Psalm 107, and before we read the text, I want to say to the children, the young people here, that it may not seem obvious at first, but the burden of my message tonight is going to be geared to you. And though I hope that you always desire to pay attention, I'm going to encourage you, young people, to pay extra special attention to the Word of God tonight. Psalm 107, I will read the first nine verses as we begin, although primarily I'm going to be focusing on verse two. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. And He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city for habitation. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. For He satisfies the longing soul and He fills the hungry soul with goodness. Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank You for this opportunity to study the wonder of Your works and the greatness of Your mercy to the children of men. And Father, we do pray that as a result of what we hear tonight, that it would be said of all of us that we do give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Do open our eyes to your wonderful works and inflame our hearts to be filled with praise. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Now, in just a few days, most, if not all of us, are going to gather together, either with family or with friends or with a combination of the two, to celebrate our national holiday of Thanksgiving. Now, for most people, we would say that this holiday is set apart for joy and for feasting. But for many people, that will be all. I think all of us will enjoy a feast or other, and all of us, I trust, will experience a great deal of joy as we are with our family and with our friends. But I hope it doesn't end there. For those of us who know the Lord, there ought to be more than just feasting and fellowship, for it is intended to be a day to give thanks to God. But many people will gather together on Thanksgiving and enjoy the benefits and the bounty of God and never once bow their heads to give thanks to God on a day set aside for Thanksgiving. Now, in the passage before us, the psalmist is feeling what I could only call a holy sense of frustration as well as a holy zeal. There is a sense of frustration as he looks out around him and he sees how good God has been to men. And yet, he also sees that there are very few who acknowledge God. There are very few who praise God. There are very few who adore God and give thanks to God for who He is. and for what he has done. And he's frustrated. He sees people who are provided for by God. He sees people who are delivered by God. He sees all of these wonderful things that the Lord is doing, and yet he sees very little thanksgiving, very little praise. in the hearts of the people around him. And so, there is what I call this holy frustration. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord. But there is also this sense of zeal. A zeal in his heart. He's not just, as it were, complaining that men are not giving thanks to God. He is zealously promoting a spirit of thanksgiving to those who have thankless lives. He's telling them. In these words, that they ought to stop and meditate upon the goodness of God and in light of what God has done to live lives of thankful praise. Now, to give thanks to God is essentially to acknowledge God's goodness and God's favor toward us. And generally speaking, it is done before others. Thanksgiving is done in prayer and can be done in private. But this idea is publicly acknowledging the goodness of God, the kind of thing that we're going to seek to do on Tuesday night when we gather together for our annual Thanksgiving service. We're going to have fellowship and there's going to be, I imagine, plenty of food. But we are after we eat and after we have our fellowship, we're going to go around one after another, the men and women of the church and some of the young people, no doubt as well. are going to stand and proclaim the goodness of God before their brethren. They're going to speak of what God has done. Now, this text, as well as others in the Word of God, tell us that this ought to be done by all men. As Pastor John preached this morning, God's tender mercies are over all of His works. God is good to all of His creation and all of God's creation ought to return thanks to God so that whether you are a believer here or whether you are an unbeliever, whether you say you really believe the Bible or you say, I'm not so sure I do believe the Bible, you ought to render thanks to God. In fact, the Bible tells us that everything that has breath should praise the Lord. Psalm 103 and verse 22 tells us that God is to be blessed by all His works in all places of His dominion. Now, that pretty much covers everything, doesn't it? God is to be blessed by all His works in all places where He has dominion. So unless you can say here tonight, I'm not one of the works of God, or I've somehow managed to escape God's dominion, well, then you don't have to give thanks. But if you are the handiwork of God and you do live under His dominion, And if you don't know, you do. Then it is your duty to bless the Lord, your maker. In fact, the Bible does tell us as well that one of the reasons why God will judge the world at the end of the age is because men and women are ungrateful to God. It's one of the things that causes God's wrath to be stored up. It's simply because people don't ever even grunt out a thank you to God for all of the benefits that God has given men and women and children. receive benefit after benefit from the hand of God, and yet they're silent, silent in their hearts and silent with their tongues. But now, while I have sought briefly there to establish that it is the duty of all men to render thanks to God, I want to bring out tonight that it is the special duty of those who are called in our text the redeemed of the Lord. Verse 