Psalm 130. Psalm 130. This Psalm records the cry of a broken-hearted
sinner. And you'll see in just a moment
why he's broken hearted. Let me tell you what it is. The
cause of the continued realization of the presence of sin within. That's what he's broken hearted
over. He knows that he's been redeemed, justified by the blood
of Christ. He knows that. And he rejoices in that. A believer does. He rejoices
in that. And I tell you, in the same moment,
same breath, he grieves over what he sees still within. Sin is still present with him. It's been paid. The debt's been
paid of it. But I'm telling you the presence
of it's still there. And he grieves over that. He
grieves over it. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Jehovah. Unto you, Lord. Again, I invite you to look at
your Bible. Don't just listen to these words. Of all the depths that a believer
recognizes, his cry is from the depths of
his desire to be separated from the presence of sin. Listen to
the Apostle Paul, Romans 7, 23, 24, I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death. How often do you find a believer
crying out of the depths? Always. Always. I'm telling you, you cross paths
with a believer and he'll talk to you and he'll converse with
you. You'll have a pleasant conversation,
you'll rejoice in the Lord, and I'm telling you, let me tell
you what he's thinking. He's always aware of what he
is, as being born in Adam. That presence of sin. Thankful, oh thankful, that God
has put it away in the precious Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But he knows, What did David say? You read
Psalm 51. You know where Psalm 51, how
the Spirit of God moved upon David to write that? You know
what it was? It was when David fell in sin with Bathsheba. And
he went to his grave with this thought right here. Nathan told
him, he said, Lord put away your guilt. You're not going to die.
God's put away your guilt. God's put away. He paid that
debt by the blood of Christ. But David went to his grave with
this thought. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness. According to the multitude of
Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin. is ever before me." Peter, when the Lord told him,
said, throw the net on the other side, first time. Peter said, Lord, we fished all night, but at your
word, we'll do it. Remember what happened? It couldn't pull him in. Net
started to break. And Peter, the scripture says,
fell down at Jesus' feet, knees, I'm sorry, saying, depart from
me, for I am a sinful man. Why did I ever doubt you? You that know him, let me ask
you this. Is it so with you? Is that the
way you feel? Do you feel the burden of the
presence of sin? That sin that has been paid for,
but the very presence of it. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Jehovah. Look at verse 2. Lord, now look at that spelling. Messiah, Adonai, Lord, my Savior, my surety, hear my
voice. The psalmist cried unto Jehovah,
can there be mercy found with Him who is holy, holy, holy? Can there be mercy found when
he cried unto Jehovah, the One before whom the stars are not
pure in His sight, the One who puts no trust in
His servants and charges all of His angels with folly? Can there be any hope before
Him in that first verse? Out of the depths I have cried
unto you. Is there any hope? Yes. There's hope in one. I need, as I cry unto Jehovah,
to have mercy upon me. I must approach him in the name,
in the character, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Out
of the depths have I cried unto Jehovah, and then he says, Lord
Jesus, you who ever lived to make intercession
for me, Lord, the one in whom the Father is well pleased, the
one who only the Father is going to hear on His own merit, Lord,
hear my voice. As I approach the thrice holy
God, I realize that only in You, You who have redeemed your people
by your blood. You, Lord, who has met every
demand for righteousness by your obedience in death upon the cross. Lord, you're the advocate as
I cry unto Jehovah, Lord Jesus. You're the only one He's going
to hear. How am I going to approach God?
How am I going to approach the one who is a consuming fire?
Lord, you're the mediator between God and man. Lord, you said you're
the way, the truth, and the life. Lord, you said no man cometh
unto the Father but by you. Verse 2, Lord, hear my voice. David said in Psalm 51, give
ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditations. Verse 3, if thou, here again,
look at that, look at the spelling, if thou, Jehovah, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, if you Oh, I am. If you, Jehovah, would regard
or should regard iniquities against me, I wrote a little article
in the bulletin this morning out of this, what I'm about to
tell you right there. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities,
God's going to mark them. Now you write this down. Now
you listen. God marks iniquities. How many
of them? All of them. God marks them. He's either going
to mark them in the rebel against God who will not bow to his son.
He'll mark it against that man or that woman that demands. I'm
going to have my way. I'm going to have my will. I'm
going to have my flesh. I'm going to have my works. And
I'm going to approach God on my own merit. He's going to mark
it against you. I'm going to tell you right now.
