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[0:00] Preaching of God's Word, turn in your Bibles to Psalm 107. We'll read the first 32 verses. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

[0:14] ! 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 the east and west, from north and south.

[0:28] Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.

[0:39] Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

[1:02] Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners suffering in iron chains, for they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.

[1:15] So he subjected them to bitter labor. They stumbled, and there was no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.

[1:32] Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.

[1:43] 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.

[1:56] 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.

[2:11] Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy. Others went out on the sea in ships.

[2:22] They were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves.

[2:34] They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths. In their peril, their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunken men. They were at their wit's end.

[2:46] Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper. The waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.

[3:01] Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.

[3:16] Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever. Amen. The psalmist is gathering a choir to sing the praises of God for his love and his goodness.

[3:32] Now, who will make up this choir? It's not based on who can sing bass and tenor and alto and soprano. No, who will make up this choir is all those whom the Lord has redeemed, who've tasted of this saving goodness and love in Jesus Christ.

[3:52] Let the redeemed of the Lord say this, those that he has redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands from east and west, from north and south.

[4:06] So it's the redeemed who make up this choir. Now, in the Old Testament, the picture of redemption that is set before us is when Israel was redeemed out of bondage in Egypt.

[4:21] But many years later, a redemption occurred that overshadowed that first redemption from Egypt. God did a new thing. God redeemed his people again from their enemies, this time from Babylon.

[4:37] Because of their unfaithfulness to God, the Israelites were taken into captivity in Babylon. And they were scattered all over the then known world, the Babylonian Empire.

[4:50] And yet, because of God's goodness and unfailing love, he redeemed them. He redeemed them and regathered them and brought them back from all those places throughout the world, all the four corners, the four points of the compass.

[5:08] It was like a second exodus. It was like a second redemption. And this psalm was written then to help those Israelites thank the Lord for this great redemption.

[5:23] It's a page taken right out of Zion's hymn book. This is what they sang in praise to God for His goodness and love in saving them from the Babylonian captivity.

[5:36] But you know that there's been another redemption. One that is so great that it makes these other two just mere types and shadows like they are.

[5:49] For the reality is that great redemption that we have in Jesus Christ, that we've been redeemed from sin and death and hell. How much more then should we give thanks to God for saving us from our misery?

[6:05] What a Redeemer! The eternal Son of God comes to save us. What a redemption price! The price of His own precious blood.

[6:18] And what a great redemption! Think of all that this Savior has won for us, this Redeemer has won for us. Well, whatever others are doing and whatever others are saying, let the redeemed of the Lord say this, that God is worthy of thanks because of His goodness and His unfailing love.

[6:41] Oh, my soul, sing your part in this choir, this choir of thanksgiving. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. Who, like me, His praise should sing.

[6:53] So this psalm, Psalm 107, is written to help us, who are the Lord's ransomed and redeemed ones, to thank Him for this wonderful salvation.

[7:04] Now, the psalm gives us four pictures then of this great salvation in Jesus Christ. And these four accounts probably reflect the various conditions that the Israelites were in when God called them out of Babylonian captivity.

[7:21] Some were here, some were there, and as God brought them, He brought them out of all sorts of experiences. But as such, they give us four different portrayals of man's desperate spiritual condition and God's wonderful rescue in the Gospel.

[7:38] Just as redemption from Egypt and Babylon pointed forward to spiritual realities in Christ, so these four pictures of redemption that we have point to spiritual realities that take place in our lives.

[7:55] So see if you can't find yourself, you who are the redeemed, in this psalm. And each picture has its own call for a response of thanksgiving.

[8:07] Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and wonderful deeds for men. So picture number one of redemption.

[8:17] we see some travelers who are lost in a desert. Verse four, some wandered in desert wastelands finding no way to a city where they could settle.

[8:31] You ever been lost? Wandering around, trying to find your way? It's one thing to be lost in a city where you can stop and ask someone for help.

[8:41] Or when you're hungry, you can stop and get food and water. But it's another thing altogether to be lost in a desert wasteland. A howling wilderness. It's the worst place to be when you're lost.

