Turn back to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. The title of this message is, There Is Forgiveness With
God. There is forgiveness with God. And every sinner who has been
awakened by God, I don't care if it's fifty years ago, is interested
in this. Interested in forgiveness. I
don't know of anything that feels better than to be forgiven. But
especially when God forgives, because when God forgives, it's
forgotten. It is absolutely forgotten. You
and I can forgive one another, but we can't forget. We cannot
forget. It's just not a part of our makeup. But God forgets. God forgets
it. Now we have here A beggar's petition. Here is a beggar's petition.
Now there is no name on this, although I believe David wrote
it. There's no name on it. But if you can read down through
these eight verses, and you can identify with the
writer of this psalm, you can stick your name on it. You can
just as well put your name to it. The writer here, the psalmist
here, is being exercised in this matter of repentance,
a decontrition of heart, a broken heart over sin. It doesn't say
what sin, does it? I tell you what he's broken hearted
over is what he is by nature. That's when true conviction of
sin happens. When it's not, I'm not so much
troubled over what I have done, but what I am. The Apostle Paul
said, O wretched man that I am, not O wretched things that I
have done. But it's what I am. We honestly
believe we're pretty good people until God opens that cesspool
of sin that dwells in us. And he opens up that black heart
and lets you get a smell of yourself. What a stench. What a stench. And this is happening here in
this chapter. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord." Conviction of sin is deep work. It is a deep work of God in the
soul of a man. The psalmist here is crying unto
God out of deep conviction of sin. We know that as we go on
down here. A true conviction of sin brought
on by the Holy Spirit of God is painful. I'm telling you the
truth. It's painful. It's not an easy
thing. To believe and repent are not
easy things. They're not. It's painful, and
it's real. It is a conviction of what I
am by nature before God. It is to be stripped of all hope. It is to be stripped of everything
that I have, that I cling to. You know, Paul said, I was a
Pharisee of the Pharisee. I was a Hebrew. I was all these
things. But God came along and cut him
down on the road to Damascus. And then he cried, O wretched
man that I am. It is to be stripped before God
and it is to be stripped by God. It is to have my heart laid bare
before the justice of God Almighty. It is to see to some degree,
to some degree, how vile I am I have heard, and there's one
particular person that comes to my mind, nobody you all know
or have ever known. But every time I was around him,
he talked about, oh, what a wretched sinner I used to be. Well, we
do not do the things we used to do, but I'm still a wretched
sinner. We never get past this true conviction
of what we are by nature. We never get past it. And it
is something that goes on throughout a believer's life. You notice here he says, Have
I cried? Out of the depths have I cried? He's done this before. He's done
this before. Once it starts, it never stops. It may vary in degrees from time
to time. But it never stops. Conviction
of sin is like faith. It goes with us all the way to
the grave. That's the work of God's Spirit
in us. And it's painful. It is truly
painful. The sinner is made to cry out
of the depths of despair, out of the depths of corruption, He's made to cry. I mean to cry. Put this question to yourself.
Have you really been there? Have you really tasted this?
Have you really been where the psalmist is here? Out of the
depths of sin, of conviction, of despair? painful work, being
brought to faith and repentance is a painful experience. If a
man finds out what sin is, he will find himself in a very deep
pit of corruption, very deep pit, with no way out
unless God lifts him out. God will bring a sinner. To his
wits end. I mean to his wits end. Before
he reveals Christ as the Savior of his soul. In reality, I mean
by experience. You know, we're taught that all
the way from the Sunday school. But there's a difference when
you experience it. I'm telling you, there's a difference when
you experience that. That conviction of sin. That
painful conviction of sin. And when God lifts you out, and
Christ becomes, as Peter said, to you who believe, He's precious. Until then, He is not precious. Until then, it really doesn't
matter whether you come here or not. When you do, when He's precious
and you come here, you come to worship. In fact, you worship
Him before you ever get here. That's when it starts. I want
you to listen here now before I forget to read this. John Owen,
great writer, great writer. Let me read this whole thing
to you. It's not real long, but let me read it to you. The circumstances
in which Dr. John Owen's exposition of Psalm
130 originated are peculiarly interesting. Dr. Owen himself,
in a statement made to Mr. Richard Davis, who ultimately
became pastor of a church in Rowell, Northamptonshire, explains
the occasion which led him to a very careful examination of
the fourth verse in this psalm. Mr. Davis, being under religious
impressions, had sought a conference with Mr. Owen In the course of
the conversation, Dr. Owen put the question, young
man, pray, in what manner do you think to go to God? And he
replied, through the mediator, sir, answered Mr. Davis. That's
easily said, replied the doctor. You see, we learn these things
as we've grown up. If you've been taught well, you
learn these things, and it's good. It means you learn them.
