Alright brethren, Psalm 130.
Now those that God loves, and only those He loves, only
those that God chose to save, experience this psalm. Only those
He's regenerated experience this psalm. We experience it many
times when He first begins to call you, but that's not the
last time. You're going to experience this
many times. Verse 1, He said, Out of the
depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord, There are many things that bring
us down into the depths. Sometimes there's painful providence.
It's all of God's providence, what He's bringing to pass. Sometimes
it's persecution in that providence. Different kinds of trials and
tribulations. Opposition. Loss. Rejection. But worst of all, and usually mixed with any other
kind of trouble, worst of all is the depths of our sin. The depths of our own sin. This world's religion, if you
listen to them, I don't encourage you to listen to them, but when
you hear them, you know you've heard them. They classify men
into two classes of people. Christians and sinners. As though they're different. God's saints are sinners. God's
saints are sinners. We're sinners saved by grace. We're sinners being saved by
grace. We hate sin, but we are sinners. And we're
brought to the depths due to our sin. Jonah was a believer. He was a preacher. One of God's
preachers that Christ said, I'll give you pastors after mine own
heart. That's who Jonah was. Hard to
look at Jonah and think that sometimes. Jonah didn't want
to go where God sent him to minister. So he decided he would go somewhere
else. And God just hedged up the way
and wouldn't let him. And God cast him into the depth
of the sea. Now he really went into literal
depths in the sea. But that wasn't what brought
Jonah into the depths. Yes, I'm sure that was physically
terrifying to be swallowed by a whale and carried to the depths
of the sea. But that wasn't the depths Jonah
was crying about. The depths Jonah was brought
to was his sin. His own sin. He said, Thou, Lord,
hast cast me into the deep. He knew who did it. He knew the
Lord did it. He said, all thy billows and
thy waves passed over me. That's more than just the waves
of the sea. He said, I'm cast out of thy sight. There's the
depths. Thinking he was cast out of God's
sight. He said, the waters compassed
me about even to the soul. That's a different kind of water
we're talking about, isn't it? to the soul. He said, when my
soul fainted within me. That's the depths. Here's how
he summed it all up. This is what he was doing. This
is what he saw he was doing. This was the depths that was
upon him, that brought him down. He said, they that observe lying
vanities forsake their own mercy. Everything he had done up to
that point, running from God, running from the place God sent
him, he was observing lying vanity. He was lying to himself that
God was blessing him on the way and found a ship. And then God
sent that storm, brought him down to the depths. Hadn't we
experienced that? I've experienced that to some
degree. I've been experiencing it a little
bit this past few weeks. The Lord gave that parable of
the publican. That's a man you see, an illustration of a man
in the depths. The publican, standing afar off,
would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You know, God's not going to
let His child rise any higher above being a mercy beggar. He's not going to let us get
above that. Because if you get above that, you're in bad shape. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. A haughty, proud spirit? God hates it. To this man will
I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and
tremble at that my word. That's not something we produce. We don't just get it all down
and pretend like we're just so lowly and we're just so humble. That's not how that's produced.
That's produced by God bringing you to the depths. Showing you
what you are. But our substitute knows what
it is to be in the depths. He said that everything Jonah
suffered, he said it was a picture of him being brought into the
depths. And because he has suffered it,
and because he knows what it is, he's not going to bring you
and me to the depths he went to. He went to the depths when
he said, Thou hast cast me out of Thy sight. When Jonah said
that, that happened to our Lord. Cast out of God's sight. Forsaken
with our sin upon Him. He's not going to bring you to
those depths. His eyes are on you. Even though you might feel
like you're in darkness, He knows. And because He knows, He learned
obedience by the things which He suffered, and He's going to
teach us obedience by the things that we suffer. And He's going
to keep prayer in your heart. He's going to keep you crying
to God, crying to Him to save you. That's the purpose. I keep
saying that over and over. I pray, Lord, one day I'll understand
it more. But I know it's so. I know that's
the purpose of every trouble, every trial, the depths we're
brought to. It's to keep us crying to the
Lord, depending on the Lord, looking to the Lord, knowing
He is salvation. That's what Jonah learned. He
said, I'll pay that, I vow. I'm going to declare this to
everybody that will listen. Salvation is of the Lord. How did he learn that? Where
did he learn that? He learned that in the depths. He learned
that in the depths. But the Lord's going to keep
that prayer in your heart. Here it is, verse 1. Out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
eye ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. Isn't
there a great difference in our prayer when everything's good
and times are good, and our prayer when we're in the depths? I thought
about that this past week. and how I was crying to the Lord.
