Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Psalm 130, out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand, but with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and his word, I hope. My hope waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning, more than the watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord, there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Thank you so much, all students. The Lord has sure used your family, Michael, to love on our family. We're thankful for you all. You know, just a few years ago in Dallas, we were building an education building in the middle of the afternoon. I would look out to see how they were doing. I would usually around three o'clock wake up from my nap and just lean out over and see what were they doing out there on this building, and I looked, and they built the foundation. I actually didn't build it. They dug the foundation for about two weeks, and I, over the days of the project, would go out and get to know the foreman and the superintendent and some of the workers, and lo and behold, I said, when are you gonna build this thing? All you've done is dig a hole, and they would laugh at me and smile and say, well, you know, Pastor, if we're gonna go up, we need to go down first. We've gotta get down and we've gotta dig this foundation because if we have a nice, deep foundation, then what happens is you can build, you can build up, and the building will be stable. It'll be beautiful, it'll be trustworthy. And so we have to go down before we go up. And sure enough, that's exactly what this psalm does. This psalm takes us on a trajectory that starts out very low and then leads us up to the tip tops of heaven itself. I want you to recognize, really, that's the trajectory of the psalms of a sin. Psalm 120, if you remember, we started in a, in a foreign and a bear in land, it's dry and it's weary and it's discouraging and you're down and you're in the dumps and you don't know what to do. You're overwhelmed and you're discouraged and it lifts us and it takes us and reveals to us Messiah Yeshua, the beautiful savior of God's people until we reach the point of this beautiful worship. And that's the layout of our psalm today. We have to go down before we can go up or the first sermon point that I've listed here is the way up is down. Now, why do I say that? And why am I excited about teaching and preaching this message on going down and establishing a foundation? It's because the American church is about an inch deep and a mile wide, that's why it's frivolous, that's why it waste its money, that's why it has decensions within its own congregation. We do so much messing around within the walls of the body of Christ. We never get out to reach the world. Why is it? We have a very shallow foundation. We're frivolous, we're whimsical. Why is that? No one has dug that deep hole beneath our feet and so the psalmist does this this morning. If you want to go up, you've got to dig a deep hole
the depth of our grasp of the sin in our heart.
The depth of our grasp of the sin in our heart is what determines the height of our worship. If you don't have much lift in your worship is because you have no depth. No depth in understanding your sin. And as the Holy Spirit digs this deep hole of understanding of sin, what it does is it lays the foundation for this high and lifted up and stable and dependable and beautiful Savior. Do you know in heaven there's no temple, the temple is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is our glory. And so what happens in the American church is we soft sell sin. We sin people and there's nothing wrong with therapy. Therapy is part of the answer. But we sin people to therapy instead of repentance. We try to bring them comfort instead of ascending them to the Lord their only hope. I've experienced this my whole life. I experienced it as a non-believer. I've experienced it as a believer. I am naturally an optimist. I'm just an optimistic person. You know some people look at the glass and they think it's half empty. Some people think it's half full. Engineers look at it and say man we made that bright. Good design there. I'm a half full kind of guy. I've always been, my mother was that way. My mother was this feisty Cherokee Indian. Jet black hair, deep brow. And she got up in the morning ready to go. She had two speeds, full speed and worn out. She was in delight. She was so optimistic. She said son don't worry about it. It's gonna get better tomorrow. And I grew up with that thinking that you just bear it and you just move on. If you need to you ignore it. You say ignore it, playing that's gonna get better. And I live that way as a non-believer. And then I began to live that way as a Christian. And I started to have a bit of an intellectual and spiritual breakdown. And the reason I did is because to the outside eye I looked like a faithful pastor. I looked like a guy who had faith and trusted the Lord. And I was energetic and I was positive. That wasn't me at all. I was an optimist by denying the reality of the sin in my life and in a sin in people. Now you can have a couple different worldviews. But the base of your worldview is going to be that man is either sinful and native of savior or man is okay. And as long as he keeps looking within himself he's gonna find the answer. So you're either gonna trust God's word or you're gonna trust Dr. Phil, right? Dr. Phil comes up with these ideas on how to think and how to live, but basically he's saying look within yourself you have truth in you. He's wrong. Sadly, he's wrong. And this Psalmist says, if you wanna go up you better go down, you better look within yourself and see the sin in your heart and address it. Don't be a liar as an optimist, be a faithful Christian and trust that God is at work and see your sin. The second point which takes us to verses three and four, is that sin is marked and forgiven. Do you hear that? Our sins are marked and forgiven. The Psalmist says it in an interesting way. Look at verse three, if you or Lord should mark iniquities, of course he marks iniquities. And if the Lord does mark iniquities, then who could stand? No one. The Psalmist is saying the Lord does mark iniquities and no one is able to stand. And then he goes on and says, but with you there's forgiveness that you may be feared. I believe that America believes in God for the most part and they believe that he grades on a curve. As long as I'm a little better than you, I'm okay. As long as I can drive through the streets of Chattanooga and find people who aren't as good as I am, I'm okay. Go ahead, talk to your friends about the gospel and ask them, ask your neighbor, ask your coworker and say, when you stand before God and he says, why should I let you into my heaven? What are they gonna say? I'm gonna tell you what most of the people are gonna say. They're gonna say, I've led a good life. I haven't killed anybody. I've done my best not to hurt anybody. I'm basically a good person. What they're saying is I'm trusting that God is grading on the curve. You know, when I was at Wheaton College, I made a 96 in theology. You know what I received to be? Why, God graded on curve. My professor who thought he was God graded on a curve.
