an amazing story to tell. I have an amazing story to tell.
All ye that fear God, all ye that know God, let us join together,
David seemed to say. Come with me. Help me. God deserves more than just my
praise. He deserves all of our praise.
Come and listen, and I will declare what he has done to my soul.
Let's join together in this song, in this song. The best company
for believers is other believers, those of like precious faith,
those of our brethren, loved by God with an everlasting love. redeemed by Christ and called
by grace and kept by the power of God unto salvation. The Old
Hymn expresses it this way. Blessed be the tie that binds. And what a tie it is, John, that
binds God's people. Blessed be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above. Our times of worship, when we
gather here to worship our great God and Savior, are blessed times,
are they not? They're the highlight of my week. I look forward to them. The worship
here strengthens us and comforts us and refreshes our souls, does
it not? It refreshes our souls. It revives
us and prepares our hearts to go back out into the world that
hates God. David said on another occasion,
I was glad. I was glad. When they said unto
me, let us go. David, it's time to go into the
house of the Lord. David said, I was glad to go.
I rejoiced to go. Glad that I had a place to go.
Glad that I had a desire to go. Glad that I was able to go. The time may come, some of us
won't be able to go. Look again, if you will, at verse
16. This is our text. Come and hear
all ye that fear God and I will declare what he has done for
my soul. The title of my message is telling
it like it is. Telling it like it is. That's
what David does here. He tells it like it is. He tells the truth about his
God. He tells the truth about God's
salvation. He tells the truth about mercy,
the truth about grace. Did you notice throughout the
psalm, it was all about God, what God had done. David says,
I've got nothing like every redeemed sinner. I don't have anything
that he didn't give me, that he didn't bestow, Everything
I have, I did not merit. It's a matter of his free grace.
Did you notice the title of the psalm? To the cheap musician,
a song or song. This psalm or song is designed
to be used in the worship of God. That's why David wrote it.
And it deserves to be led by the cheap musician, that one
most skilled to lead the singing, the worship of God, The worship
of God deserves my best preparation. I'll repeat that. The worship
of God deserves my best preparation, not my leftovers. It requires
some forethought. It requires ahead of time me
asking God, prepare my heart, oh God. Prepare me, remind me. I'm entering into the presence
of God. That requires some reverence,
some time in prayer. It deserves my best preparation,
my best attitude. And like Mary that day in her
home in Bethany when she had that guest, oh, what an honor. What an honor. What a privilege. Jesus Christ came to her house. Mary, go ahead and rattle the
pots. Get frustrated. I'm sitting right
at his feet and I'm giving him my undivided attention because
he deserves it. He deserves it. I will not offer, David said
on an occasion when someone offered to give him animals for burnt
offerings without him paying for them, and his threshing floor
for the altar, David said, no, no, no, no. He said, I will not
offer to God that which cost me nothing. I won't do that. That's why I choose that old
hymn often to begin our service, come thou fount of every blessing. tune my heart to sing thy praise. Look what David says in verse
19. Oh, is this not worth singing about? Is this not worth singing
about? But verily God hath heard me. You see that there? Verily God
hath heard me. Have you gotten over that? Do
you take that for granted? Do you say, well, so what? Oh,
no, no, God help me, no. No, God heard me. God attended
to the voice of my prayer. Imagine that. Imagine that. God Almighty that said it in
the heavens, that ruleth in the heavens, God majestic, God absolutely
sovereign over all, he stooped, he condescended to hear the cry
of this poor worthless beggar. That's amazing! That's amazing. That's a marvel. That's a wonder.
David says, that's worth writing about. That's worth singing about. That's worth exhorting others.
Help me exalt the Lord, our maker. Verse 20, blessed be God which
hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy, nor his mercy
from me. My greatest need is God's mercy. If I don't experience it, not if I don't hear about it,
or I don't have some understanding of it, at least mentally, that's
not enough. I can stand outside and look
in all day long. Oh, but I must enter in. I must
enter in. Christ said, I'm the door. You
can't stand on the outside and simply admire the door and that
be enough. No, no, if any man enter in,
by God's grace, if anyone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, David
speaks of the experience of God's mercy. If I don't experience
it, say, I believe election. What anyone that reads the Bible
without free will glasses on will see that. Oh no, that's
not enough. Have I experienced God's mercy
and grace? Have I experienced that salvation
that he chose his people unto? My greatest need is God's mercy
and if I don't experience that, I remain unforgiven. I remain
unforgiven. If I've not experienced God's
mercy, I may have memorized the Bible from cover to cover, but
if I've not experienced God's mercy in my heart, I'm what I
always was, and there's nothing I can do to change my nature.
