If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Psalm 130 again. Psalm 130. I had started this
passage of Scripture last week, and I made it through the first
point. And tonight I desire to see if
I can't make it through the next two points. Let's read this Psalm
together. The psalmist says, 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 supplication. The psalmist here is crying out
of the depths of sorrow, sadness. and shame, and we find the contention,
we find the point of sorrow in verse 3. If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? It was his sin,
it was the thought of God's justice, it was the thought of God's wrath
against sin that caused his soul to be plunged into the depths.
And I know every believer understands this. We too, at our conversion,
were plumbed into the depths concerning God's judgment, concerning
our sin. And I know over the course of
our life, we are constantly struggling with sin. And so we are often
brought into the depths of this. And this question, Lord, if you
were to mark iniquity, who could stand? The question is no one.
No one would be able to stand except this. But But there is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared, that thou mayest
be reverenced. So he understands by faith this,
even in the depths, he understands there is forgiveness with God. What a wonderful thought. to
those who are convicted of their sin. What a wonderful thought!
There is a constant, perpetual forgiveness with God, that He
may be reverenced, that He may be honored, that He may be praised. And we find in verse 5 that the
psalmist had not yet experienced, he had not yet felt this forgiveness. He knew of it. He believed in
it. Yet he still was weighted down
with the guilt of sin. Therefore, he said, I wait. For the Lord. I wait for the
Lord. My soul does wait and in his
word, do I hope I anticipate this to come, I anticipate the
Lord's forgiveness. I have confidence the Lord will
forgive me, even because of his word. Tonight, if you are perplexed
of sin, in the depths of sin, this is our hope. There is forgiveness
with God. And so what do we do? We wait. My soul doth wait for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. And here's our text. Let Israel
hope in the Lord. Here it is. You that are in the
depths, the psalmist here exhorts us to hope, to have confidence
in the Lord. He doesn't exhort everyone, we
know that. He exhorts only Israel. Let Israel
hope in the Lord. It is very exclusive. Those who
are believers in Christ, those who are chosen by the sovereign
election of grace, redeemed by the blood of Christ, called by
the Holy Spirit to faith in Christ, you hope in the Lord. You may hope in the Lord, anticipate
His mercy, His forgiveness. And so then we went over several
stages. I said this last week, those
that are hoping the Lord, you should hope in Him when? In every
state, in every stage or circumstance or experience of life, you should
hope, not in men, but in God. You should set all of your hope
and affection in God. Are you under conviction of sin? Every believer in Christ knows
this from our conversion. We were convicted of sin. And
what did we do at the moment of our conviction? When we heard
the gospel for the first time, we set our confidence on Christ. We trusted His blood and His
righteousness, and He was our hope of being accepted. And so
then, as we go through life, we are constantly in struggling
with sin. Therefore, when we are convicted
of our sins, what are you to do? You're to hope in Christ. Set your hope in Christ. Are
you seeking mercy? We say, Lord, be merciful to
me, the sinner. This is not just that conversion,
but this is constant, isn't it? This is a constant conviction
of God's people. What did the Song of Solomon,
the bride, said? I am black, but beautiful. That's the confession of every
believer. Yes, we still have the old nature
of sin. We are black. And yet what? Because of his grace, we are
made the very beauty, the very righteousness of God in Christ.
So therefore, because of this struggle, we are in constant
need of mercy. Mercy. Are you in need of mercy? Hope in the Lord. And last week we saw if Israel
is tempted when you are tempted. We are constantly being tempted
and drawn away by the lust of our flesh, by the things of this
world, by our family, by our friends, by our job. We are constantly
being dragged away from Christ, tempted to leave Christ. And in such moments of temptation, let us look then in hope to God
to keep us. Who's keeping you? Who has kept
you? Why are you still here? Why do
you still believe tonight? Why do you still have faith in
Christ? Why do you still hope in God?
