Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/cbc/sermons/18246/wait-for-the-lord/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Please take your Bibles and go to the book of Psalms. Threw you off there.

[0:10] You thought it was Matthew, huh? Psalm 130. Psalm 130. If you're visiting with us, need a Bible there in the chair in front of you, pull out that black Bible, probably about the middle.

[0:25] Find page 450. 450, you'll find Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Periodically, I do a passage that focuses us on Lord's Supper.

[0:45] Not all the time, here and there. I wanted to do that this time. I did not want to start Matthew 13 and then leave for vacation, so I wanted to have Lord's Supper message and we'll finish chapter 12 next week and then when we return, we'll start into Matthew chapter 13, which I thought was rather good timing.

[1:06] Psalm 130, since we are focusing on I Will Wait For You, that new song that we put into our repertoire, I thought I'll just preach on Psalm 130. So Psalm 130, again page 450 in that black Bible.

[1:19] Psalm 130, I'll read and we'll dive in. Out of the depths I've cried to you, O Yahweh. Adonai, hear my voice.

[1:34] Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you, Yah, should mark iniquities, O Adonai, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

[1:48] I wait for Yahweh. My soul does wait, and upon His word do I hope. My soul waits for Adonai.

[1:59] More than the watchman for the morning, the watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in Yahweh. For with Yahweh there is steadfast, faithful covenant-keeping love, and with Him is great redemption.

[2:13] And He will redeem Israel from all His iniquities. John Wesley was ordained into the ministry in 1728.

[2:31] But he wasn't even a Christian. Wesley was not personally converted to Christ until 10 years later. Believe it or not, in 1738.

[2:48] He labored as an evangelist and a missionary, yet he did not know the Lord Jesus Christ. May 24th, 1738, he attended St. Paul's Cathedral in London where he heard Psalm 130 sung as an anthem.

[3:16] What caught his attention was verse 3. If you, Yahweh, should mark iniquities, O Adonai, who could stand?

[3:29] How could he find acceptance with God who kept perfect record of his many sins? Somebody asked himself. And it was later that night where Wesley became a Christian.

[3:45] Her hope is in Christ. As we will see from this psalm, it's very clear. The theme of the psalm is wait for the Lord.

[3:57] Psalm 130, wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. Or to put it in a longer format, a statement, wait for the Lord.

[4:10] Despite the despair of our sin, we must wait upon Yahweh Adonai. Yahweh is God's name. It was mentioned in Exodus chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5 with Moses.

[4:23] Adonai is the Hebrew word for Lord. So when you see Lord, in the Old Testament, capital L, little O, little R, little D, it's most likely, almost all the time, is it translated from the Hebrew, Adonai, which means Lord or Master.

[4:42] So despite the despair of our sin, we must wait upon Yahweh Adonai. Yahweh Adonai. Or a longer statement for you.

[4:53] Though God should judge me, us, by His righteous justice, He extends great, amazing forgiveness towards me, toward us.

[5:09] All my trust, hope, and confidence is found in Yahweh alone, who loves me and redeemed me, so that I now belong to Him as His own.

[5:23] That's a great way to sum up this psalm. It's the perfect psalm to encourage us when our sin is overwhelming us, when we feel so overwhelmed and consumed by our sin.

[5:39] this psalm condemns sinners and yet it also expresses God's open and free mercy and grace to them along with His desire to redeem them.

[5:55] That's what you see in this psalm. You see that Yahweh Adonai is not only the righteous, just God, and He is, but also the compassionate, loving, gracious, forgiving God.

[6:14] And, the only way God can forgive is by the substitutionary death of Christ. That's the only way He can do this.

[6:26] The only way God can forgive is by the substitutionary death of Christ. Jesus Christ inaugurated the new covenants. By His blood, His sacrifice for sinners on the cross, on behalf of them.

[6:43] It's the only way God can forgive. So let's work through the psalm. I'll give you different points, three main points. First, wait for the Lord amid our deep hopelessness.

[6:59] Notice verses one through three, the hopelessness that the psalmist faces. verse one, out of the depths I've cried to you, O Yahweh.

