Psalm 130:1-8

[0:00] Good evening. The Old Testament, in a book that's familiar to all of us this evening, in the book of Psalms.

[0:18] ! Psalms, the 130th Psalm. Amen. I've said several times over the years, every time I preach from Psalms, I feel like I'm cheating.

[0:32] Because Psalms, honestly, it's an easy book to open and preach from. And that doesn't make it any less reverent to do so.

[0:45] But Psalms is a wonderful book, but the 130th Psalm is one of the songs of degrees. There's 15 songs of degrees, or songs of ascents, that we have in the Scripture.

[1:02] And they're all in succession to one another, beginning about Psalm 120, going through Psalm 134. And it's thought that these were songs that the Israelites would sing, either on their way to the pilgrimage, to the different feasts that they went to.

[1:20] There were three feasts throughout the Jewish calendar that God had called the Israelites, that all Israelites were to attend, if at all possible. And the Psalms of ascents, or Psalms of degrees, are thought that these were pilgrimage songs, sung by the Israelites.

[1:39] Some people say that they were songs that they sung going up to the temple to worship God. And that very well may be the case, folks. I wasn't there. I don't know for certain.

[1:49] But I do know that the Bible refers to them, to 15 of the Psalms, as Psalms of ascents. However, Psalm 130 stands out in the Psalms of degrees, or Psalms of ascents, because it is one of the penitential psalms.

[2:06] And you only find a few of those, a handful of those, in the entire book of Psalms. And as far as I know, this is the only one of the Psalms of degrees, or Psalms of ascents, that is referred to as a penitential psalm.

[2:20] And other penitential psalms, most of you should be familiar with, is Psalm 51. Where David realizes his sin with Bathsheba, after Nathan has called him out in his sin.

[2:35] And David goes to God, you know, seeking forgiveness. And it's a penitential psalm. And there's a few other ones throughout the book of Psalms.

[2:45] But again, Psalm 130 is considered to be a penitential psalm. And very rightfully so. Brother Mike said before I got up tonight, that, you know, it's good to stand on the promises of God.

[2:58] And that's a lot of what this psalm is. It's standing on those promises. And sometimes, you know, you wrestle with, should I be preaching this, or should I be preaching something else?

[3:09] And then something like that gives you your assurance that you're where you're supposed to be. And you're going to be preaching or teaching what you should be. So all that being said, Psalm 130, beginning at verse 1.

[3:23] It says, So back to verse 1 in Psalm 130.

[4:10] It says, And again, verse 2. So here, when he says, Folks, this is a raw cry that the psalmist here is talking about.

[4:32] He's not talking about the depths as far as being sick. Or depths that we find many other times throughout the Psalms where David would cry out to God because his enemies had compassed him round about.

[4:46] This isn't the depths that we're talking about in the context of this psalm. Backside up, 100%. We're talking about the depths of sin here. We're talking about this man.

[4:57] This man is in a moral dilemma here. He realizes his sin. He realizes the depth of his sin. He realizes that he has offended the thrice holy God of the universe.

[5:10] He realizes that he has gone against the law of his maker and his master and his creator. And it says, Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.

[5:20] Out of these depths have I cried unto thee. This isn't even so much like the depths of Jonah where Jonah cried out unto God. Yes, he cried out from the depths of the sea, from the belly of a fish.

[5:33] But he also cried out from the depths of despair and the depths of judgment that God had placed upon him for rebelling against God. And this is the exact same cry that this psalmist is talking about here.

[5:46] Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, folks. Whenever we get in such a way as this psalmist here is, there is nowhere else for us to turn. There is nowhere else for us to cry.

[5:58] There is no one else for us to cry but unto God. For only God can forgive. Only God can save. Only God can redeem.

[6:08] Only God can offer forgiveness for whatever sin it is that we have committed. And again, this psalmist here, he realizes, I don't know what it was. The scripture doesn't tell us what his sin was.

[6:21] But he realizes that he is a sinner. He realizes that he is in trouble. But praise God. He also realizes that Almighty God is a forgiving God.

[6:32] That Almighty God is a merciful God. And this is who he makes his cry to. This is who he makes his supplication to. He goes to God with a petition of his soul to ask for forgiveness of his sin.

[6:47] To be cleansed from his iniquity. To be washed clean by his maker. And there is no one else that we can go to. Praise God for this psalmist that realized that.