I need God's mercy for that. Without it, I'm unforgiven, unsaved. Without God's mercy, Joe, when
this short life is over, when these few years are gone, this
sinner will lift up his eyes and inhale, oh God, have mercy
on me. I need your mercy. As the leopards
cried out, have mercy on us, and he did. This is what David
writes of. This is what he sings of. What
a marvel was God's mercy then. Was it not? Was it not? Nothing was as important. These
things at once were such an attraction. Everything
had our attention. Oh, if I can get, just get that
house, that car, that position, that raise, everything, oh, then
I'll be happy. Then I'll be satisfied. Oh, but
then God, God did something. God came to us and opened our
eyes and all these things became They were less than nothing,
Lord. I remember going to my grandmother
and sitting in her living room with the tears rolling down my
cheeks and said, grandmother, if someone laid a million dollars
in my lap, it would mean nothing. And I'm in. And at one time,
I thought, man, you give me that and I'll be the happiest man
in the world until God opened my eyes and showed me the futility
of life. And I thought to myself as I
laid in my bed and tried to sleep and sleep would not come, is
this all there is to it? Is this all there is to it? I'm
going to live a few years and then I'm going to die and stand
before God. Oh, what misery. And I cried
like that leper. Jesus, have mercy on me. And you're looking at a miracle,
a marvel of God's mercy. Because like David said, the
Lord heard my prayer. That's amazing. That's overwhelming. Oh, mercy there was great and
grace was free. And I was so thankful. Oh, I was so thankful. David
said, or rather Paul, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. Who had known the mind of the
Lord, or who had been his counselor, or who had first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again, for of him and through
him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. So be it. Amen. Do you agree? That's worth singing about, is
it not? Could there be a greater subject
or wonder to sing about for a redeemed sinner than God's mercy and grace?
God's great salvation. Look again at verse 12 of the
psalm. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads. We went
through fire and through water. But, glory to his name, but we weren't
destroyed. We didn't perish. Yes, some through
the water. Yes, some through the flood.
Yes, some through the fire. But bless his glorious name all
through the blood. They came out of great tribulation. They weren't exempt from it.
They endured it. They passed through it. All God's
children do. But bless his name. By his all-sufficient
grace, they shall come out. He'll bring them out. He'll succeed
to it. But thou broughtest us out into
a wealthy place from the depths of poverty, that place where
grace brings us, where grace teaches our heart to fear, where
grace makes us to know that we owe a debt to God's law and justice. We've sinned against Him all
of our lives, and I don't have anything to pay the debt with.
I've got nothing to pay. Nothing I can do can satisfy
that debt I owe to God's justice, but He freely forgave me. He gave me His rich grace. He
brought me out, David said, to a wealthy place. I hear folks every now and then
speaking of someone that passed away, someone perhaps well-known.
He was a wealthy man. He died a wealthy man. What does
it matter? What does it matter? How much
did he leave behind? He left it all behind. He left
it all behind. You want to experience the true
wealth? How about the riches of God's
grace and mercy? How about being blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ? Remember what
we read last Sunday concerning Isaac, Abraham's son? The servant
said, my master has given everything to Isaac. My master has given
everything to his son. And God has put into the hands
of his son everything. And you know what? I'm an heir
and a joint heir with him. All that he has is mine. That's the scripture. That's
the teaching of scripture. Grace now and glory hereafter. Grace that shall take all of
his children home, where we shall enjoy the rich company of the
King of Kings, that in time to come, God might show, we read
in Ephesians 2, the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. 63 years ago, I was born into
the family of James Chris. James Chris, my father. You ever
heard of him? No. Just a coal miner. My earthly father. But, but, some years after that, I was
born again into God's family. Joe, I'm a son of God. Behold,
John says behold, put away the gadgets. Turn off that cell phone. Turn off the TV. Consider, get
along with God and ask Him again to ravish your heart as He ravished
it at the beginning when you cried for mercy. Behold what
manner of love the Father had bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. Isn't that something? A child
of the King. A child of the King. Secondly, David speaks of the
experience of that grace that he writes about, that he sings
about. Oh, the sweet experience of it. Our dear friend Henry Mahan,
you've heard him say this, I have too on several occasions. You can't tell what you haven't
experienced any more than you can come back from where you've
never been. Can't do it. Can't do it. David
speaks from experience. Look again at verse 8, excuse
me. Verse 8 of the psalm. David says, Oh bless our God
ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard which
holdeth our soul in life and suffer won't allow our feet to
be moved. He brought me up out of a horrible
pit, out of the Maori clay, and he set my feet, David said, upon
a rock. He's established my goings upon
this rock, Christ said. My church is built, and the gates
of hell shall never prevail against it. Should not those who've been
touched by the healing hand of the great physician sing his
praises? Should not those who've been
brought through the stormy seas sing the praises of the captain
of their salvation who steers their vessel all the way to glory? Peter said, be ready always in
meekness and fear to give an answer to any man that asketh
you the reason, the reason of the hope that's in Answer them. Tell them about God's amazing
grace. That's just what David does here.