But I assure you," this is his answer, I assure you, it is another
thing to go to God through the mediator than many who make use
of the expression are aware of. I myself preached Christ, he
continued, for some years when I had but very little, if any,
experimental acquaintance with access to God through Christ
until the Lord was pleased to visit me with sore affliction. whereby I was brought to the
mouth of the grave, and under which my soul was oppressed with
horror and darkness. But God graciously relieved my
spirit by powerful application of Psalm 130, verse 4. But there
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared, from whence
I receive special instruction, peace, and comfort, and draw
near to God through the Mediator, and preached and priest thereupon
immediately after my recovery." He said, it's one thing, he said
to that young man, son, it's one thing to say that and to
come to him through the mediator, but it's another thing to actually
experience it, to actually go through that real painful experience
of conviction of sin where Christ becomes everything. A song we
sing, Give Me Christ. or else I die. That's one of
the most special songs to me of all the songs Mike sings.
Give me Christ. Give me Him, His righteousness,
His blood, or I'm going to perish. I'm going to perish. A man finds out what sin is,
he'll find himself in a very deep pit of corruption. No one
No one can reach into that pit and pull you out except God Himself. No one. No one. He says in Psalm 40 verse 2,
He brought me up also out of a horrible pit. Have you been
there? Have you been in this horrible
pit? Out of the miry clay. And He set my feet upon a rock,
that is the rock Christ used, and established my goings. Only
Christ can bring a man up from such a horrible pit of corruption. By His substitutionary work,
He lifted me up out of the deep miry clay. But here's the most amazing thing. He Himself came into the pit. He did not just reach down and
pluck me like a bran from the fire, but in reality he came
into this cesspool of sin that you and I are born in. Now, not
one of us would go into a sewer after a sewer rat, but he did. He did. And I'm telling you this,
if you're born of God, you know that. You know that. You know
what He brought you up out of. And by His Spirit, by His Spirit,
He has lifted us up out of this horrible pit by regeneration,
by a new birth. And someday, someday, He's going
to take us out of this world. We truly will be lifted out of
the miry clay. Bring us out of that grave and
take us to glory. And now notice to whom he cries.
He says, Oh Lord, He's the one I've sinned against. He's the
one I have offended. But He's also the one that can
save me. He's the only one that can save
me. If we cry unto Him who alone can save and can forgive sin,
if we cry unto Him, we don't need to cry to anyone else, do
we? We don't need to. We need Him. We need Him. The good news is, no matter how
far down we are, no matter how far we have fallen, even since
we've believed, He can lift us up. He can lift us up. He can hear our cry for mercy
and lift us out of that pit of corruption and my reclaim. Peter said, Casting all your
care upon Him, for He careth for you. Paul wrote to the Philippians,
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Oh, he said, He says here, 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. Lord, this is urgent. It's urgent. You know what it is. If you've
truly been brought to this place, you know how urgent it is to
find mercy. You know how urgent it is to
be forgiven and these things put away. It's urgent. We are
not casually saved. I caught the tail end of one
of the Billy Graham classics the other night, and there was
a mob coming down at the end of it. You know, they gave the
invitation, and they're coming down, and they're just laughing,
looking at each other, grinning, smiling, laughing. No pain in
that. No repentance in that. Remember,
just that word alone tells you that it's painful. Repentance. He said, Lord, hear my voice. Give attention. Listen, if I
said this right now, if I said this right now, be attentive
is what I want to tell you. Now, I want you to be attentive. I'd
have your attention. And he said, Lord, be attentive.