What do you believe? Do you think that you're good enough to get to heaven? Do you believe that God is simply gonna look out on the mass of the billions and billions and billions of people who've ever lived and he's gonna look at you and he's gonna go, oh, 70% to 71%, okay, you're in. Cuts the line right there. No, the Lord will mark every single person who's ever existed as guilty in their sin. He's a just God. We talked about that last week. What are you gonna do with that? You're either gonna adjust who you believe God to be or you're gonna adjust your life accordingly. You know what Americans have done? They did and we do what a college student did a few years when I visited him. I went to the SMU dorm Southern Methodist University just about a mile from our church there in Dallas. I'm taking a couple college guys out to lunch, hanging out with them, seeing what their world's like. I got there a little early, so I went up knocked on the dorm room door. Bop, bop, bop, bop. Come on in. I walk in. Oh, pastor. He just standing there in a pair of jeans and flip flops. He's like, I'm looking for a shirt. Like, yeah, wear a shirt. We're gonna go to a place where you're gonna need a shirt. Go find a shirt. And so this is how he finds a shirt. I assume he'd go over, open the closet. No, no, no, no, no. He goes over and starts looking through piles. He picks up a shirt here, kind of turns it around. No, walks over here, it's over by the bed, picks up a shirt, lifts it up, turns around. Yeah. Goes over to his closet, walks out with a can of febrees. Turned it around, pulls it on. Let's go. He's ready to go. That, it doesn't really work. It masss the odor, but it doesn't get the dirt out of the garment. That is the way Americans have approached their sin problem.
They don't come to Christ and say, I am filthy and sin. And I cannot find my way out of this.
Then we don't do that. We don't cry for mercy. We spray religious febrees about us. If your clothing has dirt in it, you must put it in the washer with some detergent because you've gotta get those dirt particles out of the fabric because the dirt particles inside the fabric rub against the fibers. And as they rub against the fibers, they cut and wear out your clothing. And what's happened within the American culture and the American church is that we've tried to hide our sin rather than to proclaim, yes, I am a sinner and I have a magnificent savior. No other religion in the world teaches that. Every religion of the world says, it's in you. You can save yourself, try harder, whether you're a Buddhist, a Hindu, just go through. All the world religions, they believe that you can make yourself better, not Christianity. Christianity says that sin has soiled your heart in such a way that you are incapable of saving yourself. You must recognize that, my brother and sister in Christ. You must admit that. You must agree with that. You cannot simply go through your life believing that God grades on a curve and when you do fail, you forbrew it. You must come and do business with the risen savior. And the psalmist is breathing this into us. He's saying to us, you must pursue the Lord. You know, if you go back in the history of our country, its roots are in Europe and we were born out of a Europe that had come to a period that we've labeled the enlightenment. And the enlightenment believed that you no longer needed miraculous revelation from God, but you could reason your way to God. And that man was a reasonable creature, true. And that reason was more important than faith. And the United States, in my opinion, has never recovered from that unorthodox, heretical way of thinking. And I ask you, have you recovered from it? Do you believe you can reason your way to God apart from miraculous revelation of God, the work of the spirit in your life to say, my goodness, my goodness, I have no goodness. I need a savior. The depth of your understanding of your sin will determine the height of your worship. How's your worship? Is it vibrant? Is it electric? Is it magnanimous? Is it overwhelming? Is it just blow out of you? Because you're overwhelmed with the glory of your savior? Or are you just doing church today? It's Sunday, let's go to church. Let's see what happens there. Love the choir. Hope the preacher can entertain us for 20 minutes. Hope he's not long. We've got a big luncheon. How's your worship? When we go to Africa, they beg me not to stop. I've never had that happen in America. And you bite me thinking, you know, you're kind of a visitor. You're kind of a new person to our church and you're sitting there thinking, man, this guy, he's got me over a barrel. Because if I don't say, oh yeah, I want to be looking at Africa and I want to worship God, keep going preacher. If I don't say that, he's just going to hammer me. And I'm not. I just want you to think about your heart. And I'm not going to go past noon. Because you know what? I think I've said enough already. If you're listening. The question I have for you is, are you listening? And does it make any difference in your life? The Psalmist does a glorious thing in verse five. He moves us from the way up it's down versus one and two. Sin is marked and forgiven versus three and four. And his third point, he says, the Lord is the rescuer. Is the Lord? We watch for him. We watch for the Lord. We're looking for you. I was a watchman in college. And you know what I watched for? I didn't watch for intruders. I watched for the sunrise. Because I knew when the sun came up, I got to go home. And these watchmen are watching and they're watching and they're waiting for the Lord. You know, Laura, Micah, Cassie and I are headed to Africa after a little stop in London. And we're going to work in the slums of Africa. And you know what, we could give them all the money we have and all the clothing we have and all the shoes we have and we're going to. But it's not really what they need. What they need is more of Christ. Their hope is beyond government welfare systems. Their hope is in the Lord and they will worship like it. And I want to encourage us to worship in the midst of our comfort as if the Lord is our only true hope.
