So, so so so so I want to talk to you a little bit this
morning. We are so blessed. We remember, don't we? A day
when we all walked in darkness, having no desire, having no love
for our Lord's Gospel. There is only one Gospel. It's called the Lord's Gospel. I was listening to a message
by Brother Gabe Stoniker, and he brought out this. If you look up the word Gospel,
In the scriptures, if you do a word search in any of your
computer ways, or if you've got a concordance that you want to
go look at, you look up the word gospel, singular. And you'll
find it, every time it speaks of it, it refers to the Lord. The Lord's gospel. But when you
look up the word gospels, as in multiple plurals, it always
talks about men's gospel. fables, stories of men. There's only one gospel. We use
the term, the gospels of grace, There's five points that we use. The Tulip, Total Depravity of
Men, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible
Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. We call that the five
gospels of grace. But every single one of those
things that we talk about there refer to one person. There's
only one gospel. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ in Him crucified. And we love to hear that. That's
the gospel. It's the good news. This morning
we're going to look at a psalm and we're going to talk about
a psalm of forgiveness. You know what psalm, the word
psalm means? It means hymn. Something to sing. Maybe they didn't make
the words rhyme like we do. Sometimes they did. But songs
way back when were just when your heart was filled with joy.
It's kind of like those two guys that were playing their flutes. It just raises your heart up.
It's so beautiful. You hear a beautiful voice singing.
It just lifts your heart up. Well, that's what a song does.
It lifts your heart up. A song of forgiveness. Can anything be more joyful? This is a time of joy, isn't
it? This is a time of joy among men. We're supposed to be joyful
with our neighbor, love thy neighbors, all that good stuff. Could there be anything more
joyful than singing a song about forgiveness? My forgiveness,
your forgiveness. The gospel message, the good
news, is exactly that. I'd like you to turn your Bibles
to the 130th Psalm. Psalm number 130. You can open
your Bibles up, set them down on your lap, and just sit them
there. We're going to talk about this Psalm through to the end. That's why I skipped singing
that Psalm. We kind of went long in our introduction this morning,
in our news and announcements and stuff. I just want to be
able to get to the message here. While you're turning to the 130th
Psalm, allow me to quote a couple of verses for you. One is the
first from 1 Timothy 1 verse 15. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all expectation that Christ Jesus... Remember what the message of
the Bible is? It's Christ and Him crucified, right? Well, listen
to this. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. That's Christ and Him crucified. That's the Son of God. The Son
of the Living God who manifested Himself in a body, as it says
in Hebrews chapter 9, a body that was prepared for Him See,
the Son of the Living God has always been. He's the eternal
Son of the Living God. The eternal Spirit of God. The
eternal Father. There is no beginning and there
is no ending to the three. And the three are one. But Christ
didn't always have a body. He had to have a body prepared
for Him. He had to humble Himself. He
had to come down out of His majestic place in Heaven. to be manifest in the flesh to save sinners. You see, sin
has to be paid for, doesn't it? The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And nobody, nobody is going to
get away with it. We sure think we can get away
with things sometimes, don't we? Before the Lord saved me,
there's a lot of things that I thought I could get away with
and most of them caught up to me. What good news to read a psalm
of forgiveness. to hear words that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Let me read another one for you.
Paul writes in the book of Romans chapter 7 verse 24, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body, from the body
of this death? I don't know about you folks,
but I tell you, I'm reminded over and over and
over again of the weaknesses of this flesh. Let me read from Psalm number
40 verses 1 through 4. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also
out of a horrible pit, out of a miry clay, and set my feet
upon a rock, and established my goings." Look at what the
Lord has done for me. Hear what the Lord has done for
me. He pulled me up out of this horrible
pit, this miry clay that I've heard described as a clay that
grabs a That's what miry clay does. It
grabs ahold of you. It's talking about over in England,
they get these clay pits over there. You step into them, you're
lucky to get your leg out of it without ripping your leg off.
