Good morning to you all in this morning. It's hard to believe that we moved across the staple in the booklet to Wednesday, but that's, I think, a reflection of the wonderful time that we've all been having together here this week. Before we begin the session proper, Adrian did ask me to recommend a couple of books as well, more directly related to our conference theme. And so Octavius Winslow, of course, Sermons on Psalm 130. Winslow spoke at the opening of Spurgeon's Tabernacle in London. And Spurgeon's recommendation, rather than mine, Winslow's very sweet sermons upon the various verses of the psalm will be read to edification by many believers. So Winslow on Psalm 130, and then more broadly, Rhett Dodson on the Psalms of Ascent. And so all the Psalms of Ascent, including Psalm 130, marching to Zion, ancient Psalms for modern pilgrims. And he says in the preface, over the past few years, I have found myself drawn more and more deeply into the Psalms, not just as exercises in Hebrew exegesis, but as reflections of my own heart with its ups and downs. Each chapter is followed by several reflective questions, reflection questions, study questions, and so suitable not only for personal devotions, but perhaps family worship or small group settings. So marching to Zion, Rhett Dodson. We're going to begin by standing to sing Psalm 51. This morning we'll sing Psalm 51A, stanzas one to five. Psalm 51a, one to five, let's stand together as we sing. The tune is Petra, 240. Dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, ♪ I'll be merciful to Thee ♪ ♪ On Your grace I rest my plea ♪ ♪ In Your vast abounding grace ♪ ♪ My transgressions all erase ♪ ♪ Cleanse me thoroughly within ♪ ♪ From iniquity ♪ you my transgressions ever there. I've been forced by evil God, sinned against you, you alone. That your sentence just may be, that you may just lay Iniquity was brought forth this life to see. When my mother did conceive, I in sin then came to be. Truth you wish for in the heart, wisdom to be you impart. Wash me from my sin and soul, I will whiter be than snow. Make me hear joy's clapping voice. Those who've broken will rejoice. From my sins all hide your face. My iniquity's erased. Let us pray. Oh Holy Sovereign, Almighty, Triune God, we come to you in the name of the only mediator, the only name by which we must be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank you that we may come before you in Him and through Him, knowing that all who come to you, washed and covered in Christ, are acceptable and accepted in your sight. That we come even with the spirit of adoption and the reality of adoption, that we come to the God of the universe as our Father in heaven, the sons and daughters of the living God. Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, our prophet, priest, and king. That the gospel has been revealed to us in his prophetic work, and that it has been accomplished in his priestly work. and that He is applying it, that He is restraining and conquering all His and our enemies in His kingly work as He brings us into His kingdom and as that kingdom comes to this earth. Father, we pray that as we have Your Word open before us that You would open us up to Your Word. We pray that You would have heart dealings with us. this morning, O Lord. And Father, we pray to you as the God of all comfort and the Father of all mercy in Jesus Christ. Be merciful to us for your name's sake and bless us in your grace that we may go forth from this place filled with the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit For this is the kingdom of Christ. In His name we pray, amen. Let's first again come to the hearing of God's word from Psalm 130 verses 1 through 8. Psalm 130, beginning at the first verse, let's give our attention to the reading of God's holy word. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, therefore You are feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love, and with Him is full redemption. He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. The Word of God. Amen. On one occasion when asked concerning his favorite Psalms, Martin Luther replied, the Psalms of Paul. The Psalms of Paul. Gospel Psalms. And he included among them Psalm 51, that we sang this morning, and Psalm 130. It was as Martin Luther reflected on Psalm 130, and in particular verses three and four, that he wrote a statement about justification, as the great gospel doctrine which establishes the church. And he saw it here in these verses. In John Owen's life, to which I've referred in the opening section, he says, I myself preached Christ some years. when I had but very little, if any, experimental acquaintance with access to God through Christ. Until the Lord was pleased to visit me with sore affliction, whereby I was brought to the mouth of the grave, and under which my soul was oppressed with horror and darkness. But God graciously relieved my spirit by a powerful application of Psalm 130 verse 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. From whence I received special instruction, peace, and comfort in drawing near to God through the mediator. and preached thereupon immediately after my recovery." If you ever venture to study John Owen's exposition of Psalm 130, it continues for a number of pages. He comments on verses 1 to 2 in 28 pages, verse 3 in 19 pages, verses 5 through 6 in 31 pages, and verses seven through eight in six pages. But he takes 227 pages to consider verse four. But with you there is forgiveness. Therefore you are feared. Verses three and four, verse four in particular could be seen as the heart of this Psalm, Psalm 130, and that would be appropriate because verses 3 and 4 get to the heart of the gospel, the good news in Jesus Christ. Christianity is all about grace. It's all about grace. When