Do you know the first verse of
that hymn Matt? It starts out, In evil long I
took delight, Unawed by shame or fear, Until a new object caught
my sight, And stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on
a tree. Isn't that good? That's a John
Newton song. Would you turn back to Psalm
130? Out of. The depths. Have I cried unto
thee, O Lord, out of the depths of sin and
shame, out of the depths of misery and darkness and despair and
inability and helplessness and discouragement and weakness and
depression. And that's what the psalmist
is speaking of. Out of the depths, I've hit the bottom, rock bottom. And from this position, the depths
beyond human health or human hope, out of the depths have
I cried unto Thee. Thee, the only One who can help
me, is God. I cannot help myself, and no
mere man can help me. From this position, he is the
only one who can hear me. I'm at the bottom. And from the depths, I cry. Turn with me for a moment to
Psalm 69. Mark Psalm 130. We're coming
back there. But look in Psalm 69. Now this psalm is what is called,
well they're all messianic psalms, but look in verse 21, they gave
me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar
to drink. Now you know that's the Lord
speaking, and that's precisely what took place on the cross.
And this is the Lord speaking in the first person, but it's
also David speaking. And David is speaking of his
experience and the way he felt. And look what he says in Psalm
69. And like I said, I know these are the Lord's words from the
cross also, but they're David's words. He says, save me, O God. For the waters are come in unto
my soul. I sink. In deep mire. Where there's no standing. I'm
coming to deep waters where the waters overflow me. I'm weary
of my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail
while I wait for my God. Turn back to Psalm 38. Verse 1. The psalmist says, Rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither
chasten me in thy hot displeasure, for thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in
my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin, for mine iniquities are gone over
mine head." I think of David crying from the depths. And he
says, my iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden.
They're too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I'm troubled. I'm bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long,
for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there's
no soundness in my flesh. I'm feeble and sore broken. I've roared by reason of the
disquietness, no peace, the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desires
before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart
penteth. My strength faileth me. As for
the light of mine eyes, it is also gone from me." Now, everybody who's brought
to the depths, here's the only thing they can do. They cry unto
the Lord. And if you and I are ever brought
to the depths, as he speaks of here, we will cry unto the Lord. Verse 2. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. You want to be heard. Now listen
real carefully. I want to say something very
important regarding prayer. We only pray about that which
we have no ability to do anything about. Isn't that so? We only pray with regards to
that which we have no ability to do anything about or correct
it or cause it to happen. Now my first response to everything
is what can I do to fix this? And when we're made to see we
can't fix it, then we're made to cry out. Now, I'm persuaded. I've been thinking about this.
This thing of prayer. I'm persuaded that we don't really
believe in prayer like we say we do. I'm just sure of it. If we did, we'd do a lot more
praying. Isn't that so? But this I know. We only pray
for that which we cannot do for ourselves. That's what you pray
about. Hear me, Lord. Be attentive to
my request. Bow down to me in the depths. I cannot raise myself up to you.
You have to come down to me or I will not be saved. I'm at the
bottom. There's nothing I can do. I'm
totally dependent upon you to come down Now, in verse 3 of
Psalm 130, we're given a confession of sin. Is there any time you
can come into the Lord's presence without some kind of confession
of your own personal sin? He says in verse 3, If thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand. Now, regarding everything that
I do, if you observe the iniquity in it, I don't stand a chance. You take anything about me. If
you want to find fault with it, there's plenty of fault to be
found. If that's the way you deal with
any man, Who's going to stand? If you mark iniquity, if you
look at me outside of Christ in any way, if you look at me
outside of your mercy, outside of your grace, if you look at
me as I am in myself, all there is, is iniquity. And if you mark
iniquity, if you point it out, if you look at it, who's going
to stand? I know I can't. Lord, if thou shouldst mock iniquity,
who should stand? Everything that I do is filled
with iniquity, and if you mock it, if you look at it, it's going
to be exposed, and I can't stand. We say we believe that, but when
we're crying from the depths, we really believe it. Verse 4, but, this is one of the best words
in the Bible. But, and if you mark iniquity,
nobody's going to stand, but, but. We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, but God, who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together. with Christ. Paul said in Galatians
1, 14 and 15, I profited in the Jews' religion above many my
own equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous
of the tradition of my father's. But I was going to hell. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His to
reveal his Son in me. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse
12, we read, At that time you were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants
of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who were sometime are made nigh, made nigh, by the blood of Christ. And here's how close I am. I
can't get any closer. Near, so near to God, nearer
I cannot be. In the person of His dear Son,
I am as near to God as He. So dear to God, dear I cannot
be, for in the person of his dear Son, I am as dear to God
as he." Isn't that a precious word, but? But, he says in verse
4, there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Now David was talking about himself,
or whoever wrote this psalm, I'm assuming it was David. He
says, Out of the depths have I cried. He talks about his iniquities. He said, Lord, if thou shouldst
mark iniquities, who shall stand? And he was thinking of his own
iniquities, the iniquities of that day, the iniquities of his
life, the iniquities of me. He knew about the iniquities
he didn't know about, all of his sins. If thou shouldst mark
iniquities, who would stand? But there is forgiveness. There is forgiveness with thee. Now, how do we know that? Because God said so in his word. There is forgiveness with thee. You know, the gospel of Christ,
well, first it's about the glory of God. First it's about the
manifestation of the divine attributes. You know what else it's about?
