WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:02.240 I need to apologize for my voice. 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:07.679 I am at the end of a severe cold and trying to make it through this day with my voice. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:14.960 I was so kind and so gracious that I gave my wife a Mother's Day gift of a sick child at home. 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:21.760 So I'm going to make it through this morning in as much voice as I possibly can. 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:32.799 A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Scott began a short series that I'm going to continue for a few months on the Sundays that we celebrate the Lord's table together. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:36.159 That series is Grace in the Psalms. 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:43.520 We began that short series by learning about the grace of God's righteousness from Psalm 143. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:57.840 This morning I would like you to turn with me to Psalm 130 as we look at the grace of God's redemption, another appropriate theme to approach the Lord's table with a little bit later. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:02.479 The grace of God's redemption from Psalm 130. 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:04.400 We do not know who wrote this Psalm. 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.400 It's an unnamed author. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.719 But it begins as a song of assents. 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:16.560 The Psalmist says, Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:19.599 O Lord, hear my voice. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:24.640 Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:29.040 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:33.840 But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:36.000 I wait for the Lord. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:40.319 My soul waits, and in his word I hope. 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:45.120 My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchman for the morning. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.239 More than watchman for the morning. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:02:01.120 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. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:02.079 Amen. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:07.120 Grace has often been defined as unmerited favor. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.319 Unmerited meaning it hasn't been earned. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:13.680 It's not deserved because of work accomplished. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:22.319 Theologically, it refers to the work of God of giving people something they did not earn or deserve. 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:31.039 The grace of redemption then means that God gives redemption to those who did not deserve it, who have not earned it. 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:38.159 Now you can see from verse 7 why we would look to this particular psalm to see God's gracious redemption. 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:42.719 Verse 7 refers to his plentiful redemption. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:47.599 The word translated redemption in this psalm means ransom. 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:58.080 It's often used in the Old Testament in reference to people being ransomed from an enemy, a payment being made to release them from bondage. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:03.599 But this is a very unique and special use of the word ransom. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:12.719 It's special because it is the only time in the Old Testament where it is used to refer to a ransom from sin. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:15.680 As it is in verse 8. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:31.919 A ransom is a payment made to release people from bondage, and in this case, God releases people from bondage to sin entirely by his grace. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:34.319 But that's the end of the psalm. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:40.159 We can't conclude much about the end of the psalm without seeing what takes place throughout the Psalm. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:52.879 So as we return to the beginning, we begin to see that it is a psalm of ascent, meaning it was a pilgrim song sung by travelers on their way to Jerusalem for a religious holiday. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:56.400 Possibly a Passover holiday or something like it. 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:00.000 Jerusalem in geography sits in a higher level. 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.680 It sits on a mountaintop, higher than the surrounding areas. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:15.599 And so travelers would walk the dusty trails, the roads leading along the carved landscape for many miles, traveling up, ascending into the city. 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:21.920 People would sing this song as they walked the dusty roads to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:31.519 They would sing as they anticipated offering sacrifices at the temple in hopes of atonement, seeking atonement for their sin. 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:45.120 Each step took them closer to the temple, and it was a step that took them up, up as it were, to God's holy presence, where they would need to deal with their sin. 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:54.000 Perhaps that is why the first of four stanzas in this song begins with the cry of the condemned. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:07.199 O Lord, hear my voice, let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:12.639 That sounds like the cry of someone facing condemnation, doesn't it? 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:23.360 If all we had were that section, those two verses, we might attribute it to someone who was arrested for committing a crime. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:27.040 We can imagine it coming from the lips of a prisoner. 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:31.199 That last statement in verse 2 seems to point in that direction. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:34.319 My pleas for mercy. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:44.399 Sounds like someone who has been convicted of a crime and is standing before a judge waiting to receive their sentence. 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.199 It's the cry of a guilty person. 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:51.920 But this is not guilt for a crime as we would normally think of it. 00:05:52.160 --> 00:06:03.360 This is not guilt from petty theft or burglary, not the crime of exceeding the speed limit or having a parking ticket or running a red light or even something more egregious like rape or murder. 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:08.800 This is the crime of sin, or as R.C. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.759 Sproull once called it, cosmic treason. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:13.839 R. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:14.079 C. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:17.680 Spro went on to define sin in this way. 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:28.000 When people violate the laws of men in a serious way, we speak of their actions not merely as misdemeanors, but in the final analysis as crimes. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:39.120 In the same regard, our actions of rebellion and transgressions of the law of God are not seen by him as mere misdemeanors, rather, they are felonious. 