From Despair To Hope

Well now turn please to psalm number 130 And the entire psalm will be our text this afternoon psalm 130

When you have that please stand for the reading of God's Word a song of a sense

Out of the depths I cry to you. Oh Lord. Oh Lord Hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my please for mercy If you O Lord should mark iniquities

O Lord who could stand But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.

I Wait for the Lord my soul waits and in his word. I hope My soul waits for the

Lord more than the watchman for the morning more than the watchman for the morning. Oh Israel hope in the

Lord for the Lord There is steadfast love and with him is plentiful redemption and he will redeem

Israel from all his iniquities I've blessed the reading now the proclamation of his word.

Please be seated You know the psalm was written

I believe during the exile in Babylon as I believe with all the songs of a sense I've been going through probably written for a worship leader a

Levite perhaps leading the congregation in song in praise of God Remembering that when we confess our sins to God He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness something like that the psalm is a responsive psalm in a sense where he calls upon Israel to Believe these things and to understand these things so they don't call back and some of the other songs but Internally as it were to respond to this psalm and to agree about what it means to call out to the

Lord it's a lament song as Israel here laments their sin the sin that got them into trouble in the first place the sin that brought the

Judgment of Babylon against them and their exile to that nation for 70 years It's a lament in that song that sentence also a penitential song

As you just heard where they call out their their need for forgiveness. They cry to God for mercy

Go from the depth of despair to the heights of hope And there's a journey that we will go through as we go through this psalm

It's a journey that we must go through in our personal lives in our spiritual lives with Christ We go from depth of despair to the height of hope crying out to God and Seeking his mercy and his mercy alone there's a people crushed by the knowledge of their sin by what they had done and Seeking him and him alone to bring them into a place of redemption restored relationship with him out of the depths

I Cry to you. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy depths in the

Bible are almost always of depths of water and you've heard before from me and the other preachers at this pulpit that Waters deep waters in the ancient

Near Eastern mind or something dark and dangerous and mysterious That's the place where Jonah went

Jonah went to the depths of the ocean in that fish that swallowed him and carried him down there into that dark and mysterious and Dangerous and unknown place from the depths.

They cry out to God from the depth. I cry to you Oh Lord, and oh

Lord. Hear my voice I'd like to point out to you just so you understand some of what the psalm is bringing out is

Out of the depths I cry to you. Oh Lord and that word for Lord. There is the one you've heard many times

Yahweh cries out to the eternal God the self -sufficient God the name of God that is most commonly

Associated with his faithfulness to his covenant and also Moses often associated with his steadfast love

Now in our ESV is called his steadfast love in the King James and the new King James is called mercy

Mercy, he goes to Yahweh out of the depths. I cry to you. Oh Lord. Oh Yahweh The one whose name is associated with his covenant faithfulness

The good one whose name is associated with that name that never fails not that any other name of God denotes a different God They're just different manifestations

Different times that God works with men in different ways out of the depths. I cry to you. Oh Lord Oh Yahweh, and then the very next verse.

Oh Lord, and that's oughta nine oughta nine same God With the same purpose the same yesterday today and forever, but I'll deny more means

Lord and master Hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy

So he goes from the depth of despair Now we're gonna see what we go through a bit more later

Way seeking forgiveness in verse 4 We don't know what the sin is

As a penitential Psalm written in Babylon the sin would be their idolatry Their years of unfaithfulness to God decades and centuries of that finally led to this judgment

Crying from the depth of exile in Babylon to the Lord God for forgiveness for mercy

He speaks of depth When I say that to you,

I wonder how in our 21st century ears. Do we hear that? It's a depth that we go down to and we finally recognize our sin finally see where we have offended

God finally see Where we have failed to take advantage of the means of grace. He's given us like prayer and repentance

And seeking his forgiveness from the depths of What do we cry out to God?

depths of despair depths of looking for what has gone wrong here and how did I get into this mess and How will

I ever come out of this? position that I'm in This broken relationship with God these providences these circumstances that have come upon me

Depth of despair know what it turned all effort has been futile each failure another shovel full of dirt and an incremental

Sinking down further and further and further But what do we have here also?

