Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles, I'm going to preach from the Old Testament
in the book of Psalms, and specifically Psalm 130. Psalm 130, and the
title of the message is, A Sinner's Hope in the Lord. A sinner's hope in the Lord. And this is a psalm or song. That's what a psalm is. It's
a biblical song. S-O-N-G. And this is a psalm
of praise. It's a psalm of a sinner crying
out to God. Most believe that David, King
David, who is credited with a lot of the Psalms that he wrote,
that he's called the sweet psalmist of Israel. And even though in
your King James Version Bibles it doesn't have below the Psalm
130, it doesn't have a Psalm of David like a lot of them do.
A lot of scholars believe that this is a Psalm of David, but
it doesn't matter. It's a prayer, actually, a psalm
of a sinner crying out to God, knowing that his or her only
hope of salvation, of forgiveness, of justification before God,
is by His grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so,
it's called a song of degrees, And what that means is it starts
out, but it builds to a climax, to a point that is just so profound
concerning this issue of salvation and hope. And when we talk about
hope, he says in verse seven of this song, let Israel hope
in the Lord. When we talk about hope, understand,
than in the Bible. In the issue of salvation in
the gospel, in the scriptures, a good hope is not just wishful
thinking. It's more than just believing
something because you want it to be true. A good hope is a
certain expectation of a good outcome based upon a solid ground. And that ground is the Word of
God. Why do I hope to live forever? Why do I hope to stand before
God, righteous in His sight? Why do I hope to be blessed of
God forever and ever? Because I have the Word of God
as my foundation. And that's why we have to be
so careful that when we express a hope of salvation and all the
benefits and blessings of it, that our hope is not just built
on something that has no foundation in the Word of God. Many people
in religion today, even those many who call themselves Christians,
they hope for things that God has never promised. And that's
bad because that's a hope that's going to be unrealized. That's
wishful thinking. This is a certain expectation
of a good outcome because God said it. I always tell the story
of seeing a sign outside of a church one time, and it had three lines. It had, God said it. The second
line was, I believe it. Third line is, that settles it.
But you know, technically speaking, that's wrong because here's what
it should say. God said it, that settles it,
therefore I believe it. Now that's the way it should
read. I often quote one of my favorite hymns on this program.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock,
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
So that's the hope. that we have. The hope of salvation
is in the glorious person and the finished, accomplished, successful
work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute,
and the Redeemer of His people. That He got the job done. See,
my hope is not in myself. I have hope within myself, but
the hope within myself is the hope of the Spirit who causes
me to look to Christ. to rest in Him, who He is. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God,
manifest in the flesh. Now there's a good hope to rest
your salvation on, the person of Jesus Christ. If He's not
God, you say you believe in Jesus, but if He's not God, then it's
a terrible hope. It's a groundless hope. And if
He is not man without sin, The God-man, if he's not human, without
sin, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, born
of the Virgin, and if he's not man, then that's a groundless
hope. But see, his name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, and his
name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us. God manifest in the flesh. That's
a good hope. And what did he accomplish on
the cross? Did he die to try to save people
if they would let him? That's a terrible hope. Because
the natural man in sin, depravity, that's what we are by nature,
will not receive the things of the Spirit of God. I was talking
to a young man several weeks ago, and he said, well, I just
believe we all have a choice. And I told him this, I said,
we do have a choice. And there's only two choices.
There's the choice of the broad road that leads to destruction
and death, and then there's the choice of the narrow way that
leads to life. The broad road, that's the way
of works religion, free will religion. The narrow way is the
way of God's sovereign grace through the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, conditioned on Him. The broad way is salvation
conditioned on sinners. The narrow way is salvation conditioned
on Christ who met those conditions. So those are two choices. But
here's the problem. The Bible teaches that if we're
left to ourselves, if God does not intervene in a sovereign,
invincible, powerful work, a calling, A new birth, giving us life from
the dead. If God doesn't intervene, if
left to ourselves, if left to our own will and desire, we will
never choose the right way, the narrow way that leads to life. We will always choose the broad
road that leads to destruction because it's the more popular
road. It's a road that people will accept naturally. It's a
road that makes us feel better about ourselves. You see, salvation
in the Bible is not about making us feel better about ourselves,
it's making us feel better about Christ and having our peace and
our rest in Him. And that's what the psalmist
here portrays in Psalm 130. Look at verse one. He says, out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. The depths of what?
Now we can talk about the depths of problems that we have in this
life. We go through problems. Sometimes
it's a problem of physical ailment. Sometimes it's a financial problem. Sometimes it's a problem with
relationships in a marriage, for example, or in a family,
among brothers and sisters, jobs, all that. We can talk about that.
But the problem that the psalmist is relating here is out of the
depths of my sin. That's the greatest problem of
all. That's the problem that causes all other problems. People ask all the time, what
is the cure for the sins of racism and the sins of immorality, the
sins of pride and self-righteousness? My friend, all of those sins
come from the big problem that we fell in Adam into sin and
death, and we're all born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.
