Okay, if you like to follow along
you can turn to Psalm 130 the 130th Psalm Verse 1 of Psalms
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, 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 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. Now I was looking at this about
three weeks ago. And I just come to this thing.
The book of the Psalms is a wonderful thing. Because there's a lot
of things in the Psalms. You have in the Psalms the word
of God to man. But also in the Psalms you will
find the words of man, words of man. to God. You have pictures,
you have illustrations, you have types and descriptions, and the
very words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the book of the Psalms. Actually, Christ's words on the
cross were recorded in the Psalms. Now I suspect some people think
that Jesus Christ plagiarized the Psalms. But that ain't so. They were prophesying what was
coming. They were prophesying who was coming and what was gonna
happen to him. Because this is the book of God. The whole thing from cover to
cover. And the Psalms are definitely that. But what I wanna talk to
you about here is this Psalm, Psalms 130. Now, just a slight
bit of background. It says, A Song of Degrees. Now,
I don't exactly know what A Song of Degrees means. I'm not worried
about that. But it was sung as a song. And here's the thing. They don't know who wrote it.
You can read a little bit. Some say it's David. There were
others say it was Ezra. And I'm here to tell you right
now, it doesn't matter because it is the word of God. And in this psalm, I think we have, we can see,
the beginning position of the regenerated believer. Now, and
I actually see here one of the beginning actions of a regenerated
believer. Then later on it says we're reminded
of iniquities, and then we are also reminded that there is forgiveness
with God. And this psalm ends in verses
seven and eight with the source of all forgiveness, the source
of all mercy. It's the redemption of God by
God. I read this psalm and I said,
I told Walter on the phone the other day, we talked last Sunday.
And I told him, I says, you know, I really want to preach this
psalm. That doesn't always happen sometimes, but sometimes you
just kind of get a feeling for something and I really do hope
it works out because this psalm blessed my soul. It really did. Because this psalm, along with
a lot of the others, This psalm is full of the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it starts off with these
words. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Now there's some discussion,
there's two or three schools of thought about this whole psalm.
Because the question is, is this a sinner crying out of the depths
of sin, or is this a sinner crying from a newfound knowledge of his unbelief? Because unbelief is a sin, so
I mean technically I guess they're both right. The other thing is
where they say this might have been written by Ezra, this was
Ezra praying for removal of Israel from Persian slavery. They were in captivity. And I
can understand that, but to be honest, I mean, when I read this,
when I see this out of the depths I have cried, I see salvation. I mean, this is what I see. Because
this is where I was at one time. And when you start putting that
word in the end, in the end of the chapter here, just the end
of, you know, seventh and eighth verse, you start talking about
redemption, I start thinking salvation. Because there is no
salvation without redemption. I mean, I can understand, you
know, where they might get this idea, but don't miss this part. You know, maybe it was Ezra wrote
it, maybe he was talking about God redeeming them out of the
hands of Persia. where they had been taken away
into Babylon, then Babylon got swallowed by Persia, and Israel
was still there. Maybe so, but don't miss this
point. I don't see this necessarily
as, well, what they call the depths of sin, because in the
depths of sin, just for a minute here, let me look at Psalms 51.
You can turn there if you want. because this is a psalm out of
the depths of sin. It says to the cheap musician
a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after
he had gone into Bathsheba. If you remember, Nathan came
to David. Nathan was sent to David by the
Lord and he told him there was a man, a rich man who took a
poor man's youth. and didn't pay him for it. Matter
of fact, killed the man. And David said, oh, he's gonna
make it good. He's gonna do this, and David looked at him. Nathan
looked at David and said, thou art the man. You are the one,
you killed Uriah. You took Bathsheba. This is the
psalm after the death of David's child. And after Nathan had come
to him, he wrote, have mercy on me, O God, according to thy
loving kindness. according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies Excuse me blot out my transgressions
wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and Cleanse me from
my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me
Against thee and thee only have I sinned done this evil in thy
sight then he carries on to verse 12 where he says restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Now I see that as a psalm speaking from the depths of sin. The psalmist
confessing to God. That's not necessarily what I
see in Psalm 130. Psalm 130 I see a little bit more like Psalm
40. Also a psalm of David. Psalm 40 and verse one, I waited
patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my
cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear
and shall trust in the Lord. I see salvation in those statements,
Mason. I see being called, calling,
excuse me, out of the depths have I cried to being the newly
awakened sinner. A living sinner, a regenerated
sinner, a formerly dead sinner crying out of the depths. Why? First day, he cries unto the
Lord. You understand he's not crying
to his neighbors for any help. You know why? Because his neighbors
aren't any help. The passage where David wrote
in Psalms 40. Do you know, as a believer now,
do you know of the depths you were in? Do you remember of the
horrible pit? Do you understand having your
feet clogged with miry clay? I used to live in Georgia and
when it rained, that clay would get wet and if you went out in
it with shoes on, you'd come back with 10 pounds of shoes.
