Well, let's take our Bible if you haven't done so yet and turn to Psalm 106. Maybe you turned there already today, you got the email and you turned there and you planned to read it and you thought, wow, that's a long Psalm. And it is, it is 48 verses. And I am well prepared to preach for a long time. But I can't do that tonight. But this is a psalm that is really easy to understand, hard to swallow. Because as I'm gonna preach, and you're gonna see here in the word, this is a very difficult psalm. And yet God in his amazing wisdom has given it to us because it shows us our sin and our rebellion. It shows how twisted and corrupt and evil our sin really is. I want to read just the opening five verses. And then I want to read verse six and then verse 43 as well. And then I'll read a little bit as we go along. But just follow with me. Let me put this before you. Psalm 106, beginning in verse one. Praise the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord? Or who can show forth all his praise? How blessed are those who keep justice, who practice righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, in your favor toward your people. Visit me with your salvation, that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance. But now verse six. We have sinned like our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have behaved wickedly. Let your eyes skip down to verse 43, and this will really summarize everything sandwiched in the middle here. Verse 43, many times he, God, would deliver them. They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so they sank down in their iniquity. Father, we pray that in the brief time of study that you would open our eyes, that we would behold your word, that we would humbly understand our sin and what you say about our sin, and that we would run, run, run to Christ, who alone forgives our sin. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. It was the Puritan Richard Sibbes who said, the way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession. That is a great quote. The way to cover our sin is to uncover it by confession. And really, it's biblical counseling 101. We call sin, sin. We don't rename it. We don't re-label it. We don't re-term it. We don't deflect it. We don't minimize it. We don't ignore it. We don't excuse it, nor do we downplay it. We could talk all day long about a disorder, an illness, a disease, a problem. Whoops. But God doesn't call it that. God calls it sin. He doesn't call it a disease. He doesn't call it a disorder. He doesn't call it a mental illness. He doesn't call it a condition. He calls it sin. And that confronts us because we're all in that state of being guilty as sinners because of Adam, our federal head. But you know what? When we come to that hard truth of calling sin, sin, there is hope. Biblical Counseling 101. You call it what it is. You call it what God says. Because when you do that, there's hope. When you do that, there's hope. Because Jesus came to deal with sin. He didn't come to deal with a whoops. He didn't come to deal with a disease. He came to deal with my sin. Even, even with all that God has done for Israel, even for all of the ways that God has worked in the history of Israel, how he worked on their behalf, what we're going to find tonight is the nation sinned and they rebelled. And they grumbled. And they tempted God. And they turned their back on God. And it's like they swirl down in this spiral. And they just get worse and worse and worse. Hosea says that they are sinking in their depravity. But you know what? We can learn from this. We can learn. And we can learn from it because right here, Psalm 106, it's one of the historical Psalms, like Psalm 104, 105, and then 107. I wanna show you, bear with me, let's get a little technical here for one quick sec, and then we'll come up for air again. In verse one, Do you see at the end of verse one, for God's loving kindness is everlasting. See that word loving kindness. That's the key word of the psalm because if you look at verse 45, at the end of verse 45, God remembered his covenant for their sake and God relented according to the greatness of his loving kindness. So the beginning of the psalm, And the end of the psalm is all about the covenant love of God. And everything sandwiched in the middle, they sinned against God's love. They rejected God's love. They were corrupt, and they defiled themselves. So, the psalm teaches that the anger of God is restrained by His covenant love. Aren't we thankful for that? That the anger of God is restrained by His covenant love. Now, it's a long psalm. It's a historical psalm. you have there in your notes, I think, I think I put a box there. It's kind of the main point of this psalm. And the main point of this really, really long psalm is that we must look back soberingly so that we can walk forward humbly. We need to do that. We need to look back and not just point the finger and say, what a bunch of fools. Look at how foolish and sinful they were. But we need to learn from Israel so that we would walk forward humbly, dependently upon God, prayerfully. The study of history should always instill humility. Now, I want to walk through this with you really kind of in a survey fashion. We'll fly through the first and third point and dwell on the second. In your notes, notice with me the first heading. worship. Everything begins here. Everything begins with worship. You see it there in verse one? Praise the Lord. It's the Hebrew hallelujah. