Good morning. I invite you to turn to Psalm 130. We're going to read the entire Psalm and then give our attention to verse 4 of Psalm 130. Hear now God's word. A song of ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits, and in his word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning. Yes, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is abundant redemption. and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Amen, this is God's word. Well, this morning we have the opportunity to meditate upon some of the most precious words found in the Bible in verse four. But there is forgiveness with you, Lord, that you may be feared. Those are precious words, aren't they? They remind me of another divinely inspired but in the scriptures, Ephesians 2. Perhaps you remember Ephesians 2, sketching out this terrible condition that humanity is in, dead in trespasses and sins, under the sway of the prince of the power of the air, and without hope and without God in the world. But then the words, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ. And that's very much what verse four of Psalm 130 is expressing for us today. So keep Ephesians two in the background as we meditate on these words from Psalm 130. And the logic of verses three and four in our psalm is much like Ephesians two. On one hand, the psalmist is saying, if you would judge us, Lord, if you would judge me, I would have no hope. I could not stand. But with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. And so what the psalmist is contemplating is the amazing grace of God to forgive undeserving sinners such as us. And you need to remember that as you come to confess your sins today, that you come to a heavenly father who is described for us in Luke chapter 15 as a father who is eager to see you come to him in repentance. who is excited to embrace you and then to throw a party for you after you repent. That's the God that you come to today as you confess your sins. Now, verse four also tells us that there is a purpose for God's forgiveness. And by purpose, I mean, what is it supposed to produce in us? When we receive the forgiveness of God, what should be its effect upon us? And the verse says that God forgives us in order that we may fear him. It says that you may be feared. Now, we talked last time we were in the psalm about how verse three gives us a very sober view of sin. The psalmist does not see sin as a minor thing, as a trivial thing. He understands the righteousness of God. He understands the horrible evil of evils that is sin. And so for God to forgive our sins is not a trivial thing. And therefore it does not produce a trivial response in us. The effect of God's forgiveness should be in us a reverential fear and love of the living God. Our Lord Jesus gave us a very important principle in Luke 7 when he said, he who is forgiven much loves much. And I believe that that principle applies to other things too. He who is forgiven much fears God much. That's one of the things that verse four certainly does teach us by implication. Now, how is it that the forgiveness of God produces a fear of God and a love of God and other things like that that are good? It is true that God's law threatens all of humanity, and you'll find at times when God's law is mentioned or when other threats of judgment are mentioned, that people sometimes get a bit concerned. Their conscience awakens a little bit, and they might get a little fearful at times. Later on, they suppress that if they're unbelievers. But those threats of judgment that loom large over unbelievers doesn't produce a reverential fear of the living God, not this loving embrace of God that we're seeing described in verse four. What produces that reverential, love-filled fear of God is God's forgiveness of us. Puritan writer George Swinnock gave a helpful illustration of how this works, how God's law doesn't itself produced this kind of love and fear of God, but God's forgiveness does. And here's how he describes it. And it's a helpful picture, I think, for us. The hammer of the law may break the icy heart of man with terrors and horrors, and yet it may remain ice still. But when the fire of love kindly thaws its ice, it is changed and dissolved into water. It is no longer ice, but of another nature. So get the picture that Swinok is describing here. He says, your heart is like ice towards God, cold, stiff, and the law can hammer upon the heart. It can break the ice down until the ice is broken under the judgment of God. But the love of God's forgiveness expressed, it melts the cold heart, thaws it, and then turns it into water, dissolved into love and fear and reverence for the living God. That's the effect that forgiveness has upon us. And so if you have rightly understood the evil of evils that is sin and seen it in your own heart, and then if you have rightly understood the amazing forgiveness of God shown forth displayed for you in Jesus Christ, you're going to fear God because you see that your sin is not a trivial thing. God's justice is not a trivial thing. And the cross of Christ is not a minor thing either. It costs the blood of the eternal son of God for you to be forgiven of your sins. And so if somebody thinks that they're forgiven by God, but they don't have an ounce of the fear of God in their lives, I doubt whether they have really understood the gospel. I doubt whether they have really come to know God in a saving way through Christ if there's no fear of God in their lives. That is the divinely intended purpose of God's forgiveness, according to verse four. And the Holy Spirit will certainly bring about that purpose in the hearts of those who believe in the Lord. I think Isaac Watts really grasped the heart of what verse four is describing in terms of our response to the work of Christ and the forgiveness of God. And you know these words, as he wrote, and alas, and did my savior bleed, he says, well, might the sun and darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ, the mighty maker died for man, the creature's sin. Thus might I hide my blushing face while his dear cross appears, dissolve my heart in thankfulness and melt mine eyes in tears. But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away, tis all that I can do." That's the saving response to the work of Christ upon the cross. The heart is dissolved in gratitude. The heart is melded in love for the living God, and we fear God, and we desire to serve him. That is the effect that the gospel will have upon our hearts when it is worked upon us by the Holy Spirit. And so may we pray in light of verse four that we would fear the living God in light of this passage today. And let's take this time now to confess our sins to the Lord. Our merciful heavenly father, we thank you for your amazing love that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We thank you for that word here in Psalm 130 and in Ephesians two, but God who is rich in mercy, but with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. May it never be that we treat your forgiveness as a cheap or trivial thing, but rather that our hearts would be dissolved in gratitude, our eyes would be melted in tears, and that our hearts would be bound in love to serve you with gratitude all of our days. We thank you for the free, unmerited forgiveness of guilty sinners such as us. And now we take a moment to confess our own sins to the Lord.