There you go. Well, it's a great privilege,
great honor for me to be here with you tonight. I love your
pastor, his wife, and love to have any time, just as you, any
time you get to spend a little time with your brothers and sisters
in Christ, what a joy it is. What a rejoicing it is. And so,
it's a very special time for me and my wife to be able to
come and visit the churches here and express our love and thanks
to God for you. Thanks to our Lord for the fellowship
that he has brought us into. And though the churches there, as
your pastor said, are just like us, just like here tonight, just
sinners, saved by the grace of God. It's one faith, no matter
where you find it. If it's faith, if it's saving
faith, faith that the Lord gave, It has the same object, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, I'm just delighted to be
here. I pray and ask the Lord to enable
me to speak tonight on this subject. Who has reason to hope? Who has reason to hope? You know,
when scriptures speak of hope, it's not a wish. It's talking about something,
an expectation, a certain expectation. We hope. We have a sure hope,
it says. The scriptures talk about our
Lord Jesus Christ is a lively hope, a blessed hope, because
our hope is a person. Our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is now sitting on the right hand of the majesty on high. He is our hope. And because of
who He is and because of what He has accomplished, that everyone
who has this blessed hope, the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ in
you, the hope of glory, has a sure hope. A sure hope. But I want
us to see here in Psalm 130, some characteristics of the people
who have reason to hope. And I want us to just go through
this, these eight verses. It's a short psalm. And I want
us to see who it is that has hope. First thing I want us to
see here, verse one says, Out of the depths have I cried unto
thee, O Lord. You know who has hope in this
world? Real sinners. Real sinners. David is saying, out of the depths
have I cried unto ye. This is not a superficial, a
mental agreement that yes, I've stolen a few things and I've
done this wrong and this wrong. This is a conviction from the
Holy Spirit that everything I am is sin. That nothing I do It's
right. It's like a sponge. Put a sponge
in a bucket of water. And bring that sponge out of
the water. And set it down. And try to touch that sponge
on any part and not get wet. That is who I am by nature. Sinner by nature. Sinner by choice. Sinner by practice. Sinner. Separated from God. The scriptures
say that at one time, everyone who has this place of hope, at
one time was without God, without hope in this world. Without hope
in this world. But blessed be God, those who
God gives hope, shows them they're sinners. Shows them they're sinners. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee. In Psalm 40, David says innumerable
evils I know this is speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
this is what our experience is also. Innumerable evils. Can
you count? It says here, innumerable evils
have compassed me about. I'm not able to look. My sins
are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth
me. O Lord, be pleased to deliver
me. A sinner has reason for hope,
and you know why? Jesus Christ, God's only Son,
came into the world to save sinners. He did not come to call the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance. This is depths. This is depths. The Apostle Paul, this crying,
out of the depths have I cried unto thee, is who I am by nature. Apostle Paul, as a believer,
said, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body that the good that I would do, I don't do. That's what I'm
doing. I find this evil always, everything
I do, everything I touch, everything I think, deaths. Deaths. Self-righteousness. Unbelief. Unbelief. What an awful thing. We believe and we have to cry,
Lord help my unbelief. Anxiety. All the world's going
to pills about anxiety and nervousness and all this kind of thing. That's
just another name for unbelief. But that's who we are. We're
unbelief. We must cry, Lord, help my unbelief,
unrest, the depths. How do the depths come to be?
Well, it's a miserable state, but those who come to this condition
out of the depths, they have a reason for hope.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to save the miserable. came to save
those that cannot save themselves. Can you hear old blind Bartimaeus? He was in the depths of darkness.
He'd been blind from his birth. And he heard that Jesus of Nazareth,
that's how he heard it, Jesus of Nazareth was going about healing
all kinds of diseases. But you know what he said? He
said, Jesus thou son of David, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of
God. That's who the Son of David is,
he's the Christ. The one, and I don't want to
get ahead of myself, he's the one that has authority to do
it. The one that has the power to do it. Have mercy on me. And
they said, be quiet, blind barred man, be quiet. He cried out in
the morning, he said, Lord have mercy on Jesus, the Son of David,
have mercy on me. And the Lord stopped. And heard
that man. A sinner has a reason for hope. A sinner. Here's the next thing. Look there in verse 1 again. A person has a reason to hope
who calls on the Lord. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Unto thee, O Lord. A person has
hope who calls on the one who can save, the one who has right
to save. The Lord says this in Isaiah
45, they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven
image and pray to a God that cannot save. Religion, now they
set up a God and pray to him. They say he's God. But he can't
save you if he wanted to. You've got to give him authority.
