When God saves a needy sinner, he or she will come to one common
place. This is the place where God brings
all His chosen people. I'm not speaking of the church.
I'm not speaking of the altar down front. That's not where
God brings sinners. That's not where He brings sinners
when He saves them. He brings them down to the depths. Look at verse 1 again with me
in Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. out of the depths of sin and
despair and deep conviction is where believing sinners are brought
by God. God will cause our sin to bring
us low. When God gives a sinner a thorough
sense of their sin, it is then and only then that they see themselves
unworthy of any favor from God. Undeserving. That's what makes
grace, grace and mercy, mercy. They'll see themselves deserving
of His wrath and His displeasure. They'll see themselves as polluted,
guilty creatures, loathsome and abominable, wretched and undone,
the chief of sinners as the Apostle Paul said. And they're brought
into the depths of sin and despair. Jeremiah's cry came from the
depths of the dungeon. Daniel's cry came out of the
depths of the lion's den. And Jonah's cry came out of the
depths of the water in the fish's belly. God's elect are always
brought to the same place, friends. They're brought out of the depths
of themselves. They're brought to the end of
themselves where they see there's no escape and no way out in their
own right or own doing. God will close the center in
between His holy law and His wrath. No place to go. And they'll always do the same
thing from the same place. Look at verse 1 again. Out of
the depths have I cried. They'll cry. They'll cry out. Like Isaiah, when he saw the
Lord high and lifted up, he cried, Woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm unclean. And the chosen sinner's cry will
be like that of the Apostle Paul when it was revealed to him by
God what he truly was, a wretched and miserable man. Now did Paul
conclude he was wretched and miserable when he held the coats
of those that stoned the beloved Stephen? No. It wasn't then. Did he discover that he was a
wretched, miserable man, undone and helpless before God when
he persecuted the church and threw those who trusted in Christ
in prison? No. It wasn't that. It was when
God knocked him off his high horse into the dust and the depths
of despair and showed him what he was. And in Romans chapter
7, you and I are both very familiar with these verses. Out of the
depths of his soul's desperation, he said, I know that in me that
is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. for
the good that I would, I do not, and the evil which I would not,
that I do." He went on to say, I found a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. And I see another law in
my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Then came his cry, friends, from
the depths of his soul and from the deep of his complete desperation. And he said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Isaiah
cried, Paul cried, and every child of God will cry the same
thing to the same person. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Unto thee, O Lord. That is to
whom we'll cry. Out of the depths of sin, need,
helplessness, hopelessness, we cry unto God, our Savior, for
He's the only one who will hear and the only one who can help. Oh, it would do us no good to
cry unto anyone else. God won't hear a man just because
he cries. Men cry every day. They cry out
of self-centeredness and for self-serving reasons, but God
hears those who cry out of the depths. God hears the voice of
helpless beggars. He always has. Bartimaeus said,
Lord, have mercy on me. What can I do for you, Bartimaeus?
Then I might see. Then I might see. Do you desire
to see? Your cry needs to be unto God.
That leper that fell before the Lord Jesus Christ. Leprosy was
a deadly disease. There was no cure. He said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
God in the flesh, thundered on earth, I will. I will. That's my hope. That's your hope.
that God will have mercy on us. David said in Psalm 40 verse
17, I'm poor and needy, yet the Lord That's our hope. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying on my God. Please,
please, please come quickly, Lord Jesus. Psalm 72, 13, He
shall spare the poor and needy and shall save the souls of the
needy. Psalm 109, 22, For I am poor
and needy and my heart is wounded within me. Isaiah 41, 17, when
the poor and needy seek water and there is none, their tongue
failing for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them. Did you hear
that? I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. Yes, dear sinner,
out of the depths have I cried unto thee, unto thee, O Lord. The needy and helpless sinner
will always cry the same thing. Every time. They'll cry out the
same place. They'll cry to the same person.
And they'll always cry the same thing. Look at verse 2. Lord,
hear my voice. Hear my voice. Let thine ears
be attentive to the voice of my supplication. Oh, do you see
how personal this is? He says, I cried, I cried unto
the Lord. He said, hear my voice, be attentive
to my supplications. A child of God is never ashamed
when they cry unto God. I can assure you that. Do you
know when a child of God's ashamed? When they don't cry unto the
Lord. It's when they don't cry The
child of God is ashamed when they don't cry unto their great
God. I'm not ashamed to confess my
sin before God, but I'm ashamed when I don't. I'm not ashamed
when I confess my helplessness and my spiritual poverty. I'm
poor and needy. No, I'm not ashamed of that.
I'm ashamed when I don't. Yes, I'm ashamed when I consider
my lack of faith. I am ashamed. I'm ashamed when
I doubt and when I fear and when I worry and I fret. And I'm ashamed
when I complain against God's great providence who has promised
always to work things for my good. But I'm even more ashamed
when I don't ask for forgiveness and help with these things. That's
when I'm most ashamed. You see, God's people will cry.
