I realize that I don't know you
and you don't know me, not really. But I look at your faces and
I know we come from different backgrounds, people of different
races, nationalities, people with different experiences. But
there are two things we all have in common, two things that are
true of you and true of me. The first is this, that we are
sinners. We are all sinners. sinners before
God Almighty. I pray that before this night
is over, God will make you to know yourself a sinner before
Him, if never you have before. And that you will never grow
above that, a sinner. Sinners in need of forgiveness. Those two things we all have
in common. And I have a message from God
that is constantly burning in my soul for you. You'll find
it in the text your pastor read earlier. Psalm 130, verse 3. The psalmist says, If thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, If thou, Lord, the holy, pure God
who is light, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, mark
against us, mark to our record, mark upon us iniquities, O Lord,
who shall stand? But, one of the best words in
all this book, but, there is forgiveness with thee. There
is forgiveness with thee. Nothing is more plainly revealed
in this book than the fact that God Almighty, through Jesus Christ,
His darling Son, by the merit of His shed blood, through the
efficacy of his death as our substitute, it is plainly revealed
that God freely, fully, absolutely, forever, immutably forgives sin. Nothing more clearly revealed,
more constantly taught, and nothing more hard to believe. than that God has forgiven my
sin, has forgiven my sin. We can't even begin to grasp
the reality of forgiveness by any human experience or any human
expression. When we speak of forgiveness,
we do the best we can, but we don't know how to forgive. You
don't, and I don't, because forgiveness includes the non-remembrance
of sin. And you just can't do that. You
just can't do that. God does, God has, and God will
so thoroughly forgive sin that He remembers it no more forever. That's my subject, forgiveness.
Blessed, blessed forgiveness. There is forgiveness with our
God. This psalm of ascent, or psalm
of degrees, like the other psalms of ascent or degrees, begins
in humiliation, but ends in exaltation. These psalms begin in deep, deep
valleys and end on the mountaintop. They begin with mourning and
end with praise. So I want us to look at this
130th psalm, and we will begin where David began, and I hope
we can end where he ended. First, we see in verses 1 and
2, a sinner in the depths of desperate, desperate need. A
song of degrees, 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. Religion
today, every form of religion is calculated to keep men and
women from ever experiencing anything like a real knowledge
of God. Preachers are trained to keep
you from entering into the depths that David expresses here. We're
trained to keep folks from sense of guilt and corruption and worthlessness. Blessed is that man. Blessed is that woman whom God
is pleased to bring into the depths. David expresses here. In all probability, this psalm
was written as a penitential psalm, arising specifically from
David's broken heart after his great, horrible sin with Bathsheba
in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, his friend. If that's the case,
and I think it is, this is David's heart response to the message
God delivered to him by his prophet Nathan. You're familiar with
the story. David said to Nathan, I have
sinned against the Lord. Looks like he would have said
more, doesn't it? Looks like he would have found some other
way to express himself. He could not have expressed himself
more honestly, more truthfully, more frankly. I have sinned against
the Lord. Now, if I had nothing else to
read, I would immediately presume that Nathan's next word would
be, now, David, I hope you've learned your lesson. You need
to be aware of what a grave thing this is, how serious this is,
how bad this is, what terrible consequences there are to this.
Don't ever forget the judgment that God's going to send on you.
Don't you ever forget God's displeasure with this. Don't ever forget
those things. Now, I warn you, David, don't
do this again. But you know what David's next
word was from God? The next word God spoke to him?
David said, I've sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said, the
Lord hath, not shall, the Lord hath, before you ever experienced
the sin, before you ever committed the transgression, Before you
ever knew the depths of the corruption into which you have fallen, before
you ever knew the shame that you now feel, before you ever
confessed your sin, the Lord hath put away thy sin. Everything's all right. Thou
shalt not die. That's called free forgiveness. We're told in 2 Samuel 12, after
Bathsheba lost her first son, the son by
which God's name was dishonored, and by which God showed His displeasure. Another child is born, and David
comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went in unto her, and lay
with her, and she bare a son. And he called his name Solomon,
and the Lord loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan
the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah. Beloved of the
Lord. David, don't call your boy Solomon
because the Lord loved him, but rather call your boy Jedidiah
because you are beloved of the Lord. Beloved of the Lord because
of the Lord. David had seen something of the
depths of his sin, and now he's in the depths of humiliation.
brought low before God by reason of his iniquities. He was, as
it were, in prison, shut up under the law, under the conscious
sentence of death and condemnation in himself. Conviction, conviction
wrought in the heart by God the Holy Spirit, is a horrible, deep
pit wherein there is no water, a pit from which no man can extricate
himself. It is a pit of corruption, a
dung pit, where we're made to know the bitterness of our sin,
the foulness of our transgressions, the horror of our iniquities.