2 of our text, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Now, I have a very simple outline for this verse tonight. And I said to my wife earlier today, this is really my outline for every single sermon I preach. I don't just usually say it this way. And that is I want to expound the text. I want to illustrate the text and I want to apply the text. That's what I do every time I preach. But I don't usually state it quite that bare bones, but I'm going to do that tonight. Let's consider, first of all, an exposition of the text, a brief exposition of this text. Now, this song is obviously a song of thanksgiving. for the great deliverances that God has brought about for His people. And in the text and throughout the passage, five illustrations are given which highlight for us the power and the grace of God. I've read one of the illustrations in your hearing. Verses three through seven gives to us a description of God delivering His people from the hands of their enemy, breaking the bonds of the captives. They're led out into the wilderness and they cry out to God there and then they are brought into a city for habitation. And then in verses nine through 14, he describes how God came to his people in mercy after he had afflicted them because they were in rebellion against him. Their sin had brought them into a hard way. They had broken the covenant, and the curses that God had prescribed for covenant breakers had come upon them, and they were brought, the text tells us, to that place of darkness and of the shadows of death. But God in His mercy softened their hearts, and with their softer hearts they cried out to the Lord, and God brought them out of that dark place. And then in verses 16-20, we have a very closely related illustration, again, of God's tender forgiveness to a people that had been in rebellion against Him, and how, again, they were made to cry out to the Lord in their time of trouble, and how God here brought healing to them. And then we find another instance of God's deliverance in verses 23-30, where the writer describes God's deliverance for people on ships in the sea in the midst of storms. And you may recall some time ago, Pastor Salvador Gomez preached on that section from Psalm 107. God calms the storm. God delivers the sailors and God brings them graciously to their desired havens. And then in the concluding section of the psalm, he highlights for us the blessing and prosperity that God richly pours out upon the land. And he speaks there of God bringing forth fruit in a barren land and God even allowing the wicked to feast upon it. And then there is the description of blessing where there had been no blessing is put forth in terms of waters springing up in the desert. And then we find in conclusion and light of all of that, a description of God exalting the lowly and the humble and God bringing down the proud. Now, if you work your way through this psalm, you will find that the first four of these illustrations of God's deliverance are concluded by what I've already alluded to, that passionate desire that people would wake up and see that these things have the hand of God in them, that these things didn't just happen. They didn't get out of the storm by themselves, that they didn't make it out of captivity by themselves. They didn't soften their own heart. They didn't bring about their own deliverance. They didn't come from the place where they were in the shadow of death to the place where they were in the blazing light of God's goodness all by themselves. These things were not coincidences. It wasn't a coincidence that these things happened after they prayed. You know, hey, we cried out to God and a day or two or a few days later, deliverance came. Well, that's all just coincidence, isn't it? No, it's not a coincidence. They were delivered in light of God's mercy and in answer to their prayers. These things happened, in other words, under the gracious providence of a sovereign God and that reality is to be acknowledged. And again, you just go through. Verse 8, O that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Verse 15, O that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works. to the children of men. And then it's repeated with a little bit more description in verse 21. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. And then he says in verse 22, let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing. And then in verses 31 and 32, we read, oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness And for his wonderful works to the children of men, let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people and praise him in the company of the elders. And that gets back to what I alluded to early on, that Thanksgiving is not merely something silent in the heart, just between you and God at all times. That ought to be there. We ought to always be extolling God. in our own hearts, but here He is to be exalted in the assembly of the people. He is to be praised in the company of the elders or the leaders of the land. And then at the end of the psalm, we see something of the sorrow, but also the reality that only certain people are going to see this truth, even though many have benefited from God's goodness, only a few are going to return thanks. Verse 42, we read, the righteous see it, That is all of these expressions of God's goodness. The righteous see it and rejoice and all iniquity stops its mouth. Whoever is wise will observe these things and they will understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Who's going to understand these things, who's going to take time to stop and meditate and connect the providential dots together to see the picture of God's goodness. Well, it's going to be those who are righteous, those who are wise, and they're the ones who are going to have understanding that these deliverances are a