If you would care to open your
Bibles with me to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. I was telling Aaron a few minutes
ago, this is one of my favorite services all year. I look forward to this service
all year. I think Thanksgiving has got
to be the most scriptural holiday. How many times in Scripture are
we told, give thanks? Be thankful. In all things, give
thanks. So that's very special. to me
to have this opportunity to observe the Lord's table with you at
the start of this Thanksgiving holiday. All right, Psalm 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, shouldst 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's mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how we give thanks
for your mercy and grace to your people in our Lord Jesus Christ.
How we thank you for your love for sinners that would compel
you to send your Son to be the sacrifice for our sin. Father, we're thankful. And at
this time when our country pauses to give thanks, Father, we join
in and say thank How can we begin to thank you for your innumerable
blessings that you've so freely given to your people? And Father,
make us a thankful people, not just at this time, not just with
lip service, but all the time, thankful with a heartfelt gratitude
for your mercy and your grace. We're so thankful, Father, that
you have not left us to ourselves, but that you've You've given
us your gospel. You've given us a place where
we can meet together and worship you, hear your gospel preached.
Father, we're thankful. And we pray your blessing would
continue in the future with this congregation, that you continue
to bless us as you have in the past. Continue, Father, to bless
your word. Continue to call out your sheep.
Continue to feed and comfort and edify your sheep through
the preaching of your word. And Father, we pray especially
for tonight. Would you be pleased, we pray,
to meet with us and enable us to learn more of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to trust Him more fully, to love Him more completely,
to rest in Him. Father, bless Your Word. We beg
of Thee as it's preached tonight. Be with the preacher. Enable
me to rightly divide the word of truth, to preach with a heart
of compassion. to the hearts of your people.
Father, give a hearing ear and a believing heart. Only you can
do it. We can't make ourselves believe.
We can't make ourselves see. Only you can give life. And Father,
we pray that you would. We pray that you'd bless your
people. And Father, we pray for those who cannot be with us tonight. They're traveling or sick or
many different reasons. Father, we pray you'd be with
them. Watch over them. Give those who are traveling,
traveling mercies. And for Your people that You brought in the
time of trouble and trial, Father, we pray for them. We pray You'd
heal. We pray that You'd lead and guide.
And above all, Father, we pray You'd give Your people a special
portion of Your grace and Your presence. And all these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For His glory, for His
sake, we pray and give thanks. Amen. Nearer, still nearer, close to
thy heart. Draw me, my Savior, so precious
thou art. Hold me, oh, hold me close to
thy breast. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, nothing
I bring, Not as an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite
heart, Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart. Grant me the cleansing Thy blood
doth impart. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to
be Thine. Sin with its follies I gladly
resign. all of its pleasures, pomp and
its pride. Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last, Till safe in glory my anchor is cast. Through endless ages, ever to
be, still nearer to Thee. Nearer, my Savior, still nearer
to Thee. I titled the message this evening,
A Cry from the Depths. Now remember, we're looking through
these, what is commonly called the Psalms of Degrees. And these are songs that the
travelers would sing as they would go up to the various feasts
every year to Jerusalem. And these Psalms of Degrees usually
begin in a low place, and then they continually rise up and
rise up to the end in a high place. And that's what this psalm
does. This psalm begins in the depths.
The depths of sin, the depths of despair, the depths of sorrow
and pain and suffering. And it rises to full, free forgiveness. It rises to joy and confidence
in Christ. Now the key is in Christ. In Christ. The only hope that
a sinner has for forgiveness of our sin is in the sacrifice
of Christ, our substitute. The only reason that anybody
can have any real true joy, true confidence, true confidence in
eternity, is that Christ was already crucified. He already
suffered in my place as a sacrifice for my sin. And David says, verse
1, Psalm 130, Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.