It's about the forgiveness of sins. There is forgiveness with
thee. Now, why is there forgiveness
with thee? There is forgiveness with thee
for Christ's sake. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32
says, You be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake has forgiven thee. He doesn't forgive you
because you were sorry. He doesn't forgive you because
you promise you'll never do it again. He doesn't forgive you
because of all the good things you're going to do if he forgives
you. No, it doesn't have anything to do with you. He forgives you
for Christ's sake, and that's reason enough. No other reason
is needed. And here's what his blood does.
Hold your finger then, Psalm 130 and turn to Colossians 1. I love this passage of scripture.
Every time I read it, it thrills me. I think, is this really true? It almost seems too good to be
true. Read with me, beginning in verse 20. And having made peace, through
the blood of his cross. Now, before we go on reading,
let me tell you what happened. The blood of his cross is this. My sin became his sin. It's really that simple. My sin
became his sin so that he was guilty of it and he deserved
the wrath of God, because my sin became His sin. Hence, we have the shedding of
His blood. God's holy. God's just. He can't
let sin go unpunished. My sin became His sin. Hence, the blood of the cross. He was guilty. He took my sins
and my sorrows and made them His very own. He bore the burden
to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Now, what did he do by
that? Having made peace through the
blood of his cross by him, to reconcile all things unto himself
by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable. Now, this presentation is not
something that's going to take place one of these days. It's
already taken place. When our Lord was raised from
the dead and ascended back to the Father, He came back with
the names of all of God's elect with Him, and they were all declared
to be holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Now, that's what His blood does.
There is forgiveness with thee. Now, this forgiveness is free. You know what that means? That means there's no conditions
you have to meet in order to have it. Absolutely none. There's nothing you need to do
or there's nothing you need to be before he can give you forgiveness. It's absolutely free. Now, if it wasn't, where would
that leave you? It wouldn't be forgiveness for
me or you if it wasn't absolutely free. Now, while it's free to
us, it costs the Lord infinitely in order to give you and I the
forgiveness of sins. It's free. And listen to this. His forgiveness is full. What's
that mean? His blood cleanses us from all
sin. Every sin. What we think of as
the big sins, the little sins, the sins we don't know about,
secret sins, all sin. Sins of thought, sins of action,
sins of attitude, all sin is forgiven. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, God never
confers favor because of the worthiness of the sinner, and
He never withholds it because of the unworthiness of the sinner.
Forgiveness is free and it's full. And His forgiveness is
everlasting and irreversible. His forgiveness is not like our
forgiveness. Aren't you thankful for that?
narrow. Difficult. Half hearted. With strings attached, but his
forgiveness is full. Free. Bottomless. Boundless. And absolute. And there's something about you.
That deserves forgiveness. You will not be forgiven. I want
you to think about that. If there's anything about you
that can recommend you and say, well, he deserves or she deserves
to be forgiven, you will not be forgiven. His forgiveness
is only for those with nothing but guilt. This is the forgiveness
that's suitable for the one that cries from the depths. Out of
the depths have I cried unto thee. Now look what he says next
in verse four. There is, but there is forgiveness with thee.
