Thankfulness： Let The Redeemed of The Lord Say So

Father, I pray that You'd help us at this time to open up Your Word. I pray that You would be glorified in it. I ask this in Christ's name, Amen. My desire is to have us just look at Psalm 107 and think about it for a few minutes. Before Ruby and I came back, as I told you, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our British brethren. And in that season of doing so, I wanted to just think about thanksgiving. I think you know this, that in Romans 1, where we see that God's wrath is revealed, you know that one of the things that the people against whom that wrath is directed is that they don't give thanks to God. Thanksgiving. That's what we find here in Psalm 107. So, I want us to think about this, because I know we have different people using different translations. And one of the things that's difficult, I'd really like to have us glued to the text as we go through this. And it's difficult. I examine a bunch of different translations. And it's very difficult when you have a lot of variations in verbiage with a given text. It's the same thing over there in England. We've got people that are using the ESV and people that use the New King James, and there's an assortment. And I think we've got others that are using other translations. Let's first just try to break this down. This first part will be just technical realities, and then we'll dive into the passage itself. The first three verses are introduction. Let me just tell you the lay of the land here. You get three verses of introduction, and then what you get is basically four parables that reflect the reality of the three introductory verses. So let's just look at the introduction. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Now, I'm reading from the ESV, so I know if you have a different translation, you're going to get different wording here. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. So you see right off, this is a psalm of thanksgiving. And brethren, this has to do with letting the redeemed of the Lord say so. This is about the redeemed giving thanks. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. All your translations say He's good. For His... Now, this is a Hebrew word, chesed. Now, I am no Hebrew scholar, so my anglicized pronunciation is chesed. That is probably way off. But, brethren, the thing is this, our translations have a variety of wording here. And the reason is this, this is a word that anytime you get translations that are translating all over the place, it's because the word has a broadness to it. But it is a sweet word, chesed. It can mean steadfast love. The KJV says mercy. Young's Literal says kindness. The New American Standard says loving kindness. My Hebrew lexicon says lasting loyalty, faithfulness, graciousness. But brethren, this is a quality of God towards the redeemed that is forever. So you just think of that. How does God think towards you? How is His disposition towards you? It's like a multifaceted word. It's one of steadfast love, mercy, kindness, loving kindness, lasting loyalty, faithfulness, graciousness that endures forever. Now what's key here is this, when you drop down to the four illustrations, the same word pops up in each one of these portions. And I want to show you where it is. Verse 8, it says again in the ESV, let them thank the Lord for His... Now here's what's interesting, the ESV uses the same word in verse 1 that is used in verse 8, steadfast love, because it's the same word. But the KJV doesn't. The New American Standard uses loving kindness in both places. The ESV uses steadfast love in both places. But the King James actually switches verbiage. That's why I'm wanting to really point out that in the original, it's the same word. The KJV jumps to goodness here, but it is the same word that we got back up there that the King James Version translated mercy or steadfast love. Now what's key about this? Well, it's this, that each one of these little parables, each one of these portions here, you see what's happening is the author, the psalmist is coming back to this original thought. The KJV says, oh, that men, men is in italics. It's not there in the original. The KJV says men, the ESV says let them. But you see what it is. Thank the Lord for the same thing that was said back up in 1. For His steadfast love or His mercy, His kindness, His loving kindness, His lasting loyalty, faithfulness, graciousness. And this keeps being repeated. There's repetition here. If you drop down to verse 15, it's the same. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love. You drop down to verse 21. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love. You see what's happening. It happens again. It happens four times here. We get the introduction where the author is saying, praise the Lord, thank the Lord for this quality of God towards you. And then what we get is this repetition of four different accounts where the author is showing us. He's basically giving fuel for this fire of praise in each one of these. And so, the author, four specific examples of the redeemed being redeemed, and he's wanting us to say so. So we go back up to verse 2. I don't think I got that far. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble, or your translation may say the hand of the enemy, and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Now that language right there, you know what Jesus said about those who are going to sit at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. You know what the psalmist sees? He sees no matter what color of your skin, no matter what dialect you may be speaking, if you come from that direction, or that direction, or that direction, that direction, you come up from Mexico or South America, or you're coming over from Europe or from Africa, or you're coming down from Canada, or coming off from China, he sees these people from all over the world, the redeemed, they're coming from the east and the west and the north and the south, and it doesn't matter where you're coming from. It doesn't matter who your lineage is. It doesn't matter. What he sees is they're all saying the same thing. They're all thanking the Lord for the same thing. They're praising for the same thing. Brethren, the thing is this, I'll tell you this, this is one of the huge differentiations between the genuine Christianity and mere moralists. Religion. What is it? Brethren, it's this aspect of praise. This is what separates. You know what happens when a true Christian gets saved? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You've got something to say when you truly get saved. And that's what he's bringing out here. And it doesn't matter which direction you come from or what country you come from. The reality is, you save somebody in Africa, you save somebody in Canada. What happens? Well, there's praise on their lips. They know God has done something. In whatever language they want to say, something of God's mercy or kindness or loving kindness or steadfast love has been directed towards them and they can hardly fathom it. It's like this is unbelievable that God would do this to me after all the things that I've done. And so, brethren, a person that's merely moral, you know what happens. There's something missing from this. Oh, they may know the facts. They may know the five points. I hope when you sing those songs, see, we know this, brethren, we know it. You're reading Scripture. I can imagine the men that prepare to preach. I mean, this happens at times. You know, you're going through and you're going through all the technicalities of it, but sometimes it just breaks out off that page where you're floored by it. It takes your breath away. You need to fall out of the chair and on your face. There's such a gratitude. Brethren, this is what differentiates just the mere religionist over against the true Christianity of Scripture. What thankfulness! Brethren, I know we often tell people, don't go by emotions. And I know we say that. Because faith is not specifically an emotion. It's a trust in a person. I recognize that, but brethren, you can't get away from it. The fact is that thankfulness has everything to do with what we feel. It has to do with an overflow of emotion that comes out. When you hear the psalmist say, oh, give thanks to the Lord. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. What you have to ask yourself is this, is there any response in here? Do you feel anything? When he says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, are you ready to say so? So, let's look at this. We've got four illustrations. And I can just tell you, as I was studying through Thanksgiving and I came across this psalm, because I was just searching thanks, and this came up. And as I thought through these four illustrations captured by the psalmist here, I know this, where I come from, this resonates with me. So look at v. 4. Some. Now look, there's no noun. There's no pronoun. What you get is a verb here that's in the plural. And so, depending on the translation you have, I like how the ESV does this because it breaks these four sections. In the ESV, you look at v. 4, v. 10, v. 17, v. 23, and you get the same, Some wandered. Some sat in darkness. Some were fools. Some went down to the sea. It gets broken up neatly and nicely in some translations. Yours may not be so neat and nice, but it's still the same. You have basically four different divisions here. Notice v. 4. Some wandered in desert waste, finding no way to a city to dwell in. Wow! I mean, what imagery when you let your mind go back and forth throughout Scripture about just people looking for a city. They're hungry. V. 5, they're thirsty. Their soul fainted within them. Think of this. This is a picture of the sinner. Wandering. It's like you're looking for something, but you don't know where it is. For some of you, this is the case now undoubtedly. For many of us, it's where we came from. Wandering. This is the person that's just they're groping, they're grasping, they're looking. It's the person that is awakened to something. Just a longing. A lot of times, it's an emptiness. It's like the promise. The promise of the city. The city is a desirable place. It's a place you want to be. It's the paradise of God. That's what it is. It's that city. We're not talking New York City. Some foul thing where you've got grates in the ground and horrible smells come up from the subway. It's not that. This is the kind of city that is the paradise. This is the place where God dwells. This is the place where we see Him face to face. This is the kind of city Abraham was looking for. And this person, it's like they have a sense of something more. I can remember Craig talking about Brady when he won his first Super Bowl. And afterwards, he went to his hotel room and he sat down and he