You still hope because you have been kept by the power of God. Isn't that what Peter said? He
said, you who are kept by the power of God unto the day of
Jesus Christ. You kept. And those four thing
I didn't mention last week was backsliding Israel. Let those
who are who have backslidden. Hope in the Lord, hope in the
Lord, listen what it says in Jeremiah, Chapter three, it says,
Go proclaim the word to the north and say, return now, backsliding
Israel, say it the Lord. And I will not cause mine anger
to fall upon you, for I am merciful. I will not keep my anger forever.
In that same chapter, in verse 22, he says, Return, you backsliding
Israel. And here's the promise. Here's
the promise to backsliding Israel. He says this, I will heal your
backsliding. I will heal it. Return unto me. Hope in God. Trust in the Lord. Isn't that what the Proverbs
said? Trust in the Lord always. And
lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Have you fallen? He said, I will heal you. And notice the response in that
chapter of Israel says this, Behold, we are coming to thee,
for thou art the Lord our God. Behold, we are come. So we have
hope if we are tempted, if we have backslidden, if we are in
sin, if we are convicted, what is the exhortation? Don't trust
in flesh. That's the reason you've backslidden,
isn't it? You've trusted in flesh. You've
trusted in your strength. The reason you are convicted
of sin is because you've sinned. We've leaned on our own understanding
instead of Christ. Look what he says now. Here he
gives, now tonight I want you to give you reasons to hope.
I've told you in every condition, hope in the Lord. Now I want
to give you the spiritual reasons by which you may hope. What are
you hoping for in the Lord? What do you desire from Him?
Look what he says. He says, hope in the Lord for,
because two things. With the Lord there is, first
of all, mercy. And second of all, with Him is
plenteous redemption. The reason you should hope in
the Lord is because of His mercy and His redemption. First of
all, mercy. With the Lord there is mercy.
Now, this means that this... The text here means this, that
mercy is in the hands of the Lord. Friends, mercy belongs
to God, doesn't it? It belongs to Him. It is His
to dispense as He pleases. Otherwise, it wouldn't be mercy.
It would be merit. But God's people, that hope in
the Lord, we do not desire God to give us what we deserve. Those who are under conviction
of sin, those who are tempted and tried by their flesh, those
who have fallen into sin, what do we need most? We need mercy,
and you should hope in the Lord, because in His hands is mercy. Mercy. It's not only in His hands, but
I want you to understand that mercy is also a part of His divine
nature. God doesn't just dispense mercy. God Himself is mercy. It is His divine nature to be
merciful. He said, Behold, I, the Lord,
am merciful. I am merciful and gracious. long-suffering. Are you longing for mercy? Are
you full of sin and need mercy? Are you in darkness with no light,
no hope? Then hope in the Lord for this
reason, because in His hands is mercy. In His very nature,
it is His divine nature to give mercy. Mercy. Now, what is mercy? It intimates
compassion. We read of the tender mercies
of God. The tender mercies of God. You
know, you can illustrate this through that parable of the prodigal
son, can't you? Do you not see mercy in the eyes
of the father who receives that son? You got that rebellious
son who willingly willingly in hatred left his father. He said,
Father, give me my inheritance. He demanded of the father to
give his inheritance. He will with all his heart and
soul to go after sin and wasted his inheritance on riotous living. But after he had spent all, you
remember, he was broke and destitute. He was in the hog pen eating
the husks from the swine. The swine were eating better
than him. And the Scripture says he came
to himself and he said, it was better for me and for my servants
in my father's house eat better than this. I will return unto
him and confess that I have sinned against thee and against heaven."
And you imagine him going all the way home rehearsing that.
