If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Psalm 130, Psalm 130. I've entitled this message, a
plea, a plea from the depths, a plea from the depths. The Psalmist writes out of the
depths, have I cried unto thee, Oh 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 should 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 waited 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. And this psalm is called a song
of degrees. We see this because it starts
at a very low, low place. He starts in the depths and The
Song of Degrees or a Song of Steps, a Song of Ascension, that's
what it means. And as you can see, this psalmist
starts at a low place and as the psalm progresses, he is elevated,
step by step, he is elevated and he rises very quickly. Now,
I've got four points, four divisions for this psalm. The first division
is a great plea, and you read that in verses one and two, he
cries from the depths for the Lord to hear him. He has a plea,
and he pleads to one person, Jehovah. The second division
is an humble confession. He confesses two things, the
holiness of God, his sinfulness, and then he finds hope, a remedy
for that in verse four, forgiveness. This is what he wants. He confesses
God is holy and he is a sinner and he needs what? Forgiveness
that only can come from God. That's an humble confession.
And thirdly, we find an earnest resolve. He says, I'll wait.
I'll wait for you. I wait for you. And I'm going
to tell you, and he gives that illustration of how diligently
he waits, how eagerly he anticipates. He said, I wait for you more
than they that watch for the morning. And then he says that
there is a great exhortation and expectation. In verses 7,
the exhortation is hope in the Lord. Why? The Lord has mercy
and plenteous redemption. And here is the expectation. He shall redeem Israel from all
her iniquities. So four divisions here. Let's
go through these together. I pray God, the Holy Spirit will
apply this to us. And I know that you are a believer
in Christ. This is going to be readily You
can identify with this. You can identify with this. First
of all, an earnest or a great plea. The psalmist here expresses
the greatness of his present sorrow by these words. Out of
the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. We find him in
the depths, the depths here. He cries as one in the depths
of the sea. Kind of like Jonah. Jonah was
cast by the, he was in that whale's belly. He was down at the bottom
of the ocean. This is the figure here, as that
he is in the depths and the waves and floods of sorrow have overwhelmed
his soul. He is as one that's been in the
depths of a dungeon. Like Jeremiah was cast into the
depths of that pit and the dung and the urine was all around
him. He was in the depths. He had
no ability to get out on his own. He's in the depths. It's
just one who was in the depths of poverty. One who has nothing
to pay and owes a great sum. He is in the depths. He's in a state that he cannot
get out of. He is overwhelmingly in the depths
and darkness and bondage and sorrow. Now the reason for his
despair is not so much carnal. Now surely it might have been
a carnal means that brought him to this point. But really it
is a spiritual depth. And we can read this because
it is his sin. This is the cause of his depression,
the cause of his sorrow. Why? We know that because he
talks about iniquity in verse three. He said, Lord, if you
should mark iniquity. This was his concern. This was his trouble,
was sin. He sees his sin and is moved
to such sorrows and feelings of unworthiness. to be accepted
with God. He sees and knows that his sin
has brought him into this depths and cannot be remedied by merit
or religion of the flesh. He knows he cannot get out on
his own. Why would he cry to God if he
could get out on his own? He can't. Therefore, he cries
in the depths unto God. He is as Asaph, as a beast. Asaph in Psalm 73 says, I was
as a beast before he. Now listen, who among us cannot
identify with this? Listen, you may not identify
with this now, but you have. You've been here. Which of us
has not fallen into some grievous sin, some grievous trouble that
we cannot get ourselves out of? Remember John said this, those
who say they have no sin, the truth is not in them. That's
just so. We as the sons of God are capable
of any sin. I want you to grab a hold of
that because if you think you're not, that's what's gonna get
you. If you think you've risen above,
that's religion. Religion teaches people you can
rise above a certain sin so that you'd never commit it again.