Give special attention to this right now or I'm going to die.
I'm going to die. Be attentive. Let thine ears
be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If the Lord
will but hear my voice, I know all will be well. If I
can just have His ear If I could just have His attention, the
Creator of heaven and earth, the Sovereign, if I could just
have His attention, that's what He wanted. Is this not what we
want? Lord, hear my voice. We want God to hear our prayer
for mercy. I'm not saying just something
at one time, but I mean all the time. All the time. Lord, hear my prayer. for mercy. Hear the voice of my groaning.
I can't even put words to this. I'm trying to be careful that
we don't try to compare our experiences, but this is the experience of
every child of God whom the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. Of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment. Hear my voice. Hear my groanings. Hear the urgency of it. Hear
the trembling of it. Oh, give attention to this. What
if your child came home and did this? Spoke to you like this? This is the way we ought to speak
to God. These are the kind of prayers
I like to hear. I hear someone pray. I'm not
listening for a sermon. I'm listening for a prayer. A
prayer to God like a child would speak to his father. That's what
I want. And it's always good to recognize
His Lordship. Always first recognize His Lordship. First in prayer. If He's not
the Lord, why am I praying to Him? If He's Lord, He deserves
the glory and the reverence do unto His name. He deserves it. This prayer is a reverent prayer.
It's a humble prayer. It is a desperate prayer. And
it is a prayer for forgiveness. Lord, He said, hear my voice. Hear my voice. And here's the
problem. He reveals the problem here.
If thou, Lord, and the word Lord there means Yah. And y'all means
terrible majesty of God. Terrible majesty of God. He's
got an understanding here of who he's speaking to. He's got an understanding. This
verse tells us what's troubling the psalmist. His sins. It's not someone chasing him.
It's not that he's got the philistines after him or something's going
on in the kingdom and it's a problem. It's his sins. Like bees flying
about your head. It's his sins. Actually flying
about his soul, stinging him. That's what it's more like. It's
his sins. And it's God's judgment of sin. When God convicts of sin, You understand that God has to
judge sin, that God will judge sin. I really don't like using myself
as an example, but I do recall one of the things that really
troubled me when I heard the gospel and I really understood
what was going on. I would get up at night time
and I'd check the doors to make sure they were locked. I was
scared to death I was going to die. I was scared to death somebody
was going to come in and take me out. I was scared to death
when I got in my car that I was going to die and perish under
God's wrath because I knew God punished sin. At that time I
had no hope. I tell you, until you come to
that point, Christ means nothing to you. Until you come to the point to
understand what sin is, and how it's against God, and how He
hates it. He hates the workers of iniquity.
He doesn't just hate sin, He hates the workers of it. And you understand that. You
understand judgment. That's when Christ becomes precious. That's when He becomes precious. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who shall stand? If the Lord should mark every
sin, every thought, every idle word, If he should make note
of it, every deed, here's the great question. Who
should stand? Here's the psalmist. Here's what
he's saying. Lord, no one will stand. This is the king speaking. King David. I believe David wrote
that. King David. Lord, if you mark iniquities,
I can't stand. I cannot stand in judgment on
my own merits. If you mark, if you mark iniquity,
it says in Psalm 115, Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in
the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
They will not stand. And you know that. You know that. But now listen, God does mark
every sin. We can't comprehend this. God
marks every thought. Everything. Down to the jot and
tittle. He marks it. He marks it. No sin will go unpunished. But with the child of God, and
this is what makes Christ so precious, He marked that sin
upon him and punished him in the stead of every one of his
children. And now we're chastened. God chastens us for sin. He corrects us, but He does not
punish us. Punish is a legal term. He punished
Christ. He chastens us, His children. But no one, no one can stand
before God's bar of justice and be accepted on his own merits. Impossible. Impossible. And you know that. But, thank God for verse four. But there is forgiveness. And
I have written over that word propitiation. That's what it
means. And Jesus Christ has been set
forth as what? A propitiation, a mercy seeker.
