Amen. Well, good morning. I feel a little naked up here without our gospel of Mark Banner up here to my right. Open your Bibles with me this morning, beloved, to the Psalter, to the book of Psalms. Our love and thanks to Brady and Diana for leading us in the deepest joy of worship. It is well that we should lift our voices, that we should put on a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. We are thankful for the heavenly prescription that God has given to restore a weary saint, to make the great exchange of our sorrows or trials for His joy and His peace that flow in abundance. While we have come today to fellowship and to sit under the preached Word of God, this should not be the only preaching taking place during our week. How many of us know that we are called to be preachers every day to our own hearts? I was reminded of that this week in preparing for our time in the Psalter today. Reading in 1 Samuel chapter 27. And this was a dark time for David. This was a hard time. This was a haunting chapter for David. He was despairing. So much that David actually went to live in the land of his enemies. With the Philistines. But there are some rich ironies in this portion of scripture. Because you know, David's usual reason for lament is that he's being pursued by Saul, or that his children are trying to kill him. We see that all through the Psalms. Yet if one looks at the immediately preceding chapter, chapter 26, we see that Saul is not pursuing David at all. David is not living in a cave. But what we do see is that David had stopped preaching to his own heart. David stopped speaking to his heart, and he started listening to his heart. He started taking counsel of his heart. Regardless of what worldly wisdom says, that is the road to pain. David laments. He, wallowing in depression, he says this, 1 Samuel 27 1, Then David said in his heart, Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. I'm going to go live with my enemies. And by the way, I'm going to go live under a foreign king as well, because I'm listening to my heart. David is in despair and depression. He stopped preaching truth to himself. And how do we know that? Because not a single psalm was penned during these dark years. David had turned inward. The declaration of truth went silent. David was not turned outward toward God. David was navel-gazing. Now what happens when we do that? What happened to David? Unbiblical thought patterns emerged, which lead to extremist conclusions, untrue generalizations, faulty filters, meaning we exclude the good and we only see the bad. We prophesy falsely. We end up using emotion-based reasoning. All things that begin to happen when we stop preaching to our hearts. And we should begin listening and taking counsel to that which is false. In fact, we saw this very phenomenon in Psalm 73. When we preached that not too long ago, we even titled the message, Spiritual Amnesia. Forgetting what is true. Instead of putting our wayward heart into subjection by telling it what is true, we cannot listen to the mind and the heart. That scripture says needs to be renewed daily because it's so prone to wander and so prone to weakness. We pick up our scripture and we tell the heart what is true. It doesn't matter how I feel about it or if I'm in the mood for it. Brooding mindsets can often be a comforting blanket for us, can't they? Cast it off. Don't listen to yourself. Tell yourself. And dare I say, based on the example of Scripture, beloved, the vast majority of any discontentment we experience in our life, the vast majority of unhappiness that may have crept into our lives at different times, it comes when we've stopped preaching the truth to our wayward heart. And if you're curious, read the following chapters in 1st Samuel, chapters 28 and on, and find out how that went for David in the land of the Philistines. And how did it all start? Then David said in his heart, he took counsel of himself and the results were tragic for David. So today, beloved, if you're experiencing perhaps some ungodly thought patterns, if you've turned inward, if not a psalm is being written, if not a song is flowing out of your heart, if you've gone off to the land of the Philistines, Stop listening to that heart and start preaching to that heart. Amen? Amen. Well, today is a wonderful day in the Word. As we pause for a Sunday in our journey through Mark to allow those messages to settle in our spirit, we take a time of reflection this Lord's Day as we turn to the Psalter. You've opened your Bibles to the Psalms. Turn with me now to Psalm 130. Psalm 130. There are seven psalms within the Psalter that are known as penitential psalms. They're psalms of penitence, meaning psalms of sorrow for sin. And of course, of those seven, Psalm 51 is probably the most famous of those, written by David as he repents for his sin with Bathsheba, as he feels the weight of that. Today, as we look to Psalm 130, the heartbeat is very much the same. We don't know the author of this psalm, it's not said. However, if you look to the title, we'll see that it is a psalm