Okay then, let's take another
look at this Psalm 130. Psalm 130, out of the depths
have I cried. I cried out of the depths of
my sin, out of the depths of grief. You kind of get a sense
of David, David, deep despair, deep despair. Out of the depths
have I cried. I cried to thee, the Lord. He cried to the one that could
help him. Oh, Lord. The Lord is my strength. The
Lord is my salvation. Lord, hear my voice. Lord, hear
me. Hear my cry. You know, the Lord
hears the cries of his people. Because he's a living God, he
can hear. because he is the loving God
toward his people. He will hear, ready to hear.
Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. I thought about several different
titles for the message. Verse four would make a good
title, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? There is forgiveness. There is forgiveness with thee.
Our God forgives sin based upon the atonement of Christ. That
would be a good title, wouldn't it? There is forgiveness with
thee. And also, I like what it says
in verse seven, let Israel hope in the Lord. That's our only
hope of salvation, is it not? In the Lord, in our Lord Jesus
Christ. But what I usually use for a
title to this psalm is the experience of grace or the experience of
mercy. or the experience of salvation.
David cries, out of the depths, out of the depths have I cried.
And then he looks alone to the Lord for salvation. And that's
how God deals with us. When we're convicted of our sin,
when he shows us that we are sinners, we cry unto him for
mercy, don't we? And then he shows us that there
is forgiveness with him based upon the blood atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know that a mere religious
experience or feelings, religious feelings or excitement, that
alone is not salvation. You can have an experience, but
that's not salvation. But we know this, salvation by
the grace of God, Salvation by the mercy of God is certainly
something that the believer does experience in his heart, in his
life, in his soul. That's something that God does
in us, and it's real. It is real. It's a real experience
that God, when he does that work of grace, he had done a work
of salvation for us, that we call that the justifying work
of Christ for us, but he also does that work of regeneration
within us, within us. And I thought of this scripture,
a couple of them. One of them is Christ in you
is a hope of glory. Christ in you is a hope of glory. Another one I often think of
when I think about the work of Christ in the heart of the sinner,
is Philippians 1 verse 6. God who has begun, he said, being
confident of this very thing, that God who has begun a good
work in you, he'll finish it. He never leaves a work undone. If God ever starts a work of
conviction in our heart, you know where that will lead us?
To comfort. The comfort in Christ. He is
our comfort. He's a God of all comfort and
a God of all grace. You see, salvation that we read
about in the Word of God is God invading the heart of the sinner. It's an invasion of heart, soul,
spirit, mind, thoughts, will, understanding, affection by God
the Holy Spirit revealing the blessedness of Christ in our
heart. in our soul. He makes us willing
in the day of His power. When will a sinner come to Christ? When He makes us willing in the
day of His power. And in the day of that power
we see all salvation accomplished in Christ. This psalm begins
with the cry of the heart of a believer, out of the depths
have I cried, and ends with complete confidence and assurance of all
salvation and assurance of all sin forever forgiven. Look at verse 8. He shall redeem
Israel. Not maybe, not could be. Not,
I will if you will. He shall redeem. Who does the
redeeming? Who's the redeemer? He shall
redeem Israel from all his sin, all his iniquity. Now, verse
1 and 2. Here we see the conviction of
sin and the cry of the heart unto the Lord for mercy. And
it's a cry for pardon. It's a cry for forgiveness. It's
a cry for salvation. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. The depths of ruin, the depths
of guilt, the depths of sin, the depths of trouble, you name
it. Down in the deep, down in the
pit of sin, have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Good place to be. That's a good place to be. Lord,
hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my crying. My supplication or my request,
as Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4, he said, let your
request be made known unto God. Call out upon the Lord. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Here we
see the conviction of sin and the cry of the heart unto the
Lord for mercy. This is what we call the pattern
of salvation or the method of salvation, the pattern of grace.
The Lord makes us to know that we're guilty, that we are sinners
in his sight. He makes us to know that there
is none righteous, no not one. There's none to understand us.
There's none that seeks after God. And then he makes us to
know that the only remedy for our sin and guilt is Christ.
