Beacon Sunday Service October 15th 2023

To look forward to an eternity with Christ in heaven and glorifying and worshiping him. And so let me just read uh for us, first Peter 13, and just be reminded of that truth. It says, Come, let us bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance imperishable undefiled and unfading that kept in heaven for us. And so can we all rise and sing to him for just his eternal goodness to us?

And this is a new song. Uh while we heat are here on earth, our boast is in Jesus Christ, and that's what this song is about. May we just boast in him alone, and not our own merits or anything that we've done, but in Christ alone. So this is a new song. I just try to follow along here on the screen. Wonders of wonders, wonders of wonders, what love is this that Christ would die for me, his goodness, his merit, his righteousness, the sinners only plea, oh foolish pride, be crucified, the work is finished, all my boast is in Jesus, all my hope is his love, and I will glory forever in what the cross have done, fully forgiven, now fully forgiven.

For mercy that flow down that sacred hill, let praises now return. Rise of my soul and bless the Lord, who else is worthy, all my boast is in Jesus, all my hope is his love.

In what the cross has done. Oh praise the one, oh praise the one bless him alone, my will boast in less than the love of Christ my Lord. Praise the one, oh praise one bless him alone, and I will boast in nothing less than the love of Christ my Lord.

I boast, I boast not in riches in strength, oh my, but in the grace of God, amen.

To live his Christ in plenty or in one that I may know and all may see his power within me. All my boasts is in Jesus, all my hope is his love, and I will glory forever in what the cross hath done. Now I stand, now I send in his freedom, ransom cleaning his sight. I cannot be ashamed for my boast is Jesus Christ my toast if Jesus Christ ever my toast is Jesus Christ Amen our boast is in Jesus Christ and Him alone my heart if my heart is overwhelmed and I cannot hear your voice hold on to what is true though I cannot see the storms of life they come and the road ahead gets steep will lift these hands in faith I will believe I'll remind myself of what you done and the life I have because of your son love came down and rescued me love came down and set me free I am yours I am forever your mountain high o' valley low I sing out and remind my soul I am yours I am forever yours when my heart is filled with hope is come my way I feel your hands of grace upon me staying desperate for you God at your things will lift these hands and pray I will believe I'll remind myself of all that you've done and the life I have because of your son of him down came down and rescued me love came down and fed me free I am yours I am forever yountain high or valley low I see out in mind my soul I am yours I am forever yours I am yours I am young my things Jesus I am young for wrong my taste Jesus I am young came down and rescued me came down and sent me free I am yours I am your mountain I will I see my I am you're yours no more time love came down This morning we will confess our faith using the New City Catechism.

In this question and answer, we will confess why it was necessary for Christ to die. And here's the question. Why was it necessary for Christ the Redeemer to die? And together, since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God by his substitutionary atoning death.

Amen. What a great truth that we have just confessed together as a church. May we just hold on to that truth, especially as we go through our weeks, and even today as we continue our worship with him Psalm forty two. Are you down? Why are you troubled within?

And will praise him yet, praise him again. Why my soul why my soul are you down? Why are you troubled within?

Praise him again. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Sing Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I will praise him, yet praise him again. Morning by morning.

Mercies are dreaming. Trust in your goodness where I cannot see.

Morning by morning, you mercy that dreaming. Trust in your goodness where I cannot see. You have been faithful when I wanted to give me the hope that we'll praise him. Yet praise him again. Why my soul?

Are you down? Why are you troubled with it? For I will hope in my Savior, my God. And we'll praise him, yet praise him again.

Good morning, everyone. Here at the Beacon, we definitely acknowledge that our sins have already been forgiven by the blood and the work of Jesus Christ. But we take this opportunity corporately and individually to confess our sin because the Lord just wants us to be transparent with him and to acknowledge what is the struggles that we have within our own hearts. So as we go over today, please remember that as we confess our sin corporately, the Lord just wants us to be honest and faithful to him through this process. So together, O God, please do not remember against us our former iniquities. Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sins.

For your name's sake, let our groans come before you and preserve us according to your great power. We your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever. From generation to generation, we will recount your praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Let us take in a time of personal confession of sin.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. Amen. Today's prayer topic is an obvious one. Um there's been a crazy amount of fighting between the Israeli people and Palestinians. Um this isn't just something that has happened. It's been over a century of fighting over land, about a rightful ownership of land, and whether you believe who's right or in the wrong, um, a lot of death has occurred. Even in this week or two weeks alone, there's been a thousand people recorded to have died already on each side. It's a tragedy. It's the Lord and and and so we have to ask the Lord, what can we do here?