[8:54] And that's where these people are. There's no food, there's no water, there's no people to help them in any way. They're searching, but they're not finding a way to the city where their needs could be met and where they could settle.

[9:13] They're hungry, verse 5, and thirsty and their lives ebbed away. This means they're at the point of death, completely exhausted. At any moment, it could be their last step in the desert.

[9:27] As withered and without strength, they fall and their life is lost. The scene is desperate. It's hopeless, it's helpless. And that's precisely the Bible's description of mankind as we're born.

[9:42] Lost. Why? Because we've wandered far from God. We have turned from Him and gone our own way. We've gone astray. And now we're unable to find our way back.

[9:54] Back to God. Without God and without hope in this world, our souls didn't stop hungering and thirsting, though.

[10:05] They kept hungering. they kept thirsting. But they were starving. We looked here and we looked there for something to satisfy our souls, but our search only led to further disappointment.

[10:22] Like lost travelers in the desert, dizzy from the heat, we looked off to the distance and we saw what appeared to be a pool of water.

[10:32] And so, we ran after it with all of our hearts. And we threw ourselves into that pursuit to satisfy us. And when we got there, we realized it was a mirage.

[10:47] It was nothing but heat waves rising up off of the sand. nothing satisfying there. And we looked over there and we saw another pool of water.

[10:59] And we went as lost traveler in the desert from one mirage to another and found nothing to satisfy our souls.

[11:10] And then, verse 6 says, then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. Isn't that something? Then. Not until their trouble had brought them to the end of the rope, do they turn to God.

[11:26] Only when all other attempts have failed, all other options have been exhausted, only as a last resort do they turn to the Lord and call for His help.

[11:41] Yes, the prodigal must be brought to poverty and starvation and the pig pen before he finally goes to his father. and only when the sinner has exhausted all his own attempts to make life work without God does he finally cry out to the Lord in his lostness and in his trouble.

[12:07] But you know, it's a grace that any of us ever cry out to the Lord at all. because many never do. They go from one mirage to another and they just keep going seeking satisfaction, hungry, thirsting, lost in the desert until they're finally brought to hell.

[12:31] You were wearied by all your ways but you would not say it is hopeless. You found renewal of your strength. Oh, there's water to be found here and so you did not faint.

[12:46] So better is the hunger that brings us to our knees than the feasting that enables us to go on forgetting God.

[12:58] And better is the unquenched thirst that sends us running to that fountain than barrels of the world's pleasures that leave us temporarily satisfied without Christ.

[13:12] And better are the frustrated desires and better are the broken hearts and better are the tragic losses that send us to God than the prosperity that continues the mirage that the world is anything more than broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

[13:31] blessed be God for bringing us to the point where we would cry to the Lord for help. They were brought to this end and when they cried he delivered them from their distress.

[13:47] He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle where all their needs could be continually met. is that not amazing? Not just that we hold out until the last option God but is it not amazing love that he would be willing to be the last option for us?

[14:09] That he would stoop that low? He that should the one to whom we should run first is willing to deliver us though we turn to him last.

[14:23] And only when all created streams have failed and dried up we have no other place to go when we come to the Lord Jesus and we find his arms open and he delivered us from all of our distress that he should have anything to do with such lost rebels is amazing mercy and he saved us from perishing all in answer to a cry just a weak cry Lord save me well then let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men for he satisfies the thirsty and he fills the hungry with good things let all these join in that thanksgiving choir then and sing of his unfailing love that moved him to act in such wonderful works of salvation that the shepherd would die for sheep that loved to wander that the king would die for rebels that loved to revolt and go their own way a love that pursued us into the barren wasteland into the far country of our sin and brought us to the gospel feast that truly satisfies and fills that's what the