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:42.160 They are criminal in their impact. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:51.600 If we take the reality of sin seriously in our lives, we see that we commit crimes against a holy God and against his kingdom. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:07:01.519 Our crimes are not virtues, they are vices, and any transgression of a holy God is vicious by definition. 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:06.319 Then RC makes this summary and conclusion. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:12.480 It is not until we understand who God is that we gain any real understanding of the seriousness of our sin. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:31.040 But when God's character is made clear to us and we are able to measure our actions, not in relative terms with respect to other humans, but in absolute terms with respect to God, his character and his law, it is then that we begin to be awakened to the egregious character of our rebellion. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:37.839 Not until we take God seriously, he says, will we ever take sin seriously. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:50.959 But if we acknowledge the righteous character of God, then we, like the saints of old, will cover our mouths with our hands and repent in dust and ashes. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:53.199 That's the psalmist. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:08:04.240 He comes crying, and his cry comes from the heart of one who is fully aware of his sin before a holy God. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.879 Someone who is aware that he deserves judgment, and yet he has hope. 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:12.639 He has hope. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:20.959 Not hope in his own work or in his own effort or in his own goodness, because none of those are effective at appeasing a righteous God. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:23.839 Instead, he hopes in God's mercy. 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:28.399 Now mercy is not the same as God's grace. 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.960 Grace is giving what is not earned or deserved. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:40.000 Mercy is not giving what is deserved or what is earned. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:50.399 For example, mercy is when our children deliberately disobey and we refrain from carrying out the discipline that they earned in their disobedience. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:52.080 That is mercy. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:09:01.279 Mercy is when you do something wrong at work that costs the business money in some way, but your employer refrains from disciplining you. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.720 You've earned some sort of discipline, but it is not given. 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:06.000 That is mercy. 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.519 This unnamed sinner cries out to God for mercy. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:13.759 He knows that he deserves judgment. 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:20.240 He knows that he deserves wrath, but he asks for that to be toned down or to be not given at all. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:26.399 And that cry comes from an understanding of who God is. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:28.720 Why do I say that? 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:35.679 Well, throughout this psalm, there is an alternating pattern of terms for God. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:44.240 In your Bible, you might see the word Lord every once in a while in all capital letters, and then other times in lowercase letters. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:51.840 The first term is always capitalized, meaning it refers to the personal covenant name of God, Yahweh. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:57.840 That illustrates that this psalmist has a relationship with his God, with his covenant God. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.000 Yahweh is his God. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:04.240 The second term is Kiros, for Lord. 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:09.039 It's a term of supremacy, of power, of authority, of rule. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:24.879 He alternates back and forth between those terms because he knows that Kirios is a powerful God, powerful to judge his sin, but he cries out to Yahweh, his covenant God, to hear him in the depths of his brokenness. 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:28.000 He's not crying out to two different gods. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:32.000 He's crying out to the same God approaching him from different directions. 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:39.759 This is not only the cry of the condemned, it's the cry of the broken and the contrite. 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:42.320 The psalmist knows. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:51.519 He knows that God will not despise a broken and a contrite heart, and that's why he cries out from the depths of his sinfulness. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:11:10.000 Interestingly, the word for depths here is the same word that Jonah uses when he describes his being tossed over the side of the ship in the Mediterranean Sea, and he sinks down, and he goes down to the very roots of the mountains, and he says the depths closed in around him. 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:15.200 So you can get a sense of how the psalmist feels then, based off of that. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:18.080 That's how he feels about his sin. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:24.399 And that is the point to which we all must come if we are to seek mercy for our sin. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:38.720 This ought to be the cry of each one of us, pleading that our God would hear our cries for mercy, and this cry is necessary because of the next stanza describing the justice of the judge. 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:40.480 Verse three. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:54.960 But with you there is forgiveness that you might be feared. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:16.080 If the covenant God were to keep track of our sins, if if he had a stand beside his throne that had a pen and a paper, and every time I sinned or you sinned, he he wrote it down in a list, keeping track of every single one of them. 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:30.240 I appreciated Charles Spurgeon including a quotation in his treasury of David. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:47.440 And this pastor said, Suppose God, seated on his throne of inflexible righteousness, suppose him taking notes with a pen in his hand of the transgressions which are proven against us. 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:49.919 Nothing is omitted. 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:56.000 Every sin is marked down with its peculiar aggravations. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:00.879 There is no possibility of escape from the deserved condemnation. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:05.919 The evidence against us is clear, it is copious, and it is overwhelming. 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:11.919 A thousandth part of it is sufficient to determine our doom. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:22.720 The judge has no alternative but to pronounce the awful sentence We must die a felon's death. 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:32.080 If you Yahweh should mark iniquities, Oh Kyrgios, who could stand? 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:41.279 That's the realization that comes to us when we understand the seriousness of our sin before a holy God. 