Come, he says in verse 16, come and hear. Come and hear. Are you listening? Do you know
the joyful sound? Can you identify that tune? Can
you name that tune of God's amazing mercy and grace? David says,
I will declare what he has done. What he has done. Well, that
deserves a pause, doesn't it? That deserves a sila. Let's pause
a moment. What he hath done for my soul,
not what I did, not what I helped God to do, not what I allowed
God to do, Oh, no. No, no. David tells us what God
has done for him. He tells us like it is. He's
telling us the truth, what God did. Turn back a few pages to
Psalm 34. This is the theme of the Psalms. Our Redeemer. These Psalms, as he told his
disciples, they speak of me. They're about me, along with
the prophets and Moses. It's all about me. Here in Psalm
34 verse 1, David says, I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. I will magnify the Lord, oh rather,
magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all
my fears. It is I, he says, be not afraid. If you're not, I'm with thee.
They looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were
not ashamed. This poor man cried, this poor
man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all
his troubles. Salvation is not your work or
my work, it's God's work. Sons of peace, redeemed by blood,
raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
grace triumphant, sing with me. Wrath divine, no more I dread. Vengeance smoke my surety's head. Legal claims are fully met. Jesus
paid the dreadful debt. Sin is lost beneath the flood,
drowned in my Redeemer's blood. Zion, oh, how blessed art thou,
justified from all things now. Yes, that's worth singing about. The story, the message of salvation
is a message of God's work of grace by, through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at Psalm 49, the 49th Psalm. Psalm 49 and verse 6. They that
trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of
their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother.
nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their
soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever. The redemption of a
sinner requires a ransom of precious price and value. What can it
be? What will God Almighty accept? Peter said, You're redeemed.
You're redeemed. but not arbitrarily. No, you're
redeemed. Justice cries for your forgiveness
as much as mercy does because you've been bought with the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. He paid the ransom for me. And when he paid that ransom,
when he paid that ransom, He said, it's done. It is finished. And God Almighty said, I agree. I agree. It's finished. I'm satisfied. And God says,
deliver his soul. Everyone for whom that ransom
was offered to God Almighty, God responds and says, deliver
his soul from going down to the pit. I found the ransom. A ransom,
the precious blood of my dear son, and I'm satisfied. I require
no more. Vengeance is not in me, saith
our God. What, what can wash away my sin? Nothing, nothing but the blood
of Jesus, and it does it complete. It does it so thoroughly, oh
yes, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all
sin. It does such a complete and thorough
job that we read in Jeremiah 50 verse 20, in those days and
in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for and there shall be none. There shall be none. It doesn't
exist. That's why it can't be found.
He bore my sins away in his own body on the tree and there shall
be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for
I will pardon them whom I reserve. Last of all, I want to Add my personal testimony with
that of David. Come and hear what God has done
for my soul. Will you turn to Mark chapter
5? Mark chapter 5. There is here a picture that
to me is a biography. reminds me more than anything
else of myself, where I was when Christ came to me. I identify
with this guy. I sure do. I sure do. Mark 5, verse 1, And they came
over into the other side of the sea, into the country of the
Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately
there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit,
who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind
him, no, not with chains. Because he had been often bound
with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked and
sundered by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could
any man tame him. And always, always, day and night,
he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting
himself with stones." That's a good picture of where I was.
I was blind. I was bound by sin and nobody could bind me. None
could bind me. None could tame me. I was destroying
myself. My father's threatenings didn't
do it. The tears and pleadings of a dear, dear mother didn't
do it. I was hell-bent on self-destruction. Selfish. Breaking my parents'
hearts. And I'll tell you what happened.
Same thing happened to this man. Verse 6. But he saw Jesus. But when he
saw Jesus, he saw me. Just like he did this man. He
found me. He saved me. Verse 8, come out
of the man thou unclean spirit and look what grace has done.