[15:43] Lord Jesus has done for us for our lostness he says I am the way for our hunger he says I am the bread of life for our thirst he says I am the water of life and for our exhaustion he says I will give you rest soul rest and so they now feast on the abundance of his house and they drink from his river of delights let them give thanks to the Lord but secondly some were prisoners in bitter slavery verse 10 some sat in darkness and deepest gloom prisoners suffering in iron chains here they are in a deep dark dungeon rotting away in captivity and in slavery held with iron chains no way out no way to free themselves the only time they get out is when they're brought out to forced labor a bitter slavery under the whip of their captives and there they are and they stumble and there's no one to help or to pity them it's another picture of hopeless despair just as hopeless as that guy that was dragging his feet along and at any point his life would be gone from him in the desert so these are rotting away in prison with no one to help them well why are they in this condition why are they down here in this dark dungeon of captivity well it's their own fault verse 11 tells us for here's the reason for they had rebelled against the words of

[17:29] God and despised the counsel of the most high this slavery is a result of sin it was that way for the Israelites that's why they were in captivity in Babylon and that's why every one of us were in captivity we had rebelled against the words of God what a picture this is of man by nature a slave to sin remember Jesus said he who commits sin is the slave of sin Romans 8 32 that was us we were enslaved to sin and the truth would set us free but we despised the word of the Lord we did not like it we rebelled against it we thought we knew the way to freedom better than God did isn't that the case that God's way of freedom looks like bondage to the lost man or woman boy or girl

[18:32] God sets his ways before us and we we say it looks a whole lot like bondage looks restrictive to me all those thou shalt not thou shalt and so we say that's bondage that looks like freedom going my own way doing what I want to do and so we run away from God we rebelled against the word of God that we despise but it's a lie it's a lie and it leads only to bondage it's the same lie that Satan first told in the garden of Eden when he told Eve has God said this oh well he's holding out on you you need to go this way if you would find freedom it's found over here and he's still telling that lie today some people just go on telling the same lie that's the way the devil is but worse than that some people go on believing some of you here this morning perhaps are still believing the lie it's the lie that says to experience true freedom you need to turn away from the laws of

[19:50] God and do what you want to do obey your parents oh that sounds enslaving why not rather do what I want to do that's freedom flee from sexual immorality oh that sounds restrictive sounds a bit narrow why not do what I feel like doing with my body we have a nature that cries let us break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from us let God have his words we'll find our own way to freedom but our wandering from the word of God let us where right down into this dungeon where it's all dark and we're held in iron chains because sin always takes you further than you want to go and freedom ends up being bondage what we thought thought was freedom ends up being misery

[20:54] Richard Phillips says we find we cannot stop sinning once we've started it weakens our willpower it warps our character and it ruins our relationships oh yeah the prodigal thought freedom was out there away from the father's house and rules but it led him into slavery miserable bondage then they cried to the Lord so from this dungeon you hear a cry help Lord from the chains from the darkness then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress he brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains when did they cry only when they despaired of any other help and when we cry with that kind of cry the Lord always hears us there's no dungeon so dark and deep there are no chains so strong that can can keep the Lord from hearing and responding when out of despairing for saving ourselves we turn to him and cry

[22:13] Lord save me God knows how to wrench out of us that kind of prayer doesn't he that cry of helplessness we pray best when we feel most hopeless and no matter how dark or gloomy the prison he sets them free for if the sun shall set you free you shall be free indeed so Jesus is in the synagogue at Nazareth and he stands up and he unrolls the scroll of Isaiah to the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and then he said today this word is being fulfilled in your hearing Jesus came to set free the prisoners to release those who were oppressed in their bondage to sin and what a role of prisoners he set free there's