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:47.200 There's no escaping his judgment. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:54.159 If the judge of all the earth maintains a record of my sin, I am doomed. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:58.000 There's no escaping it. 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:01.919 He sits in judgment over all the earth, he sees all, he knows all. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:06.399 His power is limitless, his position is supreme. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:12.480 If he wrote down my sin and your sin as a judge executing justice, we are hopeless. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:17.360 There is no escape from his power, there is no escape from his position. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:26.960 There is only the hanging of our heads in shame, crying out for mercy, fully expecting the terrible pronouncement of justice and the pounding of the gavel. 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:33.120 And then we hear these astounding words. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.240 You are forgiven. 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:39.919 What? 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:46.559 Our heads on a swivel, we we look around wondering if we heard correctly. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:50.399 Pardoned, the judge says. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:52.879 You are forgiven and pardoned. 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:54.480 There is no sentence for you. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.120 Justice has been satisfied. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:00.799 How does one process that? 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:06.000 The psalmist doesn't throw a party, he doesn't celebrate. 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:17.120 Instead, he says that the judge's justice ought to move the forgiven to fear that you may be feared. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:20.720 That's what Peter meant when he wrote in 1 Peter chapter 1. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:27.440 If you call on him as Father who judges according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:44.720 This granting of forgiveness, this pardoning act of the judge, is intended to move the sinner to worship and obedience, to awe and fear of standing before the judge ever again in that guilty way. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:51.120 This is the prayer from the heart of a sinner broken by his sin. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:56.080 He's cried out to the faithful, covenant-keeping God. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.679 He's acknowledged the holiness of his God. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:04.559 And once he's done that, there's nothing left to do but wait. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:10.480 That's why in verses five and six in the third stanza of the song, we see the waiting of the weary. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:13.039 And his emphasis is quite clear. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.000 I wait for Yahweh. 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:17.759 My soul waits. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:20.480 And in verse six, my soul waits. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:24.159 For what is he waiting? 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:28.879 The proper question is for whom is he waiting? 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:31.919 I wait for Yahweh. 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.559 My soul waits for curiosity. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:39.840 He waits to be heard by his covenant God, and he waits for the judgment of the judge. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:46.879 But more than the hearing and more than the judgment, he waits for God Himself. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:51.120 The psalmist was overcome by his sin. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:55.919 He was sunk down into the depths of brokenness and sorrow over his sin. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:01.360 And so he expressed himself by crying out and humbling himself before the sovereign one. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:06.480 And now this broken child of God waits for Yahweh. 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:11.759 He waits like one who stood the watch of the night. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:17.599 Wearied and exhausted as he looks for the dawning of the day. 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:19.119 He waits. 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:21.200 But how does he wait? 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:25.039 Well, he tells us that he waits with hope. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:26.559 He waits with hope. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:29.359 Specifically, hope in God's word. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:35.279 Now we aren't given a specific passage or a promise of God that he's holding on to. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:40.480 We aren't given any insight into the mind of the songwriter, but we can take some educated guesses. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:45.759 We might say that he was thinking about Psalm 86, verse 5. 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:53.759 For you, Yahweh, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:56.319 Great place to hope. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.440 Maybe he was thinking about Psalm 32, verse 1. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:06.559 Blessed is he who calls upon you, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:16.079 Whatever the text, whatever the passage, the psalmist looks with hope to the promises of God that were recorded in Scripture. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:19.359 But he also waits with expectation. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:27.759 The word wait, verses 5 and 6, comes from the same root word as watchman. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:37.039 The psalmist watches for God just as the watchmen watch for the morning. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:40.960 Watchmen watch expectantly for the morning. 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:46.160 They persevere through their night watch because they know the sun will rise. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:54.079 The darkness will be dispelled, and the cold night will be chased away by the rays of the morning sun. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:57.440 Their eyes are trained on the east, watching. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.559 But they also watch with anticipation. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:05.599 With the sun comes rest for the watchman. 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:14.400 The dawn brings release from their obligations, freedom from the boundaries of darkness, freedom from the night vigil. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:20.960 Just as the watchman watched for the morning, the sinner watches for his God to act. 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:26.559 He is weary with his sin, weary from crying out. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:31.279 But he knows that his Redeemer will come. 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:35.039 And that's the end of the prayer. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:46.720 For three stanzas we have heard the psalmist praying out loud, as it were, in front of the congregation about his own heart. 