Psalm 130. We'll be looking at the whole
psalm this evening, the Lord willing. Verses 1 through 8. The title of the message this
evening is A Cry from the Depths. A Cry from the Depths. The psalmist begins in verse
1, 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. I want to begin the message this
evening by asking a question. What are these depths out of
which the psalmist cries? What are the depths These depths are great troubles,
great difficulties. Now all men experience trouble
in this life. Man by nature is born under trouble. Man by nature is born under trouble,
Job says, as the sparks fly upward. You have a campfire, you see
the sparks going up, that's just natural. Well I tell you it's
just natural for man to get into trouble. It's just natural. Job
14.1 says a man born of woman is of a few days and full of
trouble. We are all prone to the same
common troubles. Earthly woes, griefs, sorrows
of heart. We all experience either the
loss of loved ones or we experience the loss of things we loved. We all experience sickness, disease,
loss of our youth, loss of our health. These are all common
debts. These are all common troubles. that every man experiences. And
the scriptures are very clear as to the root of all trouble.
The root of all trouble is sin. The cause of all trouble is sin. Sin is the root of all sickness. Sin is the root of all loss,
sorrow, and death in this world. It traces back to sin. Sin. When God created all things,
He said of His own creation, Behold, it is good. When He made
man, He said, Behold, it is very good. God created all things
good and without trouble. He made man in His own image,
sinless and holy. When Adam walked upon the face
of the earth, he knew no depths of trouble. He knew no sorrow,
no sickness, no pain, and neither was there any trouble in the
world that he lived in. When he was made in the Garden
of Eden, he experienced no trouble with the world, until he had sinned. And the
scripture says, when Adam sinned, God said, Cursed is the ground
for thy sake. He said, It shall bring forth
thistles and thorns unto you, and you shall eat of the herb
of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground, for out of it thou wert taken. For dust thou art, and dust to
dust shall you return. Is that not a bleak picture of
our existence? How bleak is this curse of God
so that none of us escape trouble. None of us. This curse affects
every one of us. Man is born of the travail in
pain of the woman, and from that time forth he experiences sorrow,
he must work, he must labor, he must earn his bread, and then
he must die. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity and vexation of
spirit. If you've lived any time, you
know that to be true. Man is born unto trouble. Man
is born unto these deaths. Is that not depressing? When
you get a hold to that, it is a very bleak outlook. Not very
exciting, is it? Is this not the depths of sorrow
that is common to us all? Yes. Yes. And its root is sin. Now though we may all experience
these depths of fleshly and earthly sorrow and troubles, yet this
is not what the psalmist is speaking of. The psalmist is speaking
of a greater, more troublesome depth. He is speaking of the
depths, the great depths of sorrow and trouble that concern the
soul. The soul. These are soul troubles. Soul troubles. What are these
depths? These depths, here the writer
cries out of his depths concerning the depravity the sin of his
own soul. That's what these depths are.
Out of the depths of depravity, of sin, I cried unto the Lord. Oh that God would reveal to sinners
that they're not just floating on the top of the sea of sin.
Man is not just floating on the sea of sin, but truly man is
cast to the bottom of the sea of sin. Man by nature is like
Jonah who was cast out of that boat into the sea, and the great
fish swallowed him up and carried him down to the bottom of the
mountains, to the bottom of the sea. even so man has been cast
out by nature from the presence of God and cast out in his soul and been
swallowed up in death and the sin of his heart has compassed
him about so that he can by no means free himself. O sinners, Have you known the
depths of your own wicked heart? I'm sure we like to explore the
depths of other men's hearts. But have we plumbed the depths
of our own wickedness, our own sin? O sinner, then behold God,
who is your Maker, your Judge, is absolutely holy, absolutely
perfect, and commands us, and condemned us in our father Adam. He condemned us to death. In
Romans chapter 5 it says, Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin, entered
into the world. This was God's law for Adam.
In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And the
moment that he ate, the moment he disobeyed God, he was plunged
into the depths of sin. Into the grave. The spiritual grave. And so Adam
in that moment died spiritually when he sinned against God. And
so death passed upon all men. And we being represented by Adam,
we all died in Adam. This is a truth. This is not
up for debate. Death was passed. upon all men. Well, how do you
know that to be true? How do you know that's not speculation?
For, here's how, for all have sinned. Have you sinned? And
I tell you, there's proof. There's proof. You see, we did not just become
dead by our sin. We didn't creep into
the depths. We were born there. We were born
there. And not only were we born dead
in the depths of our sin, but we all by nature increased the
bonds of our condition by our love of sin and hatred for God. The Scripture says in Ephesians
2 that wherein in time past you walked, actively walked, according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom we also all had our conversation,
our lifestyle in times past, in the lust of the flesh fulfilling. You see, these words are active.