wonderful depiction of the loving kindness of the Lord. And now the question is, do you see such things? Are you among the wise? and the understanding and the righteous who can discern and observe the handiwork of God in your life. Now, those who are wise can and those who are righteous, the text tells us, will see it and they will rejoice. Many of us who grew up in non-Christian homes, which is a lot of us, probably the bulk of those who gather here, apart from the young people of the church, most of the adults, I think grew up in non-Christian homes and we can look back now and we can see how the hand of God shaped and molded our lives to bring us to where we are now. Now, I'm particularly mindful of that. And if I may be allowed a word of personal testimony here, it was 25 years ago today that I openly declared my faith in the waters of baptism. And I was added to the church in Ballston Lake, New York. And today's 25th anniversary. of that time in 1997, when God's goodness was poured out on me in that way. And it's been a time this past week, as it is every year around this time of year, when I stop and reflect on the things that God did to bring me to himself. Why did my dad move us from Newport News, Virginia, to that neighborhood in upstate Newark? And why was it that I lived in this house and this family that were Christians lived in a close enough house so that when we all went to school together, we rode the same bus and they had a Bible and would talk to me about the things of God and all the things God did to work His providence in my life to bring me to the place where I would sit under the gospel and hear the Word of God and then be granted the gifts of faith and repentance. It's a time to reflect on those things. Perhaps some of us are not able quite to recognize when it was that God began to work in us and we do not know all that God was doing and when exactly it was that God was doing it and didn't realize at the time that this is the handiwork of God and this is the providence of God to bring about eternal good in my life. But now we can look back and we can recognize that God was at work to do good for our souls. And brethren, it is this kind of truth that ought to enable us as believers to be joyful and to be thankful regardless of our circumstances. It is the knowledge that God is at work and that God is in control and that His sovereignty is an expression of His loving kindness toward us. We do know that God is working all things together for those of us who love God and those of us who are called according to His purpose, don't we? Don't we know that? Are we not then to be thankful for what God is doing and certainly for who God is? Now, throughout the text, I have stated that God is demonstrating his goodness in many ways, through many deliverances, deliverance from captivity, deliverance on the sea, deliverance from a period of rebelliousness and foolishness. But there is, as I've said, a special focus. And that special focus is the loving kindness of God as displayed in the lives of those that He has delivered. That is on the redeemed. Now, the word redeemed has the basic meaning of being bought out of a state of bondage, being purchased or ransomed from captivity. It has the idea of having a price paid for you. There are people in the world And there are people sitting right here before me tonight and there are people listening on tape or listening on the Internet who have known the deliverance of the Lord. And I'm not talking simply about deliverances from physical danger. Some of you have known that kind of deliverance. I'm talking about more particularly what we call the redemption of the Lord. I'm talking about the rescue that God brought about in our life. from spiritual danger. I'm talking about the deliverance that God brought about when we were in rebellion against God, when we had broken God's commandments, when we had done more than that. We had shattered God's commandments by our words and by our thoughts and by our deeds, and we went Remember this, you went from a careless indifference about your sin and your blasphemy or your idolatry or Sabbath breaking or lying or sexual immorality or covetousness or whatever the particular case was with you. And with most, it's a combination of all of those things. You went from that place of careless indifference to suddenly seeing that you had sinned against a holy God who would one day bring you into his presence for judgment. And in such a state of seeing something of what Paul calls the second Corinthians five, the terror of the Lord, you found out that there was forgiveness with him. And you found out that He would receive you and that He would adopt you, so that when I speak of the redeemed, I am talking about those, to use the language of the text, who cried out to the Lord in their distress. I'm talking about those who can now be described in the words of verse 9 and following, for He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore, He brought down their heart with labor. They fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Amen. Isn't that a description of what God has done for us and the redemption that is articulated here and that I am focusing on is far greater than deliverance from Egypt. It's far better than being in the wilderness and being brought out, as wonderful as that is. It's far more wonderful than being delivered on the sea and being brought to a safe haven. It's far more wonderful than fruitfulness following famine. Those things only preserve the body. But this text has in view those who are the redeemed of the Lord to the salvation which God has freely offered to sinners. in the death of Jesus Christ. And now, in light of this, it says, let the redeemed of the Lord Say so. That is, let the redeemed of the Lord render this thanks. Let the redeemed of the Lord acknowledge this single