And they'll cry unto Him. And they will continually cry
the same thing. Lord, hear me. And Lord, help
me. Every child of God will also
cry for the same reason. They know why they cry. God's
made them to know. You know what that reason is?
Look at verse 3. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? The reason the child of
God cries unto Him and Him alone, personally from the same place
to the same person, also is for the same reason that God might
be merciful unto them. They know that if the Lord would
mark iniquities, hold them accountable for their sin and divine justice,
that there would be none that would be able to stand. Who shall
stand? Who shall stand? Oh Lord, who
shall stand? God looked down from heaven upon the children
of men, Psalm 53 says, to see if there were any that did understand,
that did see God. Every one of them has gone back. They are all together become
filthy. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Who shall
stand? Lord, if you mark iniquities,
who shall stand? Genesis 6, 5, And God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Who shall stand? Who? shall stand." Jeremiah 17, 9,
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Who shall stand? Who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Job 14, 4. Behold, David
said, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Who shall stand? The wicked are
estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they're
born, speaking lies. Who shall stand? There is a generation
that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their
filthiness. Who shall stand? Do you see that
your iniquities condemn you? Are you compelled to plead guilty
before God? O Lord, that thou should mark
iniquities. Who? Who can stand? There's none
that doeth good, no, not one. Who marks the iniquities? That's
an important question. The Lord does. Do you know why? Because He alone is holy. He alone is good. He alone is
righteous. And our sins are against Him
and Him only. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mayest be
justified when thou speakest, and clear when you judge." God
alone is justified when He speaks, for He alone is good and holy.
God alone is clear in His judgment, for He alone is perfect and righteous. And all the elect, chosen, called
children of God, who cry out of the depths of despair and
conviction of sin, understand by divine revelation, understand
and rejoice in the gospel of good news. You see, they all,
by divine intervention from God and God alone, are made to know
this gospel declaration found in verse 4. But there is forgiveness
with thee. That won't mean much to you if
you're not guilty. That won't be of much cheer to
you if you're innocent, or if you're guilty. If you see what
you deserve, you'll see that this is your only hope. If thou,
Lord, should mark iniquities, who shall stand? But, but, there's
forgiveness with God. There's a pause with that little
word, but. There is forgiveness. It's a
soft, it's a gentle whisper from the lips of love, but there is
forgiveness. There is forgiveness. This comes
into the soul after a full confession of sin. When the sinner has fallen
on his face before God and acknowledged his transgressions and shortcomings
with a heavy, heavy heart, just when your soul is ready to burst
with complete and utter inward anguish, then the chosen sinner
hears this gracious word, but there is forgiveness. And friend,
this is just not any forgiveness. If I forgive you of your sin,
why, it will profit you nothing. I'm just a sinner myself. My
forgiving you of your sin will profit you nothing, but the verse
says there is forgiveness with thee. Oh, that's what makes it
precious. If there was just forgiveness,
who's this forgiveness from? It's from Thee. It is who that
forgives that makes this glad tidings of great joy. God Almighty,
the very One that we've sinned against, the very One that we've
offended, the very One that we've shaken our fists in His face
and said, I'm not going to have you to rule over me. He says
there's forgiveness. There's forgiveness with Thee.
Oh my, that changes the complexion completely. In spite of what
we are. Nothing but depraved, undeserving
sinners. But, there is forgiveness with
thee. In consideration of what we've
done. Which is to have sinned against God and God alone. But,
there's forgiveness with thee. The very one in whom we've offended. that we sinned against is the
one that forgives us. Regardless of our condition,
we're dead in trespasses and sin, but He has quickened us,
made us alive because God has forgiven us in Christ, His beloved
Son, Ephesians 2.5. A child of God is made to know
and to hear that there is forgiveness. with God. Now I can't conclude
this message without expounding to you the last part of that
glorious verse 4. And the word responsibility often
sends those who love grace into a desperate tailspin, but it's
true nevertheless. Verse 4 says, but there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. All believers That word
fear means reverential respect. It means that believers will
obey and reverentially respect and fear the God of their salvation
out of love, friends, out of love for His forgiveness that
was shown to them. There she sits. Picture with
me. There she sits at the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ. She's a notorious sinner. Most
likely a harlot. But something about her has changed.