That's how much it sucks it down. The Lord pulled me up out of
that. He pulled me up out of that, He put my feet upon a rock,
and we know what that is, that's the Lord Jesus, and He established
my goings. He hath put a new song in my
mouth, a psalm, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and
fear, and shall trust the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies." Whew! Sure makes a stark difference,
doesn't it? We know, don't we? We know that
would be us. That would be us if it wasn't
him setting our, establishing our path, setting our feet upon
the rock. His son, look with me if you
would at the 130th Psalm. Out of the depths have I cried. The depths. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But, wait a minute, but there
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait
for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in 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. Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. Man, this psalm This psalm is
one that we should memorize and take around with us at all times.
We just never know when our weaknesses are going to flare up, do we?
Martin Luther, you've heard of him. He was a preacher way back
in the 1800s, early 19th century. Martin Luther was going through
some of his greatest trials in a town called Coburn. His deepest
Persecution and affliction was brought upon him by the powers
of the church because he preached the gospel. And he didn't adhere
to the words that they tried to tell him to preach. And while
his friends gathered about him to encourage him one night, he
smiled and he lifted up his voice and he said this. He said, my
friends, come and let us sing the 130th Psalm. Come together, brothers and sisters. Are you in trials today? If you're
a sinner, I know you are. If you're a true-blooded sinner,
if God has revealed the truth about what you are before Him,
I know you are. We all are. Let us sing the 130 Psalm. Let
us wait on the Lord like those that wait for the morning. Let
us hope in His promises. Back in verse 1 again, it says,
Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Out of the depths. That's in our heart. It's a heart matter. What is
the depths of our soul? The depths of our spirit? Where
is it? It's in that heart. Not that thing that pumps the
blood, but that very center, that innermost jaw. The depths
of my heart. I have cried unto you. This is
a cry of conviction. Conviction of sin. What are the
depths? The depths are this. It's the
deep heartfelt conviction of sin. David described it as we
just read there in Psalm verse 40. He said, innumerable evils
have compassed me about. My sins and iniquities have literally
taken a hold of me. I'm not able to look up. My sins
are more than the hairs on my head. Therefore, my heart faileth. Oh Lord, be pleased to deliver
me. Do you guys? Are you? Does that ever go through your
mind? I'd hate to count how many times. I sat over here and did nothing
all week and tried to blame it on this. I'm worried about where
my wife is without me. And then comes Saturday afternoon,
she comes driving into the driveway, and I'm thanking the Lord for
bringing her home safely, and then I realize, now wait a minute,
what did I worry about? That might seem trivial to some. Not to a child of God. What am I worried about? Can
anything turn the hand of our God? Can anything divert his purpose? No, it's that weakness of the
flesh. It's the very weakness of the
flesh that does not trust our Lord. That comes from the heart. One moment you're praising the
Lord for bringing your wife home safely, the next moment you're
saying, Lord, forgive me for doubting. crying out from the depths of
my heart. Do you know anything about those
things? Well, what are the depths? It is the depths of pride. It's
the depths of pride. It's the depths of self-worth. It's the depths of evil thoughts,
evil imaginations. Do you know what that? Do you
guys know about that? Do those things bother you? It's
the depth of unrest, the depth of murmuring, anxiety, covetousness,
greed, There are the depths of doubt,
the depths of fears, depression, pain, all that sin that is from
the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet. Have you been there? Have you cried out from the depth
of your heart? I'll tell you this, deep places cause deep feelings. God does not hear a man simply
because he cries. God hears men who cry out from
the depths of their heart. You go through the Bible and
you'll see that blind Bartimaeus cried out in his darkness and
his inability and his blindness. He said, Jesus, thou son of David. He cried aloud. He cried these
very words, the very words that the publican over in the side
of the temple cried out. He said, Lord, have mercy on
me. The people tried to keep him
quiet, but still he cried out. The more he cried out of the
depths of his heart, and he was heard. He was heard. The thief on the cross. Consider
him for a moment. The thief on the cross was crying
out of the depths of his heart. Just moments before he began
to cry out, Lord have mercy on me, Lord remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom. He was railing against the very
one who was about to save him. Remember that? Remember the days
when that was in your heart? He cried out, O Lord God, remember
me when you come into thy kingdom. He cried out of the depths, the depths that is the conviction
of his sin. Notice the next line in our text
back in Psalm 130. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ear be attentive to the voice of my supplication. What is this?