We were fulfilling. Not only were we born in the
depths of sin, but we also increased the bonds by sinning against
God. hating God, we by nature were
the children of wrath even as others. Wrath against God. Enmity against God. Have the
waters of your sin compassed your soul? Has the depths of
darkness and the corruption of your nature wrapped your soul
in death? That's what the psalmist here
is dealing with. Out of the depths. have I cried unto thee, O Lord."
What causes a man to see this? What causes the man to see the
depths of his own sin? Is it looking at each other?
Is that how we do it? That's how men want to do it. and want
to say, well, I'm not as low on the totem pole there as J.D. J.D., he's a little lower than
I am, so, you know, J.D., I can see you in the depths, but maybe
I'm just a little bit... No, we don't compare ourselves
with ourselves. We don't compare ourselves with
one another. Compare yourself to God. That's how. The answer is, see
the holiness of God. And man sees the holiness of
God, he'll see the depths of his own depravity. That's what
the psalmist did. Look at this, and we can see
it clearly in verse 3. Look at this question he asked. He said,
If thou, O Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand? Who shall stand? God demands
holiness and without holiness no man will see God. Do you believe that? Are you sure of that? Because
a man who understands that will see his own soul and cry out
from the depths of his sin. This is the depths from which
the psalmist cries, the depths of his sin and the knowledge
of the desperate need of his soul to be delivered by the mercy
of God. The psalmist is not asking for
reward. He's not asking for merit. He's
asking for mercy. because he sees that God is holy.
Consider, O my soul, not only the depth of your own sin, but
also the depths of God's justice. That the justice of God demands
satisfaction. God will not let this go. I'll tell you what, our society,
when someone is judged, you just give people enough time and they'll
forget about it. They'll go on, they'll say, let's
just move on with this. Just give him something lighter
than the sentence he deserves. God's not like that. He doesn't
forget sin. God is holy, He's all-knowing,
He's all-powerful, and He's just. Therefore, God knows and does
mark iniquities. He does mark them. We were talking
earlier in the study about in Revelation when the Lord opens
the books. Why do you think there are multiple
books? Because, friends, there are so many multiple sins to
mark. Can you count your sins even
tonight? You and I could not know them
all. We still don't know them all.
We only know the sins of commission, possibly. We don't know of all
the sins of omission that we had not even thought about. Motives,
evil, hearts, wickedness, murders, deceit, lying, adultery, all
constantly rolling in our heads. And I tell you, God does mark
every single sin. Every single sin because He is
holy. Who then shall stand? Who shall
stand? How shall we stand before a holy
and just God? How shall the wicked and the
guilty sinner be justified? This is the question and cry
of the helpless and hopeless sinner under the conviction of
the Holy Spirit, conviction of his sin. He cries out of the
depths knowing his depravity and knowing God's holiness and
says, How can I escape? How can I be free? How can I
be delivered from this? This is the concern of one who
knows God to be righteous and just and knows himself to be
deserving of hell. Behold, this is the cry of one
who knows God cannot forgive sins at the expense of His justice. Have you seen that about God? God cannot forgive sins at the
expense of His justice. His justice must be satisfied. It must be. How then can God
be just and punish my sins and set me free? Is that not a question? Here then is the hope of the
sinner in the depths of his sin. God who has declared himself
holy has also declared himself gracious. God said to Moses as
he passed by, he proclaimed his name, he said, the Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. Those are all three of the words
used. for our wickedness, transgression, iniquity, and sin. God says,
I am a God who forgives. I am a holy God who must punish
sin. And I am a God, yet a God that
forgives. How can this be? God says He's a God that forgives. If you're a sinner in the depths,
I suggest you cry out to God, who alone can forgive sin. Look at what he says in verse