Man, how in the world am I going to say this? Make him accept
me and just put me in the servant's house, just let me live in the
garage, let me live in your shed, whatever. Scheming the whole
way, right? Trying to make plans as to how
he could do this. And he comes in the rags, After
feeding the swine, he seeks to return, and he hopes that the
father would just make him a servant. But you remember in that parable,
the father saw him afar off. You realize that the father,
to see him afar off, he had to be waiting for him? Waiting for his return? Anticipating
his return. He sees him afar off, And he
runs. This is the only instance in
Scripture where God is seen as being in a hurry. The father runs to meet the son. And the son bows and he says,
Father, I have sinned against thee, against heaven. And he didn't even get out his
story. He didn't even get it out. The
father fell on his neck and kissed him. Kissed Him. Oh, can you imagine the stench? Didn't bother the Father, did
it? He had mercy on His Son. He loved His Son. He came in distress and grief,
and the tender mercy of the Father, He fell on Him, His Son, and
returned and kissed Him. Even so it is with the mercy
of God toward His children. As a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Do you need mercy?
How did you come to God for mercy to begin with? Did you not find
it? Surely you'll find it again.
Do you need it? With the Lord, there is mercy. There is mercy. And mercy also
implies not only pity, But pardon, pardon. Our father does not merely
pity us in our vile corruption. He does not, as false religions
say, want to save us. That's the God of religion wants
to, he pities you, he looks down, he's crying for you, but he just
can't do anything for you. Unless you help him out, unless
you give him something. That's not our God, is it? Our
God who not only pities His children in mercy, but He actually saves
us according to His mercy. Our God is full of mercy and
pity for His sons. And He also, Him who pitied us,
also undertook to save us. He acted on His pity. He saved us by Jesus Christ. Wasn't that always His purpose?
To save us by Jesus Christ? The Scripture says, according
as He had chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy, that we should be without sin,
that we should be blameless before Him. In love, having predestined
us under the adoption of children, and listen, by Jesus Christ. He purposed by Jesus Christ to
make us sons, to make us holy. Purpose this. So our Father not
only pities us in mercy, but He also, in mercy, saves us. Consider this, a judge may be
compassionate toward a criminal he condemns to death. That judge may swing the gavel
with tears in his eyes, but listen, that judge has no power to commute
the sentence of the guilty. Otherwise, the judge would be
guilty. But see, God's mercy, God's mercy,
not only flows forth in pity, but in sovereign mercy and power
and compassion. He has executed judgment and
justice for our sins in the death of His Son. Behold, I have found a ransom. That's mercy, friends. You remember
Abraham, he had to take his son up to that mountain, and God
says, Kill your son. And Abraham in his heart, He,
by faith, being tempted, being tried, slayed his son already
in his heart. He was as good as dead. But how
merciful that God had prepared a ram beforehand, caught that ram in a thicket. What a coincidence. Boy, it just so happened there
was a ram caught in a thicket right there. No, the ram was provided long
before the son was sentenced. Long before we were sentenced,
Christ was provided in mercy. Our Lord executed that judgment
on Christ. You remember the father in the
story of the prodigal son? He would not be satisfied just
to show his son pity. He didn't throw his arms around
his son and say, well, son, I love you and just turn around and
leave him. Well, I pity you, son, but you
know what? You spent it all. I'm sorry. There's no hope for
you. No. He said, get the best road. Take off that stitch, and you
put on the best robe, and you take my ring, and you put it
on his finger. My son who was dead is now alive,
and kill the fatted calf." You see, God could not give us
the robe of righteousness and the ring of sonship had the fatted
calf not been killed. had Christ not been offered as
a sacrifice for our sins. You see why God is going to show
mercy to you? You see why you should hope that
God should be merciful? Because Christ has already died. The offering has already been
made. Why then should He not show you
mercy? It would be an offense to the Son who offered Himself
for our sins if He didn't show you mercy. He will show you hope
in the Lord for in his hands is mercy. Mercy. Oh, Israel, are you covered in
guilt and shame? Are you so fearful that God will
not have mercy? I am. Sometimes I'm fearful.
I'm fearful. Will you have mercy this time?
