I did something this morning
that I seldom ever do on Sunday mornings. I don't do them any
mornings at all. I sat down thinking about the
message, the services here today, trying to pray, and then I turned
the television on just to see what the – I love what Mr. Bush
said about the news commentators. I said about the preachers, see
what the talking heads had to say. And I won't tell you which
one of the idiots I was listening to, lest he get any credit. But
he was interviewing somebody who had written a book. And the
fellow who had written the book didn't know any more about God
than the fellow who was talking to him. But he had a tremendous
statement. I've got to share it with you.
He said, the worst point for an atheist is when he has a profound
sense of gratitude and has no one to thank. I have a profound sense of gratitude,
and I know who to thank. Turn with me, if you will, to
Psalm 107. My subject this morning is the mystery of providence
and grace. There is no understanding of
providence apart from an understanding of grace. If you wanted a text for this
sermon, it'd be Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Psalm 107 is an inspired sermon
on that text. This psalm is a beautiful display
of God's wise, adorable providence employed in the operations of
his grace for the saving of his people. This psalm is really
an allegory. Now, you shouldn't have any difficulty
understanding an allegory. That's just a picture. It's a parable. An earthly picture
of spiritual truth. An allegory may or may not be
factually true. Sometimes the allegory is taken
from facts of history, sometimes an allegory is taken from just
a story. You'll remember Paul in Galatians
chapter 4 takes Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, and makes
them into an allegory concerning the covenant of grace and of
works. And then our Lord in Luke 16
gives us a parable of a man, just a fictional story of a rich
man and Lazarus to illustrate the life and death of the wicked
and of the righteous. In Psalm 105, David uses the history of Israel
from the days of Abraham to the time that they came into the
land of Canaan as an allegory, a parable, a story illustrating
God's salvation of his people. In the 106th Psalm, he tells
us why it is that God saves men and women. They're told he does
so for his namesake. And here we have an allegory
of the way he does it. Now this psalm is about God's
providence, I said. Providence is simply God's universal
government of all things. That's what providence is. In providence, God brings to
pass what he purposed in eternity Now that's God's general providence.
His general providence is his superintendence and government
of the entire world. We do not believe in laws of
nature. We do not worship mother earth
or mother nature. We believe God who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will. And that which the
scientists call laws of nature are but the ordinances of God
Almighty by which things are sustained through the word of
his power. He hangs the earth on nothing. I mean, the most profound scientist
in the world hasn't yet really figured out what holds us here.
It's still a mystery. They can talk about it, guess
about it, they don't really know. He hangs it on nothing. And the
planets are sustained in their orbits around the sun, not by
some evolutionary laws of gravity and laws of force, but rather
by the will and purpose of God Almighty, who upholds all things
by the word of His power. The dew falls in the rain from
heaven, watering the earth at His decree. And he withholds
the rain and the dew and sends famine on the earth at his decree. The grass grows for the cattle
at his appointed place. And when he strikes the earth,
he dries up all the vegetation and the cattle perish. God Almighty,
in his infinite majestic sovereignty, feeds the sparrow, the worthless
sparrow, and counts the hairs on your head from eternity. That's God's general providence.
But there is a special providence. God's special providence is something
else altogether. It is God Almighty working all
things together for the good, the everlasting salvation of
His elect. Now it's so difficult for us
to grasp this. But what God does for the good
of His elect as a whole for eternity. He does for the good of each
of his elect for time and eternity. What God does right now is best
for me. He performeth all things for
me. Now get hold of this if you can. Everything that has ever taken
place in the history of the universe since the beginning of time,
whether good or evil, has been absolutely ruled by the providence
of God Almighty for your salvation and your everlasting good. To
the glory and praise and honor of His name. Now that's a stupendous
thought. And that's what Psalm 107 is
all about. God raises up empires and tramples them down again
to save His own. Hold your hands here in Psalm
107 and turn to Isaiah 43. Let me show you. Now men talk about common grace. I wish I could make you understand
there ain't a thing on this earth common about God's grace. What
God does, he does for his own. Now the wicked may get some benefit
from it, but the benefit they get from it shall be but to their
everlasting damnation. What God does, he does specifically
for his own. The sons of Ham are nothing on
this earth except servants to God's elect. Servants to the
good of God's people. Look here, Isaiah 43, verse 3.
