Okay, Psalm 130. We did a complete study through
all the psalms, 150 psalms. This is one of my favorite, favorite
psalms, Psalm 130. I'm entitling the message from
this psalm, The Experience of Grace. Or we could entitle it,
The Experience of a Believer's Salvation. And we know a mere
religious experience or mere religious feelings or excitement
is not salvation. those folks on Mount Carmel when
they faced off against the prophet of God, Elijah. You remember,
they got real exercised, so much so that they cried upon Baal
from morning till evening and even cut themselves before Elijah
started to mock them. They were certainly having religious
excitement, religious experience, but certainly that is not salvation,
is it? Not at all. But salvation by
the grace of God is certainly something that we do experience
in our heart by His grace. God Almighty does a work of grace
not only for us in the cross by His obedience, but God Almighty
does a work of grace in our heart. And that is something we experience.
That's something that's real. Something that we do experience
in our heart, in our life, and in our soul. The Scriptures teach
us, being confident of this very thing, that God who has begun
a good work in you, He will perform it. He will perfect it. He will
finish it. You see, salvation, that's the
gift of God, is an evasion of God into our heart, into our
mind. He changes our thoughts about
who we are, who He is. He gives us a new heart in Christ
Jesus. It's an evasion of God Almighty
into the heart, mind, and will. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. He gives us understanding of
who He is. He changes our understanding.
He changes our affections. We now set our affections on
things above, not on the things of this earth. And this is all
by the power of God, isn't it? The power of God who saved us
and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but
according to God's own purpose and grace. And it's by the power
of God the Holy Spirit revealing the blessedness of Christ in
you who is the hope of glory. That is Christ in you is the
hope of glory. Now this Psalm begins with a
cry, a cry of a believer out of the depths have I cried unto
thee, O Lord." And it ends with complete confidence and complete
assurance of all our sins forgiven in Christ. Look at verse 8. It
begins with a cry, O Lord, hear my voice. And then it ends with
complete confidence, He shall redeem me from all my sins."
We can read it that way, talking about the Israel of God, the
spiritual Israel, but that's our hope, is it not? He shall
redeem me. I can't redeem myself. He must
redeem me by His power, by His grace. Now, verses 1 and 2, here
we see the conviction of sin and the cry of a heart an awakened
heart, a convicted heart, unto the Lord, suing for mercy. And this is the pattern of grace.
Out of the depths, the depths of what? Depravity, the depths
of my sin, the depths of my shame, the depths of mine iniquity and
transgressions which are against the Lord, I have cried unto thee."
What are you crying about? Well, we cry for mercy, O Lord. And then we cry to be heard,
don't we, Lord? Hear my voice. Let thine ears
be attended to the voice of my supplications. We call upon the
living God who is able to hear our cry. How many times to our
study in 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings when those
prophets of God and David and Samuel and others cried upon
the Lord, He heard their cry, Hezekiah and others. Here we
see the pattern of grace. The Lord makes us to know that
we are guilty, and that's what we experience when God does the
work of grace in our heart. He makes us to know that we are
guilty, that we are sinners in His sight. This is what we call
Holy Spirit conviction. He'll convict us of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment. Of sin, what we are. Of righteousness,
what we need. And of judgment, what we deserve.
We call this Holy Spirit conviction. John chapter 16. Remember, our
Lord said, when God the Holy Spirit comes, He'll take the
things of Christ and show them unto you. One old writer said,
if we miss Holy Spirit conviction, we'll miss true repentance. true
repentance. And if we miss true repentance,
we'll miss faith. And if we miss faith, we'll miss
Christ. Because that's how salvation
is received. It's received not by doing, it's
received by believing. And then, the cry of mercy. The cry of mercy. Lord, hear
my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. We never pray not in sincerity
and truth of our heart cry when the Lord does not hear our cry. He hears our cry. We cry unto
the Lord and it's a cry of mercy. We'll never cry for mercy until
we know that we're in need for mercy, that we are sinners in
his sight, that we have sinned against the Lord. That's when
we know out of the depths of our sin and shame and iniquity
do we call upon the Lord. Scripture teaches whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'm going to
call on the name of the Lord now, the one that's high and
lifted up. We'll never cry for pardon from
all sin until we know that we're guilty before the Lord. Will
we? That we've sinned against the
Lord. That we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That the wages of sin is death. God does bring us to the depths
of our sin to show us what we are, and that's what we need.