[23:24] Nicodemus and he was enslaved to dead religion he was enslaved to his own self righteousness and good opinion of himself he wouldn't let go of that for anything he'd rather die than to be thought an unworthy sinner those chains were so strong on him but Jesus set him free that Samaritan woman who was enslaved to relationships and a sexually immoral lifestyle set free became a worshipper of Christ Zacchaeus enslaved to his money I always must have more more more because it's just a mirage there's nothing to satisfy the soul out there but he keeps seeking for more and Jesus met him and set him free and Mary Magdalene enslaved by seven devils set free by the Lord Jesus people of all sorts of addictions and sinful bondages set free in Jesus you and me brothers and sisters enslaved to our own sins and our own guilt and now here we are walking around in freedom for the first time in our lives we were free so how does Jesus set prisoners free how does he free us from our bondage to sin well he died for our sins and rose triumphantly over them to set us free to break the sins that the chains of sin what celebrates it in that great hymn he breaks the power of reigning sin he sets the prisoner free his blood his blood can make the foulest clean his blood availed for me so that's how he does it he dies and takes the punishment for us so release the prisoner the price has been paid but he also frees us because in union with

[25:15] Christ we find that sin no longer has the mastery over us so we're no longer its slave Romans 6 and verse 14 he gives us a new heart a heart that loves him and his law and hates sin gives us that new nature that new heart on which he writes his law so that we can gladly say I walk about in freedom for I have sought out your precepts I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free where does a free heart run right back to the word of God not out here going its own way but they find that the word of God is the path of freedom they find with James that the law is the perfect law of liberty the law that gives freedom it's the truth that sets us free from a thousand snares and prisons and we find it to be that in keeping of the law there's a great reward a reward it's not a bondage it's freedom and he gives us eyes and a heart to see that and to believe the truth that exposes the lie of the evil one he puts his holy spirit within us you see that we might walk in freedom as we walk in God's ways well let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men for he breaks down the gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron you souls you too join this thanksgiving choir it's unfailing love that sought you out as a rebel now locked up in sin's prison you who sought your freedom outside of his word and it's unfailing love that moved him to perform such wondrous deeds as we just spoke of those deeds that

[27:11] Christ does to set us free you know that I'm not wasting away under some foul addiction some nasty bondage this morning is due only to the fact that God in grace has set me free what sinful addiction would you be chained to this morning had Christ not set you free then let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love lost travelers and slave prisoners the deathly sick any been sick well you all been sick probably at some point but have you ever been sick unto death you ever been on your deathbed and then raised up if so you'll have a better appreciation for this picture perhaps than the rest of us these people now we're in the intensive care unit at the hospital and all the beepers are going on the machines above the bed and the patient is in critical condition they've already been past the stage of where they've loathed all food they have no more appetite and they've drawn near the gates of death the grave is opening yawning to receive them the family has been called in because there's not many minutes left sick deathly sick why so sick well people are sick for different reasons today but these were sick because of their sins notice verse 17 some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities they were rebels again you see the thing is all these pictures are of men who have strayed from

[29:14] God why is the man lost in the desert because he left God and went his own way and got lost why is the man in the prison because he rebelled he would not hear God's word why are these people sick unto death because of their iniquities this sickness was the result of their sins and you can remember the promises that God gave to Israel that if they would follow him and keep his covenant that he would keep them from all the diseases and sicknesses of Egypt but these had rebelled against the Lord so they're experiencing the diseases and sicknesses perhaps it's a reference to some of those physical afflictions and diseases that come as a direct result of some sin and so the drunkard finds that the alcohol is eating his liver up and he's ready for the grave the sexually immoral find themselves eaten up with sexually transmitted diseases or the glutton finds himself with all sorts of heart problems there are those cases where sin carries its own punishment if you will and we see the direct connection but you know the teaching of the

[30:41] Bible is that all sickness and disease is a result of what of sin before sin entered the world there was no death there was no disease and sickness that brings us to death but when sin entered death entered with it and disease and sickness is one of the ways physical afflictions one of the ways that death enters our existence sins but then they cried they cried to the Lord in their trouble not until they were on their deathbeds do they cry to the Lord when all the doctors and medicines have failed when they're too sick to eat they find themselves crying out to the Lord and when they whisper out their weak cry save me he saved them from their distress verse 19 he saved them from their distress now there's another picture of salvation the Bible pictures sin as an incurable disease in many different passages sin that corrupts our whole being and leaves our mind our will our desires depraved bent on evil leading to death because that's where all sin takes us to death the wages of sin is death and so

[32:03] Jesus Christ comes as the great physician we watch him in the gospels and he's going around healing people now he was having mercy on them for their physical afflictions we don't take away from that in the slightest you can't read the gospel of John without seeing that he was also portraying by those healings his spiritual healing of man's sickness in sin and so he comes among sin diseased people and he cleanses us from the leprosy of our sin and he heals our blinded eyes that would not see our sins and he heals our deafened ears that would not hear his voice and he heals our lame feet that would not walk in his commands and he heals!