And I want to focus on this cry this evening. Out of the depths
have I cried. And first, I want us to see how
this is the cry of Christ our substitute. But then it's the
cry of all of God's people. And I want to give you four things
this evening from our text that we hear in this cry. And number
one is this, in this cry, cry from the depths, we hear justice
poured out. Now, every believer cries to
God from the depths. We cry to God from the depths
of our sin. We cry to God in the depths of
our despair. to God in the depths of our sorrow
when God brings trouble and trial our way. But you know the only
hope that we have of being heard, the only reason God would ever
hear our cry from the depths is we've already been forgiven
by Christ our substitute who cried first, who cried from the
depths first. Now we think that we've cried
from the depths, but I want to tell you, nobody has ever cried
from such a deep depth. depth as Christ the sinner's
substitute. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He cried in agony at the being
abandoned by his father. He felt no loving presence from
his father as he suffered on Calvary's tree. He cried, I thirst,
because he thirsted for righteousness when he was made sin. The holy
son of God was made sin for His people. And He cried from such
depth because this is the Holy One suffering for sin. He felt
the weight of sin. He felt the guilt of sin. He
felt the shame of sin far more than sinners like you and me
can feel it because He's the Holy One suffering for sin. And
the Savior's cry let us know there's no suffering like His
suffering. There's no sorrow like unto His sorrow. Or would
the Lord have afflicted him on the day of his fierce anger?
Now why was the father so angry with the son? Why was the father
so angry to cause him to suffer like no one else had ever suffered?
To go to depths nobody else has ever gone to? Well, it's because
Christ had been made sin for his people. And when that happened,
the father poured out his full, unmitigated wrath and fury upon
his son in justice. Look what David says in verse
3. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand? Not me, not you, not anyone. You know, the father marked the
iniquity of his elect on his son when Christ was made to be
sin. And then the father poured out
his justice upon him. He marked him and he gave him
all of his wrath, all of his justice. The father would not
spare even His only begotten Son, when His Son was made sin. And how He suffered for that
sin. Just unimaginably how He suffered for that sin. The Father
gave His Son everything our sin deserves. Everything. He suffered
untold, unimaginable agony. And He was getting what He deserved.
Suffering under the justice of His Father. The Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin for His people. That's the only reason his body
could be broken and his blood could be shed that we're going
to remember here in the Lord's table in just a minute. The only
way we have this to remember the broken body and the shed
blood of our Redeemer is he was made sin for his people and he
suffered justice. His cry out of the depths of
suffering for sin lets us hear justice poured out, but it also
lets us hear justice satisfied. justice poured out and justice
satisfied. That brings me to my second point.
Through this cry from the depths, we have forgiveness freely given. Now, since the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered for his people, since he cried to his father and his
father would not hear him, he would not, the father heard his
cry, but he would not hear him in the sense he'd be merciful.
No, he was given him nothing but wrath, nothing but fury.
And since the father refused to hear Christ as he suffered,
God's people can cry out of our depths and be heard. Look what
David says, verse two. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. Now, before
God saves anybody, they're always going to cry to God from the
depths because God's going to lay them low with the conviction
of sin. God, the Holy Spirit is going
to show them that they're guilty. The Spirit is going to show them,
He's going to convince them of sin and show them they deserve
God's wrath. Before God saves anybody, this
is what He's going to do. He's going to lay them so low,
they've got no hope in themselves. There's nothing they can do to
help themselves. And the Holy Spirit is going
to show them, God would be just if He sent me to hell right this
second. God would be just. Now that's
being brought low, isn't it? But you know that's the only
time we'll ever cry to God. It's got to be when He lays us
low in that awful, horrible condition. We can't help ourselves, can
we? Can't do anything to improve the situation. All we can do
is cry to God and beg to be heard. We cry out of the depths of our
sin for God's mercy and His grace and forgiveness. You're never
going to cry for this forgiveness of sin until God lays you low.