I thought, this is so different than what I pray when times are
good. He said, I cried unto thee, O
Lord. We plead. We plead. We say, please, Lord, hear my
voice. We stop demanding. You know,
when we pray when times are good, there's a lot of demanding in
our prayer. We stop demanding when we're in the depths, and
we beg, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
Lord, just let my prayer come into you. I titled this, Reverence Out
of the Deep. Reverence Out of the Deep. And
here's what I want us to see. As painful as it is to be brought
into the depths, God's going to bring us there for our good
and for His glory. There's things He's going to
teach us in the depths that you can only learn in the depths. Only in the depths. Number one,
the Lord's going to bring us to see and know a little better
that all we are is sin. And He's going to bring you to
acknowledge that to Him. Verse 3, If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? He's going to bring
you to acknowledge, all I am is sin. If He marked iniquity,
I could not stand before Him. Number two, the Lord's going
to teach us that due to Christ our righteousness, He freely
forgives us. That's what you learn in the
depths. You don't learn about forgiveness until you really,
really, really need forgiveness. And he said, verse 4, but there
is forgiveness with thee. That's what he learned in the
depths. And number 3, the Lord teaches us that He does all this
for us to create in us and to grow us in reverence for the
Lord. reverence for the Lord, fear
of the Lord. He said, verse 4, but there's forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. And we'll just look at those
three things. First of all, the Lord brings us into the depths
and He's going to bring us to acknowledge our sin and that
all we are is sin. He says here, If thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? This is what
he learned in the depths. And you know the word iniquities. It's including the best deeds
you can do. They don't equal the righteousness
of God. He's calling his best deeds iniquities.
And if that's so with your best deeds, then you go on and count
the rest of them, what they are too, just sin. And that's where
we are in our nature. How are you going to learn this?
Well, it brings you into the depths. And it's not just the
depths. It's not suffering. Everybody suffers. We're in a
world of sin. Everybody suffers. Everybody's
going to go through some trouble. That's not what does this. It's
the Lord making you see His holiness. That's what brings you to see.
your sin. You turn over to Isaiah 6. I
know you know it, but there might be some out here that have never
seen this. Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6. The Lord made Isaiah
see His holiness. Look at Isaiah 6. In the year
the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting up on a throne
high, and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Look
down at verse 3. He heard the angels cry, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth full of His glory.
That building started shaking. His heart started shaking. Verse 5, Then said I, woe is
me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. How did you
see this, Isaiah? Because mine eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts. You could have a wall that looks
white and you put a really true white wall beside it and that
wall you thought was white just looks dingy. Well, you might
think you're doing a pretty good job. God will bring you into
the depths and He'll let you see His holiness and you'll realize
all I am is sin. All I am is sin. Beholding the
Lord in His holiness, Isaiah said, here's what he said. He
said, if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, who should stand?
That's what he was saying. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a
man of unclean lips. You know, yes, we say, Lord,
if you mark the iniquities, there's nobody that can stand. But it
gets personal. Just like Isaiah, woe is me.
