Yesterday afternoon as I studied
the first chapter of Micah, and again earlier this morning studying
that first chapter of Micah, so full of judgment, the wrath
of God, and how fully deserved the wrath of God is. The judgments
of God's providence, how thorough how terribly ignored, and how
just they are. But all the while reading that
first chapter of Micah and studying the passage I had planned to
preach on, my mind kept going back again and again and again
to the 130th Psalm. And I want to try to preach to
you from that passage this evening. Psalm 130. Psalm 130, a song of degrees. These songs
of degrees that were written by David were songs that were
chanted as they went up to the house of God to worship on the
feast days, particularly on the day of the Passover as the children
of Israel would move out of their camps and go to the temple at
Jerusalem, they would chant these songs of degrees. And as they
came to the steps of the temple, they would chant these songs
of degrees. They generally began very low and end very high. Generally, they begin in some
depth of experience, pain, mourning, and they end in some great joy
and praise and exaltation. I pray that as we look at this
psalm of degrees this evening, though we will begin very low
as the psalm does, I pray that our hearts will end very high
in the hope of the gospel as this psalm does. A psalm of degrees,
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 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. There is forgiveness with thee. What a blessed, blessed word
of grace. There is forgiveness with our
God. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. Oh my God. how I thank you that
there is forgiveness with you. How I praise you for the free,
full, effectual forgiveness of sins by your grace through the
blood and righteousness of your dear son. Oh, may God make this
forgiveness yours this hour. Let me show you several things
in this psalm. First, look at verses 1 and 2.
Here is a sinner in the depths of desperate need. David says,
out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. O Lord, hear
my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. In all probability, this psalm
was written as one of David's penitential psalms, arising from
his broken heart after that great horrible ordeal concerning Uriah
the Hittite and Bathsheba, his wife, whom David took to be his
own. When Nathan, the prophet of God,
came to David after David had spent a year in cold, empty,
hardness, when God wouldn't speak to David and wouldn't let David
speak to God. His bones waxed old because God's
hand was heavy on him. And at last, he sent Nathan to
David to expose David's sin to himself, to call David's attention
to his sin. and to make David aware that
God Almighty had observed what he had done and God's displeased
and God had been dishonored. And when David confessed his
sin, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And
Nathan's next word to David, I hope I never get over the wonder
of this. Nathan said to David, The Lord also hath put away thy
sin. It's amazing. Amazing. David's out of sin. Now, Sammy,
this is what he'd done. He had taken another man's wife,
a faithful friend's wife, had him murdered and covered it up
for a year. Or thought he did. And David, openly acknowledge
before God his sin. I've sinned against the Lord. I can't think of a preacher in
the world, sadly myself included, who would respond to such a confession,
to such transgressions, with such great simplicity and grace
from God Almighty. Merlin, not a word of warning,
not a word of if you, not a supposition of some more evil to be done,
not a word about all God's goodness before this. He said, the Lord
hath put away thy sin. Unconditional, free, absolute
forgiveness already bestowed on this sinner whom Christ has
redeemed. The Lord hath put away thy sin.
And David, we're told, in 2 Samuel 12, went to Bathsheba after the
death of their son. And Bathsheba conceived another
child. And he went into her and lay
with her, and she bare a son. And David called this son's name
Solomon. And the Lord loved him. Now,
I'm not really sure whether that means the Lord loves Solomon
or the Lord loved David. And I think it's written intentionally
so you can't be sure. Because the Lord loves Solomon
and the Lord loved David. And he sent by the hand of Nathan,
this same prophet, and he called Solomon's name Jedidiah, beloved
of the Lord, because of the Lord. God took David's son with Bathsheba
because this thing that David had done he had done publicly
and publicly shamed the name of God and God would publicly
show his displeasure with David said all the while determined
to show David no displeasure with him at all but complete
acceptance and forgiveness. He said now David don't you forget
And don't you fail to understand, you are the object of my love,
the object of my grace, the object of my mercy. But here we are
in Psalm 130, and David, who's been in the depths of sin, is
now in the depths of humiliation, brought low because of God's
exposure of his iniquities and God's forgiveness of his iniquities. He was, as it were, in prison,
shut up under the law, under the conscious sentence of death
and condemnation. Conviction is a horrible deep
pit, a deep pit wherein there is no water, a pit from which
no man can extricate himself. It's a pit of corruption. a dung
pit, a pit of filth, a pit where there's no rest, made bitter
to our souls by the bitter sins we must taste in conviction. Conviction brings sinners into
an awareness of their abject poverty. Here you are guilty