[7:13] What has happened? He's sunk into the deep waters of despair. Do you know someone who's felt that? Maybe you've experienced that.

[7:24] The deep waters of guilt. it overwhelms you like a tidal wave. You ever gotten caught inside a wave?

[7:35] It's just turning you over and over again and you've, and people try to struggle and try to get out of it. The best thing to do is do nothing. Let it take you. But that's what it feels like.

[7:48] Out of the depths, deep under, despondency had come to him because of his own personal sin. Guilt had overwhelmed him like a tidal wave.

[8:00] Our personal sin can send us into utter despair, misery, and hopelessness. Like a huge weight.

[8:13] Which is why he says, I've cried out to you. Verse 2, Adonai, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

[8:29] He's passionately praying for Yahweh Adonai to turn his ears toward him with great strained attention.

[8:42] An urgent plea for help. to cry out with such urgency. It meant total desperation. True, real repentance displays itself in total brokenness over our sin.

[9:03] So that all we can do is bank our hope on God's compassion else we would be cut off, separated, estranged, removed.

[9:14] That's how desperate he is, the psalmist. That's how much despair has overwhelmed him. Hopelessness has taken over.

[9:29] And notice he gives the reason why. Verse 3, If you shortened, here in the Hebrew, Yah, which is Yahweh, if you, Yahweh, should mark iniquities, O Adonai, who could stand?

[9:44] Why does he feel the weights, the hopelessness, the despair of his sin? Because if God marked out our iniquities, how can we stand before him?

[10:01] You sang that twice. I did that on purpose. Have mercy on me. I will wait for you. They kind of go together. I'm not as dumb as I look. How can anyone stand before God?

[10:14] Think about it. God is not arbitrary. He cannot arbitrarily just go, oh, okay, I forgive you. He can't do that.

[10:26] You realize that, right? He will cease to be just. the inevitable result is our destruction. Who can stand before the perfect, pure, flawless, exact, punitive justice of God?

[10:47] He's totally righteous. God's righteous character exposes our sin as sinners and then condemns us.

[11:00] And if that's the case, what hope do we have to stand? God's holiness is so daunting it puts us to utter shame.

[11:18] He is so much not like us in everything. His justice, His righteousness, His judgments, His truth. Now, it's so much part of our culture are bent to think of God to be like us.

[11:37] We bring Him down to our level. Uh-uh. That ain't how it works. We're made in His image. God's not like us.

[11:49] God is holy. Otherness, Godness, He's separate. That's what holiness means.

[12:03] So when it comes to having access to God, even the quote unquote good people have no access to God.

[12:14] No one can stand before God. no one has access to God apart from the person and work of Himself in His eternal Son.

[12:28] Because notice what happens. Wait for the Lord amid the great hopelessness and then second, wait for the Lord because of His gracious forgiveness. Verse 4, but the huge contrast here, there is forgiveness with you.

[12:44] this is good news. This is really good news. God is both totally just and totally forgiving.

[12:58] Only God can forgive sin. Only God can forgive sin. Only God can wipe out sin. Only God can do it. People cannot do that for you. Your neighbor can't do that for you.

[13:09] You can't do that for yourself. Only God can act. God is both just and gracious.

[13:22] He is both righteous and kind. He bestows His unmerited, undeserved grace and mercy to hell-bounded, justice-deserving sinners.

[13:35] But then the questions that come to our minds is how? How does He do it? How? I mean, if God's law is broken, there must be consequences.

[13:51] A burglar just can't go scot-free. A rapist can't just go scot-free. A liar cannot just go scot-free. If God would do this, He would not be truthfully just and righteous.

[14:06] He would not be true to His character. God will give us this is the great question with which the Old Testament leaves us. I mean, you have the sacrifices, but the sacrifice kept going over and over and over and over and over and over again.

[14:21] sin. How can God be just but also justify sinners forgiving and reconciling them to Him?

[14:33] How? He does this in the person and work of His eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God Himself and the Son gave Himself as a sacrifice in our place.