just said, is this it? People in this world, they're just grasping. They're feeling for something. There's a hunger. That's what it says. They're hungry. You know what a hunger is? There's a desire after something. And so often people, they have a desire, but they hardly know what it is they're longing for. They're looking for something. They're longing. They're fainting. It's like some deep ache in them. You just feel it. And it's like you've tried this, but it's like a mouth full of gravel and just dust. It's like so many promises. Brethren, what this is, the wandering one. A stray. This is the lost person. This is the person that's just very lonely. They're depressed. They're distressed. And there is no place to rest. They can't find rest for their soul. This is desert waste. Trackless waste. That's what's being described here. They can't find their way. There's a sense that there is a way. They grope as at noonday, the Bible says in one place. They can't find their way. They've got a sense that there's got to be more than this. There's a sense that there is a right way, but they can't find it. They've tried searching. It always seems in vain. They come across other people that claim to have found the city. It seems like when they look around for it, they can't find it. Sometimes it's these people that say, well, I tried to repent, I tried to believe, but I can't find it. Others say they can find it, why can't I find it? Others say they can see it. I look, I strain my eyes. All I come across is wilderness, emptiness, just endless wandering. One thing to another. Emptiness. There's so many promises. Brethren, you know what God has promised. This city, Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Our fathers desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. God has prepared for them a city. You've come to the Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. It's a place to be at rest. You know what it is. It's a place where there's no more death. It's a place where every tear is wiped away. It's a place where your warfare has ended. The way of the transgressor is hard. It's a place where that hardness is gone. There's separation and there's darkness. I can't find the face of God anymore. It's been lost. Paradise lost. And there's a groping. You just say this, woe, woe to that man or that woman who is satisfied here. Satisfied with sin. This is living. This is life. But you get this purse. They're looking. They're looking. Brethren, you know what happens? When we're young, when we're young and we face this wilderness, it's new. It's exciting. There's so many mysterious things to be investigated. You know what we think when we're young? Ah, there's lots of cities. I'll find a bunch of them. I can settle down in any of them. It's just a matter of which one to settle in. We might catch a glimpse of an old person. You know, maybe you go to a nursing home and you visit some grandfather or grandmother, and you see the emptiness. Well, they never found it. Oh, but you're going to be different. You get all sorts of old people and they're old and they're miserable and they're empty, but when you're young, you just think, I'm going to find it. I'm going to be different. People tell us, well, the city is this way. And you know what the city is? We're talking about a place that's peopled by people that if they sit in the sunshine of God's grace and kindness and His smile, and they're gathered in to His side, they're full of awe, they're full of the sense of the forgiveness of their sins. Joy. Unspeakable, full of glory. We're talking about something, listen, God designed us, and He knows what most perfectly is going to satisfy us. We're talking about that place where it's altogether ecstasy. It's the highest. It's the greatest. There's nothing better than this place. It's that kind of thing. And you know what? All through life, when you're young, somebody says, well, the city's this way. Yeah, it's that way! And we all go running that way. And you kind of run out of steam and you realize I don't know if it's this way. Somebody else says, no, it's over here. Let's go try this. And so you run over there, and then you kind of run out of breath going that way, and you find it's not there. And you've got all these voices and they're saying this way, this way. And then you find out that the guys with the voices, the ladies with the voices, they don't even know where it is. You find out we're all going in circles here. We're all going this way and we're going that way, and now we're getting older. And some of the voices just say, just give it up. There is no city. It's all evolution. You're just going to die and you're going to be like the dirt. It's all chance. There's no city. There's no God. There's no paradise. Just stop looking. And you know what happens? You get older. One of the reasons why the nursing home ministries can be so good, oh, I've got images in my mind that will never go away. Old people sitting in a wheelchair, spit running down their face, and the look in their eyes is one of emptiness and terror. Well, you go back 50 years, they thought the city's out there. They've got time. They're going to find it. But look at them now. You see, when you're young, you think, not me. I won't be there. Now they're just getting older and older and they're swallowed up by the mist. Hopeless. City-less. Look what it says in v. 6. Not hopeless. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. And you see the problem? They'd always been looking the wrong way. They were always looking horizontally. And now, what they do, they look up and they cry out. And He led them by a straight way. This is the narrow way we looked at last week. The narrow way of the Sermon on the Mount. Until they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love for His wondrous works to the children of man, for He satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul He fills with good things. Brethren, this is the whole Gospel right here. The fact is they cried to the Lord. And the thing that you want to see is not until they cried to the Lord did the Lord arise and deliver them from their wandering. Brethren, He didn't move, He didn't react, He didn't deliver them, He didn't help them to find the city. Did you get that? Straight way. Straight way where? Straight way to the city. He didn't take you by some meandering way. Straight there. Bang! Christ is the way. You don't come to the Father except that's the straight way. And you see what it says here? Brethren, these people were fainting. That's what it said. You know what that tells me? Your cry does not need to be strong, loud, or anything other than the last groan of a fainting one. That's it. Brethren, Christ is this way. And if you're without Christ, you are wandering and you are lost and you are in the wilderness. You're helpless. You're hopeless. What does it say? Brethren, without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, you're strangers to the covenants of promise. You have no hope. You're without God. You're in the world. I'll just tell you this, this gives you reason to cry in your trouble and be delivered. And here's the thing, where are you? Brethren, if you can say, I was this way, then what he's saying is, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. That's what this is all about. You wandered there and you found the city and you found Christ and you've got that hope and you're now on that straight way. He says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. The question to ask is this, where are you? Because if you know you're still in that wandering wasteland, what are you going to do? Are you just going to hear me and sit back and kind of like observe it? What? It's for somebody else? If you recognize you're in this place, don't think you're going to outwit and outsmart God. Don't think when you think of some old person and they're now decaying and they can't use their teeth and their ears don't work and they've got that hollow look in their face, don't think you're going to escape that. Because death is coming. And you can't shake it off your tail. You may think you're young and you've got time. Brethren, you want to grasp this. Run with it. Cry out to Him. You say, I've cried before. Hey, this says if you cry, He's coming. Illustration 2, verse 10, some sat in darkness. See, these people are sitters. The other people were wandering. These people sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So He bowed their hearts down with hard labor. They fell down with none to help. The former people wandered. These sit, and you see where they sit, under a cold, cold shadow. They've got death's hand reaching for them. And it's coming, but they can't move. They can't run. They can't flee. They can't hide. You see the picture here. They're sitting. They're chained. They're falling down. These people are not wandering. These people are not moving. These people are not able to move. They rebelled against the words of God. That's what it says. They spurned His counsel. You know what happens? We imagine, and the devil's right there to tell us this, and he told our first father this, you know what, when you spurn God's laws, that's what it means to be free. Isn't that what he tells us? Young people, don't concern yourself that because of fornication, because of that, the wrath of God is coming. Don't concern yourself with that. Don't concern yourself that thanklessness brings the wrath of God. Don't concern yourself with such things. Just live it up. You've got a long time. Enjoy the world. Enjoy the sins. Oh, it's pleasurable. Go out there and live it up. You see, that's the voices that come at us. That's what the commercials tell us. This is the beer commercial life. This is the way to fun. Live it up! This is freedom! Do you hear what's being said? It may tout itself as freedom, but these people are building their own dungeon around themselves. With every sin, the shackles grow heavier and heavier until they fell down. They're caught. The people in the previous way, they were wandering. They were going their own way. Here, this is different. These pathetic souls, they've been lured into a trap. You see, the devil's house is right there to tell us. God wants to keep you from being free. God's laws are so restrictive. God's a killjoy. He doesn't want you to have fun. His Word, His counsels. Look, how intrusive. How inconvenient is that? Seriously? I can't get drunk? I can't run around and carouse and go to parties and live that life? Seriously? The world, the devil's right there. The world is before you. That's what he did to Jesus. There's all these cities. There's all the riches of the world. You see, young people, they look at all this. Their eyes just glitter and wow! There it all is. It's all before me. The pleasures of sin. That's