Our scripture reading tonight then is Psalm 130. And the text for this sermon is the first three verses. Please pay particular attention then to the first three verses of Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest 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 doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth 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. So far we read God's holy word. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Psalm 130 is clearly a prayer to God. It is quite a powerful prayer. And I wonder if we examine these words, if we can say, yes, I can pray this. I can make this my prayer. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee. Lord, hear my voice. And so on. This is a very powerful cry from a believer. It's a prayer of a believer in deep distress. It's a very urgent cry, a cry out of the depths even, nigh unto despair. These words are not the ordinary prayer that you and I probably raise to God. And if we examine this, we might wonder, well, why is his prayer this way, so deep and so profound? and so different from my prayers ordinarily day by day. And the explanation is that the psalmist is a believer who has taken stock of his own experience, his own life, and he is miserable. He is a wretched and miserable man who considers himself at this point to be under the wrath of God and therefore worthy of death. His response is a cry to God for mercy, a cry for mercy. That of course is exactly our need, mercy. And yet what we fail to do probably is to do what the psalmist does. He has taken stock of his situation. And when we take stock of our situation, we look mostly at our earthly circumstances of life. And we say, well, from a financial point of view, I'm doing okay. It's not as good as I could be, I suppose, but I have food and drink and shelter and I can do the things that I want in life, so from a financial point of view, my life is good. If we look at our family, we say, well, yes, always the family could be better. There are some troubles always, some difficulties in the home, but on a whole, it's not bad. There are problems, but not insurmountable. And if we compare ourselves with many others in the world, people who have had their houses destroyed in the South by tornado and snow dumped on top of that, people who have lost their businesses because of drought earlier, people who have had homes and businesses destroyed by hurricanes through the summer, we say, well, I don't have any of that. And there are people of God who are in Russia and China and North Korea and other countries where they're not able to worship freely at all. And we say, I don't have that either. I have the freedom to worship God. So unless we're experiencing some deep personal tragedy, a particularly difficult time in our life, and some do, most of the time our prayers are not like this. They're not this kind of a cry for mercy. Understand that unless we do what the psalmist does, we will not come to this. And what the psalmist has done is not look at his earthly circumstances, although that may play into this, that may have led him to look at himself, but what he's looking at his own soul. He's looking at his spiritual life and circumstances. That's what we need to do. Unless we do that, we will never come to the point where we can make this our cry. Our prayers can be very superficial. We can pray the same thing over and over with little feeling and with little meaning, with little thought. And even when it comes to a confession of faith, a confession of sin rather, it's easy for us to gloss over our sins. It's easy for us to compare ourselves to the horrible iniquity out there in the world and say, well, I'm not like that. And we can find people in the church who are living in ways that we consider wrong and say, well, I'm not like that. So really from a spiritual point of view, I'm not so bad. I kind of stand out in many ways from a religious and righteous point of view as far as my life is concerned. The psalmist had come to a completely different conclusion about himself and about his spiritual condition. This will be our task, fellow believers, in the week that lies before us to examine ourselves in order that we may be able to see what is our true spiritual condition. We'll read the form later and we will look at that. What is it required of us to look at ourselves and examine ourselves? But that's what we need to do, to examine ourselves in the light of God's Word and understand what is our real spiritual condition. And then we can cry out to God as we need to for mercy. So that self-examination then begins right now as we consider this text under the theme, A Cry from the Depths. A Cry from the Depths. We'll notice in the first place, an anguished cry. Secondly, a humble confession. And finally, an urgent plea. An anguished cry. Children, what does anguish mean? Anguish means that somebody's in misery. that someone is hurting. It's an anguished, hurting cry that the psalmist lifts up here in this text. What is the cry? It is a cry, says verse one, out of the depths, from the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. And that word from the depths usually refers to the depths of the sea. And so he's presenting here a bit of a picture for us as the Hebrew poetry, that's what this is, a Hebrew poetry, often does, presents pictures for us to look at. And you see a man who is almost drowning in the sea. It's a storm-tossed sea, and he is struggling to stay above it, of the top of the waters, and the waves keep coming over top of him and pushing him down under, and he's gasping for air, he's crying out, from the depths. That's the expression that he uses here. It's used that way in Psalm 69. Psalm 69, where the word depths is translated deep waters, deep waters. Listen to Psalm 69, verse two. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. That's a panicky feeling. You have water keep coming up over top of you. That's what he's doing here in Psalm 69, verse 14, he uses the same expression. Deliver me out of the mire, let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deep waters. So while he paints the pictures of being down in the depths and of having waters overflow him, what Psalm 62 says, what's the cause of this is the hatred Wave after wave of hatred that is pressing upon me from my enemies. It can also be a description of God's wrath, of God's wrath. Psalm 69 is that. Psalm 69 is messianic, and it refers, first of all, to Jesus' own suffering. If you read that Psalm very clearly, looking at him as being overwhelmed and overcome with the waves of God's wrath. But Jonah used it that way, too. In Jonah chapter 2, when Jonah is in the belly of the fish, and he cries out in chapter 2 that God, in chapter 2 verse 2, in the midst of the seas, and thy floods compassed me about. All thy billows and waves passed over me. The waters, he said, it compassed me about, even into the soul. The depths closed round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom of the mountains. He was down in the depths. Now that's the sense of the psalmist's cry here. in Psalm 130. He is in deep waters. God's wrath is a burning hatred of sin. It is God's holiness that comes into contact with sin, and God's holiness breaks out against sin in fury. He hates it. He cannot abide with it. That's what the psalmist is experiencing. He finds himself in the depths, where the wrath of God is infinite. The wrath of God has no limits. The wrath of God is the one who is everywhere present, and His wrath follows a man wherever he goes. It's overwhelming. We do not know exactly what the circumstances are of the psalmist, why he finds himself in the depths. Were there troubles? Were there enemies that were pursuing him with the sword? Was there perhaps, as there was sometimes in David's family, within his own family that his sons were pursuing him, seeking his life, seeking the throne? Was it perhaps the death of someone very close to him that was very precious? Was it severe depression? Was it perhaps that he himself was facing the reality of his own death? We do not know. But overwhelmed by it all, He is convinced of his own sin and of his own sinfulness. He understands that this is in connection with the troubles that he has in his life. He understands that. Because the reality is, all afflictions in life are the result of sin. There would be no troubles, there would be no pain and suffering in our life if there was no sin. Before Adam sinned, he had no pain, he had no sorrows. But the curse of God upon this creation brought death, and it brought all of the horrible afflictions that people experience in their lives. Sin and affliction go together. Now understand, and let's be clear about this, that it's not a one-to-one correspondence, as if a man sins and then God immediately visits upon him an affliction that is totally in harmony with that sin. That's not the way God deals with people in this life, that we can automatically find a direct correspondence. Nor is it that when a person is suddenly in great affliction that he must conclude, I must have committed some terrible sin. That's the reason why I have this trouble, this sorrow in my life, because I'm a terrible sinner worse than anybody else. And that's why the Lord is visiting this upon me. It is so, of course, that God can chastise for a particular sin. There's no question that God can and that God does. But God is a perfect Father and He doesn't leave us guessing. And if there is a particular sin that He's pinpointing, He will make it very clear to us. This affliction that you have is so obviously tied to the sin that I'm angry about, that you can't miss the connection. You'll be able to see it. You'll be able to see it because your drunkenness has destroyed your health. You can see the connection. You can see the connection of a person who commits all sorts of sexual sins and now has all sorts of diseases in his body. The connection cannot be mistaken. God will make sure that you get the connection if the chastisement is for a particular sin. But the reality is that God does visit afflictions upon us. And those afflictions aren't nearly what we deserve for our sins. It's not a one-to-one. God said that to Israel long ago in Jeremiah 30, verse 15. God said, "'Why criest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity. Because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.'" There