of a sense. That means it's part of a very special group of psalms that run from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134. And most, all but five, they're anonymous in authorship, but they were used in the same way. You see, for the Jews, there were three main festivals each year that they would travel to Jerusalem to attend. And of course, Jerusalem sits on something of a hill, doesn't it? And from the lowest point, a pilgrim would climb about 2,300 feet in elevation to ascend to Jerusalem toward the temple for worship. And as worshippers make this ascent, they would sing these psalms. They are psalms of worship, psalms meant to prepare one's heart for the temple. And in fact, priests would even sing these as they ascended the steps of the temple as well. Beginning in Psalm 120, here are the topics of each hymn that they would sing from 120 to 134. Psalm 120 is God's presence during distress. Psalm 121, joyful praise to the Lord. Then prayer for Jerusalem. patience for God's mercy, help coming from the Lord, prayer for God's blessing upon his people, that the Lord has done great things, God's blessing on man's efforts, joy for those who follow God's ways, a cry for help to the Lord, a prayer of repentance, surrender as a child to the Lord, God's sovereign plan for his people, praise of brotherly fellowship and unity, And finally, praise to God in his temple. What an ascent of worship that was. Today we look to a beautiful piece of that ascent up the hill to Jerusalem. I've titled this message, The Ascent of the Forgiven. And today we ask, what is the cry of the heart that not only acutely and piercingly feel their transgression, that are aware of their sin, but just as acutely, just as clearly that they know the forgiveness and the hope that permeates one who is swam in the unsearchable depths of God's forgiveness? What you will see in the incredible song is that the very song itself is a staircase, which the psalmist climbs, starting out at the bottom, up a step, up a step to finally reach the top. Let us hear that progress as we move through it. And what a gift, climbing. what this believer is. It's like watching a master at their craft produce something of beauty and saying, wait, go back. How did you do that exactly? Give me a step-by-step. How does one go from an awareness of the depths of my sin to proclaiming God's goodness and hope? For someone sitting in the dungeon of giant despair, it can seem a long leap. to proclaiming the saving glory of the Lord. So what a gift we have in this psalm. With that, let us look to our Song of Ascent, Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Out of the depths I call to you, O Yahweh, O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you should keep iniquities, O Yah, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I hope for Yahweh, my soul does hope, and for his word do I wait. My soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchman for the morning. More than the watchman for the morning. O Israel, Wait for Yahweh, for with Yahweh there is loving kindness, and with Him is abundant redemption, and it is He who will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we approach the ascent of the forgiven, this psalm of ascent, Lord, we have Souls that have come in this morning that are standing on every step, are standing on every rung. And Lord, we ask that as we dive into these unsearchable riches, that you would meet each one where they are. Lord, that you would draw them to yourself, that you would draw them up. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would cause the arrow to find its mark with great precision. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. Well, two years after the great reformer Martin Luther had been excommunicated by the Pope and had given his famous stand, refusing to recant his writings, Luther sat down to write a hymn. And he was convicted in his heart that we should use the Psalms to write hymns. Use the Psalms. And so we did. In opening to Psalm 130, he wrote his famous hymn, From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee. In fact, Luther was so convicted that we ought to sing the Psalms, he wrote a letter to the chaplain of Frederick the Wise, urging him to do this. And he included his hymn from Psalm 130 as a shining example. And not only did this chaplain take that idea and run with it, but two years later would have this very hymn played at his own funeral. From depths of woe, I cry to thee." And it would also be played at Frederick the Wise's successor's funeral as well. It had struck a chord. In 1530, the council at Augsburg was in session and it was a dangerous time for Luther to be out and about. So Luther holed up in a place called Coburg. Really, he was under a loose form of house arrest at this point. He suffered from great apprehension and fear during these days. And it's said that Luther was buffeted and he was attacked by the devil there in Coburg. The wait was immense. And it was there in Coburg, once again, as Luther waited to hear news of Augsburg, his life