freedom. You better beware. You see what it says at the end of that? Introductory statement? There's none to help. You know what happens when you suddenly look up and you realize your sin is a trap? Now the bars with every sin you committed, you hardened your heart, and now all of a sudden, you're trapped in the depths of your own depravity and fallenness and you've fallen down. And there's none to help you get up all those friends that you thought, oh, those are my friends. Yeah, where are they now? They're not there to help you. And you're trapped. Mom and dad can't help you. There's none to help. That's precisely what it says here. Precisely. None to help. What? What's that? I mean, what's going on here? Here's a man in prison. He's completely helpless. How did he get there? You know how he got there? His own deliberate refusal to heed what God says. That's precisely what it says here. And now he's helplessly ensnared. And you know how it is. It's like the guy that starts out with a mild drug. It's like the guy that gets a prescription and he takes it and he only needs so much. But then what happens? He hardens into something where more and more and more and more. One sin hardens you into the next. You just think about the wretchedness of people's souls that are just burned out on sin. The way they can't hardly feel anymore. The pleasure of it all is gone. They've just squandered their life and wrecked themselves. That's the picture here. Man made in the image of God. Ruined. He's shattered. Again, I say go back to the nursing home and just look at some of the people. Just look. Empty souls in prison under the shadow of death. That's the picture you have here. Gloom. What's in the future? Just blackness, darkness, hopelessness, forsaken. And now the devil just smiles. Oh, before he was so ready to entice you, now he just laughs at you. You made your bed. Now sleep in it. But here's the thing. No matter how dark, no matter how close death is, no matter how fallen, the same thing happens. V. 13, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. You say, that's the thing we get every single time here. Brethren, I'll tell you this. You that don't know Christ, listen, if you can get anything from this, it is not that He stiff arms you. He does not stand off at a distance. You can hear the same thing you heard from the Lord Jesus Christ. Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. They cried. Do you know something you find in Scripture? People that cry to the Lord, He doesn't resist that cry. And it doesn't matter if you're Ahab or Manasseh. You cry to the Lord, He hears. And you've got that testimony in Scripture. It says, He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death and burst their bonds apart. You've got to love that. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man. For He shatters the doors of bronze. Oh, you've got to... He shatters it! That thing that trapped you, He shatters it. Cuts into the bars of iron. You see, you call, He shines His light into the darkness. You call, He brings life under the shadow of death. He'll bestow life. He's the bar breaker. That's what it says here. He sets the captive free. We know that. Nope, but brethren, nobody is brought out of the prison until they cry for help. Illustration number three, verse 17. Some were fools through their sinful ways or rebellious ways or transgression. Because of their iniquities, they've suffered affliction. Who are these people? These people are fools. And they brought upon themselves affliction. See, the first illustration, the people are hungering for something. These people don't even have an appetite. These people, they loathe any kind of food. There's a similarity with illustration number two in the fact that death is very close. They drew near to the gates of death. And if you drop down to verse 20, just notice this. When deliverance comes, He sent out His Word and healed them. I think that word healed... What you have is affliction, and the fact is these people, in whatever kind of affliction they had, they needed healing. What does that say? They're injured or they're sick. They're diseased. One or the other. Injury or sickness. No appetite. They don't feel. They've sent their hunger away. You come across some people and it's like they can't feel anything anymore. And the thing you get from this? They've sent their hunger away. And it's all their fault. And it says they're fools. You know, just recently, on Tuesdays, I went through the Proverbs with the folks over in Manchester. One of the things about foolishness and wisdom that typically jumps out at me is just this. The Proverbs says that if you are wise, you are wise for yourself. You see, foolishness is when people do things that harm themselves. These people are fools. That's what we're confronted with. Fool! They brought this upon themselves. You can imagine this person. This person is diseased. Maybe much like Isaiah describes. Putrefying sores. They've got wounds. They're wasted. They're thin. They're pale. They're just miserable. They're sickly. And the psalmist says that they're nearing the gates of death. A fool is someone who injures their own self. That's what these people have done. And man is a fool. You think about how easily the trivial little idols and stupid things that man will exchange his relationship with God for. Oh, you've got to eat that fruit. Adam, you fool. You walked