Christ. We call this Holy Spirit conviction,
don't we? Our Lord said in John 16, when
He the Spirit has come, He'll convict us of sin. That's what
we are. You know, sin, as my pastor used
to always say, sin's not in a bottle or a box. A lot of people think
it is. Sin's a nature and a principle
of the heart. Sin is what we are. We do sinful
things because we're sinners. When God the Holy Spirit has
come, he'll convict us of sin. That's what we are. We're sinners. Someone came over here to the
church. I came back from lunch. I think
it was maybe on Monday or Tuesday, and there were some men standing
over here at the drugstore, and I parked out here, as I usually
do, and came in the door, and here right behind me came a fellow
right in after me. And he said, what kind of church
is this? I said, well, it's a place where
sinners meet together to worship. And I looked at him, and I said,
you're a sinner, right? He said, well, everybody's sinners,
right? I said, are you a sinner? I didn't ask about everybody
else. I asked about you. And he never really gave me an
answer. But the Lord, when he convicts
us, He convicts us, God the Holy Spirit convicts us that we are
sinners, what we are. And then he says, of righteousness,
what we need. He convicts us of what we are,
then he shows us what we need. We need righteousness. Not morality. Righteousness. That is, we need
Christ, who's the Lord, our righteousness. And then he said, of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment, of judgment, what we deserve, what we deserve. That fellow that came in, I got
tickled when I asked him, is he a sinner? And he hum hummed
around and said, well, everybody else is, but maybe I'm not. And
then he asked me, he said, you got any women in this church? I said, well? I said, yeah, but
they're all married. He said, well, I may come. I
don't know. He makes you wonder what people
are really looking for when they look for church. You think they'd
be looking for a place where the gospel is preached, where
the gospel is preached. But Holy Spirit conviction always
points us to Christ. the Lord Jesus Christ. It always
points us to Christ, looking unto Him. Holy Spirit conviction
always leads us to the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't it? He had my
sheep hear my voice. I know them, they follow me.
And Holy Spirit conviction always brings us to the feet of the
Savior, to follow His feet, to submit. Christ suffered once
for our sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us
unto God. And then, The cry of mercy, the
cry of mercy is when we see our need of Him. We will never cry for mercy until
we know we have a need, a need, a real need, a real need of mercy,
mercy from the hand of the Savior. We'll never cry for pardon from
sin until we know that we're guilty before the Lord. that
we have sinned against the Lord. As David said in Psalm 51, have
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my sin. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in my sight.
Wash me throughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgression and my sin as ever before me.
Have mercy upon me, O God." Have mercy upon me, O God. There was
a dear brother in the church in Ashland, and he was an elderly
man when I met him, at least I thought he was, because I was
in my late 20s, and he was probably about 60 or so, but he was one
of the elders of the church there. And often when he was called
on to pray publicly, read scripture, And when he'd pray, he'd always
use the phrase, Lord, we're mercy beggars. Cecil Roach. I don't know if you remember,
brother Cecil. Cecil Roach. Mercy beggars. Lord, we come
to you as mercy beggars. God does bring us to see the
depths of our sin, but not to depths of despair, because he
causes us to cry unto him for mercy. We come to him as mercy
beggars, like the publican, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
often in scripture, he said, if you're thirsty, come to me.
I have the water of life. He said, if you're heavy laden
and laboring with guilt and sin, he said, come unto me and rest. Rest, you'll find rest for your
soul. Rest for your soul. And then I love, I quote this
scripture all the time because it's just so comforting to our
heart. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in our time of need. When is that time of need?
All the time. I need mercy. And then the public
can cry, Lord, be merciful to me, thee sinner. I had a dear old brother ask
me one time, preacher, he said, I just don't know how to pray.
I said, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you how to pray.
Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's my prayer. He'll
hear that prayer and he'll answer that prayer. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. When the Lord is pleased to convict
us of sin, to show us what we are in his sight, he will hear
our cry because The only way we'll confess that is because
God doing a work of grace in the heart. I've never read in
the word of the Lord that the Lord Jesus Christ ever turned
a mercy beggar away. Not one time. I've been looking
at this, reading and studying the scripture pretty diligently
for the last 40 some years. I've never read one time when
the Lord turned the mercy beggar out. When those who came to him
in need, he met that need. We've seen that recently in our
study in the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter eight, when the
leper came to the Lord, full of leprosy, he came to the Lord
and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He fell
down and worshiped the Lord and said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean. And the Lord said, I will, I
will be thou clean. And then another occasion in
Matthew chapter 9 where there's two blind men, remember? They came to the Lord and cried
for mercy, thou son of David, have mercy upon us. And the Lord
said, do you believe I'm able to do this? You remember? Do
you believe I'm able to do this? Remember what they said? Yes,
Lord. He is able to save to the uttermost. all that come to God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Yes, I believe
he is able. Here's another scripture I often
read. Turn back to Psalm 40, Psalm
40. Look at verse one, Psalm 40 verse
one. I waited, I waited patiently
for the Lord. He inclined unto me. And he heard
my cry. And he brought me up also out
of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet upon a
rock, established my goings. He hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust. Respecteth not the proud, nor
such as turn aside to lies. That's a blessed man to trust
the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust Him. Now, look at verse 3, back
in Psalm 130. If thy Lord shouldest mark, or
count, Lord, if you take note of my sin, apart from Christ
my mediator. If you just deal with me with
my sin and mark my sin and count my sin, and he does, he knows
all of our sin. If you should count all my sin
and mark all my sin, Lord, I can't stand. I cannot stand. Oh, Lord, who shall stand? Well, no one can stand before
a holy God, a thrice holy God, knowing that we are sinners.
Thy Lord shouldest mark my sin. Here's a confession of a repentant
heart, taking God's side against myself, guilty before God. Upon my merit, upon my work,
I cannot stand. I cannot stand. No one can stand
before the Lord. In the merit, by the deeds of
the law, shall no flesh be justified. Who shall stand? None. If the
Lord would count impute, charge all my sin to me. I cannot stand. I cannot stand. The foolish shall
not stand in his sight, says in Psalm 5. You remember the
question in Psalm 24, who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place? He that had clean hands and a
pure heart, who had never lifted up his soul to vanity, who had
never sworn deceitfully, He shall receive the blessing from the
Lord and the righteousness from the God of his salvation. I can't
ascend to the Lord in the merit and strength of the flesh. But
Psalm 24 goes on to say, lift up your head though you gage,
be you lift up the everlasting door. The King of glory is coming
in. That's who's gonna stand, who
is the King of glory, the Lord. Strong and mighty, the Lord mighty
in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates.
Lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Psalm 24, I'm reading, verse
9. Who is this King of glory? Look at verse 10. He's the Lord
of hosts. He's the Lord of the people. We're coming in because
we stand in Him. We're in union with Him. That's
the only way we can stand before the Lord. The only way we can
stand before the Lord. Now look at verse four, and here's
our confession. Here's our confession of faith.
But, I love that word, B-U-T, but there might be, there could
be, there could be, there's a possibility that there's forgiveness with
thee. No, it said there, There is forgiveness
with Him. There's forgiveness with the
Lord. Now you think about this statement. But God, you remember
Psalm 32, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Now hold your place there and
turn back to Psalm, look at Psalm 73 for just a moment. Psalm 73. Psalm 73, verse, I think I want
verse 25. Psalm 73, 25. Whom have I in
heaven but thee? And there is none upon the earth
that I desire but thee. My heart, my flesh, and my heart
faileth. But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion. But God. God is the strength
of my heart and my portion. Remember, I often quote this
verse in Ephesians chapter 2, when it talks about all we are
by nature, dead in sin, children of wrath, even as others. And
then it says, but God, who is rich in mercy. But God, it describes
everything we are, dead in sin, children of wrath, workers of
iniquity, shut us out. And then it says, but God, who
is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sin. has quickened us together with
Christ. There is forgiveness in the Lord
Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us from all
our sin. Hold your place in Psalm 130
and look back at Psalm 86. Psalm 86, look at verse 1. Psalm 86 verse 1, bow down thine
ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I'm poor and needy." David often
uses that phrase, I'm poor and needy. You remember Psalm 40
says, I'm poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me. Psalm
86 verse 1, I'm poor and needy. Preserve my soul, preserve my
soul, for I am holy. And the marginal reference on
that word is one whom thou has favored. O thou, my God, save
thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O
Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art
good and ready, ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy unto all them
that call upon the Lord. I'm going to call. The Lord's
ready to forgive. The Lord is plenteous in mercy.
