Psalm 130 is our text, and we'll
look at it and read it in just a minute, in just a moment. Delighted
to be with you. Let's bow together and ask the
Lord's blessing upon our service today. Our Heavenly Father, we
thank You for Your great and sovereign mercy unto us. We pray
that You will bless us in the study of Thy Word, the preaching
of the Gospel, and that you'd be magnified in all things. We
pray for Brother Paul as he preaches in Georgia. We pray for the services
there. We pray for the services in Potville
that you'd be pleased to bless the services there. Lord, we
look to you this morning to bless us here. And in the blessed name
of our Lord and Savior, we give thanks. Amen. Psalm 130. Let's read. beginning with the first verse,
Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark,
count iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand But, here's this
big, big word in Scripture, but, but, but there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared, worshipped, reverenced
in our heart. I wait for the Lord. My soul
doth wait. And it is word do I hope. My soul waiteth. waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning." I say,
more. More anticipation, more joy,
more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel, God's covenant people,
God's spiritual people, let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the
Lord There is mercy with the Lord, Psalm 130. With the Lord
there is mercy and, and with Him, with Him is plenteous, plenteous,
plenteous redemption. He is our great Redeemer and
He shall, He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. What good news, what good news
we have for us in this blessed, blessed psalm. I'm entitling
the message, The Experience of Grace. The experience of grace. I think this is a description
of the salvation that God is pleased to work in us. The experience
of grace or the experience of salvation. Now we know, here's
what we know, that a mere religious experience of feelings or excitement
is not salvation. That's not salvation. You can
have all kind of religious emotions and experience, but that's not
true salvation. But let me say this, salvation
by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly something
that we do partake of. It is certainly something that
in our heart we do experience firsthand. It's God dealing with
us in a more personal way in saving mercy. It is certainly
something that we do experience in our heart, this saving mercy,
in our life and in our soul. You remember the Apostle Paul
writing to the Philippians. He said, being confident of this
very thing. that God, who hath begun a good
work in you, he will finish it. Salvation's a work of Christ
in your heart. Christ in you is a hope of glory. You see, salvation is more than
just a profession. It's more than just a confession. Although it is, we do confess
Christ as our only hope. of salvation. But this salvation
by the grace of God is an invasion. It's an invasion. It's God invading
your heart, your mind, your soul, your will, your understanding,
your affection. It affects the whole you when
God invades your heart. revealing unto us the blessedness
of the Savior to you who believe. Oh, He is precious. He is precious to you who believe.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ altogether. He is altogether lovely. We see the blessedness of our
great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we also see the vileness,
the ugliness of our own sinful nature that we still have. I
can identify, and I know every believer can, with the Apostle
Paul when he says, O wretched man that I am. I am. Psalm 130 begins with a cry in
the heart of the believer, out of the depths have I cried unto
thee, and then it ends with complete accomplishments and complete
assurance of all sin forgiven. Look at verse 8. He shall redeem
Israel from all his sin. A cry of the heart and then Yes,
there is mercy with the Lord. Now, let's look at verse 1 and
2. Out of the depths, out of the depths of depravity, out
of the depths of my sin, out of the depths of my wicked heart,
I have cried unto thee, O Lord. Hear my cry. You read through
the Psalms how many times David begs God, Lord, hear my cry. Be attentive to the voice of
my supplications. Let thy ears be attentive unto
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Now here we see the conviction
of sin, which leads us, the conviction of sin, Does it leave us in despair? It causes us to cry out unto
the Lord for mercy, for mercy. Here is the conviction of sin
and the cry of the heart unto the Lord. And my friend, this
is what we call the pattern of grace, the pattern of salvation. The Lord makes us to know that
we are guilty, guilty before the Lord, that we are sinners
in His sight. We call this Holy Spirit conviction. Then it leads us to this. It leads us to cry for mercy.