I don't believe that mess. That old nature is still just
as prone. Remember, David's sin happened
with Bathsheba when he was old, not when he was young. You see,
God's people who are saved by his grace, we confess that in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Therefore, we have what? No confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. We
confess that sin is mixed with all we do, that still the old
man of sin abides with us in the old nature. Therefore, Paul
exhorts us in Galatians to walk in the spirit. and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, he didn't say you won't
have a lust of the flesh, he says you won't fulfill it. If
you're walking in the spirit, what does that mean? To walk
by faith in Christ, to set your eyes upon Christ. If we have
our eyes fixed on Christ, no, it won't do away with the lust,
but it will do away with the fulfillment of it, if our eyes
are fixed on Him for walking by faith. And he warns us, the
flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary one to another. The time we begin to trust in
our own strength, you've already fallen. If we're trusting in
our own strength, you're sure to fail. We are sure to fail. The time we use our liberty in
Christ to give occasion to the flesh is a time we fall into
the depths. Our sin will consume us. It will
overwhelm us. Believers must be vigilant in
our warfare because we are prone to fall. What was that song that
saw him prone to wonder? Lord, I feel it. I tell you this,
when we don't feel that, usually because we already wandered. Many times, like Peter, we're
called to the Lord to walk on the water. You know, faith is
a miracle, isn't it? It is more a miracle than Peter
walking on the water. Matter of fact, Peter walking
on the water took faith. He trusted Christ, he looked
to Christ, but it was the moment he took his eye off of Christ
that he began to sink into the depths. So it is with us, are you troubled?
Believer, are you troubled? Are you in darkness? Oh soul,
are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see? Has the depths of grief and unbelief
completely covered your eyes to think you have no hope? That's
where he's at. That's where this psalmist is
at. He is at a place of no hope. No hope. Depths. He has no hope
in himself. Do you cry like Asaph? I know
God is good to Israel. But as for me, I don't know. This is the position of the psalmist.
He is in the depths. So are you there? Are you in
the darkness? Are you in the dust of death because of sin?
Are you afflicted and suffering in the body and mind because
of some dark providence? Has your flesh and body failed?
Is your soul cast into the depths? Well, I'm so thankful he didn't
just say, out of the depths, I have no hope. No, he said,
out of the depths, I have cried unto thee. Here's a remedy. Here's
the remedy for believers in the depths, for sinners in the depth. Here's a remedy. He cried unto
the Lord. When a man is cast into the depths
of the sea, listen, you put a man in the bottom of the ocean and
let him scream all he wants to, who's gonna hear him? That's not true spiritually. God hears in the depths. God hears. You are believers. You're cast into the depths.
No man may hear you. No man may help you. The only
help for one in the depths is one who can hear. And only God
can hear the sinners cry in the depths. Only God will hear. It
is always in the abyss that we are made to cry unto Jehovah. It is always beneath the floods
and the billows and sorrows that overwhelm our souls that prayer
lives, that faith lives and struggles and cries. I'll tell you this, in prosperity, how well does faith struggle
and cry? No, it's in the depths. It's
in the depths that these things strive and grow. In fact, it
is the depths of our sin and suffering that is used by God
to stir us to cry. To stir us to cry into the throne
of grace. Believer, in the depths, the
only source of hope and help is found in one place, God. That's it. Listen, if you can
find help anywhere else, you'll take it. But if you're like this
man, He goes to one place because no one else can help. Who else
can help you with your sin? Only God. Only God can help us
with sin. And let us at the bottom, from
the bottom of our hearts, in the depths, pour out our soul. And listen, I don't care how
great your sin is. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter how great
the depths are, no matter the greatness of your pain and grief
and sorrow and unbelief, no matter the greatness of your enemies
surrounding you, listen, God is greater. God is greater. I think we read that last time
in the last song we went over, he says, the floods have lifted
up their voice, the floods have lifted up their weight, the Lord
is mightier than the voice in the waters. He's mightier than
the waves. God is mightier, that's why we
cry unto Him. Greater is He that liveth in
you than he that liveth in the world. I was, I read an article
a long time ago. And it was called excessive sorrow
for sin. Excessive sorrow. You think there
can be such a thing as too much sorrow for sin? Yes, there can
be. The author was expressing that
there is such thing as too much sorrow for sin. There is such
a thing as too much feeling of guilt and shame. How do you know
that? Well, you can go to the scriptures,
go over to, go to 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians chapter seven.
