Verses 7, 8 and 9. They are, in this life, there
are a few things worth mentioning. And this is what the prophet
says in verse 7, I will mention. And we begin our lesson this
morning with this seventh verse in this chapter. And the prophet,
from the first six verses that we looked at several weeks ago,
he seems to change his speech to one that suddenly recalls
to mind the past mercies that he and his nation received from
Jehovah back in the day that Moses and his people saw the
great deliverance." Because later on in the chapter, or in verse
10, 11, he talks about Moses, so he's recalling, it's being
brought back to his mind the things that took place and how
merciful God was to him. You and I, like the prophet,
as the remnant of God's grace, have many things worth mentioning
and remembering. Now, I had a meeting Friday with
the company that I work with. So I went up there Thursday and
I wasn't really looking forward to it because there's a bunch
of stuff going on and I figured that it just wasn't going to
be a very good meeting. Well it turned out to be a pretty
good meeting but there was a lot of things that were mentioned
that they weren't worth the thought,
the time it took to think them up. And as I knew where I was
going to be at and looked ahead of time and looked at this passage,
I thought how blessed it is that you and I have things that we
can mention, things of the grace of God. Now, we have our jobs
and places where we work and we speak of a lot of things and
we have to recall a lot of things, but most of it is not worth mentioning. In the light of eternal things,
A lot of things that we say, a lot of things that we take
into our minds, it's just clutter. It just seems to be clutter.
And boy, I had a lot of clutter. A lot of clutter on Friday. You get to the point where you
just quit talking and it's just ever going to end. But the believer,
when he recalls and mentions what God has done for us, in
us and through us, based solely on the worth and work and merit
of Christ. It's not dull, and it's not boring,
but rather, like the prophet, you seem to get excited all over
again. I remember years ago, a long
time ago, Melinda and I were at Cherokee and met Tim James
for the first time. It was before Kara was born.
And we went to services. We heard about Tim and we had
never met him before. I don't even know if we had heard
him preach before, but we went there. He preached out of Hosea. It was just a blessed time. They
took us out to eat and there was a young gentleman who had
just recently been revealed, the gospel was revealed to him.
And you could tell he was excited about a lot of things. And he
told a story that he went to his first Bible conference shortly
after the Lord had revealed the gospel to him. And he was sitting
there and he was standing by two older brethren. They were
talking about meatier things. heavier doctrine maybe as compared
to a young believer. Things perhaps that they had
gone through and things in the Scripture, they were talking
about different doctrines and whatnot and it was getting to
where it was way over the younger believer's head. And one of the
older men turned at him and he said, Mike, what do you think
about all this? And with the simplicity and beauty
and glory of it all, he said, guys, I don't know a whole lot
about that. He says, all I know is that when Christ died, He
died for me. And those two older brethren stepped back shook their
head, they all hugged and they said, that's the key. That's
the key. Christ and his substitutionary
work. And this is what we go, it's
like that's what the prophet is speaking of. And every time
when we go to conferences, we have preachers in, or I read
it in this book and I see what God has done for the likes of
a wretch and a sinner like me, I actually get overwhelmed. But
I think that's a good thing. I think that's what, you know,
I know many who talk a lot of doctrine and they lose you. But without Christ, doctrine
is meaningless. Without Christ, doctrine is meaningless. So, the prophet in verse 7, he
says, I will mention. He says, I'm going to mention.