And here's the consequence of his forgiveness. And this is
something that a natural man cannot possibly understand, but
this is the glory of the gospel right here. There is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. Do you know that you
know nothing of the fear of God until you understand forgiveness? Now, the fear he's talking about,
there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. He's
not talking about the fear of unbelief and the fear of mistrust.
There's all kinds of people who have that kind of fear, the fear
of mistrust. They mistrust God and they're
afraid of the circumstances. They're afraid of what's going
to happen. They can't trust God and they're afraid. He's not
talking about the fear of the legalist, who, when he hears
of grace, when he hears of the forgiveness of sins, when he
hears of the sovereign grace of God, how free and complete
he is, he fears what will loom to him. Well, if I believed that,
I'd turn into a monster. If I believed that, I'd go out
and do all kinds of crimes and not worry about it. Grace really
is that free. A legalist is afraid of grace because of what he'll
do. He can't really. That's not the fear I'm talking
about. I'm talking about that fear of God that comes when you
see all your sins are forgiven, put away, wiped out. And that makes you fear His holy
name. There's a reverence. There's
an awe. There's a fear of God. When I
see the complete, absolute, free, full forgiveness of sins and
what it took for me to be forgiven, when I see the awesome wrath
of God against sin coming down on His Son, oh, it makes me fear
Him. There is forgiveness. There is
no fear of God without some understanding of this thing of forgiveness.
There is. forgiveness with thee, that thou
mayest be feared." Now he goes on to say in verse five, 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. Upon the meditation of the glorious
truth which he had just stated, there is forgiveness with thee,
that thou mayest be feared. He says, my soul doth wait for
the Lord. Now, what is this thing of waiting
on the Lord? We read a lot about it in the Scriptures. Wait on
the Lord. And he shall strengthen my heart.
Be of good courage. Wait on the Lord. Now, what does
it mean to wait on the Lord? Will you wait on the Lord? When
you're convinced that you can't do a thing. And you're waiting
on him to do it for you. You wait on the Lord when you're
waiting for him to answer for you. Now, let me tell you the
opposite of waiting on the Lord. In first Samuel, chapter 13.
King Saul was waiting for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice. The Philistines were coming.
And Samuel didn't come when he said he was going to come. And
Saul said, I can't wait. And so he took it upon himself
to offer up a sacrifice himself. He didn't wait for the priest
to do it. He thought, well, I've got to do it now. I guess he
thought he was up to the task. So he offered up the sacrifice
without waiting on Samuel the priest. And God rejected him
from being king. He cut his own throat when he
did that. I wait for the Lord. When my name is called. I'm not going to say anything.
I'm going to wait for him to answer for me. He said no man
coming to the father, but by me. I'm not coming beside him. I'm not coming behind him. I'm
simply coming in so that when he comes to the father, I do
too. I wait for the Lord and in his
word do I hope. The hope that I have comes from
his word. Now, hope, what is hope? Hope
is a confident expectation. But understand this about hope.
If you can see it, it's no longer hope. If you can see it, if you
can experience, there's no point hoping for it, you've got it.
Hope is something that you believe, but you don't have it in your
experience. Now, there's so many examples
in Scripture. I have a hope. I have a confident
expectation that I'm holy. And I can't see it. But I have
a hope that I am. He tells me I am in his word. I have a hope that I'm justified. That I stand before God without
guilt. That I'm actually not guilty. That I'm perfect in Christ
Jesus. Now, if I look at myself, I can't see myself as justified.
The sins of this day, the sins of this day tell me that I'm
evil in and of myself. But I still have a hope that
I'm justified before God without sin. I have a hope that when
I stand before God in judgment, I'm going to be accepted. I'm
going to be received. I have this hope. Now, it's a
confident expectation. And this hope is in his word. That's why I have this hope.
I wouldn't dare hope these things if I didn't see it in His Word.
For instance, when our Lord says, Thou hast loved them, John 17,
verse 23, Thou hast loved them, talking about me, as Thou hast
loved me. I wouldn't dare think that could
possibly be true unless God said it in His Word. But because God
said it in His Word, I have this hope. I hope in His Word I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the
Lord more than day that watch for the morning. I say more than
day that watch for the morning. Would you turn with me to the
book of Lamentations for just a moment? Lamentations chapter
3, right after the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrote Lamentations.