There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. God
can show mercy. You see, you can't skip past,
you cannot skip past the out of the depths have I cried. You
cannot skip past that to verse 4. Well, there's forgiveness. I've done some things wrong I
shouldn't have done. I know that. You know, your own conscience
tells you that. That's not conviction of sin. My conscience tells me
you shouldn't have done that. That's not conviction of sin.
Conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit has convicted me of what
a wretched person I am and my hatred and my enmity to God.
They will mourn when they look on Him whom they pierced, not
whom they loved, whom they took a sword rammed in his side. We
all took turns doing it. But there is forgiveness. There
is mercy. God can show mercy as well as
judgment now. He can do that. In fact, the
Scripture says He delights to show mercy. Listen to this verse. If any man sin, or when any man
sin, And he's speaking to those who have been brought to faith.
We have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. We have an advocate. We have
one who represents us. And that means something. That's
not just an empty phrase. It's just not a name we're throwing
out there because it's the Bible. His name means something, not
only to the Father, but to us. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. There is forgiveness for sins
through the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. There is forgiveness. There is mercy. There is cleansing. And Acts 5, Him hath God exalted
with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Ephesians 1.7, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace. And Colossians 1.14, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. There's forgiveness with God. And the psalmist knows it. He
knows it. There's forgiveness with God.
Therefore, we don't have to carry sin with us to judgment. There
is forgiveness. And it's also here, because of
this forgiveness, is reason to fear. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. I don't want to lose God's favor.
David said, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. I don't
want to lose God's favor. I don't want to lose God's presence
for myself and for here, this congregation. I don't want to
lose that. God is sovereign. God is holy. God is just. He's merciful and gracious. But
I tell you this, He's to be feared. He may show mercy, and He may
not. I'm telling you what, that just
added. When I heard the Gospel, and I'm telling you, I was scared
to die. I was scared to death. I was
going to die and perish under God's wrath. And one of the things
that really added to it It added to the torment of it. He may show mercy and he may
not. He doesn't have to. He could pass me by and go to...
I mean, it doesn't have to be me. Of course, at the time, you
know, I didn't know anything. I didn't know anything. Worship begins with fear, a right
fear of God. It begins with a right fear of
God. He's to be worshiped for who He is. He's the Sovereign. I need mercy. I need cleansing. He can give it to me, but He's
the Sovereign. He's the Sovereign. But notice here, here's an expression
of faith. Because the Lord never has turned
away a man like this. Because this is the work of God.
This whole psalm right here is an experience of everyone whom
God saves. It's a work of God in the heart
of a sinner. Therefore, he says here in verse
5, I wait for the Lord. And this word wait, he says,
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. This is an expectation. Lord, You said, Come! Here I
am. You said, He that comes to me,
you will know why he is cast out. Lord, I come. And I expect, that's not a haughty
expectation. That's just expecting God to
do just as He said He would. That's taking God at His Word.
I expect to enter in. Because He said, Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. That's a promise. Now David here,
after remembering God's mercy and His willingness to forgive,
he waits. He said, I wait. I'm going to wait. I'm not going
to leave. I'm going to wait. Those who wait upon God will
not be disappointed. They will not be ashamed. It
says in Psalm 27 14, Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage
and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Henry
used to send me that verse thirty-some years, about thirty years ago. When we remember who it is we
are waiting on, it's not too hard to wait. We wait on Him
who is never late. We wait on Him who has never
failed. We wait on Him who has given us all the promises. We
wait on Him to do just as He said He would. We wait. Psalm 39, verse 7, And
now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Psalm 40, verse 1, I waited patiently
for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. And
in His Word do I hope. I may not be able to see His
hand of mercy when you are in the pit of corruption and you're
crying out of the depths of despair and sin and you cannot see the
hand of mercy. You can't read about it. You can't read about it. In His written Word and the living
Word do I hope. It is in His Word that we discover
who the Lord is and that there is forgiveness. That there is
forgiveness with Him through the blood, the righteousness,
the sacrifice of His Son. That tells me one thing. It's in His Word. For in Thy
Word do I hope. You have no hope outside the
Word of God. You can't find any hope outside the Word of God.