I am the Lord, thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. Well, what does that mean? Well,
he's everybody's father, he's everybody's savior, we just have
a different understanding of him, just a different appreciation,
a little bit different light on things. Let's say, I gave
Egypt for thy ransom. That sounds to me like something
special, doesn't it, you rock? Something special God has for
you He didn't have for Egypt. I gave Ethiopia and Cebu for
thee? How come, since thou wast precious
in my sight? Thou hast been honorable. I've
made you honorable because you're precious to me. I've distinguished
you from everybody else. And I have loved thee. Therefore,
because I love you, therefore will I give men for thee and
people for thy life. Oh, preacher, I never realized
that's the way God did things. Now you understand? His thoughts
are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. The temple blessings of which
this psalm speaks are but symbols, types, and pictures of spiritual
blessings. Blessings of grace for which
God has been magnified and praised. Now hold your hands back here
in Psalm 107 and see what God teaches us. Four times in this
one psalm, the psalmist cries, O that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. You see that in verse 8, verse
15, verse 21, and verse 31. Four times he says it. This psalm is like the interpreter's
house in Pilgrim's Progress. Remember, Pilgrim was told to
go to the interpreter's house, and there he would see wonderful
and profitable things. Now, may God the Holy Spirit
make this the interpreter's house for us, that we may see wonderful
and profitable things for our souls. The psalm begins calling
us to thanksgiving. We're here called upon to extol
and give thanks to the Lord our God for His goodness. Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endureth
forever. We give thanks to the Lord because
He's good. The very name God is but an abbreviation
for the word good. He is good. All that He is is
good. All that He does is good. He's
the author of all good. Temporal goodness, spiritual
goodness, eternal goodness, all of it comes from our God who
is good. Let us give thanks then to Him
because He's good and His mercy endures forever. His mercy outlasts
everything. His mercy survives everything. His mercy endures forever. Well, who's to give thanks to
Him? Look at this, verse 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. I don't expect anybody else to.
I expect other folks to use him. I expect other folks to talk
about thanksgiving. I expect other folks to speak
his name whenever it's convenient. I expect the redeemed of the
Lord to give thanks to him and to declare that his mercy endures
forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy and
gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west
and from the north and from the south. In mercy and goodness,
our great God redeemed us with the precious blood of his darling
Son. He redeemed us. Redeemed us distinctly. Redeemed us purposefully. redeemed
us at the price of his own dear son's life, redeemed us because
he loved us, redeemed us effectually from the curse and condemnation
of his holy law, and he's redeemed us by the power of his grace
out of the hand of the enemy. redeemed us, delivered us by
applying His blood to us from the power and dominion of sin
and of Satan. He's redeemed us from death by
His resurrection. And the Lord God shows us His
goodness again in that He has gathered us to Christ by effectual
power. He says in verse 3, And gathered
them out of the lands from the east and from the west, from
the north and from the south. You see, God has scattered his
people in the four corners of the earth. Just as in judgment
he scattered Israel to this nation and that. And then he said, I'll
gather you again into your land. And he gathers them from the
north and south and east and west. The Lord God has scattered
his Israel among all the nations and kindreds and tribes and tongues
of the world throughout the ages of time. And he gathers them
from the north and south and east and west and gathers them
to Christ in his effectual grace. Those who are redeemed of the
Lord will most assuredly be gathered to him. I love what Zechariah
says. The Lord speaks by his prophet
in chapter 10. He says, I will hiss for them. I'm talking to you. I will hiss
for them and gather them for I have redeemed. There comes
a time when God Almighty, by the power and grace of His Spirit,
hisses for His own, calls them, whom He has redeemed, and gathers
them to Christ. The men of the world will never
confess God's goodness. They can't confess what they
don't know. No need to get too upset with them. They're blind,
they can't see. They're deaf, they can't hear.
They're dead. They can't understand. They'll
never confess God's goodness. Oh, they will talk about God's
goodness here and there and this thing or that as long as they
can control it and say what's good and what's not. They will
never confess God's goodness. Therefore, the redeemed of the
Lord must confess it. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say, the Lord's good. His mercy endures forever. We
found Him to be good. We found Him merciful and true.
