Bless the Lord O My Soul

Q: What does the Bible say about forgiveness?

The Bible teaches that God forgives all iniquities through Christ, offering complete forgiveness to believers. The concept of forgiveness is central to the Gospel and is powerfully articulated in the Bible. David, in Psalm 103:3, declares that 'the Lord forgiveth all thine iniquities.' This indicates that forgiveness is complete and utterly transformative, available through Jesus Christ who took upon Himself our sins. Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14 affirm that redemption and forgiveness of sins come through His blood. Thus, believers can have confidence that they stand before God as if they have never sinned, brought to this state not through their own merit but by grace.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient for our needs?

God's grace is sufficient as it meets all our spiritual needs and grants us forgiveness and renewal through Christ. Scripture affirms that God’s grace adequately addresses our spiritual needs. In Psalm 103:5, we read, 'He satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.' This speaks to both the sustenance that God provides and the rejuvenation of the believer's spirit. Grace enables us to rely on Christ alone for our righteousness, making us perfect in His sight. The believer’s hope is rooted in the New Covenant, wherein every spiritual need is satisfied in Christ, emphasizing that God's grace is not just a one-time event but a continual sustenance throughout our lives.

Q: Why is praising God essential for Christians?

Praising God is essential for Christians as it honors His nature and reflects our relationship with Him. Praising God serves several crucial purposes in a Christian's life. First, it acknowledges God’s sovereignty and attributes, as articulated in Psalm 103, where the psalmist calls for the soul to bless the Lord. Praise originates from a heart that recognizes God's grace and mercy, bringing a deep sense of spiritual humility. Furthermore, praising God transforms our focus from our circumstances to His character, as seen in verses where David commands his soul to bless the Lord without asking for anything in return. This aligns with the essence of worship, which is about adoring God for who He is, not merely for what He does for us.

Q: What does the Bible teach about the frailty of life?

The Bible teaches that life is frail and fleeting, emphasizing reliance on God's eternal perspective. In Psalm 103:14, David reminds us that 'he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.' This underscores the transient nature of human life. The Bible frequently calls attention to our mortality, encouraging believers to maintain an eternal perspective in the face of life's brevity. Life's frailty can lead to an increased awareness of our need for divine grace and mercy. Recognizing that our days are limited should not instill fear but rather invite us to live fully for God's glory, as we understand that our true existence is found in Christ, who is eternal and offers everlasting life.

Q: How can Christians grow in spiritual maturity?

Christians can grow in spiritual maturity through prayer, understanding Scripture, and recognizing their dependence on God. Spiritual maturity in the Christian life is characterized by a deepening understanding of God's grace and a more profound recognition of sin. As believers engage with the Word of God, they grow in their knowledge of His attributes and His mercies, leading to a heart posture of praise rather than petition, as noted in Psalm 103, where David praises God without soliciting requests. Growth in grace involves conversing with oneself regarding spiritual truths and applying them to one's life. This maturity reflects itself in a life increasingly marked by thankfulness and reverence, reinforcing the importance of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, study, and community fellowship.

Q: What is the significance of God's holiness in His attributes?

God's holiness signifies His moral purity and sets apart His attributes as the foundation for all His actions. God's holiness is central to understanding His other attributes and is foundational in the believer's relationship with Him. Holiness is described in Scripture as the chief glory of His name and serves as the moral benchmark for God's dealings with humanity. In Isaiah 6:3, the seraphim proclaim, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.' This reflects how God’s holiness governs His love, mercy, and justice. Understanding God's holiness helps believers appreciate the gravity of sin and the magnitude of grace extended through Jesus Christ, making it imperative for worship and praise, as David directs his soul to bless the Lord, the Holy One.

Now, a few things that are worthy
of note before we begin to look more closely at this psalm, a
few things that might be helpful to you, if they were to me. First
of all, most people agree that this is a psalm of David's latter
years, and there are several reasons why we believe that.
First of all, there seems to be a higher sense of the preciousness
of pardon. in this psalm than in others,
a higher degree of the preciousness of pardon. He mentions it frequently,
how precious it is to be in the mercy of God, to be forgiven
of sin. Our Lord said, to whom much is
forgiven, he'll love much. And I think that's the reason
some of you who are older are enabled of the Spirit to love
Christ more. because you not only grow in
the knowledge of Christ, but in the knowledge of yourself,
yourselves as the years go by. And, you know, I believe we grow
in grace, but as we grow in grace, we also grow in a knowledge of
our sins. I think I feel a sense of sin
more than I ever did before. I think as I grow older, I'm
more aware of who God is what God commands and how far short
I fall of his holiness and his glory. It's more evident to me
now than it's ever been. And that's the second reason
why we believe this psalm is written in David's latter years,
not only a high sense of the preciousness of pardon, but a
deeper sense of sin, a deeper sense of sin. And then another
thing he mentions very prevalently, and that is the frailty of life. Down here in verse 14, he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth it with dust. As for man, his days
are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
The wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof
shall know it no more. David talking there about death.