with God in the cool of the day. You could have eaten from all the other fruit. God as a lawgiver told you not to eat one. But what was that one fruit compared to the fact that he got to walk with God? Nothing between. What a fool! And man has been that kind of fool ever since. That's the picture that we have here. If only I can get my teeth into that fruit. Some sin. You think about it. Sin promises so much. Life, health, happiness. But the fact is sin in Scripture is described as a wasting disease. It's like leprosy. It's some running sore of the soul. It's a cancer. It's like gangrene. It just rots us. And these people loathe food. They loathe bread. Some of you may be here. The way you describe this kind of person that doesn't feel anymore, are you just in a place where you feel like you're just existing? That's it. Just existing. You're feeling nothing but affliction. As I said before, the way of the transgressor is hard. But the same thing. Verse 19, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress. He sent out His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love. Brethren, if this resonates with you, you know what this is. This is a psalm. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. If any of you are feeling like, yes, God saved me from that kind of distress, then let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You can shout it out inside, but that's what this is all about. God is good to us. And He saves those that call upon Him. He sends His Word. That's where the healing comes from. Brethren, how many of us have found this book just to be balm for our souls? We began reading here, maybe not really certain, and suddenly we found life here because we found Christ here. We found the glory in the book. They cried and they were healed at once. Where formerly there's misery and there's wretchedness, He gives life. He gives life more abundantly. Health and vigor and power and purity and rejoicing. And then you have illustration number 4. Some went down to the sea in ships. Verse 23. Now you say, is this really a picture of some sinners? Oh yeah. Just keep going with it. They're doing business on the great waters. Are you sure this is talking about the redeemed being redeemed? Yep. They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. Now you see that evil plight. What we have here again is another picture of sinners. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. So again, another great example of sinners. Evil plight. You see this one, man's sinful life is like doing business on the waters in a storm. Up and down and up. This is the man who finds himself in troubled waters. Raging, billows tossed, up and down, howling gale. Now look, some of you can enter into this, but I come from the state where back in the 70's the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. I remember that. I remember my dad and his girlfriend making a big deal about that. Of course, there was a song. And I've watched a documentary or two on it. They set forth Green Bay. No, maybe not. I think north of there somewhere. They set forth from some port in Wisconsin. The south wind was blowing. The journey seemed promising. And I'll tell you what happened. They had a storm blow in across Lake Superior. 100 miles an hour winds. You know, there was another ship that was tracking the Edmund Fitzgerald. They didn't sink. That captain said he'd never seen higher seas on the Great Lakes. He said there was two waves that hit them. He was pretty certain they're the ones that took out the Edmund Fitzgerald. Hurricane force winds. Turbulent. These men are staggering, but not because they're drunk on alcohol. They're staggering because life takes you way up and way down. They come crashing down. They think that the Fitzgerald might have been lifted on both ends and broke in the middle or she just dove straight. They don't know. They don't know what happened. But I'll tell you, the hatches were given away. They were taken on water. It was beginning to lift. And this is a picture of some men's lives. You're just hit by one thing. You're hit by another thing. And it's just reeling back and forth. Hit by this and hit by that. And what you see in this account is God is the one commanding the storm. He brings it. Don't think when difficulties come in your life, God's absent from that. People always say, where's God when that happens? What this tells you is He's right there. He's not going to let you be comfortable in your sin and following the course of this world and find the Prince of the Power of the Air. He doesn't let men just breeze through very often. And now you need to recognize, these people are on their way to being redeemed. David does look at some men who are just very fat and very sleek. And they go all the way and they just slide out into eternity into hell. This is the man who God is seeing to it that there is a storm and they're being hit. The way of this transgressor is hard. And this man altogether knows it. This is the violent character of sin. And like I said before, that Edmund Fitzgerald, when they set out, it was nice. They had Indian summer. They had no idea. They were coming into a blizzard and hurricane force winds. And that's often like life is. Oh, I remember it. I remember in my last years in college, I thought I was in control of everything. I thought I could party with the wildest of the partiers and I could make