We can only pray because there isn't anything that we can actually physically do. Because this is an issue that doesn't seem to have a resolution until one side is completely wiped out. It's crazy. And so, as God's people, as people who believe that He is sovereign and that He can do all things, let's ask that God would allow peace and resolution where it seems impossible. Um yeah, I could go over the history of who is right and who's wrong. Like, there's so many things, and some of it is maybe even misinformed, but what we can do as a church and as God's people, as His just to pray over them. So let's take this time to pray for both sides to end this war, and that there would be some sort of resolution.

Lord, we pray for this war that is ongoing between Israel and Hamas. A lot of Jewish and Palestinian people who are innocent have died as a result of just the actions of war, of sinful desires, of claims over land, and we we can't help but feel helpless and just observing and being and watching what is happening and what seems like a different part of this world so far away from us. But Lord, we just pray, Father, that you are a sovereign God. You are a God that loves his people, his creation, and that we are just asking Father for peaceful resolution, that there would be some form of way to stop this fighting. And Lord, I I know that there's so many implications of this war that could be manipulated into bringing more people more and more countries to to lead to a larger war, but Lord, just focusing on what we can handle is just that there's something that needs to be stopped.

We just need to pray over the people, Father, who have been affected, the families that are hurting, the families that need help, um, and obviously for reason and sense to come and some form of resolution to occur. So, Lord, even though the even though Lord, there's not much we can do but pray, Lord, we trust in you, Father. We know that good will come from this because you are a good God. So, Lord, we pray, Father, that you would oversee the situation, and that in the end, Lord, with all things that your will would be done. We thank you in Jesus' name. We pray, amen. Uh, I'm gonna have uh dismiss our children for Sunday school. So as we as they go out, um, it's gonna be teacher Stephen and then myself after I introduce our next guest speaker.

So go ahead, kids, have a good Sunday school. Um and as they're leaving, I'm gonna go over a few announcements. Uh Lighthouse Community Church is hosting a kids' mini conference in a few weeks, uh, November 11th from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. If you're interested in joining um Tiff and myself, we're gonna be going, um, please let us know. I think we have to register and let them know. So if you're interested in going, uh more information is on their website with details. Um, it'd be great for those of you who are interested in children's ministry. Uh we are looking for more children's ministry volunteers. Um, and in particular, just sign up. So we have uh a sign up sheet here. It's gonna be put in the back.

Um and you can sign up for as far as next year, August. So if you want to fill uh anywhere from the end of October of this year to the beginning of next year, go ahead and do so. Uh but please fill in your name where possible. Uh we are kicking off our monthly midweek worship starting October 21st. Uh it's gonna be at the Limbs House. He sent in uh Stephen sent an email earlier this week. So if you're able to make it, please give him just a tentative head count and reply to his email. Uh last but not least, uh offering options are Zell Venmo Cash and Check. Um per usual. If you're a member, we ask that you give as the Lord has blessed you in your life. If you're visiting today, please do not feel obligated to give.

Um and uh we're just thankful that you're here joining us today. So with that, I'm gonna introduce our next guest speaker. His name is Troy Lamberth. Uh Pastor Troy uh was saved by God's grace when he was a young boy. Uh he's very thankful to have grown up in a Christian home and to have attended a church in Riverside, California that encouraged him to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Troy studied U.S. history for his undergraduate degree at California Baptist University and film and television production in graduate school at Chapman University. Since the early 1990s, he has worked on all sorts of film and television projects, and is currently the executive producer of the Haven Today Christian radio program, head on over 650 ra radio stations, 650 radio stations in North America.

He and his wife Melissa have also created a production company called Five Soulless Media, where they make short films and a podcast to help families learn about church history in fun ways. Troy uh was ordained as a pastor at the Reform Baptist Church in Riverside in 2019. He has attended there since 2001 and has been involved in a wide variety of activities like preaching, teaching Sunday school, counseling, coordinating VBS, and Reformation Night events, as well as various evangelical outreaches to the church's community. He has been married to his lovely wife Melissa since 2005 and have three children together who are all with us today. Let's take this time to warmly greet Pastor Troy. Thank you, Phil.