You don't hear the young talking too much about death. Death is
not as much a reality to the young as it is to the old. And
this is another reason why we believe that this psalm is written
in David's latter years, is his reference to the frailty of life. And then another thing about
this psalm, it's written in the latter years of the psalmist,
but did you note while Bruce was reading this There's not
one request in this entire psalm, 22 verses. Look it over sometime,
you won't have time right now, but remember that there's not
one petition, there's not one request throughout the entire
psalm. David didn't ask God for anything.
Now, this is another sign of spiritual maturity. More praise
and less petition. As we grow in grace and spiritual
maturities, our prayers change. Have you noted that? You will,
especially now that I've called your attention to it. When you
pray, there's less asking, Lord do this and Lord do that and
Lord do the other. And there's more praise, more
thanksgiving, more celebration of the divine attributes. You
listen to a young person pray, and then you listen to... And
I'm not talking particularly about years. Not at all. I'm talking about spiritual growth
and years. You may have a young person,
25, who's more mature than a man, 60, in things of the gospel. But spiritual maturity changes
prayer. And you note that sometimes.
Keep that filed away in the back of your mind. But a sign of spiritual
maturity is more praise and less petition. We praise the divine
attributes. We praise God for his mercies.
We thank God. And David here spends 22 verses
without asking God for a thing. You reckon we could talk that
long without asking for something? Bless George, and bless Betty,
and bless Bob, and bless Ed, and bless this, and bless that,
and help this, and help that, and give me this, and give me
that, you know. And then another thing about
this psalm is this. The name Jehovah. is used 11
times in 22 verses. And it's not used in a repetitious
manner, like sometimes when we pray we get in a repetitious
fashion and we use the name Lord, or the name Father, or the name
God. Not really where it ought to be used, it's just we just
put it in. And we find ourselves in a kind
of a ritual. a repetitious thing, but he uses
the name Jehovah, not which is Lord, Savior, God. It's mentioned 11 times in 22
verses. And in this psalm, the psalmist
kneels in adoration and blesses the Lord. Now, you notice how
many times when Bruce was reading it, bless the Lord, bless the
Lord, bless the Lord, he starts with it, he closes with it. There's
a difference in praising the Lord and blessing the Lord. I'm
going to show that to you in a moment. But this is the thing
I'm pointing out right now. In using the name Jehovah, the
Lord, so many times the psalmist throughout this psalm is blessing
the Lord himself. Now, this is important. It's
possible for us to praise God for things and not bless the
Lord himself. It's possible for us to praise
the Lord, and as we're praising him, being taken up with our
gifts that he's given us, his gifts that he's given us, his
works, his word even, and fail to bless the Lord himself. Now,
Job, in the most difficult condition, could bless the Lord. Most of the time when we're blessing
the Lord, it's when things are going good, praising the Lord. This is the time for praise when
things are going our way. But we need to learn to bless
the Lord Himself. That's what He said, bless the
Lord. Bless the Lord. It's not bless
God's guilt or God's works or God's this or that, but bless
the Lord Himself. You'll see more as we go on what
I'm talking about here, but he, David, in this psalm, is blessing
the Lord himself. The Lord himself. And this is
a very important lesson for us to learn, to learn to praise
God for himself, not just for what he gives us and what he's
done for us and what he's going to do for us, but to bless him. Now, when I started preparing
the message for tonight, I thought we'd go through this psalm, but
you're not going to go through this psalm in one night or two
nights or three nights. There's too much here. There's
too much here for a thousand sermons. There's too much here
for a thousand pens. Somebody called this psalm a
Bible in itself. It's a whole lot like Romans
chapter 8, which is a Bible in itself. It's a whole lot like
Isaiah 53. which is a Bible in itself. Well, preacher, get on with the
sermon and maybe you'll get through five verses tonight. All right,
let's look at verse 1. Look at verse 1. He strikes the
keynote at the very opening sentence. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. This is the high style of praise. It's not praise the Lord now,
it's bless the Lord. And this blessing the Lord is
the highest type of praise. Now, to show you what I mean,
turn to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. And read this. I've seen this in the Bible before. I know that I have. I read it
before. But it came to mean a little more when I read it today and
took a hard look at it. Psalm 145, look at this. All thy works shall praise thy
name, praise thee, O Lord, all thy works shall praise thee,
O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee, and thy saints shall
bless thee. All thy works shall praise thee,
O Lord, thy saints shall bless thee. This is the highest style
of praise. What does the word bless mean? The Hebrew word, I don't know
Hebrew, but I looked it up, and the Hebrew word means adoration. It means to kneel in adoration. All thy works shall praise thee.