money as an engineer and I could do all these things. And I had life right where I wanted it. And I was altogether in control. Oh, you know how it is when we're young. We're healthy. Everything's good. We feel good. Papa was talking last night to us when he was 20 years old and he was golden gloves. And how he thought he could just take on the world. And he felt so good. That's how we are. But I'll tell you, we're not in control. God is in control. And He sees to it. We think nothing can go wrong. But suddenly, the moorings are breaking loose, the hatch is giving way, and you see the picture mounting up and come crashing down, down, tossed by the winds and the waves and the storms of life. Our Bibles spell out life like it is. Storms within. Storms without. Storms within. Lust, desire, covetousness, anger. We're driven by these. Jealousy, envy. Rocked by these things. In and without. People doing things to us that we don't want them to do. People's loved ones dying that we don't want to die. Sicknesses coming on us that we don't want to come on. Circumstances in life. Things with money. It's just driven all over the place. Storms all over the place. We're just being rattled. Back and forth. Up and down. You go through the loss of all sorts of things. One thing's certain about this life, we don't own anything. And God shows us all the time He can take away anything whenever He wants. Have you ever noticed that? Loss. And these people stagger. And you see what it says there at the end of the description? They're at their wit's end. Their wit's end. You've done everything, and you just can't make it to the desired haven. They say if the Fitzgerald would have made it just another 10-15 miles, she would have had shelter. The desired haven eluded her. And they sank down into the depths. Here it is. Here at your wit's end. The desired haven is nowhere in sight. And you're going to sink. You don't know where you're at. You lost your bearing. You're in the storm. Here comes the next wave. That next one, the wave of God's wrath. It's too big. You can't handle it. You can't survive this. All seems hopeless. I mean, can you imagine hanging on a cross? And that's it. They're going to break my legs in a few minutes. I've lived my life as a thief. This is all over. This is done. I'm at my wit's end. I am at the end. I can't do anything here. Lord, remember me. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them. Brethren, I hope this is not vain repetition to you. No matter what the situation and no matter what the distress they're in and no matter how much they're at their wit's end, He made the storm to be still. And that's the Lord Jesus. Be still. I'll give you rest. I'll quiet your souls with My love. Doesn't Zephaniah say something like that? Brethren, that's the picture. All the billows of hell and the devil blow against us with this gale force. But you know what happens? This voice, it's just like the disciples when they were out there on the waters, a voice came over the storm. It is I. Don't be afraid. There it is. I've taken all your punishment. You're on this billowy sea. Let me tell you about seas. I've thrown your sins down into the depths to be remembered no more. That's the picture we have. I've died for you. I've taken your punishment. I've thrown your sins down, down, down into those depths. We sing that song, Hide Me, O My Savior, Hide, Till the storms of life are past. Brethren, this is the picture. This is a psalm of thanksgiving. Which ones of us can't say? Brethren, I'm telling you, if you're saved in this place, one or more of these illustrations, you can say, Amen, I was there. God brought me out. Praise the living God. Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of men. Oh, brethren, you know what's happened? Our little bark, our little boat, just billows all around and Jesus has stepped in front and He's taken this wave of the wrath of God. The biggest storm of all. Those dark clouds. He took it. And now we're free. The storm. Our warfare is past. And you know what? Even though, yes, this world is uncertain, and yes, there are trials to endure, there's peace like a river. My peace I leave with you. We have a peace in here that the externals can't take away. We're free. We're forgiven. We cried. I know I did. The Lord helped me. And in a moment, He rescued me. And that's happened to many of you. Brethren, those of us that are among the redeemed, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Thank You, Father. We pray to You, our Savior, who has rescued us from the distresses. Lord, we're the fools. We were fools. We chose anything and everything before You. And we found ourselves in such storm. We found ourselves in prisons. We found ourselves wandering. We found ourselves sick and full of putrefying sores. Lord, these descriptions so mirror our own experiences. Thank You that You did not leave us to perish. Leave us under that shadow of death. Thank You for life. Thank You for Christ. Thank You for not sparing that Son of Yours who is both God and man that sent Him to mediate, to save us to the uttermost from all that we needed to be saved from. Oh, we are the most privileged, the most honored. What have You done, Lord? What have You done? Just thank You. Lord, we know that that word is so inadequate. What language shall we borrow to thank Thee, dearest Friend? We thank You in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.