before God with nothing to pay, no ability to pay. Makes the
soul know that it's in a beggarly dungeon, a state of utter helplessness
and bitter bondage. David was in this state of depth,
this depth of heaviness and woe pressing him down. It brought
him low, being made sensible of his sins. And before Nathan
came to him, he was haughty, self-righteous, self-sufficient. Now he's broken. heavy-hearted and bitter. Bitter at himself and bitter
with himself because of his sin. No longer bitter with God, bitter
with himself. No longer angry with God, angry
with himself. No longer wishing to shove God
out of his face. but wishing to shove his conscious
guilt out of his face. Now he's broken. He sees himself
in his contemptible state as one utterly unworthy of God's
favor, utterly deserving God's wrath, deserving God's displeasure,
polluted, guilty, a loathsome creature and abominable, wretched
and undone, the chief of sinners. A more brutish man, and David's
opinion never existed. He said I was as a beast before
then. Holy Spirit conviction, that
emptying of ourselves, is that by which God brings us into hope
before Him. It lays us low and empties us
and strips us and marks us under the sentence of death as prisoners
under God's wrath. But God's prisoners are described
in the book of God as prisoners of hope. Prisoners of hope. Turn to Zechariah chapter nine,
let me show you. Zechariah chapter nine. David was in distress, but not
in despair. Look here in Zechariah 9, verse
9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King... This is talking about Christ's
coming. Thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation. What a word! He is just. A just God and a Savior. He who
is the just God who has by his own obedience and death satisfied
justice for us is the just one who brings salvation. Having
salvation lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the form
of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot
from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow
shall be cut off and he shall speak peace unto the heathen.
His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river
even to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, by the blood
of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye
prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. I not only forgive you of your
sins, I make you heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. I
not only forgive you of your sins, I will declare to you the
very righteousness of God's own Son as your own. Look at verse
16. And the Lord their God shall
save them in that day as the flock of his people, for they
shall be as the stones of a crown. lifted up as an instant upon
his land. Imagine that. God takes such
things as he finds in this piece of corrupt human flesh and makes
a diadem for the crown of his glory and lifts such things as
this up as a banner on a high hill to tell sinners who he is. For how great is his goodness
and how great is his How great God's goodness! How
great the beauty of His grace! Holy Spirit conviction causes
sinners to be, as it were, in a deep pit from which they can
look nowhere but up for help. He brings us down to make us
look up for help. Look up to Him. David was intense. earnest and fervent because he
was in desperate need. He says, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. He comes to God as a suppliant,
a beggar for mercy and grace. He pleads no merit, no righteousness,
but only his need. That's a good thing to plea when
you bow at the throne of grace. Plead need. Plead need. God, help me. I need you. God, save me. I need you. God, be gracious to me. I need
you. One of the most blessed assignments
I ever had when I was in school. In fact, it was the most blessed
assignment I had in school. All the time I was in college,
I had one assignment that was a real blessing. This was it.
I had professors who said, fellas, I want you to, for the next week,
to just meditate on and not read anything about Hebrews chapter
4, verse 16. You just meditate on it and make
your own notes. And I don't want you to read
anybody's commentary, anybody's comments. Don't discuss it. I
just want you to meditate on Hebrews 4, 16 and make your notes
and turn them in to me in a week. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. The throne of grace is a place
for need and needy sinners. There's no room at that throne
for anybody who's not in need. And you'll never come to that
throne except God make you to know your need of his grace. All right, here's the second
thing. Look at verses 3 and 4. Here's the revelation of God's
glory in the face of Christ Jesus. The revelation of God's great
glory in the face of his own son. If thou, Lord, O Jehovah,
if you shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? If God marks sin, Oscar Bailey,
if the Lord God Almighty marks sin, any sin, you're going to
hell. Did you get that? Let alone all sin. And God Sees all and knows all
and nothing's hid from him. Imagine what you know nothing
but what God knows. Your own conscience acknowledges
your sin. Imagine what's exposed to him
before whom all things are naked and open. If God marks sin, you're
going to hell. If God just marks one transgression,
you're going to hell. let alone all the incalculable
vastness of our iniquity, transgression, and sin. If thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But. That's one of the biggest words
in the Bible and one of the sweetest. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. Now here's a fact we must acknowledge.
