Well congregation then to Psalm 107 if you're here this morning and haven't been with us recently we've been preaching the last couple of sermons through Psalm 107 and It is an excellent Thanksgiving psalm, and even as we'll note this morning, connects up well with something extra we do on Thanksgiving morning in God's house together, as we'll see in a bit. We'll begin our reading in that introduction, which we've noticed now in the psalm, which is verses one through three. That introduction setting the stage for what comes after it, and then we'll turn our attention To the third segment of how God, by his spirit, directs attention to particular situations that people face, that will begin at verse 17. So then to the word of God, we're in book five, that is Psalm 107 to 150, and it's the first psalm of book five. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this, those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. And then to the third time, the word some occurs, verse 17. Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them. He rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy. Beloved, what choice words from our God for our help this morning? Let's ask then that help of his by the Spirit in prayer, shall we? Oh, most merciful God, we know that what we do right now is divine business. This is our interaction with you through your word. And to that end, we pray for help. We ask, oh Lord, that your spirit would illumine our mind, our understanding, would inflame our hearts with a love for your word, and then ready our feet and our hands for the action that comes from it. Grant us then this morning, Lord, all we stand in need of, and we ask this knowing that you love us and that you are good to supply all we need. And so we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is Thanksgiving Day, not the Lord's Day, but we are gathered together here for worship. What a remarkable thing. This is an excellent tradition. We have this morning a deep desire to show that we are thankful to God for his mercy to us in Jesus Christ. This is an excellent attitude. We plan to sing and pray and hear preaching and give our monies all in response to what he has done for us by grace. This is an excellent living out of this psalm. And all from those who, and I'm thinking of myself when I say this, all from those who, apart from Jesus Christ, would be the fools spoken about in this section of the Psalm, our text for today. God the Creator, who is the Redeemer of people, knows people. He knows us. Can we agree to that? He knows everything about humanity, and that's a truth, but specifically, He knows you and he knows me. And so we must this morning be ready now to submit ourselves to what he says here in his word. So we see and give thanks, I put it in parentheses now as we'll explain that later, word and deed. for how our God has saved fools like we are. We see and give thanks, word and deed, for how our God has saved fools like we are. Well then now for the third time, the first point, the same language, the introduction reveals the heart of the Lord. He redeems. Well, what else haven't we now yet drawn out of the introduction? We've noticed several significant factors. The main thing, of course, is to give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. But notice verse 2. Then let the redeemed of the Lord say this. Who is he speaking to? Notice verse 2. Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe. There's something we haven't paid a lot of attention to yet. Who exactly is the foe God has vanquished to redeem us? Well, if you think for a moment historically in the Old Covenant reality, the primary foe, and he became something of a type, a template for the foes that God's people would face, the primary foe of the Old Covenant was Pharaoh. He was that one great enemy of the church who imprisoned God's people now over those years. And God worked mightily and powerfully, right, to deliver his people out from under that foe's hand. But if we go further back, if we go back to Genesis, When we think of that sweet time of innocence in the Garden of Eden and then the introduction of evil and the attack and the manipulation, we see there the primary foe, of course, is Satan, the devil. He is the one whom Paul warns about in Ephesians chapter six. He is the one that the Apostle John sees in Revelation chapter 12, still going after the woman's children, that is, Christians. And so as we're thinking that way, we could perhaps say, well, the foe was typologically Pharaoh. The foe certainly is the devil, Satan. But I think there's something else we need to pay attention to here, beloved. I think the foe that we ought to notice primarily this morning is the foe that you see when you take a selfie. We need a Redeemer who can save us from every foe, including me, myself, and I. I say that because, you understand, we are all the more thankful when we clearly see how powerful is the foe whom God can conquer, from whom He can redeem us from. And we say, well, that was these enemies out there. Surely it is the devil. It is Satan. But beloved, do we apply that to our own hearts? Do we make this personal? Are you thankful that God has redeemed you from you? I said in a sermon not too long ago, would you like to meet? Would you like to come face to face with your unredeemed self, your un-Christian you? Would you like that person very much? What do we say when we affirm the catechism? I am not my own, right? But I belong, body and soul, to