The script reading for this afternoon you will find in the Old Testament in the book of Psalms. On which we will read Psalm 130. Psalm 130. The word of the Lord, out of the depths I have cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul thus waits, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Congregation, we read this afternoon from Psalm 130, but there is forgiveness with thee. Do you wherever you are coming to church this afternoon or listening online, do you know there is forgiveness with Christ? Do you know the contrasting word but? and it unites the preceding verses to verse 4 and with verse 4 a more personal unite Christ and the one who cries out of the depth do you know there is forgiveness with Christ Look young people, we live in a world where forgiveness is a rare commodity. We live in a cancel culture, that is when there is an offensive behavior or action that is punished by withdrawing support for such an individual through public shaming or overwhelming in an overwhelming way. There is no restoration, there is no restored relationship, there is no forgiveness. That's the world in which we live and yet it is here. But there is forgiveness with thee. When the voice are not, eh, young people, not abandoned, but pardoned. It is not undeserved grace, all the ones in our midst, if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities my sin. Punishment deserved, pardon received for Christ's sake. Therefore, with the help of the Lord, I want to meditate with you on those words, these words of Psalm 130, particularly verse 4, but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. And the theme for this afternoon is a song of forgiveness, born in the dead. and in the first place why we need forgiveness the verses 1 to 3 in the second place in whom there is forgiveness our text says with thee and in the third place how this forgiveness ought to transform us how we live out of that because the text said that or so that dowers the Lord may be feared out of the depth. So begin after Psalm. And the depth can be real in our life, isn't it? The depth at times when life is overwhelming and it seems I go under, being swallowed up, the business of life There's times in life of distress, work situations which could be challenging, or in business and you wonder what now, what to do, and there's uncertain times sometimes when you live, economically or otherwise, or maybe inner conflicts in your life, marriage struggles or disappointments, and mostly you disappoint yourself, because of this or that addiction you struggle with and you feel falling in a pit and it seems it pulls you deeper and deeper with the depth of forsakeness and loneliness that there is this crying need of distress and pain and hurt and it seems no one hears until you begin to cry You see in this psalmist, it is very personal, I cried, I wait, I hope, I say, my voice, my supplication, my soul, twice, cried to the Lord. But congregation, be honest also this afternoon, is that sometimes not our last resort, if nothing seems to work, if nothing seems to help, If it seems no one hears, and then, then we turn to the Lord. Out of the depth I cry with my voice, my voice of supplication. Supplication, young people, that there is a consciousness of unworthiness, and yet, yet you are hopeful of the Lord's gracious compassion. You plead, Lord, please hear. Let thine ears be attentive, says the psalmist, to my situation in life, to my cares that I carry day in and day out. Hear because of my concerns, because I lay awake at night, Lord, hear my voice. The depth in natural life can be real. Don't overlook that. Don't push that away. Particularly in situations when injustice is encountered, where forgiveness is needed, when someone has been wronged and when healing is needed in your life. It is a blessing when those depths in your life, those crying needs that you turn to the Lord and yet congregation and yet the psalmist points to a much deeper cause that gives him to plead with the Lord and gives him to cry unto the Lord out of such depth and that, young people, that is a much deeper and darker than all these depths of distresses, of disappointments, of discouragements that can happen in your life real as they might be the depth of spiritual life because of his iniquities your sins when your sins stare you in the face sins that bring you sometimes at places that you don't want to be sins that you know I can't be there sins that you say I should not be there sins in your life that brings you down brings you to the depth of your being and this depth, this dark depth as many of the psalmists have experienced it young people, the bible is such an honest book psalmist in psalm 40, a horrible pit, mirey clay The psalmist in Psalm 8 here, the lowest speed and darkness in the deeps! That feeling of Jonah sometimes, eh? Being cast into the deep in the midst of the sea, the floods come past me about, said Jonah, billows and waves passed over me. Never felt that way? When your sin stares you in the face, And it seems there is no way out, this realization. That God's word, when you read this text, becomes real in your life. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand this reality that came in the life of the psalmist the word marks means lord if thou observe if thou attend to if thou keep a record kept track of my sins that is what the word mark iniquity means to keep an account of my guilty deeds, whatever that is in your life. Sin, your and my sin, creates a record that does not pass into the air, vanishes away. My daily sins, my committed sins, sins of omission, if thou, Lord, should keep an account of my sins, Treat us accordingly, O Lord, who stand before thee in judgment and who can claim then innocence? Who shall stand from among us? No one congregation, nor you nor I. And that seems to make forgiveness so impossible from your side, to make it right with the Lord and your soul. Young people never felt it in your life? when you did something and you know in your heart sin sin against the Lord how can I make it right yet and this is grace and that is His grace and cry is born in that deep depth and pit grace at work otherwise you don't cry to the Lord seeing your sin rising up before you when was it the last time that you cried about your sins? sin became sin for you a reality if thou should mark But I only see sin and guilt and shame. Your sins, private or public, are marked, recorded, they have a name. They are named here as iniquity, guilty deeds. And friends, it would be tempting to give you a whole list of such deeds. Do you not know when you sin? Sin is an alienation. It goes around you, it affects you, above all it alienates from God, brings a separation between your soul When the Lord shows you that you are alive, then you begin to understand the psalmist. My sin is ever before me. You begin to plead, have mercy on me according to thy lovingkindness. Blood out my transgression. Psalm 38, for my iniquities are gone over my head. Make haste to help me, O Lord of my salvation. this realization it is so real that you confess I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid what we heard this morning from Peter Lord thou knowest all things I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid Do you see for the first time or again your need for forgiveness? Our need for forgiveness. To whom shall you then go? Because you cannot do this yourself. Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting, excusing or condoning. Who then can forgive you? The congregation here breaks the gospel through also this afternoon our text that there is forgiveness with thee with God Congregation God did only what he can do God did himself what we ourselves could and cannot do only God can forgive you whoever you are, whatever status you have in life, whatever you have brought into church this afternoon. Know this and hear the goodness of the Lord, the psalmist said, for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Have you cried to him? wonderful gospel news, is it not? Forgiveness means to experience God's grace and the remission of my sins. Forgiveness means that you have learned by grace something what outrageous Bono once wrote, not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul. not what my tolling flesh has borne can my spirit whole, not what I feel or do can give me peace with God, not my prayers or sighs or tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God. Have you come to that point? Maybe it is years back. Maybe it is recent. Maybe you still are toiling in your flesh. Maybe you still have those feelings. Maybe you have those prayers, sighs and tears. But have learned by grace, die, birth alone, O Christ. can ease this weight of sin thy blood alone." God's own way to offer forgiveness, to see that afresh and anew, that God sent his son to do himself what his people could not do for themselves. Therefore the basis of forgiveness is God himself. So clear on display in Psalm 130. Verse 7a, for with the Lord there is mercy. Verse 7b, for with Him there is plenteous redemption. Then verse 8, he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Yes, your guilty deeds, those sins in your and my life, from all iniquities, he shall redeem. Is that your hope? Grace is generous. Do you see the psalmist? The psalmist changes from the singular I and my to the plural Israel. When forgiveness is possible for me, communication is possible for everyone else. He shall redeem, because with him there is mercy. And with Him there is plentious redemption. Shall you not forget when we come to you this new week. But congregation, at what a cost! So costly! Because the psalmist in 49 reminds us, none of them can by any means redeem his brethren, nor give to God a ransom for him, for redemption of their soul is precious, is cost. O see then Christ this afternoon, once again, in the deepest depth and darkness, bearing the sins of each of his children, If Christ on the cross is not the most definitive answer of forgiveness, uncostly forgiveness, costly for God in Christ, when he was condemned to die so that his people, so that you might be pardoned, that