[32:53] our mute lips that refuse to give him glory the healing of the body is a picture in the gospels of what he does for our souls so the psalmist says soul don't forget all of his benefits who heals or who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases who restores our health delivering us from death the second death the eternal lake of fire!

[33:23] isn't it again amazing that even though these people deserve to be sick because of their sin that was us we deserve to be dying for our sins yet when we cried to the Lord he saved us therefore let them praise the Lord for his unfailing love and his wondrous deeds for men how does he save them how does he save them from death he dies in their stead how does he cure them with his blood strange cure this great physician wondrous deeds for men as he snatches us from the jaws of hell let us thank the Lord for his unfailing love and how should we do it as one who's alive from the dead we were goners but let's thank him and praise him as one who is alive from the dead who died with

[34:35] Christ and Calvin rose with him from the tomb and who now lives and knows that the and if they with their physical diseases should have thanked the Lord how much more we who've been saved from the disease of sin oh that my soul would play her part in this thanksgiving choir oh that my soul would love and praise him more the last picture is that of sailors caught on a stormy sea we have it for us there!

[35:38] verse 23 others went out on the sea in ships they were merchants on the mighty waters they saw the works of the Lord his wonderful deeds in the deep for he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves they mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths in their peril their courage melted away they reeled and staggered like drunken drunken men they were at there were no pleasure boats or cruise ships in the days of the psalmist to go to sea in that day was to take your life into your own hands and you didn't know if you were coming back and these merchants did go to sea it's the way they earned their livelihood and they see many wonderful things there in the deeps but

[36:43] God just spoke and stirred up a storm and it lifts them up on the waves some of you seeing the perfect storm and you just see the way it's advertised there's that wave it looks to be about 5,000 miles high and there's that little boat just waiting for the crest of the wave to just cave over on them lost at sea there's nothing that those poor sailors could do to save themselves you see the same kind of picture throughout the scriptures you see it in Acts 27 Paul's on a ship on his way to Rome and they came into such a storm that gave such a battering to the ship and lasted so long that these seasoned soldiers and sailors and prisoners lost all courage gave up all hope of that the psalmist is painting for us it's the same picture painted in Jonah that runaway prophet and

[37:44] God pursues him with what he speaks a word in a storm follows Jonah and it was so great that the scriptures tell us that it threatened the ship was threatening to break up and all the sailors were afraid and they cried out to their own gods they were at their wits end and that's the picture portrayed for us here in the last picture helplessly lost helplessly enchained helplessly sick deathly sick and now completely hopeless in a storm at sea self salvation is a joke on stormy seas and yet how do we cling to that desire to try to save ourselves there we were on the swelling sea of God's wrath and it seems like at any moment it would just swallow us and here we are in our little boat in our own ways of trying to save ourselves and help ourselves we were in big trouble puritans used to say if you want to learn to pray go to sea because you would face conditions that would leave you absolutely helpless and that's what prayer is the helpless soul casting itself upon

[39:14] God that's where they were brought but verse 20 says then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he brought them out of their distress he stilled the storm to a whisper the waves of the sea were hushed they were glad when it grew calm and he guided them to their desired haven he's lord of the storm it comes and it goes at his word just a word and he stills the storm to a whisper say we've seen him haven't we in the gospels we've seen that stormy sea and we've seen him be still and we've seen the stormy sea calmed and we've seen some glad people who've been saved from stormy seas well you and I would have long ago been shipwrecked for time and eternity had he not saved us when we cried in our helpless lost condition so let your gladness be found in the response let them give thanks to the