Look what Paul says about sorrow. What he says about a man in the
depths of sorrow and grief because of sin. He says in 2nd Corinthians
chapter seven, And look at verse nine, he said, now I rejoice,
not that you were made sorry. He said, I'm not, you know, when
he preached him that previous letter, he preached concerning
their sin and what they were doing, it was evil. And surely
they felt sorrow, but he said, I rejoice. And I'm not rejoicing
that you were just because you were sorry, but that you sorrowed
to repentance. For you were made sorry after
a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented
of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. You see, you got
two sorrows here. You got the sorrow of God, godly
sorrow, and you've got the sorrow of the world. One sorrow worketh repentance. The other sorrow worketh death. The sources from which these
spring are opposite is darkness and light. So must be their consequence. Godly sorrow is from grace of
the ascension gifts of Christ, but worldly sorrow is of the
world. Godly sorrow, listen, always leads to God. worldly sorrow always leads to
works. So then the measure of our sorrow
and guilt, if it is so great that we will not repent, It is
worldly sorrow. It is of no value. I've seen
men weeping and crying and lamenting their sin, and they lament their
sin. They go on their life constantly
sorrowing over their sin. But one thing they never do is
repent. They never turn to Christ. That's
worldly sorrow, that's not of God. Godly sorrow, listen, if
you are in the depths and this is godly sorrow, godly sorrow
lead it to repentance, turning from self and sin to God. Worldly sorrow turns to self. What do I need to do? I'm sorrowing
over my sin, now what do I need to do to earn God's favor? That's worldly sorrow. God's
people are not like that. I was thinking about those people
bitten by the serpents. You remember? How many people
were bitten by the serpents? That was a sentence of death.
You knew it. Everybody knew when you were bitten, it was death.
There was no cure, no remedy. And God gave a remedy. He made
that brazen serpent. He said, look and live. How many
people were bitten and they sorrowed but wouldn't look? That's worldly sorrow. How many
people were bitten in sorrow and by faith looked? That's godly
sorrow, two different kinds of sorrow. So even if a man sorrow over
his sin and shame so much that he will not look by faith to
Christ for pardon and mercy, that sorrow is not godly. So
sorrow of the psalmist, we can see quickly, go back to your
text, you can see quickly it is godly sorrow because it leads
where? To God. Out of the depths have I cried
unto, who? Thee. Unto thee, oh Lord, hear
my voice. Let thine ears be attended unto
my thy ways. He cries unto God, those who
are in the depths. I'll tell you this, we come to
God because he knows how to deliver us, doesn't he? The reason we sorrow is because
of sin. Now who knows how to deliver
me from that? God. Peter said, the Lord knoweth
how to deliver them. Deliver the godly out of temptation. He knows how. That's why the
psalmist went here. Listen, you're in the depths.
Why should you go to God? Because that's the only one to
help you. I can't help you. Don't look to your pastor. Don't
look to anyone else. We can't help you. We can't help ourselves. Only God can help you. And so
then in the darkness, we that hope, we that look unto God,
we understand that he must hear us. If he doesn't hear me, I
don't have any hope. But I know this, he will. That's
why I'm crying. Because I know he will hear me.
He will hear me. Why? Because God only intends
good for his people. Now you in the depths, I want
you to get this and grab a hold to this with both hands of faith.
Know this, God has covenanted to do you good. He not only covenanted
to save you, and that's part of the covenant. That's the main
sub of the covenant. But know this, that he's always
intending to do you good. He said this in Jeremiah 32,
I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them to do them good. And this is what he'll do. I'll
put my fear in their hearts for this purpose, that they shall
not depart from me. Where did the psalmist go when
he was in the depths? Did he depart from God or did
he go to God? He went to God. So what do you
do in the depths? Do you go to God? Why is that? Because God made a covenant that
you would never depart from him. He put that in your heart so
that you would cry unto him. And listen to this, God says,
I delight, I rejoice to do them good. Now, why does God delight
to do you good? One reason. your union with Jesus
Christ. That's the only reason God delights
to do you good. Stop looking for reasons why
God would do you good. Well, I got up this morning.