[6:59] And praise God for all the instruction that we can find in these eight verses. In Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice.

[7:10] Folks, he is not commanding God to do anything here. Folks, again, this is a raw petition that he is making. I don't know how far down in the depths you have been.

[7:23] I don't know how far out in sand that you have been. I don't know how far down in the gutters you have been. But when you realize that you were there, folks, you didn't have time to pin down an eloquent prayer.

[7:36] You didn't have time to pin down these eloquent words. You didn't have time to make it fancy. Nor did you even want to make it fancy. You looked unto God as Peter looked across when he fell down in the water.

[7:50] And you said, Lord, save me. Hallelujah. Folks, that's all we had time for at that point in our lives. We knew that we were sinners. And we knew that God was an almighty Savior.

[8:03] And that he could do something about it. The psalmist here says, Lord, hear my voice. He's making this petition unto God to hear his voice. Hear my cries.

[8:13] Hear me from the depths of my sin. Hear me from despair. Hear me from all of these things. And praise God, he knew that God would. Hallelujah. He knew that God would.

[8:24] Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. Be attentive to my cry, O God. Hear my voice. Be attentive to what I'm telling you.

[8:35] Be attentive to what I'm saying to you again. He is not commanding anything of God in this. He is not demanding that God hear him. In fact, in the context of these eight verses here, he understands.

[8:47] In fact, we find it in the very next verse that no one can stand before a holy and just God in their own righteousness. And in their own goodness. And in their own works.

[8:57] And this psalmist had a realization of that. He's just simply saying, Lord, hear me. Folks, this reminds me so much of a parable that Jesus Christ spoke in the gospel accounts.

[9:10] You recall the parable that Jesus spoke about the publican and the Pharisee. He said these two men, they went up into the temple. They went up to worship. And the Pharisee, he stood right there.

[9:21] And he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not like this. And I'm not like this. Not even as this publican here. And he goes to bragging about what he's done.

[9:33] He said, I fast foster in the week. I tie 10% of everything that I've got. I thank you that I'm this way. But praise God, that publican, that tax collector, that no one liked.

[9:45] The Jews hated his guts. The Roman government hated his guts. Everyone hated his guts. But that publican, he wouldn't even so much as look up into heaven.

[9:56] But he smote his guts and he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Hallelujah. And Jesus said, that man, the publican, the one that was hated by everyone, he went to his house justified.

[10:12] He didn't demand anything of God when he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Once he cast himself at the mercy of God, because he knew there was nothing else that he could do. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

[10:24] That's what this psalmist here is crying out. Be merciful to me, a sinner. Aren't you glad that he's rich in mercy? Aren't you glad that he's a forgiving God?

[10:35] Aren't you glad that he's a compassionate God? Aren't you glad that he understands that we are but dust? He knows that we're going to sin. He knows that we're going to rebel.

[10:46] He knew from the foundations of the world. He knew before the foundation of the world was ever laid, that his creation would rebel against him. And yet, he already had a plan in place to redeem his creation back to him, to redeem fallen mankind back to himself.

[11:06] And the son knew that he would be the key component in that plan of redemption. The son knew this before the foundation of the world was ever laid, that he would be the key component of verse 3.

[11:19] If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Absolutely no one. No prophet, no priest, no king, no preacher, no pastor, no lay member, no Sunday school teacher, no choir leader.

[11:37] None of them will stand before God if God does indeed mark iniquity. Now, God's got a record, folks. I'm telling you now, God's got a record.

[11:47] Paul said, we must all stand at the judgment seat of Christ. All is all in that context. All is all. Those that are on their way to hell and those that are on their way to heaven, we must all stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and we must all give an account for what we have done in these bodies, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

[12:08] There is a record. But hallelujah. Aren't you glad that you're going to heaven? Aren't you glad that you're being reconciled back to God? Aren't you glad? Aren't you tickled Pete?

[12:20] That what determines that is not your works. It is not anything that you do, but it is what Christ has done, and what Christ finished on a hill called Calvary.

[12:32] It is in His crucifixion. It is in His shed blood. It is in His finished work that I can count on going to heaven. Hallelujah. It's in Him and Him alone, folks.