We need to know what we are in God's sight. Sinners, sinners.
God does bring us to the depths of our sin, but not to the depths
of despair, because He causes us to cry unto Him for mercy.
And we do, by His grace, look to Him, come to Him by faith,
and cry unto Him, and I love that phrase, as a mercy beggar. as a mercy beggar. The publican
cried, Lord have mercy on me the sinner. And the Lord said,
that man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Our Lord said, come boldly unto
the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. When the Lord is pleased to convict
us of our sin, to show us what we are in his sight, He will
hear our cry." Now, did you get that? When He's pleased to convict
us of our sin and show us that we are sinners in His sight,
He will hear our cry because He's done a work of grace in
us. I've never read in the Word of God one time, not one time,
when the Lord ever turned away a mercy beggar. We don't come
to Him demanding mercy, do we? We don't come to him meriting
mercy, we come to him begging for mercy. Now let me show you
a good example that holds your place there in Psalm 130 and
find Matthew chapter 8. We just read a moment ago about
blind Bartimaeus when he heard the Lord Jesus Christ was coming
by his way, he cried out, thou son of David. Matthew chapter
8, turn there. Thou son of David, have mercy
upon me. And the scripture said, the Lord
Jesus stood still. A cry of a sinner stopped the
glorious almighty Lord dead in his tracks. And the Lord did
show mercy unto blind Bartimaeus, healed him, gave him his sight,
made him whole. In Matthew chapter eight, verse
one, When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed him. And behold, there came a leper,
and worshipped him, saying, Lord," now watch this, he addresses
him as Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. If you will,
not I will, if you will. Lord, if you will make me clean.
If thou wilt, thou can make me clean. And the Lord Jesus put
forth his hand and tucked him, saying, I will, I will. You see, salvation is by his
will, isn't it? If his own will beget he us with
the word of truth. Be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. Lord, if you will, Lord, if you
will, you can. He has all power. and all ability. So this is a pattern of mercy
that we enjoy by the Lord's grace. Now look at verse 3, and here
we see the confession of a repentant heart. If thou, Lord, I love
the way he keeps saying Lord, L-O-R-D, Jehovah, Almighty God. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
or count my iniquities, O Lord, I cannot stand. Who shall stand? Here's a confession of a repentant
heart. Taking God's side against myself. When he said, guilty, I'm guilty. I confess it. Upon my merit,
upon my works, I cannot stand. Can you? Can you? No sinner can. Then who shall stand? No one,
not in our righteousness, not in our merit, not in our work,
not in our ceremony, not in our tradition, if the Lord would
count and impute all my sin and charge all my sin to me, which
He justly should, I cannot stand. It says in Psalm 5, Psalm 5,
the foolish shall not stand in his sight. The fool hath said
in his heart, there is no God. Then who shall stand in the hill
of the Lord? Turn to Psalm 24, you remember?
Psalm 24, who shall ascend? Who shall stand in his sight? justified and accepted. Look
what it says, Psalm 24, verse 3. Who shall ascend into the
hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that
hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, that is, you must be perfect
to ascend to the hill of the Lord. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and the righteousness from the God of his salvation.
That just shuts out all creature merit, all creature effort, all
creature works. This is the generation of them
that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Now, look at verse
seven. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
be ye lift up ye everlasting doors. Oh, here's the King of
glory. King of glory, he shall stand. The King of glory shall come
in. Who is this 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, the King of Glory, He
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? Now
don't miss this, verse 10. He's the Lord of hosts. He's
the Lord of the people. He is the King of kings and He
is the Lord of lords. He's the Lord of hosts. Only
in the Lord Jesus Christ can we ascend and can we stand only
in Him. That's our Confession of a repentant
heart. Oh Lord, I can only stand in
thee. Being accepted in the beloved. Now look at verse four. Here's
our confession of faith. And I love the way this verse
starts. B-U-T, but, but, but. Thank God for that little word,
but, but. There is forgiveness with thee. that thou mayest be worshiped
and honored. Here's our confession of faith. But God, blessed is a man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's a blessed man. Turn
back over here to Psalm 32. Remember verse 1 of Psalm 32? Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32, verse 1. Blessed is
the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit
there is no guile. That's the blessed man. Here's
our confession of faith. There is forgiveness with the
Lord. But God, remember Ephesians 2,
but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sin have quickened us
together with Christ. But there is forgiveness of all
our sin with him, with Christ and in Christ, in whom we have
redemption. Through His blood, the forgiveness
of sin, according to the riches of His grace, there is forgiveness
of sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember 1 John chapter 1? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all our sin. What does a sinner need? Forgiveness of all our sin. How
can that be done? Only in Christ. And thank God
for this scripture, Turn over here to Psalm 86, 5. I was reading through the book
of Nehemiah today and thinking about doing a study when we get
through the second Kings, doing a study through Ezra and Nehemiah. And it's a story of after 70
years of captivity, how they came back to Jerusalem and rebuilt
the temple and rebuilt the wall. But Psalm 86, 5, but in Nehemiah
9, 17, I ran into this phrase, thou art a God ready to pardon. That's gracious, isn't it? For
all the sin and iniquity that we have committed against God.