If you mark my iniquities, I couldn't stand, Lord. Holding God's holiness,
it will bring you to cry this, Job 15.14, What is man that he
should be clean? And he which is born of a woman
that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in
his saints. Now get that, holy God puts no
trust in His saints, in His sanctified holy people. He don't put trust
in us. Why, the heavens are not clean
in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. What's easier to drink than water? Iniquity. We drink iniquity like
water. How then can a man be justified
with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? We're talking about two things here. How can he be
justified, righteous before God, and how can he be clean that's
born of a woman? Corrupt in nature. Behold, even
to the moon, and it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. You get on out there where they
say there are billions and billions of miles out there, you get on
out there where man ain't even touched it with our polluted
hand. And the Scripture says that no
stars are pure in holy God's sight. That's a holy God. How much less man that is a worm,
a maggot, the son of man which is a maggot. He don't just bring
you to say that about them people out there. He don't bring you
to say that about your brethren. He don't bring you to say that
about anybody else. In the depths, He brings you
to say, that is me. That's me. Unworthy of God's
favor, deserving of His wrath, corrupt, wretched, loathsome,
a leper, worse than a beast, the chief of sinners. God's child just doesn't say
that. We mean that. I mean that. I mean it. You let somebody else say it
about us, and you'll find out we mean it. It's one thing for
you to say it about yourself. You ask me, I say, yeah, I agree
with you, Chief Sinner. Well, I'm not that bad. Just
proved. We're the sinner. One moment
falling on our face saying we're unworthy, and the next minute,
I'm not that bad. That's sin. That's iniquity. But God gives you true repentance
to see I, the sinner. And He makes you know it's against
Him. David said, Against thee and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Have you ever
prayed that? I've prayed that. I have. You have too, if you
know Him. He brings you to cry out, Lord,
I'm such a foul wretch. Lord, whatever you do, You're
just. I don't deserve anything from
you. I don't. If you condemn me, you're
just, Lord. I'm telling you, when you're in the depths, you will
say that to God and mean it. And yet you pray unto the same
Lord. I want to know you. I think I know you or I wouldn't
be asking you this. You know, it's like a paradox. You're like, Lord, I'm vile. I don't deserve anything from
You. I know I've sinned against You. And Lord, I want to know You.
I pray I know You. Lord, do I know You? At the same
time you're praying, Lord, don't take Your Spirit from me. Keep
revealing Yourself to me. Keep me. Don't let me go. That's
the only something a saved man is going to pray. But boy, you
don't feel like you're a saved man when you're in those depths,
do you? No man could stand if God marked
iniquities. You and me couldn't stand. Nobody
could stand if God marked our iniquities. There's not a just man upon earth
that doeth good and sinneth not. That includes all who are dead
in sins, and that includes those who are justified by Christ and
made holy in the new man by Christ, of ourselves. They're not a just
man on this earth. We didn't do it. Not a one of
us sanctified by God doeth good and sinneth not. Not one of us
does. Not one of us does. All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Take the best thing any of us
have ever done. God worked it. God worked it. If you did it and it was a good
thing, God worked it. But even that best thing you
ever did, Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with
me. David prayed, he said, Hear my
prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications.
In Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness, and
enter not into judgment with Thy servant. For in Thy sight
shall no man living be justified. Isn't that what you pray? Lord,
I need mercy. Please, please don't enter judgment
with me. Who can say, Proverbs 29, 20
verse 9, Solomon knew this, who can say, I have made my heart
clean, I am pure from my sin. Here's what John said, Apostle
John, and he included himself in this now. This is that apostle
which loved the Lord, this is that apostle laid upon his breast.
And he included himself, he said, if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. He said, if we say we have not
sinned, we make him a liar and his word's not in us. Now men,
I know what men will say. Men will say, well that's for
wicked men. The gospel's not for good men.
You know that the gospel is not for good people. God said there
are none. The gospel is for sinners. Christ
said, I didn't come to save the rights, I came to save sinners.
The gospel is for sinners. And I know men will say, yeah,
but that's talking about before He called us, that's when we
were the sinner. He's not talking about future
sins now. Listen to this hymn. Here is
pardon for transgressions past. It matters not how black they
are cast. Yeah, that's what we're talking
about, past sin. It's for past sin, but it's not for future
sin. Listen. Here is pardon for transgressions
past. It matters not how black they
are cast. Oh, my soul with wonder view.
for sins to come, there's pardon too. The Holy Spirit brings those
that He sanctified to continually, personally, all of ourselves
to be the sinner. God don't bring you into depths
once. He's going to bring you there again. Because you need
it. We need it. We need to be taught. We need
to remember. David cried to the Lord alone. And he said, I acknowledge
my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. So that's the first thing. The
Lord's going to bring us to own ourselves to be the sinner. That's
what the depths are for. And He's going to do it by making
us see His holiness, His perfection. We can't even begin to call ourselves
righteous or holy by anything we've done. We see He's holy.