You've got to give him permission. You've got to let him do something. They have no knowledge. Who set
up the wood of their grave in image and prayed to a god? A
person has hope who calls on the Lord Jesus Christ to have
mercy. He's the only one that has authority. All power is given to me in heaven
and earth. He's the one that has the right
to forgive sin. He's God to whom sin is committed. He said one day to those men,
they were religious leaders and they brought this man and he's
paralyzed. And the Lord said, looked at
that man and had compassion on him and said, your sins be forgiven
you. And these men got to think of
that. He's blaspheming. No one can
forgive sin, but only God. They're right in their assessment. All sin is committed against
God, and only God can forgive sin. If I offend my brother Donnie,
and over here, Brother Harvey, you say, don't worry about it.
He's got a beef. Wait a minute, he committed the
offense against me. What are you saying, don't worry
about it? All sin is committed against God, and only God can
forgive sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
what's easier to say? That sins be forgiven to you,
or take up that bed and walk? Well, all around the world, you
have a bunch of people hiding in a booth, and people come to
them, and they tell them what they did wrong, and they're saying,
say so many Hail Marys, and say so many, and your sins are forgiven. That's easy to say. But it ain't so. But it ain't
so. Is that bad English? It's not
so. Sin is not put away. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
so that you know that the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ
in flesh is God at that moment, has authority, the right to forgive
sins. He said, I do. Get up. Take your
bed and walk. The man got up and took off.
He's a runner. Pray to the one who can save.
The one who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, all those that
come to God by Him, He's able to save. He has the right. He has the authority to do so. His name is Jehovah. Jehovah. God The God of authority, God
who has mercy and power. It says there in Exodus 34, when
the Lord revealed himself to Moses, said, Jehovah, Jehovah,
merciful, mighty. He forgives sin and transgression
and iniquity, and by no means will clear the guilty. Only the
Lord God, Jehovah, manifest in the flesh. God in Jesus Christ
is just and justifier of all those that come to God by Him.
Unto Thee, O Lord, unto Thee, we cannot come by another to
go to Him. The one who has hope, who takes
his case to the Lord Himself. This is one of the evils of the
Roman Catholicism. They insinuate wrongly that he
must be hard to get to because you gotta go through the priest
or you gotta go... The Lord Jesus Christ is near. He's near. He's not far off. Right now,
come to Him. Unto Thee, O Lord, do I cry.
You can't come to this man. You can't come to the brother
Donny. You can't come to any priest or Mary or anybody. Only the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Unto thee, not to the church,
the church can't save me, not to a man, not to a virgin Mary,
not to a doctrine or creed. A man cannot find forgiveness
of sins by knowing doctrine. Only the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord, Romans 10 says, shall be
saved. This is why we preach the Lord Jesus Christ when we
preach, every time we preach. The Apostle Paul said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus, His person, His work,
Jesus, the man, God manifested in flesh, and what He came to
do. He's God that came into the world to put away the sins of
His people. by His sacrifice on the cross.
He established righteousness here on the earth by His perfect
obedience to God. Well, here's another thing. Those who have a hold, or those
who come, first of all, they know they're sinners. True, real
sinners. This is something the Holy Spirit
does. Those who come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one who has authority unto thee. Notice here it says,
the third thing it says, let thine ear be attentive to the
voice of my supplication. Those have hope who come to the
Lord humbling themselves. Supplication. They don't come
haughty. They don't come strutting in
and say, well I'm going to let you save me. No, no. Those have hope who bow before
the Lord Jesus Christ. Bow. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ is not an invitation. It's a command from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Bow. Come my supplication. We come as Beggars seeking mercy. We don't come as doing deals
or business like, I'm going to do this and I'll let you do that.