And we must say so. Is God good when He takes away
as well as when He gives? The redeemed of the Lord say
so. Is God good when He frowns in His providence as well as
when He smiles? The redeemed of the Lord say
so. Is God good when He chastens as well as when He comforts?
The redeemed of the Lord say so. Does God work all things
together for good to them that love Him? The redeemed of the
Lord say so. Now secondly, beginning in verse
4 and going through verse 32, we are given four marvelous displays of divine providence, illustrations
of grace working with providence in the salvation of God's elect. actively arranged everything
before the world began in absolute predestination to bring faith
to us at the appointed time of his love. And in prevenient grace,
that is in grace that goes before grace. In grace that prepares
us for grace. You remember how the Word of
God is sown in the parable of the sower. And the seed is cast
out and it falls, some by the wayside, and some on stony ground,
and some among thorns, and some falls into good ground. Does that mean some men have
good hearts and other men don't? No. That means that God prepares
the ground before He sows the seed and makes the ground receptive
to the seed sown. And this is how He does it in
prevenient grace. Sometimes God's good providence
appears hard and rough. I recall when I was 19 years
old sitting on the hearth Brother Harry Graham's family room, Shelby
and I were sitting there talking, she didn't know we'd been over
to the kitchen, talking about something else, and we were just
about to leave, and Brother Harry said something to me. He said,
Dom, I'll tell you something. If God ever saves a man by His
grace, He'll take him to hell first. And I'm fully convinced that's
exactly right. God's not going to save you until
you need Him. And you're not going to need
Him until He makes you need Him. God doesn't save anybody except
the lost. Pretty sure everybody's lost,
aren't they? I'll tell you what, you're going out to dinner today,
you talk to anybody out there. Just anybody you see. Preacher,
drunk, dimp, pusher, anybody you see. And just ask them. Just
ask them. Ain't nobody lost. Nobody lost. Nobody. Oh, I know folks are
lost in our Father Adam, but they don't know themselves lost. They don't know anybody. But
the redeemed of the Lord do. Because God's brought them down. He has taken them in His providence,
as was the case with Gomer. And he may use Satan to do it,
but he's going to bring her down. Bring her down until her lewdness
is exposed. Her nakedness is seen. before
everybody, especially herself. He will take the prodigal son.
He'll leave that self-righteous, reprobate elder brother in his
goodness and uprightness. And that good boy, that good
boy never causes his father any difficulty, any pain. God just
leaves him to himself. But his heart's fixed on that
prodigal son. And he lays the reins on his
neck and says, all right son, have your way. Have your way. Go ahead. Go ahead. Here's my bounty. You go waste
it. Waste it with harlots and riotous
living. Waste it until it's all gone. Waste it until there's nothing
left. Wasted until you're ready to
crawl in the hog trough and eat the husk with the swine And when you come back here There'll
be kisses waiting on you and a fatty calf slaughtered for
you And a ring to put on your finger and shoes on your feet
and a rug on your back cause you're mine And I'll not lose
you. I'll not lose you. Now, how does
God do this? It's portrayed first as men wandering
in the wilderness. They wandered, verse 4, in the
wilderness in a solitary way. And we're lost in the wilderness
of sin. We were lost by reason of our
own rebellion and by reason of our own wickedness. But God Almighty takes our ungodliness and our
rebellion and uses it to bring us to the place where He will
be gracious to us. What does He say? Listen to this. I will bring you into the wilderness
of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Behold, I will allure her and
bring her into the wilderness and speak to her heart. Like silly, ignorant sheep, We
all went astray, we all turned everyone to his own way, according
to the bit of his own will. But God Almighty controls the
wandering because of His purpose of grace. In His providence,
He makes us hungry and thirsty. Verse 5. Hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted in them. I love that point in the prodigal
story where the scripture says, and when he came to himself, he said,
all the servants in my father's house are well fed. And in my father's house there's
bread enough and to spare. And here I am, perishing with
hunger, trying to fill my belly with the husk of pigs, trying
to find satisfaction for my soul in my own self-righteous works,
trying to work my way back into good standing, and there's nothing
for me! Hungry. Thirsty. He turned his eyes toward his
father's house. John Gill wrote to this fifth
verse, in such a condition are souls when like the prodigal
they come to themselves and are thoroughly convinced of their
state and condition by nature. They find themselves starving
and famishing, no provision to be had for themselves or the
creature. They hunger for Christ, the bread
of life, and thirst after his grace, the water of life, and
the blessings of it. They hunger and thirst after
His righteousness. The pardon of sins through His
blood and salvation by Him. Oh, God knows how to make you hungry. God knows how to make you hungry.