[14:48] That's how. the Old Testament believer looked forward to Messiah coming. Us here in the New Testament, we look back to what Messiah has done.

[15:02] We wait for the Lord because of His gracious forgiveness. We wait for the Lord amid our hopelessness. We wait for the Lord because of His gracious forgiveness and we wait for the Lord having great hopefulness.

[15:17] Now there's hope. verses 5 through 7. Notice verse 5. I wait for the Lord for Yahweh my soul does wait and upon His word do I hope.

[15:30] Now I want to stop here. The word wait. Many times in the Psalms, not all the time. Most times in the Psalms wait means to trust or hope.

[15:42] It doesn't mean you just stand there doing nothing. Waiting. That's what we think of waiting. I'm just waiting. Doing nothing. Okay now I start doing something. That's not most of the time, not all the time, that's not what that means most of the time in the Psalms.

[15:59] Psalms to wait means to hope, to trust. Because God has pardoned and forgiven, the psalmist will trust and put his hope in him alone.

[16:12] Look at the next part where he says here at the end of verse 5, and upon his word do I hope. Hope is parallel to the word waits. I wait for the Lord and his word do I hope.

[16:24] To hope is to wait, to wait is to hope. To hope is to trust, to trust is to wait, to wait is to hope. They're together, different words, ways to define these words.

[16:34] So, to wait is to hope. We do not need to despair but to put our hope in Yahweh, to put our hope in his word of salvation.

[16:48] Psalm 119 verse 81, David says, my soul languishes for your salvation. I wait for your word. God's word is his salvation.

[16:59] Salvation is found in his word. God always keeps his promises, friends. God always keeps his promises so his word calms our unrest.

[17:15] We have hope. We wait upon him. Notice verse 6 back to Psalm 130. My soul waits for Adonai more than the watchman for the morning, the watchman for the morning.

[17:32] Watchmen, we're not simply there at the wall, just kind of waiting, doing nothing. If you're a watchman and you were doing nothing, you would probably be put to death or something else would happen to you, be put in a jail or something like that.

[17:46] That wouldn't happen. If you were a watchman, you're looking. Why? Back in those days, they had walls, right, over the cities.

[17:59] So you would fear the worst of fears, the fear of all fears, was an attack at night. So they had watchmen guarding and they were attentive and what were they waiting for, trusting in, hoping in?

[18:22] Oh, there's that sun, it's rising. Why? Why? Because you can't see. But once that sun starts coming up, now you can see, now you can see the enemy, right?

[18:36] I mean, who wants to be in a war, in a battle when you can't see the enemy, man? You don't want that. So that watchman, he's waiting for the morning.

[18:47] I'm trusting, I know that sun's coming up, man. It's coming. Here he comes. Here he comes. Oh, they didn't have any watches that day. They looked at their cell phone. Here it comes.

[18:59] There wasn't a lot of cell phones in that day either, never mind. Here it comes. Wait for that morning. That's the type of waiting. That's the type of trusting.

[19:10] That's the type of hope that we have. Even more than the watchman for the morning. Even more than the watchman for the morning.

[19:22] They were trusting in the fact, that the sun would indeed rise. They trusted, waiting expectantly for it. Well, like darkness, sin overwhelms us, but we trust in God and the sunlight of his forgiving compassion to deal with our sin.

[19:44] And notice what he does here. He embraces this personally, but now he goes corporate. Now he's like, okay, we all got to do this together.

[19:57] Verse seven. Oh, Israel, hope in Yahweh. The call to trust or hope in Yahweh, they should wait for hope in the Lord because they have the same need.

[20:14] Forgiveness. Friends, you have the same need. We all have that need. Every single human being in this world that lives right now has this need.

[20:25] What's the need? You need God to forgive you. You need God to forgive you. That's why he goes corporate here, man. He says, come, Israel, put your hope in the Lord because he had personal forgiveness.

[20:43] forgiveness. He calls the people to receive it themselves. And notice what he does here. We'll look at the next part of verse seven and verse eight in just a moment but notice when he talks about our hopeful waiting, what does it result in our hopeful waiting?