Conviction is that word that's commonly used without any awareness
of things, but conviction is that by which God the Holy Spirit
gives us a conscious awareness. of the deep poverty of our souls. It is a beggarly dungeon, a state
of utter helplessness and bitter bondage before God. The depths
David was in here, these depths were a deep sense of sin. They
brought him low, being made sensible of his sin, made aware of his
sin. Before Nathan came to it, David
lived in haughtiness, self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, he kept
silence before God, and he walked in the pride of his heart and
in his arrogance, knowing full well what he had done with Uriah. He was aware of it. He could
not have not been aware of it. He was aware of how he had shamed
Bathsheba. He was aware of the reproach
he had brought upon his God. But such is the depravity of
your heart and mind by nature, such is the corruption of our
nature, such is the weakness of our nature, even as believers
right now, that once the Lord God is pleased for whatever reason
in His infinite wisdom to withdraw His hand of restraint just a
little, We start in a downward spiral of corruption and rebellion
and self-will from which we cannot stop ourselves, even if we would
except he stop us. Let me give you an example. The
Lord Jesus told Peter, before this night is over, before the
cock crows twice, you will deny me three times. Not me. Not me. Not me. I'm ready to
die. I'm ready to die with you." And
he was. That was a true statement. It
was a statement mixed with his own pride, but it was a true
statement. He was a devoted man. And Peter
goes and warms himself by that fire, and he says, Doris, I don't
know him. And he's accused again. He said, no, I don't know that
man. I don't know him. And immediately, do you remember
what he heard? He heard that rooster crow. It must have sounded like a fire
alarm going off suddenly in his ears. Can you imagine the terror
that must have seized his soul? Can you imagine how he must have
quaked as he heard that rooster crow? Can you imagine how, oh
my God, no. I can't. And the next word
out of his mouth, he cussed and said, I don't know that man.
I don't know him. And he heard the cock crow. even
when we know what we are doing. We cannot restrain ourselves
from evil except God, by His grace, restrain us, even as believers
walking side by side with our Master. It cannot be done. Only God, by His grace, keeps
us from the evil that's in us by nature. Did you ever notice
the next word our Lord said to Peter after He warned him? Did
you ever notice the next word? His very next word. Now, Peter,
you're going to deny me three times. Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. That was his very next word.
Continue to believe me. And Peter couldn't even do that.
He went out and wept bitterly. He told his companions, I'm going
back where the Lord found me. I'm going back to fishing. It's
all over with me. And he would have stayed there,
except the Lord Jesus. Just as soon as he was raised
from the dead, he told those women, he sent his angels, he
said, go tell my disciples, I'll lead them where I said I would.
And they started off, wait, wait, wait, be sure you tell Peter.
Be sure you tell Peter. Everything's all right. And he
went by the Galilee seashore and met him and restored Peter
by his grace. That's for the forgiveness I'm
talking about. Conviction brings us into an
awareness of the deep poverty of our souls. This depths in
which David found himself made him low and caused him now though
haughty and arrogant and proud for at least nine long months,
suddenly he's brought down to the utter bottom of his being
and he cries out in his soul acknowledging his sin. As the
very chief of sinners, he puts it like this, I was as a beast
before thee. Have you ever been there? The
Holy Spirit brings us into such depths, lays us low as prisoners
arrested in dungeons of darkness. But God's prisoners are described
this way, turn you to a stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. All men are prisoners shut up
under the guilt and curse of God's holy law, but few know
it. But those who are brought low
in their own souls by the Spirit of God working in them, these
are prisoners for whom there is hope. The fact is, I'm not
in the least bit hesitant to tell you this. Find me a sinner. Find me a sinner. I'm not talking
about somebody who, well, I know I've made some mistakes. Nobody's
perfect. We all have our faults. Find me a sinner. Find me anybody
who knows in the depth of his soul he deserves to be abandoned
by God in the blackness and darkness of hell forever, and I'll find
you a saint. Only those wrought upon and wrought
in by the Spirit of God have any sense of this conviction
which David expresses here. David was intense, earnest, fervent. because he was in desperate need.