I didn't kick the dog. I hugged my wife. I loved my
children. I did well all day. Surely God
would do me good. No, God will not do you good
because of what good you did. That may have been good for the
dog. It may have been good for the wife. It didn't do anything
for God. God does you good because God
sees you in Christ. That's the only reason God's
going to do you good. You know what? He said, I won't turn away
to do you good. When did you ever deserve good? So guess what? You're going to
get good no matter what, because it's not about you. You're not,
it's not in your merits, but it's in Christ. So believer from
the depths, when we make our great plea, let us plea alone
to God to attend to our prayers and know this, that it is for
Christ's sake, he will hear us. It is for Christ's sake, he will
hear us. I don't feel like he's hearing
me. Well, it doesn't matter. He hears you for Christ's sake.
He don't hear you for, you know, well, I didn't plead hard enough. No, it's not the measure of your
pleading that gives you audience with God. It's Christ that gives
you audience with God. Him and Him alone. He is our
high priest. He is the forerunner that went
into the presence of God with his own blood and made the way
open that you can come to God. It's open. It's always open. I don't feel like it though.
Who cares? It's open. It's open. God doesn't say it's open if
you feel like it. In the depths, you listen to
me, you won't feel like it. In the depths, you feel everything's
closed. You feel surrounded. You feel pressed in on every
side. You don't think it's open, but
it's wide open. For Christ's sake, it's open. The second thing is an humble
confession. An humble confession. Look at this in verse three.
He said, if thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who should stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.
Now it was a sin that caused the psalmist to plunge into the
depths of sorrow and darkness. And in his great plea from the
darkness, he sees the root cause of his sorrow for sin. What is the root cause of our
sorrow for sin? The root cause of our sin is
ourselves. We're sinners. That's the root
cause of my sin. Sin always leads to sorrow. It
always leads to pain and death. But what is the root cause of
someone's sorrowing for sin? Here it is, the holiness of God. If we never saw the holiness
of God, we would never sorrow for sin. Listen, would you ever ask for
forgiveness? Had you not known the holiness
of God? So what does Paul reveal? What
is the psalmist reveal first? The holiness of God. He said
this, look, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, who should stand?
He said, I'm crying from the depths because of my sin. I'm sorrowing, knowing that I
must give an account and that you must judge. And Lord, if
you mark iniquity, who's going to stand in that day? Who? The psalmist, under a great sense
of his sin and his knowledge of God's holiness, is the cause
of his crying. He considers this truth, that
God must judge every thought, every word, every deed, every
action of man, or he's not just. He must judge everything. In
fact, God says he will. And this is the judgment. The
soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. I don't have this in here,
but I came across this this week. They do these big conventions,
religious things, and they answer questions. You know, people have
a big audience. They get these questions out there. People asking
questions usually aren't willing to information. They're trying
to trip up somebody, trying to make them. So this one question
come out was kind of interesting. I thought, I said, how can God
be just and eternally punish a temporal sin? And you know, that guy got up
there and he started stumbling, staggering a little bit, and
he just started saying, then he started trying to use man's
experience as to how to answer this question. You know what
he didn't do? He didn't use God's word. You know what? I don't care what men think about
judgment and justice. It only matters what God thinks
about justice and judgment. Who cares how you view sin? How
does God view sin? And God views sin like this,
the soul that's in it, it shall surely die, eternally die. Every sin is worthy of eternal
death. I don't care what man thinks
about it. You and I think lightly of sin. We think, well, it's
just a white lie. It's just a little sin. It's
just a thought. Surely God would overlook. I
overlook it, so obviously I'm better than God, because I can
overlook a sin. No, you're just a sinner. You're not just. God's just. And you know what?
God's not gonna be brought before your bar, you will be brought
before God's bar. That's how that should be answered.
And God said this, the soul that sinneth it, you'll die. That's
just so. I don't care what men think. You can kick, you can
spit, you can hate it, doesn't matter. When you sin, you'll
die. Jesus tells us that when he comes
again, he shall reward every man according to his work. In
Revelation, the dead, as he said, I saw the dead, both small and
great, stand before God and the books were open. Another book
was open, the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things written in the books according to their works.