Surely I've gone too far. No, there's plenty of mercy. Hope in the Lord for this reason
with Him in His hands is mercy. And seeing Jesus Christ has provided
a perfect righteousness by His one offering, taken away all
of our sins. Why then should God not show
you mercy? If the Lord hath given His Son,
how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Is it mercy included in that? It is. In His hands is plenteous
mercy. Oftentimes, we are like the psalmist,
be merciful to me. Psalm 57, verse 1, be merciful
to me, O God, be merciful unto me. For my soul trusteth in thee,
yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these
calamities be overpassed. The psalmist says, Be merciful. And he anticipated his mercy.
He said, I'm going to wait under the shadow of your wings until
all of this is gone. Now, the second reason you should
hope in the Lord is this. With the Lord, there is plenteous
redemption. Plenteous redemption. Let us
be reminded that this plenteous redemption does not mean there's
enough redemption for all men without exception. You know,
I was talking to someone this week. If God purposed to redeem all
men without exception, Christ's blood was sufficient. There would
have been plenteous redemption for the whole world had God purposed
it. Christ's blood is sufficient
to save 10 million worlds. So His atonement, His redemption
is not limited in power. It's not limited in efficacious
power. It's simply limited by the scope
of God. That's what we mean by limited
atonement. It's not limited in its power to save. It's only
limited as to the scope of it. God determined who He would redeem. This is why it doesn't say, let
all men hope in the Lord. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
Why? Because the Lord hath redeemed Israel. The Lord hath redeemed
Israel. And you that are redeemed, you
that do believe on Christ, I want you to know this. His redemption
is plenteous. Plenteous. I think of Joseph
when I hear that word, plenteous redemption. I think of Joseph
when he stored up all that grave. Those seven years of fatness,
he stored up all that grain. There was enough grain to feed
the entire known world at that time. But you know what it was
really stored up for? It was stored up for Jacob. It was really stored up for Jacob. His redemption is plenteous for
Israel. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for there is plenteous redemption. Now, what is redemption? What
is redemption? Redemption signifies a buying,
a purchase. It means that a price has been
set. A price has been set and a price
has been paid. That's what redemption is. A
price has been laid down so that something or someone is bought. Bought. If you go to a store
and you buy an item, You must first lay down the price before
it's yours. Otherwise, it's theft. We lay
down the price, and when we pay for it, it is what's supposed
to be ours. But it is ours. We buy it. So
it is spiritually. Redemption implies an actual
purchase price. Consider this, we by nature,
we sold ourselves into slavery. When we sin, we sold ourselves,
we sold our birthright. We sold ourselves unto sin and
became servants of Satan. We were bond servants and could
by no means free ourselves from the debt that we owed to the
justice of God. What does God's justice demand?
Oh Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquity, who should stand? We
owe the justice of God the debt for our sin. Sin has a price,
friends. And God even now revealed to
us that there is nothing a man could do. In order to have hope, you must
first be hopeless. You know that? If you're ever
to have hope in God, you must first see the hopelessness of
your condition. There is nothing you can do to
save or redeem yourself to God. Nothing. There is no amount of
religious works, there is no amount of offering you can make.
Go to Micah, look over to Micah. Jonah, Micah, and look at chapter
6. Micah chapter 6 and verse 6. This king, this wicked king,
Balak, king of Moab, he's asking this question, and this is a
really good question, talking about redemption. He said, Wherewith
shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the Most
High? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with a
calf of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the
sin of my soul? What does God require? It is a very great question. Listen to the answer. What does
God require? Well, none of that. None of that. You know what God
requires? He says, O man, God has showed
thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require
of thee but to do justly? Love mercy. and to walk humbly
with thy God. Now what does God... All right,
who could do that? Let me just ask you, who has
already done that? Can any of us fit this requirement? Have you done justly? Have you loved mercy always? Have you always walked humbly
with thy God? Have you always done what is
good? He has showed the old man what
is good. Have you done what is good? Scripture
says plainly, there is none righteous, there is none that doeth good,
no, not one. What does God require? Something
impossible. Impossible for you. to do. None of us have done this or
ever could. God requires perfect obedience, perfect holiness,
which we have all failed to do. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But here is our hope. Here is
our hope, not in the works of our hands to redeem us, but simply
this, our substitute has done exactly what God requires. He
has done good. He did justly in all His life
as our substitute. He loved mercy. And He walked
humbly with God for us. For us. Behold our redemption. that is with the Lord Jesus Christ.
