It's a delight to be here with
you this morning. See all your faces. And, uh,
when and I just kind of a real joy where you're our family. And as your pastor said, many
of you have been there to visit us and we so much enjoy the time
we get to spend together and what an encouragement it is to
the churches as you go and preach the gospel and what an encouragement
it is. The church in Merida sends their
greetings. One of these days, we'll all
be together. One of these days, we'll all be together. Today, your pastor asked me what
text to read from, and I told him what text I was going to
preach from, and he read it. I didn't know he was going to
preach it. He brought out my points. But
I pray the Lord will bless the Word. Just reading it is such
a blessing. The text this morning is in Psalm
130. Psalm 130. And I do pray the Lord will bless
His Word. Without Him, we can do nothing. Without His Spirit blessing His
Word, we can do nothing. There are some people in this
world who have hope, who have a real hope, who have a blessed
hope, sure hope. There are a lot of people in
this world, many who have no hope. In fact, those of you this
morning who have that blessed hope, At one time, the Apostle
Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 12. At one time, you
were without Christ. At one time, you were aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Without
Christ is without hope. A person that does not know the
Lord Jesus Christ has no hope. He is the only hope, hope of
salvation. But I want to ask this morning
in Psalm 130, who are the people who have a reason for hope? Who are the people who have reason
for hope? If you will turn with me to Psalm
chapter 130. I'll read it. It says, 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 supplication. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait. and in his
word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from
all his inequities. Who are the person? Who is the
person who has a reason for hope? Look in verse one. Here's the
first person, the first characteristic of a person who truly has reason
to hope. It says, Out of the depths have
I cried unto thee. True sinners. Sinners have a
reason to hope. Sinners. We know all men are
sinners by nature. All men are sinners by nature.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But not
everybody is made to know. Not everybody is made to know.
A sinner is a sacred thing, a holy thing. The Holy Spirit reveals
this to us in the preaching of the gospel. When Christ is revealed
at the light of the glory of Christ, we see ourselves as undone
sinners out of the depths Have I cried? This is not a mere assent
that I'm a sinner. Because everybody, if you pin
them against the wall, they'll say, oh, yeah, I've done some
bad things. I've lied. Well, isn't that what the Bible
says? It says sin. Well, I guess I'm a sinner. That's
not what it's talking about. That's not what it's talking
about. This is out of the depths. This is true. understanding that
in me there is no soundness. In me there dwells no good thing. That from the top of my head
to the sole of my feet, there's nothing but putrefying sores. All my thoughts by nature are
against God. All my actions are against God. There's no goodness in me, no
hope. Out of the depths, heartfelt
conviction that there's no goodness in me. As long as a person thinks
that there's something by which he may commend himself to God,
he will not cry. He will not cry to God. Therefore,
he does not have hope. Only a sinner. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to save sinners. He did not call the just come
to save the righteous, but sinners call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. Psalm chapter 40. Psalm chapter
40. This is speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ when
he was made sin for us on the cross. But this is and I must
say in degree. I am convinced that none of us
understands the deadness or the utter blackness of our sin. I
do believe that if we were able to see it, it would drive us
to despair. No one is driven to the Lord
Jesus Christ by seeing his sinfulness. They're driven to the Lord Jesus
Christ by seeing his beauty. When we see his beauty, we're
drawn to him. and we see ourselves. But the
Lord said here in Psalm chapter 40, verse 12 says, for innumerable
evils have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. There are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Sins taken
hold of me. Do you know what that is? A person
who is a sinner has true hope. How about unbelief, the depths
of unbelief? Out of the depths of unbelief
is misery. Out of the depths of unbelief
are thoughts, are pride. These are the ones who have hope
because the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners, the chief
of sinners. The Apostle Paul said, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body? I thank God
through Christ Jesus. These are the people who have
hope, true sinners. And notice it says here in our
text, Out of the depths, out of the depths of sin, these are
the people who have hope. Have I cried unto thee? Cried. When a person is brought to understand
that there is no hope within themselves, that's when they'll
cry to the one who can save. Cry unto the Lord. Out of the
depths have I cried unto thee. Can you see Bartimaeus along
the way? Bartimaeus in his blindness,
Bartimaeus in his darkness, sitting there by the wayside. He had
heard that one named Jesus of Nazareth was going about healing
all manner of diseases, giving sight to the blind, healing all
manner of leprosy. And he heard, sitting in his
darkness, sitting in his inability, And he sat there, and one day
he heard a commotion. People were making noise, and
he said, what's going on? And they said, it's Jesus of
Nazareth. He's walking by. And you know
what he said? He said, Jesus, thou son of David,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Out of the depths
of his darkness, he cried unto the Lord. Notice it says here,
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. A person has hope who cries unto
thee, O Lord. Unto the one who can save. Unto
the one who can save. Have mercy on me, O Lord, that
blind man say. Who call on the name of the Lord.
