Psalm 130, this is a short psalm,
eight verses, but it's one of my favorites. And I quote a verse
out of this psalm all the time, verse three, which says, if thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? And
what an awesome thought, when you read a verse like that, which
is in essence telling us that if God were to charge sin to
us, If he would, and we are sinners,
and we deserve nothing but death and hell, but if God were to
mark them, keep a record of them, bring them up against us, none
of us would stand. And when you read that and you
go to the fourth verse, but there is forgiveness with thee, that
thou mayest be feared. That's an awesome thought. And
I hope that I never get over it. Hope you never get over it.
to an understanding of the forgiveness of our sins and the righteousness
that we have in Christ. Well, this lesson is called Christ,
the Hope of Israel, and that comes from verse seven, let Israel
hope in the Lord. If you look underneath, in the
King James Version, underneath Psalm 130, it says a song of
degrees. That literally means a song of
steps. And that name probably came from
this psalm was sung by those who were walking into Jerusalem
to enjoy worship through one of the three major churches. festivities that they had, all
the great festivals that the Lord commanded under the law
of Moses. But it may also refer, there's about 14 other Psalms
that are called Songs of Degrees, Songs of Steps, and when I read
those Psalms, here's how it impresses me, and I think some commentators
agree with this, but it may also refer to how these Psalms, they
build from a low point to a glorious highlight of gospel truth. And
this one starts out, look at it, verse one, out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Crying out of the depths, that's
a low point. But it ends up with verse eight,
he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. So it's a song
of degrees going from a low point. When the Lord brings us, as he
says, look at it, out of the depths have I cried unto thee,
O Lord. Lord, hear my voice, let thine
ears be attended to the voice of my supplications. This is
a cry for mercy. in the realization of what we
are by nature and what we deserve by our works, which is death
and hell. And so when the Lord God brings
us to see our sinfulness, our spiritual deadness, our depravity,
that's what it's about. He brings us to see that there's
absolutely no hope of salvation, no hope of forgiveness, no hope
of righteousness or eternal life within ourselves. and certainly
not best upon our best efforts to obey God. There's no hope
in us, and that's the depths that we cry out of. Oh, Lord,
out of the depths have I cried. And what he does, he brings us
to see that our only hope is to look unto God, look unto the
hills, look upward, look to him alone, and cast ourselves like
that old public on his, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And that's what the Holy Spirit
does in conviction of sin. Now y'all have heard these terms,
slain by the law, or slain by the Spirit. And false religionists,
especially the term slain by the Spirit, they think it's when
some preacher who has some power, which he doesn't have, and he
waves his hand and it knocks you back on the ground and all
that, and they call that slain in the Spirit. That is not true. There's nothing like that in
the Bible. I know the Lord, he knocked a bunch of people back
when they came to arrest him. And he said, whom do you seek?
And they said, we seek Jesus. And he said, I am. And they went
back. But they weren't being slain
in the spirit. That was just the power of the omnipotent,
sovereign Christ speaking to let people know that you're not
taking him by force, but he's going willingly to the cross.
And that was a promise that he made before the foundation of
the world in the everlasting covenant of grace. And he said
this, I think it's in John chapter six, or no, John chapter 10.
He said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. He was a willing surety substitute
redeemer. And he willingly died on that
cross for our sins that he willingly took upon himself. They were
imputed to him. And he suffered, bled, and he
died. And all of that by his will.
But being slain in the Spirit, that's what this is. When God
the Holy Spirit shows me who I am by nature, and shows me
that if God were to judge me based upon my best efforts to
obey him, my most sincere efforts, that I would be damned forever.
That's being slain by the Spirit. And so out of the depths have
I cried unto thee, O Lord, hear my voice, hear my cry. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. Well, here's
the thing. Anybody who cries out of these
depths, God's gonna hear them because it's God who brings us
to this point. This point of being slain by
the spirit, slain by the law, realizing our depravity and our
sin, that's not, we won't admit to this naturally. Oh, we'll
say we're sinners. We'll say we're not perfect.