we consider the fall and Adam's sin. The fall was a rebellion against grace. Adam despised the gifts of God's goodness and God's covenant. And though we call it the covenant of works, there's a great element of grace in it. Adam didn't deserve to have a covenant made with him. Does a tree deserve special extra treatment for being a tree? Why would a human being deserve blessing for being a human being? But God entered into a covenant with him, promising him life and blessing. was not obliged to enter into a covenant the way he did with Adam. Adam didn't deserve to have a covenant made with him. Not before the fall and certainly not after the fall in a covenant of grace. Man in sin has only one hope in the face of his own depravity. And that hope is the marvel and sufficiency of divine grace. Paul says in Romans 4.16, salvation is by faith that it may be of grace. And the whole Christian life can be seen, can't it, as a response to grace. If you grew up not in the Westminster tradition, but in the Heidelberg tradition. You know that the organizing framework of the Heidelberg Catechism is that well-known three-part framework of guilt, man's sin and misery, grace, and the work of salvation in Jesus Christ, and then how is the whole of the Christian life, in which, interestingly, the Ten Commandments are expounded, they could have been put in the first section on sin and misery, But in the Heidelberg Catechism, they're in the third section. How is the whole Christian life summarized? Guilt, grace, gratitude. Gratitude. We live our lives to say thank you to God for what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. The person who really understands anything understands grace. I've often come back to that piercingly profound question of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4. What do you have that you have not received? Grace means a gift. What do you have that you have not received? That question applies to all of life, but it is particularly appropriate with regard to the gospel. What do we have in the Christian life that we have not received in the grace of God? And we see this emphasis of grace very clearly in Psalm 130. We've already seen the experience of a person in the depths. And we have seen then the response of a person crying out to God in prayer. A person whose only hope is that God would be attentive to that prayer. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry. But what is the cry? What is the nature or the subject matter of the prayer? Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. Mercy. The King James Version there has the word supplications. May not be a word, young people, that you use very often in ordinary life. What are supplications? They are requests made by a suppliant. And that is a person who supplicates. What does that mean? It means to beg humbly. To beg humbly. Someone who supplicates is a person making a humble plea to someone in power or authority. The Hebrew word is tachanun. The Jews call it a falling on the face. Tachanun is part of their ritual prayers. And the root of that word in Hebrew is the word for favor, or grace, or pity, to be merciful. That's the nature of this cry then. It's a cry, as the NIV says, for mercy. And that cry then, that specific cry in prayer, highlights the psalmist's understanding of both himself and of God. He needs grace and mercy. And so he goes to the one who is able to give grace. His only hope is mercy, and so he appeals to the father of mercies. He knows that only God can save him. You know, when we think of the depths, I haven't mentioned it already, but how many of your minds went to the boys, that soccer team, that cave in Thailand? They couldn't save themselves. No hope in themselves. They were utterly dependent on the mercy and the merciful actions then of others to save them from that pit. And so too the psalmist understands that his cry to God must first and foremost be a cry for mercy. You know, when we're in the depths, We can be in the depths in different ways. We can be in the depths like Jonah, where the depths are a direct result of our sin and there's a one-to-one correspondence. Or we can be in the depths like Job, where it's not a direct sin. Job was blameless. And yet he suffered and was brought into the depths. There were other things happening. But whether we are in the depths as a Jonah or a Job, If our thinking is right and biblical, when we're in the depths, the thought must not be, I don't deserve to be here. How can this be happening to me? Where's the complaints department? Someone is going to get a piece of my mind. No. No. It's a cry for mercy. It's a prayer for pity. It's a plea for grace. You have to go to the end of Job, remember, to see that. Though it was not directly a result, his sufferings of his personal sin, yet at the end he repents in dust and ashes. There is a dealing that God yet had to have with Job in terms of his own life and his own sin. Oh Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. Why is that the cry? Why is that the prayer? Well, we need to see, and we do see three things here in verses three and four. We see first the holiness of God. And then we see, wonderfully, the forgiveness of God. And thirdly, the fear of God. flowing out of this prayer, this cry for mercy, the holiness of God, the forgiveness of God, and the fear of God. How do we see the holiness of God? We look at verse 3. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? You know, there are a lot of things that we can think about, especially when we are in the depths. There are lots of things that flood into our minds. But when you are in the depths, when I am in the depths, do our thoughts ever go to this place, to the holiness of God? Or are we consumed by our own situation? Verse three brings us first to the holiness of God. God, if you kept a record, if you noted every commission of sin and every omission of duty, every sinful action and word and thought, what would be the conclusion? If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? Now, of course, that's called a rhetorical question. I often don't think interruptions to preaching are appropriate, but the times when I have asked a rhetorical question in a sermon in our congregation in Russell, and there are small children that don't know what rhetorical means, blurt out an answer. I love it, because they're engaging with the preaching. that preaching by the spirit of God has become dialogical. They don't know it's a rhetorical question. They answer it. It's a wonderful opportunity to see the living word of God at work in his people. This is a rhetorical question. The answer isn't expected. Who knows this? In that sense, because everyone knows the answer. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?" No one. No one. It's so obvious he doesn't need to answer the question in the psalm. But the Bible tells us that a common problem in the world is that people often think God doesn't mark sin. They say, Psalm 94, seven, they say, the Lord does not see the God of Jacob takes no notice or Psalm 10 in verse 11. He says to himself, God will never notice. He covers his face and never sees. God doesn't mark sin, mark iniquity. Bible tells us that's foolish thinking. God does see. He must see. He is omnisciently holy. Stephen Charnock said, it is less an injury to deny God's being than to deny the purity of it. The one to deny God's being makes him no God. But to deny the purity of God, Charnock says, the other deformed, unholy, detestable. The one makes him no God, the other makes him deformed, unholy, and detestable. The Lord kept the record of sin. What would be the verdict? No one could stand. No one could stand before the judgment seat of God and be declared innocent. The verdict could never be not guilty because God is omnisciently holy. You know, if you watched any of the World Cup, anyone? In the very first round, Australia versus Denmark, Matthew Leckie's header met the flailing arm of Youssef Polson. One of the commentators afterwards said, it looked dodgy at the time, but it took VAR to confirm the indiscretion. And as I watched that game, one of the announcers, I always listen to the British announcers and not the American TSN announcers, they're much better. uh, said, uh, we will debate the role of the VAR, but it is, quote unquote, delivering justice. It's the role of the VAR, it delivers justice. Well, imagine a VAR for your life. Imagine a VAR for your life, video assistant referee. A VAR for all of your actions, All of your words, even all of your thoughts. You know, in the World Cup, even the VAR was shown to be very imperfect, subjective, controversial. But God's review of a human being's life is always perfect. And not just to the things that other people can see or hear, but to your very thoughts. to your motives, to secret things. Imagine God looking at your religious life, your life before Him in particular, and your prayer life. God looks at your prayer life. What does He see? He looks at your Bible reading. As we heard earlier, He looks at your coveting. You know, you're at a meal or you're out playing sports, guys, and you see a young lady, she catches your eye. And in here, what does God see? Someone's asked to preach at an international conference. What are the thoughts of the heart? What about the fear of man? Same thing. Same thing. The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure, who can understand it? But I hope you know how that passage continues. In Jeremiah 7, I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? God says in Jeremiah 16, my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. And this knowledge that God has, this comprehensive, intimate knowledge that God has, has profound consequences, personal consequences. Who could stand? No one. Why? Because God is holy. Isaiah 6, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. None of us could stand if I kept my heart pure. I've kept my heart pure. I'm clean and without stain. Proverbs 29 says, who can say that? No one. 1 Kings 8 46, when they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin. Psalm 51, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is personal. It's not just a rhetorical question with the answer, who can stand? No one. I cannot stand. I cannot stand. And this is not just a word that is to be preached exclusively to unbelievers. It's a continuing conviction that ought to be present in the life of a believer. There was a reformation saying in Latin, coined by Luther, simul justus et peccator, at the same time justified and a sinner. But simil justus et peccator is also in this life semper justus et peccator, always a sinner and justified. It was to believers that James says in James 3 to we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man able to keep his whole body in check. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? It's not just something to be preached to an unbeliever. And then, well, we're done with that topic, the topic of the need for mercy. I need mercy every day of my life until glory. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. You know, I think if I were to take a survey here at this conference, I would be very, very surprised to find among this group of Christians, anyone who would believe in the doctrine called perfectionism or entire sanctification. The teaching in various forms and by various means that in this life, a Christian can be free from sin. Raise of hands, anyone believe that? But you know, just like we heard earlier, just like people can be practical atheists, not disbelieving the existence of God, but living as though he didn't exist, so too, Christians can be practical perfectionists. Are you a practical perfectionist in the Christian life? You never find that out simply by asking someone. Because we're all quick to respond to our advantage. Nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect. But are you a practical perfectionist? Are you someone who is always right? Your wife knows that, if it's true of you. And so do your children. And so do the people at work. He's always right. Are you a teenager who just can't be spoken to because you're always right? Is it always someone else's fault? Always someone else's fault. Do you ever confess your sins to others and to God? And of course, we all do, we say prayers of confession. But do you simply rest in the generalities of confession? God, forgive my sins, amen. Or do you repent as our confession reminds us of particular sins particularly? There are many ways that we are really practical perfectionists in the Christian life. If we say we have no sin, we make God a liar and His truth is not in us. That's who we are, who is God. God's holiness requires and results in a perfect hatred of sin. That's why the Bible says the wages of sin is death. physical death, spiritual death, and apart from the mercy of God, eternal death. This is where we're brought before the holiness of God as sinners. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? And this is important because even in the depths, when self-pity can be an easy and at times an almost understandable and forgivable response, This psalm reminds us, even in the depths, what do I deserve? That's a hard thing to say. In one way, it's an easy thing to say from a pulpit. But it's a hard thing to say. And it's a hard thing for some of you to hear this morning. And I can appreciate that. Because you're in the depths through no direct fault of your own. And it would be very easy to understand someone asking the question why. And reasonable. But this psalm you see is a psalm about depths and here we go deeper. And we have to go to this deep question flowing out of verse three, what do I deserve? The depths of providence should remind us of the depths of sin against the holy God. There has only ever been one holy, perfect sufferer in this world. Though I may be relatively blameless as I experience the depths of suffering, there is still sin in my life, that by God's grace He's still dealing with. It's for our good. Winslow says, the subject is solemn and important. The most solemn and important of all subjects right and deep views of sin lie at the root of correct and high views of God. And low thoughts of God inevitably engender low perceptions of sin. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? This is where, under the inspiration as the Holy Spirit is carrying along the writer, and these are the inspired words of God, Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, if you kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? The holiness of God. But it's on the darkest nights, isn't it, that we see the brightest stars. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? I hope we're all answering that question. No one. But more importantly, not me. But if the psalm ended there, just think if the psalm ended there. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? It would be true. Perfectly true. And it would be a reason for every creature to worship God. No one could have any ground of objection if the psalm ended there. But how does verse four begin? I've already given you the answer. But how does verse four begin? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. Into our sin and misery and condemnation comes the wonderful, contrasting conjunction of divine grace, but, but. We see the holiness of God. The psalm then brings us to the forgiveness of God. Psalm 49 says, like sheep, they are destined for the grave and death will feed on them. But God will redeem my life from the grave. He will surely take me to himself. All of us also used to live among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. That's Paul in Ephesians 2. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. Richard Sibbes said, there is mercy and forgiveness to all that cast themselves on his free mercy. It is Satan's subtlety to persuade us at the first that sin is nothing. But when it is committed, then he tells us that it is greater than can be pardoned. Before we sin, he makes little of sin. After we sin, he makes much of sin. No, the gospel is the power of God to salvation to all that believe. Let none despair. It is a greater sin than the former and is to despair of mercy. He pardons a Cornelius, a Zacchaeus, a persecuting Paul. The parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son testified to it, and God offers it freely. Why will you die, O house of Israel? There is no disease above the skill of this physician. He heals all thy diseases and all thy infirmities. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand, but with you there is forgiveness. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. And so we see that the same holy God is also the forgiving God. But again, we need to see how those two realities can come together. How can the holy God be the forgiving God? Did His holiness cease? Was His purity compromised? No, that's the wonder and the wisdom of the gospel, the justice and the mercy of God meeting together in the God-man Jesus Christ. If you would mark iniquities, who could stand? Well, Jesus of Nazareth could stand. He is made like us in every way, yet without sin. Who could stand? Jesus can stand. It's the one exception. to the rhetorical question. God made him who knew no sin, but he made him to be sin. How much does God hate sin? Does the flood tell you? Yes. Does Sodom teach you? Yes. But Winslow, again, let us bend our thoughts to the most significant and appalling demonstration of his holiness, the universe ever beheld, infinitely distancing and transcending every other, the sufferings and death of his only and beloved son. The cross of Calvary exhibits God's hatred and punishment of sin in a way and to an extent which the annihilation of a million worlds swept from the face of the universe by the broom of his wrath could never have done. Go my soul to Calvary and learn how holy God is and what a monstrous thing sin is. and how wholly bound Jehovah is to punish it, either in the person of the sinner or the person of the surety. And yet that cross, the most vivid display and experience of God's wrath against sin was at the very same time the greatest demonstration of the mercy and grace of God toward sinners. This is the gospel. the substitutionary saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. Think of this, young people. Again, I didn't know how old the people would be here and what groups would be taken away. But imagine a book. I look for the biggest book, Adrian, that you had. I think this is the biggest one that I could find, but it's far too small. It's far too small. Imagine a book in which every sin of my life, every commission and omission of sin was written down. Oh Lord, if you kept a record of sins. That's why the book is far too small. But if every one of my sins was listed here in this book, all we like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way. And there it is on me. the record of my sin that the Lord sees. But what does Isaiah 53 say? All we like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way. And the Lord, where's the book of the sin of the Lord Jesus Christ? If there were a book, it would be an empty book, blank pages. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. and he could not stand. We saw strong men, a strong young lady, not able to stand with a few liters of water weighing them down. So Isaiah 53 goes on to say he was crushed for our iniquities. He was crushed for our iniquities. Why that language? Isaiah 53, he was pierced. Yes, okay, we see that. His wounds, I understand that, that happened. But he was crushed. When was Jesus crushed? At the cross. That language is there because we remember the cross was penal substitution. real paying of a penalty by a substitute, a real standing in the place of sinners and paying the penalty of sin. And that meant the Christ was to be crushed by that sin. There's been a debate in the recent past in America over what has been called a botched execution in Oklahoma and it raised the debate of how capital punishment should be imposed, the death penalty, whether by lethal injection or electric chair or firing squad. But I wonder if you know that a common method of execution throughout South and Southeast Asia for over 4,000 years was crushing by elephants. The Romans and the Carthaginians used that method on occasion as well. Later on in the history of Europe, the French had a penalty that they called panforte dure, strong and harsh punishment. was a method of torture used in that law system in which a defendant who refused to plead would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon his or her chest until a plea was entered or as the weight of the stones on the chest became too great for the condemned to breathe, fatal suffocation would occur. Yet he was crushed for our iniquities. It was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And why was he crushed? Because the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. You remember in Daniel, mene mene tekel parson, you've been put in the scales and found wanting. You know, there are religions in the world that go by that way scale kind of religion. You do more good than bad. If your good outweighs your bad, you're okay. Do we believe that? Well, in a way we do. God does have a balance, and we are put in the balance. But what the world doesn't understand is the weight of sin. And the weight of even one sin that would tip that balance irrecoverably against us. Sin is a millstone around your neck. And the weight of the guilt of sin crushed the Savior. And Christ bore the weight, you have to understand, of all the guilt and all the sin of all of his people. One sin is enough to drag you to the depths of hell. And Christ was crushed by the guilt of all of the sin of all of the elect throughout all the world. Sin crushed the Savior. But sin crushes only because God is holy. It is sin against Him. We all have sinned and fallen short of what? The glory of God. It is the glory of God that is the explanation for the sinfulness of sin. The Hebrew word for glory is a word that at its root means heavy and it was the weight of God's glory that crushes sin and that crushed the sin bearer. Jonathan Edwards once said, the glory of God is as much the flames of hell as it is the light of heaven. As Jesus bore our sin in the face of the glory of the Father, He was crushed. But His crushing, you see, and this is the wonderful good news, His crushing was accomplishing His victory and our salvation. Go all the way back to Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head. even as you strike his heel. Jesus crushed the enemy by being crushed. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him later on in Isaiah 53 and to cause him to suffer And though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days. And the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Then we come to a verse like 1 John 1 18 and we rejoice if we claim to be without sin. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness for the sake of Christ. We need to believe that promise. If your sins, one writer said, and guilt appear to you a depth so abysmal that no line could fathom it, remember that God's mercy in Christ Jesus is infinite. That if there are great depths in your sin and unworthiness, There are infinitely greater depths in the sin-forgiving love of God, in the sin-atoning blood and sinner-justifying righteousness of the Redeemer. Where are you this morning in light of these truths? If you, O Lord, would mark iniquity, who could stand? Have you really been brought to the place? Maybe it's been through the providence of depths that God has brought you there. That's not necessary. God can do it. You've never gone through those things, but His Spirit can be at work in you as well and needs to be. He needs to be at work in you to bring you to this place to answer this question. Not me. I can't stand before God. I can't go into eternity thinking that somehow I will be the one that will be able to stand before God. as God brought you in His grace to the place where you have said with the man in the parable, or maybe not the parable, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Not just I know that God is merciful to sinners, not just even God be merciful to me, a sinner, but like the man said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Friends, if you haven't been brought there, there's no point going any further with anything. You need to be brought to that depth of conviction by God's Spirit and by His Word. But then, By God's grace, we have this word of forgiveness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Oh, Lord, if you would mark iniquities, who could stand? But with you, there is forgiveness. And it's a perfect forgiveness and a wonderful forgiveness. J. Gresham Machen of Old Princeton Seminary put it this way, I think I can make the matter plain if I imagine a dialogue between the law of God and a sinful man saved by grace. Man, says the law of God, have you obeyed my commands? No, says the sinner saved by grace. I have disobeyed them, not only in the person of my representative Adam in his first sin, but also in that I myself have sinned in thought and word and deed. Well then, sinner, says the law of God, have you paid the penalty which I pronounced upon disobedience? No, says the sinner. I have not paid the penalty myself, but Christ has paid it for me. He was my representative when he died there on the cross, and hence, so far as the penalty is concerned, I am clear. Well then, sinner, says the law of God, How about the conditions which God has pronounced for the attainment of assured blessedness? Have you stood the test? Have you merited eternal life by perfect obedience during the period of probation? No, says the sinner, I have not merited eternal life by my own perfect obedience. God knows and my conscience knows that even after I became a Christian, I have sinned in thought and word and deed. But although I have not merited eternal life, By any obedience of my own, Christ has merited it for me by his perfect obedience. He was not for himself subject to the law. No obedience was required of him for himself since he was Lord of all. That obedience then which he rendered to the law when he was on the earth was rendered by him as my representative. I have no righteousness of my own. but clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness, imputed to me and received by faith alone, I can glory in the fact that so far as I am concerned, the probation has been kept. And as God is true, there awaits me the glorious reward which Christ thus earned for me. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand. Well, Lord, if you would mark iniquities, who could stand? No one. Christ is crushed so that we can stand in grace and mercy. So in the depths, we should see the holiness of God. We should, by His grace, and we must embrace the forgiveness of God. And we must be led in a new way to, thirdly, the fear of God. And we'll consider that very briefly. But strange, isn't it, after verse three? Fear. If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. It might strike us as strange. With you there is wrath, therefore you are feared. With you there is justice, therefore you are feared. Or we might have expected, with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are thanked, or therefore you are loved. But to think that way is to misunderstand grace and love and fear. We narrowly think of fear as being afraid, in a certain sense. That's not the sense here. I think of my own father. I love my father. He is the softest, hardest man I know. And I fear him, but I'm not afraid of him. I used to do tree work, arborist. I wasn't afraid of chainsaws, but I feared them. Like my father, fearing Him but not being afraid of Him. My father is just a human being. But there is a fear that is appropriate for a creature before the Creator that doesn't apply between people. But gospel fear is more than being utterly humbled in God's presence. It's an all-encompassing word. It just means the right worship of God as He is, the Holy God who graciously forgives sin. With you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. John Stott said this verse contains a beautiful balance because its first part brings assurance to the despairing while the second part sounds a warning to the presumptuous. How easy it is to abuse God's grace when we lose sight of what it cost our Lord to rescue us, said Tim Keller. Instead, knowing how forgiven we are should move us to fear and stand in awe of the Lord so that we live more and more in a way that honors and exalts him. Proper gospel fear reflects the grace of pardon, because that pardon belongs only to God, who forgives sin, but God alone. With you there is forgiveness, therefore you are reverence because God is the only source of mercy and grace and