You know what you're going to be judged according? According
to your works. According to your works. What are our works? What does God say about your
works? all their sin and come short
of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no,
not one. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rats. So then the answer to this question
is obviously rhetorical. Lord, if you mark iniquity, and
he does, he does mark iniquity, and all who are guilty deserve
the sentence of eternal death, then the question is this, who
shall stand? The answer is none. If you stand before God in your
own works and righteousness, you will not stand. You will
be judged, condemned eternally. He knows this because God is
holy. Only those who are as holy as
God shall be accepted. That's a high standard, isn't
it? Go ahead and put your Put the
measuring stick up there, measure God and measure yourself. Now, listen, if you even come
close, you don't know God at all. The psalmist knew he didn't
measure. This is why he said in the very
next verse, there is forgiveness. I don't need merit. I need forgiveness. I need pardon. When a man stands before God's
holiness, one thing he learns, I am a sinner. I am a sinner. I have sinned. All I can do is
sin. Have you seen this about yourself?
There is not one believer that hadn't seen what I just said
about themselves. Not one, not one. If you haven't seen this
about yourselves, because you don't believe, because you don't
know Christ at all. If you've not seen this about
yourself, Isaiah did. When God appeared before Isaiah,
what did he say? Woe is me. Daniel fell down as dead. David confessed, I have sinned
against thee. Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. You see what God's people think
about themselves? The psalmist in the depths begins
to see more clearly God's holiness and more clearly his sin and
need of forgiveness. So don't you see the purpose
of God in putting the psalmist in the depths? If you're in the depths right
now, do you not see God's purpose? His purpose is to abase you. His purpose is to put you in
the dust. Listen to this, where you belong.
Where do we belong? Before God. Pleading for forgiveness
and mercy. purpose not to destroy us, but
to expose our sin. If one ever cries to God, he
must first be humbled. That man must see some have personal
understanding of God's justice and his own helplessness. It
is only then the gospel comes in view. It is only then, but
I know this you're holy. Nobody's going to stand in that
day, but. There is forgiveness with thee. You know what that word forgiveness,
the word forgiveness here has to do with propitiation, propitiation. This is speaking of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered how God
could be just and merciful at the same time? God says this about himself,
he says, I'm merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping, storing up, storing up mercy
for thousands. Just like old Joseph, he stored
up that grain. I'm storing up mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin and will by no means clear
the guilty. Now listen, I'm gonna talk to
you in the depths. I'm gonna talk to you in the depths. I
wanna speak to you there at the bottom. You listen, if your sin has brought
you to the bottom, here's the only remedy. There is forgiveness
with God. God says about himself, I am
gracious. I store up mercy. I forgive iniquity,
transgression, and sin. And I do it in such a way that
I am still just to do it. The only way that can be done
is Christ. That's the only way. There is no other way but Christ. That word I told you a second
ago is propitiation, forgiveness. It has to do with that great
day of atonement. You remember the great day of atonement, that
high priest, there's three things there. High priest, scapegoat,
and the blood sacrifice for the atonement. All three of these
picture Christ. Every one of them. Christ is
the high priest, he's the scapegoat, and he's the offering. You remember
they took that scapegoat and the priest put his hands on the
head of that goat and he confessed the sins of the people. Then
the strong man came along and carried that goat into the wilderness,
never to be seen again. Picturing sins being carried
away, never being seen again by God. Then the other goat was
to be killed. On the altar, his blood was to
be taken within the Holy of Holies, sprinkled on the mercy seat before
God to make an atonement for Israel. This is all a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ and his sin offering for his people.
You see that scapegoat? God imputed all the sins of his
people to Christ. in an act of love and mercy,
so amazing, so astounding. God sent his son into this world
to be made sin for us. You know, he was the only one
that could be made sin because we were all sin already. He was
the only spotless lamb of God and God made him to be sin and
God's justice You see, God didn't take your sin and put it under
a rock. No, God justly dealt with our
sins in Christ. He paid for them with his own
blood. What an act of mercy. God in
grace and mercy toward us made him to bear our sins on the cross
as our substitute and justly, righteously, and perfectly punished
every sin. You got that? Every sin was punished
for all his people. You realize if he missed one,
we're all doomed. If he missed one of my sins,
there's no hope for you. How do you know he didn't miss
one of yours? Oh, no, no, no. He hath, the scripture said,
perfected forever. Them that are sanctified. You
still, you understand, Christ would still be in the grave if
he didn't. God's justice would not allow his son to be raised
from the dead had he had one sin left. But because he propitiated
all our sins, removed our sins from us, imputed them to his
son, he killed his son for all our sins and justice says, satisfied. I am completely and perfectly
satisfied with that substitutionary offering. Therefore, what? There is forgiveness with thee. that what thou mayest be feared." His word is not terror, but reverence.