It's the voice of my supplication. The Lord Jesus Christ saves by
sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. A person is
going to come to the Lord as that leper came to Him and said,
Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me whole. You can make,
if you will, it's not in a man deciding. Mercy is mercy and mercy is for
the guilty. Those who own God's sovereign
right to do with me, do with you as He pleases. Notice it
says, Lord, if thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? If thou shouldest mark iniquity,
O Lord, who shall stand? Those have hope who come to the
Lord Jesus Christ seeking for mercy, judging themselves. What David is doing here, he's
judging himself. There's no excuse here. I don't know if you've read it
in the magazine, everybody likes to get that, which says it's
not your fault. It's not your fault. I don't
know, it's the environment, or you know, nurture versus nature. It's not your fault, either way,
it's not your fault. But what David is saying here, it says,
that thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? I'm
guilty. A man must come to, he's going
to have to judge himself. He's going to have to judge himself.
That's what it says in Psalm 51. That thou mayest be just
when thou judgest. I think that's how it says it
in English. Thou shouldest, if you mark iniquity, if you call
me before you to answer. Most people want to say, well
if you call me to answer for they have in mind one great sin. Listen. The Apostle Paul said
this, he said, I don't want to be found in my own righteousness,
which is by the law. If you call me to answer for
my best prayer, there's enough sin. There's enough
sin in our best works to separate us from God. If you call me before
your presence and judge me in anything that is in me, that
I've done, there's no man that could stand. the righteousness
which God requires he has provided the Lord Jesus Christ he is the
righteousness of God and that righteousness is imputed that
righteousness is imputed and imparted to everyone that believes
he is Jehovah Sid Canu well if a man has hope who recognizes
God's sovereign right but notice here verse 4 a man has hope who
believes God's word concerning the Lord Jesus Christ but there
is forgiveness where did he get that from? he got that from the word of
God There's hope. If you believe God and His Word
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and how He forgives sin, there's
hope. It's a sure hope. Those who believe
God's Word concerning the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross to put away the sins of His people, there is forgiveness
of sin. It's not a maybe. It's not a
maybe. Those that believe faith A person
that has the faith, this man is crying out, and this is what
we always find out, that the man that cries out, the Lord's
already done something for him. A man repenting and a man feeling
his guilt is not the cause of God saving him, it's the effect. When God moves in a person's
heart and shows him as a sinner and he calls out to the Lord,
the Lord's already given him life, that's why he's crying.
A baby doesn't cry to get life. A baby cries because he is alive.
He is alive. But here, the psalmist is saying,
if you mark iniquity, who could stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee. He didn't get that for himself.
God said it. God said it. Thank the Lord. Thank God for
that birth. There is forgiveness with Thee. There is forgiveness with Thee. The Scriptures say we have redemption
through His blood. We have it. Those that come to
God believing God's Word, we have it. You have redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the
price. He paid for the sins of His people. He who knew no sin
was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. The justice of God fell on Him. He was made
sin for us. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from how many sins? All sins. We have. There is forgiveness with Thee
that Thou mayest be feared, that Thou mayest be reverenced, worshipped,
This message of salvation by grace does not promote, as some
say, licentiousness or libertine. No. The grace of God has appeared,
wherever it has appeared, teaching us to deny ungodliness. People
want to twist the scriptures, they'll twist it to their own
destruction. But a person who has experienced Oh, God, you've
forgiven me for my sin. It's not a desire to get out
there and do some more. It's already, it's living with
this. I don't want to. I don't want
to. There is forgiveness. That thou mayest be feared. Okay,
look at this next one. A person has a reason for hope.
A person has a reason for hope who waits for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. A person gets
upset and is troubled about, they get some conviction. That person has hope if he sits
there and just waits. As soon as he starts to try to
do something, there's no hope there. If you try to collaborate
with God, there's no hope. Salvation is all of grace. I
weigh it on the Lord. I know that salvation is of the
Lord. Salvation is of the Lord from
beginning to the end. He is the Alpha and Omega. He
begins the good work. He sustains the good work. And He perfects the good work.
It's His work. He receives all the honor and
glory in the salvation of a sinner. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait. In his word do I hope. In his word, in his promise.