Because you could not get that stuff off of you. And if you're
in a pit and your feet are weighing 10 or 15 pounds more than they
should, guess what? You're not going very far. And
you're not climbing out of any pit. And guess, here's the other
part. There comes a time in a believer's
life where he knows it. He knows it. Because this is
what the psalmist is saying here. Out of the depths have I cried. You understand? It's not nearby
the depths. It's not observing the depths
from a distance, you know? or even up close for that matter. And here's the other thing. It's
not seeing someone else in the depths, although they may be. This psalmist saw himself in
the depths. Whoever wrote it, doesn't matter. Because I believe by the strength
of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, that this is common to
the saints of God. We are told in the scriptures,
remember the pit from whence ye are digged. And I'll add here,
remember the depths from out of which you cried. The allegory
here when it says out of the depths is basically like the
depths of the sea. That's what it's talking about. You understand
there's a lot of countries and a lot of places for whom the
sea is their home. The fishermen, they live on the
ocean, they like it. You know, Britons love the sea.
Ireland likes fishermen, and I mean, that's where their whole
way of life is. But for the Jews, the deep sea
was a terror. That's what this is talking about.
Out of terror have I cried. It's not common in the fact that
it happens every day, but it's common in this way, that we were
all once in a horrible pit. We were all once in the depths
of our own sin. And I tell you this, when you're
there, you feel like you're in a pit you made yourself. And
you can't get out of it. You may not know how you got
there even. But here's the thing. Had you
ever come to the realization that you knew where you were? In this Psalm 130, I see the
salvation of the child of God crying out for deliverance to
the Lord. The psalmist is not asking here
for a restoration of the joy of his salvation. he is writing
of and speaking toward redemption, redemption. And like I said,
he cried unto the Lord because here's that point. He knew, this
psalmist knew, there was no one else to cry to. Or in proper English, there is
no one else to whom to cry. What do you mean? When you know you're in the depths,
or if you know you're in that pit, in the miry clay, you also
know no one else can hear this cry. You also know no one else can
answer that cry. Even if they could hear it. Even
if they did hear it. You understand, people have said
some things to me. And basically I have to say,
and this is what I say to you all and to everyone else, call
upon the name of the Lord. Why? Because I can't help you. I know you can't help yourself
because I was there. But I couldn't help myself and
I can't help you. But I know one who can. I know
one who can. Oh my. Because you know no one
else has the capabilities, has the power to help you while you're
in the depths or you're in that pit. And when you know that,
I'm gonna tell you this, that is a gracious thing that you
know. That is a gracious thing. Because the sinner cries from
where he is. but he cries unto the Lord. Not unto the Savior, although
only the Lord can save you. And the Lord may be your Savior. The Lord is the only Savior. There is no other Savior other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none under the name
given among men whereby we must be saved. But that name is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Those who call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. When I was starting in this,
and you're going back to the early 80s, Man, television and radio was
overrun with all kinds of people accepting Jesus Christ as their
Savior. Or accepting Jesus as their Savior,
depending upon how it was said. Nobody was confessing him Lord.
Not on TV, not on the radio. Except Henry Mahan is the only
one I saw on TV that would talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only man I ever heard on TV or the radio Tell her Earl,
you know. This is the whole point of the
thing. Only the Lord can save you out
of the depths, out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. No one else can. And if he's
given it to you to know you're in the depths, that you know
you're in a pit, you're gonna know only the Lord can save you. Because he will put you there.