Recognize God's power and God's wisdom, God's greatness, God's
glory. All thy works shall praise thee.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. But thy saints
shall bless thee. Kneel in adoration and awe and
reverence and bless God. Now, he says, Bless the Lord,
O my soul. This is inward praise, and this
is where true praise comes from, is inwardly. You know, our Lord
Jesus said, You call me Lord with your lips, but your hearts
are far from me. If blessing the Lord is only
an employment of the lips, then anybody can do it. But true adoration
comes from the heart. It comes from the heart. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, the inward man. Not just the family being
blessed through the Father, the church through the pastor, the
congregation through the choir, God being blessed with my soul,
my soul, my innermost being inwardly. And you know something someone
brought out in this when I was reading, preparing for this message? He said, Blessed is the man who
has learned to converse with himself concerning spiritual
truth. David is a man talking to himself
here. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Blessed
is the man who has learned to converse with himself." And he
added, our own souls ought to be our first audience. Before
we seek to teach others or preach to others or counsel others,
we need to counsel ourselves. Bless the Lord, O my soul. You know, David, down at the
end, look at verse 20, he said, Bless the Lord, ye his angels.
He said, verse 21, Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers. Bless the Lord, all his works.
Before he commanded others to bless the Lord, he made sure
that he blessed the Lord from his soul. from his soul. He said, Bless the Lord, O my
soul. This is where true adoration
begins, the soul, the innermost being, inwardly. Our Lord looks not on the outward
countenance, he looks on the heart. Our Lord looks not on
the position of our bodies especially, or the outward form of worship
about which we're going, but he looks on the heart. That's
where our God looks. And he said, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. What is within me? Well, let me name some things.
My imagination. My imagination. Let my imagination
bless the Lord with holy meditation. My judgment. Let my judgment
bless the Lord by wise decisions according to his word. My affections,
they are within me. Let my affections bless the Lord
by loving what He loves and whom He loves. My desires. Let my desires bless the Lord
by seeking His glory. His glory, not mine, His glory. His purpose, not mine. His will,
not mine. My hope. Let my hope bless the
Lord by restful assurance and confidence in His providence
and sovereignty. My memory. Let my memory bless
the Lord by being thoughtful, as he says later on, of his benefits. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Kneel in adoration, O my soul. Kneel in awe and reverence, O
my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, my imagination, my affections, my desires, my
hope, my memory. And I'm not getting anywhere
till this is so. not getting anywhere till it's
so, not where God's concerned. We can go through the form, we
can go through the ceremony, we can go through all the rituals,
we can go through all the prescribed forms and methods of worship,
but we haven't communicated till we've learned what this first
verse says here, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Now look at this last line. Bless
his holy name. Now here's something I want us
to learn. The name of the Lord, the name
of the Lord signifies his nature and his attributes. Now the scripture
says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. The scripture says there's none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. What does this mean? That if man just stands out and
says, Jesus saved me, that he's saved? No, sir, this name of
the Lord is his attributes and his nature and his character
which identifies who he is. He is just and he's justified. That's the name of the Lord who
saves. Any other Lord cannot save. He is mercy and He is truth. That's the name of the Lord.
Any other Lord cannot save. He is love and He is holiness
or righteousness. That's His name. That's His name. He is sovereign. He is eternal. He is almighty. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is omnipotent. That's the name of the Lord.
You identify a person by his name. You see what I'm saying? You identify a person by his
name, and that's the name of the Lord. It identifies him.
And this, David said, bless his holy name. Now, watch this. Holiness is the chief glory of
his name. His name means power. His name. His name means mercy. His name means truth. His name
means love. His name means grace. His name
means all of these things, but the chief glory of His name is
His holiness. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he
said, they cried, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. The
holiness of God is that which beautifies all that God is. The
holiness of God is that which renders him worthy of being blessed. For example, God's eternality,
God is eternal. God's knowledge, he knows all
things. God's infinite power to do with
his own what he will. He is answerable to no creature.
God's omnipresence, he's everywhere, he knows all things. without
holiness, these attributes would fill me with nothing but fear.
You think if you had to deal with one who is eternal, who
is infinite, who is all-knowing, who has infinite power, who is
omnipresent, from whose presence you cannot flee. If I take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, if I ascend to heaven, if I descend to hell, he's there.
Suppose that that's the only way God was presented to you,
without holiness, without righteousness, without love, without mercy.