You've got no other hope. We cry out of the depth of our
sorrow for His comfort. We cry out of the depths of our
darkness for His light. We cry out of the depths of our
weakness for His strength. We cry out of the depths of our
deadness for His life. We cry to God because there's
nobody else who can help us. We can't help ourselves and nobody
else can help us. All we can do is cry. is crying. Jan and I were watching a show
the other day and these young parents were having to decide,
their little one, little one, just an infant, was crying. Crying
at night. And they decided, okay, tonight's
the night. We're going to let them cry it out. And they just
stood outside that door just so miserable, just so miserable.
And Jan said, if I had that to do over again, I would not do
it. We did that. We did it. It's
awful. But you know what all that baby can do is cry. The kid can't get out of the
crib. He can't go get something to eat if he's hungry. All he
can do is cry. When God brings us to that point
that all we can do is cry because we're helpless. We don't even
have any idea how to fix the problem. That baby doesn't have
any idea how to fix the problem. I just want somebody to hold me. When
God brings us that low, all we can do is cry. That's when God's
going to hear us. And the one hope we have, God
will hear us, is that Christ, our substitutes, cried first,
as He was suffering for my sin. The only hope we have of being
heard is for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. It's the sake
of His obedience. It's the sake of His blood, the
blood of His sacrifice. You'll notice in this psalm,
never one time does David plead his merit. Never one time does
he plead being a mighty warrior for God. Never one time does
he plead being a good king for God's people. He never pleads
merit, his own. He only pleads the merit of Christ. He never one time pleads his
worthiness. He only pleads to be heard for
Christ's sake. And thank God, he hears the cry
of mercy beggars who are crying out to God for mercy for Christ's
sake. Not for my sake, but for Christ's
sake. God's not going to hear the cry of the self-righteous.
Who will admit I need a little help? God's not going to hear
the cry of that person. But God always, always hears
the cry of helpless beggars. I want to ask you right now, why
aren't you crying to God? You cry to him as a beggar. His ear is not heavy, it cannot
hear. God will hear. He heard the cry
of blind Bartimaeus, didn't he? Everybody else was trying to
get Bartimaeus to shut up. He heard it. The King of Glory stopped
in his tracks at the cry of that beggar. God heard the cry of
a leper, filled with leprosy. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. And God will hear you, and he
will hear me too, if we cry from the depths, from the very bottom,
if we cry for Christ's sake. See, God will hear because God
has already forgiven the sin of his people because of the
sacrifice of Christ. Look here, verse three again.
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Now, I love this word that begins
verse four, but. I love the buts of scripture.
Ephesians chapter two, you know how it starts. We were, all of
us, we were dead in sin, walking after the course of this world.
We're under the power, the control of Satan. We're the children
of wrath, even as others, deserving God's wrath. But God, oh, but
God, who's rich in mercy. He saved us for his glory sake,
so that he could get the glory. And that's what we needed. We
need but God. I don't need God to just, you
know, me to do my part and Jesus to his part. God's people can't
do anything. They can't contribute anything.
They're just as sinful as every other son of Adam. Every last
one of us here tonight, we deserve God's eternal wrath and condemnation. That's what we deserve for who
we are and what we've done. If God would charge us with our
sin, who could stand? Not one. We'd be damned. But,
but, David says, there is forgiveness with thee. Now, who knows? Nobody knows when David wrote
this or what could have been in his mind. We know the Spirit
was moving him to write this. It wouldn't surprise me David
wrote that. Oh, but there's forgiveness with
thee. You think maybe he thought back to Bathsheba? He had her
husband Uriah killed. And David thought, Nathan came
to him and said, you're the man. And David said, I've sinned against
the Lord. He had to think the Lord's going to get me now. And
what did Nathan tell him? Oh, but God. God's put away your
sin. You shall not die. Because why? There's forgiveness with thee.
There's forgiveness with God. The God against whom we've sinned.