possibly hanging in the balance, that he said to those around him, Let us sing that psalm out of the depths. And 16 years later, Luther would die. And his body lie in state. And they sang a psalm. From the depths of woe, I cry to thee. Now fast forward almost 200 years later, and a young John Wesley was attending a Bible study where the Lord saved Wesley. And he left from that meeting to go and attend a service at St. Paul's Cathedral. And you'll never guess what they sang. Psalm 130, from the depths of woe I cry to thee. And of this moment, James Montgomery Boice, he writes, quote, Wesley was greatly moved by the anthem and it became one of the means God used to open his heart to the gospel of salvation. Close quote. The power of Psalm 130 has lost none of its potency today. Not only for those who must come as a newborn babe to grapple with their sin for the first time, but for the seasoned saint as well to behold anew the depths that God has saved us from and his faithfulness that dances over our lives. So without further delay, let us dive into these wonderful waters beginning with verse one. Verse one, out of the depths I call to you, O Yahweh. Of course, this is no new cry throughout scripture. We certainly see it in the Psalms, but here we must grasp, what is it that has brought the psalmist low? What are the depths he's drowning in? It's possible for many things to cause such a guttural cry. It could be loss, it could be poverty, it could be brought on by sorrow or pain. Often we can find ourselves crying out of the depths for no faults or no choice of our own. But here that's not the case. Here it is an overwhelming knowledge of his sin that has brought the psalmist to this cry of desperation. The rest of the psalm tell us this. There's been a revelation of sin, or what scripture reveals as sin to be exceedingly sinful. Now before we go any further, what exactly are we talking about? What is sin? Or what scripture will often refer to as iniquity or transgression? How does the Bible describe this dark reality of a fallen world? 1 John 3, 4 tells us that sin by definition is a transgressing, it is a breaking of God's law. Very simple, very simple definition. God said do not, I say do. God says do not, I say do. I say I do, God says do not. I've taken my own wants and desires, my own lusts and preferences. I've taken my own rules and I've supplanted the word of God and the rule of God. That is sin. And yet we see an incredible thing happening with the psalmist here. An awareness has come upon him. Now why is that remarkable? Before the psalmist even knew to cry out for mercy, it was mercy. that showed him his need to cry out. To know sin, to recognize it, to see it, and to see the danger from it. Danger, as in a man drowning, is a mercy from the throne room of heaven. We cannot see this on our own. And not only is the recognition of sin a mercy, but even that it is metered out to us in mercy. Beloved, the sins which you and I confess and that we acknowledge before one another and before God are not a fraction of what we actually do. Say, I didn't realize I was so bad. It has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with that. Sin is heinous because God is holy. There is no little sin because there is no little God to sin against. Do we grasp that? That is why the nice elderly lady down the street, kindest woman ever, who never heard a fly, but has never come to Christ, would stand justly condemned. It is less about our level of sinfulness and more about the pure holiness of the one sinned against. And all sin is ultimately against God, isn't it? Yet even then, His mercy meters our knowledge of our own transgression. Understand, dear saints, if God were to allow the full weight and knowledge of sin to come crashing down on us, we would be driven mad in a moment. He only allows His children enough knowledge for us to hate sin without being overwhelmed by the magnitude of it. Say, pastor, that sounds a little hyperbolic, a little extreme. Oh, beloved. Understand, the problem with which the psalmist is drowning in, his condition, took the very life of the Son of God to rectify. And we know that the depth of the problem determines the extent of the solution. I'll say that again. The depth of the problem determines the extent of the solution. And to what extent did God need to go? All the way to the cross. Before the psalmist ever knew to cry out for mercy, as he beheld his sin, mercy was already flowing as God restrained his eyes from its magnitude. God gave him enough to know that he was drowning. And what's the irony? He was always drowning. He just never knew it. Someone could hop into bed with a coiled cobra at the foot and perhaps never know it and sleep as soundly as a child. Yet for its presence to be revealed, you would jump, you would run. You're certain to never sleep a wink. And the cobra was always there. Now the psalmist knows it, and out of those depths he cries. And who does he cry to? Look closely, lest we miss incredible truths. Here, I'm thankful for the LSB translation. It highlights this. But