Why, it'd do nothing but frighten and depress you. But our God
is good. You ever read the scriptures?
I know you have. The Lord is good. It just says that, the
Lord is good. He's not only sovereign, he's
good. He's not only almighty, he's
good. He's not only just, he's good. That's what gives the sinner
hope. God is merciful. God is love. We lightly pass over that. We
use that so carelessly. Well, God is love. Used to when
we sometimes had youth meetings and we'd go around the circle
and ask people to give a verse of Scripture. Many couldn't give
a verse because they didn't really read God's Word much or study
it, and someone would They'd be giving verses and somebody'd
say, God is love, and everybody'd laugh because the verse was short,
you know, and so easy to learn, so easy to say. But I'll tell
you, oh, what's contained in those three words? God is love. That's what David is saying.
He blessed the Lord, adored, kneeled in adoration, my soul. my soul, my innermost being,
and all that's within me, bless his holy name, his holy name. And then beginning with verse
2, the psalmist's gratitude reveals four attributes of praise. Now this is interesting. Here the psalmist, the highest
form of praise, blessing the Lord. Not just acknowledging
there is a God, not just acknowledging he's almighty, not just acknowledging
that he sits on the throne, not just acknowledging that what
I have he gave me. That's praise, all right. But
this blessing, the Lord, is kneeling in adoration and awe and reverence
and thanksgiving and extolling him from my soul, from my innermost
being and all that's within me, blessing his holy matchless name. And then he gives four attributes
of real praise. First of all, it's personal.
Again, he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, my soul. my soul. And then it's sincere,
all that is within me, all that is within me, not just words,
but that which is within me, my thoughts, my imagination,
my desires. And then it's constant, forget
not all his benefits. Don't, not for a moment, not
for a moment, forget not. You know, you say, is it possible
to forget the Lord? The writer of Scripture seems
to think so. He said, Lord, don't make me
poor lest to steal, but don't make me rich lest I forget Thee. Times of prosperity and blessings
are dangerous. It's not always a blessing. It's
not always a blessing to be prosperous. It's not always a blessing. And
it's a dangerous time. It's not always a blessing to
be in good health. No, sir, it's not always a blessing to know
that you don't have to worry about what you're going to eat,
drink, or wear. You don't have to be concerned about it. That's not
always a blessing. Times of prosperity and plenty are times of great
danger. Forgetting the Lord. And he says
this is constant. And forget not, my soul, bless
the Lord, and don't forget, my soul, his benefits. And then
it's specific. The psalmist begins to point
out some of those benefits, and we're going to look at those
for a few moments. First of all, he says, The Lord redeemeth my
life, or the Lord forgiveth all my iniquities, verse 3, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. There are three things that we
need to learn about forgiveness. First of all, forgiveness is
in God. It's in God. It's not in the
church. It's not in the preacher's hand.
It's not in the priest. It's in God. Speaking of our
Lord Jesus Christ, he said, in whom we have forgiveness. It's
in Christ. Forgiveness is in Christ. That's
where forgiveness is. It's not in confession. It's
not in repentance. It's not in promising to do better.
Forgiveness is in Christ. God forgives me because Christ
paid my debt. He forgives me because Christ
suffered in my stead. Forgiveness is in Christ. That's
where it is. It's in Christ. And forgiveness
is from Christ. None but God can forgive sin. It's from his hand. And then
forgiveness is complete. He says, He forgiveth all thine
iniquities. Not some of them, not many of
them. I really truly believe some of us are laboring under
the impression that God forgives some sins, and some
it doesn't. I really do. I believe some of
us are laboring under the impression that the worst of our iniquities
are forgiven, and then the rest of them, they're not taken care
of effectively. But David says here, the Lord
forgiveth all thine iniquities. The blood of Jesus Christ, John
said, cleanseth us from all sin. Would you feel me boasting if
I told you tonight what I believe about forgiveness? I don't believe
in the sight of God. I sincerely, this is my sincere
confidence and faith, I don't believe in the eyes of God tonight
that I have a single sin, not a single one. I do not believe
that before the God of heaven that This person right here has
one single mark or one single taint or atom of iniquity. I am, in God's eyes, as perfect
as his son. Do you believe that? Well, let
me tell you this. If you don't believe that, if
you can't see that, if you can't enter into that, doesn't the
Scripture tell us that Just one offense is able to destroy us? Huh? In other words, how much
sin does a person have to have on him to incur the wrath of
God? To offend in one point of the
law is to be guilty of the whole law. So if I have just one sin
against me, that sin will damn my soul. If Christ paid for all
my sins but one, then I cannot be saved. There's no way for
me to be saved. Is there? David said, he forgiveth all
thine iniquities. Turn to the book of Colossians,
Ephesians first. Let me show you three verses.