We're the sinner. But here's the good news, brethren.
The next thing God's going to graciously keep teaching His
child is this. Verse 4, but there is forgiveness
with thee. The holy God we sin against.
Now hear what I'm about to say. The holy God that we sin against. When we're in the depths and
we're praying and saying, against thee and thee only have I sinned,
Lord. I've done this evil in your sight. That very holy God,
that righteous God that we have sinned against, offended, transgressed
against, trespassed against, however you can say it to try
to make it as bad as it is, we can't even come close, but we
trespassed against Him. You think if you own a home and
you have a nicely manicured yard or whatever, your property, and
some neighbor walks over and just goes to tearing up your
yard, trespassing, or they just, when you're not there, they just
come and kick your door in and come in and make themselves at
home and eat the food out of the fridge and then take all
your money and your jewels and go home with them. Trespass. Our sins trespass against God. Our sin is against God. That's what it is. And the very
God we sin against, and sin against, and sin against,
and despise or reject by our sin. That's what it is. That
very God sent His only begotten Son for chosen sinners. He sent His Son for us. That's
amazing grace. He sent His Son for us. In everlasting love and grace,
though His elect sinned in Adam, though we're born corrupt, though
we sinned from our mother's womb, God sent His only begotten Son
to lay down His life in our place. when we were yet without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. God commended His love for us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Don't let
us get, Lord, don't let us get, don't let that become anything
common to us. Lord, keep that word alive and
new in our heart Christ laid down His life for
ungodly sin, for this ungodly sin. I pray Lord don't let us
forget it. God's own Son came down and took
flesh and bore our sin. Next time that you sin, think about that. Take some act
you have committed that's sinful and think about the fact Christ
bore this for me. And He bore the hell I deserve
because of that one mark right there. Not to mention all my sin. Not
to mention all the sin of all His people. and bore that curse,
bore that forsaken of God, that's where God magnifies His
holiness. That's where God magnifies His
righteousness, right there, to the heart of His child. In the
depths, He turns you to remember Christ laid down His life for
this sin, for me. and bore wrath for me. Why? Because God won't clear
the guilty and God wouldn't clear me. God would not clear you,
child of God. You sinned and you got to die.
And Christ came forth to bear that living death for us in holiness,
in righteousness, because God everlasting loved His people.
God determined to be just to His people and show us mercy
and be just to show us mercy. He determined to do that, so
He sent His Son. The only way He could do it,
the only way He could do it And Christ bore that in our room
instead. He perpetuated God for His people.
He purged the sin of His people. He put our sin away. I really
wish we could get this. Brethren, here's how God's going
to show you His forgiveness. When He brings you to the depths
and He makes your sin to weigh so heavy on you and makes you
see how holy He is and how just He is, He's going to make you
behold Christ and make you know that sin don't exist before my
holy law. Yes, it's in you. Yes, you sinned. Yes, you did. Yes, you're wrong.
But that sin does not exist before God and before His holy law because
Christ thoroughly put away all the sin of His people. Where
sin abounded, Christ did not just abound, it much more abounded. Now that tells you something
about grace, don't it? Because sin abounded. Can you say that?
See, you're going to have to know how much your sin abounded
before you can understand that grace has much more abounded.
When you see the depths of how much your sin has abounded, and
God makes you know His grace abounds much more, you're going
to know something. Oh, it's abounding grace. Because
my sin sure is abounding. It's just like sin reigned unto
death. Even so, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life. And it's not by you or me. It's
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, He reveals to you what a
sinner you are. He makes you remember His holiness
and see His holiness. Especially looking at the cross.
You see God didn't spare His Son. God's going to reveal His glory.
He doesn't just reveal it in His holiness, He doesn't just
reveal it in the fact He sent the substitute, He doesn't just
reveal it in the fact Christ laid down His life for us, though
all those things are His glory and they are magnificent. He
magnifies His glory by forgiving you. By forgiving you. Go with me to Jeremiah 33. By
forgiving you, He makes you to know His glory. Look at this
now. Jeremiah 33. Our sin, and I don't
want you to forget this now. I started this point with this
point right here. Our sin is against Him. He's
the one we sinned against. He's the one we have trespassed.