This is a sincere cry. Where is he? He's crying out
of the depths, the depths of his heart. Hear the voice of
my supplication. What's he doing? He's crying
unto the Lord. Oh, what mercy is reserved for
those who can call upon the name of the Lord God. That's what
Paul wrote in Romans chapter 10. He wrote these words. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's what this man is doing
here. He's crying unto the One who is Lord of all. He's crying
unto the One who created all that is. The very One who is
so detailed that He knows every molecule. He knows every little
particle. Even the ones that are so small
we can't see with a microscope. crying unto the Creator of all
that is. And he says, Lord! We drive down the road, we go
through a red light. Lord! Or we're hitting all these
red lights. Lord! What you got in store for me?
What are you saving me from? What are you keeping me from?
Or better yet, What have you got installed for me at the next
stop? We're submitting to his will.
That's what this one is crying out. He's not only crying out
from the depths of his own heart, a heart that he knows deserves
nothing, so he cries out to the one who has all things and he
calls him Lord. Lord, do you hear my voice? Lord,
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. Back again, Paul says this, he
says, quoting from the Lord. No, the Lord said this, I'm sorry.
Call upon me and I will answer. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee. This prayer has a couple of marks.
It's got the marks of a sincere prayer. And I wonder how much
prayer is real prayer. I kind of examined my own to
this. And I hope you do as well. Are
my prayers, is it just routine that I go over the same thing
every Sunday? I start off, oh, thank you, Lord.
Have I fallen into that trap? I don't think I have, but it's
good to examine, doesn't it? We know the weakness of the flesh
and how easily it could be. How much prayer, how much of
my prayer is real prayer from the depths of my heart? How much
of it do I say just to impress those around me? or how much
is it is real prayer and of its form. This is a prayer that I could
use for an example. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Hear my voice. Let thine ear
be attentive to the voice of my supplications. That's a prayer.
It's not a reciting. It's not something that somebody
just memorized. It's crying out from the heart. Lord, hear this prayer. Let me
give you five marks showing you that it's a genuine prayer. First
off, it's a humble prayer. It says, out of the depths, out
of the bottom of my heart where I am, out of the dust of this
life where I fit, I pray unto the one who deserves to be prayed
to. The only one who can answer it
in truth. It's humble. I'm low down. I'm so far down in the valley
that I can't even look up. All I can do is pound my chest
and cover my eyes, not even to look upon the one and pray that
he might be merciful and answer me. Number two, I cry. I plead. That's a phrase of asking. Lord, if it's your will, if it's
your purpose, if you would be pleased, it's not a demand. It's not a, Lord if I turn myself
over to you, if I walk down the aisle and pray the prayer, if
I get into baptism, Lord if I do this, would you answer? No, it's
Lord maybe. Lord maybe. Maybe you'll have
mercy. I hear in your words, you're
a merciful God. Would you have mercy on me? This prayer that we're reading
is coming from the heart of a man who's praying fervently. I ask,
have I cried unto Thee, O Lord? There's no form here, there's
no ceremony, there's no duty, there's no reciting, something
that we've memorized, we've just cried unto Thee. This is exactly where the Lord
Jesus was when he cried out these words, he said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death. That's the words of God. That's
the words of our Savior. That's his cry. He then said, tarry ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little further,
and he fell down on his face. And he prayed, saying, O Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as thou wilt. What an example. Here is
the child of God, the son of the living God, crying out to
the Father. Why? Because He is perfect in
every way. Folks, there was never a sin
in the Lord Jesus until God made Him sin. Can you imagine that? No, we
can't even fathom what that is like. We can't even picture what
it is to be so perfect you can't even look upon sin and then have
yourself made sin. That's what Christ did for us.
And He cried out to the Father. He cried out fervently from His
heart. Do we cry out for our sins? What a cup. What a cup that our
Lord had to drink. And that's not even including
you. That's just mine. And he drank it dry. He took
every drop. Every drop of God's wrath that
I have earned, my Lord cried out that day for me and for you,
for you as well. What a cup, the cup of wrath,
the cup of judgment. You might say, but he knew no
sin. There was no guile in his mouth. Why should he cry? Listen to the words of Isaiah.