Now that's good news. The forgiveness of sin is free
to you and me. It's free. I'm telling you, it
costs the Son of God everything. The forgiveness of sin from God
can only come through suffering, through the sacrifice of Christ
our substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ cried out
to His Father in suffering. So, He didn't cry for His sake,
He did that for our sake. So His cry would echo down through
the ages, so we'd have it recorded in Scripture, so that we could
see He was truly suffering for sin. God wasn't playing games
here. This wasn't just like, you know,
God wasn't just play-acting here. No, He was giving Him the full
rod of His justice. And He cried out so we would
know He's suffering for the sin of His people. And He cried out
so that we would know because of His suffering, because of
His sacrifice, there is forgiveness with God. Because Christ has
already suffered for the sin of His people. The Savior did
cry in His agony. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? He cried from the depths, all
the depths of His suffering. But you know what else the Savior
cried from the cross? Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. He cried, I thirst. I thirst
for righteousness. I thirst for acceptance with
my Father, union with my Father. He cried, I thirst. But He also
told that guilty thief, today shalt thou be with me. in paradise
today. See, all these cries, all these
sayings of Christ from the cross go hand in hand. He could say,
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He
could say to a guilty, dying thief today, so thou be with
me in paradise. Because you know what else he
cried? It is finished. All the work of redemption is
finished. Sin has been punished. Forgiveness has been purchased.
God forgives the sin of His people through the blood of Christ's
sacrifice. Now, people can argue about who it was that the Savior
prayed for. He said, Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do. I don't know who He prayed for,
but this I know. They're forgiven. They're forgiven
because of the blood of Christ's sacrifice. It's not because they
were ignorant. It's because of the blood. God
accepts His people back in His presence because Christ made
them fit. He made them meet by His sacrifice,
which washed them white as snow and made them righteous. Now
I ask you and me, why aren't we crying tonight? Right now,
where you sit, you cry out to God from the depths of your sin
and you beg God for forgiveness for Christ's sake. And do it
right now. Do it right now. One time, Brother Fortner was
here preaching. I was introducing him. And one
of the things I love about Brother Don's preaching was it was urgent. It was urgent. I mean, he urgently
compelled men and women to come to Christ. He's sitting right
there. And he said, I want them to do it right now. And that's
what I'm telling you. Right now. Right now. Cry out
to God for mercy. If you cry to God from the depths,
from the bottom of the barrel, because you've got no ability
to help yourself, and there's no reason found in you that God
would save you. There's no reason, you can't
see any reason that God would be merciful to you instead of
somebody else. If you cry out to God like that, from the depths,
from the bottom of the barrel, where you cannot get any lower,
God will hear you. He'll forgive you. But now the
cry has got to be from the absolute bottom. When we can sink no further
down in our sin. We can't sink any further in
being more shameful, any more guilty. That's when God will
hear the cry of His people and forgive them. And David says
here, he does this at the end of verse four, that thou mayest
be feared. Don't miss this. Don't miss this.
The reason for the gospel is not so that The gospel can tell
us everything that God does for us. Now, certainly the gospel
does tell us God's done something for His people. But if the purpose
of preaching the gospel is to tell people what God has done
for them, you can't help it. You're going to make me in the
focal point. The reason for the gospel, the reason that God saves
sinners this way is to tell the glory of God. To tell the glory,
God did something for Himself. God did something to glorify
Himself in saving sinners from their sin. And there's a big
difference in those two ways of preaching the Gospel. But
just by telling people what God has done for people, or telling
people, here's the glory of God, how God did something for Himself
to glorify Himself in saving His people. God saved sinners
this way, through the suffering, through the sacrifice, through
the death of His Son, where the Father is the one that put him
to death. God did it that way so that God may be feared. And
that word feared means to stand in awe. God did it this way so
we would stand in awe of God. God forgives the sin of His elect
to glorify Himself and to glorify His Son so that we will stand
in awe of Him. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus, the Nazarene. And I wonder how He could love
me, a sinner condemned to unclean. That's fearing. That's why God
did this, that we would stand in awe of Him. That God would
be worshipped in awe and wonder. And this is one of my constant
prayers for me and for you, this whole congregation. If we ever
get over this awe and this wonder And we begin to think that somehow
we deserve God's forgiveness. If somehow we think that we just
ought to be able to worship God, but you know, God owes it to
us. I'm telling you, we've already long ago stopped worshiping God
altogether. If that happens, if we just,
we lose the awe, the wonder, the forgiveness of sin. We're
going to start worshiping ourselves and we're going to be in deep,
deep trouble, deep trouble. The cross is the preeminent display
of God's glory. God saves sinners. God forgives
the sin of His people through the death of His Son. And if
that don't make you cry for mercy from the depths, nothing will.