other translations catch it as well. Look down to your Bibles. Here, beginning at first part of verse 1, he cries out to Yahweh. Your translations may say capital Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital R and D. What's the next usage in the verse 2? Oh Lord, lowercase, hear my voice, lowercase Lord, meaning Adonai. Keep going. Look down to verse 3 in your Bibles. What do you see first? Yahweh, capital Lord. Next line, verse 3, Lord, lowercase, Adonai. Again, verse 5, capital Lord, Yahweh. Next line, lowercase, Lord, Adonai. Do we see the clear pattern here? What is the psalmist saying? Why do this? Because in the midst of being overwhelmed with this revelation that has drove him to such distress, he is reaching out with both arms. Yahweh, the unapproachable, unspoken name, God's covenant name, the eternally existent one, the one who causes existence, the one with no beginning and no end, the absolute reality, an Adonai, Lord. The one true God who possesses all power and all dominion and all majesty and authority. Who is the master and sovereign king over all realms. The psalmist is in the depths and he's not reaching up casually with one hand saying, Oh God. He's reaching out with both arms and he's straining. He's crying Yahweh Adonai. I must cling to every attribute revealed in your name to withstand this revelation of sin. that I'm overcome with. Out of the depths, I cried and called to you, O Yahweh. What does he call from the depths? What flows? We get insight coming in waves now. Verse two, verse two. Oh, Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. Listen closely to his words, dear saints. His first prayer is that the Lord hear him. I'm not asking you to answer my prayers. That's often the worst thing for us. The psalmist doesn't want God to answer his prayer, for he does not know how to pray at this point, or what he should pray in seeing the weight of his sin. Don't answer my prayer. Just hear. Just listen. And knowing for the Lord and His children to hear is to help. When Scripture speaks of the Lord answering prayer, look at the context. It's most often said to those who are praying in accordance with His will. When He says, ask and it will be given to you. What if you're the psalmist and you don't know? How would someone drowning in these depths even begin to pray in accordance with His will? probably feels like I can't. I don't even know how I should pray. Don't answer my prayers, Adonai. Just hear them. Just incline your ear to them, for I don't even know how to pray. Every person in here who has swam in the slough of despond or who has been captured by the giant despair and thrown into doubting castle knows this desperation. Some days, I don't even know how to pray. And by the way, those are all references to Pilgrim's Progress. If you've never read it before, The Great Allegory by John Bunyan, sit down what you're reading now and go do it. It's such an important book, Charles Spurgeon read it once a year, every year of his adult life. How would it have been with hindsight? How would it have been if God had answered every one of our prayers? It would have been disaster and catastrophe of what it would have been. Just hear me, Adonai. Just incline your ear to me, and it is enough. Now again, we've titled this message, The Ascent of the Forgiven. And having started at the bottom rung, we now begin our climb. We now begin the ascent of the forgiven. Step one, being confronted by the magnitude and the severity of my sin. And so great has it been, it feels like waves about to drown me, barely catching a breath between swells as it rises. And now the ascent of the forgiven raises both hands in desperation, crying Yahweh, Adonai. And the climb begins. The ascent to Jerusalem begins. A cry for mercy has rang out and awareness has come upon me that was not there before. Clarity of thought begins to take hold. Reality begins to take hold now in this new framework as he climbs. Look now as the psalmist begins to proclaim biblical truth. That's what happens when you cry out for mercy and in desperation. Your vision clears. While it's only one step above the desperation, already you can breathe. Look with me to verse three. Verse 3, if you should keep iniquities, O Yah, O Lord, who could stand? Again, Yah and Adonai. Yah being the shortened form of Yahweh. Now you may think you've never heard that before, but you have. And in fact, you say it every time you say Hallelujah. Yah. There it is. Hallelujah. Praise Yah God. Hallelujah. Praise God. What is the psalmist declaring here as he begins his descent? What's he saying? If you should mark iniquities, if you should keep an account of my sin, if you retained in remembrance in order to punish, who could stand? Because all have sinned. and fall short of the glory of God. In other words, I have no right to stand before you. I have no right to ask anything of you because I've seen myself in the light of your law, in the light of your perfection. If you looked upon me as I deserve, if you looked upon me as a judge who means to capture and account