We'll never cry for mercy until we know that we have need of
mercy. We'll never cry out in our heart
for salvation until God teaches us that we are sinners in His
sight. We'll never cry for pardon from
sin until we know that we are indeed guilty before the Lord. That's what David cried over
here. Turn over here to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me,
O God. Psalm 51, verse 1, you remember? Have mercy upon me, O God. according
to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgression." Now, if David didn't know he
was a transgressor, that he had sinned against God, he wouldn't
have cried out for mercy. But God revealing unto him his
sinfulness and convicting him of his sin, he cried unto the
Lord for mercy. You see that? There has to be
a stripping before there is a clothing. There has to be an emptying of
us before the Lord is pleased to fill us. God does bring us
to see the depths of our sin. Now, not totally and not fully,
but he does bring us to know that we are sinners. But he does
not leave us in the depths of despair. Not despair. Because he causes us to look
unto him for mercy. He causes us to cry unto him
for mercy. He causes us to come unto him
for mercy. Oh, everyone that is thirsty,
come. All you who are laboring and
heavy laden, the Lord says, come, come, come unto me and rest,
rest, like the publican in the temple. Lord, have mercy upon
me, thee, sinner." You know, the Lord in, I know you've studied
through the book of Hebrews, but I love that 16th verse of
chapter 4, saying that we have a great high priest. He said,
come boldly, come boldly to the throne of grace that you may
obtain mercy, not earn it, that you may obtain mercy and find
grace to help. Grace to help in time of need. When is that? All the time. All
the time. When the Lord is pleased to convict
us of our sin and to show us what we are in His sight, we
will cry for mercy. And this is not an isolated act,
a one-time experience. This is the heart cry. of the
believer, looking unto the Lord, coming unto the Lord, believing
Him. Repentance and faith is not an
isolated experience. It's the life of the believer. We do look unto Him. We do cry
unto Him. It's not just something we do.
It's what we do. looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ
who is the author and finisher of our faith. This ought to encourage
every needy sinner to cry unto the Lord for mercy. I've never
read one time in the Word of God where a mercy beggar came
unto the Lord asking for mercy and calling upon the Lord was
ever turned away. Blind Bartimaeus sat by the wayside
begging. His friend told him to hush.
Why don't you just hush? The Lord Jesus doesn't have any
time for you. And he cried out, Lord, have
mercy upon me. And again they said, just hush.
And it says, the Lord stood still. Have mercy upon that blind man. And he received his sight. A
cry of mercy. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That ought to encourage every
one of us to call upon him, to look to him, to come to him,
to rest in him, to find salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
remember the leper in Matthew chapter 8 came down and fell
before the Lord and worshiped him. and said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me whole, if you will. Remember what the Lord
said? He reached out and touched him and he said, I will be thou
clean. Be thou clean, if you will. What
a great, great, merciful Lord that we serve. He is plenteous
in redemption. He's rich in mercy upon all those
that call upon Him. I'm going to call. I'm going
to call upon the Lord. Now look at verse 3. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Who shall stand? Here we see
the confession of a repentant heart. And here's what we see. Taking God's side, against myself,
guilty before God. Guilty before God. Upon my merit,
upon my works, upon my righteousness, I cannot stand. I cannot approach
God upon any merit of my own. No sinner can stand. You remember
from Psalm 24, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who
shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who has never lifted up his soul unto vanity. To stand
before God, we must have a perfect, holy righteousness in which to
stand. In and of myself, I have none. I can produce none. But in the
Lord Jesus Christ, I like what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians
Chapter 3, that he counted everything else lost, dumb, and ruined,
that I might win Christ and be found in him. Not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is based
upon his faithfulness, his obedience, not ours, not ours. So here's
a confession of faith. Who shall ascend to the hill
of the Lord? Only those in Christ Jesus. In the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at verse 4. If thou, Lord, shouldest charge
me with my sin, I cannot stand. Thou shouldest mark my iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand. I can't stand. I can't stand
it. Only those in Christ made righteous
and justified in the Lord Jesus Christ. But, here's what we see,
but, that's a glorious word, isn't it? But, do you remember
from Ephesians chapter 2 where it talks about everything that
we are by nature, children of wrath, even as others? And then
it said, but God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, and
hath quickened us together with Christ Jesus, and made us to
sit together in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ, but
God." That's our hope. That's our hope. God Almighty,
God our Savior. But there is forgiveness with
thee. that thou mayest be feared."
That thou mayest be worshipped. Here's our confession of faith,
isn't it? Blessed is that name. You remember the blessed man?
