Psalms

[0:00] In number 979, tune 297.

[0:10] 979, tune 297. ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK

[1:30] ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK

[2:40] ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK

[3:42] ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK ZANG EN MUZIEK

[4:54] ZANG EN MUZIEK The part of God's Word that I would direct your attention to this evening, as the Lord should help me, is in the 103rd Psalm and the second verse.

[5:13] The second verse of the 103rd Psalm. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

[5:26] Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. David had not been left of God in that position of complete infidelity to say that he did not possess a soul.

[5:52] There are many persons who will speak like that today. They say that the teaching of religion relative to the soul is just something of the thoughts of minds of men of great antiquity, but of course the knowledge that has been acquired of recent date has gone to show that man is just simply a body that is moved by muscles and nerves, and when you have analyzed the biological condition of the body, you have got to the limit of the understanding that a person could have of their body's condition.

[6:30] Well, David was not left of God to rest there. He certainly may not have been so accomplished in the sciences, in various sciences, particularly in the science of biology, but nevertheless, my friends, he was a man who had been well taught in the science of his God, and being taught in the science of his God, he did believe that he got a soul.

[6:52] And there were times when, in that faith that he had in his God, and in the creative work of his God, and in the quickening work of his God, he was enabled to speak to his own soul, and reason with his own soul, and there was certain things that took place in his person that are described not only in this psalm, but also in other psalms relative to the interest that he had in his never-dying soul.

[7:21] And here, the psalmist calls upon his soul to bless the Lord. He feels persuaded that there is not only reason why he should bless the Lord with his lips and with his tongue, and that he should bless the Lord with all the powers of his, all the mental powers of his being, with the powers of his mind, but also he says there is deeper cause for me to bless the soul, bless the Lord.

[7:49] There is cause in my heart to bless the Lord for what he has done for me in my heart's affections. He has delivered me from having a hard heart, a stony heart, and he has given me a softened heart, a heart of flesh, and I would bless the Lord from my heart.

[8:08] But he goes even deeper here, he says, I would go to the very depths of my person and I would speak about that mysterious thing, my soul, and there I would call upon my soul with all the other powers of my being to bless the Lord.

[8:25] And I would like to say this, friends, that I cannot conceive of any more blessed or higher, more noble occupation to which a man can be devoted than that which the apostle here, which the psalmist is here speaking of, when he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

[8:47] Of course, I do realize this, friends, that there is a sense in which perhaps we can bless one another. That is, that we could pray for one another and commend one another to the care of God.

[8:59] We try to bless our children in this respect. But I feel here is something far, far higher than that. We would certainly seek the blessing of God upon our children and those whom we love.

[9:12] And I believe the command of the Lord is that we should not confine ourselves in seeking blessing for those whom we love or who are members of our own family, but we should seek the blessing of the Lord even upon our enemies and those who may persecute us.

[9:27] And I think we should do good unto all men, and especially unto the household of faith, even in this respect. We should seek that the blessing of the Lord, if it is in accordance with his holy mind and will, might rest upon those for whom we would thus pray.

[9:45] The psalmist, but he goes further here, he says, bless the Lord, O my soul. O that I might be engaged with all the very depths of my being in this blessed, sacred occupation of blessing the Lord.

[10:00] Of course, my friends, what is it really that is meant by this word, bless the Lord? Isn't it an ascription of honor and glory and praise to his holy name? Can we really confer upon God any benefit?

[10:14] All that we can say, my friends, in our blessing of the Lord is that he is the great benefactor and that all benefits must of necessity come from him. And therefore, in the declaration that we are complete dependence upon the great eternal benefactor of all good, we really bless his holy name in that respect.

[10:35] And of course, friends, there is a sense in which this blessing is associated with thankfulness, with gratitude of heart. All, says the dear psalmist, let this not just simply be in word, but O that it may be in a deed that has as its origin the very depths of my personality, right from my soul through my heart, in my mind, in the expression of my lips and of my tongue, yea, in the very walk of life, the obedience of my hands to his will.

[11:04] O that all these things may conspire together to this end, that they may be an expression of my gratitude toward the Lord in the face of the abundance of his benefits.

[11:16] And here, this seems to me to be just a little. I'm not suggesting, friends, that this is anything like the compass of the word here, but this seems to be just a little of the feeling of the dear psalmist as there he would look upon the rage of divine benefits that he and other persons had received under the riches of divine grace.

[11:36] And he says, oh, that I might ever be engaged in blessing the Lord for these things. And then I do want us to notice also how, before we come to consider the benefits here, the psalmist says, and forget not all his benefits.

[11:54] Forget it not. Perhaps I might just tell you of a little incident, friends, that seemed to give a little side light upon those words in the epistle of Peter that we were reading this evening.

[12:06] You remember how there Peter, in writing his second epistle to the churches, he says, I would put you in remembrance of these things that I've written before. I haven't got anything new, it seems to me, he says.