someone else, to Jesus. When we think about Thanksgiving morning, we realize some of the history involved in this, and we say about ourselves that our situation is far different from that of the pilgrims and others who fled to our land for religious freedom, to escape persecution. But then we look in the mirror, and the one who most quickly persecutes us is the one looking back at us in the mirror. For a little bit ago, when I mentioned Pharaoh, he is far distant from our conception of problematic people. When I mentioned Satan and the devil, we agree theologically and biblically that that's a true enemy, but he is sometimes at such arm's length from us, we don't give him a second thought, except when the pastor or the preacher mentions him in church. But when we look in the mirror, we can't escape that person, can we? And so what we need to be able to say, and we're going to get into this in detail now in the text, is that, oh, God, thank you for delivering me from myself, from all of my thoughts of inadequacy, from all of my own personal sins, my weaknesses. Well, what about them, secondly, now? Some squandered what he gave them in foolish pursuits. Notice verse 17, some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their inequities. Remember what it is that we're doing now. We're seeing in each of these three segments, we dealt with the first one beginning at verse four, down to verse nine. We took up the second one beginning at verse 10, now to verse 16. And we take up the third one here at verse 17 through verse 22, and we said that in each of these segments, there's a threefold repetition. The situation is presented to us with the trouble, and then comes the redemption, followed by the thanksgiving. It was in the first segment about these people, these Christians who wandered in wastelands, and with the second group of the matter of Christian depression, beginning at verse 10. But now there's this third group. What is it about them? some of the number of the covenant people decided to enter on to the path of revolt. They took a ride on rebellion way, which affords us an important and significant moment in terms of parent to child for me to say to you, parents, tell your children to never drive down that road called rebellion. Parents ensure that you're instructing and loving them in such a way that they never desire, see it interesting to walk in the way of disobedience and rejecting of the Lord, because from the text we begin to see that what happens is those people who do that can't function spiritually. They, v. 17, suffer affliction because of their iniquities. V. 18, their world seems to be falling apart because food isn't desirable to them, and they draw near to the gate of death. Things fall apart. As children and young people might enter onto the road called rebellion, the situation will be devastating. There will be no spiritual vitality left in them. Have you ever noticed a Christian who once you fellowshiped with and you went to church with and you knew that for so many years they presented themselves as a believer but then you meet them and all of a sudden their face looks so forlorn, their body looks like they're really beaten down, they're in great devastation of their situation and you begin to ask, what's going on with them? There's no living, heartful relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Such ones are in the Hebrews 6, verses 4-6, very serious and deadly trouble. When Christians neglect and reject God's many blessings for worldly gain, the suffering will be real and intense. This is, in our text, the deadly dilemma. But I want us to think about something in this regard, your congregation. I've said it a couple of times now, and maybe it's made you a little uncomfortable, that I've said this is about Christians, that this is about ones who make a profession of faith. Because you see, in each of these categories, the word some applies to the focus is upon those who belong to externally, at least to the covenant community. The ones who should have a full throated Thanksgiving, who should be living in a harmoniously, gloriously peaceful relationship with God through Jesus Christ, though they'll have problems and little troubles, of course, along the way, but not like this. Those who are in need of divine rescue. Do you know somebody who has rebelled? Do you know somebody who said, I don't care about the Lord's mercies anymore, I'm going my own way. Have you ever felt the temptation to do that yourself? Have you been so downtrodden and discouraged and overwhelmed and feeling lost that you've said, the Lord doesn't love me anymore. He's cast me away. Now, why are these questions important? Well, they are important because this is the word of God to God's people, you see. This is not a history lesson about what happened to some people somewhere sometime long ago. These are the real and perplexing situations that face Christians again and again and again through history. And you need to hear these things told to you in the house of the Lord. That these things are real. That people suffer affliction, notice in verse 17, because of their iniquities. And then all falls apart, verse 18. Can any of us here this morning admit that we have foolishly squandered the good that God has given to us at least a time or two, that we've begun down this path at least a step or two, that we've considered trading in mercy for mud or prime rib for pig food? And if you know what I'm hinting at here and you think about the one who did that in real terms, You say, oh Lord, I pray I will never be a prodigal like that one who traded in prime rib for pig food. Oh beloved, let us never squander the grace and the mercy that God gives so freely and richly and regularly to us. Because as we see from 17 and 18, the results will be devastating. Well, then thirdly, we we come to that section in the pattern of the psalm where. Where we're hoping that redemption will come. Notice it. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them. He rescued them from the grave. We see the divine rescue. And dear people of God, we need to be taught that this also is the way God works, and it's of great comfort to us. But we need to be instructed about, again, verse 19, which is the same as the previous two times we were taught this in the Psalm, that they cried out to the Lord, notice it, in their trouble. It is not as if the Lord first removes all of our difficulties from us and then all of a sudden we remember to pray to him. That is not the experience of the Christian. But rather, when they're still in the midst of their troubles, they cry out. Or can we put it more accurately, theologically, God caused them to cry out, which is what the rest of the Bible teaches us. Or, had he not, they simply would have remained on rebellion road, and where does rebellion road terminate? In hell. But what does the Bible teach us? That God raised them up. That he brought them out of death. Now, if you think we're making more of it than what it is, look at the text again. Notice what it says. Verse 18 told us that they drew near the gates of death, but it seems like the pressing of their rebellion continued until, as verse 20 tells us, he rescued them from the grave. Is that really what we're to think? That they were acting as if they were the walking dead and only God could bring them back from the dead and revive them? Do we see that anywhere else in the scripture? How about Ezekiel 37? Now I considered that and thought that very significant as a connection to what we have here in our text because of verse 20. Let's review that in a moment. What happens in Exodus chapter, sorry, Ezekiel chapter 37, what's going on there? The Lord says to the prophet, look around, Ezekiel, what do you see? Well, I see a valley full of dry bones. We would say skeletons. And the Lord says, so tell me, Ezekiel, can those live? Now think about that in terms of our text, beloved. and your family member and your friend or yourself at one point or another. As if in the grave. As if dead, spiritually, unable to do anything yourself. Is there any hope? What does the Lord remind Ezekiel of in chapter 37 verse 4? He reminds him of this. That it is the Word of the Lord. Speak to those dry bones. Prophesy. Bring forth the word. This is what verse 20 says. He sent forth his word and healed them. As Jesus standing. In front of Lazarus. Sane Lazarus come forth. Beloved when. When we consider this in a personal way. When we think about this in terms of an individual that might come to mind for us now or in the future, and I say this also to our young people to never forget the things that we are addressing here this morning, because it may look to you at this point 20 years from now that you've squandered all the good that God has given to you, including you have squandered life itself, and at that moment you need to remember that yes, there is still hope. Because God's word brings the dead back to life. And this is what he says here. He sent forth his word and healed them. He rescued them from the grave. It is what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, that there is now a new creation for all those who are in Christ Jesus, the God who created all things. How did he do so in Genesis 1? How did he create all things? What's the answer? By his word. the God who gives life when he speaks. We are saved and rescued and born again like Lazarus again. Come forth. But beloved, if we haven't yet caught this, I want to spend a moment longer so that we will not miss this. Notice the pronouns. The pronouns in the Bible are always very significant. Who are the quote sum of verse 17? Well the pronouns persist now in the verses following the sum of verse 17. We have in verse 17 the pronoun they and we have their. When we get to verse 18, we have the pronoun them. In 19, it's a triple, they, their, them. Verse 20, we get them twice. Who is addressed in all of those? Beloved, we must be convinced of this. It is not unbelievers that he is speaking to. It is not people outside of the covenant that he is addressing, though these things can be addressed to unbelievers, especially in terms of evangelism, but he's speaking to those who dwell amongst the body of Christ. Historically, he is speaking to Israel, isn't he? God's covenant people. How many, many times in the history of God's covenant workings didn't He have to intervene? Didn't He have to come and save His people as it were again and again? His covenant people over and over. What then does the preacher say next at this point? You know it's coming, don't you? What about us? How far does the mercy of God reach? Can the mercy of God reach me when I'm walking down rebellion way, when I've decided to revolt against his mercy, and when I'm living as an anarchist against the throne of heaven? Can his mercy still reach me? Yes. Cry out. Don't hold back. Have we repented of our foolishness? Do we, you and me, have any need? Do we have a need to be made up again? To be, as