First of all, the book of Ephesians. This ought to give you some assurance
and confidence and joy. I don't know why we deprive ourselves
of the joy that God intends for us to have. Look at Ephesians
1 forward, "...according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy," holy,
"...and without blame before him." Holy and without blame. Look at Colossians, if you will.
Turn to the book of Colossians, chapter 1, verse 22. Colossians
1, 22, "...in the body of his flesh through death, to present
you holy." unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. Now turn to the
book of Jude. In the book of Jude, verse 24, "...now unto him that is able
to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless." Faultless. You say, but that's at the judgment.
No, sir, that's right now. You say, but that's in the millennium.
No, sir, that's right now. Christ presents you falsely.
His blood cleanseth us from all sin. In Christ we don't have
any sin. That's what I'm preaching. That's
what I'm teaching. We're absolutely free from any
sin. He forgiveth all thine iniquities. All right, look at the next line,
the next benefit. Don't forget his benefits. He
forgiveth all thine iniquities. He healeth all thy diseases. Now, the diseases of the body
are the results of sin. And God does heal them when it's
for our good and His glory. But that's not what David's talking
about here. Any preacher that preaches from this scripture
here and preaches the healing of the body from this verse of
scripture right here has missed the thought entirely. And God
does heal. But we're not talking here of
physical healing. Not at all. We're talking here
of spiritual diseases. That's what we're talking about.
You know why I know that? All right, watch this. He says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine
iniquities. I am pure of soul. I am perfect of soul. I am holy
in God's sight. I have been forgiven. Now, if
the next line means physical ailments, then he doesn't heal
all my diseases, because I'm about bent over right now. And
broke him too, Eddie. He hadn't healed that yet. And
I don't expect him to right now. So that'd be wrong there, wouldn't
it? If he's talking about physical infirmities. Roe, you're not
perfectly healed. Are you in body? You suffer.
All right, then that's not so. But this is so. He has healed
all your diseases. He's healed all my diseases.
Because these are not physical ailments here. These are spiritual
ailments. And they are healed, say so.
They are healed just like my sins are all forgiven. They're
all put away. He separated my sins from me
as far as I don't have any sin. That's right. I didn't say I
didn't sin. I said I don't have any sins
in God's sight. God looks at me in Christ. I'm
not an individual out here running around. God sees Christ and then
he sees me. That's what the song says. I
don't want him to see me at all outside of Christ. He sees me
in Christ. God deals with us as sons. God
chastens his sons. God corrects his sons. God Almighty
puts us through trials and tribulations and these things to make us what
we ought to be. But God does not punish his sons
for sin because we don't have any. Christ has already paid
for our sins. Already. We don't have any sin. And we don't have any spiritual
diseases. Now, why are sins called disease? Well, first of all, because sin
destroys moral beauty, just like disease destroys physical beauty. Sin causes pain. and distress,
just like physical ailments cause pain and distress. And sin finally
leads to death. It finally leads to death, just
like physical ailment finally leads to death. But our Lord
came to forgive our iniquities and heal our diseases. He bore
our griefs and our sorrows, our sicknesses and our diseases spiritually. Look at Luke 4. Let's read something
over here. Luke 4, verse 18. Now listen to our Lord talking
about his mission, his ministry. He says in Luke 4, verse 18,
He'd gone back and picked up a Messianic promise, and he's
talking about himself. He says, "...the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Those
are all spiritual diseases. And my spiritual diseases have
been healed. just like my sins have been forgiven. Our eyes were bland to the glory
of Christ, now he has made us to see. Our ears were deaf to
the voice of God, he has made us to hear. Our affections caused
us to hate what we ought to love and love what we ought to hate,
but he has given us new affections. The whole head, he said, is sick,
the whole heart is faint. Mentally, And affectionately,
we've been sick, now we're made well. He's healed our diseases. I really believe, and I'm speaking
as plainly to you as I can, I really believe there are not a whole
lot of professing Christians who have really entered into
what Christ did when he died for our sins. I really believe
there are not a whole lot of professing Christians who really
believe in salvation wholly of grace, completely of grace. We are by nature Arminians. We are by nature believers in
works. And the majority of professing
believers, and many in the camp of the grace people, are still
going about to various degrees, working out their own righteousness. So the only man, the only person,
woman here tonight, who is not to some measure working out a
righteousness of your own before God, is that person who can say,
Holy of grace, completely of grace, for the glory of God's
grace, I am totally forgiven of all my sins, not because of
anything I promise or do or have done or shall ever do or shall
not do, but because Christ died for my sins. Anything other than
that is works for salvation. He has forgiven all my iniquities. He has healed all my diseases. They are healed. My spiritual
diseases and infirmities are healed. This is not physical
diseases because some of you are sick right now and God hasn't
healed your diseases. And some of us are going to get
sick and die. That's to be expected. That's
to be expected. Look at the next line. who redeemeth
thy life from destruction." Now wait a minute. If we're talking
here about physical disease and suffering and death, then that's
not true either, because in a few years I'm going to die. I'm subject to these things in
the flesh. I may have heart trouble right
now. I may have cancer or leukemia
right now. The instrument of death may already
be at work. This body is going to be destroyed.