for every crime, then I'm done. To stand is a judicial term. It's a legal term. It speaks of a man being absolved or justified upon an equal trial. And I haven't a chance. And that is just what you have allowed me to see. If I should see it all, I would be drowned. I'd be turned to dust. But this is enough. I see enough to know that I now hate sin. And I'm unworthy to stand before you as a judge. I certainly am unworthy to ask anything of you in petition. I only ask that you hear my pleas. If you've kept track, no one could stand. And yet now, verse four. Verse four launches with the most powerful, most captivating words in scripture. But with you, verse 4, but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. I pray your soul leapt within you, child of God. That's such a statement. You know, Spurgeon tells of Luther's recalling of the devil appearing to him in a dream and bringing before him the long rolls of his sins. And when he brought them, Luther said, Now, right at the bottom, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin. Oh, that blessed word, all, from all your sins, great sins and little sins, sins of your youth and sins of your gray hairs, sins by night and sins by day, sins of action and sins of thought, all gone. Blessed Savior, precious blood, omnipotent Redeemer, mighty Red Sea that drowns every Egyptian. But with you, there's forgiveness. That's a word we use so often, but the meaning and the potency is almost lost through familiarity, isn't it? The usage here of forgiveness literally means a cutting off. Forgiveness is a merciful surgery to remove the deadly tumor and cancer of the soul. That's what forgiveness is. But with you, there is forgiveness. Fill in any sin you like, and you may finish it this way. With you, there is forgiveness. There is no more greater news to the sinner who would come, nor to the seasoned saint who would be reminded, that with you, there is forgiveness. With you, there is a cutting off of the cancer that would kill me, expertly accomplished by the great physician. Behold the ascent of the forgiven, beginning in distress and despair, barely breathing, realizing his immense sin, crying out to Yahweh, pleading for mercy from Adonai. And oh, a humble and contrite heart, he will never turn away. And he climbs. He climbs in humility. I don't even deserve to ask. I have no right to even stand before you. If you counted my sins, I would be dust. Yes. And another step up he goes. And as he ascends, he begins beholding scriptural truths. And his eyes begin to clear as he sees not only his sin, but even greater, he sees God in light of that sin. And He begins to behold the beauty and the incredible value and worth of forgiveness, and He declares it, and He proclaims it. He's rising up within Himself. He's speaking truth to Himself. He's climbing. Can you see that? A song of ascents indeed. Why? Why? Last part of verse 4, that you may be feared. Pardon should lead to purity, beloved. God-breathed forgiveness should lead to God-breathed fear. It's not the fear that plagues the lost. Theirs is a terror. It is altogether different. One could smash the icy heart of the lost with the hammer of the law, and it would merely shatter into more ice. Though shattered, it's still ice. But when the warmth Of God's forgiveness and love is applied to that icy heart. It's changed to water. It's something new. And out of it now, rivers flow, rivers of living water. Purity flows from the pardon we've received. Godly fear flows from sacred relationship. Let us continue climbing with our psalmist, looking to verse 5, verse 5. I hope for Yahweh, my soul does hope and for his word do I wait. Now, some translations have given a little different treatment to this. Perhaps your translation says I wait for the Lord. My soul waits and in his word I hope. So having settled the forgiveness that comes from the Lord in my heart, I have this newfound surety and peace, knowing that I can now boldly come before the throne of grace, that my heart and my life are filled with expectation and hope, and that I'm content to wait for the Lord and His promises. Do you see the spiritual maturity that's beginning to grow in our psalmist? That the fuel of forgiveness has propelled him to even greater heights. And upon what is this declaration based? Is it a feeling? Is it an inner sense of being forgiven? Is it some sort of intangible spiritual abstract? No. I wait and I hope in His Word. In his word, it is his word that will not fail. It is the promises that are true. All of scripture is a book of promises. The prince of preachers calls these promises stepping stones across the stream of time. And we may march from one promise to another and never wet our feet all the way from earth to heaven if we but know how to keep our eyes open and find the promise to step upon. What confidence. To wait, to hope, means to linger upon, to look with great expectancy to it. And beloved, this waiting, this hope, this hoping, it's not an inactive word. It's not a passive state. It's an active word, an active choice. To wait on the