Now, I know that the Word of God doesn't need
any confirmation or recommendation from any man, but one of the greatest preachers
who ever lived, Martin Luther. And I know that a lot of unkind
things have been said about Martin Luther. But I'll tell you this,
he was born 500 years ago. Father was a miner. The world was in the Dark Ages,
the Dark Middle Ages. The religious world was totally almost absolutely ruled by Catholicism,
superstition, will worship, worst kind of salvation
by works, indulgences, you name it. Just every country, England,
France, Spain, Germany, Russia, Catholicism. And God raised up
that man, Martin Luther. He was in that same dark, superstitious,
pagan religion. But the Lord God taught him the
truth of justification by faith. That's what he learned. The just
shall live by faith, not by works, not by works of righteousness,
which we've But according to his mercy, he saved us. Man is justified not by the deeds
of the law, not by the works of the law, but by the grace
of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that man literally
stood alone against the whole empire, against the whole Catholic
hierarchy, stood alone. He said, here I stand, I can
do no other. Justification is by faith. The
just shall live by faith, not by works. God preserved him,
and God protected him, and God blessed him, and God honored
his ministry. Supernaturally, they couldn't
touch him. He fled from all types of dangers
God always seemed to hedge him about. He set the church to singing. wrote the first hymns. One of
the first hymns ever written was Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned
Upon My Savior. And all that, a mighty fortress
is our God. A bulwark never failing. He wrote
that song. Wrote seven hymns. Up to that
time, the church didn't sing. The Catholic choirs chanted,
that sort of thing. But he set the church to sing.
set the world on his ears what he did. God blessed him and used
him. We owe, honestly, much of our
freedom to worship and our freedom politically to that man's determination,
courage. So whatever failures and faults
and grave clothes that he had hanging upon him through the
years, one truth, He lived and loved and died for us, justified
by faith. And that's the truth. That's
the truth. Man's wrong on that, he's lost.
Man's right on that, he's saved. We're justified by faith, not
by works, lest any man should boast. Isn't that right? Well,
somebody asked him one time. Somebody asked him to identify
what he considered to be the most blessed of the Psalms, of
all 150 Psalms, we chose three. The first one, Psalm 32, you
want to look at it just one moment, just one moment, Psalm 32, which begins this way, blessed
is he whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man, indeed, under
whom the Lord imputed not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day. But day and night
thy hand was heavy upon me, my moistures turned into the drought
of summer. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I'll confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. And then
the second one that he mentioned is Psalm 51. Psalm 51, in which David wrote, Have mercy
upon me, O God, not according to my works, but according to
thy lovingkindness. according to the multitude of
thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my
transgressions and my sin as ever before me. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest." Behold, I was shaped in iniquity and sin did
my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desires truth in
the inward part, in the hidden part, shall thou make me to know
wisdom. Purge me with hyssop. That takes you back to the Old
Testament priest, high priest, dipping the hyssop in the blood,
sprinkling it on the mercy seat. Purge me with hyssop and I'll
be clean. You wash me, and I'll be whiter
than the snow." And then the third one is my text tonight,
Psalm 130. Turn to Psalm 130. Now this Psalm
130 sets forth two opposite passions. I call this message fear and
hope. And those are the two opposite
passions set forth in this psalm, fear, fear and hope. And this psalm records the true
experience of every person who knows himself and who knows the
living God. For I do not believe that a man
can have a hope of mercy who has not experienced of fear of
judgment. Is that possible? Is it possible
for a person to have a hope of mercy who has never known the
fear of judgment, condemnation of sin? I don't believe so, because
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is good news only to a
sinner. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel of substitution, satisfaction, The blood of Christ,
it has no meaning to a man who is not a sinner. It has no power
to anyone except to a sinner. So let's look at this psalm and
see what David is saying. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. I tell you this, we have many
depths out of which to cry. We crowned him out of the depths
of sin and failure. Sin and failure. That's the story
of our lives. Sin and failure. What's one verse
of scripture that defines our sin and our failure? What is
it? One verse. I'll tell you what it is. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's sin
and failure. All have sinned and failed. we've come short of the glory
of God. So we cry out of the depths of sin and failure, and
we cry out of the depths of doubt and fear. There's not a person
here who's not distressed often over
doubts that fill our hearts. Doubts, doubting God's Word,
doubting God's providence, doubting God's love, Doubting God's promise,
doubting God's Son. Everybody here is played with
doubts and fears. And we cry out of the depths
of affliction and infirmities. My daughter Becky wrote me a
note. I read it at her funeral service. She said everything
looks different when you look at it through pain and tears. And it does. And we cry out of
the depths of affliction, affliction and infirmities. And we cry out
of the depths of depression. We experience times of depression,
times of self-pity. And we cry unto Him out of those
depths, but that's all right. If we cry unto Him, we've got
to cry from where we are. I can't be who I'm not and I
can't be where I'm not. And the biggest mistake any person
can make is to try to come to God from where he's not and pretending
to be what he's not. So David defines this approaching
God from the very start. He said, out of my depths. My
depths of sin and failure. My depths of doubt and fear.