[12:18] I haven't got anything new to say. It isn't novelties that I'm proclaiming. I am reiterating what I have already said to you. I am enunciating with even greater authority the very things that I wrote to you before.

[12:34] But he says, I would put you in remembrance of them. And there seems to me, my friends, to be two things that are associated with this word of the apostle when he says, I would put you in remembrance of them.

[12:47] And I would have your mind and spirit to be actively engaged in remembering these things. There seems to be two things that are particularly associated with this. First of all, there is the natural forgetfulness of our person.

[13:02] I know some people will tell me, friends, that to forget is just simply a human infirmity. It is something that is a demonstration of human weakness. And probably as we get older, well, so we are more forgetful.

[13:16] And our mind hasn't got the powers that one time it had. Do you know, friends, I feel that all this is just simply associated with the fall of man. It all dates back to the Garden of Eden.

[13:28] It all goes back to that time when man had been created in absolute innocency and in complete perfection. God saw that it was very good, the word of God says.

[13:39] And there, my friends, there was no infirmity of that nature in the created work of God. Now as a result of sin coming upon man, man has a heritage of innumerable infirmities.

[13:53] And one of the effects of the fall of man is this, that we so easily forget. And we so easily forget the things that we ought not to forget. We so easily forget the things that are of all important benefit to us.

[14:06] My memory is bad, says one, but what is sad of folly still retains. And friends, I am a living witness to the truth of that. I can more easily remember the things I want to forget than I can remember the things that I want to retain.

[14:24] Seems to me, my friends, that some of those things of my early days, you say, well of course they are impressed upon your mind when you are young. Let me just continue, friends. Some of those things of my early days that I would long to erase from my mind, they seem as though I could never forget them.

[14:40] They come back like burning, searing influences upon my person. And they seem to array me before the very bar of God's word in the infamy of my sin.

[14:51] Oh, how I have to pray with the dear psalmist when he says, oh remember not against me the sins of my youth. Ah, we can remember those things. But oh, friends, how forgetful we are with regard to some other things.

[15:05] And then of course the other thing is this. Not only, friends, that this is a declaration by the psalmist here that we are very, very liable to forget. And that this forgetfulness is not just simply an infirmity.

[15:19] It isn't just simply a weakness. But it's a demonstration of the effect of sin upon us. It is a guilt in the sight of God. But there is something else. And that is this, friends, that if we do forget.

[15:32] And if we do not have a gracious exercise of memory with regard to these things, we are very, very impoverished. Or we lose something that is tremendously valuable if we forget the benefits of God.

[15:48] Oh, it is so, friends. We do, we lose something of great value the more we forget the benefits of our God. I am quite sure of this, friends, that there are some of you, perhaps, who the Lord has blessed one or two days.

[16:01] Maybe over a period of time. And it seems as though in all your waking hours, and perhaps even when you are sleeping you have been dreaming. There has been a bringing back of the things of the benefits of your God towards you.

[16:14] And there you have been able to say again and again during that period. Dissolved by thy goodness I fall to the ground. And weep to the praise of the mercy I found.

[16:24] And you say, that's the period of my life that was the greatest blessing to me. It stands out in my memory as a time of divine favor. Never was I so humbled in my spirit as then.

[16:37] And never was Christ the mediator of these great blessings so precious to my soul as at that time. And so remembrance is a wonderfully beneficial thing when we remember the benefits of our God.

[16:50] But friends, when we forget, when we forget, when we forget the benefits of God, when we forget his word which is a great benefit, when we forget his instruction, when we forget the teaching of his servants, when we neglect the ordinances of his house because our heart has grown cold and our mind has become thoughtless, what about those days?

[17:12] Are they beneficial days? Are they days that you remember with happiness, with recollection of praise to your God and thankfulness? Nay, my friends, they are the times you have to remember with great grief and shame of spirit.

[17:26] Oh, you say, if the Lord hadn't have come and restored my soul, there is no telling where I should have been today. Oh, I should have gone down and down and down into that terrible pit and that awful clay.

[17:39] And it would have completely submerged me and I should have been sucked down into its felt and I should have never been brought out again if he hadn't have come. Just where I was and lifted me up again and established my goings and set my feet upon the rock of Jesus Christ and put a new song in my mouth, even praise to my God, a song that spoke of my sin but the aboundings of his grace.

[18:02] The song that spoke of my forgetfulness but of his memory, that he remembered me in my lowest state with mercies that endured forever. Ah, friends, that's the new song that is put in the mouth when the Lord restores the soul and restores the mind and the activity of it that we may remember some of those things whereby the Lord our God hath benefited us.

[18:27] Oh, says the psalmist, there is such a terrible danger, a danger that is sinful that we should forget. But there are such great benefits associated with a gracious and a grateful remembrance of the benefits of our God.