The fourth thing of this Psalm just has this magnificent finish. Remember we started low and we're going to finish high. Look at this, this verse seven and eight speak of this infinite source. As Mike was reading this, my heart was just swelling. He said, oh Israel, hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is steadfast love. And with him, look at this word, plentiful. Plentiful redemption. You might be sitting here and you're going, you've got a wrong pastor. I know I'm a sinner. I'm so bad God can't save me. Let me give you two words. Plentiful redemption. His grace is greater than your sin. His grace is greater than your sin. Hallelujah. Amen. Praise God. You see, you can't be too bad. The cure must fit the illness. The remedy must match the melody and our Savior does. Our Savior does proclaim your sin and proclaim your Savior. I want to close with the most simple story. I have a different in Dallas, his name is David Gowdy. And Gowdy is one of our ruling elders. He has three children, Mary Margaret and David and Hank. They were watching a movie one afternoon and David went in, got a bag of potato chips and he flipped it to Hank and he said, Hank, give everybody some potato chips. So Hank has the bag, he opens the bag, he walks in and he gives two potato chips to Mary Margaret. He gives two potato chips to David. He gives a couple to his mom and then sits down with the bag. David's like, Hank, share the potato chips. And Hank's like, well, I'm just kind of rationing it. And I'm going to make sure that everyone has enough. David's like, no, you're not. You're trying to make sure that you get enough. He goes, Hank, come in here. Come in here a minute. He walks Hank into the kitchen. He opens, he opens the pantry and the thing is packed with potato chips. One of David's friends is a rep for Frito Lane. Now they're all out of date but they're potato chips, bag upon bag upon bag upon bag of potato chips. And David said, Hank, don't you see how much we have? And Hank said, oh, I get it, man. He starts giving out potato chips. Have a whole bag, David. That's what this Psalm says. It says the redemption is plentiful. You don't have to ration it. You don't have to ration it for you and you don't have to ration it for your neighbor and you don't have to keep track of it for the lost world, it's plentiful. It's infinite. The malady has been overcome by the remedy. That's what we believe. That's what the Word of God teaches us. That's why we go on missions trips with more than money in our pockets and clothing to give away in our suitcases because we come with the truth and the power and the infinite forgiveness and redemption of Jesus Christ. And so I bid you this morning, what do you believe? Does he grade on the curb for you? Because you're a good person who's just a little bit better than the rest of the world. Do you try to hide your sin with a little fobries on a Sunday morning or do you say woe is me? Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord. You see, there's a basic principle in America is called supply and demand. You might be thinking in the financial world, I'm speaking of the spiritual world and I would say to you that his supply is greater than your demand. The supply of his infinite redemption and his gracious application of his righteousness to our sizable sin, his supply is greater than your demand, worship, our living Savior, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we do take delight in you. You do mark iniquities, Lord, somewhere in the economy of heaven iniquities or marked. And yet we know and yet we believe. And yet you have told us that Jesus Christ has given his life and has taken our sin. He's taken all those marks in your grade book upon himself. He's wearing that even now with his nail scarred hands. And we have received his righteousness, his plentiful redemption for his people. O Lord, we believe you. We believe what you've told us that the supply of your grace is greater than the demand of our sin. And Lord, at this moment as we close our service, we have an opportunity for hope. This is our opportunity for hope, Lord. May we hope in you and not in ourselves. May we hope in an external Savior who comes to save his people rather than in an internal effort that amounts to nothing more than filthy rags. We rely on your grace. We worship you with a full heart filled with plentiful redemption. We make our prayer in Jesus name. And all God's people said, amen. If you'll stand and receive this benediction, and after the benediction we're going to sing a beautiful closing hymn that I would invite you to worship the Lord while you sing. And now turn your face toward home and receive this good word. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life of everlasting. Amen.