Familiar words, but it's good words to look at all the time.
He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall
declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgressions of my
people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed and shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5 verse
21. For he, God the Father, hath
made him, God the Son, to be sin for us. This is why our Lord
cried out. He made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. A song of thanksgiving, a song
of forgiveness, a song of glad tidings, a song of good news,
a song of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. He cried under
the weight of our sin, He cried out, My God, and this is, I can't
believe I forgot this word when I said it last week, but My God,
My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? The Son of God said that. He said that about His Father,
the One who He is one with. One with all things. He cried
out, why have you forsaken me? God the Father cannot look upon
sin. He turned his back on his son
so he would not turn his back on us. Did you hear the cry from
him? For us? For you? It wasn't for him. It wasn't
for his sake. It was for us. Nevertheless,
Thy will be done. Good news, huh? I've used this
before, but I was talking to somebody, and I did this the
other day, and they're like, what did you just say? Repeat that?
That's just like sweet and sour pork. You know how you go to
Oriel's food, and you get sweet and sour? It's got that sweetness,
but you just get the sourness to it? That's our Savior. I am
burdened. It's painful to think about my
sin being laid upon such a perfect one. It burdens my soul to know that
the Lord had to come here and lay down His life to take such
aggressions against Himself because of His love for me. But there's
a sweetness to it because He loved me. He didn't have to. He loves His people, all of them.
All that the Father giveth Him shall come to Him. Why? Because they're His. You're His. That's good news. He died for
you. He died for me. And He cried
out for us. He cried unto the weight of my
sin. Now look with me over verse 4. It says, If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquity, who shall stand? This is personal judgment. David
judges himself. This is what David's doing here.
He doesn't talk like a lot of religious people do today, does
he? No. He says, If thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who shall stand? Not me. Not this preacher. If God marks
iniquity, I'm done. That's what David's saying. He admits that he's a great sinner
who cannot stand on his own before God. My grandson, my granddaughter's
husband is looking for a church in Temple, Texas. He called me
and asked me about that. We talked a little bit about
it. He wanted to know what to look for when he goes to these
different churches to listen. I said, well, look for this.
Are they holier than thou? I said, if they get up there
and they say, well, I'm a better person now, then they're not
God's people. God's people know this, that
we're never going to get better until we leave this world. Until
we leave this world, we will battle the sin that is in this
flesh just like Paul did. Just like all of those who have
gone on before us. Abram. All of them. Noah. Moses. And go on and list
many more. Who shall stand? Not me. Not
me. If he marks me with my iniquity,
then I get what I deserve and that is death. But maybe, maybe his mercy has
laid all my iniquity upon his side. The Son of the Living God cried
out when He was made our sin, when He bore our iniquities upon
His body. He said, Father, take this cup
from Me. Nevertheless, Thy will be done. Look at verse 4 again. Says there,
and I'm thankful for this, he says, but there is, actually
I'm sorry, yeah, verse 4. That was verse 3. I think I said
that was verse 4, didn't I? I got it mixed up, I apologize.
Now we're looking at verse 4. I'm glad you guys were able to
stay with me, thank you. What a wonderful verse there this
is. This is awesome. Here David says, if you're going
to mark iniquities, who's going to stand it? Look at this next
verse. But there is forgiveness with thee. Out of the depths
of conviction of sin, I have cried a sincere call. Lord, if you charge iniquity,
if you mark iniquity, I can't stand before you, and nobody
else can either. But I rejoice that there is forgiveness
with Thee. I sing a new song, a song that
sings out, Thou art worthy of all praise and all glory. That was another point I brought
out to Mike yesterday. I said, who's getting the glory?
When the man talks from the pulpit, who is it that gets the glory?