Out of the depths I cried to you. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Hear my voice we have a final recourse in God an abandonment of self

I Only realizing that the only place I can go to and what I need can only be had from this one from God You think of the depths that we go to how deep down into sin we can go

It doesn't happen all at once So I use the illustration of the shovel just a shovel full of the times like we're digging out from under our own feet

Boom another shovel full flip flip it over our shoulder down a little further More and more and more until finally we're up to our shoulders and we can't see out

There's nothing to grab on to climb out of this hole that we've dug for ourselves. I heard a man during one of the

Counseling training conferences. I was out up in Walnut Creek earlier this year They spoke about the

Board of Directors for Nank the National Association of euthetic counselors Which just changed its name to a

CBC the Association of certified biblical counselors And they're all waiting for two men to come

Who are very late and finally one of them came? Now the man is telling this story.

It's an actual event. It actually happened He was one of the Board of Directors waiting for these two men to come in One of them came in They sat down quietly

Sadly, he had tears And finally had to report to the rest of them that this other man the second man that they were expecting would not be coming

He had fallen in a great moral failure Man who was speaking and telling this event didn't tell us what that moral failure was, but We can guess we don't need to speculate

They were all shocked This man's telling story said all these Board of Directors all of us were just looking down.

We were crying We just didn't know what to do next and it was Wayne Mack Who finally said he didn't fall far.

What did he mean by that? You don't go from walking with Christ to Following the right path of righteousness and all sudden down to the depth of depravity

We don't all sudden give in to the temptations of the flesh It's not all at once.

It's not one big leap off a cliff The shovel full of time down we go and finally we need to be in this position of the psalmist here out of the depths

I cried to Lord and we cried to him cried to Yahweh cried to the covenant faithful God.

I Think our first confession here is out of the depth I cried you out of the depth which I myself placed me into because your ways father are right and your paths are all

Righteousness and had I been faithful to you as you are faithful to me.

I would not be in this mess It doesn't mean that all the troubles we come in come upon are our fault

As all of you here know, my wife is suffering from stage four cancer Is it her fault?

No, but it's still a depth of suffering It's still a depth of despair where we call out to God and trust him in the direct context of the psalm though it's the depth that we put ourselves into when we sin against God and we dig ourselves into this hole and So we go to the next verse.

Oh Lord. Oh, I don't I own master. Oh Oh Lord hear my voice

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy I think the interchange of these words

Yahweh and Adonai these titles of God It's because it's out and I the Lord the master to whom we owe obedience

Because he's master of us. He's Lord of the earth. He's Lord of the church. Jesus Christ rules even now

I Think it's because that's the one who's offended our Lord and master

The one to whom we owe obedience the one to whom they who were the first recipients in the psalm owed their obedience

Have you ever been there? You've been in this point where you just don't know where to turn next

You've gotten yourself into this mess into this hole into this depth And sometimes when we get there, how do we feel we feel like i've gone too deep

God can't reach me here God's gonna be so angry that he wouldn't even want to even if I call out to him.

Why would he listen to me? Why would he want to save me when i've been so faithless to him?

Do you ever think like that? Do you ever feel like that when you're in sin? And you've gotten yourself there and you feel guilt upon guilt upon guilt upon guilt know that he calls out to a god of mercy

Lord hear my pleas for mercy He is a god who showers us with mercy brethren if you're a christian

Whatever sin you might be in now, whatever problems you might be in at this very moment know this

That god saved you because of the great love with which he loved us It is god's mercy that sent jesus christ.

It's because of god's mercy that you believe in him. It's god's mercy That you feel badly about your sin

And it's god's mercy That that's always a way out with him With christ because of him how deep can you go?

To get away from god Well, the psalmist speaks of if I go to the heights you are there if I go to the depth of the sea

Are you there if I pull the head over my my blanket over my head and try and hide you are there he's with you always

Paul says for i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers No things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation

Will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ. Jesus our lord cry out to god wherever you are

If you feel that desperation Know that this road in psalm 130 is the road from desperation to hope from despair to the heights of hope

You can call out to god You can join the psalmist And call out to yaweh and say out of the depths.