4. This is his hope of crying out of the depths in verse 4.
He said, But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared. Oh sinner, cry out from the depths
of your sin. Cry out to God. He's the only
one that matters. He's the only one that can forgive. How is it that God can be just
and forgive sinners? Here's the answer. There's only
one way that God can forgive sinners, that thou mayest be
feared. God, I know you can forgive sins,
but I know you must be just. But there's forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be reverenced. Behold Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. There is forgiveness with God
by the redemption of Jesus Christ. This is the only place that God
will forgive sinners. This is the only place where
both the justice of God and the mercy of God have met together
and kissed each other. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no other way. Go to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Verse 23, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. There's the depths. There's the
depths. Here's the hope. Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Being justified freely. How is
it that a man is justified? How is it that a man is forgiven
of his sins? Freely! It's the only way. It's the only way. We have sinned. And therefore God must justify
men freely by His grace. We do not deserve to be justified. If you think you deserve to be
justified, you're not crying from the depths. You have no
idea who God is or what sin is. If you think you deserve justification. We by no means deserve to be
justified or forgiven. We deserve hell. But God justifies,
not by merit, not because of any righteousness or goodness
in us, God justifies us by the eternal, immutable counsel and
sovereign will and decree of His own. His own immutable sovereign
decree before the world began. That's how God justifies. He
justifies from eternity. Salvation of sinners is absolutely
and completely of the free grace of God. There's no other way
for a sinner to be saved. To be justified. This was not and could not by
any means, for God must be just. Therefore, in His infinite wisdom,
God justified His people freely through the redemption, the payment
of Jesus Christ that He purposed in His Son from
eternity. If you'll notice, in the Psalms,
the psalmist says that when he cried out, look, he says in verse
5, 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. If you'll notice, this is talking
of the time of the psalmist's cry was before Christ came. Before the Promised One, the
Redeemer, came, He waited on the Lord. Therefore, He says,
My soul doth wait more than they that watch for the morning. Here is the hope for one in the
depths of his sin. Sinner, the morning has already
come. The morning has dawned. Jesus
Christ, the Day Star, has arisen with healing in His wings. Jesus
was hidden then in types and shadows, but now He's made manifest. He's made clear. He's clearly
revealed. The Redeemer of God's saints
has come so that God may be just and justify the ungodly. Jesus has come in the flesh to
be a representative man, whereas Adam plunged us into the depths,
even so might Christ deliver us from the depths and raise
us up to glory. That's the purpose of the coming
of the Son of God. Behold the spotless and righteous
Son of God, who did no sin. He who is God manifest in the
flesh could do no sin. He said He came to destroy the
works of the devil. Not the works of the law. Christ
didn't come to destroy the law. He came to fulfill it. He came
to obtain the righteousness that we could not obtain. The righteousness
that we had already lost in Adam. Christ came to restore it. For by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall
be made righteous. Jesus by his faith and faithfulness
to God established the law and made it honorable. And second,
Jesus, behold Him who's come, the Redeemer, the one in whom
God can be just and justify the ungodly. Behold Him, the spotless
and sinless Lamb of God who was offered for sin. How can God
justify us who are guilty of sin? Only by the merit of His
offering for sin. He came. He was sent of God to
be a propitiation for sin. A sacrifice. Justice demanded a sacrifice. And Jesus came. He not only was
the sacrifice, He was the one that offered it. He was the high
priest. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He was not only the one that
offered it, He was the altar on which He was laid. His deity. The altar of His deity sustained
Him under the vengeance and wrath of God for our sins. And Jesus
Himself was the sacrifice for sins. as they were made to meet
on Him, and the justice of God in full measure fell on Him. In Zechariah 13, 7, God says, Awake,
O sword, against My shepherd, against the man that is My equal,
the man that is My fellow. Jesus was on the cross. Himself plunged into the depths
of our sin. He says this by the prophet.
In Psalm 69, he said, Save me, O God, for the waters are come
into my soul. I sink in the deep mire where
there is no standing. I am come into the deep waters. where the floods overflow me,
I am weary of my crying, my throat is dry, mine eyes fail while
I wait for my God. In verse 14, He said, Deliver
me out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered
from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself was plunged when He was made sin for us who knew no sin. He was plunged into the depths
of God's justice, of God's anger, of God's wrath, fell on Him,
surrounded Him, overflowed His soul, so that the only thing that sustained
Him in this was His deity. And after that, God was satisfied. After that, God was satisfied. and his justice could demand
no more. Jesus said it was finished. It's
finished. And God delivered his soul from
the depths of the grave and God has exalted him to glory where
he sits right now on the throne of God ruling over all things. Ruling over all things. God exalted
him because he merited it. When God held out the book before
the Lamb, the Scripture says He took it. He took it! Who would dare take
anything from the hand of God but one that merited it? None of us could have taken it.