He knows how to make you thirsty. All my life long I had panted
for a draft from some clear spring. Some spring that I hoped would
quench the burning of the thirst I felt within. You've been there. Look for satisfaction everywhere
under the sun. feeding on the husk around me,
till my strength was almost gone, longed my soul for something
better, only still to hunger on. Poor was I and sought for
riches, something that would satisfy. But the dust I gathered
round me only mocked my soul, said cry. Then in the time of
our soul's trouble, We called upon Him. Look at verse 6. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. In their trouble. Now I'm not
talking about just physical trouble. I'm not talking about just emotional
trouble. I'm not talking about just getting
in bad shape. Everybody cries on the Lord in
time of trouble. Everybody does. Folks get in
a foxhole, bullets whizzing by their head, they cry to the Lord.
Everybody gets religion in time of trouble. Trouble will never
bring mercy. Judgment will never bring repentance.
Brother Darrell McClung used to say all the time, he said,
that which was born in the storm will die in the calm, and he's
dead right. We don't chase ambulances and
try to talk folks into making a profession of faith when they
get in trouble. No, no. But when God brings trouble
in your soul, that's a different story. And the trouble is not because
of the circumstances here and the circumstances there. The
trouble is in here! Hungry, thirsty, perishing, wandering,
alone. alone before God and helpless. Now, I'm lost. Lost. God demands righteousness and
I can't give it. God demands satisfaction and
I can't give it. I'm lost. And as soon as they cried, He
delivered them out of their distresses. Christ comes still, seeking and
saving that which is lost. In time of trouble, awakened
sinners are convinced of sin by the Spirit of God. They're
pricked in their heart. with a sense of sin, the terrors
of death get hold on them. We see that we're lost, undone,
ready to perish. And God graciously delivers us
and brings us to the city of habitation. Look at verse 7.
He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city
of habitation. Led them By the right way. This is the way. This is the
way. Come on. This is the way. Oh
sinner, this is the way. I am the way. No man comes to God but by me.
This is the way. This is the way. Walk now. Through the blood of Christ,
the Son of God, into the city of habitation above, at the right
hand of God Almighty, search the way! And there, find acceptance
with God through His blood. On the mercy seat. Verse 8. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness. for his wonderful works to the
children of men. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with his goodness. How I thank God he would not take no from me
for an answer. How I thank God he would not
leave me alone. How I thank God when everybody
around me had given up all hope for me. including me. He graciously brought down my
soul with trouble, and brought me into the wilderness,
and led me by the right way, Christ Jesus the Lord, and gave
me satisfaction in my soul. well of water ever springing,
bread of life so rich and free, untold wealth that never faileth,
my Redeemer is to me. Hallelujah! I have found Him
whom my soul so long had craved. Jesus satisfies my longings. Through His blood I now am saved. And then we're described in the
next section, verses 10 through 16, as prisoners. Prisoners shut
up. Shut up under the law of God.