I cried out of the depths where i've put myself. I cried to you Lord to hear my voice to be attentive to my pleas for mercy

What's the character of this god that you're calling out to? You know when we get down that low

And we feel like you know, god's just gonna smite me from heaven. God's just done with me God's gonna take me out of christ.

God should do all these things We're forgetting the character of god when we think we're forgetting what jesus said

That no one is able to snatch you out of the father's hand and the father is greater than all

We're forgetting the great love with which he loved us We're forgetting about god who is rich in mercy

We're forgetting his very character If you oh lord, that's yaweh

Should mark iniquities. Oh lord. Now, that's all tonight So if you oh yaweh should mark iniquities, oh adonai who could stand

The in the hebrew order here that some of the words are if iniquity you should guard or keep ya adonai

Who could stand? If god should god should take your iniquities your sins

My sins my iniquities Gather them up place them in his heart and guard them there

Treasure them there the way we do our sin Psalm 66 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear

Do we ever feel like god has? Guarded our iniquity in his heart and so he refuses to hear

No, may it never be that is not the god who is our god. That is not jesus christ. That is not the god of the psalm

If you oh lord should mark iniquities, oh lord who could stand Let me stop and ask

Who can stand before god with their iniquities You remember in zechariah 3 that picture of joshua the high priest

Bearing the condition the spiritual condition of the people of israel into the holy place.

Remember he's covered in filth Do you remember that? Who can stand? Could I stand before god if I stand before god with my sin upon me?

Could you no? None of us could no one in all history could If you should mark iniquities, oh lord who could stand who could stand before god with sin upon them?

Let me suggest to you that jesus christ When he who knew no sin became sin for us when god placed upon him our sin when he became sin

The wages of sin is death and jesus christ died on the cross for our sin of course

He took what we deserve and if we went where we deserve to go Which is to that cross to suffer for our own sins.

We'd be suffering now And tomorrow and forever but jesus christ because he knew no sin because he

Rejected all sin because he had no knowledge of sin in that experiential way He was without sin because he was holy when he died for our sin

He was resurrected again Who could stand before god with sin? When habakkuk saw the vision of god says rottenness entered my bones

When peter saw the holiness of god in christ He fell on his knees said depart from me for i'm a sinful man.

Oh lord when isaiah saw the glory of god John chapter 12 says he saw christ

But when he saw the glory of god in isaiah chapter 6 He says woes me

For i'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips i'm ruined i've come apart as r .c

Sproul used to say i've disintegrated. There's nothing left of me Who could stand before god?

with sin none And yet because of jesus christ Our sins have been answered

And so jesus christ. He's the one who intercedes for us and he's the one who tells us from the book of hebrews

That we can boldly enter the throne of grace and there find help in our time of need Why can you and I go to the throne of grace?

Because our sin's not on us Oh, we sin And we must acknowledge that And we must repent of that even as the psalm is leading us to them

But it's not upon us anymore because jesus christ took it upon himself Who could stand?

jesus christ And he and he alone with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared see the lord doesn't

Guard iniquity in our hearts. He forgives He forgives the penitential cry. He forgives when people cry out for mercy

He hears the cries He knows what we're going through exodus chapter 3

When he reveals himself to moses as yahweh and he comes to redeem the people of israel. He says

I've heard their cries i've seen Their sufferings. I know their affliction

I think I said that wrong. I've seen their afflictions and I know they're suffering. Excuse me. I know they're suffering

You cry out to a god who knows and he knows because in god in jesus christ god became flesh

And in jesus christ god experienced it all in jesus christ All temptation came upon him yet.

He was without sin in jesus christ the whole human experience Was his and yet he was without sin

This is the god we go to a god who forgives Because of him And says that you may be feared

Why would forgiveness be a fearsome thing? Why would god forgiving be something that makes him be feared both through you there is forgiveness

That you may be feared Here's how I work this out the reason forgiveness

Should make us fear god in that awesome Respectful way in that way that he's just inexplicable in his mercies

But why does it make us? Fear god because forgiveness is not cheap

And sin is so much deeper than we usually think of it Why do we fear god when we truly seek his forgiveness but with you there's forgiveness

Because when we seek his forgiveness We're acknowledging how bad sin really is

And we acknowledge how bad sin really is we begin to appreciate the suffering of christ on the cross

To seeing the depth to which we have dug ourselves We see how bad sin really is what a blight it is upon god's perfect and holy character

And then we think Jesus christ paid for me The son of god who loved me and gave himself up for me galatians 1 19.