token, singular token of the goodness and mercy of God. Let those who have been the recipients of the loving kindness of God, those who have had their sins forgiven, those who have seen the great enemy of their souls defeated, those who have been brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's Beloved Son, let them acknowledge that. Let them say something about the wonderful works which God has done in our souls. Dear ones, above all, the people on the face of the earth, the redeemed of the Lord, ought to say, O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Now, that's a little something of the text exegeted, a brief exposition of the text. And now, again, rather briefly, let's consider together the passage illustrated. Now, I do briefly want to point out the illustrations in Scripture of the redeemed of the Lord saying so and then deal a little bit with some instances where some refuse to say so. Now, of the many places, well, how do you even begin to go about picking some illustrations? It's not hard to pick out some illustrations. It's just a matter of saying, I'll use this one and I'll leave these other hundred or so off to the side. But let's begin with David. And really, we could say that the Psalms of David are an expression of the redeemed of the Lord saying so. There are several verses in the Psalms that could be epitomizing text, and one of those is Psalm 66 and verse 16, which I could say perhaps sums up all of the psalms that David wrote. Psalm 66, verse 16, Come and hear all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul. Isn't that a description of the psalms? I want to talk to those of you who fear the Lord. I want to speak in the assembly. And I want to talk about who God is and what God has done for my soul. It's the kind of heart that we've been looking at that's been expressed in Psalm 34 in our studies. through that psalm, where he now wants to bless the Lord at all times and to have his praise continually be in his mouth. And listen to what he says. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. He's not just praising the Lord in his closet. He's not just having a wonderful time of blessing God all by himself, right? No, because the humble are going to hear of it. And it's going to bring joy to their hearts as well. God has done these things for me and I will not only declare it before God, I will declare his works before my brethren. And then another example is found in the well-known narrative of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. And in this text, you have, of course, this percentage of You have 10 that the Lord Jesus was very good to, that Lord Jesus was incredibly kind to. We cannot even fathom in our own setting what it was like to have leprosy and then to be cleansed from leprosy, all that that meant for them. And yet nine out of 10 don't return to give thanks. They go their way. They're made well. And only one returns. Remember the text here, Luke 17, verse 12. Then he entered a certain village. And there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priest. And that was going to be needed so that they could be given the bill of clean health and they could be examined and restored back into fellowship and into the community. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed. Now, he's not the only one who saw that he was healed. But one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God. and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And I don't know. I don't know what the statistics are. But I wonder if the last day will not reveal that this is pretty much the statistics. Of those who return to give thanks, 10 percent, about 10 percent, 90 percent of those that God is so good to never fall down on their face with a loud voice, glorify God for what he has done. Now, this man who had it in his heart to return thanks and to publicly acknowledge what Jesus had done for him is seen in others as well. And one of the one of the illustrations I want to point you to is that which is found in Mark chapter 7. You don't need to turn there, but you certainly can and follow along. And you find here, and this happens sometimes, where Jesus tells them to be silent about what He has done. Mark 7 verse 31, Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came to the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee. Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, And they begged him to put his hands on him. And he took him aside from the multitude, put his fingers in his ears and spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said a fatha, that is, be opened. Immediately his ears were opened and the impediment of his tongue was loosed and he spoke plainly. Now listen to what it says. Then he commanded them that they should tell no one. But the more he commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. Now, brethren, in the strictest sense, we have to say that they were disobeying the words of Jesus. I want to be real careful with how I say this. But we'll say simply this, if ever there was a case in which we might argue that disobedience was sane or rational, it's here. I said a couple of weeks ago, sin is always insane. Sin is always irrational. I might take that back a little bit here. Can't you understand why they had to say something? Jesus told them to be quiet and we say, yes, they should have, but but but done your heart go out? and say, Brother, I understand why. I understand why. In light of such mercy, how could they not talk of the works of the Lord? How could the redeemed of the Lord not say so? But sadly, I think that there are some, if not many, who would have a very easy time with such a commandment. Oh, you don't want me to say anything? Fine, I won't say anything. You mean I don't have to go out there and tell anybody else about you? OK, thanks, Lord, because I