And is this is the mic working? Okay. Good, good. Great. Well, it is. It is a real joy for us to be here. We are excited to be in LA. Uh both my wife and I have spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. Uh when we travel, most people just think we're from LA. They don't realize the distance between Riverside and LA, even though it is really only about 55 miles from our house to here. So and thank the Lord for Sunday non-traffic. It was a non-eventful journey here. It was it was lovely. Um and it's great that Ryan and Jen could be here too. They're on their honeymoon. So uh they're members at our church, so we're excited. They just got married last week. Um, yeah, and um uh like I said, um I bring greetings from our church, Reform Baptist Church in Riverside.

If you guys are ever ever through Riverside, you're welcome to to visit and to say hello and to worship with us. We also have uh a reformation night event where kids can learn about church history and the reformation in real fun ways every October 31st. So if you ever want to make the drive off the riverside in two hour traffic, um you're welcome to join us. But it is a lot of fun. Maybe come on a Saturday in a few years, but it's on a Saturday, or take the day off. But anyways, I know all of the elders at our church, we've prayed for you guys, and they extend their greetings to you, and we're happy to be here. We're going to be looking at Psalm 130. If you want to turn there into the book of Psalms, and Psalm 130, it's one of these psalms of ascent.

I'll talk about that in just a moment. But I think it's a very appropriate Psalm for even what we just prayed for there and what's going on in the Middle East right now. Um I had actually meant to make some comments on that as well before Phil led us in prayer on our the radio program. I'm by vocational as a pastor, so my day job is uh uh producing this Christian radio program. And the last week we have interviewed a lot of people, particularly Jewish Christians that are living in Israel. Pastor David Zadak, pastors of Reformed Baptist Church in Israel, and um we were able to interview several of them and just kind of get what's going on in their minds. And they're all as human beings rightfully scared about what is going on.

It as we just prayed, this could escalate quickly and get out of control. If it, I mean, it already is out of control, but it could get even worse. Um, and one of the leaders that we spoke to, who's a Christian, but he's also Jewish, um, said that we asked him how the Lord is ministering to him in this time, and he's and what he was, you know, maybe even reading in the scriptures, and he said, I'm going to be honest, it's really hard to read the Bible when you're being bombed. But I know I need to do it. I know I I have to. I have to cling to the promises of God. Even though my mind is running a thousand miles an hour, how do I protect my family, my home, my my people and my area? Um, but I I really thought that was uh incredible what he said that I need to.

I need to cling to the scriptures. And that really is the reality of every Christian on the face of this earth, whether we're in the middle of a war zone or or we're just living in beautiful Southern California with 70 degree weather and it's nice outside. The scriptures teach we're always at war with the the powers that be, and that we are always needing to cling to Christ. And so in this psalm, as we read it, um you're going to see it begin in a very low place. Out of the depths, it begins. But then it cries out to the most high God. And I hope that as we work through it and read it, that the Lord ministers to you wherever you are at today. So would you stand with me together and we will read Psalm 130?

I'm reading at the ESV, in case it sounds different to what you're reading. And it begins like this. 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, oh Lord, who could stand, but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits, and in his word, I have hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning, more than the watchman 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 God.

Let me take your seats. And let's just pray one more time for the Lord's blessing here. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning thankful for your mercy and your kindness towards us. Lord, that we've all arrived here at the beacon safely. That Lord, as we prayed a moment ago, we don't have the fear of war outside of our doors, that there's tranquility, Lord, at this moment around us. And that, Lord, we don't fear secret police coming in to shut us down. And Lord, that we can openly proclaim your word. But Lord, even if I screamed your word as loud as I could, lest the Holy Spirit with us, it would be nothing. And so we pray, O Holy Spirit, come and breathe life into the word that you breathe the author to write thousands of years ago, that it would minister to us, and Lord, that it would all the more keep us looking to Christ, our only hope of salvation.

We ask for this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. So as I said, Psalm 130 is a psalm of ascent. There are 15 Psalms of ascent, and this is number 11 out of them. Most people don't really know the history of the Psalms of the Sent in that what was the moment they were actually written. But we do know that they were used often as people would pilgrim, make their way to Israel or to Jerusalem, particularly, to do sacrifices and to worship God in the temple. And so as they began, they would begin singing these psalms together, probably speaking them like poetry at times, and making their way to the temple of God for high holy days, for days of feast and so forth. And they were written to prepare their heart to meet with God.

And that's exactly what this psalm does. It is a gospel psalm. And it begins in the depth of depression, but it ascends to the heights of worship by the time we're done with it. In many ways, uh this is what this is what a good worship song will do, right? We often are confessing who we are and our need for help, our need for forgiveness of sins and so forth. But then our hearts are lifted up to see Christ, to see our triune God and to have comfort in Him. And that's that's really my hope as we work through this Psalm today, that we will, in a sense, preach the gospel to ourselves as we read it, as we hear it expounded upon. And uh what I really love about this psalm is that it's very real.