Oh, this is a god to be feared This is forgiveness to be sought after and held as precious

This is a god who look at and say you would do that for me you would take something as ugly and awful in your sight as sin the greatest prophets in the world fell at their feet and Couldn't even stand before him

When they saw his holiness and his perfections and yet and yet But god as the apostle paul says in ephesians, but god what a wonderful word but Instead of all that but Not that not the sin not what we carry in us not being dead and trespassing sin in which we once walked

But god who's rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us But with you there's forgiveness fear god

Fear god by thinking deeply about your sin Fear him

And then rise up from the depth of that say god you forgave me of this what a glorious god to worship

What a jesus christ to obey What a redemption we have

What kind of mercy is this? Oh, it's not human at all. We can't even describe it to ourselves.

Can we? And yet this is the god of the psalm this is the god

Just beginning to be to describe our lord and savior jesus christ With you there's forgiveness because god placed our sins upon jesus christ

And this is how your sin has been removed from you as the psalmist says as far as east is from the west

I just love that expression. Don't you? I love cardinal directions, you know I used to backpack and wilderness exploring and so i'm all into the cardinal directions and magnetic Declination and if you want to know what that is talk to me after service if you have an hour or two

How far is east is how far is the east from the west well, if you do it geometrically they point opposite ways, so It's forever

Fear that god respect that god take your sin deeply

And don't take jesus christ lightly I wait for the lord my soul waits and in his word

I hope my soul waits for the lord more than the watchman for the morning more than the watchman For the morning now, here's the hard part

If we want to go from the depth of despair to the height of hope, here's the hard part waiting

I wait for the lord. I wait for yaweh. My soul waits for the lord That's out an eye more than the watchman in the morning more than the watchman for the morning

The watchmen are on the walls looking out for enemies be sneaking up at night when the sun comes up They're relieved now.

They can go back home and go to sleep and get some rest He's watching more than the watchman of the morning

He's waiting for the lord and this is the tough part. My soul waits in his word. I hope his word of forgiveness

For in you there is forgiveness I Will forgive their sins

I will remember their sins no more in that word. Do we hope do you hope in that word? Well, you must if you're in jesus christ

If you by faith and repentance have come to him, you must believe that that's implied in it

What does it mean to wait That's the hard one I think there's two things we need to wait for As jesus christ said my peace

I give to you Not like the world gives peace. Do I give you this peace? And then paul goes on to describe

The peace of god that surpasses all understanding And the saint paul says therefore having been justified by faith.

We have peace with god. Well that peace Justified by faith. We have peace with god through our lord. Jesus christ.

That peace is no more enmity with god We are no longer at war with him nor he with us because of jesus christ this peace that passes all understanding though That we must wait for in our soul

That's a little bit more subjective Now, it's not just okay. I repented. I was on my knees.

I got up. I feel good about it. Let's get on with it It's not that Simple, I don't mean to make light of it

But what is this peace that passes understanding It can't be described. It can't be legislated

No preacher can give you several rules to know that you have this peace Because when you have prayed it's when you know that you have understood the depth of your sin

And seen the beauty of christ jesus that would forgive such a thing freely because of his blood

And you know that you've been forgiven and your spirit is at peace with god And you feel confident again in his word and in his working in you and with you and through you

It's that peace that passes understanding It's going to come at different times for each of us

It might come in different ways, but it does all come through prayer And through faith and we must wait for that not just I feel okay about it now

But a peace that passes understanding You come and say hey pastor I just got forgiveness for this terrible sin

Do you have the peace of past understanding Yes, can you describe it for me? No, we're probably on the right track

But I know that I have it. I know that god has forgiven me because of christ jesus