it were, recreated? God's breath can do it. His Word by His Spirit can accomplish it. We think of this, what we're doing here this morning, in terms of a group of, do we call them pilgrims? Do we call them what? Who came to the new world and after less than 12 months they were two thirds of what their original number was. Fully one third of the original people that landed, that then gathered for that Thanksgiving had died by the time of that first Thanksgiving. We think of this in terms of what God did physically and how he preserved them and will pretty soon, if he stops preaching, pretty soon get to our meal and enjoy that time of fellowship together and we think of that in earthy terms. But beloved, we need to also think of it in spiritual terms. Were you once in the grave? Do we know that he had to raise us up? Have you been born again? Did God Almighty exercise his universe creating power through Jesus Christ through whom all things were created to recreate you? Do you have an answer this morning? Do you know? You must know. You see, it is only when knowing the depth of the Father's love for us that we will have a heart of thankfulness that will rush us to rejoicing, will propel us to thanksgiving. Because you see, fourthly, all of what we have said comes before. All of that now, fourthly, comes before Verses 21 and 22. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice, thank offerings and tell of his works with songs. Of joy. Well, we've dealt with the deadly dilemma, which was versus 17 and 18. We found great hope in the divine rescue, which was versus 19 and 20. Now what? Think about your heart. Think about your life. Think about the blessings you have received and answer that question, now what? You remember, by the way, this structure is reflected in the book of Romans, Sin, Salvation, Service, just like we have it here in the Psalm, which is then brought in to the Heidelberg Catechism, Sin, Salvation, Service. What does service mean? What does the response come to look like in the life of the believer in 2024? There are two interesting additions in this third group, in this third situational presentation of the common troubles and trials of the believers as we have it in the psalm here. Those two additions come in verse 22. This wasn't said before. And I found that very interesting, because you all received an envelope and you were told about it last Sunday, that there's a whole list of things that we normally take offerings for on Thanksgiving. You could check the box, so to speak, of whatever cause you wanted to give toward and put your check in the envelope. And what are we doing? We're doing verse 22, you see. Let them sacrifice thank offerings. Because you see, these thank offerings don't earn anything. They don't bring us, as it were, any favor from God. It's not like we're earning something from Him. They're not designed to atone. But they are a response. They are a marker of how we view our pocketbook and our bank account in terms of a response to what we've received from the Lord. A response which blesses others, which then by natural course affords to them the opportunity to do what? To show thanks. Isn't the Lord wonderful in his kindness to us? So there is this first thing, what I might call bank account thanksgiving. But then verse 22 adds this other thing. Didn't happen. We weren't told this before. It carries over. Let them tell of his works with songs of joy. Isn't this how he began? with a family who loves the Lord standing before us and bringing a praise and a sacrifice of joy to the Lord. And isn't this what we have been doing in our order of worship? Isn't this what we do on the Lord's Day as well? With great repetition and great regularity, what is it we do? We vocalize our thanksgiving. But this is telling, you see. This is professing, you see. We are praising God. We're thanking him. Because the subject of our singing, verse 22, is his works. His works. But from whom? From which people? From those people who once were fools. from those people who left to themselves would act foolishly again? Who would, if on their own, enter again onto rebellion way? Who would show forth that anarchy is delightful because it's me, myself, and I all over again? Why am I repeating this? so that we might understand, beloved, who it is who tell of his works with songs of joy, those who know something about what they have been redeemed from, who have been bought at a great and terrible price. Let that be us today. Amen. Our Father, with great thanksgiving, we submit ourselves to you again today. You've given to us the privilege of a deep look into this psalm to see not only patterns of the psalm, to see not only repetition, which is helpful for us, but to see primarily something of the great depth of the Father's love for us in Jesus Christ that we have received so much and have been redeemed from so much. O Father, may we offer now ourselves in our monies and especially also in our praise by song for what you have done for us. That which also, by the way, we will be doing for all of eternity, praising you for the Lamb of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, looking as the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. Receive our praise now this morning, we ask, and offer it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's do that this morning, congregation, continuing in our Blue Psalter hymnal at 217, and then after the benediction, we'll close with 316. So let's stand and we'll sing 217.