I want you to turn back into the Old Testament with me to one of the Psalms. Psalm 130. Psalm 130. The title of the message, as you can see, is Who Shall Stand? Who Shall Stand? And of course, what we're talking about, who will stand up under the judgment of God?

You know, there's a lot of myth that revolves around people's understandings of the final judgment. What it's gonna be like, I remember when I was a young boy, when I was in a religious organization, they used to pass around this pamphlet. about the judgment.

And it had this guy who went through life and just spurning God and the Bible and all that. And then he ended up at the judgment. And what they did at the judgment, they had, it's like a movie theater. And they set him down there and they showed his life, that he lived on earth. and all the bad things that he had done. And, of course, then they sent him to hell, you know, and all that.

A lot of people think, well, you know, it's going to be kind of like that. They'll show you all the bad things, but they'll show you all the good things you've done, and then they'll weigh at the end, you know, which one weighs the most. And if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, you'll go to heaven. If your bad deeds outweigh your good deeds, you'll go to hell.

Well, first of all, I hope that you all at least know that that is totally, totally myth. It's not biblical. The thing that is going to bring a person to understand biblically what the judgment is about, who is the judge, the standard of the judgment, what all that's about, is simply this, the issue at the judgment is how do you stand with Christ? That's the issue at the judgment. If you stand before a holy, just God, sovereign God, without Christ, and what I mean by that is this, without being washed in his blood from all your sins, without being justified before God based upon His righteousness imputed, charged to your account, and without life from Christ, a believer, if you stand before God without Christ, then you have no hope at judgment. That's the bottom line.

Over in Psalm 1, I'll just read this to you. The one thing that it says It says, talks about those who are blessed of God, the blessed man in Psalm 1. And it says, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. The title of this message is who shall stand? Well, the ungodly shall not stand. What is a godly person? It's a sinner saved by grace.

It's a believer. You say, well, he's not a very good believer. Well, you probably don't even know what a good believer is, first of all. But if you say, that person's not a good believer, but I'm a good believer, I guarantee you don't know what a believer is, what it's about.

But it says, therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Now, given the fact that the Bible makes it very clear that among fallen men and women, us, all of us, there's none righteous, no, not one. And what that's talking about in Romans 3 in verse 10 is there's none of us who are righteous by our own efforts.

That's what that means. You can start today and try to be the best you can be, but you're not gonna make yourself righteous. No flesh shall be justified. declared righteous in God's sight by their works. So that's what that means. And so the righteous here are, that's talking about a sinner saved by grace, who's washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness imputed. That's what that means. And it says in verse six of Psalm one, for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. So who shall stand?

And then listen to this, this is Psalm 24. Most people are familiar with the 23rd Psalm, but they're not familiar with the 24th Psalm. Psalm 22 and Psalm 23 and Psalm 24 is a trilogy. They go together. Psalm 22 speaks of the death of Christ for the sins of His people. That's what that speaks of. Psalm 23 speaks of Christ the Great Shepherd bringing His sheep into the fold, those for whom He died. And Psalm 24 is Christ the King of kings. It says in Psalm 24 verse 3, shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place?" Who shall stand?

And it says, he that have clean hands and a pure heart who have not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. Now verse four, if you understand what the Bible says about us by nature, And when I speak of us by nature, I'm talking about as we are naturally born.

See, we're born in sin, scripture says. We're born as fallen sons and daughters of Adam, fallen into a state of depravity and ignorance and unbelief. That's why in order to be saved, we must be born again. Well, we can't see or hear the kingdom of God or enter it because we don't have spiritual eyes and ears. Our judgments, our values, our motivations, our goals, without being born again are all focused on earthly things that will end.

So verse four here of Psalm 24, he that hath clean hands and pure heart, a person who has clean hands in this vein is somebody who has never sinned. Does that leave you out? Does me. Somebody has a pure heart, a heart that has never had an evil thought. Does that leave you out? It leaves me out. who have not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully." Never tell a lie. You can go by that.

Well, who is that describing? Who's going to ascend into the hill of the Lord and stand in his presence? There's only one person who could ever do that by their works, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. When you read over here in Psalm 130, who shall stand, what does it tell us?

Well, this Psalm, Psalm 130, by some is thought to have been written by David, King David. He wrote a lot of the Psalms. He didn't write all of them, you know that, but he wrote a bunch of them. was either when he was being persecuted by King Saul, you remember King Saul was jealous of David and it was told that David was going to be the king and Saul went after him to persecute him to kill him if he could. So during that period of time David wrote some of the Psalms and some of them show forth his despair and it's kind of like It really gets into kind of like a why me Lord.

I mean, David was a man after God's own heart. He was the sweet psalmist and shepherd of Israel. He was God's choice of king. Saul was man's choice. And it was another failure. But David was God's choice. And so he was God's choice to be king. And yet the human, Saul, the king of the people, was trying to kill him.