God is not a man. God cannot lie. God has promised. You trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When there's no reason to hope in yourself. That's what Abraham
did. The Lord told Abraham, you're going to have a son. And Abraham
believed against hope. You know what that means? There's
no hope in him. There's no hope in Sarah. There's no hope in
him. But he believed. God said it. It's so. It's going
to happen. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to put away your sins. I'm talking to those who have
this hope. And you look around you, you
look inside you, and you think, there's no reason to hope in
me. Well, you're right. But in God's Word, there's reason
to hope. In the Lord Jesus Christ, there's reason to hope. I wait
for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. That's
the sixth thing. Those who continue to wait. Those that not only
wait for the Lord, It's His Word from beginning to end. They continue
to wait. That is to say, they die in faith. I wait for the Lord until one
day He comes that blessed morning and I see Him face to face. David
said this, I'll be satisfied when I awake His likeness. That's
when you'll be plumb-safe. That's when you'll be plumb-safe.
That's when faith is no longer Well, faith is the evidence of
things not seen. Hope gives way to reality. See the Lord Jesus Christ face
to face, that's your hope, to be in His presence. See the one
who loves you, that's giving way to reality. Only love remains. Only love remains. My soul doth
wait for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. It's
a continuum. Those have hope who continue
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a one-time, make
a profession. It's our life. Christ in you
is the hope of glory. Christ in you. It's not a profession.
People say, well, I know I must have hope because I got this
certificate when I was baptized. When you come before the Lord,
you better have more than the paper in your hand. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Not a paper, not a certificate
of baptism, membership in a church. Awards for many wondrous works. Our Lord said, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Notice, this says here, Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with
Him is plenteous redemption." Those who have hope, who wait,
who hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in a person. Our hope, our
salvation, our surety is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because
in Him is mercy. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God is a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. Holy, holy, holy. Only in the
Lord Jesus Christ can God be merciful to sinners. Those who
have hope, who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason
is, there's plenty of redemption. My sins are ever before me. My sins are more than the heads
of my number, but bless God, the redemption is greater than
that. Plenteous redemption. How many sins? All the sins of
all his people. He has put them away. Let Israel
hope in the Lord for if the Lord there is mercy with him is plenteous
redemption and he shall. Oh, that's a good reason for
hope. He shall. It's his purpose. It's his will. And we're talking about God.
who no man can stay his hand and say what doest thou he does
whatever he wants to in the heavens and the armies of heavens and
earth no man can stay his hand he said he shall redeem his people
Israel all his chosen all his those he loved with an everlasting
love he shall redeem them from all their iniquities Those are
the people that have hope. Do you have hope? Do you have
hope? Do you have a sure hope? A blessed hope? For those are
the things that I see here in this text. Those who are true
sinners. True sinners. Those who call
on the Lord. Those who call on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those who come as beggars. Supplicating. Those who recognize
God's right to condemn if you mark iniquity. Those who believe
God at His word. There is forgiveness of sin.
They believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe what He
did. Put away the sins of His people and come trusting in Him.
Those who wait. Those who wait on the Lord. Those
that continue waiting on the Lord. all of Israel, there's
plenty of redemption. May the Lord bless this word. Thank you, brethren, for this,
your faithful support and your love to us. Thank you. That was such a blessing. Do you remember that woman that
went to the Lord Jesus Christ and washed his feet with her
tears? Do you know what the Lord said to her? Your sins, which
are many. Your sins, which are many. Forgive
me. Her sins, which are many. Mary
was talking the other day. Let's talk about the hope. Talk
about what she's talking about. She said, you know why I've got
such a good hope? Because I'm such a great, great
sinner. And Christ is a great, great
Savior. She said, that's what my hope is. I know I'm a sinner.
I've got nothing, nothing at all to give to God. Nothing.
I can't bring nothing but What I am in Christ is the only thing
that gives me my hope. That's what we're taught from
6 Bushes. There ain't got no hope but there. No hope but there. Let's turn to 388 in the hymn
book. Kobe, thank you, buddy. That was, oh my, it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. 388, we're
going to sing two verses of this. Let's stand together. And Cody
is going to go to the back and you all go back there and say,
tell him how much you love him, appreciate him. We're going to
sing the first verse and we're going to sing the last verse. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Thou art the water, I am the
grave. me after thy will, while I am
waiting, yielded and still. Fourth verse. At my own table, Christ don't we always live in
fear? Oh, it's been such a good night.