he was forsaken by God, that we might never be, forever be accepted by him. so costly as forgiveness, his redeeming love, his sacrificial love, his dying, forgiving Savior for a dying and unforgiving people in themselves. Oh, see then Christ on the cross for one who is burdened by the weight of sin, burdened with the shortcomings and the backsliding and unfaithfulness and whatever you have brought into church, maybe your past, And it seems you cannot get rid of it. It is a burden you carry and so long. Maybe in our midst they cannot forgive themselves of what has happened in the past. Or in the present, God knows what is going on in your life. But the future, what will it reveal? If it is you, you are welcome. You are welcome at the cross of Christ at the feet of Jesus. That is the display, the offer, the sacrificial offer of God's forgiveness. As John Bunyan once wrote in Pilgrim's Progress so vividly right on that place to the cross and little below in the bottom a sepulcher and so I saw that just as Christian came up to the cross his burden loosed from his shoulders and fell from his back and it began to tumble and to tumble and continued to do so until it came to the mouth of the sepulcher It fell in and I saw it no more. Do you hear? That's God's forgiveness. the word of Hebrews 8 then the Lord says to you for I will be merciful to your unrighteousness and your sins and your iniquities those same iniquities here in Psalm 130 verse 4 and your iniquities will I remember no no forgiven and forgotten That is God's way, and so it should be ours. Friends, that forgiveness in Christ is costly, and yet it has been freely prepared. You can never pay for it, never, and therefore it must be freely received, even now. Do you begin to see may be a fresh and a new God's forgiveness in Christ, that it is a wonder of grace. This is his offer to you, even now, there is forgiveness with me, says the Lord. Because in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace. Rich, so rich, so undeserved! That is His grace. Because you did not deserve anything, and yet God gave everything that He had, His Son. The riches of His undeserved, unspeakable grace. The apostle said, But I have not seen, nor heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Forgiveness, mercy, plenteous redemption! Would you then not seek your life outside of yourself in Christ? To whom else shall you go then, also for this new week? With your sins, with the burdens that you have in life, maybe with the anxieties that haunt you from the past, the dealings of injustice, and there seems no forgiveness possible. Whom shall you then go? Do you not take refuge in Christ then? Here is a Saviour, here is a Substitute who absorbed the just wrath of God over the sins of each of His children, who graciously and generously offers also this afternoon, standing before you, that you cannot stand before Him in yourself, but He comes and invites even now sons in our midst, your sins are forgiven, those like the paralytic no way to go anymore but at the feet of Jesus and then they hear your sins are forgiven also for our daughters in our midst your sins are forgiven one who came also at the feet of Jesus weeping and in tears a sinner looks heaven but she hears from Christ himself her sins were which are many are forgiven for she loved much there is forgiveness with thee and therefore I wait for the Lord and congregation that is a waiting a waiting in the original that word is used a waiting with expectation with hope like the watchman waiting for the morning no matter how long the night seems morning comes always So the Lord will return to a repentant waiting soul, always. That is a waiting in obedience, verse 6, putting your hope in His Word, no matter how you feel, you wait in His Word. There is a waiting in community for seven and eight. And therefore we come to church every Sunday as a community, as a congregation. We have our Bible studies during the week together. And finally there is a waiting with a foundation, a founded hope. God himself will and shall redeem, deliver. That is the hope. The hope for us as parents. The hope for us at grandparents. The hope for our young people. Because moralism and legalism will tell you wait for the Lord. There is a passive waiting. There is nothing more that you can do but to hope. And then maybe, maybe there is forgiveness. But the gospel this afternoon, this one-sided work of grace proclaims there is forgiveness! And that gives a waiting, a waiting for the Lord, a hope in His Word. Young people, when the Lord begins to work in your life, and you see your sin, and you cry out with the psalmist, out of the depths, I cry unto thee, you go, pace after pace after pace, till you wait, and hope in His Word. Those times that you begin to echo the words of the psalmist in 119. My soul melts for heaviness because you see your sin. Strengthen thou me according to thy word. Those times my soul clings to the dust. Revive me according to thy word. To be lifted up for a moment above the circumstances, the sins and the shortcomings in your life. Those