There's a realness to the song, it's there's a humanness to it, and then there's a human neediness of God. And right off the bat, we see a very real appeal. Right there in verse one, out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice. This is someone in deep despair. If you're a fan of the Princess Bride, this is someone in the pits of despair. There's an awareness of how low they are. And the word here used out of the depths is the same word used often in the Old Testament that talks about the depths of the sea. Now, I've never taken a cruise, but I have been out on the water when I traveled to Catalina. And water, if you like, when you're standing on the beach, if you were to go out here to Santa Monica and to splash around the beach, that's fine.

We enjoy it. Everybody loves splashing in the waves on the beach. And we're even a little bit more adventurous when we walk out on the edge of the pier, right? And get out on the very edge. But then when you turn around and look and like, okay, there's a shallow water, and I don't know how deep this water is, it's gotten darker. Well, the further you get away from the coast, especially even as you're traveling to Catalina, there's a trench there. The water gets dark, and you have no idea what is there. How deep is this? If I were to fall in, could I tread water long enough? What's swimming? What's lurking in the depths here? That's this idea. The scriptures often use the depth of the ocean as a frightening place that humanity experiences.

And of course, I'm sure your minds have gone to already the story of Jonah, right? Jonah who gets thrown into the stormy sea, and then he gets swallowed by the giant fish, and he gets taken down deep below. Out of the depths, I cry to you. This is someone in a very low place. And we know first and foremost, these are the words of someone, someone who has realized they are in a bad place. They're not in a good place. And of course, those of us who are Christians today, we know we've all uttered words like this when God was so kind to open our eyes to our total depravity. At some point, when we were born, we thought, hey, I'm a pretty good person. Even those of us who grew up in the church, I'm decent.

And at some point, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and we see, oh, I'm lost. I'm a sinner. What hope do I have? And yet at the same time, the Holy Spirit is so kind to not just show us our sin and the depths that they're in, but to show us Christ, the one rescuer, the one Savior, who He Himself descended and then came to rescue us. We were in a deep and dark place before we met Christ. We were absolutely lost. Like a tsunami, a sin just pulling us down. We couldn't ever swim hard enough to break the current to get ourselves up above the water to breathe air. It was pulling us down deeper and deeper and deeper. And in this song, we see someone who cries out for hope. And the hope to ascend on his own was nowhere, but somewhere in the depths, he found a pearl of great price.

And that pearl was a hope that he could cry out to Jehovah, God Himself. And that's exactly what it says there. In verse 1, it says, I cry to you, Yahweh, Jehovah, crying out the very name of God Himself. I am who I am. And in the very next moment he says, I cry out to you, Adonai, which is God's great title. The Lord, the sovereign one, the one who is seated upon his throne. Is it not amazing that this person who wrote this psalm was in such a place of depth and lost and feeling so utterly out of control? And yet he knew the one person I can cry out to. Now most of our Bible say the Lord, the Lord in verse one and verse two, but in the Hebrew it is, I cry out to you, Yahweh. I cry out to you, sovereign Lord who's seated upon the throne.

There is hope. This psalm calls upon the holy and personal name of God and realizes who he is.

Who else can we call out to? Is that not what Peter confessed when a lot of the disciples started to leave Jesus after he was teaching some hard things? And Jesus turned to him and said, Are you gonna leave? Oh, Peter's words. Sometimes Peter, the Lord inspired him, and he said, Where else can we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life. This is exactly here. Even in our deepest, most lost point, whether it's we've fallen into sin as a Christian, and the Lord is convicting us to come back and confess that, or it's just the overwhelmingness of living in a fallen world, the daily stories of wars and rumors of wars all around this world, the troubles we have in families and workplace relationships, all these challenges, wherever it is at, there are times as dear Christians, we are in these place, and we're like, ah, what do I do?

And I love that the Lord is so faithful, he's such a good shepherd that when this dumb sheep is kind of wandering around over here, going, I'm lost. What do I do? His Holy Spirit knocks on my heart and says, turn your eyes to Jesus. Turn your eyes back out, cry back out to me. And a time and time again, I've been that foolish person. Oh, yeah. I've been trying to solve this myself. Oh, out of the depths, Lord, I cry to you. Oh, Yahweh, Adonai, oh, please rescue me. I have put myself in this place. Or I have allowed myself to become so overwhelmed that I've thought, well, surely there's no answer to this. There's no hope. And so we see this very real appeal, a very real cry out to God. And what is this person facing?