And the only way he recalls this, the only way he's able to speak
understandably about what he's getting ready to say is because
God the Holy Spirit brings to remembrance those wonders of
sovereign acts of grace to the likes of him and to the likes
of you and I." Now, as we go through these verses, I want
you to notice that all these things that he says are worth
mentioning. Because of what? Christ has done for us in us
and through us by free unmerited grace That's why they're worth
mentioning. I got it. We're just gonna go
through seven eight nine eight And there's a whole lot more
here, but we'll just touch the tip of the iceberg, and by God's
grace, be edified and encourage one another in the things of
grace. The first thing he mentions is, I will mention the loving-kindnesses
of the Lord. Now, I don't know why this is
mentioned first. I know that it's not here by
accident, and I know it's not here by chance, because this
book is written by men as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit
so it's not here by accident perhaps this is first because
once we are made to see Christ the Father in their glory and
in their grace and then we are made to see ourselves in our
misery and our corruption we know that it had to be sovereign
love that elected us called us and redeemed us I will mention
the loving kindnesses of the Lord." I don't care what this
church down the street, or this church behind me, or most of
these churches, I don't care that they abuse the love of God,
they don't understand what the love of God means, they speak
it as though it's a common thing, but to the believer, don't ever
let free willers, and people who
are religious, don't ever let them rob you of the beauty that's
in this book. John 3.16, they don't have a
clue as to what it's talking about, but it is a glorious verse
and a glorious chapter. Don't ever let anyone who's simply
religious Doesn't understand the gospel don't understand a
truth abuse Gospel terms they are here in this book for you
if you know He says I will mention This is worth mentioning the
loving kindness of the Lord John tells us that we love him only
because he first loved us turn to Jeremiah 31 Turn to Jeremiah
31 Jeremiah the weeping prophet
look at what he says in Jeremiah 31 and verse 3 the Lord Hath
appeared of old unto me saying yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love before the foundation of the world before we ever uttered
a word before we ever sinned and yet he knew we would sin
and rebel and curse him before that He says, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. Perhaps that's the reason why
the prophet in Isaiah 63 mentions this. Look at Hosea 11. Hosea 11. And verse 4. God says, I drew them, not everybody,
them, who's that? It's the same as he's speaking
of in Isaiah. It's the elect, the remnant, the chosen. They're
called Israel, they're called Jerusalem. I drew them with cords
of a man, with bands of love, and I was to them as they that
take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. And I know some of you understand
this, and I know from my background, there's nothing more liberating
than the freedom that's in the Gospel of Christ. Because religion
says, do this or you're going to get whipped. Tim James has
a message called, Whips and Biscuits. That's preaching today. Whips
and Biscuits. If you don't do this, we're going to whip you.
If you do it, we're going to give you some biscuits. We're
going to let you do a few things. We're going to let you get involved.
That's what the law will produce and that's what religion without
Christ will produce. But the love of Christ constrains
us to give, to gather together, to worship together, to pray,
to do all these means, all the things that we do, we do because
His loving kindness, His loving kindness. Truly, the apostle
says, the greatest of these is charity. And it's no wonder. It is absolutely no wonder. God's
charity is absolute, it's particular, it's irresistible, it's sure,
steady, and without failure. It cannot fail. Therefore, the
other thing that we like to mention, he says, I will mention the loving
kindness of the Lord, and then right on the heels of that, and
the praises of the Lord. Love begets praise. We've had a few weddings here
in the church the last couple of years. If you go to a wedding,
go to the wedding feast, go to the reception, joy, love, joy. the bride, the groom. Love shows
forth itself in many ways, but one way is praise and gratitude. And the believer prays in gratitude
for undeserved compassion. Because we know if God gave us
what we deserve, it would be wrath and judgment and not mercy. He says, I'm going to mention
the loving kindness of the Lord, and when I talk about His love,
I can't help but get excited. I can't help but start praising.
I can't help... I mean, I might be wrong in this
because, you know, 48 years old, haven't seen it all, haven't
done it all, those type of things, but every time I go to a wedding
or hear about it or whatever, my mind goes back to my wedding,
my mind goes back to my love of my life, my mind, all those
wonderful things. And then we talk about, well,
I wish we'd have done this different or that or whatever. But those
are, you know, the minor things. When you go to a wedding and
you go to these things and you see all this happening, you know,
you just turn and remember when we were up there. I mean, it's
just, it's a time of joy. It's a time of joy. Thirdly, look at what he says
in a text. I will mention the loving kindnesses
of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according to all that