Well you were there already, he just let you know you were. You were there before, you didn't
know it. I'm gonna give you this, I got
a simple principle. Just a very simple fact that
I want to point out here. And I'm gonna tell you this is
a little piece of logic that will puzzle the world. Now you say, what, do you apply
logic to God? No, no, no, no, no, I'm not applying
logic to God. But I will tell you this, God
will apply logic to you. And God will apply logic, his
logic, to every one of his children. And guess what? You're gonna
know it. He's promised you're gonna know
it. Now what do you mean by that? Well, what I mean by that is
I know this, now, God has a purpose. You understand? Secondly, God
has a plan. And thirdly, God has the way. And this, in this Psalm, in verse
one here, this is the way that he wants it to go. And that's
why it goes that way. Because here it is. This would
shock the world if they could get it. You will never cry out of the
depths until you actually know you are in the depths. Ain't
that too simple? No, no. That's just simple enough. You
understand? The world doesn't get this. Because
here's the part they don't understand. You'll never cry to get out of
the pit until you know you're in the pit. I didn't say it was a secret.
I didn't say it was a mystery. I said it's a puzzle that the
world doesn't understand. Unbelievers don't get it and
they don't get the point of me saying it either. But this is
God's way. He will make it so that the poor,
rotten sinner knows exactly, to the best of his ability, where
he is and what kind of mess he's in, and more importantly, what
he is. I never understood that I was
a sinner until God showed me. Now I'd heard it said all the
time, oh, we're all sinners, brother. I wasn't worried about
all of us, I was worried about me. If you ever get to that point,
now I'm not talking about I was worried about my sins, what I
did, I was worried about what I was. And what I am still to
this day. The old man's in there. But that's
the thing, that's the depths here. out of the depths of my
own, put it this way, humanity, of my own self. And this is hidden to the lost. It's not a mystery. It's right
here in black and white. The psalmist wrote, out of the
depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Guess what? In order
for him to write that, he must have known he was in the depths. But the world is blinded to the
truth of God, even in its simplicity. It is hidden, the gospel, our
gospel is hidden to them that are lost. I didn't say reprobate,
it's hidden in the reprobate too. But see, there's a chance
that the lost may be found. Because the gospel was hidden
to each and every one of you until he revealed it. The gospel was
hidden to me until he revealed it. And it was revealed in Jesus
Christ, by Jesus Christ, through the words of another human being
to me. And in this word here, written by human beings under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God breathed, but written by
men. Because right now, believers,
true believers of the Lord Jesus Christ are the only people who
are not in the horrible pit right now. Who are not out of, who
are actually out of the depths. Why? Remember the pit from whence
you are digged. Don't go back to it, just remember
it. Hi, well Walter said, don't hang
around the outside and see what it looks like down, no, just
remember it. Never forget where you were.
Never forget who you are. And never forget who answered
your prayer out of the depths. This is the state of the unbelieving
world and it's a puzzle they'll never understand unless they
are brought to know that they are in the depths. This psalmist, Like I said, whoever
he was, it doesn't matter. He knew he was in the depths.
He wrote it down in black and white. David in Psalm 40, he knew he
was in a horrible pit. He knew he was in the miry clay. And David cried unto the Lord
and waited, waited. patiently, that's the hard part. Waited patiently. But David cried, and what did
it say? He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock. And not only set you on the rock,
He established my goings. Isn't that great? Isn't that
glorious? I love it. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth. A new song what? Even praise
unto our God. I'm gonna tell you something.
That's salvation. That's salvation. And I believe that's what he's
talking about. Out of the depths have I cried here. And he says
what? Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. I'm gonna tell you something. You know who prays verse two? Lord, hear my voice, let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. I'm gonna
tell you, the knowledge of sin, the knowledge of the depths,
the knowledge of the horrible pit we were in, comes from God. Comes from God in this particular
part, the Holy Ghost, what? Convinces us in. because those
who cry to God out of the depths are living sinners. And then living sinners are the
only ones who can pray this. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. When you cry unto the Lord, Pray
to the Lord that he will hear you. Now, and be attentive to
your voice. Understand, God hears everything. God sees everything. Because
he sees all and he hears all, and I'm gonna tell you, being
attentive to my supplications is more than just hearing. That's
a prayer to God. Get me out of these depths, oh
Lord. Get me out of this pit, oh Lord. Being attentive is hearing and
paying attention. This is the prayer of the child
of God. Call upon the name of the Lord.
It's not just say, oh Lord Jesus, oh Lord Jesus, oh Lord Jesus.
call upon the one who can save you and ask him to save you.
Be attentive to my cry, Lord. I'm over here. Listen, if you're
one of his, he knows exactly where you are. But he still wants
you to cry out to him. He still wants you to call upon
his name and he wants you to pray that he would be attentive
to you. What did David say? I'm just
talking about, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined
unto me. Be attentive to the voice of
my supplications, Lord. But here's the point. No, I don't
deserve your attention. I'm crying out of the depths.