And so David wrote some of these Psalms in despair, you know, like, why am I going through this? You know, he just didn't understand it. Of course, it all had a purpose and it all worked out great. Not that David was a perfect man or that David had a perfect reign, but he did become king and Israel prospered during that time.

So some people believe this Psalm 130 was written when David was being persecuted by Saul and in great distress, fearful that he should perish before he became king. Or else some and others believe he wrote this in great distress because of the sin that he committed with Bathsheba. Now I can tell you Psalm 51 was written in repentance of that. But this may have been, but I believe it was probably more when he was under pressure and danger from Saul.

And it starts off, look at it, it says, if you'll notice underneath, now this was not in the original inspired word of God, this phrase. Psalm 130, it says, a song of degrees, you see that? Now, it's not telling us that it's going to forecast the weather. A song of degrees, what it means is it starts out low and it builds in degrees to the end. So it's going to start out low, kind of despondently, sorrow, and it's going to build to a joyous conclusion. That's what that means. It was added by the translators, and that's okay, that's just an observation. But listen to how it starts, verse one. A song of degrees, out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Out of the depths. Have you ever been in the depths? The depths of despair? Sorrow? Sadness? Maybe even danger? You may be going through a time of despair right now.

John Bunyan in his book, Pilgrim's Progress, he called it the slew of despond. Wallowing in the slew of despond. And so what this is expressing is an awareness of our sin, of our weakness, That's what it is. Feelings of despair. David, King David, has been brought low to know and admit his sinfulness. Lord, I'm a sinner. And here's the way it goes. Lord, at my lowest, I'm a sinner. Lord, at my best, I'm still a sinner.

That's our station. Even believers. Now we have a lot of blessings that will come out of that but let me just say this, one of the main evidences of the abiding presence of the power of the Holy Spirit within us as born-again children of God, believers in Christ, is the ever-abiding knowledge and sense of our own sin and weakness and depravity that keeps us from depending our salvation on ourselves. I know that I'm saved. I can tell you that. But there are times that I go through despondency and sorrow, not in doubting Christ, but in being reminded by the Spirit of God that I cannot depend on myself for any part of salvation.

I cannot look to myself. I must look to Christ. That's what this is all about. It's not like some preachers believe. Some people believe that the lower you get, the more you're saved. No. It's simply a knowledge that at no time in my Christian life, whatever you want to call it, can I look to myself and say, I've made it. I've earned that blessing. I deserve that blessing. No, no, I must always look to Christ. Christ is my hope. Christ is my joy. Christ is my peace.

You see what I'm saying? I can't say, Lord, today I'm at peace with you because I had a good day. Now, I may have had a good day. I've had some good days. But good days are not my salvation. Even the heathen have some good days. David cried in one of the Psalms, he said, why do the heathen prosper? Years ago, up in Kentucky, where I'm from, there was a little old town called Westwood. And it was just a hole in the ground.

Well, there was a guy there who was pretty much had the reputation of being a- drug addict all kinds of stuff. He won the Kentucky lottery. Forty five million dollars. And you know what he did they could they are you know how they do the news media they gather and they interviewed. He got up there enough you know the first thing came out of his mouth.

On that newscast He said, well, there is a God. And I thought, you fool. I said, there was a God when you were shooting up crack or whatever it was you were doing. There was a God before you won that lottery. So he wasn't giving glory to God. I guess he thought he was in his sad way. God is God, and he'll never be anything different. Whether you win the lottery or you lose your whole life, God is God. And God is good, but he's also just.

That fella moved to Florida, spent all his money, came back to Westwood poor, lived with his mother and died. What happened? That doesn't always happen with those who win the lottery. I'm not saying it. But I'm saying that you need to understand what this is about.

The ever-abiding knowledge and sense of our own sinfulness that keeps us from depending on ourselves and keeps us looking to Christ as the author and finisher of our faith. That's the depths. That's a good depth to be in. I hope our lives are full of joy. But understand, it's not just a feeling. It's looking unto Christ. And then look at verse two.

He says, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attended to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, listen to this verse. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Who shall stand? Lord, hear my voice. Think about it. Whose voice does the Lord hear?

Let me just read you some verses, and all these are out of the Psalms. I could go all over the Bible. Here's Psalm 34, 17. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Now, who are the righteous? Well, now listen to what he says here, verse three. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? That word mark there is literally keep looking at, keep a watch, remember. Just like the word mark in verse six, when he talks about They that watch for the morning, all of that. And what it means is something taking note of.

It's like you ever had a friend or a brother or sister that watched you, that every little mistake or thing you did, they'd run and tell mom and dad? You couldn't get away from them. We ever have a tattletale in school that anything you did wrong, they'd run, tell the teacher, tell the principal. They're always watching you.

Well, he's saying, if the Lord did that to you, you couldn't stand. And I'm gonna tell you something about the Lord. He wouldn't have to watch you for a day, for half a day. He'd just have to watch you for about a second. And me too. because by nature we always fall short it's not the same word but it's similar to the word impute you know over in Hebrews 10 17 the Lord says of his people in Christ he said he will remember their sins no more he's not watching you to see where he can grab you, or get you, or get one up on you, or punish you, or hurt you.