is a chastisement that God visits upon His people. for their sin. Even if it is not a particular sin for which God is now afflicting a person, the reality is, because we understand the connection between affliction and sin generally, when a person is greatly afflicted, he begins to look at himself. He begins to look at himself from a spiritual point of view and say, what is my life like? Am I living the way I ought to live? Am I living unto God, or am I immersed in this world and in sin? It makes us conscious of our sins, affliction does, and of our depravity. And so the psalmist, from the depths of his affliction, whatever that affliction may be, and it's all right that we don't know that because we can all use this, we can all take it upon ourselves. In the depths of his affliction, he has appraised his own spiritual condition and he sees he is a wretched sinner. He is a sinner. He is vile and empty and worthless in himself. He is born in sin. He continues daily in his iniquity. And the sins have separated him from his God. He is not experiencing the favor of God. His sins have blocked that experience of God's favor upon him. And so he cries out, recognizing his true spiritual condition and the terribleness of his sins. He cries out from the depths, asking God for mercy. Who is this? Who makes this kind of a cry, asking for God's mercy? Well, first of all, it is not the ungodly. The ungodly unbeliever does not make this his cry. Though they are in the depths, though the wrath of God is upon them without any question, The curse of God follows them into their house. And the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. And every evil thing that happens to them in their life is, in fact, a judgment of God on them. It is. That's His wrath upon them. Unceasing is that wrath of God upon the unbeliever. But they will not cry to God. They will not confess anything to Him. They hate God with all their being. They refuse to acknowledge there is a God. They refuse to accept that the afflictions of this life are any kind of a righteous judgment upon them. They reject the idea. They will not make this cry to God. It is not either the cry of the impenitent believer The believer who is refusing to acknowledge his sin and confess them, he walks in his sins. He too is in the depths. He has forsaken God's law. He has returned to the old ways of sin. He is now in the shackles of sin. He's willingly given himself back to the iniquity of his own flesh. He is hardened against God and against His Word. God's chastising hand is heavy upon him and his sins very definitely have cut him off from the favor of God, but he refuses as long as he is impenitent to cry out unto God with this cry. It is not the cry either of the self-righteous church member. the self-righteous Israelite, the one who trusts in himself that he is quite good enough, that he in fact keeps the law and goes beyond the demands of the law and does more than God even requires in his commandments. He is in the depths. He has no assurance of salvation. God never gives him assurance of salvation. He may convince himself that he's good enough to go to heaven, But he doesn't have any kind of real assurance that that's where he's going. God's hand pushes him away. But he will not cry this, because this would admit that he isn't perfect. This would admit that he hasn't earned his way, that his ways are not good enough for him to get into heaven. He would never cry out and admit, I cry out unto thee from the depths. So it's not the ungodly, it's not an impenitent believer, it's not the self-righteous individual. No, this is a cry of a repentant believer, a believer who is sorry for his sins. It's evident from the fact that in his deepest woes, he calls upon God. His God. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. He's in the depths, but he doesn't rely on himself. He's in great trouble, but he doesn't ask other people to help him. There's not going to be any help there. There's only one source of help. He understands that. He will cry out unto the Lord. This is a repentant believer who has seen his own sins and recognized the dreadfulness of his sins. That these are an offense not merely where I have hurt this person or hurt that person, which is evil enough, but that I have transgressed against God, that I have offended against God, as we sang earlier today, that we have sinned against grace. The grace of God that has delivered us from sin, that has brought us into fellowship with God, we have sinned against God's grace by our iniquity, far worse than the most ungodly man in the world that a believer sins against God's grace. He recognizes that. He is grieved. But as a repentant believer, he is also convinced from experience and from the Word of God, by faith, there is forgiveness. There is forgiveness with God. He would not dare to go before God and confess his sins if he did not believe, believe, by faith believe, there is forgiveness with God. So he cries to God for help, for deliverance. Second part of verse two, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. The word supplications there must be understood as a request for mercy. That's what the word means. Hear my voice, the voice of my request, my cries for mercy. He's asking God for mercy. Mercy, which is pity. Mercy, which is God's attribute, where He looks at His people in their suffering and He is moved by the suffering. That's what the psalmist is asking for. Lord, be moved by my suffering. Don't stand aloof from me, but reach down and lift me up out of it. Pity and kindness. That's the mercy of our God. This is the cry of the psalmist. Now, if you stop to think about it, as we ought. These are not only the cry of a repentant believer, as I said, but this is also the cry of Jesus Christ. Listen and think about Jesus on the cross. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Out of the depths, the depths of hell. In the pit of hell, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Out of the depths have I cried. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications, my cries for mercy, for pity, for being lifted up. Jesus went there. He went to the depths, the pit of hell, because of the sins of His people. He was buried under the mountains of God's wrath, infinite wrath. God, as it were, cast Him away. And the waves of God's eternal wrath rolled over Him, wave after wave after wave, as a drowning man in the midst of a storm tossed sea. There is Christ. being buffeted by the waves of God's eternal wrath. Jesus could say this, I cried, I cried for deliverance. I cried for evidence of favor. As I am enduring the wrath of God, can I not have some measure of the favor of God yet shown to me so that I know that I am not forsaken, that God is pleased with me? Have mercy, O God. Christ, this is true of Him in the ultimate sense. The believer has some experience of this, but ultimately it is Jesus Christ who has the full reality. So the believer then makes this his cry as he has Christ within him, as he has connection to Jesus Christ. We can make this cry with Him, out of the depths. Have I cried unto thee? But it's more than a plea for mercy. It's a confession. It's a confession of sin. The psalmist acknowledges his guilt in verse 3. Oh, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? The word iniquity is a common word in the Old Testament for sin, for iniquity. It means to bend or to make something crooked. And then it has the idea of being crooked or being perverse, where the law of God is always straight. Now, the psalmist says, but I am crooked. I am perverse. I am bent, not straight, according to thy commandments. The Scripture describes dreadful sins using this word. It describes, for example, the Canaanites' idolatry and their immorality that God warned Israel about, don't follow the iniquities of the Canaanites. It describes the horrible sins of Eli's sons, his wicked sons perverting the priesthood And God said, I will cut you off in your generations because of the iniquities of your sons. It is a word used in the Bible to describe David numbering the people, a numbering of the people which caused tens of thousands of Israelites to be struck dead as a chastisement. That's the word that the psalmist uses here. He's not minimizing his sins by any means when he uses this word, if thou shouldest mark iniquities. He is not making light of his sins. He's not saying, well, I've made some bad choices in my life and the bad choices have gotten me into all kinds of trouble here. No, he speaks of iniquity, of crookedness, of perverseness. He's confessing his own sins. I am evil, born in sin. I am guilty before God. I deserve His wrath. I deserve His condemnation, His judgment upon me. I deserve indeed to be cast away. This is a holy God. He knows God is holy. And he knows that this God cannot abide with iniquity. He hates it with all his being. He hates sin. God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, and he brings judgment upon sin. This also, take note, he views his iniquities in light of God's righteous judgment. He doesn't compare himself to other people. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who then should stand? God is the righteous judge. He measures his sins against God's righteousness, not the lives of other people. If thou shouldest mark our iniquity, to mark is to keep track of. to watch, to observe, to hold on to it. It means if God would be rigid in His judgment and visit every sin with the judgment that it deserved, if God would do that, then He would send punishments according to that sin. The psalmist says, than who of anyone who ever appeared before God could stand? And you notice he doesn't answer that question. He lets it hang there. Who could stand? The answer is obvious. If God would hold on to, if God would keep track of all the sins that were committed No one would stand. No one could stand before God's judgment. All would be cast away. All would be destroyed by God's righteous judgment. It is obvious, isn't it, that the psalmist does not in any way trust in himself. His righteousness will not cover anything. Yes, I've sinned, but look at the good I've done. He doesn't go in any way in that direction. God knows all. And He doesn't present Himself or His activity in any way as a kind of justification for anything that He's done or a part of His righteousness. But that does