Out of the depths I've cried. I don't deserve your attention.
I don't deserve your mercy. I don't deserve your redemption. I don't deserve your grace. Because
matter of fact, that's the definition of mercy and grace right there. You don't deserve it. But ask
him for it. Call to him. Call to him out
of the depths. Perhaps he will incline unto
you. I like that word. Perhaps he will be attentive.
And I can tell you this, if you're one of his, he will. He will. Matter of fact, he already
has. He already has. You never get
to this point until he's done something for you. You're not gonna get to this
point until that Holy Spirit convinces you of sin. of righteousness
and of judgment. Oh my. There's a quandary here. We like to think we're the source.
We do. And we gotta watch the way we
think now. We're not the source of anything.
By his grace, we're the recipients. By his grace, We are the ones, we are the ones who have been
given his mercy, his love, and his grace. And it starts with
knowing that you're in the depths. I mean, that's the first verse
here, and I love this. This is where, I mean, you know,
it's just kind of a strange thing. Psalm 130, verse one, the first
part of the verse. Out of the depths have I cried.
I'm gonna tell you, that's where you start. It's not where God
started. That's where you start. Because
up until then, up until you know you've been in the depths, up
until his Holy Spirit comes to you and convinces you of sin,
you're oblivious to your surroundings, to the depths, You might be depressed. The whole world's depressed.
They've got all kinds of drugs out there for it. They've got
all kinds of psychotherapy. I'm not denigrating psychotherapy.
It may help some people. But you understand, when you
come to know you're in the depths, ain't no psychotherapy gonna
help you. And you're gonna know that. And yes, even the child
of God can be depressed. Some of them can be manic depressive.
Up one moment, down the next, but here's the thing. Out of
the depths I have cried, what? Unto thee, O Lord. And then, Lord, hear my voice,
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. You are the only one who can
help me. Then this statement, and it just
seems like a strange place to put this, but I dearly love this. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But realize what I just said. This psalmist knew he was in
the depths, And he knew he didn't deserve the Lord to hear him. If you should mark iniquities,
oh Lord, who shall stand? But before I, be attentive to my
voice. Don't mark my iniquities. Because
I'm telling you something, if God, now it doesn't say very
carefully, right? It doesn't say notice my iniquities. It didn't say hear of my iniquities. It didn't say count my iniquities.
It didn't even say if the Lord should see iniquities. No, it
says if you should mark, mark iniquities, who shall stand? You know what Mark means? Take
heed of them. You understand? I said it, I
don't know, it gets a month ago now. You understand? The world
thinks silence is consent because God doesn't strike somebody down
with a lightning bolt. They think he's okay with something.
Well, it's not so. I read that in Psalms. It was
in Psalms. How about that? There's a lot
of things in Psalms. You thought I was altogether such a one as
yourself. Just because God's keeping silent doesn't mean he
is consenting under your behavior. Don't ever be fooled by that.
See, he knows there's iniquities, but oh, if you should mark them,
then who's gonna stand? Mark also means to guard against
them. To take action against them. Hedge. about iniquities with
thorns. And then they say, oh Lord, who
shall stand? And the answer is, no one. Who's going to stand if the Lord
marks iniquities? Now realize also, it's the Lord
marking iniquities. Don't worry about me marking
iniquities, and I'm not gonna worry about you marking iniquities.
Don't worry about your relations marking iniquities. Or the church. neighbors, coworkers, boss, if
the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Yahweh
marks iniquities, then it says, oh Adonai, who shall stand? That's capital L, little O, little
R, little D. I like that. I didn't even notice
that. And then it is. read it somewhere,
I thought, my, that's true. If Yahweh should mark iniquities,
O Adonai, who shall stand? Now you want me to tell you a
little bit of the difference here? The Lord, that's capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D, Yahweh, said unto my Lord, that's capital
L, little o, little r, little d, Adonai, The Yahweh said unto
my Adonai, sit here until I make thine enemies thy footstool. It's the father, you don't wanna
mark an iniquity. But the one the psalmist is asking
is the Christ. You understand? The one we have
to deal with, with our iniquity, thank God it's not the Father.
We get to deal with the Redeemer. Matter of fact, He gets to deal
with us. And He has dealt with us. Oh Lord, who shall stand? Oh
Adonai, who shall stand? Jesus, who shall stand if God
the Father marks our iniquity? Because what did David say in
Psalm 51? Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this
evil in thy sight. Yes, it was a sin against Uriah.