[18:43] Now that's where the psalmist seems to be at this time. But I want us to notice how he says, forget not all his benefits. I have never been really satisfied in my mind, friends, at the underlying meaning of the psalmist here when he says forget not all his benefits.

[19:01] Whether in the face of the fact of his own forgetfulness that he recognizes so painfully, he says, oh Lord forbid that I should forget them all. Oh, at least let me hold a few in remembrance.

[19:14] Oh, let there be a few that will be retained in my mind. Do you know, friends, in that respect, I have seen some wonderful things, particularly in old age.

[19:25] I go and visit a dear old lady now in a nursing home just outside of Leicester. And when I visit her there, of course, she forgets so many things. And I try and remind her about things of the past, particularly in relative to the chapel and the services.

[19:42] But do you know, friends, I find this. That there are two or three things in her life which were the benefits of God toward her that still come back to her mind.

[19:53] You see. She hasn't been permitted of God to forget all his benefits. You see. There's still a few that are treasured up in his mind. There are things, as the Word of God says, that are written upon the fleshy tablets of the heart.

[20:08] The Lord doesn't allow them to be forgotten. And the blessed Spirit of God, the holy remembrance, has that office, my friends, and his power is so unlimited that he can go over all the mountains of hindrance that may be in the way.

[20:24] And he can bring these things back into the mind of his people. However it be clouded, their mind may have become because of illness and old age. And there they're again able to ascent to those things that were the past benefits of their God.

[20:39] Oh, you find, friends, that these persons are quoting to you when you go. A passage of a hymn or of a word. And perhaps if you didn't realize the condition in which that word was spoken to them in the past and the use that was made to them, you might say that it was just simply a vain repetition.

[20:59] They always said the same thing. Remember a dear old lady up in the infirmary at Rochdale when I was there. I hardly ever went to see her, but what she quoted those words to me, his way was much rougher and darker than mine.

[21:12] Did Christ my Lord suffer and shall I reply? But you see, friends, if you'd trod the pathway with that woman and seen the path she had to tread and what she went through, you would have known how valuable that word was to her.

[21:26] It was written upon the fleshy tablets of her heart. She never forgot it. She quoted it right through to her dying day. And there were two things about it, friends. And that was this.

[21:36] First of all, Christ was exalted. You see, his sufferings were so great in comparison with hers. Christ was exalted. These sufferings had a relation to the interests of her soul, the salvation of her person.

[21:49] It was her eternal hope. You see, the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the shedding of his blood, the putting away of her guilt, the forgiveness of all her iniquities, as David says in the psalm here.

[22:01] One of these great benefits. And not only so, but you see, it was the word that the Lord used to bring the poor woman down from her complaining and rebellion to a position of real humility before God.

[22:15] So that she just simply lay like a little child before the Lord. And she was able to say, Lord, thy will not mine. Thy way not mine. A sweet spirit of reconciliation to the Lord's will.

[22:29] But you see, those things, friends, are the things that the Lord writes upon the heart. And although she forgot so much other, and she was a very forgetful person, she was even before she went into the hospital.

[22:40] I knew that. But there are some things, you see, the Lord didn't allow them to forget. I've been, and perhaps some of you have been to persons' houses at different times, and we've heard our friends talk to us about them.

[22:53] And they've said, well, of course, if you talk to them about anything, you know, about the family, or the business, or the home, or what happened in the past, it's all so beclouded, and they're talking utter nonsense.

[23:04] But you turn to spiritual things, and you'll find that there's something there that finds an echo in their heart. They've got something to say then. And it's not silly nonsense then, you see.

[23:14] It's a clear declaration of what the Lord has done for them and the hope that's in their soul. And it seems, my friends, to revive and bubble up within their spirit despite the other forgetfulness.

[23:27] Forget not all his benefits, says the dear psalmist of the soul. But I rather feel, my friends, that there is something else that underlies this word. Not only what I've been trying to emphasize to you.

[23:39] An experience that I feel is very often the experience of the people of God. But I feel there is something else, and that is this. That the dear psalmist says, Lord, there isn't a single one of thy benefits that I want to forget.

[23:55] Oh, I would remember every one of them. It is my infirmity, but it is also my grief that I ever do forget them. There is a mark upon thy benefits that is transcendent.

[24:07] It puts them into a category, Lord, far beyond any other benefit that can ever be given to me. I may have received great benefits from my father and from my mother. I have received tremendous benefits from my wife or from my husband.

[24:21] I have received tremendous benefits in later life from my children who I cared for in the early days, and now they've cared for me until I've come down to this old age that I'm in at the present time.

[24:32] I've received tremendous benefits in that way. When my parents died, look what they left me. Look at the comforts I enjoy now as a result of their legacy. Look at the benefits they've given to me.