I'm talking about today. But look at this glory right
here. Jeremiah 33.8. I will cleanse them from all
their iniquity whereby they have sinned against Me. And I will
pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby
they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name
of joy, a praise, and an honor before all the nations of the
earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them. and
they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all
the prosperity that I procure unto my people." You see that? And that's going to be so in
His child who He's forgiven. It shall be to me a name of joy,
a praise, and an honor. That's what it's going to bring
you and me to do, by forgiving you when you sin against Him. to the Lord our God belong mercies
and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. Someone
sins against us. We get so upset when somebody
sins against us. That's just one sinner sinning
against another sinner. That's all that is. We really
have no right to get upset about anything. It's just one sinner
sinning against another sinner. If two prisoners doing life on
death row got mad and cut one another, big deal. It's just two death row criminals. But God who's holy, God who is
holy, we've sinned against Him. Now get this, and because He
is holy, because He is holy, forgives His child of every sin. I'm trying to drive this home
to you. We've been sinned against and
it's nothing like what we've done against Him and we won't
forgive it. We won't pour out vengeance. God who's holy, who
is no sin, just holy that we can't even comprehend how holy,
and some little sinner like us sinned against Him, trespassed
against Him, transgressed against Him, and yet He forgives us. And that's His glory. He's just
to do it because of Christ. Listen, He said, my thoughts
are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways, saith
the Lord. What's he talking about? He said,
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his doubts,
and let him return unto the Lord. You can't return from somewhere
you ain't already been. It's somebody that's one of His
people. He said, forsake your way. return unto the Lord, and
He will have mercy upon him." He'll have mercy. To our God,
He will abundantly pardon. You see, His thoughts are not
our thoughts, are they? His ways are not our ways, are
they? Well, I just can't forgive that. You want God to ever say that
about you? You want God to ever say that about you? He won't ever say that about
one of his people. His ways are not our ways and
his thoughts are not our thoughts. He said, you come to me, I'll
be merciful to you. I'll abundantly pardon you. I
want to be like that. Don't you? Don't you want to
be like that? I know I'm full of self-righteousness and ready
to cry down fire when I'm offended. I don't want to be like that.
I hate that. I want to be like God, ready
to forgive. Micah 7.18. I read this a lot,
but let's go look at it. Micah 7.18. I want you to see.
I'm going to read more than I normally read to you. I want you to see
it all. Micah 7.18. He's saying this about his people
now that he had saved and called and given faith and they rebelled
against him. He said this. This is what they
say after beholding what he did for them. Look at this, Micah
7, 18. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
which thou wast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
He promised to do this. He's going to do it. Thankfully,
He not only forgives us the first hour, He called it, every day
He brings you to confess your sins to Him. Don't you? Is there
every day that goes by you don't have to confess your sins to
Him? Is there an hour go by that you don't need to confess your
sins to Him? And every day He forgives us our sins and cleanses
our conscience and makes us know, I've forgiven you. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sin. He's faithful to
do it and just to do it for Christ's sake. And to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. What a holy, holy, this is the
holy, holy love of God, our Father in Christ Jesus. Could we the
ink with oceans fill? And were the skies of parchment
made, And every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe
by trade, To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean
dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole Though stretched from
sky to sky. That's the love of God, but it's
holy love. because he's just in Christ.
Now lastly, by bringing us to the depths and then forgiving
us our sins, God creates reverence in our new man and he grows that
reverence the same way over and over and over and over. Verse
4, there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Law, judgment, condemnation,
that didn't create godly fear in you. That creates self-righteous pharisee.
That'll make a man conform to a man and act like he's obedient
outwardly, but in his heart he's thinking, I'll get out of your
sight, I'm going to do whatever I want to do. That's what that'll
create. legal bondage and judgment, condemnation. Only God's free forgiveness for
Christ's sake melts the heart and says, Lord, there's no God
like You. I fear You. I reverence You.
I want to serve You. There's none like You. That's
what He said. He said, It shall be to me a
name of joy and praise and honor before all the nation, and they
shall fear and tremble for all the goodness that I do to them. and all the prosperity I procured
to them. What happens when he does that?
