Turn to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Let's have a word of prayer before
we begin. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we
come to you this day in the high and holy name of your son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we pray that you would reveal him
to us in your scriptures here. Lord, as we go through this psalm,
we ask that you would reveal your son to us so we may see
something of his glory. And Lord, we as sinners will be comforted
by what he's accomplished. We ask all these things in his
name, amen. Now, Psalm 130, I checked with
a bunch of the commentators on this to try to find out who wrote
this psalm, because it's not labeled there in the top of the
first verse. And most of the commentators
said it was David. And if you're in the business of making commentaries,
that's probably a safe bet, right? I mean, David wrote most of them.
So if you're going to hedge your bets, you could say it's David.
But you don't know. We don't know who wrote it. But there's three
things that we can see about this psalmist just by what he
says, right? The first thing we know is he
is in a greatly distressed state. Now look at verse 1. He says,
out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Whatever this
man's problem is, whatever his issue is, it has brought him
down to the depths. He's in a greatly distressed
state. But also, in this greatly distressed
state, he proclaims a great hope. We're going to look at that here
in just a minute. And really, this duality of being constantly
distressed and constantly hopeful, all in the same package, it's
the duality that only exists in the believer. He is both constantly
distressed, constantly burdened over his sin, but constantly
hopeful in Christ all at the exact same time. The third thing
we see is he's constantly distressed, he's hopeful, but also he has
this great want, this need. He wants his brethren, people
who are like-minded, people who are in this same distressed state,
he wants them to share in this exact same hope. That sounds
a lot like preaching to me. A distressed man who has found
a great hope, and he wants his brethren, people who are in the
same distressed state, to find the same hope as well. So here's
what we're going to do with it. We're just going to walk through.
I'm going to give an exposition out here to give me ability.
If we have time, we'll look at a few particular words that are
used here. But pick up in verse 1. The psalmist
writes, out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Now what's interesting about
this is he doesn't say, out of the depths I'm crying to you,
Lord. Well, no doubt he is. That's exactly what he's doing
here. He's crying to the Lord. But his statement is this, out
of the depths have I cried. This is habitual. This is familiar
territory for the psalmist. It's not that I've just, this
is the first time I'm crying for this position. These depths, this distressed
state, this is familiar territory. This crying to the Lord from
these distressed states, it's familiar territory. It's habitual.
This is where we live our lives. This is where the believer lives
his life, crying to the Lord from a distressed state. Now
look at verse 2. When you read this in your mind,
read it with a little stress in your voice. There should be
an urgency to this. It should come out like a violent
begging. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. There's a stress there. There's
an urgency to this. One thing is very, very clear.
This man is beyond human help. He's beyond human intervention.
Whatever his problem is, whatever has got him down in the depths,
what's got him in this low distress state, no man can help him with
this. Either the Lord is going to bow
down, he's going to lend that attentive ear, and he's going to do something
for this man, or this man's not going to be helped. That's the
place this man's been brought to right now. Now, here's my
question. What is it? What has got him so stressed
out? What has got him in this distressed state? Is he having
family problems? Did he get fired from his job? Is he having health
issues? He might be, but there's a greater issue here. Look at
verse three. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? What's his problem? What's
got him down to the depths? It's his iniquity. It's his sin. He might be going through family
problems. He might be having this and that happen. But here's his
real problem. This is the experience of every believer. I got a sin
problem. My iniquities. He knows something, right? I'll
give you three things he knows. He knows this first. The Lord
does mark iniquities. He's the holy and he's the just
one. He keeps a perfect ledger book where he marks all iniquities.
That's metaphoric talk. a perfect ledger book, and every
wrong is marked. He never allocates to another
column what should be in one column. He never messes up. He
never erases anything. He marks all iniquities. And
when he opens that book and he sees iniquity, he sees sin in
a man's column, you know what he does? He punishes that man. That's the only thing he can
do with it. That's the only thing he can do with sin. He can't
overlook it. He can't blot it out of the book. He can't erase
it. When he sees sin in that column, he must punish him. That's
the first thing we're dealing with, a God who is holy and just.