raise the question, doesn't it? When the psalmist puts it this way, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, doesn't God? Does not God? keep track of, iniquity. God knows everything. Nothing is hidden from Him, not the deepest thoughts of the heart. God cannot simply ignore sin. He doesn't let it slip away and say, I forgot what you did yesterday. In the day of judgment, every man will be judged. It says, the books will be opened. And Jesus said that men will be judged. Every idle word that they said will be judged. There is a judgment according to works. Their judgment will be. It will be a judgment on their works. And yet the psalmist is confident that God will not mark our iniquities. What does that mean? If thou shouldest. In other words, Lord, you don't. If you should, if you would do that, no one could stand in your presence, so you don't. What does that mean? That God doesn't mark our iniquities. It doesn't mean that they disappear again. They're all there. There will be a judgment day when the works of men will be set before them. What this means in the first place, that God does not indeed mark our iniquities, is that in our day-to-day living, God does not deal with us in such a way that He immediately pays us for the sins that we commit. That He immediately visits the judgment upon us for the sin that we commit. Now He does chastise. And he does chastise in a general way because we are sinful people who need to be taken away from sin and drawn back to him. But the chastisement is never something that is equivalent to what the sin deserves. It is not a killing wrath. It is not God taking the sinner and casting him away. God does not do that. He doesn't mark our iniquities. He doesn't deal with us exactly as we deserve. When we think about that, perhaps we should hang our heads a bit because when we do have affliction in our life, it's so easy for us to think, man, this is a heavy burden. Why am I being visited with this heavy trouble? Other people don't seem to have it. Why do I have so many afflictions in my life? Then we realize whatever God is giving us is so small in comparison to what we deserve. We don't deserve any good days in our life. We don't deserve to have any joy in our life. We deserve only wrath. So if God touches us with his little finger and chastises us, we must not complain. and think that God is being too hard upon us. You understand, even the wicked do not have God dealing with them this way. God does not visit their judgment, their full judgment upon them every day. We call that forbearance, not common grace. Not that God has favor on them, but that God has forbearance that He does not bring the full judgment upon them. He holds back. He forbears. He doesn't bring His complete wrath upon them for their sins. They will have that, of course. They will have it in hell. They will have it eternally. The wrath of God will not be held back then. But in this life, God forbears. So that in the first place, that God does not mark our iniquities in the sense He doesn't deal with us as we really deserve in our day-to-day life. He's much more gracious to us than we deserve. But secondly, that God does not mark our iniquities, most importantly is this, that God will never do that. He will never deal with us as we deserve. He holds back on us because He is a long-suffering God. Long-suffering with us. He never deals with us as we deserve with a punishing wrath. Death. That's what sin deserves. Even the smallest sin deserves eternal wrath. God never deals with His people that way. With a wrath that is seeking to destroy. With a wrath that is a killing wrath. He never does. Now the psalmist knew this. And he knew this because he lived in the Old Testament when God had promised the seed of the woman. He had promised the Savior. And God reminded them day after day when He would say to the people, you have sinned, take an offering to the altar and that offering will be burned in your place. symbolizing the terrible wrath of God that you deserved, your guilt is put upon that animal. You put your hand on his head, your guilt is transferred to him, and he dies. He dies. The psalmist was looking ahead in faith to the promise of the Messiah, whoever that would be, however this would happen, that his guilt, the psalmist's guilt, would be put upon the promised Savior. The book of Romans explains that. Romans 3 speaks of God not judging the Old Testament saints as they deserved, waiting for the coming of Jesus. Listen, Romans chapter 3, beginning at verse 24, it speaks of the fact that we are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. So that's our hope. That has been accomplished. But then he says, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the And now it says remission, but literally for the past over sins. To declare his righteousness for the past over sins, the sins of the Old Testament. Through the forbearance of God, he didn't visit the wrath of God upon them, even though their sins were not yet paid for. They would not be paid for until Jesus came. That's when the sins would be taken away. But God held back. He did not punish them as they deserve because he knew Jesus was coming and Jesus would pay