Well, in verse 3, we see a very real danger that he reminds us of. Look at that in verse 3. If you, oh Lord, should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand? Lord, if you were to judge me for my perversities, but for my depravity, for my sin, for my trespasses. Lord, who could stand? I would stand judged before you because I know I am a sinner. And this is the reality of our sin. It should really frighten us. It is very dangerous. Our sin has separated us from a holy God. And without rescue, we are in real danger. This is the ultimate depth. And Paul was very aware of this reality. In fact, in Romans 3, he makes the argument that neither Jew nor Greek has any grounds to stand before God. In fact, I was encouraged talking to a couple of these Jewish brothers, this Christian, if they're followers of Yah of Yeshua, the Messiah.

And they were praying for one, their Palestinian brothers, because there are Christian Palestinians who are trapped in Gaza right now. We need to be praying for them because Hamas will kill them, and also those Israeli bombs might kill them. But they also were praying because they knew both their orthodox Jewish countrymen and then the radical Islamist Hamas are both in need of a savior. Neither Greek nor Jew, Paul says, no one is righteous, no, not one. No one understands and no one seeks God. All have turned aside. Hamas, Orthodox Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism. All people on the face of the earth have turned aside, and together they have become worthless. No one does good not one. Once again, we see the harmony here.

The New Testament and the Old Testament. Centuries before Paul wrote these words to the Romans, the Holy Spirit inspired this psalm to be written to remind mankind that our greatest danger is our own sin. And so out of the depths, this person sees the danger of their sin, and they cry out to God for a very real solution. What is the solution? Well, verse 4 very clearly says, remember, verse 3, if you were to hold us accountable for iniquities, who could stand before you? Not one human being on the face of this planet right now, that's the nearly 8 billion and the billions more that have ever existed since Adam and his fall could ever stand before a holy God. So who could stand before you? What hope do we have?

Verse 4. But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. Our God is a holy God. A couple weeks ago I preached at our church out of Isaiah 6. Isaiah described God like this.

There is none like him. He is separate. He is distinct. He is not in our category. Sometimes people like to place God here if you were doing a graph, and then humanity somewhere here. You can't put us on the same chart. He is the creator. He is outside of the system. He is eternal. He is infinite. And that is part of why we sing He is holy, because that word holiness means separated, separate, distinct, but also uniquely it says He is perfect. He is good. He has never sinned. So there is a distinction in who he is and a separation and what he is as God, but there's also a goodness, a morality, a without sin quality to him. And he is perfect and he is just. And so it is right for this holy God to judge sin.

But I love that God Himself has revealed that he is also a merciful God. And this is what the psalmist is clinging to here. But with you, there is forgiveness of sin. He has the great capacity to forgive us of our sins. Nehemiah 9 17 says, but you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding insteadfast love. Dear human being, I'm hoping most Christians here today, this is this is who we are. We deserve the opposite of this God, a forgiving God, a gracious God, a merciful God, a slow to anger God, abounding in steadfast love. This is like just overflowing, gushing with steadfast love, with kindness. The concept of unmerited forgiveness is not only found in the New Testament.

We see it right here in the Old Testament. And this reality about God should bring us great comfort, dear Christian. With God there is forgiveness. We can be set free from our sins. But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. Now, this first part, we rejoice in of this psalm, right? Of this particular verse. The first part brings us great comfort. But he says something a little odd there, right? Let's be honest. So that you can be feared. Now, if you have an NIV, it translates it a little different. It says, so that you can be revered. And that is not a horrible translation, but the word literally does mean in Hebrew, fear. It obviously this was not written by an American. If if it was written by an American, it would be, with you there is forgiveness, so we could be cool with you, God.

With you there is forgiveness, so we can all get along, so we can all love each other. No, it says right here, with you there is forgiveness so that we may fear you, so that we might revere you.

And Christian, we have to preach this to ourselves. You probably haven't memorized. I hope you do. If you don't, please memorize it. This is the crux of Christianity. Romans 8 1. There is therefore now no what? Condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. As a Christian who has been rescued by the blood of Christ, who has been forgiven by the blood of Christ, we no longer stand before the wrath of a just God. He will never pour his wrath down upon us because he poured his wrath down upon his son. That's that's that substitutionary atonement that Christ came and did for his people. So we're not talking about fear of damnation. We no longer have to live with that fear. So what is Paul talking about here?