my depths of affliction and infirmity, and my depths of depression and
self-pity, I crown to thee." That's all right. I say, crown
to the Lord from where you are. Don't pretend to be someone else.
Don't pretend to be somewhere else. Just crown to the Lord
from where you are. And then notice this second verse.
This is such a revelation. unto me of the great secret of
prayer. There are a lot of books written
about how to pray. I've read a lot of books on how
to pray. I've never been greatly helped
by the books on how to pray. But I really believe here that
I have found one of the secrets of prayer. David said in verse 2, Lord,
Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication, my pleas, my prayers, my cries,
my needs, my desires. You see, before he ever asked
for anything, he asked to be heard. Before he asked for anything,
he asked to be heard. So I believe the great secret
of prayer is not how eloquent it is. Our Lord told us we're
not heard for our much speaking. He warned us about repetitious
phrases, eloquent words. The secret of prayer is not how
long it is. People talk about praying all
night, praying for hours and hours and hours. You must do
a lot of repetition if you pray that long. I know that our Lord
spent all night in prayer, meditation, and others spend the whole night
awake, unable to sleep, agonizing before God in a spirit of prayer. But it's not how long you pray.
Most of the prayers in the Bible are very brief. Most of them
can be prayed in just a matter of minutes or seconds, some of
them. So it's not how eloquent or how
long or how often. Paul prayed three times about
the thorn in the flesh. And so sometimes we keep praying
about the same thing quite often, and that's all right until God
gives us an answer. And it's not how prayer is offered. I believe the great and important
issue here is, does God hear? The most eloquent prayer, the
longest prayer, The prayer prayed often is wasted words if God
doesn't hear it. So David says when he cries here
at the beginning, he said, out of the depths have I cried, Lord,
hear my voice. Hear me. Let thine ear be attentive
to the voice of my supplication. The secret of prayer is not what
I say or how often I say it or how I say it. It's whether or
not he hears me. Isn't that true? So prayer can be with groanings
which cannot be uttered if the ear of God is attentive. If God
hears us, if God's listening to us. If the prayer is sincere, out of the heart, out of a spirit
of sincerity and worship, that's the key. Does he hear? Does he
hear? I see five marks of a genuine
prayer here. Let me give them to you. I found
this somewhere a long time ago. But prayer is from a lowly position. David said it's out of the depths. Prayer is a fervent appeal. Out of the depths have I cried. Have I cried. Prayer is a direct
approach unto thee. Out of the depths have I cried
fervently unto thee, O Lord. And I'll tell you, that word
Lord in verse 1, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, everywhere
you see that word capitalized, all four letters, it's Jehovah. It's Christ my Savior, God my
Savior, Jehovah. That's right. Directly. All right? Fourthly, it is with
a reverent spirit. Oh Lord. Hear my voice. Hear my voice. A reverent spirit. It's a plea. God's not obligated
to hear me. God doesn't owe me anything.
David was amazed that he'd even be mindful of us, let alone hear
us. So it's a reverent spirit. It's not demanding. We don't
make demands of God. Lord, hear my voice, and then
fifthly, there's a single need. There's one need, and I'll stress
this and press this and hear my voice. Because let me tell you this,
you know, I know we ask for things. Sometimes God's pleased to grant
them, sometimes He's not. But if I stand up here and pray
or go home and pray or sit at the table and pray or wherever
we pray, God knows what I need. I don't. God knows what's best
for me. I don't know. God knows what's
best for my family and my friends when I pray for you and when
you pray for me. God knows our needs before we
ask Him. I don't inform God when I pray. So the main part of prayer is
God to hear me. For me to be in communication
with Him. See what I'm saying? That's what
I'm saying. It's the heart of prayer, the secret of prayer,
and the foundation of prayer is found right here in verse
2. Lord, hear my voice. It doesn't matter if I groan
or grunt or cry or weep or just Lay before Him and say, O Lord,
O God, help me. O God, help me. Do whatever needs
to be done for me or my friends or my family. Whether it's pleasing or unpleasing.