We'll even cry and sorrow over our sins. And some will even
say, well, we deserve to go to hell. But they don't know the
remedy. And look at verse three. He says,
if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand? The spirit of God not only brings
us to realize that we deserve nothing but death and hell and
condemnation, but he brings us to see this. If God, and I think
this is important because, I know it's important because, you know,
we as sinful people, we have a tendency to keep an account
of each other's sins. You know that? I know people
say, well, I can forgive, but I can't forget. What does that
mean? That means you're keeping an
account. And really, you know as well as I do, that's a self-serving
type of forgiveness. just trying to make you feel
good. But we keep an account. And we keep an account against
ourselves. I think about things in my past
and all that, and I can't get away from it. And that's the
flesh, isn't it, accusing me. I love that verse in 1 John,
I think it's 1 John 5, where it says, when our heart accuses
us, God is greater than our hearts. Because we do, we have a tendency
to accuse ourselves. So in this conviction of sin
that's coming out of these first two verses, the third verse shows
us something that's very important, that this thing has to do with
a legal accounting of sins. You know, the Bible says in Psalm
5 and verse 5 that God hates all workers of iniquity. And
a worker of iniquity is a person who comes short of the glory
of God. That's what sin is. And if God
hates all workers of iniquity, as Psalm 55 says, and it does,
and it's true, then how can we as sinners who fall short, how
could we expect to be recipients of God's love? We're no more
deserving than the workers of iniquity. In fact, we're classed
with the workers of iniquity by nature and according to our
works. But thank God he makes a distinction. And the Bible teaches us that
in some just way, a specific just way, God does not mark our
iniquities. He doesn't impute our iniquities
to his people. And so the psalmist writes, if
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Well,
God doesn't mark iniquities to his people. How can that be? Because we know what we deserve.
We know what we've earned. And here's a realization and
confession that by nature and practice we are sinners, we are
workers of iniquity. And we cannot rise above that
state. Neither are our works or our
wills and our only hope of attaining a right standing with God who
hates all workers of iniquity and who must punish sinners to
whom sin is imputed is to turn to God and say God is there anyway. Is there any way that I, a sinner,
can stand before you and not be charged with my sins? And that's the realization that
God brings forth to all of us. And I put in your lesson here,
Job nine and verse two. This is where the question of
questions comes from. Job said this in Job nine two. He said, I know it is so of a
truth, but how should man be just with God? If he will contend
with him, if I stand before God and try to plead my own case,
that's what that means, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
I would not be able to answer God one of a thousand. And what
that means is this, for every point that I would bring in my
defense, God would bring back a thousand charges that would
prove me deserving of death and hell. Think about it. Somebody says, well, I got baptized,
you know. Well, here comes 1,000 charges. Baptism, the waters of baptism
will not wash away your sins. And that's what Job was saying.
That if he himself tried to defend himself before God, there's no
hope. of eternal life. And Job's friend,
Bildad, over in Job 25, I've got that in your lesson. In Job
25.4, here's what Bildad said. He said, how then can man be
justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How
pure, how righteous, how good do we have to be Well, we have
to be perfect. But we know, verse three, if
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? The
problem with us in our state of sin and spiritual death and
depravity is we can't answer that question of how God can
be just and justified. That no human being, the smartest,
the wisest, the most religious, The most sincere has ever been
able to answer that question. The answer to that question comes
by revelation out of the wisdom and the power and the goodness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when you jump over to
verse four, here it comes. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. God forgives sin. But he doesn't
on a just grant. And let me point out something
to you here that's really important and a lot of people are missing
today. This forgiveness, there is forgiveness
with God. God forgives some people. He
doesn't forgive everybody. How do you know? Because multitudes
die in unbelief. and enter condemnation and death. And you don't do that having
been forgiven. But what is the forgiveness of
sin in God's sight? It's gotta be on a just ground. And so what you see here, if
you look at verse three and verse four, is the forgiveness of sins
is connected with the just non-imputation of sin. Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Now if God marks
my iniquities, if he charges me with my sins, there is no
forgiveness. But there is forgiveness with
God that he may be feared. But it's connected with this
non-imputation of sins. And you know as well as I do,
the non-imputation of sins to God's people, God's elect, means
that our sins were imputed to Christ, and his righteousness
is imputed to us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. So all
of this is connected, and what he's showing us is that God's
forgiveness, God forgiving and justifying sinners, he does it
in a way that honors him, that glorifies him. So understand
it now. Here's the point I'm making.