Well, I was doing some reading around and I found this little short paragraph so helpful. He's a pastor in Oklahoma. His name is Sam Storms. Don't agree with everything he teaches per se to the gifts of the Spirit, but he's spot on right here as he helps us understand what it means to fear God. Listen with me here. Certainly there is joy in the knowledge of our forgiveness, as well as gratitude and praise. But these are perfectly consistent with holy fear. That bone-shattering realization that it is by divine mercy alone that we are not forever consumed by divine wrath. One can simultaneously taste the goodness of the Lord, as Psalm 34 would describe it, and fear him as Psalm 34.9 says. So Psalm 34, 8 says the same thing about tasting the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 34, 9 says, so that we would fear him. Here he concludes with this thought here. In fact, it is grace which leads the way to a holy regard of God and a fear of grieving him. I find that very helpful. Yes, we are joyful that our sins are forgiven. Yes, we are so grateful and we praise him daily. We sang songs even this morning. So thankful that our sins were forgiven. But the reality is that God's forgiveness of our sins should create a holy fear, a deep reverence towards God because we know we did not deserve it. We deserved wrath, we deserved hell. And yet God's divine, the divine mercy has saved us. He has forgiven us, and he has called us children of God. To fear God is to live in holy awe, to live with a deep respect and a reverence for who he is, desiring not to offend him, not to bring shame to his name.

Paul would go on in Romans 8 to explain it like this. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father. The real solution is that judgment has now gone away. There is no longer condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And now we have the most sweet, the most amazing, the most astonishing relationship possible. That we can call God our heavenly Father. That we can, as the Hebrew would call him Abba. That's very similar to the English daddy. What would the Korean be for the affectionate father? Abba is it is a fascinating. If you go around the world, so many cultures have a similar version of Abba, Abba, Papa, Dada.

That is it, it is it is a one-year-old learning to say their first words, learning to know that I have something very unique with this male in my home. And I need him and I love him, and I'm learning about him. That is what Paul is telling us we now have with God. So don't ever live as if, oh, God's gonna strike me. Now, if he spanks you, Hebrews explains to us that that is for our good. And it's never with the a whip of, ah, you stupid servant. Get back in line. It is always out of the Father's heart for love and affection for his children, that they would walk in such a way that brings glory to his name. And this should give us real confidence, dear brother and sister in the Lord. And that's that's really what we come, we come to a real confidence in him.

Look at verse 5. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning, more than the watchman for the morning. The Lord has worked mightily in the life of the Christian.

So when we wait on him, we do not wait in vain. We have seen him work mightily in our past. Surely he is worthy of our patience. But how do we wait? Let's all be honest. It's difficult. Lord, I need guidance in this area. Lord, please help us over here. Lord, I don't know what to do. How do we wait upon the Lord? We get distracted, we get impatient. But the psalmist says that he has hope in God's word. Here's how Spurgeon explains it. God's word is the source, strength, and sweetness of waiting. Those who do not hope cannot wait. But if you hope for that, but if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? God's word is a true word, but at times it tarries. If ours is true faith, it will wait the Lord's time.

Jehovah's word is a firm ground for a waiting soul to rest upon. That's what one of the Jewish Christians that I spoke to. She said she was a tour guide, and she was having to protect six or seven people who were on her tour, actually, some of them from California, and she was trying to help protect them as all this was breaking out last week. And uh we said, What are you hoping in? What is what are, you know, what how is the Lord ministering to you right now? And she said, I'm clinging to the promises of God. And that's what we do, dear Christian. We wait upon his word. We have hope in his word. And when we wait for God to work in our lives, this is the firm foundation that we have. We know his word is true.

We know he has promised that he is working in our lives to make us more like Christ. He is the author and the finisher. As it continues to say there in Romans 8, Romans 8 probably is one of my most favorite chapters in all of the Bible. It says that God is working, despite everything happening in our lives that might seem out of control, that God is working for the good of those who are called according to his purposes. God is working for his glory and he's working for our good. Now, many in this world, sadly, in the name of Christ have twisted what that means. Oh, well, God's going to bring good. He's going to bring abundance. If you just have enough faith, you can have a jaguar. If you just have enough faith, you could have a mansion.