He said, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. And he comes to God as a beggar. But he gives this next word,
a revelation of God's great grace and glory. He says, If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But
there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I
know I can't convince anyone of his sin. I can't show you
what you are. I can't make you to know your
guilt, your depravity, your corruption. as grimly, as darkly, as vilely
as I can possibly paint it. And if I succeed in exposing
to you just a little of what you are and what I am by nature,
I will have only begun to scratch the surface. Oh, but if God will
speak his word through these lips of clay to your heart, He
will show you what you are and show me. We are sinners because
of the sin and fall of our father Adam. You understand that. You
know that. You've been taught that in this
place for many years. You've heard it all your life.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men. And if you happen to
be visiting here and you say, well, I just don't like that,
that's too bad. That's the way it is. And we
are sinners by birth and by nature. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. When David wrote those words,
he was not suggesting somehow that he was an illegitimate child.
He was not suggesting somehow that his parents were involved
in iniquity in him being conceived. He is saying that when my being
came into existence in my mother's womb, And that thing in her womb
was sin. He says the wicked are estranged
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. Where is your little baby grandson?
Wherever he is, he is lying. Wherever he is. We smile at it,
and rightly so. I meant for you to. Oh, what
a sad fact. is the easiest thing in this
world to humanity. We don't have the capability
of utter honesty. We didn't have in the beginning,
and it gets worse as we get older. We don't have the ability to
be utterly, absolutely honest. We try. And we pretend, but our
pretense is just deceit. It's not within us. And nobody
ever had to teach us to be deceitful. It's easy. It comes to us as
easy as breathing. It goes on all our days. And
we are sinners by choice and practice. Turn to Romans chapter
3. Sometimes I hear fellows, they
say that when we talk about man being We don't mean you're as
evil as you could be. I do. You're just as evil as
you can possibly be. Just as corrupt as you can possibly
be. No extenuating circumstances. You don't show it all the time
because it's not advantageous. If it were advantageous to you
to be an absolute murderer and rapist, an absolute abuser of
children all the time, if it were advantageous to you and
you could get by with it, every one of us would be just that.
You and me included. We are as corrupt as we can be. Sin consumes every faculty of
our being, both mentally and morally and physically. Every
faculty of our being. How abominable and filthy is
man. He drinketh iniquity like water. The mouth of the wicked devoureth
iniquity. Look here at Romans 3 verse 10.
As it is written, there is none righteous. Well, what about my
grandmother? No, not one. There is none that
understand him. None. You can talk to your neighbor
or talk to your children. Talk to your parents or husband
or wife. You can reason with them, argue
with them, prove to them all you want to, everything you possibly
can about this book. You can no more make a natural
man understand divine things than you can take a mule and
teach him nuclear physics. None understand him. None. It's not possible. There is none
that seeketh after God. They're all going out of the
way. They are together. The whole race at one time become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Well, I came to
church today. That's good. No. Well, I read five chapters this
morning and ten tonight. That's good. No. I've sold everything
I have and given it all to the cause of Christ. That's good.
No. Well, I've been praying. I've been praying earnest and
hard. That's good. No. No. There's none that do
us good. Our righteousnesses. Is that
what it is? Our righteousnesses. All of them. You're sitting there right now
listening to me. Nodding. You feel good about that, don't
you? I do too. Filthy rags. You're fit for hell. Nothing else. You mean no man
has the ability or the will or the inclination to even imagine
good before God? No man. No man. They're none
that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulchre, open gaping grave of rottenness. With their
tongues, they've used deceit. The poison of Asp is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their
feet swift to shed blood. Murderers. Murderers. Well, I've
never done that. Oh, yes, you have. Last time
a fellow cut you off in traffic? Oh, yes, you have. Last time
you got mad at your wife? Last time your wife got mad at
you? Last time you grabbed your son and shook him? Last time
your son looked at you with a glaring Angry eye, feet are swift to
shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. The way of peace have they not
known. How come? There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Not no terror from God. Every
man's terrified of God. Not that there's no fear of going
to hell. Everybody's scared of going to
hell. Not that there's no sense in which man dreads God. Everybody
dreads God. Men are what they are because
by nature there is no reverence and regard for God as God before
their eyes. Well, how do we produce that?