He alone has come and offered to God the only acceptable offering
for sin. And by his offering, he paid
the redemption price for Israel. Now, this is something you should
hope in. The redemption price is already paid. It's already paid. In 1 Peter
1, verse 18, it says, For as much as you know... What do you
know? That you are redeemed. Not redeemed with corruptible
things. As silver and gold from your vain conversation. Your
vain lifestyle, your works, your religion. You are not redeemed
by your religion. You are not redeemed by your
works. You know this. You who are redeemed, you know
this. My, those are corruptible things,
aren't they? What were you redeemed with?
The precious blood of Jesus Christ as a lamb without blemish and
without spot. You remember the Passover lamb?
That Passover lamb had to be spotless. God would not receive
a blemish sacrifice because Christ, it should picture Christ. He
was the spotless offering. He was the sinless offering. That's what God required, a sinless
offering. His precious blood, a lamb without
spot and without blemish. And His blood did not make our
redemption possible. His blood actually redeemed us. You know, you can't call Christ
a Redeemer unless He actually redeemed. Isn't that right? If He made redemption possible,
He redeemed nobody. He redeemed nobody. He is not
a Redeemer unless He actually redeemed. unless he actually
paid. Christ actually paid for the
sins of his people. Now listen, if I wanted with
all my heart to buy a Rolls-Royce, say that even I had the money
in the bank, it would be possible for me to
buy one. But unless I actually buy one,
they'll never give me one. I actually have to do it, I actually
have to redeem it, buy it. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
just purpose to redeem us, He actually bought us. Our Lord Jesus Christ offered
Himself once to God, and His one offering for sin has redeemed
us from all our iniquities. Behold, his limited redemption
was only in scope, but not in power. Our Lord Jesus Christ
actually satisfied the justice of God. And listen, what are we but sinners?
We are vile sinners, monsters of iniquity. What can we redeem? What can we offer to God to redeem
us? Nothing. But our Lord Jesus Christ, as
the God-man, came and bled and died for all our sins. How great then was that blood?
How precious was that blood? It was a one-of-a-kind offering. There's never been an offering
before, and there's never been an offering since. It is the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. And I want you to know this.
because of who he is, God and man. Because of who he is, that blood is plenteous. How many sins do you suppose
you have? How many sins have you not yet
committed? Now consider this over all of
the elect. And yet His blood is sufficient
to save not just you, but all His people from all their
sins. Do you ever suppose that his
blood would one day lose its power? I like this when he says this.
In First John, he says this, he cleanses his blood, cleanse
us from all sin. You know, that is a very important
word, cleanseth, because it instills this thought in our mind. It
is a constant, perpetual redemption. Eat His blood now to cover my
sins. And His blood is plenteous to
cover all my sins. You see why you should hope in
the Lord? Because with Him is plenteous redemption. And the
last thing is this, we should hope in the Lord because of a
gracious promise. Look at this gracious promise.
Because there is mercy with the Lord, because his redemption
is because of his death was so victorious, so plenteous to cover
all the sins of Israel, he gives this promise. He shall redeem
Israel from all his sins. Now, You may not even believe
this, but there are some people who really think that when a
person believes, he ceases to sin. I mean, you smirk at that. You
should, because it's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Just video them when they're
in traffic. Tell me they don't sin. They're a bunch of liars. If any man say he hath not sinned,
he hath made God a liar, and the truth is not in him." Isn't
that simple? Do you hear anybody say, well,
I don't sin anymore. Liar. Liar. You just leave him alone, let
him fall in the ditch. Don't even spend time with him because it's
just stupid. He's self-deceived. We know this, that God's people
do still have the old nature of sin. This is why this promise
is great. He shall redeem Israel. From what? All his, what? Iniquities. Now that wouldn't
mean anything if I didn't have any more iniquities, would it?