She seems to follow the Lord wherever he goes. Do you really
think for a second that she was invited into the house of Simon
the Pharisee? No, but she came anyway. Simon
was disgusted and he was thinking to himself, as he thought in
his own mind, if this man, speaking of Christ, was really a prophet,
he would have known who she was and what she was. She's a sinner. And most of the time, friends,
when someone says that about another person, what they're
really saying is, they're not good like me. They're not righteous
like me. But our Lord Jesus Christ said
unto Simon, he said, I've got something to say to you. And
Simon said, OK, go ahead. He said, two men were in debt
to a banker. One owed 500 silver pieces, and
the other 50. And he said, Simon, neither one
of them could pay up. Neither one of them could pay
the debt. And the banker canceled both debts. He said, let me ask
you a question. Which of those two are going
to be more grateful? And Simon answered, regretfully,
I suppose the one who was forgiven the most. And the Lord said,
that's right. That's right. Our Lord turned
to the woman. While yet speaking to Simon,
oh, can you imagine the eyes of God Himself looking her straight
in her tearful eyes. And the whole time he's speaking
to Simon, he said, you see this woman? Well, of course he did. He'd seen her and felt hatred
in his heart towards her and judged her from the moment that
he saw her. The Lord knew he'd seen her.
And he said, I entered into your house and you didn't give me
any water for my feet. But she's washed my feet with
tears. She wiped them with the hairs of her head. Continuously. You didn't give me a kiss of
greeting and welcome, but ever since I walked into this room,
she hasn't ceased to kiss my feet. You didn't anoint my head
with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore I say unto you, Simon, that her sins, which are many,
they're many, are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little
is forgiven. When the true child of God sees
that all their sins are forgiven, all of them, Every single one
of them are forgiven in the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to tell you something. They're going to fear Him. They're
going to respect Him. They're going to love Him. Their
desire is going to be to honor Him and obey Him. That's what
the word fear means here. You see, there's an active fear
not to offend God as well as a passive fear for having already
offended Him. There's a common error in this
world. Now listen, to think that we
may be the bolder to sin because God is merciful. But oh, may
we take heed to this error. God's mercy is to no such purpose. It's not to make us bold to sin,
but to make us fear this forgiveness, this smile of God. It binds the
soul to God with a beautiful fear. It's a beautiful fear.
Fear to lose one glance of His love. It's a fear to lose one
work of His kindness. It's a fear to be carried away
from the heaven of His presence. It's a fear of slumber. It's
a fear that causes a man to be on guard for his error. The child of God has fear of
not pleasing Him who loved Him and gave Himself for us. I want
to be pleasing to Him. Our duty then is to drink deep
of God's forgiving love. To be filled by God's forgiving
love is a desire to be filled with purity and to have a passionate
resolve of bringing no shame to Him and His glory. Those of
you that know Him know this to be so. trusting Him, desiring
that our sins be gone and diminished when forgiveness and Christ enters
the soul. We hate our sin. We despise it. And it's our responsibility to
the beloved Son of God to endeavor to never continue in sin that
grace may amount. Paul says, God forbid. God forbid. Now let me say these words in
closing. We hate our sin. And as a faithful
servant desires only to please his beloved master, we desire
to please our master who loved his servant enough to die for
him. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatever you do, whatever you do in this life, friends,
consider the glory of God. Do it all to the glory of God. Well, preacher, have you arrived?
Not even close. But I desire to. Above everything
else, I do not want to be unpleasing to my Heavenly Father. Now, we
fall and we fail, but we never cease to try and to carry on.
And it will always be our desire to have His honor as our first
priority. We've cried out of the depths,
have we not? Unto the Lord we've begged that
He might hear our supplications and requests? We've been made
aware of our sin and we know there's no hope for a sinner? Then none can stand in the presence
of a holy God if He should mark our iniquities? But God has shown
us that there is forgiveness within, that He may be feared,
respected, loved, and honored. And I ask you, is this not are
reasonable servants. Even after doing that, we are
but unprofitable servants. Unprofitable. Oh, may we always
remember these things, clearly taught in these four verses. We all came from the same place,
out of the depths of sin and despair. We all do the same thing. Those that come to cry, we cry.
We cry. We always cry to the same One
unto Thee, O Lord. Unto Thee. We always cry the
same thing. Hear me and help me. We cry for
the same reason. We say, who shall stand if He
shall mark our sin? And we're all revealed the same
blessed truth. but there is forgiveness with
thee." Now, are you guilty? Do you need forgiveness? And this should be the best news
you've ever heard. We will all love and fear the
same One, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm reminded of that hymn, Some
Thank the Lord for Friends and Home. For mercy sure and sweet,
but I would praise Him for His grace, His love. In prayer I
would repeat, Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank You,
Lord, for making me whole. Thank You, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and free. So I'm thanking for
the flowers that grow. some for the stars that shine. But my heart, my heart is filled
with joy and praise because I know He's mine. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Out of the depths,
we cry unto Thee, O Lord. I cried. Hear me. Hear my voice. Hear my supplications. And show
me again and again and again that there is forgiveness with
you. That's the gospel, friends. That's
the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ becoming
what I was and doing for me what I could not do.