Everyone who is forgiven, you in the depths, what is it that
you want most? I want to be in Him. I want to be cleansed. I want to have His righteousness
wrapped around me. I want to be accepted of God based
on His marriage. Now what does that move me to
do? Does that move me to sin more? Oh no, oh no. It moves me to
fear and reverence God. Look at this third thing, a great
resolve, a great resolve. The psalmist says in verse six,
verse five, he says, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait,
and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth on the Lord more
than they that watch for the morning, I say. more than they
that watch for the morning. Two things here, his resolve
is to wait and his resolve is to hope in God's word. Our Lord tells us this from John,
he says, if any man confesses sin, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sin. The moment one comes to Christ,
that man is eternally forgiven. eternally pardoned. When we first
come to Christ, we at that moment are forgiven. And ever since
then, we have believed on him. We constantly confess our sin
and we are constantly forgiven our sins forever. The blood of
Christ, John says, cleanseth us from all sin. That's a perpetual,
constant, eternal cleansing. So why does he say, I'm going
to wait on the Lord and hope in his word? Hope has the connotation
of something future. Paul said, if we hope for something
that we have, then why are you hoping for it? Why are you anticipating? Why are you waiting for it? Why
are you confident in something? It has something to do with the
future here. He's waiting for something that he's not got yet.
When we confess our sins by faith and receive His promise of forgiveness,
do we always at that moment feel forgiven? Are you still struggling with
it? I don't know, I struggle. Even
when I, by faith, receive it, I still struggle. Does that mean when I confess
my sins and He forgives my sins that immediately the consequences
of everything bad will go away? No, what must we do? We must
wait. Wait. We must endure. Not just sit patiently with our
hands folded necessarily, that's part of waiting, not doing anything,
not working. But it's also this matter of
endurance. We must endure patiently, waiting
and trusting that God will deliver us at His appointed time. Psalmist had to continue in this
for some time. He said, I have cried. He not
just once. How many times God deliver you
the first time you cry? How many times? Didn't do that
to Paul, did he? Paul cried three times before he even answered
him. And he said, look, I'm not gonna deliver you. My grace is
sufficient for you. God will not always speak pardon.
at the first cry because he makes his people to reverence his holiness,
feel the bitterness of their sinning, and that they might
know the exceeding sorrowfulness of sin. Why are we still hurting?
Because God wants us to know the exceeding sorrowfulness of
sin. He wants us to know that sin
is not a light thing. And so he chastens his children.
He chastens. Why do you chasten your children?
We're chasing them because we love them. We want what's best.
We think we want what we think is best for them. We may not
always be right, but God is always right. He chastens us to know
the exceeding greatness of our sin so that when pardon comes,
we know and experience the greatness of pardon. He that is forgiven
much what? If you've forgiven little, guess
what? You love little. So God doesn't always answer
us, he makes us to wait. And what does the psalmist say?
I'll wait. I'll wait with this one thing in view, his word.
I will hope not in the circumstances surrounding me. I will hope in
what he says. I will have confidence of deliverance
based on the promises of God and not how I feel or what I
think or what men do. My hope is in God. And so I'll
wait until he determines the best and perfect path of deliverance. You know, the best way of deliverance
is never our way. Matter of fact, our way got us
into the depths. The only way out is God's way.
And so I said, look, I'm surrendered. He's brought to the end of himself
and he surrenders. And he said, I wait more than
they that watch for the morning. What is this? John Gill says
this, this is the coming of Christ is to said to be as the morning.
The light of God's countenance is comparable to the morning
light. The discoveries of pardoning
grace are through the bright shining of the sun of righteousness
and is the healing that is in his wings. And salvation and
deliverance from any distress is light that breaks forth as
the morning. You know, when I was a soldier,
we would have the guard duties, and those, I think the worst
time for me was obviously from 1 to 6, 1 o'clock in the morning
to 6 o'clock in the morning. You're waiting for that dawn.