That ought to fill us with awe and wonder that God would be
willing to save wretches like you and me. He forgives sin through
the sacrifice of His Son. Then thirdly, through this cry,
we're given a patient hope. Verse five, David says, I wait
for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope. Now I tell you this often, this
hope is an expectation. That's what the word means. It's
an expectation. Not because of who we are, but
because of who Christ is. It's an expectation because of
what Christ accomplished upon the cross, not what we do or
we don't do. And this expectation gives God's
people a patient hope. I freely admit to you that I
am not the most patient person in the world. It's a big joke
in my family. I am just not the most patient
person in the world. I hate, I mean, I utterly hate
to wait unnecessarily I hate it. I mean, I always have. You've got so much time. I just
hate wasting it. But even I can wait patiently
for something that I know is coming. I know it's coming. Right
now, I only see through a glass darkly. I know God. I do. I know. I know Christ.
I know Him. But I tell you, I don't know
Him like I wish I did. I see Him. By faith, I see Him.
But not nearly as clear as I wish it would. But I can still wait
patiently. Because this is what I know.
Right soon, I'm going to see Him face to face. And then there's
going to be no more questions. It just cracks me up to hear
people say, I can't wait to get before the judgment seat of Christ.
I've got a lot of questions. God's got a lot to answer for
it. Two things. Number one, when
we see the King as He is, nobody's going to dare ask Him any questions.
And number two, when we see Him as He is, there won't be any
more questions. Because it's all Him. You see,
it's all Him. It's all Him. When we see Him,
there can be no more questions. I know that right now, I know
this is true doctrine. I am sinless right now. Because Christ put my sin away.
I know that's so. Even though when I look at myself,
all I see is sin. But I know this is so. I'm sinless. That's so. But I haven't experienced
it yet. And I long to. I long to experience
what it will be like to be righteous. Perfect body and soul. I long
for that. But I can wait for it. Even I
can wait for it. Because I know it's coming. I know it's coming
soon. Soon, very soon, I'm going to
be given a body just like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll be satisfied when I awaken
with His likeness. And I know, I know that there's
no reason to doubt or to fear. I know, I know there's no reason
to fear. But in this flesh, I sure experience
a lot of it, don't you? I experience a lot of it. I long
to love the Lord perfectly and to have no more doubts, no more
fears, no more tears, no more weak faith. I long. I long for that. And even I can
wait patiently for it because I know that right soon God's
going to give it to me in glory. See, I know that. I long for
these things. You do too. You know Christ.
You long for these. You have them, but you long to
experience them. Look here at verse six. My soul
waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.
I say more than they that watch for the morning. Now we wait. Believers wait for the experience
of these things that we hope for, that we expect. We long
for them. We strain. Just stand on tiptoes
and squint and strain to see, to see Christ coming, to see
him more perfectly. We want them so badly, we just
long for them. And there's so much speculation
about what David meant here when he says, I watch for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. Some people think
it means like a mother. She's sitting up with a sick
little one and she's just waiting for the morning because it seems
like it's all better in the morning. When Holly was a little baby,
I thought she just had the sniffles. She's six weeks old. I thought
she had sniffles. Jan was like, something's wrong. This is serious.
Something's wrong. She sat up all night, that baby. In the
morning, it didn't get any better. In the morning, we took her to
the hospital. They put her in intensive care. She had pneumonia. It doesn't always get better
in the morning. Maybe it means this. I've had
to stay up all night working and I was Watching a warehouse
one time, I had to sit out on the hill and watch it. We thought
somebody was coming in and stealing. I had to sit and watch all night,
sit in the weeds, you know, watching. Whoo! It's hard to stay awake.
