Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you have your Bibles today
and wanna follow along, turn with me to Psalm, Psalm 130. The book of Psalm, Psalm 130,
and I'm gonna read the whole Psalm. It's not very long. Psalm 130, we read. 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, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall 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 waiteth
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. When you read the Psalms, when
you read the scripture, it all speaks of Jesus Christ. There
are some passages that tell man what he is by nature and what
he does. There are also those passages,
when we read them, we can see ourselves in them. But more importantly,
we can see Jesus Christ as the one taking the sinner's place.
This passage is one of them. When we read here, it first says,
I have cried out of the depths. We, as we are born in nature,
are in the depths. That is the depths of sin. We
are in a deep pit, which we have made in our head Adam. But we also dig that pit deeper
with our sins that we commit, being sinners. So if we are to
cry unto God, it will be from the depths. We cry out to God
to hear our supplications. These are cries for needs that
we have and we cry out unto God because he is the only one that
can supply that need. That is, if you are a believer,
it will be this way. Those who are unregenerate will
not feel any needs like this. Unbelievers cry out for wants
and not needs because they know nothing of needing anything. They just know they want something
and they believe their God is the one that will give them what
they want. That is a God of their own imagination. But if God has
done something for you, it will be for you just as it is with
the psalmist here. You will know that if God will
mark your iniquity, then you will not stand. You may know
that no man will stand, but there is that time when it becomes
personal for you, and you will know that if God looks to your
works and what you have done, your iniquities will be marked,
and you will not stand, but fall forever. We have plenty of scripture
that bears this out. Just one of them, Isaiah 1, verses
four through six, we read, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have
forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One
of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward.
Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole
of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. I know this says
nation, but a nation is made up of people. The people spoken
of here is Israel. But this is what we all are by
nature. Because scripture also says in
Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Now I fully realize not everyone
believes this. Not everyone agrees with this.
But that is what the scripture says and teaches. So if you dispute
this, then you're trying to dispute God and what he says. There is
no doubt that we have all sinned. There is no doubt that we are
sick from the top of our heads to the sole of our feet because
that's what scripture says. Our hands and our feet will not
be able to do anything to help us out. I know a lot of people
think they can do something for God, but they do not seem to
understand it is not God that needs something. It is fallen,
sinful, corrupt man that needs something. And God is the only
one that can supply that need. The problem is that by nature,
no man will know this. They will not know their need.
They do not understand that they are nothing but a leper before
God and should be crying, unclean, unclean, unclean. This is why
man, if his iniquities are marked, will not stand. Because they
are themselves an abomination before God. The very one that
they want to do something for, that is the God of Scripture,
the one they say they want to do something for is the very
one that needs to do something for them. But they are oblivious
to this. They are oblivious to the fact
that all they do is iniquity before God. It is just what scripture
says. You may be good before me or
good before someone else, but God says all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Coming short of that glory is
a capital offense and God will not at all acquit the guilty. So much so that scripture says
the wages of sin is death. That is what we are owed by God. However, there is another side
to this coin. There is one who, if he was pleased
to do this for you, he did all that was needed so that you do
not have to have your iniquities marked, even though your iniquities
will not go unmarked. There is one who because he purposed
to do so, who would take those for whom he was pleased to do
so, he would take their place. Since God Almighty will not at
all acquit the guilty, he took their place. This was none other
than Jesus Christ himself. So how was it that he took my
place if he did take my place? He became a man, he was made
a curse, He was made sin and he died. These are some of the
things I want to point out about Jesus Christ. Not as an exhaustive
list, but just to list some of the glorious things he has done.