have a real hard time doing that anyway. And I'm always embarrassed doing it anyway. And I always fear men anyway. And I'm too nervous. I'm too shy or whatever the case might be. So you don't want me to be good. You don't want me to say anything? Great. Thank you. But brethren, that's not to be our hearts. Our heart is to be, Lord, how can I possibly be silent? How can we not, as the apostles said when they were warned, no longer speak at the name of Jesus? How can we not talk about the things we have seen and heard? How can we be silent about such things? Well, now we come then to see the passage applied, and this is the bulk of what I want to bring tonight. If we are to obey the text, If we are to be the redeemed of the Lord saying so, then I would say, first of all, we need to take note of the works of God in our life. Right. We stop and think about why we prayed about that, didn't we? And we were really in trouble, weren't we? And we didn't know how this need was going to be met, did we? And all of a sudden now that need was met. And you know what? It was met several weeks ago. And I don't remember if we ever even said anything to God about it. I don't know that we ever acknowledge God's goodness. You know, I was sick and I prayed and asked the Lord that I might be made well, and I am made well. Return thanks to God for that. Stop and give praise to the Lord. Listen to what Psalm 111 and verse 2 says. The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. And what that text is telling us is that our thanks, in essence, is going to be in direct proportion to our knowledge of the works of God and our delight in them. Do we delight in the works of the Lord? Do we have pleasure in the primary works of God and those we know from our theology, right? They're the works of creation, providence and redemption. Do those things bring you any pleasure? Does God's goodness in creation bring you any pleasure? Does God's wonder worked out in providence bring you any pleasure? Does God's wonder and salvation bring you any pleasure? Well, if you do, you ought to study those great works of God. The word translated as studied in the New King James has the idea of being searched out or of being pondered. It means to work through. It means to stop and think through, to contemplate and to meditate and to trace out the works of the Lord, what God has done, what God is doing. And even as believers, we know what God is going to do. And so that we can even extend the works of God out into the future. And again, this contemplation has focused on what God has done in creation, providence and in redemption. Do you delight in God's work of creation? Do you ever study it? Stop and think about it? Or do we sometimes go through life with blinders on, forgetting who made the things that are around us and the power and majesty and wisdom of God that is daily on display? You may be going through a horrible time in your life. You know, you open your checkbook and it's all red ink in there. You're not feeling well. But all around you are tokens of God's wisdom and power and might. A few weeks ago, I was out at night and I'd gone to visit someone at a hospital and was walking through a parking lot afterward. And I can't remember, I think the moon was this unusual shade that night, this unusually brilliant shade of orange. And it was hanging down. It looked like it was much bigger than usual. You know, you see it every once in a while. Look, it was about five times the size that it usually is. And I'm walking out and I'm looking at it. And this fellow comes walking by and he said, that's what I mean. And I said, God's handiwork is magnificent, isn't it? And he just, you know, just stared at me like I had a disease, you know, I thought. And there was that little bit. Am I going to say anything about God or am I going to just just give a grunt? Yeah, sure it is. Or will I acknowledge what was in my heart? And that was praise to God for what I was able to see. To look up at a starry night and ponder the works of God. And He knows all of those stars and calls them by name. And to say thank you to God. To stand there on the shore and see the beauty and majesty of an ocean. And give thanks to the Lord. To speak of the acts of creation. One of the things that our family does when we make our way to one of the zoos. It's almost invariably that that night in our family worship, we're going to go back to a passage like Psalm 104 that talks about all of the animals that God has made and the things, creatures that move through the sea so that my children growing up in a world that is going to pummel evolution into their ears, that there is no such thing as special creation, that God had no work in it, that they I trust under the goodness and blessing of God will never accept that kind of intellectual nonsense and that they will ever and always see this and to see every creature in this world as God's special creation. And then to study the works of the Lord in Providence. I've already mentioned some of those in relation to my own life and the way that God brought me where he did those years ago. And then we could trace it out. I'm not going to take the time to do it tonight. I'm not going to hog the time personally to speak of God's providential dealings in my own life. But brethren, I think most of us, if not all of us, can look at our lives and we look at them rightly and say, you know, the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places. And to consider the way that God has led you and guided you in your life to bring you to a saving knowledge. of himself, to consider the works of providence, the people he put into your life, the ministry he put into your life, the friend he put into your life, a book or tape, whatever it was that deepened your walk with God. Some of you, you think about the families into which you were