And sin, the one word S-I-N, singular, is the problem that
causes it all. And so the Lord, by the Holy
Spirit, had shown the psalmist here the depths of his sins. And what is the depth of my sin?
We can quote scripture all day long and use it as a byline. Many people today, they'll say,
they'll quote Romans 3.23. And you know what that says? All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's true. I believe that. You claim to believe that. What
does it really mean? Have you ever stopped to consider
that? Well, here's what it means. The
word for sin there means to miss the mark. All right? For all have missed the mark
and come short of the glory of God. What is the glory of God?
Well, the Bible's clear on the issue of the glory of God. The
glory of God is the manifestation of His majesty, His attributes
that can only be found in its entirety, all of His attributes
working consistently together, in the salvation of sinners by
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. And what that verse teaches us
is this, Romans 3 23. All have missed the mark and
come short of that which glorifies God in Christ. Now hold on to
that thought. Here's what it means. It means
that no matter how hard I try No matter how hard you try to
be good, no matter how hard you try to work out righteousness,
holiness, you will always fall short of the mark. Because the
mark is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Christ
is the standard of righteousness. which God requires for salvation. You've got to be as righteous
as Christ. Your love, my love, if I'm going
to be saved, now listen to me, if I'm going to be saved by my
works, my love must equal Christ's love for His people. If I'm going
to be saved by my works, my obedience must equal his obedience, but
that's not the case. I'm a sinner. All have sinned
and come short. You take the best person, think
about it this way. You take the best person who
has ever lived on this earth, that everybody looks up to and
claims to be a holy or righteous person, The Bible teaches us
that that person is a sinner who is in need of salvation by
grace, who is in need of a righteousness that he or she cannot produce.
You see, God is going to judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained and that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. None
of us, in our best moments, can claim that we finally have re-attained
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And that's why Christ is the
one and only way of salvation. He is the way, the truth, and
life. No man comes unto the Father but by Him. The best person who
comes before God on their own merits will be damned forever. because Christ is the only hope.
Salvation is by grace, not of works, lest any man should boast. And that's the depths out of
which the psalmist is crying here. Oh, out of the depths have
I cried unto thee. I'm a sinner. I need mercy. I need grace. My only hope of
salvation is that God will intervene sovereignly and bring me out
of the depths of sin. And he says in verse two, he
says, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. I'm praying that the Lord will
hear. The Bible says that the Lord watches over his people
and he hears their prayers. I think about that old publican
in the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. where the Pharisee
was boasting about what he thought God had enabled him to do. But
the old publican, old sinner, he stood across and he said,
God, beat upon his breast and said, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. That's what the psalmist is doing
here. Lord, hear my prayers, my supplications, my cries. But look at what he says in verse
three. Now, this is really, really, really important. And this proves
what I told you at the first about sin and righteousness. The Bible says there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that doeth good.
There's none that seeketh after God. That's describing all of
us by nature. And here's what he says in verse
three. He said, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O
Lord, who shall stand? Now, what is it to mark iniquities? Well, it's certainly to take
note of those iniquities. But what he's talking about here
is this. If God looks at me and holds
my iniquities against me, and you know what iniquities are?
That's sin. The word iniquity is a word for sin that means
that it doesn't even out. It doesn't balance out. It's
inequitable. It's not equal to the task. And
it's not equal to righteousness. So my best efforts do not equal
the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
So he's saying, if God were to look at me and hold those iniquities
against me, charge them to me, keep a record of them against
me, who would stand? Would you stand? No. Would I stand? No. I mentioned
earlier, that best person that ever lived on earth, would he
or she stand? No. Why? All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Now this verse speaks of what
the Bible calls the doctrine of imputation. To impute means
to charge. It's like when you go out and
you go to a store, and you give them a charge card and however
much you buy let's say you buy a hundred dollars well there's
a hundred if you buy a hundred dollars worth of merchandise
and you give them a charge card there's a hundred dollars charged
imputed reckoned to your account and that's what sin does it runs
up a debt And that's why if God, if He
marks those iniquities, if He charges them to us, none of us
would stand. And so what we learn from that
in other scriptures is the only hope of sinners being saved,
being righteous in God's sight, is to find a way that God will
not impute, charge, or account, or mark our iniquities to us. Now there is a way. That's called
the non-imputation of sins. But look, let's look on in verse
four. Now read verse three and four
together. He says, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Verse four, but
there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Now there's a way of forgiveness.