This is the second thing he knows about this one, that he has the
right and he has the power to mark iniquities. He's the omnipotent
sovereign. That means he's all-powerful.
He has all-powerful. Any being that has any power,
it's power he's given him. He can take it away anytime he
wants. He's all-powerful, and he is constantly in control of
everyone and everything at all times. And being the omnipotent
sovereign, that means this. He has the right and the power
to make the rules. He has the right and the power to hold men
accountable to those rules. And he has the right and the
power to delve out punishment for disobedience to those rules.
Now, if he was not the omnipotent sovereign, if he was not in control,
if he was not all powerful, he would be no one to be feared.
He can make all the rules he wants. He can try to hold men
accountable. But if he can be manipulated, if he can be told
what to do, if he can be overstepped, he is no one to be feared. But
that's not the God of this book. The God of this book is the omnipotent
sovereign who has the right and the power. You starting to see
why this man's distressed? Here's the third thing he knows.
He knows the answer to his own question. If thou, O Lord, shouldst
mark iniquities, who's going to stand? He knew the exact same
thing Paul knew. There is none righteous, no not
one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. If thou, O Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who's gonna stand? Nobody. No man outside of Christ
can stand before this omnipotent, sovereign, just and holy one.
He can't. Now, if we weren't in a distressed
state before, knowing that's you and me, we should be now.
Because that's who we stand before, guilty men before a holy and
a just God. But, that was a Debbie Downer,
let's move forward. In this great distress, he proclaims
a great hope. Look at verse four. But, thank the Lord for that
word in scripture, right? But, even though all this is
true, but, there is forgiveness with thee." Now, this is amazing. Even though he is the holy and
the just one, he keeps that perfect ledger book. He's no crooked
bookkeeper, right? He keeps the perfect ledger book.
He has found a way to be absolutely just, marking all iniquities,
punishing all sin, and still justify sinful people like you
and me. The wisdom of that is found in
Jesus Christ. I don't know how this works.
This is simply the teaching of scripture. But for every one
of God's chosen people, everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ, their sin became the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made
their sin. And the Father's wrath came down
upon him, and he was punished to the point of satisfaction.
His punishment satisfied God's justice. Also, his perfect righteousness,
his perfect holiness, it becomes every one of the believers. He
hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the very righteousness of God in him. That actually happened. And now, I don't understand this,
this fits in his perfect sense of justice. When he opens that
ledger book, where all iniquities are marked, and he never erases
anything, and he never moves anything around, he looks at
every name of all the elect, and there's nothing there. And now he can forgive. The Father
can forgive all the elect, and it's for this reason. It's because
when he opens the book, there's nothing there to forgive. He
doesn't forgive sins in the sense that he just overlooks them and
says, no, I'm just not going to pay any attention to that.
He forgives because there's nothing there to forgive. Why would Jesus
Christ be willing to do this? Why would he be willing to die
for these particular people? Well, I'll give you the first
answer. It's love. I love to think about this because of the
eternal union that exists between the Lord Jesus Christ and his
people. When he is loving his bride, when he is loving his
people, he is loving himself. That's real. This eternal union
is so real. He loved his people, he loved
his bride, so he's willing to die for her. But when he's loving
his bride, he's loving himself. And being unwilling to deny himself,
he went to that cross and ransomed us back to his Father. That's
the first reason, love. Here's the second reason. It's
because he promised his father he would. He entered into a covenant
with his father. He says, here's what you're going
to do. You're going to hold me 100% accountable for them. All
their iniquity, all their sin, it's coming towards me. You're
going to hold me accountable. I'm going to bring them back
to you safe and sound without a scratch on them. It's all going
to rest on my shoulders. He promised. Two things about
him. Number one, he can't lie. He's incapable of it. Number
two, he cannot fail. He is incapable of it. So therefore,
being unable to lie and unable to fail, he did exactly what
he promised his father to do. He ransomed all the elect back
to him. There's another reason there.
I haven't considered this before. Look in verse 4 again. But there is
forgiveness with thee. Why? That thou mayest be feared. Now, what the Lord Jesus Christ
was doing on that cross, understand, He was doing for His people.