Those are the people who have hope. Our Lord said this in Isaiah
45 verse 20. He says, they have no knowledge
who set up the wood of their graven image and pray to a God
who cannot save. If a person may realize he's
a rotten sinner, therefore, by definition, he say, well, I agree,
I'm a sinner. And I know I need to be delivered.
But if he's calling on a God who cannot save, There's no hope. There's no hope in this Jesus
that is preached in many places, who they say is a savior that
wants to save but cannot save unless you let him. There is
no hope. A false Christ will get a person
lost just as well as a no Christ. They have no knowledge, they
that set up the wood of their graven image and pray to a God
that cannot save. The person has hope who calls
on the name of the Lord. This is why we preach Christ
Jesus and him crucified. He is the only one that can save. Unto thee do I cry, O Lord, the
one that has authority to save, the one that has power to save. All sin is committed against
God, and only God has the right to forgive sin. Only God has
the right to do so. Our Lord, this man brought this
man that was paralyzed, brought him on a stretcher. And our Lord
looked at him and mercy said, Thy sins be forgiven then. And
the religious leaders were standing around and they said, this man's
blaspheming. How could he say that? No man can forgive sin,
but only God. Now we're thinking that. And
in their assessment, they were right. Only God has a right to
forgive sin. All sin is committed against
God and only He can forgive it. And only through the Lord Jesus
Christ and His sacrifice. by no other means, no other way.
But our Lord Jesus Christ said to these men, she said, what
is easier to say? Words are cheap. Words are cheap. What's easier to say? Your sins
are forgiven you. People all around the world today
are hearing. They go into a little box and
they pull a little curtain and they talk about all the bad things
they do, they feel bad, and a man on the other side of the box
says, your sins are forgiven you. Well, are they? Words are
cheap. Brother, what if I offend you?
You know who I'm talking to. What if I offend you? I don't
want to offend you. But then Brother Todd says, I
don't worry about it. You have something to say about
that, don't you? He said, wait a minute, he offended me. You
don't have a right to tell him don't worry about it. All sin
is committed against God. Only God has a right to forgive
sin. But our Lord said to this man, He said, what's easier to
say? Your sins are forgiven you or
take up your bed and walk? Now you got to back your words
up. Back your words up. And He said, so that you may
know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins right now.
I am God and I have the right to forgive sins. I can forgive
them and still be just and still be God. He says to the man, take
up your bed and walk. Get out of here. The man got
up and walked out. He is the one who has power to
say by his blood, by his obedience, his righteousness, he's the one
who has the right to do so. Out of thee, out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord." Crying to the one who can say,
not to Mary, not to a man, not to a priest, not to a church,
not to a denomination, not to a creed, unto thee, O Lord, do
I cry. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. You know, when the religions
got this backwards, they say, Repeat this after me and then
the Lord's going to save you. Call on the name of the Lord
and the Lord's going to... It's like you... It's awful. It's like He's bound to save
you now because didn't you repeat this prayer? They got it backwards. The reason a man can call on
the Lord is because the Lord already did something for him.
Those that call on the name of the Lord, first of all, have
been made to know their misery. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
Out of the depths. Whose servant shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. You know, the first thing that
the Lord said to Ananias when Saul of Tarsus was converted. Saul of Tarsus was a religious
Pharisee. And the Lord said this about
the religious Pharisees. They like to pray all the time.
They like to stand on the corner. and give long recitations, prayer. He'd been doing that all along.