That's not what that is not the good that God is. God is talking about a far greater good than you can even imagine. He's talking about an eternal good. He's talking about us being rid of our sin and be in relationship with him for all of eternity. The good now may be living in abject poverty while still clinging to the goodness of the Lord, knowing that he is worth giving up everything. That's what Paul said. Paul literally says, I gave up everything. He had degrees according to the standards of the day. He was a well-educated Jew. He was in the elite of the Jewish religious groups, the Pharisees. But he says, I consider it all dung, literally is what he says. I consider it all nothing compared to what I have in Christ Jesus.

And what did he tell those Corinthians in his second letter there? He says that he had been whipped and shipwrecked and left for dead, stoned, but he did not consider that suffering for Christ anything compared to the glory that would come. And so as we look at this Psalm, we see written three times for us here in verses five and six that this person is waiting on the Lord. And then he uses this amazing Hebrew poetic device. He repeats this line twice. More than the watchman wait for the morning, more than the watchman wait for the morning. Now, I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of a watchman. Somebody who stays up at night in a fortified city and is keeping an eye on all who are sleeping within its walls.

Every culture, every society around the world, have had fortified cities with watchmen who, you know, by night are keeping guard. And so not only is this repeated twice, it's repeated to remind us that when a watchman at nighttime is standing on the on the tower and is looking out into the wilderness. That is probably just as scary as being on the deepest part of the ocean and seeing the dark, dark ocean. You have no idea what is out there. Is there are the is there a band of marauders ready to come in and run into this uh city and destroy it? I don't know. What is that over there behind that bush? Ah, it's just a coyote. You know, I mean, your your eyes are constantly looking, and you know what the watchman is waiting for?

For the sun to rise. Because when the sun rises, the light shines, and what he thought might have been a band of bandits behind some trees turned out just to be some jackrabbits. These are local Southern California instances. But whatever it is, the watchman goes, Oh, that the sun would rise so that my heart could be set at ease so that I know we made it through one more night without being attacked. I can't imagine what a nightman's life was work, uh was like. Imagine back then there were no street lights. There was no, you know, night vision or anything. The anxiety of walking those city walls and wondering what was lurking in the dark. These watchmen yearned for the morning. And this psalmist is saying, more than those watchmen that yearned for the sun to rise.

Yearn for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. More than you trust that the sun will rise tomorrow. You know, Annie's famous song, the sun will come up tomorrow. Tomorrow, more than Annie hoping for that. You, dear Christian, you, dear follower of God, wait upon God, because he is more trustworthy than the rising sun. How much more should we wait upon the Lord? I think of what Isaiah wrote at towards the end of Isaiah chapter 40, when he says, Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Dear Christian, your waiting upon Yahweh, upon Jehovah, is never in vain. Now he may move in his own time, and he often does.

In the Lord, we have real confidence, and finally, as we come to the last stanza of this great psalm, we see that we have a real hope. Verse 7, 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. The use of the word hope here is not the same way that we use the word for hope. Last week, Dodgers fans hoped that they would finally make it out of a preliminary playoff round. And well, that hope was dashed. Now we're hoping for next year, right? I'm an angels fan, so every year my hopes are dashed lately. It's not the same kind of hope. I hope I'll see you guys tomorrow if you're with family and you're gonna see them the next day.

We're gonna go out to eat. I hope this restaurant's good. I haven't had it before. It's not the same kind of hope. We almost use the word hope as if it's like a wish. It's deeper. We hope in the Lord, expecting that he will deliver us. As Christians, we read this Psalm with a better understanding than even the author had.

And they trusted, even as Isaiah articulated for us in Isaiah 53 all the more that there would be one who would come to deliver us from our sin. So he wasn't quite sure how this would play out. But brothers and sisters, we are in such a great place today, and that we know. We can actually look back at 2,000 years ago and know that God sent forth his son, born of a woman, at the right time. He was born under the law to deliver us from our sins. And the psalmist says that this real hope that we have, there are three reasons. Three reasons. The first one there is that with the Lord there is steadfast love. This Hebrew word is hethode and it means it is an unconditional, merciful, good, kind, covenantal love.

That's why I'm glad they don't just translate it. Some translations will put, with him is mercy, that's true. Sometimes it'll say, with him there's love, that's true. Sometimes there's kindness. But if you look at the depth of this word Hesed, it is unconditionally good and kind and covenantal. It is permanently fixed upon his people. Better than super glue. That should be a real confidence for us, dear brothers and sisters. So not only is number one, but number two, number one, he has steadfast love, and number two, the Lord's redemption. Literally, his ransom is plentiful. It is numerous, it is increasing, it is abounding, it is beyond our expectations at how good his redemption is. It is complete.