[24:44] But Lord, if I've got to forget any benefit, well, I'd rather forget those than thine. I'd rather forget those than thine. Those benefits, Lord, they were not obtained at the price of thy heart's blood, but the others were.

[25:00] The benefits thou hast given to me, that was the price of them. That was the price of them. That it shed thy precious blood to benefit my soul. And Lord, would I forget that, which was the cost of redemption, that great cost of redemption.

[25:16] Would I forget those things? Oh, God forbid I should. And it seems to me that the psalmist, friends, is rather speaking along those lines. That, oh, not only may there be retained within my spirit, right to my dying day, some of the benefits of my God, but, oh, Lord, if it could be thy will, grant that I may not be permitted to forget a single one of them.

[25:40] You may say to me, well, that's asking a great thing of God. Well, friends, I believe the Lord encourages you to ask great things of him. I believe he does, you know. He says, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.

[25:54] It's a very simple sort of illustration that the Lord uses there, you know. It is. I don't know whether sometimes you've watched the little birds in their nest when the parent bird has been coming, friends, but they open their beaks very wide, you know.

[26:10] They do. They've got great expectations when the parent birds begin to fly about the nest. They open their beaks very, very wide. And I noticed also, my friends, that if a little baby, you know, is in good health and it's really hungry, it opens his mouth quite wide when the parent wants to feed it.

[26:26] If, of course, it's sickly, well, it keeps his mouth shut. It doesn't want it. But if it's really hungry, you know, it opens his mouth very wide. Forget not all his benefits, all his benefits.

[26:39] Oh, friends, may God give us grace to ask great things of our God. Great things of our God. I very often feel, friends, that much of our poverty is due to the poverty of our asking, related to the poverty of our asking, the poverty of our faith, the poverty of our hope, the poverty of our prayers, the poverty of our pleading, the poverty of our intercessions.

[27:07] Pray without ceasing. Be instant, in season, and out of season. Like a poor woman was saying to me the other day, she says, I don't feel that I can pray.

[27:22] And my prayers are so poor, I don't know what to say. And if I did say that so mixed with sin, I'm afraid the Lord won't hear me. She said, what can I do in a case like that?

[27:33] I said, well, friend, just tell him what you've told me. Just tell him what you've told me. Just tell him that. Tell him that. That's in season, out of season.

[27:46] It's out of season, right enough. You see? We've got nothing to go with, nothing to plead, as it were. Hope seems to die within the breast, and faith is almost extinguished to a spark, if not more than that.

[27:57] And the poor soul says, well, what can I do? My friends, just tell him all that. Just tell him it all. Just as you sit there, she was in a hospital ward when she told me this, but just as you sit there and you tell me, well, God give you grace to just as simply tell him exactly what you've told me.

[28:21] Do you know, friends, if a poor minister who goes and visits a person like that finds compassion in their heart and room in his heart to pray for a person who's in that state, I'm sure Jesus Christ has got a better heart than mine.

[28:35] I'm sure he has. I may put it simply to you, but I'm perfectly persuaded of that. His compassion, his loving kindness, his tender pity, his deep sympathy is something absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

[28:51] We cannot understand it. We can't fathom it. Why, friends, doesn't the apostle speak about the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of God that passeth knowledge?

[29:02] But he says, ye shall know it. Ye shall know it. At least in your measure, you shall know it. Not in all the fullness of it. That, of course, is unfathomable. But you shall know it in the measure in which the Lord delights to give it to you.

[29:13] Not only deigns to give it to you. Of course, that's right. He does deign to give it to you. We're unworthy. We're sinners. He deigns to give the blessings of his love to his people.

[29:24] But he delights to give it. Delights to give it. Oh, friends, isn't it a wonderful thing that God delights to give things to sinful men? Even to the rebellious also.

[29:34] He has gifts to give to them. Yea, to the rebellious also. And he delights to give it. He delights to give it. Oh, I wish I was more clearly persuaded of this and more forcefully persuaded of it than I am.

[29:48] But nevertheless, friends, there are times, I feel tonight is one of them when I really do believe that God, God revealed in Jesus Christ, delights to give things to his people for the sake of his own dear son.

[30:02] And you know who they are, don't you? Or you say, they are the elect and they are saints. But one of them said, I'm the chief of sinners. He did, friends. He said, I'm the chief of sinners.

[30:13] But he was one of the children of God. Dear Apostle Paul, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. And even to him, the Lord delighted to give and to give with great abundance.

[30:25] Oh, saith Christ, ask, ye poor penurious characters that haven't got a penny to bless yourself with. You have to come empty-handed and the very hands themselves are stained with sin.

[30:38] Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. And oh, friends, if you don't feel you've got any power to plead or pray or help yourself in any way, well, just tell him all about it.