Now this is Psalm 86, verse 5, for thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive. plenteous in mercy unto all them
that call upon thee." For all more, call upon the Lord for
mercy, for redemption from all our sin. There is forgiveness
of all our sin based upon His blood atonement, based upon the
just one dying for the unjust. Without Christ and Him crucified,
we have no forgiveness of sin, do we? Without the shedding of
His blood, there is no remission. There is no redemption. Now, it's just not the shedding
of blood, it's the shedding of His blood. God bought us with
His own blood. And the fruit of that, look at
the last part of Psalm 130, verse 4, the second part of that verse. Thou mayest be feared. Now this is a reverential awe
and worship of the Lord. The fruit of forgiveness is gratitude,
is it not? Think about that. All my sin,
all my iniquities, all my transgressions are gone through the blood atonement
of Christ. What does that do for the believer
in his heart, in his soul? Gratitude. reverence and worship. Gratitude for pardon produces
far more reverence than all the dread inspired by fear of punishment
or promise of reward, does it not? Gratitude, gratitude, the
love of Christ constrains us. Remember the word of the Lord
that He said to that self-righteous Pharisee about the woman who
washed his feet, and kissed his feet. And the Lord said to that
Pharisee, to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. That woman,
all her sins were forgiven, and she just loved on the Lord, and
loved on the Lord. And that Pharisee said, if he
knew what kind of woman that was, and the Lord said, her sins
are forgiven. Much is forgiven. To whom much
is forgiven the same loveth much." Oh, we ought to be great lovers
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't, and I don't like to
brag, and we shouldn't at all, I don't like to hear someone
say, I love the Lord with all my heart. That is something we
inspire into. We could say, well, I'd like
to love the Lord like I ought to. As John Newton said, I don't
love the Lord like I should, like I will one day, but by His
grace, I do love the Lord Jesus Christ. But I love to talk about
His love for us. His love for us. And the fruit
of that, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. We do love
the Lord, but, and I'd like to, and one day we will with all
of our heart, soul, mind, and spirit, but not in this flesh.
Not in this flesh, but thank God He loves us. As Peter said,
Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Not like
we ought to, not like we should, not like we will one day, but
we do love the Lord because He first loved us, right? There is forgiveness, but there
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Worship
reverence. Holy and reverent is his name.