Now you listen to what I'm saying. You hold on to your free will
or think you've got a free will, and I'm telling you, God's going
to send you to hell. The scripture says it's not by the will of
the flesh. It's not by the will of man,
but it's of God. No, no. Lord, Jehovah, if thou
shouldest mark iniquities, if thou shouldest mark iniquities,
and then look immediately what he does. Oh Lord Jesus, who shall stand? Jehovah, if you mark iniquity
against me, Lord Jesus, he marked my sin against you. Lord, you stood as my surety. and Jehovah marked mine against
you. If He marks it against me, what
hope do I have? You bore my guilt, Lord Jesus. You paid my debt. The Father
forsook you. He turned His back on you. He
dealt with you, bearing my sin. in indescribable justice, and
you died bearing my guilt. What's he going to do to me?
What is he going to do to me? What's he going to do to you? O thou, verse 3, Jehovah, if
thou shouldest mark iniquities, Lord Jesus Christ, you who alone can answer for
me, Lord, You are my only hope. Who shall stand? Lord Jesus, all power has been
given unto You, that You should give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given Him. The latter part of verse 3, O
Lord Jesus, You who have said, that I have ravished you with
one of my eyes? Lord, you who have stood for
me is my surety. Lord, answer for me. Lord, intercede
for me. Lord, scripture bears out. You
have borne the griefs of your people. You have carried their
sorrows. You are the scapegoat. that has
borne away the iniquities of your people into a land not inhabited. Oh, Jehovah, if you mark iniquities
against me, Lord Jesus, you who had my sin marked against you,
if the Father marks it against me, how am I going to stand?
Verse 4, But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. There is forgiveness with Jehovah,
the thrice holy God. How? In the Lord Jesus Christ. Only as he has borne the guilt
that I deserve to be punished for, eternally punished. Lord
Jesus, you alone are the one that God has set forth to be
a propitiation, a satisfaction through faith in your blood.
Lord, you're the one, you're the only place that I can meet
and be reconciled to Jehovah. There is no other place Whenever
God the Father instructed Moses to build an ark, the ark of the
covenant, the box, it was built out of shittum wood covered over
with gold inside, outside. Precious, precious wood, precious
metal. Picture of the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But there was a top a cap, a
lid, that was put on top of him. And that lid was called the mercy
seat. That was the lid. The lid was
put on top. And on that mercy seat it had
cherubims. It had two cherubims. And they
had their wings extended out and they came. And that was the
lid. That's how the lid was made.
That lid was made out of one piece of gold. unbroken, no cracks,
concerning the glory and the purity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to what God said to
Moses concerning that. Thou, Exodus 25, shalt make a
mercy seat of pure gold. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark. And in the ark thou shalt put
the testimony that I shall give thee, and there will I meet with
thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat,
from between the two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the
testimony." Is there forgiveness with God? Yes. Yes. How? By a sinner just walking
down the aisle and saying, I'm sorry. Where's justice? Where is the justice of God?
Where is the justice of God satisfied? Listen, let me tell you something.
Without the justice of God being satisfied, there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. There's no putting away of sin.