[30:55] Just as simply as that. Oh, go and just unbosom your heart before the Lamb. Oh, there is a way there. There is a way even into the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[31:07] And that's what suits sinners. It's not self-righteous men, those that are worthy and so able to do everything they want to do with regard to the religion and the salvation of their soul. But it's the poor sinner who doesn't know what to do or how to help himself.

[31:21] There's a way into the holiest even for such sinners by the blood of Jesus Christ. The door of his mercy stands open all day to the poor and the needy who not by the way.

[31:34] No sinner shall ever be empty, sent back, who comes seeking mercy for Jesus' sake. Oh, friends, blessed seeker, says one, and blessed finder, such shall every true seeker be.

[31:49] I know I quote the words of Oliver Cromwell, but they're very of the feelings of my own soul when I say that. Blessed seeker, blessed finder, and such shall every true seeker be.

[32:00] God has said it. It's his own word. It's his own revelation. It's the mind and will of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's own dear Son, toward poor seeking ones who've got nothing to come with.

[32:11] Listen to the words of the prophet of old when he says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth. Come ye to the waters. The one who says, I don't know how to pray, and I can't pray, and I haven't got the spirit of prayer.

[32:25] Yet they want to, they long to, they're thirsting for it. Thirsting for it. Without this, well, friends, their destitution is just simply a terrible, fearful mark against them of their sin.

[32:40] Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, without price.

[32:51] I've said to my people at home many, many times that expression of dear Martin Luther when he said, the coinage of heaven is an empty hand. And so it is, friends, without money, without price.

[33:04] The coinage of heaven is an empty hand. It's that poor hand, empty, but marred, marked, stained by sin and foulness. Extended there with a cry of mercy going out of the heart toward the Lord, with a plea alone in the name of Jesus Christ.

[33:20] Dear old Luther, prove, my friends, that the empty hand was not stretched out in vain. The Lord had gifts to give unto men, yea, to the sinner, the rebellious also.

[33:31] Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, his benefits. And of course, friends, I want us just to remember, perhaps you'll excuse me in sort of dealing with this verse almost word by word, but I do want us to remember that the dear psalmist says his benefits, his benefits.

[33:55] You see, the benefits are like unto him. I only just need to take a few words to describe him and then you'll understand perhaps a little about the benefits.

[34:07] In the first place, my friends, this blessed Lord or Jehovah that the dear psalmist is addressing here or whom he's speaking of here when he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

[34:20] He is an eternal God. And therefore, his benefits, whilst they are known in time, they are eternal benefits. They pertain to eternity and to eternal things.

[34:35] That's what makes the importance of the benefit and the preciousness of the benefits, you see, the transcendent excellency of these benefits because they not only are experienced in time, of course, they must be because we are living a temporal life here upon this earth.

[34:53] There comes a time when death will take us hence. But my friends, they pertain to eternity because the benefits of God must of necessity bear the very character of the one who benefits other persons.

[35:06] I have any doubt, friends, that there have been some of you perhaps who have received a present from a certain person and if you've looked upon it, perhaps sometimes with great gratitude it may be, sometimes almost with amusement you may have said, well, it's like the giver, it's like the giver, you know, like the giver.

[35:32] Some of us have known that sort of thing, you see, benefits or presents, shall we say, are very different in their character and very often they seem to bear the mark of the giver.

[35:44] Now, friends, you may be sure of this, that these great benefits of Jehovah, these great benefits of the God of all grace, they bear the mark of the giver. And one great mark, friends, is their eternal nature, the mark of eternity that is upon them.

[36:03] An earnest of eternal things to come. Don't forget that. If you had a benefit from your God, my friends, they're an earnest of still greater, more blessed things to come.

[36:19] They bear the mark of the eternal upon them. They do indeed. The benefits of God, my friends, have not only in their perspective the things of time, but they have in their perspective the things of eternity.

[36:35] You know, it's a strange thing, isn't it, friends, how some people can speak about benefits in a way which another person would never speak of. They would never speak of them as a benefit or a gift.

[36:48] Apostle Paul, he speaks about a time when the Lord gave him a sight of glorious things in heaven. He said he was caught up into the third heavens and he saw things that were not lawful to be uttered.

[37:01] And he said, lest I should be exalted above measure the Lord gave me a benefit. Have you thought about that? A gift. That's what it really means.

[37:12] There are other words, my friends, that could be used if it wasn't so. You see, if I'd have been talking about what Paul had at the time when he had it and I was experiencing the agony that it would bring upon a man, I should have said, it was inflicted upon me.

[37:26] You see, but the apostle doesn't say that. He says, there was given me a benefit, a gift, a precious gift, you see, a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.

[37:37] And do you know this goes on for 14 or 15 years. And the dear apostle, my friends, at the end of the time as he's writing about this gift, so painful and so distressing but nevertheless a gift, you see, he says, the Lord has so blessed it to me that I wouldn't have it taken away from me now.