[20:59] It results in loving fear. When we're hopefully waiting, when we're waiting for the Lord, one of the results it brings, there's many results but here's one of them from the text, verse four, loving fear.

[21:11] Back to verse four, there is forgiveness with you in order that you may be feared. God forgives for his own sake or in other words, say he may be feared or revered.

[21:31] What is the result, a result, of true, real forgiveness in our lives? what happens? A holy, reverential, loving fear of God.

[21:48] When God forgives, it drives us to loving fear and awe. We can't get enough of him. That's why there in the song it says, till my soul is satisfied, they get that from here.

[22:07] Because when it talks about fearing God, it's not a fear of terror, it's the fear of such satisfaction and awe that God would forgive me and you have such satisfaction, my soul is satisfied because I'm forgiven, the guilt is gone, I'm free.

[22:27] When we experience the great forgiving, compassionate God, we give him reverential, awe-struck thanks and praise. God's pardoning of all our sins, when it's rightly understood and humbly received, leads us to have deep, loving fear of him.

[22:48] So, if you have a deep, loving fear of God, maybe you have not experienced the forgiveness of God. Maybe you don't understand the justice of God.

[22:59] because once you understand the great righteous judgment and justice of God, you will see how you should be condemned by God and yet once you notice that God is so ready to forgive you through Jesus Christ, then you will receive that forgiveness and then you will have a loving fear of God.

[23:21] Our hopeful waiting results in loving fear and our hopeful waiting is based on his faithful love and great redemption. What is it based upon?

[23:33] What's the foundation of this waiting for him? His faithful love and great redemption. Back to verse 7. O Israel, hope in Yahweh for, there's the reason, with Yahweh there is chesed in Hebrew.

[23:55] Loving kindness, New American Standard, translate it like that. I translate it for you in a little bit more holistic way. Steadfast, faithful, covenant-keeping love.

[24:06] That's what that word chesed means. God's steadfast, faithful, covenant-keeping love. It's based on that love.

[24:20] Chesed, steadfast, his steadfast, faithful, covenant-keeping love. And then the next part of verse 7, and with him is abundant, or another way to translate that, great redemption.

[24:35] He redeems his people in a great, awesome way, which is the base of our hope in him. We as his people can have full confidence and assurance of forgiveness of all our sins.

[24:47] again, how can God remain just while he forgives sinners? Someone had to pay the price for our sin, and that was our Lord Jesus.

[25:02] He was, is, the faithful, perfect sacrifice on behalf of sinners. He inaugurated the new covenant. So now, chesed, the steadfast, faithful, new covenant-keeping God, his love that's found in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's found in him.

[25:22] It's found in Jesus. He is the epitome of the compassion, the graciousness, the forgiveness, and the redemption of God. It's found in Jesus alone.

[25:36] Because of God's overwhelming love and great redemption, our guilt-ridden, despairing sin is removed, along with its consequences. And Adonai gives us freedom, peace, joy, and brings us close to himself.

[25:54] That's what he does. And then look at how he ends the psalm, verse 8. And he will redeem Israel from all, excuse me, from all his iniquities.

[26:08] Here's the confidence of the great redemption of his people. He willingly, powerfully, graciously, and wisely redeems them from all their iniquities. Israel, and now us too as Gentiles, he forgives our sin, removing unhappy consequences.

[26:23] Inward consequences, and outward consequences. Inward consequences, our despair. Outward consequences, his judgment.

[26:35] So we have absolute certainty, total confidence, utter surety, complete security. Do you see that? Do you embrace this, O church?

[26:49] We've been bought back. That's what redeemed means. Ransomed. So now we belong to Yahweh. We belong to him. We've been bought back. We belong. We wait for the Lord, our God.

[27:02] though sin mars and separates us from God, his chesed and great redemption brings us back to him.

[27:16] And he will, he will finally, in the end, redeem us from all iniquities at the final consummation. See, when we partake of this Lord's Supper, which we'll do in a few moments, not only are we proclaiming what Jesus Christ has done for us as sinners, and we remember that what he's done in the past, but it's also something that we remember what he's going to do in the future.