Turn over to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. You remember who the
blessed man is? But with thee there is forgiveness. Psalm 32, look at verse 1. whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered." Now, that's the blessed man. "...Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputed not iniquity, in whose
spirit there is no guile, no hypocrisy, but there is forgiveness
with thee." God is rich in mercy. In the Lord Jesus Christ there
is therefore now no, no condemnation to those who are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I like that scripture over in
Ephesians chapter one, where it talks about everything we
are is by his grace. He's blessed us in Christ according
to the praise of the glory of his grace. And then it says in
verse six, we're accepted in the beloved. And then it says
in verse 7, in whom we have, right now, we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches
of his grace. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest really be worshipped. Those who are forgiven of all
their sin, now think about this. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. So powerful and prevailing and
precious is the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ that
God Almighty said, their sin and their iniquity will I remember
no more. As far as the east is from the
west, so far has He separated our sins from us. Those who know
the blessedness of the blessed work of the blessed Savior, they
do in spirit and in truth worship Him. We worship Him for all that
He is, for all that He has done, for all that He is doing, for
all that He ever will do. We worship Him in spirit and
in truth. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be Now, here's what we see. The fruit of forgiveness. All your sins forgiven. What's
the fruit of that in our heart? Well, what's the expression of
our heart because of complete forgiveness, completely justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ? What's the fruit of that in our heart? Gratitude,
isn't it? Thankfulness. and love unto him
that thou mayest be feared." Gratitude, reverence unto the
Lord and worship. Gratitude for pardon produces
far more reverence than all the dread inspired by fear of punishment
or promise of reward. Oh, I tell you, we worship Him.
You see, it's the love of Christ. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us. It's not fear of punishment,
nor is it promise of reward. It's the love of Christ. Here
in His love, not that we love Him, but He loved us and sent
His Son to be the sacrifice for our sin. We love Him because He first
loved us. This is the fruit of forgiveness
is gratitude. Remember the words of the Lord
in Luke 7, to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth, loveth much. Oh, we have all our sin forgiven,
blotted out in the thick cloud, cast behind his back, put in
the depths of the sea. What is that? What does that
do to you? What does that do for you? Oh,
it inspires you to worship. It inspires you to thankfulness.
It inspires you to love Him and to be thankful unto Him. Look at verse 5 and 6. Here we
see the believer's firm resolve to wait and hope. To wait and
hope. We wait on the Lord. with a certain
expectation of hope. We have an everlasting consolation
and a good hope through grace. It's a good hope. Now, he's worth
waiting upon. We're encouraged all the way
through the psalm, wait upon the Lord. And again, I say, wait
upon the Lord. We get in trouble when we try
to make things happen. No, my friends, just pray, seek
the Lord's will, and wait upon the Lord. His will will be done. We're taught to pray in Scripture,
not our will, but Thy will be done. Wait, I say, upon the Lord. And wait with hope. Wait with
hope. We have a good hope through the
grace of God. We wait with assurance of hope
based upon the promise. Look what it says in verse 5.
I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait in His Word. In His Word. Not my feelings. Not my emotions. We wait and
we hope because of the promise of His Word. That's it, isn't
it? The promise of His Word. We wait
with assurance based upon the promise of His Word. God said
it is impossible for me to lie. His Word is certain and sure. All the promises of God in Him
are yes, and in Him, amen, and to the glory of God in Christ
Jesus. We wait upon God with a certain
expectation that everything God has promised will come to pass. I'm persuaded, aren't you? What
persuasion are you? You ever heard somebody ask that
question? Just what persuasion are you? I'm persuaded, this
is my persuasion, Abraham was fully persuaded that all that
God promised, he is able to perform. That's my persuasion. I'm persuaded
that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my persuasion. Next time
somebody asks you, what's your persuasion? Give them that answer. God is able to do all things. His Word cannot fail. Because it says in Scripture,
He cannot fail. This just comes to my mind. Joshua,
who is a picture of our Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua's
last words upon his deathbed was this. I think it's Joshua
chapter 23. Of all that God had promised,
not one word will fail. Of all that God had promised,
not one word will fail. It is safe, it is safe ground,
it is good ground to trust the promise of his word. to trust all that He says. You'll
never go wrong believing, thus saith the Lord. It is always
safe and right to believe all the promises of the gospel revealed
in the Word of God. It is safe, it is right, it is
good. He said He will have mercy upon