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:52.960 And now in the last stanza in verses seven and eight, he turns towards those who are listening. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:58.079 He turns to us, expressing to us the hope of the humble. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:03.200 He calls on all who belong to God to put their hope in him. 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:08.400 Follow me, he says, follow me and hope as I hope. 00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:09.519 Why? 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:12.160 Why should we hope in Yahweh? 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:14.160 Verse 7. 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:22.480 Because with Yahweh there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:27.279 Now that's not a full theological exposition on the reasons to trust God. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:37.200 Instead we see two little details that are especially important to this psalmist as he humbly watches for God to act. 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:41.680 The first thing he does is he calls on us to hope in God's character. 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:46.400 For with Yahweh there is steadfast love. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:52.160 That is a familiar characteristic to any Hebrew believer. 00:20:52.400 --> 00:21:09.039 It was very familiar to them because Moses wrote of it in Exodus chapter 34, verse 6, where it says, The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, the God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:17.039 Moses later in Numbers chapter 14 prayed a very similar prayer to what we see in Psalm 130. 00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:35.039 Moses said, Please pardon the iniquity of this people, the people of Israel, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, and abounding in steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people for forty years, from Egypt until now. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:39.759 God's forgiveness bound up with his abounding steadfast love. 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:45.599 But perhaps especially important to the psalmist is Psalm thirty-three, verse eighteen. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:58.880 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.319 The psalmist knows that God looks on those who hope in his steadfast love. 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:10.319 But there's a second detail here in Psalm 130. 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:20.559 We are called to hope in God's gracious ransom, and with him is plentiful redemption. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:25.839 He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:29.599 It's not talking about a little bit. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:37.359 God's redemption doesn't just scratch the surface. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:40.559 It is plentiful, it is abundant. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:23:01.680 In his commentary on the Psalms, John Calvin wrote, God describes this redemption as plenteous, that the faithful, even when reduced to the very last extremity, may sustain themselves from the consideration that there are in the hand of God many and incredible means by which to save them. 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:06.640 God's redemption, his ransom is plentiful. 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:14.880 And it's because of that plentiful ransom existing in God that he will ransom all of his children from their sins. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:30.319 If the character of God and the possession of a great ransom exists, then it makes sense why we would watchfully wait for him, doesn't it? 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:54.960 If we have come to the place of the psalmist, crying out the cry of the condemned because we are aware of our sin, and we are placing our hope in that one who has steadfast love forever and ever, and in whom exists plentiful redemption, why wouldn't we hope in him? 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:57.599 Why wouldn't we wait? 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:02.880 The condemned cries out for mercy, but hopes in grace. 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:10.319 Now God never revealed the basis of his ransoming work in the Old Testament. 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:17.920 We just see statements like this where God promises, based on his character, what he will do. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:21.680 He says, Hope in me, wait in me, and I will act in this way. 00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:26.319 But he never told them the underlying basis of that redemption. 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:38.720 It's not until thousands of years later where we begin to see certain activities take place and recorded for us in the book of Romans these words. 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:50.799 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:52.480 How? 00:24:53.440 --> 00:25:11.200 Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward publicly displayed as a propitiation, as a satisfactory sacrifice by his blood to be received by faith. 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:18.960 That's the grace of redemption. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:23.359 So even in the Psalms we see Christ. 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.519 When we come to the cross, it wasn't an afterthought. 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:38.400 Not only was it spoken of in the Psalms, it was prepared in eternity past. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:45.519 Or God said, I know you are going to cry the cry of the condemned. 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:53.279 But with me there is steadfast love and plentiful redemption. 00:25:53.519 --> 00:26:00.960 An unknown songwriter leads us to the depths of our sin and the need for rescue from judgment for our sin. 00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:12.079 And he points us right to the character of God and the hope of his salvation fulfilled in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:20.559 What a perfect way for God's people to be led into celebrating communion together. 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:42.000 To not only be reminded of what Christ did in his suffering on the cross, his body being broken and his blood being shed, but of what that accomplished for the condemned, that we might be ransomed from our sin. 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:47.359 Would you bow in prayer with me as the choir comes forward? 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:54.799 Our Lord Jesus, we are awed and overwhelmed by your grace. 00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:03.200 Why would you do such a thing for wretches like us? 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:16.720 We beg for mercy, we cry out for mercy, and not only do you not give us what we deserve, but you give us what we have not earned. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:43.200 Oh, what grace found in the cross of Jesus Christ, that you would give yourself to be lifted up as a sacrifice, so that all who come to you, all who look to you as the lifted up one on the tree, the condemned tree, would find life, would find hope, would find freedom from bondage to our sin. 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:50.960 Thank you for the privilege, Lord, of as your people coming together to seek forgiveness for our sin. 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:54.720 And to hear your words. 00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:56.559 You're forgiven. 00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:00.000 You are pardoned by my blood. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:02.240 Amen.