We are sinners in need of forgiveness. And here's a fact plainly revealed
in the book of God. There is forgiveness with thee. God Almighty forgives sin. God Almighty forgives sin. Not might forgive. Not we hope
he will forgive. Not under certain conditions
he'll forgive. God Almighty forgives sin. How can you be sure? How can you be sure? We're sinners. We're nothing but sinners. Sinners
by imputation. We're born with Adam's nature
and we're born with the guilt of Adam's sin upon us. We're
sinners by choice. We're sinners by practice, sinners
at heart. The very core of our being is
nothing but iniquity, transgression, and sin. We drink iniquity like
water. That's the nature of humanity.
We're sinners. Martin Luther once said, I'm
more afraid of my own heart than I am of the Pope and all his
cardinals. You see, in its essence, sin
is what you are. Sin is what you are. Not just
what you do. You're not a sinner because you
stole some watermelon when you was a boy, sinner because you
committed murder when you were a man. You're not a sinner because
you've told a lie or a sinner because you robbed a bank. You're
a sinner because that's what you are. And those evil deeds
that religion keeps trying to lob off the branches off, those
evil deeds don't deal with what you are. The heart's deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Sin is our nature. Sin is what we are when reduced
down to the very essence of our being. Larry Brown is nothing
but sin. Nothing but sin. Who would dare
take objection to that statement? Well, Brother Don, I'm not like
that. You don't dare stand up and say that. You don't dare
stand up and say that. You may sit where you are and
think, oh, I'm just not me. I'm not like that. I'm not that
bad. I realize I'm a sinner, but I'm
not that bad. You don't dare stand up here
publicly and say it because you know I can prove otherwise in
a half a heartbeat. In a half a heartbeat. Just stand
up here and tell me what's been going on in your mind today. What you've been thinking today.
I tell you what, do better than that. Go home and tell your sons
and daughters everything going through your mind today. Well,
I couldn't do that. Try dealing with it before God. Sin's what you are. Sin is the
inward corruption of man that makes us vile and base and corrupt
before God Almighty. Sin's our nature. You and I are
a corrupt mass of constant sin. That's all. That's all. But bless
God, there is forgiveness with our God. There is forgiveness
with our God. How can you be so sure, Brother
Don? Because he declares his name to be forgiveness. That's
what he said in Exodus when Moses said, Lord, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. And the Lord passed by him and
said, I'll proclaim my name I'll be gracious to whom I will be
gracious and declares his name to be forgiveness. Is I by no
means clear of the guilty, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and
sin. How can that be? The only way
God can or will forgive sin is when God destroys the sin In
the sacrifice of his son, by the satisfaction of his own justice,
so thoroughly destroys the sin that he does not behold iniquity
in Jacob and never sees sin in Israel. He casts our sins behind
his back. God forgives sin. How can you
proclaim that so plainly, so fully? Because all the law and
the prophets were written to tell us that God forgives sin.
The very first act of God, the very first act of God, just as
He was driving Adam and Eve out of the garden, was a sacrifice. The Lord sought out the guilty
pair. They didn't seek Him. The Lord
came in the garden seeking Adam. And when Adam was made to see
his sin exposed before it, then the Lord said, I'm going to send
the woman seed and he'll crush the serpent's head. I can almost
imagine Adam asking, Lord, how are you going to do this? How
is it you're going to undo all that's been done here? How is
it you're going to undo all that hell has done here? And the Lord
says, I'll kill this animal, this innocent
victim, this lamb, in your stead. And he kills it. And he takes
the skins and wraps Adam and Eve up in the skins and sends
them out of the garden. And Adam understood exactly what
he was saying. And I know he did because he
taught his boy Abel this is how God saves sinners. And Abel brought
a lamb of the flock. to the Lord God when he worshipped
him. The Lord God taught Adam himself how he'd save sinners.
I will send him who is the woman seed, God in human flesh, who
will die in your stead, and he will bring in righteousness by
the sacrifice of himself. And the Lord Jesus came into
this world for the purpose of saving sinners, of whom I'm chief. Not only that, But there are
countless multitudes who've experienced forgiveness
at His hands. I'm one of them. I've been forgiven. Here I am, a man. The older I get and the more
I experience of God's free grace, the more I know God and know
of God The more I know his son and know of his son, the more
I know his grace and know of his grace, the more I know of
myself and know myself. The more fully conscious I am
of my utter depravity and sin, And that awareness is more painful every day, with every breath, with every fresh revelation of
His grace, more painful than ever it's been before. It is a heart-rending experience
to know what you are. But oh, how blessed to know that
God Almighty has so thoroughly forgiven my sins. He said, I
have blotted them out and will not remember them again forever. Blotted them out as a thick cloud. will not remember their sins,
their iniquities, their transgressions. I won't remember what they are
and I won't remember what they do. I won't remember their iniquities
or their transgressions. I've forgiven them. So thoroughly
forgiven. So thoroughly forgiven. I'm not
looking for words. I want your attention. I want
you to hear this. so thoroughly forgiven, so thoroughly
forgiven, so completely forgiven, as Jesus Christ Himself, who
was made sin for us, who now sits on yonder throne, freed
from sin. Just that fully forgiven, so
that He that is dead hath ceased from sin, 1 Peter 4, verses 1
and 2, that we should no longer live all our lifetime subject
to bondage. That's not talking about Christ.