Verse 15, and they came to Jesus and saw him that was possessed, was possessed with the devil
and had the legion setting in clothing in his right mind and
they were afraid. What did I do? But by the grace
of God, I am what I am. It was grace that wrote my name,
John, in the Lamb's eternal book. It was grace that gave me to
the Lamb, who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my soul to
pray. Grace made my eyes overflow. His grace has kept me to this
day, and His grace will not let me go. Look what our Lord tells
this man in verse 19. Go home to thy friends and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath
had compassion on thee. Go and tell all around what a
dear Savior you have found. some of the biography, the story
of old John Bunyan the other day. Let me just share just a
few sentences with you. Bunyan wrote, my original and
inward pollution, cries Bunyan. I was more loathsome in my own
eyes than a toad. Sin and corruption would naturally
bubble out of my heart as water out of a fountain. I thought
that everyone had a better heart than me. At the sight of my vileness,
I fell deeply into despair. I counted the state of everything
that God had made to be far better off than the state that I was
in. Gladly would I have traded my condition or wished and longed
that I was a dog or a horse, for at least they had no souls
to perish under the weight of sin like mine was likely to do. But God, but God saved that rebel. And he says, I was so taken with
the love and mercy of God that I couldn't tell how to contain
myself until I got home. I thought I could have spoken
of his love and his mercy even to the very cows that sat up
on the plowed lands before me had they been capable of understanding
me. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. And that reminded me of another
young man who'd been under deep conviction of sin for about five
years. He'd made a vow that he would
go to a church every Sunday. Nothing would keep him away.
Someone answered the question, what must I do to be saved? And he went and went and went.
No one answered the question. His son wrote afterwards during
this time, many a time, my father told me in those early days that
he was so storm-tossed and distressed by the reason of his sins that
he found himself envying the very beast on the field. One
Sunday morning, true to the promise he made to himself, he ventured
out to go to a church. The first Sunday of the new year,
Man, there was a fierce snowstorm. He couldn't get to where he intended
to go, so he went down, he ducked down an alley to a little primitive
Methodist church and went in and sat down. It was so bad,
the preacher didn't even get out that morning. There was about
12 people there. They had a little conference,
two or three of the men, and talked one into getting up and
saying something. And this fella got up, Turn to Isaiah 45, look unto
me and be ye saved for I am God and there is none else. And he looked down at that young
boy and said, you look miserable. Young man, you just look miserable
and you're going to keep being miserable until you look. Look
unto me, the fellow shouted, look unto me and be ye saved. And the young man said, he looked,
he looked, and then and there the cloud was gone. And the darkness
rolled away. And that moment I saw the sun.
When he left that little chapel, he wrote, the snow was still
coming down. It was lying deep. But these
words of David kept ringing in my heart. Wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow. Glory to his name. And I'm sure
you're aware that was old Spurgeon. Can you not identify with that? Let me wrap this up. This old
hymn. I want to give my voice of praise
to my God and Savior this morning. I want with David to join in
and tell what God did through me, Lord. That's why I use these
hymns. They help me. They help me to
do what I just can't find words to do. I once was far away from
the Savior and I was vile as a sinner could be. And I wondered
if Christ the Redeemer could save a poor sinner like me. I
wandered in the darkness, not a ray of light could I see, and
the thought filled my heart with sadness. There's no hope. I remember
thinking this, John. There's no hope for a sinner
like me. God won't have mercy on me. I've
been too evil. I've gone too far. I'm too sinful. God's not going to save me. And
then, in that dark, lonely hour, a voice sweetly whispered to
me, saying, Christ the Redeemer has power to save a poor sinner
like me. Oh, I listened, and lo, it was
the Savior that was speaking so kindly to me. I cried, I'm
the chief of sinners. Can thou save a poor sinner like
me? I then trusted in Jesus. And oh, what a joy came to me.
My heart was filled with his praises for saving a sinner like
me. No longer in darkness I'm walking,
for the light is now shining on me. And now unto others I'm
telling. I'm telling this amazing story.
He saved a poor sinner like me. And he'll do the same to every
sinner He has done for every sinner that's ever looked to
Him. He says, come unto me, all ye that labor, and I will, without
question, without reservation, without hesitation, I will give
thee rest. If God has already enabled you
to look, thank Him. Thank Him. Go and tell others. what God has done for your soul.
Invite others to hear the message of His grace. And if you've never
looked, may God enable you to do it this very moment for His
glory and your eternal salvation. Amen. Amen. God bless you.