[37:56] Most gladly would I rather glory in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me, that I may know this fresh discovery of the all-sufficient grace and provision and strength and love and supporting hand and mercy of my God even as I have to bear this gift.

[38:16] Oh, it's a precious thing says the apostle to me, a valuable thing. Benefits, benefits. And of course, my friends, the things that it taught the apostle Paul and the outcome of it and the blessing it was made to his soul and to the church of Christ, it has an eternal outcome.

[38:35] You see, it's the interest of the soul and not merely the interest of the body. Remember a woman up at Rochdale telling me how when her little baby girl was born because her father and mother had been rather strict disciplinarian, she made up her mind that she would never deal with her child like that.

[38:56] If her child wanted any pleasure, she would certainly let her have it. I remember my friends as she was telling me about this decision and what had happened afterwards, she said, she said, I'm ruining the day now.

[39:09] Ruining the day now. My dear friends, discipline, even chastisement can be a wonderful benefit, which, you know. Oh, it's an unpopular teaching of today, for today, I know.

[39:23] We live in a permissive age and everybody's going to be allowed to do just what they like. If you want to go and steal somebody else's house and set up your home there and misbehave it and make it a filthy den, well, of course, you should have permission to do it.

[39:39] Nobody should stand in your way. The police force is out of date, get rid of it. Soldiers, well, of course, you mustn't bring them in. Oh, no. You can just have anarchy. That's what it is, friends.

[39:50] Well, the Lord says, I'm not going to have anarchy among my family. I know a state of anarchy will never benefit my family and so I shall discipline them but I shall always do it in love.

[40:02] Parent, of course, my friends, he may not always do it in love. He may lose his temper very badly. If he loses his temper when he's dealing with his children, of course, it isn't wise discipline. That wisdom goes to the winds when you lose your temper but the Lord Jesus Christ has always got an eternal purpose before him.

[40:21] He is working out that purpose continuously. Says the Apostle Paul in speaking about this chastisement, of course, I know, friends, he wasn't really speaking about the chastisement originally but he brings this matter of chastisement in in connection with another doctrine and he says, if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons, you lose the mark of being a son of God.

[40:48] You see, this chastisement bears the mark of the eternal. It has the interest of the soul at stake. It's the difference, my friends, between a person treading the path to hell and a person treading the path to heaven.

[41:02] You see, eternal joy or eternal misery hangs upon this dispensation. It has an eternal object. Forget not all his, the eternal one's benefits.

[41:15] And then I would also have you remember, friends, that there is something else about this and that is that these benefits, although they are marked by the eternal purposes of God and the great omnipotent power of God, of course, we could deal with that.

[41:31] The benefits of our God are the benefits of an omnipotent hand. You see, they are the benefits of an hand, my friends, that will see that the purpose benefit shall be performed as a result of the present or the benefit that is given.

[41:47] You see, there are many persons who perhaps may give a present or leave a legacy to a person or to one of their children that they may say, well, I expect in later years this will be a real benefit to my child, but you can't be sure it will.

[42:03] There have been sons that have been left any amount of money and they have drunk themselves to death. It hasn't been any benefit to them. You see, but my friends, our God is so wise and, of course, his purposes will ripen fast unfolding every hour.

[42:20] You see, that's what we sing and I trust we believe it that even in the benefits that he gives there will be an unfolding every hour of his purpose and remember this, he is of such wisdom and of such grace and of such power that there shall never fail of the unfolding of that purpose ultimately.

[42:40] Never fail. Whatever the purpose of the Lord is in one of his benefits, whatever be the nature of it, whatever we may speak of it as, even if we say it's an infliction, you see, in the end you shall learn that it's a benefit like the Apostle Paul did and those benefits, my friends, shall not fail of their objective and I believe one of the objectives in this life, my friends, is that principles and love of holiness shall so be wrought within your soul that under the benefits of your God you shall be made meet for the inheritance among the saints in light.

[43:19] The benefits of God will teach you the enormity of your sin. They will bring you with greater grief before the throne of God's grace confessing it. It will work in you a love of holiness, a desire for holy things.

[43:33] You will crave of your God the constancy of His grace, His blessed protection, His sweet enablings, His divine preventings that you may walk out of way of sacred obedience to His will separate from the world and the pleasures of it with an eye looking straight on and the eyelids fixed straight before you upon the person of Jesus Christ entertaining, receiving His words into your heart under the blessing of His Holy Spirit to this end that you might not sin against Him.

[44:06] That will be your desire. And these blessed things, friends, are not the work of man but they are the benefit of God. They're the benefit of God. Oh yes, the Lord is going to have a holy people to dwell in a holy place.

[44:20] You say, well I'm thankful I've got to leave my body behind. Yes, friends, well, we shall have to leave our bodies behind. It will only be when we're liberated from that. We shall be free of sin.