the Lord hath bestowed on us. Just great, just spews with grace. It's what he's bestowed on us. But there's one little word in
here, according to all that the Lord, all that the Lord. Doesn't this sound like Romans
8, 28? All things, all things work together for good to them
that love God and are called according to His purpose. Not
some things. That's where we struggle. Oh,
we say this is good and then we say this is bad. Humanly speaking. We don't want anybody to get
sick. We don't anybody get hurt We don't want those things but
he says I'm gonna mention his loving kindness and then that's
gonna cause me to praise and then I'm gonna mention the fact
that Everything he does he does to his people in grace and he
bestows it upon us all things whether they're called good or
bad whether it's in the daytime or in the nighttime whether it's
at a time of trial or in calm or We mention that God has done
all things well and that we will stay by Him all the days of our
life. The believer is not just a fair
weather friend. That's my point. Religion is. Bruce has mentioned
it in Bible class a number of times. I've seen it a number
of many, many times over the years where you get people, they
get this religious experience and then they're on fire for
one, two, three months, a year, whatever, and then all of a sudden
bad stuff starts happening and they feel like God has abandoned
them and then they just go back to things as they were. The believer
understands by God's grace, that all things, according to all
that the Lord hath bestowed on us." It's not just here, it's
not just there. And we struggle with these things,
but we know, we're like Peter, when he said to Christ, to whom
shall we go, Lord? Because you have the words. of
eternal life, but we also know that not only does he have the
words of eternal life, but he has the works of eternal life. So the believer, he mentions
everything. Everything. Everything. I told you this story, and it's
hard to tell because of my affection for Henry Mahan, but when one
of Henry's boys was killed in Vietnam, Of course, everybody
knew what Henry preached, just like they know what's going on
here. You say your God's sovereign, He controls all things, predestinated,
blah. He got a phone call from a preacher and said, where's
your God now? He got the call and it was in
the papers that his son had got killed in action. Vipers, latest
snare. He said, this call didn't identify
who it was. Henry knew who it was. Yeah,
where's your God now?" And he said, the same place he was when
he got on that plane to go over there. Our God's on the throne. In all things. In all things. That'd be tough. I'm not saying
it wouldn't be tough. But it's worth mentioning. Because the
world's going to say, look. You know, I get so... I get,
you know, at work, I'm surrounded by several religious people,
and in the same breath, and they think, nothing of it. Oh, God
did all this. That was good luck. Even in the
Webster's Dictionary, it doesn't even make sense. They don't go
together. Either God is sovereign over all things, or there's someone
who's more powerful and owes over Him. Either He governs,
old Scott Richardson used to say, either God governs or He
is governed. Fourthly he says in the same
verse here I'm gonna mention it all that the Lord hath bestowed
on us and the great goodness Towards the house of Israel the
great goodness great goodness great because he is so supreme
and we're so puny so that golf that had to be that had to be
Reconciled it was great that no man could do. It had to be
through His blessed Son. Great because of the fact that
we did not get what we surely deserve, the wrath, but rather
we receive pardon and peace with God. That's great. The reason
why people today think so little of God is because their God is
little. They have a small God with a small g because He can't
do anything unless they let Him. But oh, I'm going to mention
The great goodness, the great goodness of our God. Great because
all that He is and all that He does to His elect children is
supremely good. Fifthly, look at verse 8. He
says, For He said, Surely they are My people, My children, that
will not lie. So He was their Savior. We're
going to mention that He calls us His people and His children. God, the God of the universe,
the God that spoke and the worlds were. The God that said, Lazarus,
come forth, who was dead nigh three days, and He came forth.
Surely, Lord, He stinks. Come forth. We do stink. We stink
of sin and misery and corruption. come forth. This God we make
mention that He who sits on the throne is holier than our, we
can even imagine, is purer than we can imagine. He calls us His
people and His children. He does so by foreknowledge.
And if you ever look that word up in the New Testament, foreknowledge,
it doesn't mean to know ahead of time, it's for love. It's
an intimate, it's an intimate relationship between two parties. We're called His children and
His people by foreknowledge, by predestination, by election,
regeneration, justification, resurrection, and glorification. We are called His children. And
we know we're not our own. We're bought with a price. So
we're His. We're His. Verse 9. Sixthly,
we make mention of this most wonderful thing. Look at verse
9. In all their affliction, our
affliction, His people, His sheep, His children, He was afflicted. Now it's one thing to be pardoned
by a king, word only, and then the king says, I'm too busy,
you know, you're pardoned, go. It's another to be pardoned and then received into the court, and embraced, and never forsaken,
and never forgotten. That's a whole different thing.