God said, Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return. This body
is going to be destroyed. But this is not my life. This
body is not my life. Somebody said one time, that
means that God won't let any of his children suffer a terrible,
humiliating death or a tragic death. That's not so. You look at that door open and
that man comes in with that big old tray, and sitting up in the
middle of that tray is the head of one of the greatest men of
God that ever lived, John the Baptist. and then tell me that
some of God's people won't be killed in a blinding, head-on
collision and so deformed that you won't be able to recognize
who they are? Maybe. Maybe. One of God's children may crash
in an airplane and be totally burned beyond recognition. It
may be. I don't know. We're not talking
here about physical diseases and physical destruction. Well,
on the same subject, the Lord has forgiven all my iniquities,
He's healed all my diseases, and He's already redeemed my
life, my real life, my eternal life, from destruction. As my
kinsman redeemer, He's redeemed me from spiritual bankruptcy.
He's restored my inheritance. I have it back. What Adam lost,
my Lord's already purchased. It's mine again. Just like Boaz
bought back from bankruptcy Naomi and Ruth, he brought them back. My righteous representative has
redeemed me from the curse of the law. We are not under the
curse of the law. It's gone. It is canceled. I'm not under law, I'm under
God's grace. My suffering substitute has redeemed
me from the justice of God. There is nothing. The justice
of God can't touch my life. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Who is He that condemned me? My risen Lord has redeemed me
from the grave. The grave can't hold me. My great
high priest has redeemed me from hell. Hell can't touch me. rather than let's preach it like
it is or quit preaching. Let's quit salting down the Word
of God with the little works. God will do this if you'll do
that, and if you'll do the other, and if you'll remain true, and
if you don't stumble, and if you don't do this, that, and
the other. That's not what Scripture says here. He says, Bless the
Lord, my innermost being, all that is within me. Forget not
his benefits. He has forgiven my iniquities. He has healed my diseases. He has redeemed my life from
destruction. It's all been done. Tis done.
The great transaction's done. I am my Lord's and he is mine.
And my friends, that's the only place that any honest, open-minded
person can find any comfort. Because there's too much flesh
in every one of us, and too much carnality in every one of us,
and too much failure in every one of us. If God stood by the
door waiting for me to sin, in order to hit me with a whip,
he'd whip me all day long. He's even with me while I'm dreaming.
But that's not so. It's just not so. My sins are
under the blood of Jesus, totally. Look at the next one. He crowneth
thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Do you know what
that means? Well, there are two applications
here. Let me give you the first one,
and then I'll give you the one I believe is the correct interpretation. Earthly kings are crowned with
crowns made of corruptible things such as silver and gold and diamonds,
which makes them kings of earthly dominion, which consists of material
wealth, which is all temporary and ceases with death. And we
are crowned with an eternal crown, a crown of righteousness, and
we are kings in the kingdom of God. And we are heirs of Christ
and joint heirs with Christ, and we shall reign with him forever.
But this word crowned here means to dignify or to beautify. And this is what he's saying.
We are dignified, we are beautified with the love, mercy, and grace
of God. Our glory is not in robes of
purple, but in robes of righteousness. We are crowned not with crowns
of gold or silver, but we are crowned with a crown of glory. We are kings of an eternal kingdom. We shall reign with Christ eternally,
but right now we are robed in the righteousness of Christ and
crowned with the glory of Christ, and we have a dignity and a beauty
about us which God gives to all his sons, crowned with lovingkindness,
surrounded with mercy." And then the fifth verse, look at this,
"...he satisfieth thy mouth with good things." Now, the word mouth
here is the word ornament, and what he is saying here is that
He crowns us with loving kindness and he satisfies all our need
for beauty and for dress with good. We get a picture here of,
you know, Somebody said this, and this is true, that God supplies
our food and sunshine and good things to eat and all of this,
but this here, there are times when we don't have good things
to eat. There are times when God's true
servants have been starving, but God still met and satisfied
their spiritual needs. These are spiritual needs. This
is the thing we're thinking about. Our minds, if I can make this
clear, what I'm trying to say to you, and this is the true
interpretation here, our minds are so connected with materialism,
with the things of this world, that we read this, and this is
the way we read it. God's forgiven my iniquities,
and He'll heal me when I get sick. And He'll redeem my life
from any sudden death or tragedy. He'll protect me and He'll watch
over me and over my family and nothing bad's going to happen.