21 of Lamentations chapter 3. This I recalled in my mind, therefore
have I hope. Now this is the same man who
said in verse 18, and I said my strength and my hope is perished
from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the doll, my soul hath him still
in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore, have I hope. And here's
what it is. It's of the Lord's mercies. That
we're not consumed. Because his compassions fail
not. They are new. Every morning great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto
all them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him." Now
look at this, verse 26. It's good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait. for the salvation of the Lord. It's good to hope, and it's good
to quietly wait. Now, in my experience, I don't
have what I'm going to have. One of these days, I'm going
to behold His face in righteousness. I'm going to see Him as He is.
I'm not experiencing that right now. But it's not time yet. It's not time. I hope and I patiently wait for
the salvation of the Lord. That salvation from sin. I hope
and I quietly wait. Psalm 130, back to our text. My soul waited for the Lord more
than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they
that watch for the morning. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. And I'm waiting on the Lord.
Now he says in verse 7, let Israel hope in the Lord. Israel's all God's people. If
you're a believer, you're Israel. And he calls upon Israel. Let
Israel hope in the Lord. That's what my hope is. It's
in the Lord. It's 1 John chapter 3, verses
4 and 5 says sin is transgression of the law. And he was manifested
to take away our sin. And in him is no sin. And in him I have no sin. And my hope is in the Lord. In
the Lord I have no sin. Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy. Your Lord must be merciful. I've heard people say, well,
he must be just. He can show mercy if he wants. Now, wait
a minute. It's his nature to be merciful. It's his nature
to be just, yes. But it's his nature to be merciful.
He says he delights in mercy. He's more willing to give you
mercy than you are to receive it. That's our God. With the
Lord there is mercy. And this is the way his mercy
works. I think a lot. Lot's in Sodom. The angels say, get out. Lot
lingers, looking for a reason to stay. There he lingers. And then those angels
grabbed him by the hand and pulled him out. the Lord being merciful
to him. Aren't you thankful for his mercy? Now, here's a reason to hope.
The Lord delights in mercy. The Lord delights in showing
mercy to sinners. You find me a sinner, and I'll
show you somebody He's going to give mercy to every time. The Lord delights in mercy. And with Him, there is Look at
this next word, plenteous redemption. Overflowing redemption. This is talking about the redeeming
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now turn with me to Romans 3
for just a moment. With him is plenteous redemption. Romans chapter 3. Verse 19. And here's where we
begin. Our stake before God. Now we
know. Every believer knows this. Don't
have to be convinced of it. We know this is so. We know that
what things soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God, subject to God's judgment. It's
not attempting to prove the existence of God. It's not trying to make
arguments to tell it. We know this. We're guilty before
God. We have no excuse. Every mouth
is to be stopped and all the world stands guilty before God. We know that, don't we? I know
it by experience. I know it because God's word
tells me, and I know it by experience. Verse 20, Therefore, by the deeds
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness
of God, without the law, without my personal obedience to the
law, is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe. For there
is no difference for all a sin that comes short of the glory
of God, being justified freely." That means without a reason in
you. Being justified freely by His
grace through The redemption. The redeeming work of Christ
on the cross. Now this is what the redeeming
work of Christ on the cross did for me. What it did for everybody
He died for. He justified them freely. Believer, get hold of this. You
right now stand before God without guilt. Without sin. Just in His presence. All with
the Lord there is plenteous redemption. Back to our text in Psalm 130,
the last verse. Because with the Lord there is
plenteous redemption, he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Because with the Lord, there
is plenty of redemption. He shall redeem. Put your name
there if you're a believer. He shall redeem Claire. He shall
redeem Rich. He shall. He shall redeem Todd. From all. His iniquities. And I got plenty of them. Let
me tell you something. I've been redeemed. I've been
justified. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And all my iniquities
that grieve me so much that I would love to tear my heart out and
have a new one that didn't sin anymore. I hate my sin. I hate myself. But thank God
He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. And I'm going
to stand before God without sin. Isn't that a wonderful psalm? Israel, hope, hope in the Lord. Let's pray.