In fact, Romans 8.33 says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again.

Let me read you this one, Psalm 145, 19. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them. Sinners seeking mercy. There was an elder up in the church I pastored in Ashland. He used to refer to himself as a mercy beggar. That's what I am, he'd say, I'm a mercy beggar. When, brother Cecil, when brother, all the time, I'm just a beggar seeking mercy.

And that's who the, those who are of a broken and contrite heart, because it's the God who breaks that heart and makes it contrite. One more, 1-45-18, he says, the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. Be honest, that's what he's saying.

Come to God not as a proud boaster. Lord, Lord, haven't we done this? Haven't we preached in your name? I thank God I'm not like other men. I do this, I do that. Don't do this. That publican, I'm not like him. I'm better than him. Don't come to the Lord like a proud beggar. You won't stand because you see the comparison that you have to live up to is not that person you're looking at that you think is worse than you. The comparison is how do you stand with Christ? I quoted this earlier. in the first lesson. It's Acts 1731, which is a beautiful verse to show you about judgment.

And it says that God hath ordered a day, prepared a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by the standard of righteousness. Now, how righteous is righteous? He said, in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. By that man whom he hath ordained, in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Christ's righteousness, that's what we have to measure up to. And we cannot measure up to that righteousness by our works, by our efforts, by our intentions, our thoughts. The only way we can measure up to the righteousness of Christ is to have His righteousness accounted, put to our charge, our count, like a debt paid to where we owe nothing to God's law and justice because Christ paid it.

And so, given that, look at verse four, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. You know, when people consider what God requires, they'll either deny it and bring it to scale down, or they'll fall on their face and beg for mercy.

There's forgiveness with God? Forgiveness for me? Paul said he was the chief of sinners, but there's forgiveness with him. If you know yourself, you look at yourself as the chief of sinners. But there is forgiveness. And he says that thou mayest be feared. Now that means this, thou mayest be believed, thou mayest be worshiped. In other words, there is forgiveness, but it's God's way, it's not your way, my way, or mom's way, or dad's way, or grandma's way, it's God's way.

And that begs the question, knowing that the wages of sin is death and that's all we deserve and have earned. God is a just God. He must rule and act in strict justice. Man is sinful and has no ability to work righteousness or to satisfy God's justice for sin. Man has no answer for this problem. And I want you to think about it. You young people listen to me. You go out and you're gonna study, you're gonna go to school, you're gonna read, you're gonna discuss.

There's only one way that a holy God can, in mercy and grace and love, forgive a sinner and still be just and righteous in doing so. And there's not one religion on the face of this earth that has that answer. except true gospel Christianity. Even false Christianity doesn't have this answer because most religions will tell you, well you've got to do this and then you've got to do this and you've got to do that, depends on what denomination or what religion you're in. They'll tell you what you have to do in order to get God to forgive you. I heard a Baptist preacher preaching to thousands of people say one time, that the cost of forgiveness is your repentance. Wrong. You know what the cost of forgiveness is? The blood of Jesus Christ, period. And if God ever brings you and me to see it, which I believe he has made, then you'll repent as the result. Repentance will be the result, not the cause. And that's the difference. only God has that answer.

Listen to what he says here, he says, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared and so verse five, listen what he said, well, I'm gonna go check out all the philosophers and all of the priests and all of the preachers and all of the senators, all of the Einsteins, I'm gonna go check them all out. No, he didn't say that, he says in verse five, I wait for the Lord. If I find the answer to this, God's gonna have to be the one to reveal it to me. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. What does the Bible say? There's only one ground upon which God can forgive me and accept me, and that's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ freely imputed, accounted to me. It's based upon the redemption. Look at verse six, 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 so here's the conclusion, verse seven, let Israel. Now he's talking about spiritual Israel here. There is an application to national Israel, but that's over with. And the majority of them failed. But this is God's elect people, Jew and Gentile, known as spiritual Israel. Let Israel hope in the Lord.

There's my hope, there's my answer in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. There's the key. What is redemption? That's the Lord Jesus Christ giving Himself as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, buying us back, paying the debt of our sins in full and bringing forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God can forgive sinners like me and still be just and righteous in doing so, still honor himself. Plenteous redemption, enough. Not just part, this is not a partial salvation like most people believe.

God does his part, now you do yours. No, no. This is plenteous redemption, and it says in verse eight, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. All his inequities. Everywhere that I don't measure up, which is everywhere, God looks at me through Christ. So you see how this started out low, out of the depths?

Now, God shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. And who is the Redeemer? Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Who shall stand in that day? All who stand before him in Christ. That's why the Bible says, blessed are those who die in the Lord. And that is something precious to God for those who die in the faith, who die in Christ, because that glorifies Him and that's our entrance into final glory forever with Him. Amen. All right.