There can be no forgiveness of sinners where sin is charged
to them. Because if sin is charged to you, you cannot stand. And
this is why the biblical truth of imputation is so important
and such a blessing for sinners saved by grace. What did David
say? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.
You know, section that says there in Psalm 32 and verse 2, in whose
spirit there is no guile. What that means is there's no
pretense before God. Guile is hypocrisy, it's lies. Now, even as sinners saved by
grace, we still lie in some ways and let God be true and every
man a liar. But think about standing before
a holy God and in whom there's no guile, that would be like
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Hear my voice. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who would stand? That's what we realize. That's
where the guile is removed. I know that if God were to charge
me with sin, I wouldn't stand. Even my best efforts. And so
again, in the Bible, the non-imputation of sins to the persons of God's
elect means that God has imputed their sins to Christ, for he
was made sin for us, Christ who knew no sin. And this means Christ's
righteousness has imputed us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What was it David said? He described
the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness
without words. And so where Christ's righteousness
is imputed to sinners, there is forgiveness. They've been
forgiven, they've been declared righteous, they will be born
again by the Spirit, they'll be slain by the Spirit, but led
to Christ, and they'll be given the gifts of spiritual life,
faith, repentance, perseverance, and they'll be brought by God
to be honest. That's where that guile is honest
with ourselves. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities. But now notice one other thing
here in verse four. This forgiveness brings us to
fear God. Now what does that mean? That
means it brings us to such a reverent respect for the honor and glory
of God, knowing his true nature, that it inspires faith in Him,
assurance in Him, love to Him, all of that, true worship and
obedience. When the Holy Spirit applies
this truth to our consciences, remember in Hebrews chapter 10,
talks about how the heart is cleansed from an evil conscience,
that's a condemned conscience. That's a legal conscience in
the sense of works-oriented salvation. And that heart is cleansed when
the Holy Spirit applies spiritually in the new birth the blood of
Christ. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of
Jesus. And that produces such a love.
You see, by nature we have no fear of God. We've got fear of
hell. We've got fear of death. But by nature, Romans 3.18, we
have no fear of God. We have no reverence, no respect
for His honor, His glory. That's what this salvation is
all about. That's what the forgiveness of sin is all about. That's what
justification and redemption is all about. I want to glorify
God. That's what I want to do this
morning, and that's what you want to do in worshiping. We
don't want to glorify ourselves. God forbid that we should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this assurance
of true forgiveness based upon that which honors and glorifies
our Heavenly Father is, listen, it's the greatest encouragement
and motivation for obedience and godliness. People say, well,
if I believe that, I'll just go out and sin all I want. No,
you missed it. This is a great motivator, isn't
it? Why are you here this morning?
You're here to worship God because of the assurance and hope of
forgiveness and righteousness that he's given us by the Holy
Spirit, based upon the blood of Christ, his righteousness
imputed. And listen to this, forgiveness
of sins claimed on any other ground does not honor the true
and living God. In fact, it denies him. It's a slap in his face. So these
people who go around saying, well, he forgave me because I
made the right decision, or he forgave me because I cried all
night over my sin. That's a slap in God's face.
The only reason God forgives any of us is His grace through
the blood of Christ. And that's it. Well, look at
the next two verses. There's verse five. He says,
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, 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." Now this, you know, waiting on
the Lord, you see that in several of the Psalms and in other places. Waiting on the Lord and hoping
in His word is a God-given act of faith. That's what waiting
on the Lord is about. It's about faith. And I think
about all the Old Testament believers. They looked forward in anticipation
to the coming of the Messiah. To establish all that God had
promised and already given to them. But it was all conditioned
on Christ coming into the world and doing his great work. And
they were waiting in that sense. Oh Simeon in Luke chapter two,
waiting for the consolation of Israel. That's Christ. And they
believed that Christ would come. And it's just like us today.
We're waiting for His second coming. I'm gonna be talking
about that in several messages. We expect Him to come again.