He was dying to ransom His chosen people back to God. But first
and foremost, what He was doing, He was doing for His Father.
That's what He was doing. On that cross, all the attributes,
all the glory of God is manifest. And think about that for a second.
We say that a lot, but in what way? In what way? There you see
the love of God. That this man, this God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is dying to ransom people who are literally
shouting, crucify Him, crucify Him. That's the love of God right
there. You see the mercy and the grace
of God right there, that he's willing to die for people who
hate him, right? You see the sovereignty of God
in this. It is all happening according to the scriptures.
It's like they had a book and they're like, what are we supposed
to do next? Put vinegar in his mouth. It's the next thing he said. His sovereignty
is seen here, the perfect justice of God, that when he finds sin
on his son, who is himself, understand this, Jesus Christ is God. When
he finds it on himself, he won't let himself slide. He's got to
punish himself. What he was doing on that cross,
he was glorifying his father. That's what he was doing. But
also this, when he was ransoming the elect back to his father,
he was ensuring worshipers for himself and his father for the
rest of time. Why would he do this? That thou
mayest be feared. Because somebody needs to worship
God. He's worthy of it. I was at the conference in Danville
this past one. Chris Cunningham was preaching,
and he asked this question. He goes, what's our role in salvation? What's
our place in this? And the answer to this, he said,
we need it. That's a good answer. What's our role going to be in
eternity? What are we going to do? Folks, I'll tell you exactly
what we're going to do. We're going to do our job. We're going to worship
God. We do it imperfectly here. We do it in part here. We're
going to do it perfectly then. Now, look at verse five. He's in a greatly distressed
state, but he has this great hope that there's forgiveness
in Christ. How does he intend to live out his days? Greatly
distressed, but greatly hopeful. How's he going to live in this
world? How's he going to sojourn through this world? Look at verse
five. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope. How's he going to spend his time
here? How's he going to spend his days? Waiting and hoping. That's how he's going to spend
them. Now, you've heard this before, but it bears repeating again.
Hope has everything to do with rightly expecting what you have
not yet experienced. And the hope is only good if
that thing you are hoping in is surely going to happen. Now,
I can hope that I'm going to win a million dollars playing
the lottery, right? I have no control over whether that happens
or not. Probably not going to. Not going to happen. But everything
we have in this book, every promise that is made, is sure, so we
get to rest our hat on every promise made in these scriptures.
Now, I'll give you an example. I hope that Jesus Christ really
is my surety before his father. I hope that his righteousness
really is my righteousness. I hope that his blood really
did put away my sins. I hope, I have a hope, that on
Judgment Day, God the Father is going to look at me, and He's
going to say, well done thou good and faithful servant. Not
because I was good or faithful, because Jesus Christ is my goodness
and my faithfulness. I have a hope of all that, right? And I get to rightly expect that,
because it's promised in this book. This is a faithful saying,
and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into this
world to save who? Sinners. And since I fit that
mold, that is my description, that means I get to take that
home. And I get to rightly expect that because I fit the description
for the one it's promised to. And you know what? I have zero
experience of that. I don't have an experience of
righteousness. I don't have an experience of
holiness. That's all I know about myself, that I'm a sinner. That's
good enough for right now. We'll wait and hope. Now look at verse six, we're
gonna see kind of what that waiting and hoping is like in this world. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch from the morning. I say more than
they that watch from the morning. So once a year, I don't mean
to gross anybody out, but there's a point behind this. Once a year
we get a stomach bug that goes through our family, right? You
ever notice that sickness always gets worse at night? No matter
what it is, it's always worse at night. And so it always goes
the same way. One of the kids get it, they pass it on to their
sibling, and then they're going to pass it on to Jamie, and then
I'm going to get it. That's how it always works. So I know when
the first one gets it, I've got about two or three days, right?
That's all I'm going to last. And I know what's going to happen.