Only Christ took it and opened it. And what was the song? Thou art worthy to take the book
and to loose the seals thereof. For Thou hast redeemed us out
of every nation and kindred and tongue and tribe and people. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is
the Lamb. Therefore, the psalmist in our
text, he says this. He's moved. He cries from the
depths unto God. He asks the question, how is
it that we could stand before an holy God? Well, there's forgiveness
with thee. There's mercy with thee in Jesus
Christ. And therefore, with confidence
in verse 7, he said, let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy. And with him is plenteous redemption. Confidence. Oh believer, do you
need confidence? Do you need assurance? The confidence is not in our
merit. If you're looking to deserve
this, you're looking in the wrong place. The confidence only comes from
the merit of Jesus Christ and His redemption. Full redemption. Full. Perfect redemption. All sufficient redemption for
the greatest of sinners. Greatest of sinners. Behold, the confidence of the
psalmist is not in Israel. He says let Israel trust, hope,
have confidence in the Lord. Don't have confidence in your
faith. Don't have confidence in your own hoping. Have confidence
in the Lord. Your confidence should be in
God. Where should we find such rest and confidence? The answer
is found in verse 8. And He shall redeem Israel. from all his iniquities. He shall. All that God purposed to redeem,
all that Christ died for shall be redeemed. They are redeemed
and they all will experience the redemption of God. They will
experience it through faith in Christ alone. Have you cried
from the depths Have you heard your cries? Has God heard your cries and
shown you his justice? That's a good thing. May not feel like a good thing,
but it is a good thing. I want to give you this quote
from Joseph Hart. He said, To understand these
things are right, this grand distinction should be known.
Though all are sinners in God's sight, there are but few so in
their own. To such as these our Lord was
sent, they are only sinners who repent. What comfort can a Savior
bring to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. new life from him we must receive
before our sins we rightly grieve. This faithful saying let us own
well worthy it is to be believed that Christ into this world came
down that sinners might by him be saved. Sinners are high in
his esteem. And sinners highly value him. Has God shown you his forgiveness
of sin? in Jesus Christ. Then let us
trust and rest our souls only in Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Trust Him who has delivered us from the depths of our sin, has
delivered us from the grave, has delivered us from hell. Trust
Him for He is all our righteousness. Did you hear that? He is all our righteousness. Do you feel trapped? Does sin encroach upon your soul? The weight of the sin crushing
down on you? David in 2 Samuel 22 verse 17
says, He sent from above, He took me. He drew me out of many
waters. He delivered me from my strong
enemy and from them that hated me. They were too strong for
me. Does that sound like sin? Does
that sound like you're crushing weight? They prevented me in
the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth into a large
place. I love that. If you're feeling
crushed, the Lord will bring you into a large place. I used to not be claustrophobic.
And somehow I was just getting older, I guess. But they put
me in an MRI tube, those big tubes, you know, and I tell you
what, I felt like I had to get out or I was going to die. And
I tell you, the moment they brought me out into that large room,
I felt comfortable. That's what God does for His
people. He's brought us into the large place of Christ's blood
and righteousness. A large place of His love and
grace. A large place where we can find
rest. I'll close with this quote from
Bunyan. Believer in Christ, do you feel... Oh, I'm sorry. One day, John Bunyan said, I
was passing through a field. Suddenly, this sentence fell
upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And I thought that I could see
Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. Yes, there indeed was
my righteousness, so that wherever I was, and whatever I was doing,
God could not say about me that I did not have righteousness.
For it was standing there beforehand. I also saw that it was not my
good feelings that made my righteousness better. And my bad feelings did not make
my righteousness worse. Oh God give us grace to get a
hold of that. For Jesus Christ is my righteousness,
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now indeed the chains fell off
my legs, and I was loose from all my afflictions and irons.
My temptations also fled away, so that from that time forward
those dreadful scriptures that terrified me no more. Now I went
home rejoicing because of the grace and love of God and went
to my Bible to look up the verse that was found that said, Thy
righteousness is in heaven, but I couldn't find it. And it said, My heart began to sink
until suddenly the Lord caused this verse to come, 1 Corinthians
30, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. and sanctification and redemption. From this I saw that the other
sentence was true also. My righteousness is in heaven
because Jesus Christ is my righteousness. The glory. May all the glory
and praise go to Jesus Christ who is all our righteousness
and redemption. And may this move us to tell
Israel to trust in the Lord. Trust Him. We who believe, we've cried out
of the depths unto God. We've found Him to be holy and
just, but we've also found Him merciful and gracious to forgive
us our sins. How? By the redemption of Jesus
Christ. And in Him we find all the peace,
all glory. We find in Him all our salvation. And when we are troubled, let
us rest in Him. I pray that God give you comfort
of that. Lay hold on it. Fall down on
it. Cry out to Him. He hears you. And He'll put your soul in a
large place. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.