And He's going to gather up His church unto Himself. So we're
waiting and we're hoping in His word. The reason that we're waiting
by God-given faith is because God said it. We hope in his word. It's not because we feel it.
And it's not even because some preacher told it to us. It's
because God said it. I'm telling you about it, but
I'm pointing you to God's word. This is the basis. This is the
foundation of all of it. And to watch for the morning.
It says they watch for the morning. That means they look for a new
day. Looking for a new day, a better day. the day of fulfillment,
where the law would be satisfied completely, where all their hopes
would be finally realized in Christ. Abraham, Christ said,
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad. Christ
is the day star, the sun of the morning, the sun of righteousness. Well, look at the last two verses.
Now he says, let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord
there is mercy. Now again, that's mercy on a
just ground, isn't it? And with him is plenteous redemption.
You see, you can't have mercy without redemption. You cannot
have mercy without the price paid, without justice satisfied,
without righteousness being established. And where is that redemption?
Well he says in verse eight, he shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. Well that's Christ. Hope in the
Lord. You know that name Israel, it
was the name the Lord gave to Jacob. To identify Jacob as one
of the spiritual children of God. You can read about that
in Genesis chapter 32, that's when he wrestled with the angel.
And God gave him a new name. The name Israel means literally
those who prevail with God or those who are successful with
God. And think about it. How can any
sinner claim to prevail with God, to be successful with God? Well, there's only one way. God
said it, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear
ye him. It's to be found in Christ, washed in his blood and having
his righteousness imputed to us. That's the only way that
we can have success in this thing of forgiveness and salvation,
to stand before God in Christ. And so we hope in the Lord. Christ
is our hope. I thought about this and I've
referenced it in your lesson. You remember when the Hebrew
children, they were brought out of Egypt by Moses and they stood
on the shore of the Red Sea and they looked behind them and Pharaoh's
army was coming and they began to complain and murmur and long
for the things they had back in Egypt, the land of idolatry
and the bondage. And Moses stood upon that mount
or that rock And he said, stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord, which he will accomplish. He will fight for you. And you'll
see them, those Egyptians, no more, that bondage. That's what
it means to hope in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Lean not to
our own understanding. Well, you know, throughout their
history, this name Israel that Jacob had, it was given to his
natural descendants, the nation Israel. But throughout their
history, under the law of Moses, they failed to trust in the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They constantly failed. They
constantly, stubbornly turned to their own ways and their own
devices. And Paul summarized their problem
in Romans 9, 31 and on, when he talked about how they sought
righteousness, not by faith, which is to seek it in Christ,
but as it were, by works of the law, and they didn't make it.
And they were told continually by the prophets and by some of
the priests that this is not the way to attain God's forgiveness. It's not by your works. It's
not by your sincere efforts. It's all based upon the redeeming
work of the promised Messiah who's to come. And so that's
Christ. So when he says, let Israel hope
in the Lord, well, who's going to hope in the Lord? The Bible
tells us that only God's chosen people will do that. And he calls
them Israel. Spiritual Israel. Read about
it. I've got several references to
that in your lesson here. But I think about what Paul wrote
in Galatians 6, 14, when he said, God forbid that I should glory
or bow, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And he
said, for in Christ Jesus, circumcision or uncircumcision availeth nothing. but a new creation. That's the
new earth. Who is spiritual Israel? Those
who've been born again. Those who've been given a new
heart. Circumcision of the heart, Romans 2, 28 and 29. They believe
in Christ. They glory in Christ and his
finished work. They are the Israel of God, Paul
wrote. And he says it. They are the
ones who are redeemed from all iniquities. Whatever Israel he's
talking about here, In verse eight, he makes it clear. They're
redeemed from all their iniquities. Now, any notion of redemption that, any idea of redemption
that is given to any, that is applied to any person who dies
and perishes is a false notion, false gospel. If you've been
redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Your name was written in
the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world,
and you'll be in glory. God will not charge you with
sin. He has forgiven you. He has declared you righteous.
You have been born again by the Spirit, and your hope is in Christ. That is real hope in the Lord.
Okay.