[27:42] He will return, and he will completely redeem us. He will completely change us. We will completely and totally finally be his alone.

[27:55] This forgiveness is freely offered to all who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their heart that God raised them from the dead. Confess, repent, and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and be given the gift of forgiveness.

[28:13] You can be reconciled to God by his great love. If you're here, you're not a Christian, a follower of Jesus, a disciple of Christ, those are different ways to define that. Come, receive Jesus, receive Christ.

[28:30] Come and say, Lord, I am a sinner, as we sang. I deserve your justice. If you will count everything that I've done wrong, who could stand? But there's forgiveness with you, God.

[28:43] I trust Jesus. He died for my sins. I repent and put my trust in him. Come, the Father's welcoming you. His arms are wide open to you.

[28:54] Yahweh Adonai not only has the resources to do that, but he has the kind readiness to pay the price and opening his arms for you to come, come.

[29:07] That's what he's saying. Though God should judge us by his righteous justice, he extends great, amazing forgiveness toward us.

[29:21] Now make this personal. all my trust, hope, and confidence is found in Yahweh alone who loves me and redeemed me so that I now belong to him as his own.

[29:38] You take this with you as we celebrate the Lord's Supper and what Christ has done for us in taking all our sins upon himself so that despite the despair of our sin, we must wait upon Yahweh Adonai, we wait for the Lord.

[29:58] So now you have a tangible way for you to worship, a tangible way for you to think about this forgiveness. It's done on purpose. So you have a physical way by which you touch, you smell, you taste the gospel.

[30:17] The elements don't do anything, they don't change you, they don't magically become something, they don't do any of that stuff. Doesn't become the body and blood of Jesus, no, no, no, no, no. We're Baptists, we don't believe that.

[30:30] It's a memorial, we remember what Christ has done. The means of grace is not in those elements, the means of grace is in the gospel, it's in the word of God.

[30:41] We remember what Christ has done. So this is for you if you're a Christian. If you come from a church of like faith and practice, you've been baptized by immersion, join us.

[30:53] Some people say, well I'm not a member here. Hey, you come from a church of like faith and practice, you've been baptized by immersion, partake of this with us. If you're not a follower of Jesus, a Christian, we advise you don't take this, it's not for you.

[31:06] And we also advise you, if you as a Christian, you've not reconciled with someone, whether a Christian or not a Christian. You've not gone to reconcile with them and you need to do that, we want to encourage you, go do that first, don't partake of the elements, first go reconcile with that person, do the best you can, you can only do what you can do, but then come and celebrate the Lord's Supper with us next time, okay?

[31:34] This is the perfect psalm for us to get our minds on the gospel, to get our hearts focused on what God has done for us in his son Jesus Christ.

[31:47] So you can remember, so you won't forget, don't assume the gospel, always have it at the forefront of our minds. Wait for the Lord, put your trust in him.

[32:03] And Father, once again, we stop and we want to put our minds and think about the gospel. God, if you count everything that we've done wrong, Yahweh Adonai, who could stand?

[32:22] No one. But with you there's forgiveness. Well, have mercy on me. Have mercy upon us.

[32:34] And thank you that you've shown us your mercy because of your steadfast, faithful, covenant-keeping love. you've done that. Remind us together once again of this gospel truth.

[32:53] Remind me, remind us all, that the only reason why you love us fathers is because we are now united to your son.

[33:04] and so you love us like you love your son. Thank you. I want to encourage you at this time.

[33:21] Examine your heart. Bring your sin before Christ, before the Father and the gospel. remind yourself that you're not worthy.

[33:40] And yet Jesus died. He died for that sin anyways. And may this gospel truth remind you of having an attitude of repentant faith.

[33:55] We turn from sin and we put all our hope in Jesus. take the next few moments to do that. Remind yourself of this gospel truth and the forgiveness that you have in Jesus.

[34:13] After a few moments I'll ask the men to come and pass out the bread to us. But take this, just these few moments between you and the Lord to remind yourself of the gospel once again.

[34:31]  Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.