[40:33] Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men let them exalt in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders not enough to just thank him in private multiply your thanksgivings by going public with them is what he's saying exalt him in the assembly of God's people that they too might hear and give thanks to the Lord for what he's done for your soul well that's the psalm that's written to help us give thanks to the Lord did you notice the same pattern in each of the pictures it begins when the helpless cried to the Lord in their trouble it was always that way they only cried out to the Lord when they were at the end of themselves at their wits end and they cry to the

[41:36] Lord in their trouble and then what would happen well he saved them he saved them from their distress and then what well then let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and wonderful deeds have you seen yourself this morning are you the one lost in the desert down in the dungeon of sin sick unto death lost at sea and in a storm helpless to save yourself what should you do you should cry to the Lord he'd have saved you long ago he'd have saved you cried to him yesterday whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved that's what Psalms say to us over and over and over again four times when they cried he delivered them even though they only came as the last resort to him he still delivered them and he's still the same today sinner friend call on this savior and you know the

[42:44] Christian life is one of continually calling on the Lord isn't it constantly looking away from our helpless situations and casting our weight upon the Lord the Christian life begins and continues by crying out to the Lord with this sense of our need we saw it in the Sunday school hour that's the prayer that pleases him when out of a sense of our weakness we look to him our hopeless condition we cry to him so the Christian life is one of crying to the Lord to be strengthened by spiritual food and drink found in Christ to be led by him through the desert of this world to that city with foundations above it's crying out praying to see Christ break the chains of sin in areas of my life where I am still walking as the old man walked and crying out as a helpless man in a dark dungeon Lord help me your grace is sufficient for me it's praying bringing all of our sin sickness to him and to have him cleanse us and to heal us and to keep us healthy spiritually it's owning our diseases before him it's finding him as our all in all in the storms of life and so being guided on the stormy sea all the way to heaven it's clinging to his unfailing love and asking him to act in wonderful deeds you see all the way crying out with a sense of our need and the beauty of this psalm is that whenever we cry he hears there's no storm too loud but he hears he hears the cry some of these cries must have been a whisper the guy is so weak he's about to die they don't shout loud from death they whisper their prayers and he hears and he saves there's no desert too hot too lost but he hears from the desert he hears from the dungeon he hears from the sick bed cry and so

[44:57] God is gathering a choir he's gathering a choir to sing his praises the praises of his love his goodness his wonderful deeds for men and not all believers have exactly the same testimony do they there's some differences between the one and the other just as there's differences in these stories but what they all have in common and what you and I in Christ all have in common is that we were in trouble such that we were hopeless and helpless just like all four of the pictures and the other thing we have in common to have mercy on us and he saved us we'll say that means that we all have common cause to give him thanks to be more and more a part of that eternal choir that will lift up our voice did you see it the repeated refrain is that of thanksgiving thanksgiving is the driving note of this song it's the repeated chorus let the redeemed of the

[46:09] Lord say so let them give thanks to the Lord we keep coming back to that phrase don't we let it be the repeated refrain in your life for the for the past deliverance the great one our salvation in Jesus Christ but for every daily deliverance from sin from our needy condition oh that men would praise him for his unfailing!

[46:36] love and his wonderful deeds for men let's pray how helpless and hopeless we sinners were and we can easily say those words but father thank you for taking us into the desert into the dungeon into the sickbed the deathbed and out onto the stormy seas to show us in picture form just how helpless and hopeless we were in sin and thank you for showing us again your readiness your willingness to save whenever the sinner cries and thank you that you never get tired of hearing us cry and you save us yet today from our sins and oh then that every day the choir would be expanding and new voices would be singing and that saints that I would be singing with more of my heart the praises of God may you be praised for your your unfailing love we don't find this love anywhere else in the world but in you and for the wonderful works that you have done for us what will you not do for those you love how we thank you bear your arm afresh work further in us and through us and may the song all redound to your praise unto him who's loved us and washed us from sin we pray in

[48:00]  Jesus name amen amen