born. And why were you born there? Why were you born in this country? Why weren't you born in Saudi Arabia? Why weren't you born in Iraq? Why weren't you born in Nigeria? Why were you born Where you were born, why were you born in a family that loves God? Why were you privileged to be brought up under the sound of the gospel all your lives to consider the way that God has led you? Consider the way that God has answered your prayers. Consider the way that God has provided for your needs or the times that God has preserved your life, whatever the case may be. I'll tell you something, because I know there are several folks in this congregation that live hand to mouth. They don't have a whole lot. And, you know, it's so tight, it's squeaking every month. But best I know, not anybody been tossed out on the streets. And I don't know anybody that's missed a meal. I've never seen anybody come here, even in rags. And so as tight as your budget is, instead of complaining about how we don't have it, give thanks to God for what you have. He slept in a comfortable bed and you were warm on a cold night. A lot of us get even to be cool on hot nights. Isn't that something? First generation of people to get to say that. And we have food in our bellies and most of us even have something in the refrigerator or in the cabinets at home. And God has already provided for you your daily bread tomorrow. That ought to be acknowledged. Yeah, it is tight. But you know what? God provides all of our needs. Providentially, He does. One way or another, God always provides your needs. And brethren, how do you even begin to talk of the works of redemption? The sending of God's only Son into the world. His taking on flesh and blood. The displays of His power and love and grace to sinners. The words of life that He spoke. The hope that He gave. His suffering and His death. His rising from the dead. His ascending on high. His sending of the Spirit upon His people. And then the fact that He ever lives. And the text tells us that He ever lives so that He can make intercession for us. And then think of how it was. And we've already touched on this a little bit. Think how it was that He tracked you down in your life. And how and when He gave you the gifts of faith and repentance. And He did this for some. when they were born, as I mentioned, you children growing up under the sound of the Gospel. And very early on, God gave you a heart to believe and to trust in the Lord Jesus. Others of us saved later in life, snatched as brands from the fire. But think of what He's done for you. Whether He saved you when you were three, or when you were thirty, or when you were fifty, or when you were sixty, He did the same thing for all of us. He fully and freely justifies you by faith. He adopts you as sons and daughters. He has reconciled you to God. He daily forgives your sins. He's granted to us as our pastor has brought out in the Sunday school. He's given to us spiritual armor so that we can make our stand. He's given to us innumerable encouragements to help us along the way so that, as we can say perhaps numerous times in our Christian life, we thought, Lord, I don't know if I can take it another day. Well, guess what? Another day came. And even more trials came. Remember those times? But I can't take another trial. Yes, you can. And I'm going to give you another trial, because it's going to shape you and mold you. And you felt like giving up at times. You're tired of dealing with your sin. You're tired of dealing with all of these other things around you. And yet, God's given you help. And to this day, all these years later, you still hope and you still trust in Jesus Christ, because He's not going to let go of His people. And then think, my friends of the day, that we're going to see the Lord Jesus and we're going to be like him. And we'll never again sin, we'll never think of ourselves as hypocrites again, we'll never berate ourselves, we're not ever going to be inconsistent with our faith. Brethren, those are some of the works of the Lord and they're to be studied by people that have pleasure in them. I hope you have pleasure in them. If you've got life in you, you've got some pleasure in them. Maybe you don't have as much pleasure as you ought to. May God give you more pleasure. And you'll get more pleasure the more you meditate and study upon those things. And I would say that we'll lose that pleasure if we don't search them out, if we don't stop and think of them, if we don't recognize them, if we don't sing of them and speak of them and return thanks to God for them. And brethren, it is my prayer, among my many prayers for us as the people of God, it's this, that we'll be marked by a spirit of thanksgiving. Not by a spirit of murmuring or complaining. that we don't have all that we want to have, but that we will bless God for what He has done. It's my prayer that our conversations to one another are going to be full of the goodness of the Lord and that they'll be full of thoughtful meditations on what God has done. Now, after all that long buildup, I want to get to what's been on my heart for some time. And kids, I hope I haven't lost you. Did I lose you? Now, good. All right. I want to give you an encouragement to those in this place. Who consider themselves to be believers. To be Christians. In other words, those who have asked God to save them and you have some degree of increasing confidence that God has heard that prayer and yet for all intents and purposes, Mom and dad might not know. And the people at the church don't know. You see, what you're saying is you're the redeemed of the Lord, but you don't say so. If you are the redeemed of the Lord. And I am thinking here primarily the young people, but if you're older here, then, you know, include yourself. I'm not going to alienate, I don't want to alienate you by my language. But I