I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night, I'm going to pit up my stomach, and what I'm going
to do is I'm going to throw up every hour on the hour. for about
the next seven hours, right? So when the kids get sick, about
two, three days later, I wake up, pit in my stomach, I know
what's going to happen, and here we go, throwing up, right? And I'm back
in that bathroom every hour on the hour. And when I'm not in
that bathroom, I'm sitting on the couch, right? In our old
house, there was a hill that was right in front of our windows
there. I'm sitting on the couch, and I'm looking out that window. I'm looking
at that hill, because I know exactly when I'm going to stop
throwing up. I know when I'm going to stop
being sick. It's when the sun comes up over that hill. Every
single time, it's the way it is. When that sun comes up, I'm
going to be better. That's the way it is. Now, here's
the point. We are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
Make no mistake about it. This life is often uncomfortable.
And that's for a purpose, folks. It is the fire that destroys
the dross. It galvanizes faith. It teaches
us that we're just strangers and pilgrims here, that this
world is not our home. It teaches us not to hold on to anything
too tightly. But it is often uncomfortable, right? We're going
to wait and hope. We're going to walk through this
world, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. And it's just
for a night. It's a vapor. The sun's going
to come up. We're going to meet our maker
face to face. We're going to be perfectly conformed to his
image. We're not even going to have a memory of what it was
like here. So whatever you're going through, wait and hope. The morning's going to break
very soon. He's greatly distressed. He has
this great hope of forgiveness in Christ. Now he wants his brethren,
these like-minded people, these people who are in the same distressed
state, he wants them to share the same hope. Look at verse
7. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he will make salvation possible
for Israel. I get that right? And he shall, lock, stock, and
barrel, redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Now, I will emphatically proclaim
right now that Jesus Christ did not die for all men. God the
Father does not love all men because if he did, and if he
did, that would mean the love of God and the shed blood of
Christ is of no value whatsoever. And that is not the case. Everyone
the Father loves, he saves. Everyone Christ died for, he
saved. He shall redeem Israel, means he did it all. But it's
for a particular people. Israel. Israel's typical, right? Typical language of the elect.
Back in the Old Testament, was he for Egypt? Was God for Egypt?
Was he for this people that he rained down plagues on, spoiled
them and then drowned them in the sea? Was he for the Philistines
when Goliath fell and David took his head? Was he for any of those
countries, the Amalekites, anybody like that? He was for Israel. He was the God of one people,
Israel. He was going to redeem one people, it was Israel. The
Father loves one people, the elect chosen in Christ. Christ
died for one people. those he loves, those that are
connected to him. Now, my question is, am I one of these? Can I
have this same hope of forgiveness in Christ? I would be forgiven
for his sake. Turn over here. Turn to Philippians
3. Philippians 3, and look at verse
3. Paul's gonna tell us whether we're Israel or not. It's really
simple. For we are the circumcision. How's a Jew identified? Circumcised. This is spiritual Israel. The
spiritual circumcision for we are the circumcision which worship
God in the spirit. That's the first marker. And
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. about to figure out whether we're
Israel or not. We're going to find out whether we can have this hope
of forgiveness in Christ. And here's the first marker,
which worship God in the Spirit. I want you to turn over to Matthew
chapter 8. I hadn't looked at this from
this standpoint before, but I want you to see it. My question with this was this,
what is worship? What does it mean to worship God? That's a
big word. It's a word like salvation, right? Big word. What does it
mean to worship God? What does it mean that I worship
God? Do I worship God? We're about to find out. Look
at Matthew 8. Look at verse 2. Remember this man, this is the
leper. And behold, there came a leper and what? Worshipped
him. Now I've always seen this as
a type of sinner coming to Christ, and it is, by far it is. But
folks, this is what worship looks like. This is what it means for
a man to worship God. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. Now here's what real worship
looks like, and I got three points on this. Number one, it involves
this, it is an all-inspired reverence for the Lord's person outside
of whether he does anything for you or not. Now when you read
the Luke's account of this, what it says is before this man said
a word, before the Lord ever said a word for him, he just
fell on his face. He got down on his face where he belonged
before a holy and a just and a sovereign God and took his
rightful place before God, at the bottom. And he reverenced
the Lord for who he was. Now, number one, you've heard
this a million times. I'm going to say it a million times because
it's absolutely true. You're only going to worship a sovereign. Until you
find out you are in his hands to be done with as he sees fit,
you'll never worship. That's when you'll worship. That's
the first thing we reverence about his person. He's in control.