We are told that there is not enough books in the world that
can contain everything about God or about Jesus Christ. Who
is God? John 21 and 25 we read. And there
are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they
should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Amen. So first, he became a man. Jesus Christ was sent to this
earth being born of a virgin. He had to be a man because the
price that had to be paid was that of man's disobedience to
God. So Jesus Christ, who is God,
was made flesh. God Almighty, who is creator
of all things, came down and was made flesh. I mean, he really
was a man. He had fingers and toes. He had
arms and legs. He had eyes and ears. He had
a mouth. Just think about it. When he
exerted himself, he would sweat. He had tears. He had the senses
we have. He tasted things. He smelled
things. He saw things. He heard things. And he felt things. When someone
grabbed his arm or touched him, he felt it, just like you or
I would. So when they did those things
to him before he was put on the cross, he felt those things,
the pain he endured. When they spat on his face, he
felt that hit him in the face. When they plucked out his beard,
it was painful. When they whipped him with lashes,
the pain was no differently felt by him than it would have been
felt by us, would it have been us there. He had to be a man
because it was man that offended God. So a man had to pay for
those sins. So God was made flesh. Jesus
Christ is God. Jesus Christ is man. Both at
the same time. He is the God man. How do you
explain that? You don't. You just believe it
if you're one of his. He was made flesh and he walked
on this earth. He performed miracles by healing
people. The same man performed miracles
like this, to cause the blind to see, cause the deaf to hear,
cause the lame to walk, cleanse the lepers, cause the dead to
come to life. He was the one that fed people
when they were hungry, and he healed people of their infirmities.
He was made flesh. Now if you would, let's turn
to Galatians 3. Galatians 3 and verses 10 through 14. For as many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse, For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith.
But the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Jesus Christ was under the law
of God. He had to be because God's law
had to be fulfilled. And we just read where God tells
us that no man will be justified by the law. It is evident, it
says. Galatians 3.11 says, but that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident. So he was made a curse for us
as we read. But Jesus Christ performed the
law of God perfectly. He died the just for the unjust. The scripture teaches that Jesus
Christ fulfilled the law every jot and tittle. But he was to
hang on that tree, being made a curse for us. He felt the shame,
being placed on that cross in a naked shame before men. The
very God who has been offended by man was placed before men
in open shame on that tree. Jesus Christ was made under the
law because it goes on to tell us this in Galatians. Galatians
4 and verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law. All those Old Testament sacrifices
had to be spotless. They could not be lame or halt
or anything like that. The sacrifices they performed
and these pointing to Jesus Christ had to be spotless. Jesus Christ
was that spotless lamb of God. God did not have to do this.
God Almighty is all powerful. He has all power with no power
left over for anyone else. I know there are some in this
world who think they have power, but they are in the hand of God
and He will determine where they go and how long they will go. All men are under His absolute
sovereign control. But he was pleased to show grace
and mercy to some. He did this in the face of Jesus
Christ. By first being made flesh, he
was then made a curse. Being under the law, he, that
is Jesus Christ, fulfilled the law as a man. Yet we know this
about him. He was made sin for us. So next, he was made sin. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21
we read, for he, that is God, hath made him, that is Christ,
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. So in open shame he hung there
on that tree, being beaten and tortured at the hands of evil
men. I'm talking about mankind. Mankind
which he came into this world to save. He was made something
he knew nothing of. It says he knew no sin. We are told that God cannot behold
iniquity. That is sin. Habakkuk 1 verses
12 and 13 we read, Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God,
mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou
hast ordained them for judgment, and, O mighty God, thou hast
established them for correction. Thou art of pure eyes than to
behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest
thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the
wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. Yet
he was made sin. He was made what you and I are
if you were in him. He was made sin for you if you
were in him. This is exactly what this word
says. How was he made sin? The same
way the water was made wine. The first miracle that our Lord
performed was the Cana of Galilee miracle of making the water wine
at the wedding feast celebration. He was made something that he
was not. He was not made a sinner, he
was made sin. He was not up on the cross sinning,
but he knew the guilt and the shame of it. The fact that he
was made sin meant the Father had to turn his back on him.