I know that he's gonna put me on the right path And I know that I am not at war with god

That jesus christ has me in his hand and has brought me to the father We also have to wait for circumstances for god by his providence

To help us out does it not say in book of corinthians That no temptation has come upon you, but what is common to man but in the temptation

God makes a way of escape that you're able to bear up a way of escape that's true to his word a way of escape that because you have that peace that passes understand that you are confident in your forgiveness and know from the

Word of god and from prayer and from counsel with others that you're going on the right track again

This is what we must wait for and this is the hard part Is to stay on our knees And to not turn left or right to not make any decisions until we know

That we have god's forgiveness for this particular This discrete sin, whatever we've gone to him with and that he has

Brought upon me a circumstance A providential work of god that gets me on the right track not gets me out of all the mess i'm in there are consequences usually

But gets me going again to the right prayer on the right path oh israel he now says

Having gone through this journey from the depth of despair to the height of hope himself Because he's cried out to god and he's waited upon god and he now knows he's been forgiven

He's been reminded of the truth of god's word I hope in his word his word says he will forgive he will remove sin as far as decency from us

And I have that sureness. I have that certainty now. He calls out to them all says here's what i've gone through And most of us can make this testimony

Most of us could stand right here and call out in the same way because I went through this and god forgave me

And here's how I know and this is how I got on the right track and the right path again And I could call out to you like the psalmist does in verse 7.

Oh israel Hope in the lord For with the lord there is steadfast love

King james with him there is mercy And with him is plentiful redemption and he will redeem israel from all his iniquities

Well again yahweh speaking of god's self -existent that name that is paired often with his mercies

And with his covenant faithfulness With him there's steadfast love that great love with with which he loved us and plentiful redemption

You know the cross of christ Is that plentiful redemption? Because the cross of jesus christ left no work undone when jesus christ in john chapter 19 says it is finished

It is finished indeed I wish that were the cry of the church. We say he is risen and we can answer back.

He is risen indeed It is finished. It is finished indeed with him. There is plentiful redemption full redemption

Not a drop of jesus christ's blood was wasted There's one reason we love

The l in tulip Limited atonement only means that jesus christ bled for those whom god gave him

That that blood was poured out for those intended. Do we know who those are? No, we do not know

I know it was me as one of them I hope you know it was you to be one of them. There's plentiful redemption

This is psalm 130, this is the people coming back from babylon having been released and they're going back to jerusalem.

This is you and me Released from a life of sin released from being god's enemy released from the darkness of this present age and now knowing

That we have the plentiful redemption of the cross of jesus christ in him. There's plentiful Plentiful redemption and he will redeem israel from all his iniquities.

He will redeem the church all of us from all our iniquities None left behind not a drop of blood wasted all your iniquities

Now first john 1 9 If we confess our sins Well that assumes their sins to confess even for the christians as we go through life

If we confess our sins, he's faithful just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

But he will redeem us from them all jesus christ has redeemed us

And continues to redeem us as we continue to sin as we continue to have need for that forgiveness

That confession is jesus christ who sits at the right hand of the father and majesty now

And intercedes on our behalf our great high priest Have you ever been in that?

Depth of despair because you don't know what to do with your sin Have you ever looked up and seen that you've gotten yourself down below ground level

And there's nothing in that ditch to grab on to to pull yourself up. What a great position to be in Because now you know that your striving is useless

Now, you know that you cannot do it Now you can cry out to god And god will reach down and pull you up As you cry out to him and confess your despair confess your sin

And know that in him there's plentiful redemption and he will redeem you from all your iniquities because of jesus christ because of him and him alone

So may this psalm Be an encouragement to your souls. May this psalm lead us in our prayers this afternoon in just a few minutes

May this psalm remind you of the goodness of god And that he is a god of mercy and you can cry out to him that as he said i've seen i've heard and I know

And that's the god we go to And cry to him in all our despair And know that in him as we wait upon him

As does the psalmist here That he will come to us He will forgive you

He will give you by his spirit that certainty that peace the past understand that you have indeed been forgiven

And then in his wonderful providence give you a circumstance to get you on the right track once more.