Yes, it was a sin against Bathsheba. Yes, it was a sin against the
people of Israel. But no, it was against God the
Father. If God the Father should mark
iniquities, who shall stand? And the answer is, like I said,
absolutely no one. on this earth, but there was
one man. Who? Adonai. One man. Now as far as I know, he's not
physically on this earth right now, he's seated at the right
hand of the majesty on I. And when the Lord marked iniquity,
there was none in him. There was none in him. He's the only one who could stand
perfect and holy, the well-beloved Son of God. But however, this
is the thing that came to me. Not even the Son of God was exempt
when our Lord made him to be sin for us. Now when the Lord marked iniquity,
now it wasn't his iniquity. He did no sin, he had no sin. He didn't have any sin, he didn't
have any transgressions, he didn't have any iniquities. He did not
have a sinful nature. But when the Lord laid upon him
our iniquities, our transgressions, and our sins, he had to die. Oh Lord, who shall stand? The Lord made him to be sin.
He bore in our bodies on the tree our sins. And when that iniquity was marked,
Jesus Christ died for us. He bore in his own body on the
tree our sins. And that iniquity was marked
by Yahweh. and was born by Adonai. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
God manifest in the flesh, the well beloved, only begotten of
the Father. He became a man, totally without
sin, totally without transgression, totally without iniquity. Yes, and yes, he was made sin
for us. He bore our sins in the body
on the tree, but he did exactly what the angel told Joseph he
was going to do. He came, and what John the Baptist
said, he took away the sins of the world. How can God not mark iniquity
in you, Mason? How can God not mark iniquity
in me, or in you, or any of you? Only if Jesus Christ, the scapegoat
on the day of atonement, took away our sins. Now you're not gonna know all
this when you're crying out of the depths. but it's nice to learn
after you're out. When you're in the depths, all
you're worried about is getting out of them. Well, when you're
in the depths and you know it, all you're worried about is getting
out of them. But it's great to know how you
got out. Who's responsible for this great
salvation? It is the Lord. It is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only begotten, well-beloved Son of God. creator of all the earth and
everyone in it. And now, he is seated at the
right hand of the majesty on high. Guess what? He ever liveth to make intercession
for his people. He liveth, ever liveth, to bring
his people out of the depths, out of that pit, out of that
miry clay, and he sets their feet on a rock. No, the rock. Himself. Because other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ. And he
establishes their goings. Ain't that a thing of beauty
too? He establishes their goings. What's that mean? He's gonna
put in you both the will and the do of his good pleasure. And you're gonna work out your
salvation in fear and trembling. That's together. How? Because it's him that puts it
in you, both the work and the do of his good pleasure. Mmm. Oh Lord if thou Lord should
us mark iniquities. Oh Lord Who shall stand I'm gonna
tell you who's gonna stand? Right here right now, and you
can take this as a fact because it's in the book Everyone in
Christ shall stand in that day Because everyone in Christ is
That means your iniquities and sins, he, God, will remember
no more. They were marked, and they were
marked in Christ. And if they weren't marked in
Christ, you're gone. And you never know any of this
till you start in the depths. and he brings it to you to cry
out of the depths. And you know, we didn't even
get to Plenteous Redemption, that's what I wanted to start
with. It's all right. If nothing happens, next week
we'll do it. This psalm just kind of grabbed
hold of me. Because oh Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee. Why? Because of the one who stood
in our place. What? That thou mayest be feared.
What's the fear of the Lord? It's the beginning of knowledge,
it's the beginning of wisdom, it's the beginning of understanding. And guess what? I was reading,
read something, I think it was Hawkins said the other day, Or
if he's dead, he said it 500 years ago or something, I don't
know, anyway. The believer has a fear of the Lord that the world
doesn't know anything about because the believer fears letting down
his Lord. The one who paid this price.
The one who redeemed us. We fail him daily. That don't
mean we like it. but out of the depths I have
cried. And if he's put it in you to know you're in the depths,
he's gonna answer you. And if you're here now and you
believe him now, he already has answered you. But remember, remember. Our Heavenly Father, I'm thankful
for this time and this place. Please be with Walter as he is
preaching your message. Bless us. with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus as you always
have. And Lord, be with us as we fellowship
together over this food and help us to gather again later. In
Christ's name we pray, amen.