And we know that the Lord will redeem his people. Now we know that he was, this was in the imperfect tense, and so it meant that he was looking forward to how this will happen. And yet now we can look to Christ, our great redeemer, the one who paid the ransom. We just sang the ransom out of hell.

And in Christ Jesus, we are now a redeemed people that he is calling from every tribe and tongue of this world. A redeemed people with all of our sins washed away, worshiping him. Jesus declared in Mark 10, 45, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. A great psalm of salvation, a mighty song of worship. It begins in the depths. Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord. Out of the depths we cry. A very real appeal.

Our sin, judgment is right for our sin. What is the solution? Well, the Bible never teaches us to make it right. If we do a certain amount, if we achieve a certain level of goodness, that he'll let us in to his family. No, the real solution is that God Himself is the forgiver of sins. And we can have great confidence in this God because He is Word is trustworthy. His word tells us so. And we have a very real hope in our God who loves us with a committed love that is never ending and plentiful in redemption.

I think sometimes when I read in the first epistle of John in chapter three, when he writes, behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. When I read that, sometimes I feel like I can hear John actually say this. That we sinners, haters of God, worshippers of ourselves and other idols, that we get to be called children of God. May the Lord be gracious that we always live in that state of awe and wonder, that he loved us and that he saved us. Dear Christian, this should raise us out of our depths when we face the troubles that tomorrow will bring, surely. Some great, some just the average day troubles, traffic and frustrations with work and kids crying and diapers need to be changed.

Times we can be brought low even in the simple things of life. But when we remind ourselves of what God has done for us, when we confess our sin and yet at the same time rejoice in our Savior.

Paul was worshiping God with Silas in a prison. Time and time again we find ourselves in the depths, don't we? Sometimes it's our own sinful choice. Sometimes it's just this world, the fallenness of the world, the pressures of this world. Dear Christian, look to Christ, your great Redeemer. Put your hope in Him once again. Look forward to His kingdom that is coming. I was just reading to my kids right when this war broke out of Revelation. At the very end, He is going to come and He will make all things new. And He will abide with us. We will see Him face to face. And the joys are untold. That's what Psalm 16 says, right? In His right hand of pleasures forevermore, and in His presence is joy, eternal joy.

And I pray today that if you don't know Christ, that He would be merciful to show you this depths that you are in right now. And at the same time that you see your sin, He would show you His Save the Savior, Christ Jesus, who died and bled for sinners, just like you. Cry out to Him. O Yahweh, O Adonai, O Christ Jesus, forgive me. I am a sinner. The blessed best place for you this morning is to see the depth of your sin and the cry out to him for mercy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your mercy. We are thankful for your grace. Oh, that we can be called children of God. Lord, we thank you for your Holy Spirit that has inspired this Psalm to be written some 3,000 years ago. And yet, even today we pray that the words were brought to life through the power of the Spirit in our hearts, that we would rejoice and look to Christ all the more.

You are a good and gracious God. We love you and we thank you. And we pray this in the most amazing precious name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Schroyd. We're just encouraged just to put our faith and hope in Christ. And it's not just a wishful longing, but really an expectation that God will fulfill his promises. And so may we just continue our time of worship now and just cling to Christ, cling to the hope of life that he promises to us and sing together, he will hold me fast. So let's all rise.

And he will hold me fast. I can never keep my home.

And those he saves our His life. Christ will hold me fast. Precious in its holy dye. He will hold me fast. He'll not let my soul be lost. Promises. But by him at such a cross. And he will hold me fast.

He will hold me fast. For my Savior loves me so He will hold me back.

For my life. And for my life he blood and die. Christ will hold me fast. Justice has been set by.

So he will hold me fast. And again, he will hold.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your mercy. Grateful for your grace. Thankful for these words that remind us of your word that you will hold your people fast. Lord, we are quick to be distracted. We are quick to take our eyes off of Christ. It is part of the great challenge of the Christian walk. Well, Lord, we are grateful that you are faithful when we are faithless. And that Lord, you uh increase our faith daily to trust in you. Lord help us as we go out of this place that we would live as a light to this very dark world, Lord. That we will be bold to point others to Christ. Whether Jew or Greek, the only hope is Christ Jesus. Lord help us to live for your glory. Lord, in the mundane things of changing diapers, and in our various uh occupations and callings, Lord, whether we're riding a bus or sitting next to someone on a picnic bench, may we be quick to speak of the good news of Jesus Christ and the hope that we have within.

We pray this in his mighty name. Amen.