Psalm 130
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.”
The Lord will hear your cry for Him, wherever you may be. You may be entrapped in the deepest sins, the most abhorrent conditions, all may be evil around you, but the Lord is even there. “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” The Lord does not ignore the earnest supplications of one of His beloved creations calling upon His Name for forgiveness. If He were to remember our sins, as David states here, “Who could stand?” Isaiah, when he encountered the Lord in a vision said, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” He knew that his sins were glaringly obvious in the presence of the Holy Person of the Lord. He knew that due to his sins, all is undone, “Woe is me!” was a cry of sheer desperation and complete surrender to the fate one so richly deserves. Do you think your sins are enough to warrant the death sentence, dear Christian? Some people would gladly say no, Christians even, would deny that they have done enough to deserve death. What a stupidly arrogant position to take! For the Almighty Judge, who knows all, who cannot be swayed from perfect, holy, judgment, has already handed us the death sentence! We will all die, that’s a simple fact that no one can deny, and the Lord has given us the sentence. For we have offended His law thousands upon thousands of times. Suppose we take Christ’s dictates literally (as I do) that lust is adultery and hatred is murder. We have probably committed adultery with hundreds of people, although they’re quite unwitting of it, and have murdered dozens. Is that alone not worthy of the death sentence? On top of this, we are liars, thieves, idolatrous, self-righteous, greedy, envious, and do not love others as we should, as Christ did. Surely God has every right to smite us where we stand! Surely we do not deserve to live another moment in this wretched estate. We are all the worst criminals to ever walk the planet, and all our sins are remembered by God. Some criminals may get away with some crimes, but we will have no such luck.
Is this meant to be depressing and dour? Am I saying that we are up the river Niagara without a paddle? Of course not! I’m setting the stage for the Lord Almighty to act, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” On our own, we do nothing but offend the Lord, “Against you, you only have I sinned.” Paul displays this most elegantly in Romans 8:31–39, which, while too long to write out here, will be posted at the bottom of the page. Yes, we are powerful sinners, but even more powerful is the omnipotent Hand of the Lord God Almighty, the King of Kings. He has promised to save us, and save us He will do. He only asks one thing in return, “Repent and believe.” Turn from the horrible, evil sins that got us in this wretched place to begin with, turn from them and never return. This will not be easy, I don’t want anyone coming into Christianity thinking that turning from sin and living in holiness is a walk in the park. For sin is ingrained in our deepest places, it is interwoven with and in our flesh. However, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires,” and, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” We must kill the old man so the new man can be reborn and enter into a living relationship with the Lord of Hosts. There is a reason Paul uses such strong, violent language here. because sin once held us hostage, we were once entrapped by our old passion and desires, held captive, unable to leave. However, Christ freed us from our bonds, He rescued us from our evil captors and set us free. We must, must die to our old self, immediately. This is not something that you can put off to tomorrow because you want to finish all your sinning today, that’s grave foolishness indeed. Think of the Parable of the Ten Virgins, how five were prepared and five put off preparation until it was too late. They came up to the marriage feast and knocked on the door, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But the Lord replied, “Truly I say to you I do not know you.” Jesus finishes the parable by saying, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” We do not know when Christ will return, we must always keep our wicks trimmed and ready for when the bridegrooms comes. There is no time to put off repentance until tomorrow, for tomorrow may be too late. Repent today! Beg the Lord, on your knees, for His forgiveness, and He will give it to you. Sometimes, I think, we take the promise of forgiveness for granted. To our frail human minds, it almost cheapens it that it is freely given, that we can just ask and He will forgive us? We do not have to pay penance, lash ourselves, confess to anyone but the Lord, and he will forgive us. We must be ever watchful that we do not fall into a pattern where we sin, ask for forgiveness, sin, and ask again. No, when we see a sin, it must be eliminated. There are glaring sins, and these are easy to find and execute, but it is the little sins, the ones that harm no one, a little deception, a little inward hatred or stifled anger, these are the ones that are difficult to end and, sometimes, even know about. Ask the Lord, and He will open your eyes to the small, but no less deadly sins, that pervade your life. Seek and destroy.
Through the power of the Almighty God, the Holy Creator of the Universe, we can eliminate the devil’s influence from our lives. Praise Him, therefore, for giving us the strength required to deny Satan the pleasure of ruling our lives. He truly is an awesome God, most worthy of praise and adoration. Praise the Lord!
Romans 8:31–39
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
“For thy sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