times that you sing and agree with the psalmist, this is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word has given me life, quickened me. And what's the last time? And therefore my soul waits for the Lord, the Lord in him alone. And that is the ultimate goal of God's forgiveness. not to escape punishment, though I deserve it, but a longing for fellowship, reconciliation, restored relationship, my soul, that is, my whole being waits for the Lord, Him alone, that He is seen again, because in His presence is fullness joy. Friends, asking for forgiveness is not simply asking for pardon or remission. It is always after the restoring of a relationship. And for the one, maybe even an Amish, who has committed adultery or addicted to internet pornography, you have nothing to stand on. But when humbled by God's rich mercy, not in waiting for the escape of punishment, but it is a waiting, a longing for restoration, a reconciliation, a restored relationship. When you have an argument with your husband or wife, maybe even young couples in our midst, that creepy silence, can only be overcome by forgiveness. Because you seek, you seek a restored relationship, recklessness. And it's not so in the life of grace, when you have sinned. You feel it? I'm speaking to God's people. There is this distance between God and your soul and you can keep up that for a while comes a time that my soul waits. It is work by the Lord who will not forsake the work of his hands. It is a waiting more than a watch in the morning and a hope, because you know by the Lord is mercy and plentiful redemption abundant. This coming week I hope to teach on Wilhelmus Abraham Wilhelmus Abraham said when God's people sin let them not wait but go at once to their saviour and ask for forgiveness because they know his mercy is abundant plenteous in redemption this costly forgiveness for Christ do you begin that little but so profound word but over against my sin the record of my sin what I have done there is forgiveness in Christ for what He has done And lastly the text says, so that thou mayest be feared. In other words, how does that fear of the Lord now play out in your life? Or our third place, what this forgiveness ought to transform us. If you cannot deny by grace, to know something of God's forgiveness in Christ and I say something and by that I mean this, God's forgiveness in Christ is complete, is finished, Christ's work is a finished work, nothing can be added, nothing has to be added and I hope that you may know that. But in the experience of the life of God's people, the longer you are on the road The more astonishing it becomes. He had mercy on me. Experience more and more in boundless mercy he fulfills his earth and that in me, such one as I am. It's amazing grace. Would you then not love the Lord, the fount of life and grace? Would you not practice in your life? Could it not be seen in your life to love the Lord, that fear of the Lord? But the text says that thou may be feared. And young people, our text does not mean fear of punishment, that you are afraid of the Lord, but a child like trusting his father, reverential fear. Friends, this psalm teaches us four practical things of what forgiveness actually is. How it plays out, maybe even for this new week that lies before us. How His grace ought to transform us. First, the Lord has named our sin, here in His words, told us in truth, named our sin, iniquity, guilty deeds, whatever that is in your life. But the psalm is, the Lord names them. And what does that work out in the life of the psalmist? He confesses by grace. Should that not be in human forgiveness? Let's start with telling the truth, with exposure, rather than cover up an excuse of half-truth. But also with the aim that it leads to confession, not only to one another, but to the Lord. There is no better place than to go to the Lord, turning to Him and even together. I cried unto Thee, O Lord. So when there are family situations or family situations in the church, that God gives us the grace to confess to each other and to Him together. Secondly, the Lord shows pity, verse 7, with the Lord there is mercy. And to have mercy on someone who has wronged you means to have an understanding of the perpetrator's situation, a human being with his or her fears or griefs. And so in the human process of forgiveness there is mercy. The Lord shows pity, is moved with compassion, full of mercy, plenteous in mercy and redemption. Should you then, should you then not show mercy if someone has a grudge against you? And that for Christ's sake? And therefore congregation that we are also a testimony in this area in which we live, to practice, to keep God's mercy afresh and anew, and reflect as husband and wife, as families, as small group, as congregation, on Christ's work of forgiveness. read and meditate together scripture on God forgiveness I give you here 3 Isaiah 1 verse 8 come now says the Lord let us reason together though your sins are scarlet they shall be white as snow though they are red like crimson they shall become like wool meditate discuss it