Does man get anything? I don't care if it's that much,
it's too much. I don't care if it's so close
you can't even see, it's too much. God gets all the glory. That's what grace is all about. There's forgiveness with need. Folks, there is salvation. It's
free. It's full. It's complete. It's
eternal. The Apostle Paul wrote it this
way in Ephesians chapter 2. He says, You hath he quickened
who are dead in trespasses and sin. You hath he quickened who
are dead in trespasses and sin. There is forgiveness with thee.
Folks, there is only forgiveness because Christ the Lord provided
Himself to sacrifice for His chosen people. He who is the
Almighty God in the flesh laid down His life that we might live. Only those for whom He died will
see heaven. Only those whom the Father hath
given to the Son will have eternal life. Only those whom He has
loved with an everlasting love Does he in loving kindness draw
unto himself, and they will hear him? How do I know that? How
do I know? Because he says, my sheep will
hear my voice, and I will give unto them eternal life. Psalm
40 verse 3, and he had put a new song, remember that? A new song
in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Thank God that there
is forgiveness. Thank God that there is mercy.
Thank God that there is grace with Him that He may be feared
and worshipped. We fear God. We fear God because
of His power, because of His wisdom. He's got all power, folks. There's nothing that can stop
Him. Everything belongs to Him. He's got all wisdom. He's got
all glory. He's got all greatness. We fear
Him because we are in God's hand to do with what He sees fit.
And it may not be all that comfortable sometimes. What He sees is right
for us. Just walk a few years in the
path that the Lord has for us and find out what I'm talking
about. It can be very painful what the Lord has in store for
us next. I fear Him. Don't you? I don't fear His wrath,
but I fear Him for who He is. Notice in verse 5. Here is hope. Listen to this. He says, I wait
for the Lord, my soul doth wait. I wait for the Lord. Salvation
is of Him. We look to Him, we wait upon
Him, and we hope in Him. We have a good hope, a blessed
hope, a sure hope, a living hope, a hope that is a person, not
just a thing, but it's a person. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. That's our hope. Let me give
you four things real quick to encourage you, to encourage sinners
to wait and hope on the Lord. There are four things that we
have to do with Him, and none of them with me. Paul says this,
he says, he's the chief of sinners. He's less than the least of all
saints. He's unworthy to be called an apostle. And here are four
things that encourage me. First of all, it is God's will
to show mercy. Yeah. It's His will to do so. Nobody causes Him to do it. He
only shows mercy to whom He shall show mercy. I will be merciful
unto whom I will be merciful. I will be gracious to whom I
will. Secondly, it's His glory. That's
His greatest glory, which is to show mercy. Moses asked Him,
he said, Lord, show me Thy glory. And He said, I'll show you my
glory. My glory is my goodness. I'll pass by you and reveal to
you my goodness. What is that? That's His Son,
the Lord Jesus. That's that body I told you was
being prepared for the Son of God. I'll show you my goodness,
I will be merciful, I will be gracious. Thirdly, it is His
power. We know that salvation has nothing
to do with us, don't we? Salvation is of the Lord, and
of the Lord alone. It's His power. I can't break
your heart, but He can. I can't give a man a new heart,
but He can. I can't save a sinner, but He
can. I can't put away your awful guilt, but He can. I can't write
your name in the Lamb Book of Life, but He can. He said it
is the book which He hath written. He has the power, Paul said,
I know whom I believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to
do all that he promised and to keep that which I have committed
unto him that is able. That's the Lord. Fourthly, it is his faithfulness. Our Lord Jesus rested in the
faithfulness of his Father. the faithful promise of His Father. He said, All that My Father giveth
Me shall come to Me, and Him that cometh to Me I will in no
wise cast out. I came down from Heaven not to do My own, My will,
but the will of Him that sent Me. This is the will and the
purpose and the power and the faithfulness of Him that had
sent Me. He says that all which He hath given Me I will lose
nothing and raise it up to last day. Look at verse 7 with me
if you would in closing. Verse 7 of Psalm 130. Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with
Him is plentious redemption. That's wonderful news to this
big sinner. That means in everything, everything
that is me, He can and will be merciful to. Because of His Son, the Lord
Jesus. There is plenty, and there is
never a shortage of grace. There is never a shortage of
mercy. There is never a shortage of redemption. He is plentious
in redemption. Amen, brethren.