[12:45] I can try until I'm blue in the face. I can try and keep the law. I'll fail. I can try and do good, and I will fail. I can try to memorize the scriptures from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21.

[13:00] It will do me no good. It is on the work of Jesus Christ and only on His finished work that I will ever be reconciled to God, that I have been reconciled to God, and it is only on that work that I will make it to heaven one of these days.

[13:16] And that is a promise in the scripture. Right. Everyone who repents of their ways and everyone who believes the gospel, they're the ones on their way to heaven. Repent and believe.

[13:26] Repent and believe. Repent and believe. Over and over and over in the scripture, in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament. People repented of their ways, and they believed what God said.

[13:37] They believed in the Word of God. And this psalmist does the same thing here in the next few verses. Verse 4. But there is forgiveness with thee. Hallelujah. I'm glad this song doesn't end with verse 3.

[13:50] I'm glad it doesn't end with, If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Could you imagine if it ended right there? But it doesn't. My goodness, it continues. But there is forgiveness with thee, folks.

[14:02] That is the gospel in this psalm. But there is forgiveness with thee. Folks, the forgiveness is with God. The forgiveness is of God.

[14:13] The forgiveness is in God. And it is in God through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Now, folks, this was a thousand years before Jesus Christ was ever born.

[14:24] This was a thousand years, but this psalmist knew something. He knew something about the forgiveness of God. He knew something about the mercy of God. He knew something about the compassion of Almighty God.

[14:35] He had read the Old Testament accounts. He had read where there was a Messiah promise. He had read. He had heard maybe from grandparents or from parents or from priests or from scribes or from whomever that there was a Messiah promise that their Creator had promised a Redeemer to come.

[14:53] And he was banking on that promise. Right. Folks, I did the same thing. I did the same thing. And if you have been saved and born again, you did the same thing.

[15:05] You have banked on a promise that Almighty God has made. You have banked on the promise found in Joel in chapter 2 that there will come a day that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.

[15:16] You have banked on the same promise, that same scripture that Paul quotes in the book of Romans. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[15:27] I bank on that. And I trust in that. And folks, if that's not true, we are all here in vain. There is no point in us being here congregating together tonight.

[15:37] There is no point of us going to church. There's no point of us reading our Bible if that is untrue. But it's not untrue. That is absolute truth. It comes straight out of the pages of truth.

[15:51] God is not a man that he could lie. God is not a man that he should lie. God cannot lie. It's not that he will not lie. It's impossible for him to lie. And his word will not lie to us.

[16:02] There is forgiveness with thee, the psalmist says. He knows where that forgiveness comes from. Now remember where he was crying from. From the depths of despair. But he says there is forgiveness with you.

[16:15] This is personal. This is personal. Between the psalmist and God. He is making this petition of the supplications known unto God. Between him and God. No one else.

[16:26] It's his sin and God's forgiveness. And folks, it was the same way with me. Unfortunately, there's an entire world of people out there right now that would say, or that will say, I would get saved.

[16:38] I would go to church. I would do this and I would do that. But I had this happen in my life. Or I had that happen in my life. Folks, that won't hold water when it comes to judgment day.

[16:49] That will not hold water when it comes to the judgment bar of Almighty God. It is a personal thing. It's personal sin. It is personal rebellion against God.

[17:00] And it's a personal forgiveness that he imparts unto those that have repented of their ways and have believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is all personal. Everything that we have read here.

[17:11] It's all personal between the psalmist and the God that he is writing about and writing to. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. There is forgiveness with thee that thou, that you, God, may be feared.

[17:25] We're not talking about being scared with God, folks. I'm telling you right now, to be forgiven of your sin is to be in awe of God for all the rest of your days.

[17:36] To be forgiven of whatever filth that you were guilty of when you were out in sin before you were saved. To be forgiven of that. To have that wipe clean off of your record.

[17:46] It's to have a reverence all for God for forgiving you of those sins for all the rest of your days. That's the fear that we're talking about here. Folks, I'm not afraid of God because I know He can destroy.

[18:01] Because I am promised in Romans 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those that be in Christ Jesus. And I am in Christ Jesus. Therefore, there is no condemnation to be found in me.

[18:13] There's no condemnation to be found on me. There's no condemnation of God to be found anywhere around me because I am in His only begotten Son. And that gives me great comfort.