You can't. Oh, we'll start catechizing and
training and send them to religious schools and send them to the
right places and keep them out of bad company. Things will be
better. I have a good friend by the Jack Shakes who started
a religious school down in Texas years ago. And I didn't say Christian
school, I said religious school. And one of the people called
him one night, true story, and she said, is this Reverend Shanks? And Jack had already gone to
bed. He goes to bed with the chickens. He said, huh? Is this Reverend
Shanks over at the Baptist Church School? Yes, ma'am. She said,
my Johnny, he's been attending your school, and I just wanted
to call. And be sure he didn't get in the wrong crowd. Jack
said to her, said, Honey, what did you say your name is? And
she told him. He said, I don't know how to
tell you this, honey, but your boy Johnny is the wrong crowd. That's just it. You're the wrong
crowd. And me too. Your children and
mine. The wrong crowd. Nothing but
corruption. No fear of God before their eyes.
Now did you notice what our text said? There is forgiveness with
thee, and the sinners did me in their debt, that thou mayest
be feared. Find me a sinner who knows, in
the experience of God's grace in his soul, forgiveness. And
I'll find you a sinner who fears God, who reverences Him as God,
who honors Him as God, until that happens, that no fear of
God before any man's eyes. We're sinners at heart, at the
very core of our beings. Turn to Matthew chapter 15. Let
me show you. The heart, Jeremiah said, is deceitful above all
things. Desperately wicked. Wicked beyond
description. Desperately wicked. Who can know
it? Matthew 15 verse 19. These Pharisees got upset because
the Lord's disciples ate lunch without having prayer. That's
just what I meant to say. They didn't go through their
little ceremonies, you know. Gotta wash our hands so everybody know
we're Christians. Gotta act religious. I wish I
could convince you. You'll get this free, I won't
charge you down for it. Folks want to act religious. Act religious. I want people to know I'm a Christian.
Act religious. Read the Sermon on the Mount
and read it. Do you know the one thing our
Lord told us never to do? Never. Don't act religious. Don't act religious. Oh, but
I want folks to know I'm a Christian. Well, leave the waiter a good
tip. Don't act religious. I want people to see Jesus in
me. They didn't see Jesus in Jesus.
They ain't going to see Him in you. I'm telling you the truth.
Don't be pretentious. Don't do it. Our Lord saw These
Pharisees said Caleb grabbed him because his disciples ate
with unwashed heads. Now watch this. Out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders. This lady is sitting right in
front of me. I know her better than I know any human being,
except myself. An admirer, more than I admire
any human being, out of that heart That's right there. Proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses,
blasphemies. And these are the things that
make you what you are. Not what you put in your mouth,
not the clothes you wear, not the company you keep. These are
the things that defile a man. But beat with unwashing hands
defiled not a man. Martin Luther made this statement.
I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his
cardinals." John Bunyan once described sin this way, sin is
the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of
His patience, the slight of His power, the contempt of His love. Sin is man's attempt to murder
God. Sin is man's attempt to shove
God from his throne. It is man's heart's enmity against
God. Sin is not principally an outward
thing. Sin is principally an inward
thing. It's not what you do, it's what
you are. Religion deals with outward things.
Religious folks will tell you, Do this and don't do that. Go
there and don't go here. Wear this and don't wear that.
Comb your hair this way and don't comb it that way. Wear shoes
with buckles on them or don't wear shoes with buckles on them.
And they call that godliness. It ain't nothing on this earth
but a show of religion. Nothing else. Nothing else. When
I was in Bible college, I see a couple of black faces in here.