primarily have in mind the young people of the congregation. Now, I'm not talking here about baptism and church membership and what's the appropriate age for such confessions and for such responsibilities. I'll save that for another time. We've dealt with that in the past and no doubt we'll deal with it again. But what I'm talking about here is simply telling others that it is your hope and your confidence that God and the gospel has drawn near to you. I'm talking about is not being ashamed of your faith. You know, we read in the Bible about secret disciples. That is, there are those who had come to believe that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the son of the living God, but they were not willing to publicly identify with him. They weren't willing to talk about it out in the open. They believed it in their hearts. But if anybody ever got together and talked about Jesus, They'd be there and listen to the conversation, but they wouldn't enter in. Other people might talk about the goodness of God, but not them because they were afraid to talk about it. John, chapter 12, is such a passage. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago in reference to our Lord's warning about being ashamed of him and of his doctrine. You might remember that. John, chapter 12 and verse 42, we read, Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. We could put it another way. They were afraid of people. And they were afraid of what it was going to mean if they publicly owned Jesus. You know, one of these secret disciples is a pretty famous guy. His name is Joseph of Arimathea. He's fairly well known. We read of him in John chapter 19 and verse 38. And he wanted to take the body of Jesus and bury the body of Jesus. And he did in his own tomb. We read after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. But now. I read those texts. But there's something that ought to stand out to you. Why were these people afraid to talk about Jesus? Well, we say it's somewhat understandable. We say they were afraid. They were afraid. They were afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue. You all have ever heard the word excommunication? Being thrown out, being excommunicated? That's pretty serious. And they were afraid of what it was going to mean if they had to tell these people that they belong to Jesus. They're going to get kicked out of church. In essence, put it in our terminology, that's pretty serious. You see, they were afraid to confess Christ before the enemies of Christ. But here's the distinction. We're not the enemies of Christ. And I'm afraid that there are some who seem timid to confess Christ before the friends of Christ. Young people, I want to let you know, and you already know this, but I'll state it out. Some of you might not. There are many people here who pray for you and they pray for you by name to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. You know, some time ago, one of the ladies in the church made up a bookmark with the names of all the children in it so that people in this church could keep that in their Bibles to bring before God your names. And to bring before your God, your name. Don't just pray as we often do here. We pray for the children of the church. They go through and pray for all of you by name that you might come to know and love the Lord Jesus. Has God answered their prayers? Has God answered our prayers for you, or do you at least have some hope that God has done so? And if God has done so, what hinders you or what stops you from saying so? Well, let me bring out a couple of things, I'm just suggesting this may be it. It may be that you have some thought in your mind that talking about Jesus that way is only for big people or for older people. No, redeemed to the Lord can say so. It doesn't give any age there. Only the redeemed of the Lord, who are 18 and older, can say so. You're not going to read that in your Bible. Or it may be that you feel a little bit awkward talking about something like that, which in essence is really a sharing of your heart and a disclosure of yourself to those older than you. You just feel funny. You know, we're all just Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so. And, you know, we're children, so we're to be seen and not heard. We don't really have, you know, maybe you think I don't really have a relationship with all of these big people. They're my parents' friends. They're not my friends. I trust you know that we desire, we who are older, do desire to be your friends and that we do love you and that we care for you and that we have an interest in your eternal well-being. Now, if you feel that way, that this awkwardness, a lot of that may be our fault. I think sometimes as adults, we fail to interact below the eyeline. You know what I mean? We just, this is who we have fellowship with, everybody that's above this. And we need to learn to look down a little bit and to notice that when we're talking to our dear brother and our dear sister, that our dear brother and dear sister have little ones who have names and personalities and they're their own little people that we can get to know. And also it may be, maybe this is a reason why some of you have not acknowledged the work of God, because you have a lot of confusion right now. And some of that confusion may be the result of some things your parents have said to you. I have heard some parents say things like this, and I'm exaggerating to make a point, But I got to tell you, I'm only exaggerating a wee bit here. But it's this kind of thing, son, I understand that you say, you know, you ask God to save you. Well, I'll believe you're really saved when you finally get to be completely consistent in every area of growth and when you finally conquered what I see as your besetting sin. I'm afraid you're not yet quite consistent enough in all of