forgiveness. No Pope, no saint can give you forgiveness. And you can't give it to yourself. How often we hear those words, I've forgiven myself. Donald Trump had a much warmer welcome than he did in the United Kingdom. But he said recently, in some of his dealings that he had an absolute right, as the President of the United States, an absolute right to self-pardon. Did you hear that story? Other presidents have granted pardon to others. President Ford granted pardon to Nixon. But no one, no president yet has said, well, that means I have an absolute right to pardon myself, whatever charge may come. Then he said, but I won't use it because I haven't done anything wrong. You know, there's an old Latin saying that I came across years ago, and I'll say it in English. Why do you laugh? Change the name and the story is about you. Self-pardon. If you're not coming to Christ, aren't you engaging in self-pardon? Or we think we can pay the debt in our own suffering. George Bernard Shaw once wrote, forgiveness is a beggar's refuge. We must pay our debts. No, not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite? No. Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. Forgiveness belongs only to God. So he is to be feared and worshiped. And that forgiveness flows purely from the grace that there is in Christ. We have no claim on forgiveness. I mentioned Spurgeon's book where he steals all of Thomas Manton's illustrations. He steals his pictures and puts them in frames of his own and hangs them on the walls of his own sermons. But he also said to defend himself, I do not rob Manton, but bless him by giving him an opportunity of speaking again. Well, let me give Pastor Donnelly another opportunity of speaking this morning. I've always remembered Pastor Donnelly's illustration of cheap grace, unappreciated grace, in the words of the German poet Heinrich Heine, who once said, not in German, but in French, God will forgive me. It's his job. No, it's not just his job. but it is his character. A character of holiness and justice and yet a character of love and forgiveness. Forgiveness hangs on the mercy of God and so God is to be feared. And we are to fear God in how we live our lives. There are many people who live without the fear of God. There is no fear of God before their eyes. No one at the last great day will be in that position. They will call on the mountains and the rocks to fall on them, to hide them from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. That's the fear of judgment. The same word fear is predominantly used in scripture as the proper attitude and posture of the redeemed children of God. It is the holy fruit of forgiveness. With you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. Trusting in Jesus for forgiveness means there is therefore now no condemnation, but there is still a life lived properly before God who made you and who saved you. but of gratitude to Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, fear and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. A holy, filial, loving fear of God is ever the effect of his full and free forgiveness of sin, Octavius Winslow. We have a right and proper fear of offending such a gracious God. The Church of Rome after the Reformation argued that if free forgiveness by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone were preached and believed, People would not fear God but would live wild lives. Not according to Psalm 130 verse four, with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse speech, Proverbs 8, 13. The holiness of God, the forgiveness of God, and the fear of God. With God, with you, O Lord, there is forgiveness. Do we appreciate it? Do we appreciate it? I'm so convicted often by the words of Robert Murray McShane, and we'll close with this. When this passing world is done, when has sunk yon glowing sun, when we stand with Christ in glory, looking o'er life's finished story, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, and love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. Even on earth, as through a glass, darkly let thy glory pass. Make forgiveness feel so sweet. Make thy spirit's help so beat. Even in earth, Lord, make me know something of how much I owe. Let us pray. Lord, by your word and spirit this morning, in your grace and mercy in Jesus Christ, give us a deeper sight and sense of sin. Bring us to a deeper repentance of that sin. But, oh Lord, bring us deeper into the appreciation of the sufficiency of our suffering Savior in his saving work and in his glorious resurrection from the dead for us and for our salvation. Give us a deeper experience of the comfort and consolation there is in the forgiveness that you grant fully and freely to all those looking to Jesus Christ. Excavate my soul, oh Lord, and then fill me with the overflowing love that there is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Love for you. love for one another, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, and forgive us our debts, even as we forgive one another. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together. Do we have time? Sing Psalm 130. Let's stand together and sing once again the words of our conference psalm, Psalm 130. Standing as we sing, and after the singing of the song, we're dismissed. Version B, tune 100. To Thee I cry, my voice, Lord, do Thou hear? Come to my supplications, voice, hear Thine attentive ear. Lord, you shall stand if thou, O Lord, shouldst forgive with me a debt with thee forgiveness is. I pray for all my soul of grace, my hope is in thee. My soul waits for the Lord. I say more than they have to watch. the morning light to see. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him mercy's need. His excellence is ever found within, and from all his iniquities,