[44:31] But let me tell you this. One of the benefits of your God is that from the day of divine calling to the time of your death, you shall go on to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

[44:46] You'll find it in all perfection in somebody outside of yourself. You'll find it in Jesus Christ in the provision of His grace for your soul. But you'll still hunger and thirst after righteousness.

[44:59] You won't be satisfied without it. You'll want it for your covering, but you'll want it for your appetite. You will. You'll want to hunger after it and pursue after it and seek after it.

[45:11] And you'll pray to be delivered from every opposing thing that is against it. And you'll mourn, my friends, when the unrighteousness at any moment gains the victory and you have to again come and mourn before your God over fresh contracted guilt.

[45:26] But your hungry will be after righteousness. You say, Mr. Rowe, don't your own words condemn you? Of course they do. Of course they do. They do condemn you. My friends, these things that I declare to you tonight make me know the greatness of my sin and the inveterate folly that is bound up with my nature.

[45:48] Do you know, friends, long as I do after that blessed holiness and righteousness, I realize this, that the fullness of it alone is found in Jesus Christ and the blessed experience of it in all its purity must be known in heaven above alone.

[46:03] But nevertheless, there is a pursuing after it, a longing for it, a dissatisfaction with anything that is contradictory to it. The flesh may feed upon sin, but a quickened soul, my friends, can't feed upon that.

[46:20] It's deadly to the quickened soul is sin. Indulgence in sin, continuance in sin, and sin is a deadly thing to the soul. But oh, friends, the wise, a blessed obedience of faith to a precious Christ, how valuable they are, how valuable they are.

[46:39] Forget not all his benefits. Of course, friends, they are benefits of infinite grace. Oh, they are benefits of grace. What is the character of our God?

[46:50] Then you'll find something of the character of his benefits. Well, friends, the word of God says this, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

[47:05] That's the kind of benefit. It's the kind of God he is. Because he loved in the way in which he did the characters of the persons that he did love.

[47:16] sinners, hell-deserving sinners, vain, worldly-minded sinners, rebellious sinners, proud sinners, religious sinners, self-righteous sinners, sinners who glorify themselves as being the great man in religious circles, and people bow down and worship them, that kind of sinner.

[47:40] That kind of sinner. Oh, my friends, I want you to remember this, that God is a God of grace, a God of grace.

[47:53] You can describe the sinners in what way you like, and you can add all the adjectives you like to the word sin, but you'll never make it worse than it is. It's a terrible word, terrible word, but it means a terrible thing.

[48:09] And my friends, it entailed a terrible, terrible visitation, a poor one who deserved it not, and yet he bared his own heart to the sword thrust, condemned, condemned for others, taking the place of the guilty and bearing their guilt away as a scapegoat.

[48:29] That was the gift of God the Father of his own dearly beloved Son. Forget not all his benefits, they're marked by grace, marked by grace, every one of them, every one God.

[48:43] I don't know, my friends, what you are thanking God for today, whether you're thanking him that he's made you such a good man and such a great man and such a noble man, that you're very different to other people, like the Pharisee did when he was standing in the temple, you know, he says, I thank thee, Lord, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this public search your hearts, friend, is that the sort of approach unto God?

[49:19] Well, of course, it isn't really an approach unto God, you know, that's the man that is far off in divine estimation, he may be ever so close in the eyes of men, but not in the eyes of the Lord, he may be right in the temple itself, you see, as he says those things, and thinks he's worthy to go there and have the nearest approach to the mercy seat, as it were, and he doesn't know the first thing about mercy, because he hasn't been taught the need of it, and yet he's right there in the centre of things, and here's the other poor man, right outside, far off, and all he can do is smite upon his breast and cry, God, be merciful to be a sinner, and friends, that's the man who's receiving the benefit, head, because the benefit is always of grace, always of grace, nothing in my hand I bring, but simply to thy cross I cling, naked come to thee for dress, and helpless look to thee for grace, black eye to the fountain fly, wash me saviour, or I die, that's the man that has received, is receiving, and shall receive the benefit, don't forget my friends, the benefits of God are eternal benefits, they don't have a beginning, because the love of God was always eternal, and it was always set upon the objects of his affection, and of course my friends, it will go on and on and on, and even if for a time you may have seemed to have lost the benefit, and even lost the desire for the benefit, the Lord in the riches of his grace, will do for you like the parable says my friends, he will do for you like what happened to that poor prodigal, that was down in the far distant country, and he had spent all his substance in riotous living, and he was living on husks, and he comes to himself, and the