There's people that I've met that are, humanly, were important
people, are celebrities, are golf pros, and you're like, oh,
you know, oh, that's kind of cool, so I can tell so-and-so
I was, and then they go their way and you go your way. Not so with this Redeemer, not
so with this Great Sovereign, not so with this One who pardons
and cleanses us from all sin. In all their affliction, He was
afflicted. What we go through, He either
already has or will sustain us in all of it. He suffers with
us. He was tried and tempted in all
points, yet without sin. He is called in this book our
forerunner, the firstborn, the captain of our salvation. So
He knows what we're... He's acquainted with all. He bears our burdens and carries
our sorrows. No wonder we sing that song in
the Old Course book. Hallelujah. What a Savior. In
their affliction, He was afflicted. And the angel of His presence
saved them in His love, and in His pity, He redeemed them. Because
He carries all of our burdens and all of our sorrows, and the
word personal Savior, again, that's abused by religion today,
He's your personal Redeemer. What we're talking about, He's
right with us. He's never going to leave us.
He's never going to forsake us. And yet we still reverence Him
and subject ourselves to Him. But because He bears our burdens,
because when we're afflicted, He's afflicted, and He sustains
us, and He suffers with us, because that is so, it shows itself in
salvation, love, pity, and redemption, which is what He says in verse
9. He saved them in His love, and in His pity, He redeemed
them and bare them. And because He saves us and He
loves us and He pities us and He's redeemed us, that means
that He bears us up and carries us all the days of our life. There can't be a separation.
We're not united in Him. We're not like baptism. Baptism is doesn't say baptism
is a picture of what God has done. You know, he's he's he's
redeemed us We're buried and we immerse in water. We're buried
with him and then we raise in newness of life put baptism as
a picture of We're raised with him when he suffered when he
died on the cross God took out his wrath upon his son. That was do us He suffered the
penalty for our sins When he died we died When he raised,
we raised. There's that abiding, there's
that union. And because these things are so, do you think that
he would then therefore let us do what we, you know, leave us
on our own? No. Lo, I am with you always,
he says. But in this text here, he says,
look at the last part of this, verse 9, and we'll close. And
he bare them, look at this, and carried them all the days of
old. When you get around believers
who are on their deathbed, this is what they're talking
about. Not, I did this and I did that. Sit in peaceful repose. He did it all. He did it all. I've told you time and time again
the story about one of our older sisters who's gone on to be with
the Lord. And I just, you know, the Lord had called me to pastor
and at that time, so it was during that part years ago, and I was,
you know, young then and didn't know a whole lot, but I thought,
you know, I need to go see her and go visit her. I need to encourage
her. Every time I went there, And every time I left, I got
ministered to. I got encouraged. I got supported. I got help. I didn't do a thing.
I'm thinking, oh, I just read Robert Hawker. I'm going to go
share this knowledge. It's all up here. It wasn't a
whole lot here. It was all up here. Just Lucille was looking
at me with those eyes. I'm content. I'm happy. I'm just
like, put these guys away. Now, what were you telling me?
What did you have to say to me? It was such a good experience. But this is what she saw. She
saw, which is what she wanted to mention, which goes back to
the title of the message. There are some things worth mentioning.
And this is one for sure, that He carries us all the day long. All the day long. All the day
long. You can go ahead and have your
free will. It isn't going to do you any good when you're dying.
And it really hasn't done us much good while we're alive.
Truth be told, I was reading some stuff last week. Charles Haddon Spurgeon's wife.
You don't ever hear of her. You always hear about Charles
Haddon Spurgeon. And in the Ultimate Index that you downloaded,
it's got a section in there. She's got a few things to say.
It's absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. And she
made a comment. She said, I'm so thankful that
God is in charge of my life and my husband's life. I would not
have wanted to direct my own footsteps. That's absolutely
right. So, not only will we mention
His loving kindnesses, praise, that all things are working together
according to His grace and glory and for our best interest, we'll
mention His great goodness, we'll mention that He's not ashamed
to call us His brethren or His children, and that when we suffer
and the things you go through, He's going through with you as
well. because this is so, and that He bears us up and carries
us all the day long. Therefore, let us bless Him and
bless Him and bless Him and worship Him. Let's worship Him and glorify
His grace and glorify His name, whether anybody else is doing
it or not. Our brother of old, as for me and my house, We're
going to serve Him because He's called us and carried us and
bestowed all this stuff on us. And who are we to be called the
people of God and the people of His grace? We're nobody and
yet we can do all things through Him that strengthens us. Let's close. Nathan, would you
close us please? don't always have the words that
our hearts would.