I mean, it's hard to stay awake. Maybe it means like those guards
that had the night watch. And they're watching for the
sun. Because when that sun comes up, they're off duty, and they
can go rest. I believe that's what Dave was
talking about there. Here we are in our darkness. in this
dark, dark world. And I'm watching for the sunrise,
aren't you? Oh, it's going to be better when He appears. Oh,
I long for those things. And even I can patiently wait
for it. Because I know He's coming. I know He's coming. Just as surely
as the sun is going to rise tomorrow, He's coming. He's coming. I long
for it. I long for it. But He's coming. And He's going to give us everything
He's earned for His people. And this hope is an expectation
that's not based on fantasy. You know, if you never heard
the Gospel before, you'd think that's too good to be true. I
mean, that's people's problem. You mean to tell me it's free?
That I don't have to, you know, earn it by my morality, my law
keeping, doing this, that, or the other, give up doing this,
that, and the other? That's too good to be true. This
is an expectation that's not a fantasy because it's based
on the Word of God. At the end of verse 5, David
says, in His Word do I hope. Now anything else but hoping
in God's word is a fairy tale. And if you're waiting for a fairy
tale ending, you're going to be disappointed. But if you expect
God to fulfill his promises that you find in his word, you will
never be disappointed, ever. And you can patiently wait for
it. This cry from the depths, that gives us the ability to patiently wait
and hope in God's word. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Through this cry, we're given a good hope. Verse seven,
let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there's mercy,
and with him is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from
all of his iniquities. Now let me give you five reasons
for a good hope from these two verses. First, sinners have a
good hope because this hope is a good hope through grace. Grace
is for sinners. David says, let Israel hope in
the Lord. Well, think of old Israel. What did his name used to be?
It used to be Jacob. He is a notorious sinner, a notorious
cheat. But God, by his sovereign electing
grace, he saved old Jacob and he changed his name to Israel,
a prince with God. And all throughout his life,
Jacob never could shake God's grace, could he? He never could.
When he was dying, he told Joseph, he talked about God who shepherded
me, fed me all the days of my life. His grace was always with
me. And you won't be able to shake
God's grace either if your hope is in God's grace and not in
what you can earn from God. This is a good hope by grace.
Second, this is a good hope because we trust in the Lord, not ourselves. David says hope in the Lord. Hoping in the Lord's character,
not yours. Your character is sinful, unfaithful. God's character is merciful and
He's faithful. You hope in His character. You
hope in, you trust in Christ's righteousness, not your righteousness.
Because His is perfect and you don't have any. So trust in His
righteousness. If you're trusting in the Lord
and who He is, you've got a good hope. Third, this is a good hope. because it's based upon mercy. David says there's mercy with
the Lord. Now here's the thing about mercy.
The Lord doesn't owe mercy to anybody. God's mercy is sovereign
mercy. He gives it to whom He will.
But I ask you, God is sovereign. His mercy is sovereign. He gives
it to whom He will. Can you think of a better reason
to beg God for mercy? I can't think of a better reason
than to beg God for the forgiveness of my sin other than this, there's
mercy with the Lord. I can't think of a better reason.
What better reason can you think of to beg God for mercy than
He gives mercy to those who don't deserve it? What better reason
can you think of to beg God for mercy than that the Lord would
not give you what you deserve, He'd give you what Christ deserves.
Because He gave His Son what you deserve. Can you think of
a better reason to beg God for mercy? Look at Lamentations 3. There's a good hope in this mercy. There is mercy with the Lord,
and there's plenty of it. Lamentations, right after the
book of Jeremiah. There's plenty of it. God's rich
in mercy. Look here at Lamentations 3,
verse 11. You'll notice this is the Savior
speaking from the cross, just like He is from our text. Verse
11, Lamentations 3. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people, and their song, they mocked Him
in song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken
my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot
prosperity. And I said my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering my affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still
in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind
Therefore have I hope. I have hope because this is Christ
my substitute speaking. Then look what he says in verse
22. It is of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed, because
his compassions fell not. They're new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. Therefore will I hope in him.