That was his righteousness. That's what he trusted in. But
you know what the Lord told Ananias when the Lord converted Paul? He said, Go, go find Paul. And
he said, Oh, I've heard about Saul of Tarsus. He said, Go,
he prayeth. He prayeth. He's calling on the
Lord. He's calling on the Lord. A person has reason for hope
who first is a true sinner, who secondly calls on the name of
the Lord, calls on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that can
save. He is the Lord. I shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Here's a third thing I see here. Lord, hear my voice. A person
has good hope when he understands who he is by nature, by practice,
by choice, who comes to the Lord and he comes as a beggar. You notice it says here, Lord,
hear the voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. There's good hope for a person
that comes humbly before the Lord. The Lord does not owe anybody
salvation. It's mercy. It's sovereign mercy. Let thy voice be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. I come as a beggar. Beggar seeking
mercy. What David is doing here is judging
himself. personal judgment. Let thy voice
be attentive to the voice of my supplication. Lord, if thou
shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand? Mercy is for
the guilty. Mercy is for the guilty. If we
judge ourselves, the scripture says, we will not be judged. It says here, Lord, let thy voice
be attentive to the to the voice of my supplication, we come as
beggars. It's not, I'm gonna let Jesus
save me. It's not, I'm gonna let him save
me. No. We come pleading mercy. That leper that came down from
the mountain, he came to the Lord. He didn't say, well, I've heard
you heal other people. I think I'm going to let you
heal me. That's not how He came. And listen,
the Lord has saved millions of people. You know He delights
to show mercy. You and I know He has saved all
the people that are in heaven right now. He saved them. They're
saved. He's a Savior that delights to
show mercy. But you and I are going to come
as beggars. Or we're not going to come. Or we don't have any
hope. He saves his people. We come judging ourselves. No
man is going to seek mercy. No man is going to come for grace
until he knows that he is guilty. David is saying this. Lord, if
thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? A person
has hope. A person has hope who convicts
himself, is convicted. I'm guilty. Lord, if you should
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? When we talk about sin, People, a lot of times, think
about big sin. They call big sin little sin,
little transgression. But you know, our iniquities, as men see it, are the things we fell in in
our good deeds, in our religious deeds. Sin is who we are by nature. Transgressions is all things
we do, breaking God's law all the time. Our iniquities, that's
your good things. That's my good things. A man
is going, if the Lord should, if the Lord should call me before
his presence and judge me for my best prayer. Have you ever thought, that was
a good prayer? That was a good prayer. It's full of sin. It's full of iniquity. And David
is saying, if you should call me before your presence, I'm
full of iniquity. Who shall stand? No one can stand.
If you should, the only person, the person who has a hope is
that person that has no hope in himself. That's a person that
has hope. That person that has no hope
in himself and his only hope is the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you should call me to answer
for one thing, there's no hope for me and no hope for anybody. The only hope is the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's his faithfulness. It's his
righteousness that saves us. Notice a person has good hope
who believes God's Word. Verse 4. A person has a reason
for hope who believes God's Word. Notice what it says here. But
there is forgiveness with thee. Where did he get that from? Where did he get that from? There
is forgiveness with thee. He got that from His Word. We
have no right to say anything of God that God hasn't said first
of Himself. That would be idolatry. Look
at Exodus chapter 34. Moses had seen the mighty works
of the Lord, the glory of the Lord. I told you to go to Exodus and
I went to Genesis. It helps if I go to the same
place. Moses saw all the miracles that
the Lord brought by him, by his mighty power, and yet Moses asked
a question of the Lord, requests, says, Lord, show me your glory.
Show me your chief glory, your greatest glory. And the Lord
said, I'll show you my glory. I'll hide you in a cliff of a
rock because no man will see my face and live. When I go by,
I'll take my hand off and you'll see my hindered parts, my back,
because no man will see my face and live. You know where we see the glory
of God? In the face of Jesus Christ. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But he passed by that day and he told Moses, I'm going to declare
my name, that's my glory, who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And
it says in Exodus chapter 34 and verse 6, and the Lord passed
by before him and proclaimed The Lord, Jehovah, Jehovah God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. That's God saying what his chief
glory is. Keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and about no means will
clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, and
the third and fourth generation. For a person understands how
God is the judge and God is merciful and He's just in Jesus Christ. He says, I will by no means clear
the guilty. That's you and me. He says, I'll
have mercy. Do you have hope that he have
mercy on you? How? In the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is in him when God made him to be sin for his people who knew
no sin, that his people, we may be made the righteousness of
God in him. That is how God can be both just
and justify for everyone that comes to God by him. Well, God
says this in his word. A person has a right, or excuse
me, I should not say the word right, but has a good reason
for hope. A good reason. The one who believes
God. The one who believes God's word. He says, there is forgiveness
with thee. But there is, but, that word
but, such a precious word. You, at one time, were dead in
trespasses and sins, says in Ephesians chapter two. But God,
who is rich in mercy for his great love where he loved us,
even when we were dead, quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you're saved. But God. But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. This message of grace
promotes and produces gratitude in the heart of God's people.