[18:25] I'm not afraid of God because I know He can destroy. But I reverence God. And I stand in awe of God. In awe of His forgiveness. In awe of His mercy that He shows.

[18:36] Not only to me, but to everyone that He's ever forgiven. Folks, there's people. I know and I don't believe in congregations or churches getting in competitions to see who is the worst sinner of all.

[18:50] But I know what I've done. I know where I come from. I know who I've been with. And I know what I've done with them. But there's people out there that no doubt have done worse in the human mind and the human aspect than I have.

[19:03] But God's got just as much forgiveness for them. And God has just as much mercy for those folks. God has got just as much redemption that He can give. That He can impart out for them as He did me.

[19:16] Now on the flip side of that coin, there's people out there, as compared with me again, that have done far less than what I've done. But folks, they need the same forgiveness.

[19:27] They need the same forgiveness and mercy that I receive. And there's a world full of people out there thinking, well, I haven't really done anything that I need to be forgiven for.

[19:37] That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says all is sin and comes short of the glory of God. And therefore, we're all on our way to death for the wages of sin is death.

[19:49] But praise God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's forgiveness with Thee, the psalmist says, that Thou mayest be feared. There's forgiveness that people can have this reverent, all of you.

[20:02] That people can have this reverence for you. That's why there's forgiveness with God and forgiveness in God. It is not because you are a good woman or a good man or a good boy or a good girl.

[20:15] It was that people could stand in awe of the works of Almighty God. And God could be glorified in those works. That's why we're forgiven.

[20:26] It's not because we deserve it. No more than what the Israelites deserve. Boy, God cut them down over in the book of Deuteronomy. He said, you think I redeemed you? You think I brought you out of Egypt?

[20:37] You think I've done all these things? You think because you wandered in the wilderness all these years? And I took care of you because you deserved it? No. God did that because of who He is.

[20:48] Not because of who they were. God didn't save me because of who I am. He saved me because of whom He is. And He saved your soul because of whom He is. And to get glory.

[20:59] To get glory. His due glory. And all glory is due unto God. Verse 5. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait. And in His word do I hope. I wait for the Lord.

[21:10] So here, in the first few verses of this psalm, we see the psalmist crying out of despair. Crying out from his sin. Begging God to give him an ear.

[21:20] Begging God to give him an audience for his supplication. And then He tells us. He says, Who can stand before God if all thy iniquities are marked?

[21:31] He says, But there's forgiveness in God. There's forgiveness in Thee, God. That men may fear You. That there might be a reverent fear of You. Then He says, I wait for the Lord.

[21:42] My soul doth wait. What does that tell me, folks? This psalmist has tasted and seen that the Lord is good. This psalmist has tasted the mercy of Almighty God.

[21:52] He has experienced forgiveness. He has experienced redemption. And that brings Him to a waiting period. Folks, in this fast-paced society that we currently live in, and Missy's heard me say this time and time again, God is not concerned with how quickly we want things.

[22:14] God couldn't care less with how quickly we want it. Everything happens on God's time. Whatever that might be. Everything happens according to God's clock and God's calendar.

[22:28] There is nothing that happens outside of that. So we, after we have begged God for forgiveness, after we have seen that we are sinners in need of grace, and God has given us forgiveness of our sins, God has washed the slate clean, He has made us new creatures in Christ.

[22:50] We need to learn to wait on God. And Missy's heard me say time and time again, a lot of our impatience, I blame on two things. One of them is the drive-thru window, and the other one is the microwave oven.

[23:03] We have learned, we have been conditioned, that if we want a baked potato, we go to the microwave, we throw it in there for a few minutes, voila, we've got a baked potato.

[23:14] Remember when years ago, you had to take half a day off from work if you wanted a baked potato. We've gone from waiting, and being trained that we had to wait, by the natural things, to having those natural things instantly.

[23:30] And that's the society that we live in, instant gratification. You go to the restaurant, you go around, you make your order at this window, you drive on around, you pay at the next window, you expect your food in 10 seconds or less.

[23:42] If not, we're getting antsy. Are we not? It's because that's how we've been trained. That's how we've been conditioned, folks. We need to retrain ourselves. That's per the Word of God. We need to be patient and wait on the Lord.

[23:53] We need to learn to be still and know that He is God. Let Him do His thing in His time. I promise you, He's not doing it because He's mean. He's not doing it because He hates you.

