INTRO.- Have you ever been stopped by a police officer for any reason, speeding, incorrect lane crossing, etc.???
ILL.- A policeman pulls a man over for speeding and asks him to get out of the car. After looking the man over he says, "Sir, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been drinking?" The man gets really indignant and says, "Officer, I couldn't help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?” WRONG QUESTION.
ILL.- Here are things you don't say this to a cop.
- I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer.
- Sorry officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in.
- Hey, you must have been doing 125 to keep up with me, good job.
- I thought you had to be in relatively good physical shape to be a police officer.
- I was going to be a cop, but I decided to finish high school instead.
- You're not going to check the trunk, are you?
- Is it true that people become cops because they are too dumb to work at McDonalds?
- I pay your salary.
- So uh, you on the take or what?
- I was just trying to keep up with traffic.
- What do you mean have I been drinking? You are the trained specialist.
These sayings may be somewhat similar to what people say to God or would like to say to God about the wrongdoing in their lives. It seems like we are full of excuses for our wrongdoing or sin, but seldom do we want to admit error and humble ourselves before the Lord. Remember this is how it went in the beginning of time: Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on!
Everyone seems to want to blame someone else for their wrongdoing. “It’s my parents’ fault that I’m this way.” “I was raised on the wrong side of the tracks.” “I was raised in podunk junction where folks didn’t know any better.” “The reason I like to drag race is because of my older brother!” “I failed in one class because my twin sister wouldn’t help me.”
We all are guilty of wrongdoing and sin (Rom. 3:23) and we all like to blame other people for our sins. It’s the nature of our sinful pride that keeps us from humbling ourselves before God and acknowledging that we are guilty.
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Here is how it should be: Luke 18:13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'”
The prideful Pharisee prayed about himself and thanked God that he wasn’t like other men: robbers, evildoers or adulterers. And tax collectors. The right attitude to have is to cast ourselves on the Lord and admit that we are sinners and need His mercy. That’s the best and safest prayer in the Bible.
How’s your record? A record of good versus record of wrongdoing or sin? I don’t think most of us would want to know. We all probably have more sins against than good for us. Consequently, we need the forgiveness that only the Lord offers.
PROP. - I see the path of forgiveness of sin in this text.
1- We cry and the Lord forgives
2- We wait and the Lord gives hope
3- We believe and the Lord redeems
I. WE CRY AND THE LORD FORGIVES
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
ILL.- Good Housekeeping magazine: Average times per month a woman cries: 5. Average times per month a man cries: 1. Do you believe this? St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, St. Paul, Minn., believes this to be the case. Studies he has done indicate that women cry five times as often as men and that 85% of the women and 73% of the men thought that crying made them feel better. Most common reason for crying is sadness, followed in rank by happiness, anger, sympathy, anxiety and fear.
We all cry in life, but one thing should definitely make us all cry and that’s sin. Our own sin and the sin of others. Many people today, however, don’t even see themselves as sinners.
ILL.- I once knew a lady in a church who often defended her own arrogant and know-it-all attitude with these words: “That’s just the way I am.” And she also had the attitude of: Love me or leave me. Or maybe “like me or don’t like me, but don’t bother me.”
James 4:7-10 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
We all need to be broken over our sin. If we are never broken over our sin we will never fall down before the Lord, look up to Him, and ask for mercy and forgiveness.
If we are never broken over our sin, we will never cry, repent or get right with God. We all must go down in order to go up with God!
ILL.- A Sunday school teacher once asked a class what was meant by the word “repentance.” A little boy put up his hand and said, “It is being sorry for your sins.” A little girl also raised her hand and said, “Teacher, it is being sorry enough to quit.”
Genuine repentance is being sorry enough, broken enough to do something about it.
Acts 2:38 “Repent and be baptized...”
Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”
When we are broken and cry out to the Lord, however, He is quick forgive.
I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just...” I assume that if we are willing to confess our sins it’s because we have been broken over our sin and perhaps even wept before God! If we are broken, weep and confess our sins He will forgive us our sins.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
II. WE WAIT AND THE LORD GIVES HOPE
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Waiting! Yes, patiently waiting!