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. The psalm is calling us to worship God. The psalm is reminding us what, what worship is. As I said today, when many people were walking by at Bush Stadium, everybody worshiped something. And if you don't worship Jesus Christ, you're an idolater. And if you don't worship Christ, you're calling God a liar. about his own testimony concerning his son. And God has made us and designed us to be worshipers of him, to be caught up and overwhelmed in this joy of the worship of God. And look at the definition of worship. Verse one, we thank the Lord for he's good. Verse 2, worship includes speaking of the mighty deeds of the Lord who can show forth all his praise. Oh, Christian friend, speak to other Christian friends about the greatness of God's works. Dads and moms, speak to your children about the greatness of God's works. Grandmas and grandpas, speak about the greatness of God's works. Who can tell of the many great deeds of the Lord? Verse 3, worship even includes how we live, how blessed are those who keep justice and who practice righteousness at all times. This is the prayer in verse 4, remember me. Verse 5, I want to rejoice in you. I want a glory in your inheritance. Worship is the foundation of everything. I think we know that, but let me remind you, worship is the foundation. everything from history to theology to daily living to recreational enjoyments from family to time management from your thoughts to your worldview to looking back and looking ahead and living in the present. The worship of God is paramount. It affects everything. And God designed me and you to worship Him. So, the psalm begins with worship. Oh, but now in verse 6. Now you have, if you're watching a movie, you go from the beautiful lighted scene to the dark, eerie music. The dark night scene where you know something bad is about to happen. You just don't know what's going to happen yet. That's verses six all the way to 43. This is the dark section, but it's history. It's true. This is the truth of God. And in your notes, number two, not only do we have to look at worship, but number two, we have to hear the warning. Now, the reason I worded it warning is because I think we all understand that one word plea, right? If somebody says, help, you understand. If somebody says duck, you know what that means. If somebody says emergency, you know what that means. Point two, warning. Warning, because verse six opens the door to the main body of the psalm. And here's how verse six begins. We have sinned like our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have behaved wickedly. Three times in this verse, we are corrupt, kind of like our fathers. Because after all, we've all come from Adam. In Adam, Romans 5, 12, we all have sinned. And death has entered and spread to all men because we all sinned in him. And that's how verse 43 ends. Verse 43, many times God would deliver them, but they were rebellious and they sank down in their iniquity. Now, I'm going to highlight a few things here in a moment. But I want to take the image of an artist. And imagine you have an artist with a canvas. He's got all the different paints and he's got his brushes. But imagine that he's going to take the brush and he's going to get all the dark colors. And he's just going to paint this really dark portrait. And it's going to be a wonderful portrait, but it's dark. And all these colors, and all these brushstrokes, all these eerie, these dark colors, and all the strokes, that's what the psalm is doing. Stroke after stroke after stroke, showing how sinful we are. Here are some of the words. Israel forgets God. Israel's greedy. Israel lusts. Israel's envious. They are grumbling. They are idolaters. They are unbelievers. They are sexually immoral. They are rebellious against God. They compromise with the nations. They live like the world, and they kill their own children like the nations, just to name a few. I mean, this is a really, really tough section, not just because we look back at the history, but because we realize we are like them. We are like them. For example, let me just show you some of the verbs. In verse 13, they quickly forgot God's works. Verse 14, they craved intensely in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. When we keep reading in verse 21, they forgot, pardon me, verse 20, they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. Verse 21, they forgot God, their savior, We read in verse 24, they despised the pleasant land and they did not believe God's word. Verse 25, they grumble. We go in verse 28, they joined themselves to Baal Peor. I mean, on and on we go, just the verbs, the action, the sin, the rebellion, it's everywhere. But in your notes, We need to be warned as we look back at three different periods that are brought out here. Look with me in your Bible at number one, where the author highlights Egypt, the times in Egypt, beginning in verse seven. In verse seven, the text says, our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders. They did not remember your abundant kindnesses. Can anybody relate to that? Boy, God has done so many great things. I just forgot. I just forgot. We can all relate to that. Look at what we read at the end of verse seven, but they rebelled by the sea. How did they rebel? We're hungry. We're hungry. God, where's our