I like that prayer in Nehemiah. Was it Nehemiah 9, 17? Thou art
a God ready to pardon. You remember that prayer? Nehemiah
9, 17. The forgiveness of sin is based
upon the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? The forgiveness
of sin is based upon the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1-7 describes that, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sin according to the riches of His grace. according to the
riches of his glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, without
Christ crucified, there could be no forgiveness. God couldn't
be just and justifier without the shedding of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Christ crucified for
our sin, we could have no pardon, no forgiveness. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no redemption, is there? There's no forgiveness
of sin, not without the shedding of his blood, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You remember our study in the
book of Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10 is just so rich and
so full. He obtained for us eternal redemption
with his own blood. And then he said, by the one
offering, he perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
then he said, their sin and their iniquity, God said, I'll remember
them no more. Gone. Gone. His one offering. By His one
offering, we have complete, total, and free forgiveness of all our
sin. David described it in Psalm 103,
as far as the east is from the west. As far as the east is from
the west, so has he separated our sin from us. He took our
sin to himself and he put our sin away by satisfying God's
law and justice for us with his own blood. Now, notice the second
part of verse 4. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. Worship. Worship is born by knowing
that God in His goodness and God in His grace has forgiven
us of all our sin. You remember that scripture where
it said, those who He has forgiven much, they love much, don't they? They love much. The fruit of
forgiveness is gratitude. The fruit of redemption is gratitude,
fear, and reverence, and worship. Gratitude for pardon produces
far more reverence than all the dread inspired by fear of punishment
or promise of reward. You see, it's the goodness of
God that leads us to repentance, isn't it? It's not the wrath
of God. You remember in the Revelation, those who experienced the wrath
of God didn't change their heart, did they? They still cursed God. and cried for the rocks and the
mountains to fall on us, to hide us from the face of Him. Holy
and reverent is His name. Turn back to Psalm 119. Excuse
me, Psalm 111. I love this Psalm 111. That's
a number I can't mess up. Psalm 111. I can't transpose
that one. Psalm 111, look at verse nine. Psalm 111, he sent redemption
to his people. He commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and reverend is his name. Don't ever call any preacher
reverend. I don't like that. Oftentimes
you see in the paper Reverend Jones or Reverend Smith. I'm
not, that's not my name. My name's Tom. Thomas, Thomas Allen. Holy and
reverent is his name. You see that? The fear of the
Lord is beginning with him, but good understanding have all they
that do his commandment. His praise endures forever. His
praise endures forever. Isn't that the song of the regime?
Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive all honor and glory,
blessing and power, both now and forever. Here's the believer's
firm resolve to wait and to hope. We wait on the Lord with certain
hope, don't we? Luke verse 5 and 6, I wait for
the Lord. Now, my dear pastor used to say, he'd go out in the car and him
and Doris would be getting ready to go somewhere and he'd go out
in the car and start the car up and pull the car out and he'd
wait for Doris to come and he'd wait for Doris to come and eventually
she'd come. And they'd often say, she's worth
waiting for. The Lord Jesus Christ is worth
waiting for. Wait for the Lord, my soul doth
wait, and in his word I do hope. In his word I do hope. Don't
turn, let me read this to you. You're familiar with this scripture.
I think it's, yeah, Psalm 27. Psalm 27 verse 13 said, I had
fainted unless I'd believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. Isn't he worth waiting for? He
certainly is, isn't he? I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait
on the Lord. He told me to wait. He shall stand from heaven and
save me from the reproach of Him that would swallow me up.