Sitting in darkness, in the shadow of death. Bound in affliction
and iron. Verse 11, because they rebelled
against the words of God and contended to despise the counsel
of the Most High. Therefore He brought down their
heart with labor. They fell down and there was
none to help. Oh, thank God. He brings us under the sentence
of death, under the curse of the law, so that we know death
in our souls and we know our guilt and our condemnation. We
know that we stand before God Almighty justly deserving eternal
damnation and have no hope anywhere in us. Oh, but bless God, there
is hope when He brings you down with labor and causes you to
cry unto Him. Then, then, They cried unto the Lord in their
trouble. And He saved them out of their distresses. He brought
them out of the darkness and the shadow of death. He broke
their bands in sunder. He set us free. I was locked up one time as a
boy. And I knew I could be locked
up for a long time. The man who arrested me was a
family friend. And the jailer was a family friend. They wanted to give me a good
scare, and they did. They did it. It didn't change
anything, but they gave me a good scare. And I was sitting in jail
about two o'clock in the morning, prospect going to face a judge
the next day. And the police officer and the jailer and came together
and opened the door and sent me home. It tore up every record of the
offense right in front of me. Then don't let this ever happen
again. I went home free as a bird. Free as a bird. Didn't change
anything. But then the Son of God put me
in jail. And I was locked up. And I was set to die. And He came and opened the prison
door. and tore up the record, and stamped righteous on my record,
and sent me home, singing, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And I've been free as a bird
ever since. Free. Free. Free by the power
of His grace. Then we read in verse 12, Therefore
he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, there
was none to help, with one afflictive providence
after another, until at last were humbled under the sense
of sin, and cry out for his mercy. And we cry out for his mercy
because mercy has already come. Verse 17. What does God do in His providence
and grace? He takes fools. Fools. I've been such a fool. Such a fool. He takes fools. That's where
you are. You who rebel against God Almighty
who will not believe on His Son. You who presume you're good and
righteous fools because of their transgression and because of
their iniquities are afflicted. Folks get in trouble and everybody
wants to run to a shrink, find out who to blame. Blame you.
Blame you. That's all, just you. Oh, but
they were raised in such a bad life and such a tough time. Blame
you! Nobody else. Nobody else. Because of your iniquity. Because
of your ungodliness. Because of your rebellion. That's
the reason you're in the mess you're in. Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat. What's that talking about? They
abhor Christ, the bread of life, and they draw near to the gates
of death. Then they cry to the Lord in
their trouble, and He saves them out of their distresses, because He sent His Word and
healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Faith
comes by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God.
And when God brings the fool down to the gates of death, then He sends His Word. He sends His Word. The Word of
His grace. And heals his own by the power
of His grace. Look at verse 23. When God gets to deal with man,
the works of His grace, He's like a mariner in great deep
waters. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in great waters, these see the works
of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. Let me see if I can summarize
this with an illustration. David Brainerd, that man so greatly
used of God's missionary to the Tuscarora Indians in the northeast
of this country, Jonathan Edwards' son-in-law. Brainerd said, when God began
dealing with him in his awareness of it. He said, I saw four things. He said, I saw the utter severity
and strictness of God's holy law. He demands perfect righteousness
and complete satisfaction. and will accept nothing else. He said, I saw that salvation
comes by faith alone. And that nearly drove me to despair
because I could not believe. And then thirdly, I saw that
faith is a gift of God. Only God can give man a faith.
Faith in Christ. And that nearly destroyed me. And then I saw this other thing
that nearly crushed me to hell. I saw that God Almighty is absolutely
sovereign. He could give me faith or not.
He could save me or He could damn me. It's all up to Him. But rather than driving him to
despair at last, it drove him to his knees. And he called on
God. And he sent his word and healed
him. Those who do business in great
waters, behold God's wonders in the deep. When God brings
you down in the depths of the sea, He brings you down to make
you see His wonders. Now look at this. Verse 25. He commandeth and raises
up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof. They mount
up to heaven, they go down again to the depths. Their soul is
melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Oh, I love to
find fellows in that shape. At their wits end. I quit! I
give up! Oh, now, I've got some help for
you. They cry unto the Lord in their trouble. He bringeth them
out of their distresses. Now watch this. He maketh the
storm a call. Why doesn't that read, he makes
the storm go away? Why doesn't that read, he calms
the storm? Because there's something else
God's telling us. That very thing, which once was
the terror of our souls, is the greatest calm of our souls now.
God is just and right and good. And he whose justice has been
satisfied cannot injustice punish the sinner. Because Christ died
for me, the very justice and holiness and righteousness of
God is the calm of my soul. He makes the storm a calm, so
that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad, because they
be quiet. So He bringeth them to their
desired haven. This is God's way of grace and
mercy and peace.