Now look at verse 5 and look at verse 6. And here we see the
believers firm resolve to wait and hope. Wait and hope. Where? In his word do I hope. You see that? I wait for the
Lord. My soul does wait. Isn't his
blessings worth waiting for? And in his word do I hope. I hope in his word. I have a
great hope. A great hope in his word. My soul waited for the
Lord more than they that would watch for the morning. I say
more than they that would watch for the morning. Here we see
the believers firm resolve to wait and hope. We wait upon the
Lord with a certain sure expectation of hope, don't we? Faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We have a good hope through grace, don't we? A good hope through
grace. We wait with the assurance of hope based upon the promise
of God found in His Word of which God said, you know, there's something
impossible that God cannot do. It's impossible for the Lord
to lie. All that He speaks in His infallible
record of Holy Scripture, this Bible we have, doesn't merely
contain the Word of God, it is the Word of God. All that He
speaks in the infallible record of Holy Scripture is absolute
and eternal and true. Truth never changes because God
never changes. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now you think of
some of the precious promises in His Word. He said, I will
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. But now, sovereign mercy,
but He said, I will have mercy. He said, in His Word, when we
were yet without strength, the Lord Jesus Christ died for the
ungodly. We can count on His Word. In
His Word, I do hope. In His Word, I do hope. He said
that Christ justifies the ungodly. He said that in His Word. The
Lord Jesus Christ said, Come unto Me all ye that labor and
every laden, I'll give you rest. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Paul said, Of whom I am the chief
one. Now here's the point. Not one
promise of His Word shall fail. In Joshua 23, 14. These be the last words of Joshua,
it says, his last testimony. He said, all that God had promised,
not one word had failed. You remember from 2 Kings or
1 Kings chapter 8, when Solomon prayed in that prayer, the dedication
of the temple, of all that God had promised. he hath performed,
not one word will fail." All the exceeding great and precious
promises of God. You see, we do wait upon the
Lord and in His Word we find hope in His Word. Saving faith
takes God at His Word. As Peter said, after they'd been
fishing all night, and the Lord instructed those professional
fishermen who fished all night, hadn't caught anything, the Lord
said, well, cast your net out on that side of the boat, and
they Remember what Peter said? Lord, we fished all night. Nevertheless,
according to your Word, we'll cast out the net. And they had
a great, great catch of fish. Remember from Luke chapter 5?
Saving faith takes God at His Word. We believe His Word. In His Word, I do hope. Where
would we be without His Word? His word is the foundation of
faith. How firm a foundation, you saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word, the word of truth. What a joy to wait on the Lord
and to anticipate His gospel blessings in Christ. David said
in Psalm 27, wait upon the Lord, and again I say, wait, wait upon
the Lord. Certain and sure and constant,
just as sure as the sun will shine and come up in the morning
and give us light to go about our daily lives, so certain is
sure the Word of God. That's our hope. We hope in His
Word. Where would we be without the
inspired, infallible, written Word of God that tells us of
Christ, the living Word, Christ who is our hope. God commands the light of His
truth to shine in our hearts, and in His Word, we do hope. Christ in you is the hope. That's our hope, isn't it? Now,
look at verse 7 and verse 8. Let Israel hope in the Lord. We have a good hope through grace.
Let Israel, and he's talking here about his spiritual people,
his spiritual Israel, his elect. Let them hope in, not in anything
we have done or ever will do. Let us hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy,
and with him He is the plenteous Redeemer. He shall redeem Israel
from all His iniquities. Here is the joyful expectation
of faith. Let us hope in the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He gives us several reasons. With the Lord, there is mercy.
Without the Lord, we can be sure of this, there is no mercy. apart from the Lord. With the
Lord there is mercy, without him there is no mercy. Thank
God he delights to show mercy. His greatest glory is to show
mercy. You remember? Moses asked the
Lord, show me your glory. Remember what he said? I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. So that leads me to this
conclusion. God's greatest glory is my greatest
need. I need mercy. I need the mercy
of the Lord. You see, we read in Lamentations
chapter 3, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. And then Paul when he writes
to Titus, said, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to His mercy. His mercy. He saved us. So let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy. The second thing he mentions
here, with Him, with Him, and I emphasize that, with Him, He
is the plenteous Redeemer. He is the able Redeemer, able
to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. He is
the Redeemer of His people that cannot fail. He is the Savior
who saves, the Redeemer who redeems. With Him is plenteous redemption. Effectual redemption, we are
redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
obtained eternal redemption for us. And then look at verse 8. He shall. He shall redeem. He shall redeem Israel, his elect,
his chosen, from all his iniquities. Not some of them, all of them.
from all sin. Call His name Jesus, He shall
save His people from their sin." And I love that word, He shall. It's not an if, it's not a maybe. He said, I will. And they shall. He shall redeem His people from
all their sin. The Lord laid down His life for
His sheep, for His covenant children, and He so fully and completely
put away the sin of God's people that He says their sin and their
iniquity will I remember no more. We read last week God said, I've
cast all your sin behind my back, wherever that is. God doesn't
see them, they're gone. He said, in another place, I've
cast them into the depths of the sea. They're gone. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
complete full atonement for our sin, and He shall redeem Israel
from all his iniquity. Not one sheep of Christ will
ever be eternally condemned or lost. Why? He's a good shepherd. He's redeemed us. He laid down
His life for us to put away our sin. And thank God He's a successful
redeemer to put away all our sin.