these areas of grace, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Moms and dads. Tell yourself that. And see if your profession of faith holds up. I can't remember which of you conquered all your sins. And which one of you I'm going through oversight, I can't quite remember which of you is completely consistent in every area of grace. Which of you is that one? What are you saying to your kids? Are you giving them some kind of Wesleyan perfectionism? Are we, who know so much more thoroughly, consistent in our maturity, that we will demand of our youth that kind of maturity when they're in their immaturity? And we're not even there yet? And we know far more than they do? And we have a far greater ability to grasp things than they do? It may be that some unrealistic standard of what it means to be a Christian has hindered some of the little ones from saying that Christ is theirs because the kid recognizes I still sin. You know, I was selfish today. To my sister, I got angry at my brother or my parents told me what to do and my first reaction was not to do it, I went and I did it anyway. But how can I be a Christian because I'm so inconsistent? Now, I don't want to give an excuse for any of you in your rebellion against God. If you are consistently breaking God's commandments without feeling badly about it, without remorse and without confession, without a desire to do better, then you're not saved. Whether you're three or 50. But if you sin. And if you find upon reflection that you sin every day, Then join the ranks of God's people, because that's our testimony as well. It may not be mom or dad, it may be you're just holding yourself to too high a standard. I've talked to one of the young people about that and they had that kind of confusion. I mean, it's like, well, I know I've heard Christians still sin. And maybe some of you young ones, you're old enough that you'll be able to relate to this. This is what some of your moms and dads and some of the big people here think. They recognize Christian sin. They hear me say it and they hear some others, but they don't really believe them. They think they're the only one struggling. Right. Oh, I know other people. Yeah, you say other people in the church struggle, but nobody really struggles like me. And that kind of nonsense. And kids, maybe you don't really believe it when you say, you know, well, you live with your moms and dads, you know, they sin. You've seen them sin and I trust you've seen them confess their sins to God and to you when they have sinned. But don't hold yourself to that kind of a standard. Don't say to yourself that even though I trust in Christ and I've confessed my sins and I've repented of my sins because I still sin, I can't be saved. That's bad theology. Don't let that shut your mouth. Don't let that stop you. from speaking of what you hope is the work of God in you. Has God been good to you? Do you at least right now have some hope that God has saved you by the blood of Christ? Then let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Young people, tell your parents. Talk about these things with your friends. I'm thankful that I think a number of you have people in your own age group here that you can talk about those things with and you can talk about those things openly with. And when you have an opportunity to speak with an adult. And maybe they'll start saying something to you, well, sweetheart, you have hopes that maybe God has saved you. Do you? You're just going to mumble, I don't know. Can you at least give I hope so? I really I hope so, I think so. Some of you may be so bold as to say it's my real hope he has. God has saved me. But what are those here tonight who don't know this joy? You're in the same situation that all of us have been in at one time or other in our lives, and that is there was a time when we were not the people of God. There was a time when we were strangers to the covenants and to the promise. There was a time, the Bible says, that we were without hope and without Christ and without God in the world. There was a time when we were, to use the language of this text, we were that ship on the sea and safe haven was far away. There was a time when we were in the chains and there was a time that we were in the shadow of death. We know exactly what it's like to be where you are. But Christ came to us by the gospel and Christ came and preached peace to us and let us know that we could be redeemed by him. And he let us know by the gospel that he was willing and that he was able to save all those who called upon him. I hope this excites you to think that right now, tonight, you may, by letting go of your sins, which will only destroy you, and laying hold of Christ by faith, you may become tonight the redeemed of the Lord. And if God does do such a thing for you, May God quickly unloose your tongue, both now and forever, to sing His praises. Let's pray. Our Father, we who are the redeemed of the Lord do want to acknowledge your goodness to us and we do want to give thanks and we do proclaim tonight that you are good and that your mercy endures forever. Father, thank you for loving us the way that you have. And Father, we pray that if indeed you have done a work in the hearts of some of the precious young people of this assembly, that they will not be silent, secret disciples, but that they would acknowledge to their parents and to their friends and to their older friends in this assembly the good work that they have hoped that you've done in them. Our Father, we do look forward to the day when you will raise up from this assembly a mighty host of the next generation who will carry on the work of God to a new generation yet to come. Our Father, would you please unloose our tongues, open our eyes to behold your wonderful works to the sons of men. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.