Thou mayest be feared. It does not produce, as some
slanderously say, a licentious living. There's enough of that
already in everyone by nature. The grace of God has appeared
teaching us to deny ungodliness, live in this world soberly, But
it says here, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
worshipped, feared, worshipped. That's a person who has hope,
the one who believes God concerning his son, that there is forgiveness. How does God said in his word
that God can forgive sin? There is forgiveness. Where is
that forgiveness found? There is forgiveness. Forgiveness
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. There is forgiveness,
but only in him and only in his sacrifice. But that person who
looks to God's word and says there's forgiveness with you,
God, and the person of your son, that person has good reason to
hope. Notice it says here number five. Those who believe, they have
good reason to hope. And verse 5 says, I wait for
the Lord, my soul doth wait. A person has good reason to hope
because salvation is of the Lord. I wait. I wait. I wait for the Lord. I know that
salvation is of the Lord. I wait on Him. The religion talks about trying
to convince people that they're sinners, then they try to give
them something to do. They say salvation is the Lord, then they
give them step one, two, and three. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Believe on
Him. Wait. Don't do a thing. Don't do... A person says, well,
I think I've got to start doing this, and I've got to change
this habit, and I've got to do the other. You're trusting in
what you do. But wait on the Lord. Call on
him, Lord, save me. I wait on the Lord. A person
that waits on the Lord. That person has a reason for
hope. I got to hurry. And notice that person who waits
continually. that person who continues to
wait. That person who continues to
wait. Salvation is not an isolated event. You know, you made your
profession of faith, you baptized, you joined the church, and I
know what I'm saying. This person that has this condition,
the person who knows he's a sinner, who's been convinced by the Lord,
the person who out of the depths cries unto the Lord, who is coming
as a beggar, who knows that there's forgiveness with him, that person
that is waiting on the Lord continues to wait on the Lord. You see,
we do believe the salvations of the Lord from eternity past
to eternity future. We do believe that we were saved
when God purposed to save His people. We do believe that we
were saved when the Lord Jesus Christ came and wrought out salvation
by His doing and dying on the cross. We do believe that we
were saved when the Holy Spirit breathed in us and gave us life,
and the evidence of that life is faith that we may believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do believe we're being
saved. We're being saved. You know, you're kept by the
power of God through faith, that if the Lord took His hand away
from us for a moment, we would fall. We were kept by the power
of God. We continue to wait on the Lord. We keep waiting until that day
comes when we open our eyes in His presence. David said this,
he said, I'll be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness, when I
see your face. That's when I'll be plumb saved,
completely saved, saved from the very presence of sin. Those persons have hope. that
continue. These all died in faith. They have a good hope. They have
a good hope. Notice it says here, I wait more
than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they
that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope. Let all God's
people hope. These are the people that have
hope, a reason for hope. And now the psalmist says, let
all Israel hope. Let all God's people all His
chosen, all those He loved with everlasting love. Let all Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. With the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him, plenteous redemption. He saves to the uttermost. There's
mercy. His mercies are new every morning,
and there's plenteous redemption. That is to say, you're not just
barely saved, you're saved with a glorious salvation, an ample
entrance into the kingdom. Speak comfortably, the Lord says
in Isaiah 40, speak comfortably to the heart of my people. Tell
them their warfare is over. Tell them they've received double
for all their transgressions. pardon for sin and a righteousness,
the righteousness of God himself. It's not like you're just sneaking
in. Have you ever been to a place and you thought, well, I just
sneak in? I have. I don't want to be really seen there because
I know that I really didn't need to be there. But I just kind
of hope nobody notices I'm there. No, that's not the way His people
enter into His presence. We enter into His presence in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let all Israel
hope in the Lord, for the Lord, there is mercy, and with Him
is plenteous redemption, and He shall Our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. That person who knows the Lord
Jesus Christ, whose hope is Him. You know the scriptures say Jesus
Christ in you is the hope of glory. In you is the hope of
glory. Our hope is not in a... somebody
wanted to have a wanted to talk to me about their, had their,
what do you call that, certificate of they were baptized. That's supposed to prove something,
don't you know? Certificate of their baptism. But you know, when you come before
God, you better have more than a piece of paper in your hand
that says you're a member of a church, or that you made a
profession of faith. that you lived all your life
doing good works and stuff, Christ in you is the hope of glory.
Christ in you. He shall redeem his people from
their sins, from their iniquities. Those are the people who have
reason to hope. May the Lord bless this word.
Thank you, brother.