Whether it's pleasant or unpleasant. But He knows what's best. Cast
your cares upon Him. He cares for you. Cast them upon
Him. That doesn't stop us from praying.
That encourages prayer. Encourages prayer. All right.
Verse 3. He says, Lord, if thou shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? You know, sometimes
we have a way of taking a less severe attitude towards sin than
we ought to. Especially if it's our children,
or our family, or our friends, We make allowances for failures. We ought to forgive failures
by all means. Paul said, if a brother be overtaken
in a fault, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted. But while we forgive a failure,
we don't excuse it. That's what's bad, when we make
allowance for failure and sin, and excuse it, and put our tongues
in our cheeks, so to speak, and overlook it, and tolerate it,
and permit it to go on. That's bad. And what Dave is
doing here in verse 3, he regards sin as sin before God. He said, O Lord, if Thou shouldest
mark iniquity, If you, Lord, should take note of and hold
us accountable for our iniquities and for our sins and for our
failures, who on this earth could stand? So sin is before God. Sin is against God. That's what
makes it sin. That's what makes it sin. Turn
to Psalm 90. You know, I wanted to use an
illustration, but it might be in poor taste. But let's just say, let's just say
if one of the drug addicts downtown, school
dropout, just troublemaker, never had any, all of his life ever
done anything decent or right, comes in and robs a filling station with a pistol and scares everybody
and fires that pistol. And the police catch him. What
do you say do to it? Send him to jail. Sure. Especially if he was in the filling
station, if he was the owner. Well, what if your son did that? He goes in, he gets on drugs
like some of these folks do, and he goes in, does the same
thing. What do you say? Let's all get him off on probation. See, that's what I'm talking
about. That's exactly what I'm talking about. We regard sin
lightly, indifferently, if it's here, but not David. He says,
Lord, if you take notice, account of us as we are, we're all gone. And look at Psalm 90. Now listen
to him here. Psalm 90, verse 7. For we are
consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities
before thee, and our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. And Bradman, I'm not saying Let's
take a hard line. I'm saying do all that we can
to forgive and restore and encourage and help, but don't regard sin
lightly. Sin is sin. It's against God.
It's a transgression of His law. It's an affront to His holiness,
and God will not clear the guilty. God must punish sin. God ought to punish sin. Now,
do you agree with me? God must punish sin, but He ought
to punish sin. Isn't that right? Mine too. Yours too. And that's what David
is saying here. God will punish sin. All sin. But bless your heart,
look at verse 4. But. Oh, how thankful I am for
that little three-letter word. But! There's forgiveness with thee. Thank God. But here's the good
news. But God who is rich in mercy. He talked about how ungodly we
were, how wretched we are, how filthy and guilty we are, but
God who is rich in mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin that
quickened us to gather with Christ. But God. My friends, there are
two things declared here in this verse of Scripture. Number one,
God is willing to forgive. There's mercy with the Lord.
God is willing to forgive. His willingness to forgive arises
from His mercy and love, His character. He delights to show
mercy. He's plenteous in mercy. God's
willingness to forgive arises from His love and mercy. Not
from our desert, but from His own love and mercy. He loves
to show mercy. And God is not only willing to
forgive, but he is able to forgive. And his ability to forgive arises
from his son's redemptive work. His willingness to forgive arises
from his love and mercy, not from anything found in us. And
his ability to forgive arises from the sacrifice and righteousness
of his beloved son. Joseph Hart wrote about it. Listen.
Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love, and power. Listen. He is able. He is able. He is willing. He is willing, doubt no more. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you'll never come at all. For it's not the righteous, it's
sinners, Jesus came to call. Lord, if you should charge us
and hold us accountable for our iniquities, nobody could stand,
but there's forgiveness with thee. In Christ, that thou mayest
be feared. What is that word feared? What
does it mean there? Well, that thou mayest be worshipped,
that thou mayest be obeyed, that thou mayest be reverently regarded. that thou mayest be loved. This
is not a slavery. It's a blessing the Lord. It's
a good heavenly Father. And then verse 5, and this is
something that Frank read a moment ago, Psalm 27, coupled with this
scripture here. So I wait for the Lord. David
said, I'm a sinner. I'm poor and I cry out of the
depths of helplessness, inability. I cannot stand. But there's forgiveness
with Him, with the Lord, with Jehovah. So I wait for the Lord. I wait for the Lord. I wait for
Him to come and show mercy to me. I wait for the Lord. My soul
does wait. And in His Word, in His promise,
do I hope. Where do you wait, David? I wait
at His feet. As a humble sinner, I wait at
His feet as Mary of old. Where do you wait, David? I wait
at His throne, the throne of grace, boldly. How do you wait? I wait as those, listen, verse
6, I wait for the Lord as those that watch for the morning. sure
that it will come, certain that it will come in his time, in
due time, it'll come, it's ordained, and God is ordained to show mercy.
I wait. Where? At his feet. Where? At his throne of grace. How? I wait as those who watch for
the morning light who are going through a dark night. I wait.
In due time, he'll come. In his own time, he'll show mercy.
He said, you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
He'll exalt you in His own time. So I wait on Him. What is it that's waiting? Listen.
My soul waiteth. My soul waiteth. This has nothing
to do with this body. This body is slated for the ground.
Oh, I like for it to be comfortable while it's here, and I like for
it to avoid as many rough roads and trials and troubles as it
can, but this body is, it's scheduled to go back to the dust from whence
it came. So it's my soul that waits for
God. Me. My soul. My soul waited for the Lord. My soul needs to be saved. My
soul needs peace. My soul needs rest. My soul needs
assurance. My soul needs confidence. My
soul needs His presence. My soul waits for God. Not my
body that's troubling me, it's my soul. So I wait. I say, I say again, more than
they that watch for the morning. My soul waits on my Lord. And he'll come in due time. And
all of these mountains and valleys and rocky roads and troublesome
times and glad times and sad times and pleasant times and
unpleasant times are all in his night. Darkness endures for the night,
but joy comes in the morning. I wait for the morning. My soul
waits for the morning more than they that wait for the morning.
I wait on God. So, verse 7, let Israel hope
in Jehovah. Who's Israel? Well, Paul tells
us who Israel is. Israel are those that worship
God in spirit rejoice in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in
the flesh. Israel is those who have been
circumcised in heart, those who have been brought to
faith in Christ, that's Israel. So let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there's mercy.
Let Israel hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, for with Him, with the
Lord, capital L, like I told you, Jehovah, God my Savior. He said in Isaiah 45, I'm a just
God and a Savior. His blood enables God to be just
God and a Savior, just and justified. So you hope in Him. For with the Lord, with Him,
and in Him, and through Him, and because of Him, that's where
mercy is. Let Israel, if I wish I could
illustrate this, let your hope be in Him. Well, I hope I'll
be in Heaven someday. No. Don't hope for the blessing,
hope for a relationship with Him. He's the blessing. The blessing's
in Him. He's going to be in Heaven. You
know, if a fellow said, I wish I had some apples, I wish I had
a tree. If I had a tree, I'd have apples.
That's right. And you can hope for the blessings,
the blessings and blessings, but that's not the key. Hope in Him. If you have Him,
you have the blessings. You have everything. I mean,
even when there are no apples. When it looks like the tray's
barren, and there's some times, aren't there, like that? When
it's more dark than light, when it's more unpleasant than pleasant. But I have Him, and morning's
coming. Morning is around the corner,
no matter how dark the night. And sometimes the darkest part
is nearest the dawn. So hope in him, for with the
Lord there is mercy and with him is plenty of redemption. A little old mouse was eaten away
at a silo one time. You see these huge silos about
fifty feet in the air, five stories high and big around. There is
a greyhound bus full of corn. He was running, getting the grain
and taking it quickly. Come on, let's get it quickly
before it runs out. It'll never run out, little mouse. Just keep
on eating. And His blessings never run dry. With Him, there's
plenty of redemption. Plenty of redemption. And He
shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Now, I drew from
this psalm. Seven, I'll give you seven things
here just briefly. You may want to jot them down.