food? Where's our water? And they grumble and they grumble. And then verse 13, they quickly forgot God's works and they did not wait for God. Now, the Hebrew word, mate, wait, means to aggressively pursue in trust. They were not waiting for God. They were not aggressively pursuing God in trust. They, they were, they were forgetting God. They were, they were rebelling against God. God, God saved them. God delivered them, but they forgot. Can we relate to that? I can. It's why I need my daily times in God's word each day. It's why I need to be daily preaching the gospel to my own heart every day. That's why I need fellowship with the believers. Why? Because I need to be refreshed and reminded. That's why we need the Psalms and hymns of the faith, because we need our hearts to be reminded of what our God has done for us. That's why we need communion and baptism to remind us of the gospel. We are like Israel. We can forget God. But not only in Egypt, look in your notes number two, then in the wilderness. Now this is the long portion here, verses 14 to 33. Oh, in verse 14, they craved intensely in the wilderness and they tempted God in the desert. We read in verse 20, they exchange their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. Paul uses that language in Romans 1. They exchange the glory of God for the image of four-footed creatures. In verse 21, they forget God, their Savior, who did great things in Egypt. Has anybody forgotten any day that goes by we forget what Christ has done on the cross? We can relate. Verse 22, God did wonders in the land of Ham, and he did awesome things by the Red Sea, and yet they forgot. And you know what? I'm no different. My Savior has done great things for me, and often I can forget. Until you look at verse 23. This just might be one of the clearest gospel verses here in this section of the Psalter. 23, therefore, he said, this is God, he said that he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to turn away God's wrath from destroying them. Moses stood in the breach. Well, sure. Remember Deuteronomy 9? Remember what he said in verse 25? Moses said, I fell down before the Lord 40 dates and 40 nights. The Lord said he would destroy you. So Deuteronomy 9, 26, I prayed to the Lord and I said, oh God, don't destroy your people. You've redeemed them. Remember that? They made a golden calf in the wilderness, and God said, I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to wipe them out. And Moses interceded for them. Moses prayed. And he said, God, you can't do that. You can't do that. Otherwise, all the other nations are going to say God was not able to bring them into the land that he promised. And then this great verse in Deuteronomy 10, verse 10, I, moreover, stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights, and the Lord listened to me, and he was not willing to destroy you." Now, Moses was a good man, but not a perfect man. I'm thankful that there is a greater prophet and a greater intercessor who stands in the breach before God on our behalf to turn away God's wrath from destroying us. But if you look in your Bible before I chase that down more, in verse 23, that little word breach, do you see that there? I want to tell you what this Hebrew word means. It's a rare word. It doesn't occur very often. It's a military word. And the word for a breach signifies a soldier. It's a soldier who would stand in the breach of a wall and he would willingly give his life to protect his own people from the enemy. So maybe a little breach in a wall and here's a soldier who's going to put his body right there. He's going to shield his people on the inside. He's going to take the punishment. He's going to take the arrow. He's going to take the judgment to save the people on the inside. What a picture. of a greater one who stood in the breach for us to protect us from the wrath of God. And he is none other than Jesus, our champion. He is the one who is our redeemer, our forerunner. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. And he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Men and women, boys and girls, all who are here, is Jesus the one who stands in the breach for you? Does he stand in the breach for you? Because John says, if anyone sins, every believer, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And he is the propitiation for our sins. What's so great about this language of the breach is that Jesus stands in the breach for you. He takes the full blow of God's wrath, and he turns it aside in your place, just like Moses prayed 40 days, 40 nights on the mountain, and God heard his prayer, and his prayer won and prevailed with God. So Jesus, your greater priest, prays for you. He offered himself. He prays for you. He shields you. He stands as your advocate. I love how Spurgeon put it. As the elect redeemer between the Lord and a sinful world. That is the Lord Jesus. So here in history, we see Moses who stood between the Lord and the guilty people of Israel. Praise God there is a greater Moses. Praise God there is one who stood in the breach to shield us from the wrath of God because we are no different than Israel. But we have a perfect Savior who took the wrath of God. Oh, if you have not come to this Christ, come to Him as your only Savior, as your only hope, who alone can shield you from that coming wrath. He is the mighty champion, and He is worthy of all of our trust. Spurgeon, Spurgeon says, go