[51:18] Lord will bring you to yourself, he's determined to, you know why, because he's pledged himself to do this, he says not one of them is lost, none shall pluck them out of my hand, and none shall pluck them out of my father's hand, no, not one, not one, forget not all his benefits, I realise friends the time has gone, I would have liked to have spoken a little bit about the benefits themselves, particularly the ones that the dear psalmist himself speaks of here, I should only have time just to put you in remembrance of them and hope that the spirit of the lord may lead you just to explore a little of these benefits, in my bible years ago I underlined the benefits of the psalm, they seem to find such an echo in my heart, I shall just read the underlined words, first of all we read, he forgiveth all thine iniquities, iniquities, perhaps my friends, the psalmist putting it first might say this is number one benefit, he forgiveth all thine iniquities, if he didn't do that, there couldn't be another, couldn't be another, if he didn't do that for you sinner, there couldn't be another one, don't wonder that

[52:52] David puts it right at the beginning of the son, right at the beginning of the benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, not just a few of them, leaving the others for you to work out your own forgiveness with regard to it like the papers says they can, oh friends what a vain and false hope it is, no hope at all of course, partial work of Christ on behalf of sinners will never do a poor sinner any good at all, it must be complete and thorough and perfect and culminated sealed by the precious blood of a dear redeemer a poor sinner vested in a righteousness not his own, there is the way of acceptance with the father who forgiveth all thine iniquity, he healeth all thy diseases, bad ones of the body he can, miracles he has wrought in that respect, but oh friends the deeper, deeper diseases of the soul of the heart of the mind of a man he can heal he can heal he not only forgives but he heals who redeemeth thy life from disloving oh you say yes Christ is a redeemer well friends if you talk about him being a redeemer

[54:12] I say this in all kindness to you don't be satisfied with just simply saying yes Christ is a redeemer but I ask you to consider very carefully what the price was because you must not talk about redemption without thought of the price you mustn't go my friends into the gate of the city and think about that woman and her possessions without thinking about the price there was a near kinsman who went there that day when Boaz was sitting there and he says yes I'll redeem and when Boaz told him what it meant he says nay I shall mar my own inheritance and friends Christ died to redeem died to redeem God sent his own dear son to redeem I told you these benefits you see well I could only hope that your ministers as they come here Sunday after Sunday might be given grace by God and wisdom and understanding to be able to declare to you the wonders of these benefits oh friends the extent of them

[55:19] I just simply have to say what I said before dissolved by his goodness I fall to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy the benefits I found the benefits I found but I did say I just go through these he satisfies you with something verse 5 he executeth righteousness for you verse 6 he is merciful towards you he is gracious towards you he is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy verse 8 now listen perhaps he's been chiding some of you lately and you think he'll never give up doing it well friends in verse 9 it says he will not always chide that's a benefit isn't it neither would he keep his anger forever than if you feel to be just about the weakest and most helpless of all the children of God if you are one you say surely there's no weaker more helpless one than I am well friends he's a father that pitieth his children so the

[56:29] Lord pitieth them that fear benefits don't think they're exhausted it seems as though every verse contains them when you get home friends just take your Bibles will you read Psalm 103 through again and see if you can pinpoint some benefits there and ask yourself whether you've tasted the Lord is gracious with regard to those benefits if you feel to lack them remember this friends they were never bought with money and with price they were perfectly free sovereign gifts of God whenever they were bestowed the Lord has said if this is your trouble because you seem to lack the benefits well call upon me in the day of trouble I will hear thee and thou shalt glorify me even by the benefits you won't glorify him without them but you will be able to glorify him by them let those benefits dwell richly in your heart by faith and then you will glorify him friends all seek search within this psalm for the benefits of your

[57:32] God do you know friend David even if he wasn't living in a gospel diet got a gospel heart he knew the glad tidings of God's grace indeed he did and he could declare to us the benefits of that blessed Jehovah he saw Christ die he saw it and he was glad he knew that there was going to be a way whereby sins could be perfectly forgiven and iniquity could be covered and all these other benefits could flow through a redeemer's love and blood to poor guilty sinners may the lord add his blessing amen the lord will the brood will preach here on monday evening and next week let us close with hymn 420 hymn 2-5 oh bless the lord my soul that all will in me join made my tongue to bless his name and favors after thine 420 hymn 2-5 thanks k to his nombre who

[59:40] O blesses nigh, whose name is all divine.

[59:53] O bless the Lord my soul, nor let his glasses blind.

[60:16] Forgotten in unthankfulness, and without praises die.

[60:36] Tis he forgives thy sins.

[60:49] Tis he relieves thy pain. Tis he that heals thy sicknesses.

[61:09] And may slay of again.

[61:19] He crowns thy life with love.

[61:32] When ransomed from the grave. He that redeemed myself from hell.

[61:53] Has sovereign power to sign. He fills the palm with God.

[62:14] He gives the sovereign's rest. The Lord has judgments for the crown.

[62:34] And the justice for the oppressed.

[62:45] His wondrous forms and ways.

[62:57] They may, may God, always know. Bouncing up on his truth and grace.

[63:17] By his beloved son.

[63:28] May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest upon you.

[63:51] Amen. Amen. Amen.

[64:01] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[64:12] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[64:24] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.