pray about it Psalm 86, For thou, O Lord, art good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all those that call upon thee. Verse 1, If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. experience that His blood cleanses you from all our sins. Those times that you have fallen again. And that you have to say, Lord, hear my voice. I take refuge in His blood that cleanses of all sins. who pray and meditate upon His words of God's great faithfulness and gracious mercy offered to you for Christ's sake and being refreshed and renewed by it, who Christ is for such fullness you are. So that there are times when you meditate upon those things and congregation we live in a busy, busy time. Take time and pray and meditate upon this word. And when you see it afresh and anew at times, that you have to say with the hymn writer of old, I scarcely can take it in. God's forgiveness. Third, that brings to the very heart of forgiveness, verse 7, for with him there is plenteous redemption. In Christ God forgave your debt and the debt of each of his children, absorbed the loss himself. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto him. Has that now been a wonder for you? If that has been, So you can and may forgive others who have wronged you. Difficult as it might be at times, but possible for Christ. Forgiving one another as Christ forgave you. And that to practice. Young people, not like a forgiveness culture without justice. Forgiving your heart, don't talk about it, forget about it, don't report it to the authorities and sleep under the rug mentality. order like a justice culture without forgiveness as we started the sermon. A culture of confrontation and there is no mercy. Living biblically in and out of Christ's forgiveness and that to you is naming the sin, no cover up. The sin of having an argument with one another or whatever sin that is. Having a heart that identifies the wrongdoer and willing good for the wrongdoer it can be hard at times but necessary to keep you from becoming someone whom you never want to be that also said if your brother or sister sins against you if they repent, forgive them that does not mean young people Only if they repent then forgive. Having a heart of real forgiveness. Always hope for full restoration and a relationship. It is after all your brother or sister. Such a forgiving heart does not mean excusing sins or wrongdoing. It refrains from revenge, like I forgive but I cannot forget. That's not the Lord's way. Or denying or whitewashing wrong. Or suspending judgement. I will forgive this time but the next time... That does not mean condescending mercy. Kind of I forgive meaning I'm much better than you. But it is having a heart that pays the debt of the wrongdoer rather than make him or her pay for it. Cancel the debt in your heart and it can be very costly. Here we come to the heart of the Christian meaning of forgiveness. True forgiveness does not seek revenge. A young people that is very counter cultural but it is biblical. When you stand praying, forgive. As Christ commends in Mark 11, forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. Such a forgiving heart is filled with spiritual humility. But it is a heart with spiritual wealth, the rich experience of God's love and forgiveness that make you generous to others. And fourth, and last, the relationship is restored. Verse 8, He redeems Israel from all his iniquity. Not some iniquity, some sin, but all! Reconciliation is possible! Restored relationship, because all is forgiven! That's the ultimate goal of God's forgiveness. There is forgiveness with thee. That is your refuge, also for this new week. If you still try to earn God's forgiveness, then I ask you, is His forgiveness in Christ too difficult to receive and accept? Or are you too good for it? I urge you, if that is you, I urge you as an ambassador of this willing and ready and able Lord, in which there is forgiveness, mercy and abundance of redemption, be saviour and substitute, give up your own doings, your own trials, whether it is pious or not, return to Him now, don't delay, Or do you not know that the goodness of God's forgiveness leads you to repentance? To learn more and more by experience, His loving and kind grace, as the same outrageous boner once wrote, not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art, that alone can my soul to rest. Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart, and stills and stills the tossed and tempest hearts that are moments that is in peace that surpasses all knowledge and understanding therefore forgiveness to forgive if you still ask why should I The answer is for Christ's sake. If you ask how can I? For Christ's sake. Difficult at times. Maybe one in our midst have to say at times it is so difficult it leaves me crying. And therefore this word of the Lord is also for you. as it is for all of us, as he has the first and the last word on forgiveness, out of the depths I have cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But, O yes, There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. Amen.