The Lord is good unto them. that wait for Him. That lets
us patiently wait, doesn't it? The Lord's good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It's good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. The Lord is rich in mercy. We
have a good hope because of God's mercy. So the only question to
you and me is this. Are we sinners who need mercy? That's the only question. Are
you such a great sinner? Are you so guilty that the only
hope you can have is God's mercy? Are you? Well, if you are, then
you've got a good hope. Because with the Lord, there's
mercy. All right, fourth, this is a
good hope. Because the Lord is plenteous in redemption. There's
plenty of redemption for everybody who needs it. There's grace greater
than all of our sins. You cannot out-sin God's mercy
and grace. There's plenteous redemption
within. You can't exhaust God's love. God's love is immeasurable. You can't measure the height
of it, the depth of it, the length of it, or the breadth of it.
You can't out-sin the precious blood of Christ. The blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from what? All sin. All sin. With the Lord, there's
plenteous redemption. He puts away all the sin of his
people. With the Lord, there's plenteous
redemption. Now that's a good hope, isn't
it? A good hope. And then fifth, this is a good
hope because it's a sure thing. Verse 8, David says, he shall
redeem Israel from all of his iniquities. There's no rigmarole
in there, is there? There's no doubt left there.
By His obedience and by His sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ shall redeem
Israel from all of His iniquities. All of them. There's not a chance
that Christ can fail to save His people because His sacrifice
is perfect. Now that's a good hope. It's
a good hope that we have through Christ's suffering. And that's
what we're going to remember this evening. We're going to
remember our Lord by remembering His sacrifice. in the way that
He has given us to remember Him. And I can't think of a better
time for us to gather together and do this than before we go
to our tables tomorrow that are overflowing with turkey and dressing
and gravy and all the stuff, all the fixings, sweet potato
casserole, pumpkin pie. You think that table's something? Oh, look at this table. the table
of our Lord to remember. I can't think of a better time
to do it, can you? Alright, now if you will recall the way you
actually turn where the wine is on the bottom there and pull
the little tab off there and you get the bread. In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23,
the Apostle Paul says, For I have received of the Lord that which
also I delivered unto you. that the Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he'd given
thanks, he'd break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which
is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father,
how we thank you for this opportunity that we have to be together,
to hear your gospel preached and to remember our Lord Jesus
Christ, to remember His body, His precious, sinless body broken
for our sin, broken for the sin of His people. And how we thank
You that we have a good hope through His sacrifice, that by
His suffering, by His death, all of God's people have full,
free redemption from all of their sin. Father, we thank You. Cause us always to Be mindful
of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great, great sacrifice, his
great successful sacrifice for his people. It's in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks. Amen. You know, if you turn that over
and carefully pull that off, you access the wine. Eric, would you give thanks for
the wine, please? Our gods and fathers, we thank
you for this opportunity to be in Gathering and we cry out God be merciful. On how we thank you. For our
sin. Even the blood. With the blood. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you. We might do things that are righteous
to God. God doesn't have to make you
a martyr. That's the way our parents and our mothers
and our fathers did it. That's the way He did it. I'm so concerned about taking
that lid off and not spilling it on myself. I forgot to read
this. Maybe this is a good thing to
do. We'll read this, what the Lord said about the wine before
he closed. After the same manner also he
took the cup when he is up, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye, as often as you drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come."
I hope that's been a blessing to you. It has been to me. Like
I said, I always look forward to this evening. And I pray the
Lord will bless you. I pray the Lord will give you
a good time with your family. Enjoy eating all you want tomorrow
and look forward to seeing you again on Sunday. You're dismissed.