Y'all will appreciate this. First year in Bible college,
1968, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They were being compelled to
integrate. Had to integrate. Otherwise,
they'd lose folks going to school on GI Bill. So suddenly, it became
very Christian to have black folks in schools. And they passed
some rules. They wouldn't allow the fellows
to wear mustaches. And it started to kick some of
the fellows out of school because that's worldly. That's worldly. I had a buddy,
I didn't have to wear one at that time, I had a buddy wearing
a mustache and I called him in and told him he was going to have
to shave his mustache and put him out of school. And he said,
and called his name to one of our black friends and said, well
Joe's wearing a mustache, and do I have to say the name to
him? Now this was the brilliant answer. He said, well for the
colored folks, they said, it's natural for them to wear mustaches. I didn't put manure up here and
fertilize this. And it's nuts. These same folks, we weren't
allowed to wear shoes. You remember when they put buckles
on men's shoes? That's worldly. Sideburns, mid-air. If you get
them down here, that's worldly. And the fella who wrote the rule
book, 15 years later I saw a picture of him. He had sideburns down
to here. Because it changed all of a sudden. It's all an outward
show. and every outward show by which
you attempt to make other people look at you and treat you as
though you were better than them in reality, as though you presume
you are better than them, is nothing but hypocrisy and the
revelation of that false witness of the heart. Now, sin is what
we are, but there is forgiveness. with thee, that thou mayest be
feared." That man who knows and confesses his sin justifies God
in his own condemnation. He says, If thou, Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But the book of
God says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How do you confess your sin?
Well, you get done with worship service and you meet the pastor
and say, Pastor, I need to talk to the church. I've got some
unconfessed sin in my life. I bet you do. And you start rattling
off things you've done and things you've felt. And I've had these
thoughts, and I've done this, and I've done the other. And
you stand up for the church, and everybody's so happy, and
come and hug your neck, and embrace you, and say, oh, so happy for
you. That ain't it. You may as well go to a Roman
priest and confess your sins to him. And that's easy done,
because you're just talking to another sinner. You stand here,
and you want to make a confession of your sins to this church.
That's easy done. You're just talking to more sinners.
That's not it. It's not naming a list of deeds,
but rather like that publican, you rip open your heart before
God. Shine in the bright light of
your holiness, justice, and truth, my God, and expose every worm,
every corruption, every vile vermin in my soul. This is what
I am. If we confess our sins, he, this
is the next word, he is. not might be, is faithful to
His covenant, faithful to His Son, faithful to His Word, and
just because Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree,
just because justice now demands it, just because the law is fully
satisfied, just because Christ has put away our sins to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
to bathe our souls from the inside with the precious blood of His
darling Son, to bathe our consciences before Him so that now we who
have been guilty before Him Stand not guilty before God. Not guilty. Just. Righteous. And He declares peace in our
souls. Because, you see, He delighteth
in mercy. Can you believe that? God delights in mercy. God delights in mercy. There's a parable in Luke 15. The only time in all the Bible
where the God of glory is portrayed as getting in a hurry. The only
time. His son has been in the hog trough. Wasted everything. Lost everything. He's got the
smell of a hog's trough on him. You folks raise sheep, and I've
been around some sheep farms, and they can stink. But they
ain't nothing compared to a hog farm. I mean nothing. I've never
smelled such stink. I've smelled dead, decaying bodies.
I've never smelled such stench as hogs. This boy comes with
the smell of hogs on him. He comes with his mouth having
been feeding in the trough with swine. He's coming to his father. He's already said in his heart,
I'm not worthy to be called your son. Just make me one of your
hired servants because I've got to have you. And the Scripture
says, when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and
ran. Ran. God Himself rubbing to be the
sinner and be the mercy. And he fell on his neck. He fell
on his neck. Oh, my boy! Fell on his neck. And he kissed him. And he kissed
him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him,
and he kissed him, and he kissed him, and he kissed him. That's
just the way the text reads. He just kept kissing him. To say, oh, here is much love,
deeply felt, fully expressed. Here is forgiveness, completely,
completely, fully bestowed, freely given. Here, my son, is welcome. Welcome to my everything. Bring the fatty calf. Kill him. Bring the covenant and the ring. Slip it on his finger. Bring
the best robe. Size 52, long. Put it on him. Perfect fit. The robe of Christ,
perfect righteous. My son who was lost has come
home and I rejoice. Oh, God help you now in desperate
need to fly away to the throne of grace trusting God's darling
son and find forgiveness. Go home forgiven. Go home free
forever from sin before God in His holiness. Go home and hear
God say, Thy sins and Thy iniquities will I remember no more. Amen.