[24:05] He's doing it because His timing is perfect. He is perfect. And everything in His plan for your life is perfect. And if He gives it one second too soon, what happens to that perfection?

[24:18] Folks, how many of us have yanked on a door that God's closed? We've yanked, we've banged, we've took pry bars to it, we've done everything else in our spiritual walks, trying our best to get a door open that God has closed.

[24:31] How many times though has God said, fine, have at it. And it comes back and it bites us, does it not? Because we want it. And God said, good, go. Go ahead.

[24:42] Go ahead. You'll be back. You'll be back begging forgiveness. And that's what we do, is it not? But praise God, He's a compassionate God. And He's an understanding God.

[24:52] And He's a merciful God. And He is ready to give us forgiveness for not trusting in His plan, not trusting in His timing. The psalmist who says, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait. And in His Word do I hope.

[25:04] Folks, that's all we've got to hope in, is the Word of God. The Word of God is where the promises of God lie. The Word of God, it will not tell us a lie. The Word of God is what we stand on.

[25:16] The Word of God is what we depend on. The Word of God is all that we have. Amen. Because that's where all His promises lie. Amen. I went door knocking with a preacher buddy one time.

[25:28] This had been probably a year, year and a half ago. We went to a fellow's house. This fellow was very knowledgeable. Very knowledgeable about scriptures. He was very knowledgeable about outside extra biblical texts.

[25:41] He was very knowledgeable about church history. He was very knowledgeable about all kinds of things. He invited us in. We had probably a half an hour talk with him. But something just struck me weird about him. Something was striking me off about him.

[25:52] And thankfully the brother that I was with asked him, He said, If someone came to you and said, Why do you believe? Or know?

[26:03] How do you know? That's how he phrased it. How do you know that the resurrection actually happened? And that man, I can't remember his name, I wouldn't say it if I could. But that man said, Well, I would point them toward this book.

[26:16] Talking about an outside book. And this author, or this preacher, I heard him preach, you know, two or three sermons in a series on this very matter. And he went through probably a dozen different things.

[26:26] But never once did that man say, I believe that the resurrection happened because the Bible says that the resurrection happened. Folks, that is all we've got to rely on.

[26:37] I rely that Jesus Christ is alive. I rely on the fact that he came out of the tomb, that he spent a few weeks with his disciples and speed and seeing above 500.

[26:51] I believe in all of these things. And I believe that he has ascended to the Father. I believe that he forever makes intercession for all of those that have repented and believed because that is what the Bible teaches me.

[27:05] Amen. I don't believe it because some preacher preached it. I don't believe it because some teacher taught it. I believe it because that's what I read in the Scripture. And we need to be trained as the church, as believers, as the people of Almighty God, that if it is not in the Scripture, we should question it.

[27:24] We should question it. And I felt so bad for that man. I did. And me and the brother I was with, we left his house. And he and I both talked about that all the way back to the car and all the way back to the church while we were sitting there at supper.

[27:38] And we prayed for that man. We prayed and prayed and prayed for that man. Went back to visit with him a couple more times after that. But, folks, he's depending more upon other things than the Word of God.

[27:51] We cannot do that. I believe that I'm saved because the Bible says that I'm saved. I believe that I'm saved. The Bible says I'm saved because I did what the said, the Word of God.

[28:02] I was convicted of my sin, folks. Just as this psalmist, this is a cry of conviction that he had in verses 1 and 2. It was a cry of conviction that he had. I was convicted of my sin.

[28:13] I was convinced that God was the only way. I was convinced that Jesus Christ was the only hope I had for salvation. I cried out to the Lord to be saved and I know that he saved me.

[28:25] I went by the book and didn't even know I was doing it at the time. Didn't even realize what the instructions were at the time. But in hindsight, boy, in hindsight, 2020 sometime, I wait for the Lord.

[28:38] My soul doth wait. And in his word, do I hope, folks? Hope in the Word of God. While you're waiting, you reflect on the Word of God. While you're waiting, you reflect on the past times that God has helped you.

[28:50] You reflect on the past times that God has saved you. Reflect on all those times that God has healed you or healed a loved one. You think on those things. And then you think about the Word of God, the God of this Bible, and the promises that he has made, that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

[29:07] Hallelujah. Verse 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning. He says, My soul, my soul, it waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.