to Jesus with your sin. No one else can help you. You are absolutely powerless without him. The most sinful are welcome to come to Christ. Maybe your sin is so outrageous that I can't even mention it here publicly, Spurgeon says. But you can come with all of your sin to Jesus and he will receive you. That's this part of the psalm. They sinned in the wilderness, but God provided a deliverer for them. But then we have to go to the third section here, and that is when they enter the promised land. They enter the promised land. Look at our psalm, back to our psalm, verse 34. They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them. Read the book of Deuteronomy and Joshua on that. They didn't do that, but here's the problem. Verse 35, just like their sin and ours, they mingled with the nations. They learned their practices. I want to look like the world. I want to dress like the world. I want to talk like the world. I want to have the fun that the world has. The temptations that we have in our day is no different than Israel back then. Same thing, they mingled with the nations, they learned their practices, they served their idols. Verse 37, they even killed and sacrificed their children to demons. Child sacrifice is nothing other than demon worship. Demon worship. It was then, and it still is today. But what a merciful God. What a merciful God that he has the power to save, the power to transform. He gives hope. Much more could be said. We'll leave it at that. Go to the third point. Not only do we learn about worship, And then the warning, but now number three, wonder. We need to wonder and be amazed because in your Bible and in my Bible, verse 44 has a transition word. In my English Bible, it's the word nevertheless. Maybe for you, it's the word but. It's some sort of a contrast word. Look at all the evil that they did. Look at how sinful they were. Look at how evil and twisted and corrupt they were, 44. Nevertheless, God looked upon their distress, and he heard their cry, and God remembered his covenant for their sake, and God relented according to the greatness of his love. to which we all could shout amen to that. Verse 46, and he made them objects of compassion. What a God. Wait, they are so guilty and corrupt, yet God shows his compassion. We are so guilty and corrupt, and yet God shows his compassion. Remember Ephesians chapter two, we were dead in our sins, We were children of wrath, just like all the rest, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. We were like all the rest, Titus chapter 3 says. We were disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, but God. Christian, this afternoon, this is our hope, but God, but God. This psalm is really helpful because we look back soberingly so that we can move ahead humbly. We look back at history and it's a sober picture. It's a very sobering reality. We are all sinners together. but we move on with faith in our God and faith in our Savior. But you know what we need to learn? We need to learn about confession. We need to learn about confession because the Psalm says in verse six, we have sinned. We have sinned. We have committed iniquity. We have behaved wickedly. You look in your notes there, walk with me just for a quick minute here about what confession is. Number one, biblical confession always begins, number one, by owning it, not excusing it. Biblical confession, number two, is agreeing with God that you have sinned. You know, God, what you say in the Bible is true. I'm selfish. I've been unforgiving. I've been bitter. I did not love you as you ought to be loved. I was distracted, whatever it could be. I agree with you, God. What you've said is right about my condition. Third, then we must seek the forgiveness of God. And fourth, we must glory in his grace. But I think if we're going to confess our sin rightly, we have to actually receive and believe the pardon of God. We have to believe that our God is a forgiving God. We have to believe that he actually does clear all of our sin. What a God that he would forgive rotten sinners like us. that he would pardon sinners like us, and not merely pardon, but then adopt us to be his own sons, and then treat us with all of the privileges, and love us permanently. Amazing. You have a couple of quotes there in your outline. I want to end with this quote by John Stott. Because we could look back, and we could survey Israel's history, and we are reminded of our sin. We are reminded of our sin like Israel's sin. But then we run to the cross. We confess our sin, and we run yet again to the cross. Look at what John Stott said. The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us. Why would God do that? We are so sinful. We are so foul. We are so corrupt. Why would God do that? And he does it all because of his covenant love. He does it all to the praise of the glory of his grace. So let us confess. and let us remember Him, and let us run yet again to Calvary, where all of our sin was nailed to the cross and dealt with in full on our substitute. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the preparation that it is for our prayer meeting. We pray, O Lord, that You would remind us, yes, we are guilty, vile, helpless, But oh, we run yet again in faith to the spotless Lamb of God, full atonement, a wonderful redemption, complete redemption. We worship and praise Jesus, our substitute, who died and stood in the breach for us. In Jesus' name.