whom He will have mercy. We can believe His promise. He
says in the Word of God that He died for the ungodly, we can
believe His promise. It says in the Word that He came
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. We can believe His promise. Saving faith takes God at His
Word. You see, the foundation, now
the object of faith is Christ. But the foundation of faith is
the Word of God. You remember that song? I know
your pastors quoted it. Martin Luther's hymn that he
wrote, or the poem that he wrote. Feelings come and feelings go,
and feelings are deceiving. My want is the Word of God, nothing
else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for want of some sweet token, I trust one who is greater
than my heart, whose word cannot be broken." So it is safe and
right to wait upon the Lord, to hope in Him, because the word
of His oath cannot fail. Cannot fail. In verse 7 and 8,
we see the joyful expectation of faith. Let Israel hope. in the Lord, for with the Lord
there is mercy." There is mercy. With the Lord there is mercy. And with Him, with Him and in
Him is plenteous, plenteous redemption. And He shall, not maybe, not
could be, called his name Jesus, he shall save his people from
their sin." I like the will and shalls of the Word of God. They shall be my people. I will
be their God, and they shall follow me. He shall redeem Israel
from all his iniquities. With the Lord there is mercy.
Brother Henry brought a message on the radio this morning about
the believer's hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassion, His love does
not fail. It's not the works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy. His mercy. He saved
us. But as hope in the Lord, for
with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous. Plenteous
redemption. The redemption we have in Christ
Jesus is particular for His covenant people. It is powerful. It is effectual unto His covenant
people. The blood of Christ cleanses
from all sin. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do have... Think about this. The atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not an attempt to put away sin. We don't have a theory
of atonement. We have an atonement. It's not
an attemptment. It's an atonement. We have a
Redeemer who really does redeem, who really did redeem all of
His covenant people, of which He said, none shall be lost. I love to tell people about the
effectual, particular, glorious redemption of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Anything else is not good news. Anything else is not
good news. We have a Redeemer that really
does redeem. We have a Savior who really does
save His people. He's able to save to the uttermost. All that come to God by Him,
seeing that He ever lived to make intercession for us, what
good news we have. You see, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is just not good advice, is it? It's good news. It's good news. The Lord Jesus Christ did by
Himself. I like that scripture in Hebrews
1, verse 3, when He had by Himself purge, get a hold of that, when
He, you see, it's who He is. It's who He is. God bought us
with His own blood. It's who He is that gives effectual
power to what He did. It's just not the blood of some
Jewish man. It's the blood of the God-man
mediator. God bought us with His own blood. When He had by Himself, who is
the brightness of His image, the express image of His glory,
when He had by Himself purged our sin, He sat down on the right
hand of the throne of God. Why did He sit down? Done! Salvation is done. It's not due, it's done. Our
Lord, we're going to see this in the Bible, in the Bible message
again, in the worship service from John chapter 9. When our Lord Jesus Christ, the
first recorded words in Scripture from Luke chapter 2, remember? He's just 12 years old. In the
temple, he said, I must be about my Father's business. Remember? And then the last words that
he said from the cross? It is finished. I must be about
my father's business? It is finished. He shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquity. You see, with the Lord, there
is endless, endless hope. Endless hope. The hope we have?
It's an eternal hope. It's an eternal hope. With the
Lord, there is endless hope. Without Him, there is a hopeless
end. With the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is endless life. He said, I am come that they
might have life and have it more abundantly. The Lord Jesus Christ
gives us. He said that my sheep hear my
voice. I know them and I give unto them. everlasting life. With the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is endless life. There is endless hope. Without
the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a lifeless end. It's to die
and die and die in eternal darkness and condemnation and never die. Never die. But there is forgiveness
with Him. in Christ Jesus. But of Him,
I'll close with this, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Everything that God demands of
me is fully provided in Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. Christ
is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
According that, the last verse of that chapter, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. I like that Psalm 34. Psalm 34,
verse 1 and following, it says, My soul shall make its boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof.
And be glad. And be glad. We do boast in the
Lord as the Apostle Paul said, God forbid we should glory, God
forbid we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have a good hope. We have
a good hope in Christ Jesus.