[29:20] He is alluding here to the watchmen on the walls of the city. Folks, they would go up there on the walls, they would look out into the distance in the dark of night and in the black of night.

[29:31] Folks, it got boring and nothing was going on. Their eyes got heavy, they got weary, and they would peer out into the distance just hoping for a sign of the morning.

[29:42] Hoping for a sign of the dawn. Hoping for a sign of the sun. And they would finally get it. But that's what they would hope for, especially in the last three hours of their watch.

[29:55] But that's neither here nor there. My soul waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. More than they that watch for the morning. Folks, we should be waiting on God more than anything else or anyone else on an individual basis.

[30:14] The church of Jesus Christ, the bride of Christ, those that have been redeemed, those that have been blood-bought, should be waiting for the Lord. But folks, this isn't just something that's passive.

[30:27] It's an active waiting. God, Jesus tells the disciples there at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature.

[30:38] It's an active waiting. We are not just to sit back and wait on God and do nothing else. We are to go out and be witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to go out and be witnesses of the goodness of Jesus Christ.

[30:52] This is the very thing that the church at Thessalonica was guilty of. Paul had to address that with them. They were quitting their jobs. They were saying, Well, Jesus is coming back. I'm not doing anything else.

[31:04] Paul said, No, that's not what you're to do. And folks, that's not what we're to do 2,000 years later. We're to be active in our waiting. But we are to wait with an expectancy.

[31:15] This psalmist had an expectancy that God would make good on His Word. Folks, I've got an expectancy that God will make good on His Word. I've been redeemed. I've been sanctified.

[31:25] I'm being consecrated daily. But one of these days, hallelujah, that consecration is going to be complete. That sanctification will be complete. My salvation in God through Christ Jesus will be complete.

[31:40] Hallelujah. I'm not saying that I'm only saved a little bit now. I'm just as saved as you are. And you're just as saved as I am. But folks, there's a salvation coming, the completeness of our salvation.

[31:53] I may have said it here before, I may not have. And folks, salvation is given in all three tenses throughout the Scripture. I have been saved, past tense, I am being saved, present tense, and I shall be saved in the future.

[32:08] It's given in all three tenses in the Scripture. I'm talking about New Testament Scriptures. It's given in all three tenses. And folks, there's a salvation coming. There's a salvation coming.

[32:20] I am promised within the Word of God. That's why in His Word do I hope. In His Word did the psalmist hope. In His Word I encourage you all to hope. Because that's where the promises lie.

[32:32] Verse 7, Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy and with Him is plenteous redemption. Let Israel hope in the Lord. Folks, I told you throughout the first few verses of this song it was personal between the psalmist and Almighty God.

[32:49] But now that He has tasted the mercy of Almighty God, now that He has received this forgiveness and He has told God, Hey, I'm waiting on You, Lord. In Your Word do I hope He's trying to get the entire nation of His brothers and sisters on board with Him.

[33:05] And we should be doing the same thing. It's gone from personal to communal. He's trying to tell the rest of them, Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy.

[33:17] Let Israel hope in the Lord. He gives us the what and then He gives us the why. For with the Lord there is mercy. Why else would we wait on the Lord? Why else would we hope in the Lord?

[33:29] If there was no mercy, folks, we'd want nothing to do with God, would we? No, we wouldn't if we weren't forgiven. Think of yourself before you were forgiven.

[33:40] Think of yourself before God saved your unworthy soul. You wanted nothing to do with it. You wanted nothing to do with God. You wanted nothing to do with the Bible. You wanted nothing to do with church. You wanted nothing to do with singing the songs of Zion.

[33:52] You wanted nothing to do with any of these things. But now that you've tasted, now that God is redeemed, for with God there is mercy, what are we to do to go ye again into all the world and preach the gospel to the ever living creature?

[34:09] Be a witness. Testify the goodness of God. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy and with Him is plenteous redemption. Folks, it's not just a small amount of redemption.

[34:21] He says, it is plenteous redemption. Folks, it's without end. It is an eternal redemption that is available in Almighty God. It is a sufficient redemption that is available in Him.

[34:33] It is inexhaustible. He cannot give out all of His redemption. Right. Everything about God is eternal. Everything about God is eternal.