That God may be respected, worshiped, reverenced. And what is that
way of forgiveness? Well, that way of forgiveness
is the way of God's grace through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
through the righteousness of Christ, who died on the cross
as the surety, substitute, and redeemer of His people. And here's
what happened. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
19 says it, that God was in Christ reconciling The world unto himself
that's the world of his people not everybody else not everybody
in the whole world Not every individual Because it says not
imputing their sins unto them God doesn't charge. There's a
people that God does not charge with sin What did he do with
those sins? Well, verse 21 of 2 Corinthians
5 says God made Christ to be sin. He imputed those sins to
Christ. In other words, my sin debt was
not charged to me, but it was charged to Christ. When did that
happen? Back before the foundation of the world when God determined
to save a people whom He chose and gave to Christ and made Christ
their surety. See, a surety is a person who
takes responsibility to pay the debt of another. And that's what
Christ is. He's my surety. My sins were
charged, marked to Him, accounted to Him, imputed to Him. And He
had to come and pay the debt. And what was the price? The price
of redemption, His death on the cross. He died for His sheep. He didn't die for all without
exception. He died for His sheep. He says in John 6, 37, all that
the Father hath given me shall come to me and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. Who is it that the Father
had given him? Those whom God chose and gave
to him before the foundation of the world. And in return,
Christ paid that debt in full. That's what redemption is all
about. He didn't make a down payment on your salvation if
you would do your part to receive it, no. He ensured the salvation
of all for whom He died because as our sins were imputed to Him,
His righteousness, the merit of His obedience unto death is
imputed to me. and righteousness demands life.
Romans 5.21 says, as sin hath reign unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Bible also says in Romans 8.10,
this body, this physical body is dead because of sin. That's
the reason we get old and get sick and die. It's a consequence
of sin. But he goes on to say, but the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit is life. Life in the new birth because
of righteousness. Whose righteousness? Christ's
righteousness imputed to me. So there is forgiveness. But
that forgiveness comes at a cost. And you don't pay the cost. You
don't have the cost. Neither do I. It's the cost of
the blood of the Son of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
you see that, you'll begin to fear God. You'll begin to worship
God and reverence Him. He says in verse five, he said,
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait in His word do I hope.
Now that waiting is an act of faith. At the time that the psalmist
wrote this, Christ had not yet come in history, but He was coming. And so the psalmist said, I'm
waiting for Him. The whole Old Testament, every
believer in the Old Testament looked forward to the coming
of the Messiah, the coming of Christ, to put away their sins,
to make an end of sin and finish the transgression and bring in
everlasting righteousness. So Jeremiah the prophet called
Him the Lord our righteousness, you see. And so we're waiting. Today we who believe are waiting
for His second coming. We believe He's coming. That's
what it is. To wait doesn't mean like waiting
in a doctor's office to see the doctor and you get upset and
all that. No, it means we believe God. And He's coming and He says
in His Word do I hope. Now there's the foundation. in
His Word. Why do I wait? Why do I hope? Why do I know there's forgiveness
of my sins in Christ? Because the Word of God says
so. And so he says in verse six,
my soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for
the morning. Now I know that when I lay my head down on the
pillow tonight that it's very possible that I won't wake up.
I could die. Christ could come again and end
it all. But generally speaking, I expect
that the morning will come and I'll rise in the morning. That's
how I've done it for 67 years now. I go to sleep, I wake up. And what the psalmist is saying
here is I've got more faith and hope that the Messiah is coming
to establish my righteousness before God than I do that I'll
wake up in the morning. as much as I believe that I will
wake up in the morning. He says, my soul waiteth for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say
more than they that watch for the morning. And then he says
in verse seven, let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord
there is mercy, with him is plenteous redemption. You see mercy, forgiveness,
it's all based upon the redeeming work of Christ. And verse eight
says he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Well, it
says Israel. Is that talking about the nation
Israel under the old covenant? No, it's talking about spiritual
Israel. under the New Covenant. It's
talking about the true faithful people of God, the elect of God,
chosen before the foundation of the world out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue and nation, Jew and Gentile. Paul deals with
that subject over in the book of Romans. In Romans chapter
two and verse 28, listen to this. He says, for he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is
outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. So he's talking
about circumcision of the heart there. That's the new birth.
And the evidence of the new birth is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in Romans nine and verse
six, he's talking about the fact that national Israel as a whole
rejected the Messiah. But he said, that's not saying
that the word of God has not taken effect in verse six, for
they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham physically are they all children,
but in Isaac shall thy seed be called Isaac, meaning that's
the line through whom Christ came. And that is verse eight,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed. And what is the promise? Well,
it's the gospel promise. Over in Galatians six, Paul writes
in verse 14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. I don't boast in anything for
my salvation and righteousness, but the cross of Christ, the
person and finished work of Christ. He says in verse 15, for in Christ
Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And then in verse 16, listen,
as many as walk according to this rule, what rule? God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Peace
be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God. That's who
he's talking about, the Israel of God. Who is the Israel here
that have been redeemed by the blood of Christ? They are all
who have heard and believe the true gospel of God's grace in
Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.