And he's going to crown me with loving kindness and tender mercies.
Everything's going to go my way and God is going to be beautiful
and happy. And then God's going to satisfy
my mouth. We're going to have plenty of watermelon and strawberries
and peaches and cream and all of these things. And that's the
way it's in. But every bit of this, now you
study this a little bit. Because if that's what that means,
then in time of imprisonment, In terms of suffering on the
mission field, over here in Hebrews, when it talked about them living
in caves, when it talked about them fleeing from the magistrates,
when it talked about some of them starving, when it talked
about them being sawn asunder and torn apart and burned at
the stake, then Cecil Easting didn't apply to those people. What's being preached in the
United States of America today for the gospel, if that's what
this is, that if you believe on Jesus, God will fill up your
barns and fill up your church and fill up your heart and fill
up your house. If that's what it is, then when I come to the
place of suffering and trial and sorrow, of which many of
you have had much, then these things are not true. But these
must be read. When we read this, we must read
it. Now listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. It must apply at all times to
all God's people. It's true in sickness or health.
It's true in poverty or wealth. It's true in youth or old age.
It's true in success or failure. It's true in the bottom of the
darkest pit of temptation or the highest mountain of praise.
And this is what these verses are saying, so that it applies
to every believer every day of his life. He's forgiven all my
sins. I don't have any sins. He's healed
all my spiritual diseases. He's given me eyes to see, whereas
once I was blind. He's given me ears to hear, whereas
once I was deaf. He's given me a heart to understand,
whereas once my heart was diseased. He's given me wisdom, whereas
once my whole head was sick. He's given me legs to walk, whereas
once in Adam I was lame. He's given me life, whereas once
I was dead. All my spiritual diseases are
healed. In Christ I am whole. He makes
the wounded whole. All right? And he crowneth thy
life, he crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercy. He's made me a son. He's made me a king. I'm a king.
I reign in the kingdom of God. I reign with Jesus Christ. I'm
an heir of Christ. I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
I am rich. I may be the poorest man on this
earth, but in Christ I am rich. I am rich. I have all the benefits
and blessings of a son in the kingdom of God. I am robed, not
in a purple robe, I'm robed in the righteousness of Christ.
I may be naked. They may throw me in a communist prison, strip
all my clothes off me, and starve me till I'm nothing but skin
and bones for not recanting and denying Christ. But I'll tell
you, I'm crowned with the glory of God's Son. I may be the ugliest
creature on earth, but in God's sight I'm beautiful. I'm robed
in the righteousness of Christ, and I'm crowned with the glory
of Christ. And my forehead shines with his beauty. It's that way
right now. I'm a special, you're a special
people to the Lord, he said. You're crowned with glory. Crowned
with glory. And it's not talking about crowns
we're going to get because we won souls to Jesus. The thief
on the cross is crowned with the glory of Christ just as much
as the Apostle Paul. The thief on the cross is robed
in the spotless beauty of Christ's righteousness just as much as
Timothy. And he satisfies my mouth with
good things, he satisfies my ornament, my adornment, with
good. That's what that is, my dress. You look it up sometime, the
word mouth there is all that I crave, and this is not a physical
appetite, this is spiritual, all of my spiritual needs, my
spiritual craving, is satisfied in Christ. In Christ I have all
the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, holiness, and redemption I need.
I'm perfect. And then what's the last one
here? So that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Now, you'd be
surprised how many thoughts you can run into on this right here.
One writer said that when the, this is an old saying, that when
the eagle is old, that he's able to renew his youth with new feathers
and new strength. And they try to apply that, but
the scriptures do not deal with old sayings and old fables. God
never uses old sayings and old fables to illustrate anything,
so that's not what it means. Another person says that in glory
we're going to have eternal youth. Well, that's so too, but we're
talking about right now. Let's don't jump around, we're
talking about right now. Another one says that the youth here
is not the innocence of youth or the enjoyment of youth or
the development of youth, but the strength and power of youth
because the ego is strong. But old Dr. John Gill, I like
John Gill, he had this to say, and I think it's beautiful, and
I think it's what the Scripture is saying here. This is the youth
of grace. Just like all the rest of this
is great. He forgiveth all thine iniquities. He healeth all thy
diseases. He redeemeth thy life, thy eternal
life, thy spiritual life, from any destruction, the curse of
the law, the claims of justice. I've been redeemed. Nobody's
got any strings on me. Nobody's got any claim on me.