He cried, this is Jesus Christ crying on the cross, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because he was made what
I am by nature. God had to forsake God. I can't explain that. This is
the grace of God I am here to tell you about. God loved his
people to the extent of coming down and being made flesh and
then being made a curse and sin for us so that we do not have
to die. So what happened to him? He died. So next is the death of Christ. So let's turn to John, John 19,
John 19. John 19 and verses 29 and 30. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon
hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, he said, It is finished. and he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. The scripture says in Ezekiel
18 and 20, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. So since we have
all sinned and come short of the glory of God, then we must
die, unless. If someone died in our stead,
then I do not have to die. But it cannot just be anyone
because the sacrifice has to be spotless. Again, we have all
sinned so we cannot die for ourselves or for anyone else for that matter. There had to be someone who was
spotless, someone who could die and yet satisfy a thrice holy
God. Jesus Christ, it says, gave up
the ghost. the only one that could have
done this. He actually purposed to die and
gave up the ghost. The whole reason for creation
has now come to the point of glory. Glory in the son for that
which he came to do. That for which has been spoken
of down through scripture. That is that final moment when
salvation is complete. It is finished. The ransom is
paid in full. Jesus Christ having died, he
took our sins as far as the east is from the west. The two shall
never meet. East, you go east, west, those
two will never meet. Our sins, if you are in Christ,
and he died for you, those sins are gone, never to be seen by
God again, if you are in Christ. What mercy, what grace. to bring to a people who were
the enemy of God. It is truly amazing grace that
saved a wretch like me. This is the glory of God manifest
in the flesh for the world to see. It is right here in his
word for all to see. Can you see it? Now, back to our text, Psalm
130. So even though we know God will
mark iniquity, we are brought to see that there is forgiveness
of God. When he, that is God, begins
to show us Jesus Christ and what he accomplished, I said accomplished,
Jesus Christ was no failure. Whom he died for, he saved. That is good news, the gospel
of Jesus Christ, for all those who are sinners of the deepest
death. Knowing this great, gracious
God will cause men to fear Him. Fear Him knowing that it is He,
that it is Jesus Christ the Lord who is the only righteousness
of God. Fearing Him, knowing that if
He were to mark my iniquity, I would be consumed. But it is
a fear, a respectful fear that we have for Him. God Almighty
loved us because He chose to love us. If you are in Him, if
you are not in Him, then He never loved you because He did not
purpose to love you. That is who God is. But those
for whom he loved, he died for, to take their place, being made
sin and a curse for them, dying the death that they should have
died. It causes us to wait on him and
looking for a word from him in the gospel of Jesus Christ and
him crucified. The child of God is eager to
hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We read in
verse seven of our text, there is mercy and there is plenteous
redemption within. Oh, if you can see the holiness
of God and what it took to bring salvation down to men, you will
begin to see who you are as it is in God's eyes and as you were
born in Adam. you will begin to fear him. You
will find that sweet sound of the gospel in his mercy for his
people, in giving his life for the sheep. It is Jesus Christ
who has done this very thing for us that we see here in this
passage. There is one more thing that
I want to mention. There's one more thing that he
did. He arose. Christ is no longer dead. He arose from the grave. Those for whom he died rose from
the grave with him. And if you would turn with me
to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 and verses four through
six. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If you are in Jesus Christ the
Lord, you are now seated at the right hand of God on high with
Him. Are your iniquities marked? I
pray that God will open your eyes, will give you life, open
your eyes to see this gospel. When He does this, When you see
him, it will cause you to see who you are by nature. And you
will fall down in the dust, bowing down to Jesus Christ the Lord,
knowing that he is the only one that can supply your needs. I hope he does this for you today.
I hope there's those out there that are listening that desire to hear this truth. Just
a reminder, at 12 noon on WBVACW, we have a portion of one of our
Sunday messages. Please tune in at that time if
you can't be here, but if you can, come here be with us on
Sunday. We start at 1030 and we're just
past Little Beaver State Park, where you turn on Country Club
Drive and then turn on Annabelle Lane. Come hear Jesus Christ
and him crucified proclaimed.