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth. I'm going to wait
upon the Lord. I'm going to wait upon the Lord.
And then while I'm waiting upon the Lord, you know what I'm going
to do? I'm going to hope. And in His Word, do I hope. Now that hope is a good word.
That hope is a good word. God is called the God of hope,
the God of all grace. God of all grace. We have a good
hope. God has given us an everlasting
consolation, a good hope. A good hope what? A good hope
through grace. We wait with assurance of hope
based upon a promise of God found in his word. His Word, we can
believe His Word. It's impossible for God to lie.
Every promise He's given to us, and He's given us, Peter describes
them as exceeding great and precious promises. Well, all the promises
God has given to us, all the promises of God in Christ are
yes, and amen, and in Him, and to the glory of God. Every promise
will be fulfilled. God cannot lie. It's impossible
for God to lie. Everything that God had promised
He'll bring to pass, all that He speaks in His infallible Holy
Scripture is absolute, eternal, and true. Truth never changes. Truth never needs to be updated. And God is truth. He said, I'm
the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. We live, we hope in His Word,
His Word written, The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper
than any two-edged sword, and the Word of God incarnate, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh and dwelt among us. We
wait. We wait. In His Word, we do hope. The Lord has said that He will
have mercy on whom He will, right? He said that. The Lord said that
When we were yet without strength, the Lord Jesus Christ in due
time died for the ungodly. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Blessed
is that man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. He said that he came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Saving faith takes God at His
word. I wrote this scripture down.
1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, we thank God without ceasing because
when you receive the word of God, which you heard of us, you
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. The word of God effectually works
in God's people. It's called a hammer. It's called
a sword. God quickens of his own will,
beget he us with the word of truth. We're born again by the
word of the Lord of his own will, beget he us with the word of
truth. Saving faith takes God at his word. Abraham did what? Believed God and was counted
to him for righteousness. His word is the foundation of
our faith. Did you know that? The foundation
is not, the foundation of faith is not feelings, is it? Old Martin
Luther wrote years ago, feelings come and feelings go and feelings
are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
nothing else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for want of some sweet token, I trust one who's greater
than my heart, whose word cannot be broken. So I'm going to trust
his word. What a joy to wait upon the Lord
and to anticipate all the gospel blessings we have in Christ.
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in
the Lord Jesus Christ. His promises are certain and
sure. They never fail because God cannot
fail. Now, in closing, look at verse
7 and 8. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait. Verse 5, in His word I do hope. Christ is our hope, isn't He?
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for
the morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning.
Now, verse 7 and 8, let Israel. And again, this is talking about
God's elect. God's elect. His special Israel
that He has chosen from all eternity. Let Israel hope in the Lord. And that's a believer's hope,
is it not, in the Lord? Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is forgiveness, and with the Lord there is mercy. There is mercy. What's the difference
between grace and mercy? Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what
we do deserve. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's another one of those B-U-T's. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy. And with Him, oh, there's plenty. There's plenty to go around.
None to spare, plenty to go around for all God's Israel. He laid down His life for His
Israel. Call His name Jesus, He shall
save His Israel from all their sin. With Him is plenteous redemption. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, He shall. He shall redeem
Israel from all his transgression, all his iniquities, all of his
sin. Not one sheep of Christ can be
eternally lost. With him there is plenteous redemption,
worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive all honor, glory,
blessing, and power. He shall, and he did, didn't
he? He did. What did the Lord say
on Calvary Street? It's finished. When he by himself
purged our sin, he sat down on the right hand of the throne
of God. He shall do it. And he did. He shall. redeem Israel from all his iniquity. Not one sheep of Christ for whom
the Lord Jesus Christ tasted death, experienced death, can
perish. Not one. Not one. There's no one in hell for whom
Christ died. He secured their everlasting
salvation with His own blood. Christ the Good Shepherd, Christ
is the Good Shepherd, and He'll bring every lost sheep home to
the Father's house, and we'll enjoy Him forever, forever and
ever.