You're waiting for the daybreak so that your shift would be over. You're waiting because the enemy
could be surely creeping in the night. What do you want? You
want light to see. And so you anticipate that rising
of the sun. One, so you can see the enemy
or two, that you might be relieved and find rest. And he says, what
I'm gonna wait is I'm waiting for the morning and it's coming,
it's coming. The morning is Christ. Christ
is coming and he will restore the joy of my salvation. Isn't
that what you're missing in the depths? The joy of your salvation? The experience of the pardoning
grace of God? Wait, wait. And the last thing
here is he exhorts. He has a great exhortation and
expectation. He said, let Israel hope in the
Lord. With the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous
redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. He said, I'm crying from the
depths. I've sinned. I've sinned and if I were to
stand on my own, there's no pardoning. There's no way I'll stand. My
only hope is forgiveness. Forgiveness. There is forgiveness
with thee in Christ. Lord, I long for your presence.
As they that wait for the morning, I long to feel your forgiveness
and pardon. Please come, please deliver,
reveal Christ. But I will, by faith, wait for
thee, hoping only in your word. And this, when I am delivered,
here is the exhortation that I give to Israel. Let Israel
hope in the Lord. After the psalmist has recovered
from the depths, he speaks to his brethren. Experience. Patience, work in
what? Experience. And experience what? Hope. Let Israel hope in the
Lord. The psalmist had experienced
the depths. He experiences the holiness of
God, the forgiveness of God. He waits to be delivered. And
once he is delivered, what does he say? Now you all trust in
the Lord. You all hope in the Lord. Why?
I've experienced it. You know what I've experienced? There is mercy with the Lord. You need mercy. Now you pay attention. You need mercy. Free mercy. I'm speaking to the lowest of
men because only the lowest of men need mercy. And I tell you
there's mercy because I've had it. And listen, there is plenteous
redemption. In other words, it's not just
barely enough. Not just barely enough. I remember
some friends of mine, when I was in high school, we would get
out our quarters and get out our dimes and nickels and pennies,
and we'd try to figure out on the menu what we could pay for.
We'd get out, we'd just get, barely enough. We may have one
penny left over when we're finished, get our food. Oh, that's not
what I'm talking about. I'm talking about an ocean of
redemption. An ocean! If one human could
take full redemption in his own body, it would be a thimble.
You put a thimble in the ocean and what have you taken? There's more redemption than
you could possibly need. How do I know that? Because this redemption was not
just for me. It's for all Israel. And so what
do I expect? What does the Psalmist expect?
Look at this last thing. He shall redeem Israel. I'm confused a lot of times.
I can look in the world and I can be really confused. I can look
at my life and my circumstance and be utterly confused. You
know what you can't do? You can't trace the love of God
from your circumstances. You won't ever be able to do
that. You can't look at your circumstances and say, OK, now
I see how God loves me. No. No, because that's always
changing, isn't it? But God love doesn't change.
You pay attention. Neither does his redemption.
God will redeem all Israel regardless of what's happening. In fact,
everything that is happening is for the purpose of redeeming
Israel, saving his elect. That's what God is doing. If
you're confused, that's what God is doing. And he shall accomplish
the redemption of all Israel. Not one shall be lost. Jesus
said that. All is the father given me, I should lose nothing. And what is He redeeming from?
All His iniquities. Are you in the depths? What's
the remedy? Cry to God. Cry to God. If He hears you, He'll hear you
only because of Christ. He'll reveal his holiness in
your sinfulness. And then he'll show you forgiveness,
free forgiveness, that he may be reverenced and feared. And
what do you do? We wait, wait for the experience
of it, trusting only in his word. And when he brings it, what do
we say to others? Let Israel hope in the Lord.
Why? There's mercy. I found mercy.
There's redemption. How much? Plenteous. And we all know this, that every
one of his elect shall be redeemed from all his iniquities, not
partial, all of them, all of them shall be redeemed by the
blood of Christ. I pray that God lift us up out
of the depths. If you're in it, may God help
you and bring you up. If you're not, just wait. You
will be. And when you are, here's a message
for you. Out of the depths. I pray God
will bless it.