for their sins. To declare in verse 26, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be the just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. He let their sins go, so to speak. When they died, they went to heaven, even though their sins were not yet paid for, because he would wait until Jesus paid for their sins, and then he would be able to say, you see, I have justified you in the blood of my Son. We of course can look back at that the psalmist looked ahead not knowing exactly how it would come about but believing That his sins would not be imputed to him. They would not be marked. They would not be held on his account But would be put on the account of Jesus That's why he can confess his sins with confidence God does not mark our iniquities. He does not hold them against us. If He did, who could stand? Not one of us. It's a confession of sin. It is also an urgent plea. An urgent plea. That is urgent is evident from the fact that He keeps repeating the name of God. O Lord, capital letters, so O Jehovah, verse one. Verse two, Lord, hear my voice. Verse three, if thou, Lord, capital letters, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? There's an urgency in his cry to the Lord. And then he says, be attentive, no out of the depths have I. I didn't merely speak, I'm crying, I'm shouting, I'm calling as loudly as I can out of the depths. And that he asks God, hear my voice and let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. The situation is grievous. near the end of his rope, so to speak. His situation is desperate. If God does not help him, everything is lost. This is his only hope. What does he want? What is his urgent plea? He wants salvation. He wants deliverance. He wants deliverance from whatever trials and troubles are pressing upon him in this life. But far more important is the deliverance from the guilt of sin. He needs assurance that he's forgiven. He needs assurance that God is not against him in his troubles. as a little child who is disciplined severely because of some terrible sin that he has committed, disciplined by his father, then wants to come back to his father and find that there is, in fact, forgiveness there, that his father does not hate him, that his father is not against him, but that his father loves him, so does the psalmist say, yes, I'm being chastened, I know that, but I need to know the favor of my God. There is nothing more important to a believer than that. That's his urgent plea. Is there any hope that he will receive it? There certainly is. And again, it's not in the psalmist. He's not making any kind of justification on himself that this is the reason why you ought to hear me because of what I've done. But it's in God. It's in his names. It's in the name, Lord, that he uses twice here, and we had that this morning. What does that mean? The Lord, the Lord my Redeemer, the Lord who owns me, the Lord who is the one who takes care of me. Lord, he says twice. He has hope in Him and Jehovah. The I am that I am, the changeless God, The God whose promises never fail, the God who does not change and therefore he says, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed because I do not change. The God who says I love you and can never say I don't love you any longer. It is to that God, to that Jehovah twice he cries out with this plea. That's his hope. The hope is in the Savior, the Messiah. He cries out from the depths for redemption from sin, for salvation from His enemies. Again, He looked ahead, not knowing exactly how this salvation would come, but believing it. We're privileged to live in the New Testament age and we can look back and see the cross and see the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. How He entered into our flesh, that He took our guilt and our punishment upon Him, that He drank the cup of God's wrath and finished it out of the depths, down into the depths. He went, because of our guilt, because of our punishment that we deserved. That's why there is forgiveness. That's the next verse, verse four, but there is forgiveness, which the Lord willing we'll consider next week. There is forgiveness. We need to have that confidence too. As we begin to examine ourselves and we begin to uncover sin, sinful motives, sinful thoughts, evil words, activities that have no bearing, should never be found in the life of a child of God. We need to examine ourselves. Not covering, not ignoring, not making light of, recognizing we are full of iniquity. And if we do that, we will see our spiritual condition. But if we have the confidence of salvation in Jesus Christ, we will not try to cover those sins. We want to be freed from them. We want to have them exposed out to the light of God's Word so that we can confess them before God and confess them with a confidence there is forgiveness. If God would mark all those iniquities that we will see in our lives this week, we could not stand, we could not come to the table of the Lord. But then by God's grace, we will cry out for mercy, and we'll come to the table of the Lord with a song of praise, thanksgiving to God, because Jesus has delivered us, because He did go to the depths, and because there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. That's our confidence. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the certainty of salvation in Jesus Christ. We who are sinners bring our thanks and pray, Lord, that Thou will expose our sinfulness so that we turn away, confessing our sins honestly, openly before Thee, confessing our sins to each other when necessary. but always confident of Thy infinite mercy, revealed in Jesus Christ. In His name we ask this. Amen. We turn now to the form for the administration of the Lord's Supper found in the back of the Psalter to read the first part of self-examination. Found on page 91. The second column, the true examination of ourselves, consists of these three parts. First, that everyone consider by himself his sins and the curse due to him for them. To the end, that he may abhor and humble himself before God, considering that the wrath of God against sin is so great that rather than it should go unpunished, he hath punished the same in his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. with the bitter and shameful death of the cross. Secondly, that everyone examine his own heart, whether he doth believe this faithful promise of God, that all his sins are forgiven him only for the sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and that the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed and freely given him as his own. yea, so perfectly as if he had satisfied in his own person for all his sins and fulfilled all righteousness. Thirdly, that everyone examine his own conscience, whether he purposeth henceforth to show true thankfulness to God in his whole life, and to walk uprightly before him, as also whether he hath laid aside, unfeignedly, all enmity, hatred, and envy, and doth firmly resolve henceforward to walk in true love and peace with his neighbor. All those, then, who are thus disposed, God will certainly receive in mercy, and count them worthy partakers of the table of his Son, Jesus Christ. On the contrary, those who do not feel this testimony in their hearts eat and drink judgment to themselves. Therefore, we also, according to the command of Christ and the Apostle Paul, admonish all those who are defiled with the following sins to keep themselves from the table of the Lord and declare to them that they have no part in the kingdom of Christ, such as all idolaters. All those who invoke deceased saints, angels, or other creatures. All those who worship images. All enchanters, diviners, charmers, and those who confide in such enchantments. All despisers of God and of his word, and of the holy sacraments. All blasphemers. All those who are given to raise discord, sex, and mutiny in church or state. all perjured persons, all those who are disobedient to their parents and superiors, all murderers, contentious persons, and those who live in hatred and envy against their neighbors, all adulterers, whoremongers, drunkards, thieves, usurers, robbers, gamesters, covetous, and all who lead offensive lives. All these, while they continue in such sins, shall abstain from this meat which Christ hath ordained only for the faithful, lest their judgment and condemnation be made the heavier. But this is not designed, dearly beloved, brethren and sisters in the Lord, to deject the contrite hearts of the faithful, as if none might come to the supper of the Lord but those who are without sin. For we do not come to this supper to testify thereby that we are perfect and righteous in ourselves. But on the contrary, considering that we seek our life out of ourselves in Jesus Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of death. Therefore, notwithstanding, we feel many infirmities and miseries in ourselves, as namely, that we have not perfect faith. and that we do not give ourselves to serve God with that zeal as we are bound, but have daily to strive with the weakness of our faith and the evil lusts of our flesh. Yet, since we are, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, sorry for these weaknesses and earnestly desirous to fight against our unbelief and to live according to all the commandments of God, Therefore we rest assured that no sin or infirmity which still remaineth against our will in us can hinder us from being received of God in mercy and from being made worthy partakers of this heavenly meat and drink. So far we read the form. We're saying Psalter number 310, 310. I love the Lord. For my request and humble plea, He makes His care. In Him, through life, my faith shall rest. For He both hears and answers prayer. He's saying the first five stanzas, 1 through 5, of 310. Come. shall rest for he who lives again. ♪ The pacts of holy Christ ♪ ♪ Most high and righteous is the Lord ♪ ♪ Our God is merciful indeed ♪ ♪ Delighting ever to the fore ♪ ♪ It's come to be ♪ Return unto thy rest, my soul, the Lord at which we dealt with thee. Deliver me from past control, from sin and sorrow set me free. With him I walk, with him I pray. Praise ye the Lord, ye hosts above, in ever happy light. And bless the Lord, ye saints below, By all his creatures let his name be honored in the Lord. Let all that breathe in praise unite to glorify The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.