Well, yes, it is. Read the first verse. It's clearly
talking about Him. But it's talking about more than Him. It's talking
about you and me and Him. He's caused us now to cease from
sin. just as he calls his son who
suffered all the hell of God's wrath as our substitute for our
sins, having satisfied justice for us, put away sin, obtained
eternal redemption. And yonder he sits with no sin,
completely freed from sin. And so we are forgiven. All right,
here's the third thing. Here we see a sinner Waiting
in hope before God. Verse five. I wait for the Lord. I wait for the Lord. And that does not mean this.
Some of you here without Christ. Without forgiveness, without
hope before God. This is not what that means.
Well. God's going to save me. God's
going to save me. If he predestined me to be saved, I'll be saved.
If he hasn't, I won't be, sir. I'll just wait. No, no. That's
not it. That's not it. A man dying with thirst finds
his one place where he can get water. One place where water is to be
found. And he can't get water from anybody
else except that man who's got the water. And he's dying of
thirst. Reckon he's going to wait at
home for the fellow to come bring him some water? He's dying of thirst. Oh, no. He's going to seek water. I've got to have some water.
If you don't give me some water, I'm going to die. God, if you
don't save me, I'm going to hell. God, if you don't show me mercy,
I'm going to perish. Lord God, I deserve your wrath. I deserve judgment. I deserve
eternal damnation. But if you will, you can save
even me. That's the way that he's talking
about. I'll wait for the Lord. How do you know? My soul doth
wait. And in his word do I hope. I see here he forgave a dying thief. He
forgave a prodigal son. He forgave a harlot. He forgave
a murderer. He forgave a persecutor. He can
forgive me too. He can forgive me too. I hope
in your word my soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that
watch for the morning. You go to bed early, because
next day you've got an important engagement, an important appointment,
and you've got to get up early. So you go to bed early, get you
a good night's sleep, and you don't. Because you know you've
got to get up early in the morning. You're watching for the morning.
So long before time for the alarm to go off, you're laying there,
and you look over the clock and wait for the clock to go off.
And you try to go back to sleep, and you look at the clock and
wait for the clock to go off, because you're watching for the morning. That's the wedding he's talking
about. More than they that watch for the morning. Oh God, I've
got to have your son. I've got to have your grace.
I've got to have your mercy. I've got to have blood atonement.
I've got to have the righteousness of your son. I can't go all this
way. I've got to have your son. I
say more than they that watch for the morning. Oh, may God
give us such grace. to do what David here describes
himself as doing continually, waiting for the Lord, hoping
in his word, waiting in anxious anticipation
for sunrise. S-O-N-R-I-S-E. For sunrise. Oh, waiting for
the day star to arise in your hearts. waiting for the son of
righteousness to arise in your soul, who alone gives life in
his rising in you. Here's the fourth thing. Here's
a delightful declaration of sure mercy and grace. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
Israel. I believe that's Jacob's name,
isn't it? Israel. That's the name God gave
to a tricky scoundrel by the name of Jacob. Prince with God,
but a tricky scoundrel by nature. Let Israel hope in the Lord. How come? For with the Lord,
there is mercy. With the Lord, there is mercy,
depth of mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved
for me? Now my soul lament no more. God resets him who is God's mercy,
Jesus Christ our Savior. With the Lord, there is mercy.
And with him, look at that word. is plenteous
redemption. Plenteous redemption. Abundant
redemption. Redemption for sinners everywhere. Redemption for sinners of every
kind. Redemption from sin of every
day. Plenteous redemption. And he,
the Lord God Almighty, shall Most assuredly, redeem Israel,
every chosen sinner, every needy sinner, every sinner whose thigh
he breaks so he can no longer walk, Every sinner he conquers,
wrestling him to the ground, casting him to the pit, where
there is no light and no water, nothing except continual sinking,
but a pit wherein are prisoners of hope. He shall redeem Israel. Now listen. all his iniquities. He shall, by blood and by grace,
by justice and by mercy, by truth and by love, deliver Israel from
all. All. All. his iniquities. Amen.