Till next steps made plain shall be;
To hear, with the inner hearing,
The Voice that will call for me.
Waiting! Yes, quietly waiting!
No need for an anxious dread;
Shall He not assuredly guide me,
Who giveth me daily bread?
Waiting! Yes, hopefully waiting!
With hope that need not grow dim;
The Master is pledged to guide me,
And my eyes are unto Him.
Waiting! Yes, expectantly waiting!
Perhaps it may be today
The Master will quickly open
The gate to my future way.
Waiting! Yes, trustfully waiting!
I know, though I’ve waited long,
That, while He withholds His purpose,
His waiting cannot be wrong.
Waiting! Yes, waiting, Still waiting!
The Master will not be late;
He knoweth that I am waiting
For Him to unlatch the gate.
Waiting is not our best attribute.
ILL.- My 79 year old preacher friend wrote: “Few of us like to wait. I must admit that I may be one of the worst. If I have a ten o'clock appointment, I expect the person(s) involved to be ready at ten o'clock. Even waiting for a traffic light to change can frustrate me a "bit" if it seems longer than usual. And I don't like to wait for twenty or thirty minutes before being seated at a restaurant either. Instead, I try to find one where seating is immediate or shortly after arriving. I think I'm somewhat more patient than I used to be, but I still would rather begin on time, meet people on time, and I'll probably never get over wishing doctors would see their patients on time."
There is one doctor on whom we must wait! The great physician!
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. We wait on the Lord in hope.
ILL.- Dr. Arthur Pierson once told of being alone in the study of that great man of faith and achievement, George Mueller. Thinking it would be a good time to look at the great man’s Bible, he opened it and was thumbing through its pages when he came to a verse in Psalms where it reads, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 37:23). Opposite it, on the margin, Mueller had made this notation: “And the stops, too.”
The STOPS of a good man, a Christian man, are also ordered by the Lord. I take this also to mean that God wants us to “stop and wait on Him” in life. And He does.
Psalm 5:3 “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”
Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”
Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.”
We wait on the Lord but we wait in hope.
III. WE BELIEVE AND THE LORD REDEEMS
7 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
ILL.- Tom carried his new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream.
Tom ran along the sandy shore as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home.
A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see -- sure enough -- it was his! Tom hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that's my boat in your window! I made it!" "Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in this morning. If you want it, you'll have to buy it for one dollar."
Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here's the money for my boat." As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you're twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you." AND SO WITH GOD AND US.
God says, “You are twice mine. I made you and now I bought you.” God did make us in our mother’s womb. And God bought us with the death of His son Jesus.
I Peter 1:18-21 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ! Redeemed, bought, paid the ransom, purchased with the blood of Christ, with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross! God redeems us from all our sins through Christ.
How big is your list? It doesn’t make any difference how big or how large is the list or record of your sins. We trust God, believe Him, obey His Word, and He redeems us from all our sins. He cleanses us from ALL our sins!
Hebrews 8:12 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
I’m counting on this, aren’t you? I’m counting on Him! I’m putting my trust in His sacrifice on the cross rather than my own preaching and good deeds. I trust Him far more than I trust me. And I believe God’s Word which says I can’t redeem myself. I can only be redeemed through Christ and what He did for me!
CONCLUSION--------------------
3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.
ILL.- John Fischer (Christian musician) wrote: “There is something terribly right about...realizing that our struggle with sin is in many ways similar to an alcoholic's struggle with drinking. It's never over. How often I find myself talking about sin in the past tense as if being a sinner is something I'm beyond--a page turned in the book of my life. But sin is like alcoholism. Sinners are never cured; they simply decide to stop sinning...and it's a daily decision.” AMEN!
Sin has always been our big problem in life and it may haunt us all our lives and there is only hope and that’s the Lord. Only in Him can we find forgiveness, redemption, and daily victory. It’s all about Him. Our salvation and strength are in Him alone!
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO, shepherd111@hotmail.com