My life is already redeemed from destruction. I'm already crowned
with His glory and robed in His righteousness, and Christ has
satisfied every need. You know, a natural man is never
satisfied. He may be satiated for a while,
he may be filled up for a while, but he's never satisfied. But
we're satisfied. And I don't mean by that that
we're satisfied with ourselves or that we're satisfied with
our knowledge. We want to grow in grace and
knowledge. We're not satisfied with our holiness. We want to
become more like Christ. But you know what we're satisfied
with? All that God requires of me has been met in Christ. I'm
satisfied. All that the holy law of God
expects of me has been met in Christ. I'm satisfied. All that
the justice of God demands, my friend, of me has been met in
Christ. I'm satisfied. He's satisfied my spiritual mouth. All I need is in Christ. It's
met. It's satisfied. I don't have
to be troubled in the least about that. It's satisfying. Paul talked about whatsoever
state he was in to be content. Now listen to me. I'm using myself
as an example again. I came in last night from what
I was doing and sat down in the chair and couldn't get up. I
was not content. And you wouldn't have been either.
Now that's not what that's talking about. But I'll tell you this,
in the Lord I was content. You see what I'm trying to say?
I'm content with Christ. I'm content with all that he
gives. I don't want to hurt and you don't either. And anybody
says he does, he's content when he's hurting, he's content when
his little baby's sick and dying. Don't tell me God expects me
to be content like that. That's not what we're talking
about. Here's a man that his family's starving, and he's got
no way to make enough money to feed them groceries, and he's
content? No, he's not content. He won't be content until he
finds a job. He won't be content until something's coming in to
feed the children. But he's content in his relationship
with God, and he's content with what Christ has provided for
him, and he's contentâ€”you see what I'm saying? He's content. It's the providence of God that
has brought me this way, and I'm satisfied with His providence.
But I don't sit down and not use the means God has given me.
I don't know why we don't seek and find the spiritual application
of something, but we're so carnal, we're so natural. So carnal-minded
that we stop short of giving Christ the glory. We get the
glory ourselves. We come to something like that,
whatsoever state I am to be content, and you know who gets the glory?
We're saying, well, I'll sit here and let the rain come through
the roof, you know, and be content because this is where God wanted
me, and we're getting the glory right here. We're praising ourselves
for our piety, and God's not going to share His glory. What
we want to be content about isn't such as, I'm never content with
myself, content with Him and His will and His purpose. I hope
I'm making that clear. But let's look at this last line.
My youth is renewed like the eagle. This is what he's saying.
It's the youth of grace. True spiritual love, affection
and grace stays young. It stays young. Our love for
Christ and his Word stays young. Our zeal for Christ, worship,
fellowship stays young. Our joy and comfort in the Spirit
stays young. Our interest in the kingdom of
God stays young. The outward man may decay. But
the inward man is renewed day by day. It stays young. Well, what does it mean, preacher,
like the eagle? This is what I believe it means. Even in old age, the eagle is
lively and vigorous. His eye is keen and his wings
are strong, even in old age. And God's people, even in old
age, their bodies may be decaying on the outside. But on the inside,
their spiritual eye is keen. Their spiritual interest is sharp.
Their spiritual ears are open to God's Word. Let me show you
what I'm talking about. Turn to Isaiah 40, and I'll close
with it. I've preached way too long, but
let's turn to Isaiah 40. This is what I'm talking about
when I said this chapter, this psalm, is a Bible in itself. Look at Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40,
verse 28. Isaiah 40, 28-31, now listen
to this, "...hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint and to them that
have no might, he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and
be weary," talking about physically, "...and the young men shall utterly
fail," that's the natural man, "...but they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk
and not faint. That's spiritual youth. That's
the youth of grace. You may be saved 25 years, and
it's always new. You may be saved 30 years or
40 years, but the Word of God is always fresh. and always new
and always beautiful. You see what I'm saying? It's
not to tell me the old story. It's old, but it's always new.
It's always new. Our Father, we're grateful for
thy word. These natural hearts and minds
are so prone to take thy word to the physical and to the material,
and to miss the spiritual blessings, the peace, the rest, the joy
that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray that thou would
take the word that we read tonight, the comments that we have felt,
the letter of thy spirit to present, and use them for the growth of
thy people, the confidence of thy people, the rest, peace of
thy people. And, O Lord, if there be those
here tonight who have never entered into his rest, who have never
seen his mercy and his grace and that unspeakable gift of
thy love, Christ Jesus the Lord, may they be given a spiritual
appetite to flee to Christ, to look to Christ, to rest in him. We ask it for his glory and in
his name. Amen.

Bless the Lord O My Soul

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