[34:44] It's plenteous redemption. So for those out there in the world that say, I've done too much for God to save me. No, you haven't. There is no sin out there that is greater than what God can cover with His grace.

[34:59] There is no sin out there that is so filthy that God can't clean it away with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. There is no sin that is so bad that God cannot forgive you.

[35:12] Now understand, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. I get that. Most folks don't even understand what that is. That ain't me calling the Holy Spirit a bad word.

[35:23] And that's what a lot of people think it is. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit coming to someone witnessing of Jesus Christ which the gospel of John testifies that when the Spirit comes, when the comforter comes, He will testify of Christ.

[35:37] So when the Spirit comes, He testifies of Christ and blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is blasphemy of the testimony that He has given of the only begotten Son of the Father as Messiah and Redeemer of mankind.

[35:50] And you know why that can't be forgiven? Because somebody didn't believe when that happens. Somebody didn't believe the gospel. Somebody doesn't believe in Jesus Christ. That's what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is.

[36:02] Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy. Hallelujah. And with Him is plenteous redemption and He shall redeem Israel from all His iniquities. Now I understand the context here for this psalmist as the nation Israel.

[36:15] Folks, this was the psalmist. This was an Israelite. He was a Jew and He was speaking to and about the covenant God. The God that had made covenant with Abraham. The God that had kept His covenant through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[36:28] Kept His covenant all throughout. Kept His covenant with David. He had kept His covenant with them all. And that's the context that this psalmist had to go by. But we need to fast forward.

[36:40] We need to fast forward to the New Testament church times. When we see, and I'm not saying that the church has taken Israel's place. Far from it. Absolutely not. I'm not into replacement theology.

[36:53] But when He says in verse 7, let Israel hope in the Lord. Folks, let the entire world, let the entire earth hope in the Lord. In verse 8, He shall redeem Israel from all His iniquities.

[37:07] He shall redeem all those that have repented their ways and believed on Jesus Christ. Folks, even the Jews that didn't believe were destroyed. Even the Jews that did not believe, they were part of the covenant people.

[37:21] But even they, hey folks, God opened up the ground and swallowed up those of the tribe of Korah. He destroyed them. And they were Jews. They were Jews.

[37:33] So, even those that were of the covenant, some of them didn't believe. Some of them did not believe. But where it says, and He shall redeem Israel from all His iniquities.

[37:45] Those that believe the Word of God, those that have their hope in the Word of God, those that have their hope in the God that left this Word with us, those that have their hope in redemption, those that have their hope that when God convicts them of their sins and shows them their sins and has redeemed them from their sins and redeemed them from His judgment, redeemed them and clutched them and pulled them up out of the flames of hell, those that believe this, those shall be redeemed and those shall be cleansed from all his iniquities.

[38:17] It says again in Psalm 138, He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Redeemed. You shall buy them back. Folks, we've been bought back.

[38:29] You and I are grafted in like a wild vine. We are adoptive sons and daughters of the Most High King. But I'm glad.

[38:40] I'm glad that I'm adopted into the family of God. I'm glad that I've said several times over that we're walking down the street and we see, I'm talking about a true blue Jew.

[38:54] I'm talking about somebody that is truly a Jew, not somebody that's a proselyte. Somebody that's just adopted the dietary aspect of being a Judaism or whatever.

[39:05] You see a true blue Jew, you ought to grab him and hug him and kiss him on the cheek real hard. Folks, why should you do that? Had they accepted Jesus when he first came, there'd be no hope for you and I.

[39:20] There would be no hope for you and I. Now, they have the same hope that we do. Folks, salvation is tall. The gospel was presented to the Jew first and to the Greek. God told Abraham that through his seed, all nations of the world would be blessed.

[39:36] Through a Jewish man, all nations of the world would be blessed. They can be saved the same way that I was saved. The same way, but folks, it'll be by the blood of Jesus Christ. It will not be by the blood of bulls or goats.

[39:49] The writer to the Hebrews makes that plain that those sacrifices are null and void now. And they never were powerful enough to wash away sin anyway. But the one and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ is sufficient to redeem the world.

[40:04] John the Baptist said, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ, His blood is powerful enough to redeem the entire world. The world needs to repent and believe.

[40:17] God bless you all. That's the message for this evening. I appreciate your attention. Thank you.