There was the thorn tree. Oh, sin was on you. Go to Psalm
32. I've got to read this to you
because this is what David is talking about. There was the
thorn tree and here comes the myrtle tree. Fruit, joy, I'm
going to read seven verses here because this is exactly what
David experienced. This is after the Lord had brought
him into the depths and then shown him He had forgiven him
and put this reverence in his heart. Look at Psalm 32.1. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven. and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity and whose spirit there is no guile.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring
all the day long. For day and night, thy hand was
heavy upon me. My moisture was turned to the
drought of summer's zealot." That's being in the depths. That's
God bringing you to the depths. And you try to be silent. You're
not calling out to God. You're not crying to Him. You're
trying to justify yourself to deny your sin. And God's hand
is just heavier on you until He just dries you up. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Look,
what happens? For this shall everyone that's
godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found surely
in the floods of great waters, in the depths of our sin. They
shall not come nigh unto him. They won't come now to it. Thou
art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Thou shalt accomplish me about with songs of deliverance. Do
you see what it produced in him? Do you see what this did for
him? He said, Lord, I know that when the depths come upon me
and your billows are going over me and I see my sin, I know now
that sin's not coming near me. You're my hiding place. I'm not
going to die. You will forgive me and keep
me. And that makes you praise Him
and reverence Him and say, You're my hiding place. I'll call to
You. You'll preserve me. That's reverence. A true fear
and reverence for God produces two things in His child. Go back
to our psalm. I'm going to just end with this.
It produces two things in His child. Now listen to me carefully. I'm not going to preach on this.
I'm just going to say it and show it to you. But having experienced
His power to save, to save you out of the depths when your sin
is heavy on you, when He shows you He is holy and that He forgives
you and He is just to forgive you for Christ's sake, true fear
of God, true reverence for God makes us, listen now, it makes
you less hasty to act, less hasty to judge and condemn, and more
willing to wait on the Lord. That's concerning your own self
and that's concerning your brethren. I don't know here if this is
David in the midst of this suffering. If it is, he's doing this because
of the last time he suffered the Lord taught him this and
he put a reverence in his heart. Or if he's come out of the suffering
now and he's telling you what he learned and what it worked
in him, this fear. But this is the reverence and
fear he works in you. Psalm 130 verse 5, I wait for
the Lord. My soul doth wait, and his word
do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say, more than
they that watch for the morning. It's not reverence to God to
act hastily and judge and condemn, and you're going to wrangle and
tangle and make it happen. That ain't fearing God. That's
what Babylon did. We saw last week, Babylon, the
Lord chasing his people, put them in the hands of Babylon.
Babylon said, we're not showing them any mercy. Why? They didn't
fear God. The fear of God makes you come
into the stronghold and wait on the Lord and say, Lord, who's
you that believe the Lord, that serves the Lord Jesus, and you're
in darkness? Let Him stay upon His God and wait on the Lord.
He'll save you out of it. And if it's your brother, He
makes you come to the Master and say, Lord, make him stand.
Why? You reverence Him. You know,
He's higher and mightier and more powerful than anything that
could separate His people from Him. That's the first thing the
fear of the Lord does. Second thing, having experienced
God's holy forgiveness for Christ's sake again and again and again,
that grows us in reverence to tell our brethren exactly what
I'm telling you right now. Look to Christ. Pray to Christ. Hope in Him alone. He shall save
and He shall forgive. Verse 7, let Israel hope in the
Lord. For with the Lord there's mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem us from all our
iniquities. He's did it at the cross, but
we can say that at a future tent. He's going to redeem us out of
this world one day from all our iniquities. You see, that's reverence. What are you doing there? You're
trusting the Lord to do the saving, and you're using the one weapon
we have, the gospel of Christ, to tell your brethren. Trust
Him and hope in Him. How do you learn that, reverend?
Where do you get that, reverend? You go into the depths and He
saved you and showed you He's holy and just and righteous to
forgive you for Christ's sake. And He put that fear in your
heart. He'll save you. See that? Alright, brethren. We're going to observe the Lord's
Table. I'm going to ask Brother Ravi and