Lord in the English sounds like do nothing, right? Go sit and wait. That is not the waiting of Scripture. It is an active expectation. It is a leaning in, a pressing in. It's putting down the thoughts that rise up within you from your own flesh or from the hounds of hell. It's preaching to yourself that which is true. Psalm 27 in its entirety tells us what Scripture means, to wait upon the Lord. That it is not merely an abiding trust, but it is a dynamic trust that dispels fear and despair. It is a radical, courageous confidence in the Lord and in His Word. And it drives us to prayer. And it's a place of strength building. Those who wait for the Lord shall what? Renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. This is not passive. Praying, singing, strength, walking, running, taking up wings, flying. When we wait upon the Lord, when our soul waits and hopes upon the Lord, it is an all-consuming, saturating reality of our life. See the active earnestness. Well, give us an analogy, psalmist, if you please, of such expectation. Look to verse 6. Look to verse 6. My soul waits for the Lord. How much? More than the watchman for the morning. More than the watchman for the morning. Some attribute this to a priest waiting for the first sun to begin sacrifices. Some to a soldier who draws the first watch. Some to a shepherd on the night watch. But the meaning is the same. How much do any of these long for the first glint of sun? Their duty began in darkness. They have spent the night straining to see that which might or might not even be there, trying to discern shadows and longing for the light to dispel the tricks of our eyes, and yet they must remain open. For if I close them to dispel the shadows, I'm gonna be overcome with sleep. I must stay awake and thus I must contend with what I see as shadows and cannot see in darkness. But what is the key in this season of waiting, whether the priest or the soldier or the shepherd? None look to the horizon wondering if the sun will rise. I only wonder when. His faithfulness is as sure as the sun rises in the east. We know it. The sun will rise. Not if, but when. As the watchman fixes his gaze on the horizon, pining for that first glint of light, pining for that first hue of pink against a black night. His promises are sure. They're as sure as a watchman knows the sun will rise and earnestly looks toward the east. So is the surety of the man, the woman, the child who waits upon the Lord. Do we see the difference of expectation when the object of our hope is unassailable? As faithful as the sun rising, there is no doubt that it will rise. Hope in the English language is not hope in the biblical language. Hope to us is a wing and a prayer. Boy, I sure hope he comes through. It's a wish. There's no surety. But in scripture, it changes the meaning entirely. Because the object of the hope has been changed. It is the object of our hope that removes the doubt and leaves us straining toward the east for the first purple and pink in the sky. Beloved, as we turn the mirror inward, does the earnest hope of the watchman describe your hope this morning? Is it the earnest expectation of your life? If not, go back to the beginning. Do we not see that Psalm 130 is the pattern by which God saves his children? It is the ascent. It is the climb of the forgiven. And we must go in the front gate. And it begins at the bottom rung. There is no other way. We will never understand or know the love of God, the forgiveness of God. unless we've first trembled before His holiness and seen the blackness of sin. That's wrong one. And that step leaves us desperate. Oh Lord, out of the depths I cry to You. I can't even ask for something. I don't even know what to ask for. Just that You hear me. The psalmist's cry is for mercy. Mercy is what? Mercy is not giving me what I deserve. I've seen the weight of my sin. I've seen and I've trembled before your holiness. And who could stand in the presence of such a one? No one. That is the gate, beloved, by which we all must enter. The doorway to salvation, which is Christ, is the lowest of entrances and may only be passed through lying on the ground, face down, as David did so many times. A heart that has been brought low. Every encounter of salvation that we read in scripture follows this very pattern. Hear Isaiah. Listen to Isaiah's encounter with the Holy God. And tell me if you hear the very pattern of Psalm 130 flowing around his words as he encounters the living and holy and perfect God in Isaiah 6. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord. seated on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. And seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings. With two He covered His face, and with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. And one called out to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filled with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined. There's the psalmist. There he is. Why is he ruined? Why is he desperate? Because I am a man of unclean lips. There's a sin. And I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. To encounter the living God is to be overwhelmed by the knowledge of our sin. That's what's happening to Isaiah right now. That's the pattern of salvation. And what happens after Isaiah is overwhelmed? After he's trembled before a holy God, just like our psalmist, what happens? Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Saints, do you ever wonder why we have such a lukewarm Christianity in America? Why we witness so many who seem to live in some sort of nominal Christianity and are content to reside there. They never hit the first rung of the ladder. They never trembled. They do not see their sin to be exceedingly sinful. In fact, they're a pretty good person who just needs a little tune up now and then. They're not a dead man who needs to be made alive. If we are to climb the ascent of the forgiven, it starts here. Thieves and robbers come in another way. You cannot. Nobody comes casually strolling into salvation with the living God. It's not that way. You're not more special than Isaiah, or David, or our psalmist. I'm sorry to tell you. You too must enter in the low door. It is the only way. But our ladder, beloved, is not only a call and a command to the lost. It is a tool of joy for the seasoned saint as well. Psalm 130 is a cycle of sanctification in Christian growth. Meaning you will revisit this aging saint time and time again. What do we know to be true? Famously quoted, the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains. Yes? As you grow in holiness, the unholiness that remains is going to become clearer and more noticeable. The closer you get to a bright light, the more you can see the stains that remain. Welcome to Psalm 130, Season Saint. Perhaps 40 years with the Lord, and he brings you back down to the first rung. I have grown in holiness these many years, and now I see even clearer the unholiness that remains. Oh, you saved me once, save me still. As I get closer to the light of heaven, to the purity of his face and the stains. Oh, I could see the stains. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? Keep ascending, forgiven saint of God. Your muscles are strong now. You have endurance now. He keeps taking you down to the first rung and up you climb. What a glorious journey. And now, dear psalmist, look who's preaching. From being down, verse 1. To crying out, verse 2. To recognizing truth, verse 3 and 4. Now preaching truth to yourself, verses 5 and 6. And finally now, he's telling others. Verses 7 and 8. Verses 7 and 8. Oh Israel, wait for Yahweh. For with Yahweh, there is loving kindness. And with Him is abundant redemption. And it is he who will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Let me tell you, Israel, what I know. Let me tell you what I know to be true. Let me tell you the lesson I learned in the slew of despond when waves were crashing over me and I didn't even know how to pray. seeing the stains in the light of perfection. And it was then that I looked up and there was lovingkindness like I had never known. The redemption on offer, abundant to overflowing. It is He who will redeem. It is He that will save. It is the ascent of the forgiven. In 1523, Martin Luther put Quill to paper. From depths of woe I cry to thee in trial and tribulation. Bend down thy gracious ear to me, Lord, hear my supplication. If thou rememberest every sin, who then could heaven ever win or stand before thy presence? Thy love and grace alone avail to blot out my transgression. The best and holiest deeds must fail to break sin's dread oppression. Before thee none can boasting stand, but all must fear thy strict demand and live alone by mercy. Therefore, my hope is in the Lord and not in mine own merit. It rests upon his faithful word to them of contrite spirit. That he is merciful and just, this is my comfort and my trust. His help I wait with patience. And though it tarry through the night, until the morning waken, my heart shall never doubt his might, nor count it self-forsaken. O Israel, trusting God your Lord, born of the Spirit and the Word, now wait for his appearing. Though great are sins, yet greater still is God's abundant favor. His hand of mercy never will abandon us, nor waver. Our shepherd good and true is he who will at last is Israel free from all their sin and sorrow. What a glorious reality for us this morning. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, if we walked in this morning not knowing what step we were on, Lord, we do now, and we pray that that reality would be overwhelming. Lord, whether it be overwhelming joy for the seasoned saint, perhaps who sees the stains so close to the light, or load for those who have been playing church. Lord, those who have claimed your name and your label and haven't reached the first step. We ask, Lord, that today would be that day. Lord, that they would enter in the narrow gate, the narrow way, who is Christ Jesus. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would keep us this week, keep us in your beloved, safe until we can be together again. In Jesus' mighty name, amen.