What I judge from reading this psalm and hearing David here,
this great psalm, there's seven emotions or feelings which I
believe God's elect experience when the Lord is pleased to do
this for them, show them mercy and grace. emotions or feelings
that I have experienced and that I believe everyone experiences,
whom the Lord is pleased to save. And here's the first one. There
is a discovery of God's true holiness in our sin. There's a discovery of God's
true holiness in our sin. Out of the depths, And I cried
to thee. He's as high as he can go and
you're as low as you can fall. Isn't that right? Secondly, there's
an application of the curse of sin to myself. If you should mark iniquity,
I couldn't stand. That's an application. Truth's
no good unless it's applied. I mean, you can talk about how
good a message somebody preached and how truth was preached, but
if it's not experienced, it's a waste of time. Isn't that right,
Jim? So there's an application of
the curse of sin to myself. Thirdly, there's an inquiry into
how that judgment can be avoided. There's forgiveness with thee.
Is there? Is there forgiveness? You mean
God will forgive me? God will absolutely forgive me
of all my sins? So that I don't even have any? There's an inquiry. You're interested
in that. How can that be? How can God
be just and justify? And that's settled in Christ. There's forgiveness with thee,
that thou mayest be worshipped and feared and loved. And then
fourthly, there's an inquiry into how an entrance into his
presence can be attained. There's an inquiry into how an
entrance into his presence can be attained. I wait for him. Open the door. Bid me enter. Paul answered that when he said,
let us come boldly. Seeing we have such a great high
priest who's passed into the heavens, Jesus Christ the righteous,
let us come boldly unto the throne of grace. My sins are pardoned,
and I can come into God's presence. Heaven is sure if I'm holy. Heaven
is certain. Heaven is not just an aspiration,
expectation. It's a certainty. If I'm holy,
they can't keep me out if I'm in Christ. He said, where I am
there, you may be also. Where I am there, it's certain. And fifthly, that's settled,
isn't it? God's holy and I'm a sinner.
That's settled. I apply the curse to myself. That's settled. That's
certain. Who could stand? How can God
be just? An inquiry into how judgment
can be put away. Christ died. How can an entrance
forth be open for me into the presence of God? Through Christ,
my high priest. He made me holy. And fifthly,
there's a revelation of the excellency of Christ. He keeps calling him
L-O-R-D, Lord, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. Jehovah Sidkenu, the
Lord our righteousness. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. Jehovah Rehoboam, our shepherd.
Jehovah that healeth us. Jehovah, he's to us all things. That's the excellency of Christ. God who spoke to our fathers
with the prophets that spoken to us by his son, whom he has
appointed heir over all things, who is the brightness of his
glory, the express image of his person. The excellence of our
Lord guarantees our entrance. Oh Lord, how excellent is thy
name. How excellent. We know that.
Sixthly, there's a renunciation of all others. all other ways
and plans of salvation and works and laws. For he says here, let
Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is mercy, with
him and him only, not with the church, not with the preachers
and the law. It's with Christ, for with the
Lord is mercy. Nowhere else. Other foundation
can no man lay. There's no other name under heaven.
I renounce all my works, I count them but done, that I may win
Christ and be found in him. That I may know him and the power
of his resurrection, the excellency of Christ, the renunciation of
all others. And then, verse 8, there's a
rest entered. We enter a rest. He shall redeem
Israel. He shall. That's a certainty. He shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. And we enter into that rest.
Cease from our labors and enter into his rest. If you cease from
your labors, you fall on him. You cast yourself on him. Somebody said faith is described
in the Bible in three words. Believe. Believe Christ. The record God had given of his
son. Trust. Trust him to do what he says.
Rest in him alone and look to no other. Leave it with him. Receive. As a bride receives
a husband, puts her hand in his, takes his name, takes his home,
takes his life. I'm yours. Believe the record. Believe what
God said about Christ. Trust Him. I know whom I have
believed. I'm persuaded He's able to keep.
Trust Him. That which I've committed. Take
His hand. Take His name. Take His life. Take His home. Be married to
Him. Submit. That's faith. All right, come lead us in a
psalm, Mack, and then we have the joy tonight of experiencing and observing the baptism of
a young couple in our church. Eric and Abby Floyd are going
to follow the Lord in believers' baptism. And I don't know of
any greater blessing that God can give to a young married couple
than uniting them together physically and uniting them together spiritually.
Is there any greater blessing than to have a wonderful wife
or a wonderful husband and then to have a wonderful relationship with each other
in Christ Jesus?