There's also this, where does this awe-inspired reverence come
from for his person? It is because he is not like
me. Now men are just about all the
same, right? I can talk to you freely, you can talk to me freely,
and we know where each other's coming from because we're all
pretty much the same. We suffer from the same sinful lusts, we
have the same sinful passions, we do the exact same sinful things,
we're all about the same. But there's one who is not like
that, who's perfect. He's never had a sinful thought.
He's never been jealous of his brother's prosperity. He's never
looked down on another person for doing something he himself
just did five minutes ago. He's nothing like that. And he
is this one that won't let anybody slide, right? Who are you willing
to make an exception for more than anyone else in your life?
I'm willing to make an exception for me more than anybody else,
right? If I'm going to let anybody slide, it's going to be me. He
wouldn't let himself slide. Do we get that? He is so just,
he wouldn't let himself slide. There's an awe-inspired reverence
that he's nothing like me. Second thing about this man,
he took sides with the Lord whatever he had to do with him. He said,
Lord, if you will, you're sovereign, you're in control, you don't
owe me anything, right? I'm coming to you, I'm a leper,
whatever. You're gonna heal me or you're
not, you're my only hope. But if you don't, you don't owe
me anything. You had nothing to do with this, this is my disease.
Third thing, he was completely dependent on Jesus Christ alone.
Lord, if you will, you can. I don't know if you're willing.
You don't owe me anything. You're great either way. You're
perfect. But I'm completely and utterly dependent on you. Folks,
that's worship. If that's you, you're Israel.
Now Paul says, we worship God in the spirit and we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in his person, in
his attributes, and all those things I just talked about, those
things we are all inspired by him. Also this, we rejoice in
how he saves sinners. By grace. By free, sovereign,
irresistible, invincible grace. You want to know why? Because
that is the only way we can be saved. A sinner, a true sinner,
someone who has nothing to bring to the table, no good works,
nothing that he could seek favor with God based on his merits,
a sinner, a man like that, he must be saved. This way is the
only way he can be saved, and it is by grace. The Lord Jesus
Christ doing every aspect of him, and that man being accepted
in Christ. That's the only way. A sinner
rejoices in that. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
here's the thing that we rejoice in as well. Now, this thing of
salvation by grace, There is a sense in which it does appeal
to the natural man's sense of laziness, right? The natural
man can say, you mean I don't have to do anything? Sir, sign
me up, sounds great, right? Here's the issue that's going
to get them every time though, it's glory. If you're to be saved
this way, you're going to take your rightful place as a sinner
down there with the child molesters and with the murderers and the
rapists and everybody else, you're going to take your rightful place with
them and you're going a trophy of His power and His grace, and
you're going to be a worshiper. That's what you're going to do.
And all glory is going to go to Jesus Christ. Now that's where
they say, no, I will not have it that way. I love it that way. Todd said this recently, and
it bears repeating. We love Him getting all the glory
because He deserves it. But also this, we love Him getting
all the glory because if He doesn't, and some glory needs to come
to me, that means there's something I have to do. It's some way dependent
on me, and I can't have it that way. We worship God in the spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
how he saves sinners. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Paul said this, for I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Can you say that honestly? I
mean, that's my experience. It really is, that even when
I would do good, even when I would have the most selfless act I
possibly could for another man, it is always tainted with me
wanting to get some credit for myself. There's an underhanded
motive along the way. There really is no good thing
that dwells in me. And I have no confidence in this flesh.
But I tell you what, folks, if this is you, if you worship God
in the spirit, and you rejoice in Christ Jesus and the way he
saves sinners, and you have no confidence in your flesh, I want
you to know something. You're Israel. as distressed as you may be,
you have this great hope of forgiveness in Christ because all those iniquities,
all those sins have been blotted out. He shall save Israel. He already did it. So go in peace. That's where I'll leave you.