But because I do still have iniquities, this promise is glorious to me,
that even though those sins that I've not yet committed, this
is the promise. He shall redeem them. He shall redeem them, Israel,
from all his iniquities. Scripture tells us in Galatians
that the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary one to another, so that you could
not do what you would. Therefore, Israel, we must not
only trust in the Lord once at our conversion, but we must hope
in Him constantly to constantly redeem us from our iniquities.
Now, why should you have any hope in that? Because God promises. Not because you deserve it, but
because God swears to it. I will, I shall redeem Israel
from all her iniquities. Here then is our hope. Not that
we would become sinless. I would long to be without sin.
Who, what believer wouldn't? We strive for it. We don't want
it. We don't want our sin. But the
reality is that we do. As long as we live in this body,
we we have need of mercy. We have need of forgiveness.
We have need of redemption. We have need of his blood. And here, God promises that Israel
should hope and expect from God to be redeemed from all his iniquity. Go over to John. Now, this this
is go to first John, first John. Chapter one. 1 John chapter 1, look at verse 8, he says, If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in
us. That's not us. That's not me. But if we confess our sins, He
is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and to cleanse
us from all our unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we made him a liar, and his word is not in us, my little children.
These things I write unto you, that you sin not. Don't sin.
Oh, please, don't sin. But when any man sin, that word
if is better translated to when. Because it's not a matter of
if, it's just a matter of when, right? When you see it. Here's the promise
of God we have in our text. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Now, why is he our advocate?
Because he has made propitiation. He has redeemed us from our sins. And not our sins only, let's
now play with the sins of the whole world, Jew, Gentile, bond,
free, male, female, doesn't matter. He has redeemed all His people
from all their sins, and that redemption is constant, it is
perpetual, therefore you should hope in it. You should anticipate
it with great delight. Not with arrogancy. Shall we
sin that grace may abound? God forbid you should even think
that. That's not what we think. But we should expect God to do
what He promised to do. A psalm writer, hymn writer said,
For my pardon, this I see. but the blood of Jesus. For my
cleansing, this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing
for sin can atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not for good
that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all
my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all
my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Paul said, I do count all things
by the law, so that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not
having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the
righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. So then, do you find yourself
in the depths of guilt and iniquity? Is your conscience made to feel
and own its sin? Is there filth and iniquity?
Found in us? Friends, there is still the mystery
of sin striving over me, trying to master me. But here is my
hope. My hope is in the Lord, for He
shall redeem me from all my iniquities. This is the promise of God. And I also want you to see this.
when he says he shall redeem all Israel from all his iniquities. This is his promise to those
that have not yet come. Those that have not yet been
made to feel their need of Christ, he has promised already to redeem
them from all their iniquities. We preach the gospel to sinners,
don't we? To sinners. Are there any sinners? Is there
anyone in need of being redeemed? Is there anyone in need of mercy?
Then let that man hope in the Lord, for with him is mercy,
in his hands is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. Our Lord said to every preacher,
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Why? Go tell Israel that her warfare
is accomplished. for the Lord hath received double
for all her sins." Don't you know that his payment was twice
as sufficient for all your sins? Therefore, let Israel, no matter
their state, their stage, or their circumstance, let them
hope in the Lord. May God give us grace to continually
trust Christ for mercy and redemption. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your blessing. I pray that you would give this
message to our hearts, that you would cause us to hide it in
our hearts, that we might not sin against thee, that we should
hold fast the truth of this gospel in spite of all that seem to
be against it. Forgive us our sins and lead
us. Save those that are lost according
to your tender mercies. We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.