For God Almighty, to show forgiveness because of His justice, sin must
be paid for. It must be dealt with. Yes! Verse 4, There is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Now you know, you might
think, well maybe that should have said that thou mayest be
loved. The fear of the Lord is a beginning
of wisdom. Not the fear of a slave, but that loving, reverential,
obedient respect unto God for the forgiveness of sin, for the
acceptance of his children in Christ. What do you think went
through the mind of that prodigal? After he left, he said, give
me all that's coming to me. I'm gone. Wasted it all in riotous
living. And then he was eating the husk
that they'd feed to the swine. He said he came to himself. There's
a beautiful picture of regenerating grace. He came to himself. He
realized, what am I doing? I'm sitting over here eating
husk. Servants in my dad's house are
eating better than I do. I'm going to go back to my dad,
and here's the thing. He didn't come back with a haughty
attitude. He rehearsed this. I'm going
to go to my dad, and I'm going to say, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and
I've done it in your sight. I'm sorry. I'm not even worthy
to be called your son anymore. Just make me as one of the hired
servants." You know why he said that? He reverenced his dad. He respected him. Is there forgiveness
with God? Yes. That thou mayest be reverenced
and respected. The psalmist says in verse 5,
I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in His
Word do I hope." You know, for a man, for a sinner, to have
hope, confidence, confidence, there's going to have to be a
solid foundation. There's going to have to be something
according to God's Word that I can rest in. Otherwise, it's
just a hope without confirmation from God's Word is just a fairy
tale. That's all it is. Nothing. The psalmist said, I
wait, I expect, I patiently look to the Lord. I look to Jehovah. I wait for
Jehovah. My soul, he says, rests in God
Himself and what He's got to say. I wait for the Lord. My soul does wait in His Word. What does He have to say? What
does God the Father have to say? His Word. What is written Word? Yes! What is spoken Word? When the Lord was on the Mount
of Transfiguration, His Baptism, when God spoke from Heaven, in
that Word? Yes! In the Word made flesh? Yes! I wait for Jehovah, my soul doth
wait in His Word, do I hope. He said, this is my beloved Son
whom I'm well pleased. Lord, I hope in you. He's the
one whom you're well pleased. Look at verse 6. My soul waiteth
for the Lord. Now look at that one. I wait in Jehovah. My soul waiteth
for the Lord Jesus Christ. More than they that watch for
the morning. I say more than they that watch
for the morning. A soul made to see his need of
forgiveness with Jehovah in Christ is waiting on God's Word, Jehovah's
Word concerning his son. That's what he's saying. Father,
you said, this is my beloved son whom I'm well pleased. Well,
verse 6 says, My soul waiteth for the one in whom God the Father
is. Well, please, that's who I'm waiting for. I wait for Him
more than they that watch for the morning. Years ago, back in the late 70s, I had a dear friend, and he was
talking to me one day, telling me, he said, He'd gotten out
of law school as a lawyer, graduated from law school and got drafted
into the Army. I'm sorry, I said late 70s, late
60s. He was relating that to me years later, but in the late
60s, he was drafted right out of law school and sent him to
Vietnam. He was telling me one day, he
said, Marvin, he said, I'll never forget He said, when I was in
Vietnam, he said they gave me an M-16 and put me in a guard
tower out in the perimeter around the fire base. And if there was
any trouble, he was going to be the first one made aware of
it. And he told me, he said, I cannot tell you, he said, the
fear of standing out there in pitch black, maybe the light
of the moon, maybe. And he said, you're just out
there trying to see something, if anything moves. And he said,
they knew where I was. And he said, oh, he said, if
the sun would just come up, if I could just get a glimmer of
the sun coming over the horizon, He said, I hoped and hoped, please
come up before anything happens to me. The psalmist says, 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 Jehovah. For with Jehovah, there is mercy. Tell you this, there's mercy
if it's the mercy promised to our fathers. The Lord Jesus Christ
who is God's mercy. That's according to Luke 172.
Is there mercy with God? Yes. There's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the mercy of God. With Him, Scripture says there
is plenteous redemption. There is deliverance to the full. There is abounding deliverance. It's not limited. It's not exhausted. It cannot be exhausted. It's
plenteous. It's numerous and multiplied
redemption, liberation. Let me ask you this in closing.
Do you find yourself in need of numerous liberations from
the guilt of sin. I was trying, as I've told you
so many times before, trying to pray, trying to pray, pray
for this congregation, trying to. This just happened. This just happened. And I got
to thinking, all of a sudden I realized, where in the world
am I? trying to pray for you, God's people. And all of a sudden
I was thinking about something that... And this thought went through
my mind. Do you know what it cost for God to forgive me for
that wandering thought? It cost the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. One thought. One act of disobedience
in the garden. Let Israel hope, have confidence
in Jehovah, for with Jehovah there is mercy, and with Him
is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. But if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all, all sins. You mean even a sin like David
committed? With Bathsheba? That kind of
sin? Yeah. And that wandering thought that
every one of us has had in this service. Every one of us. Everybody's guilty. Cleanseth
us from all sins. You who cry out of the depths
unto the Lord. You who are thankful for His
mercy in Christ. He who has borne your guilt,
you know there is forgiveness with God in Christ. He who is
eternally purposed to do you good, he shall. I pray the Lord
bless the message for Christ's sake.