You can't find it in philosophy. You can't find it wandering around
in the woods. You can only find it in His Word. Because it's
in the Word of God that hope is found, that comfort is found,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is found. That's where you found hope,
forgiveness. That's where you heard about
it. You know, one day you heard the Gospel. You heard of God
saving sinners through His Son. You heard of His blood being
the blood of atonement. You heard of His righteousness.
You heard of Him. And even in your despair, and
even in your depth of sin, you had hope. You had hope. Not realizing God's at work,
you had hope. And that hope And that hope kept
you going. That hope got you up the next
morning, got you through that day. That hope laid you to bed
at night. Even in your despair, even in
your misery, you had hope. And you found that in His Word.
It's the foundation for everything we believe and preach. We need to be in the Word as
much as possible. It's our daily bread. My soul
waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.
I say more than they that watch for the morning. Oh, like I said,
I can remember watching for the morning. It was misery to me. I just could never get used to
that shift. And it was misery to me, waiting for that thing
to end. He said, My soul waiteth for
the Lord, waiteth with expectation, waiteth with hope, more than
they that watch for the morning. That's looking. That's looking.
You're looking for Him. You are expecting Him to come. You're expecting Him. You're
expecting the Lord to do what He said. He said, I wait for
the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say
again, Repeat it! More than they that watch for
the morning. He waits for the Lord. He desires
His Lord's presence more than those who watch for the morning
light to come. Oh, God give us this kind of
desire to come here. I mean to come here with that
desire that we're going to hear from
our Lord. We are going to have His presence.
We're going to have His presence. This is special. We have His
presence because Christ is in you. You have His presence. But
we have His special presence when we gather together like
this. We have it. That Israel, notice here now,
I want you to notice something here. I want you to notice how
he encourages now, after he has found encouragement himself,
after he is being encouraged by the Spirit of God, he now
encourages his brethren to hope in the Lord. It's hard to encourage
someone to hope if you've not found it. If you have not been
encouraged, you're going to have a difficult time encouraging
someone else. They can see right through you. They can see right through you.
If you haven't found it, you won't encourage anyone else
to find it. But He has found it. Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. And with
Him is plenty of redemption. If we find the Lord to be gracious, then tell others. Tell others. Let the Israel of
God hope in the God of hope. Our confidence is not in the
arm of the flesh, but in the God of mercy, the God of Israel. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who He is, Son of God, Son of Man, bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. Yet he's the everlasting God. He's our advocate. He's our high
priest. He's our all in all. Our all in all. One writer said
this, the attribute of mercy and the fact of redemption are
two sufficient reasons for hoping in the Lord. The attribute of
mercy and the fact of redemption are two sufficient reasons to
hope in the Lord. He is our hope. He's all our
hope. And I'll wind this down. As long, I want you to listen,
as long as a man, a sinner, finds hope in the Lord, he'll
wait. He'll wait. If he loses that
hope, he'll quit waiting. He'll go and do something else. A man will quit waiting upon
God when he quits hoping in God. A man will wait as long as he
hopes. As long as there's hope. If you
think there's a breath of life left in that child lying in the
hospital, then there's what? There's hope. And you won't leave
it. You won't leave it. And as long
as a man has hope, he'll wait. says in Colossians 127, to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. And if you have that, you'll
wait, you'll wait, you'll cry out the depths, and you'll wait. And he shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. Not mistakes. Not mistakes. We try to make excuses. Boy,
I tell you, one of the best things we could ever learn is to do
away with excuses. Cry guilty. Sin. Call it what it is. Put the face on it that belongs
to it. Iniquities. The worst enemies
we have are our iniquities. They're ever before us. But thank
God they are not ever before Him. He's put them away. He's
redeemed us. Redeemed. His redemption is so
plenteous that not one Israelite shall perish. He shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities. Every Israelite shall be saved. Every one of them. There is forgiveness with
God. There is forgiveness with God. That's good news, isn't it? That's the glad times of the
gospel. Okay, Mike.