From Despair to Deliverance

From Despair to Deliverance

Psalm 130

Farmer Joe decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (responsible for the accident) to court.  In court, the trucking company's fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe.  "Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, "I'm fine"?," questioned the lawyer.

Farmer Joe responded, "Well I'll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the..."

"I didn't ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question.  Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, "I'm fine?!"

Farmer Joe said, "Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road..."

The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client.  I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe's answer and said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."

Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side.  I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other.  I was hurting real bad and didn't want to move.  However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning.  I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.  Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene.  He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her.  After he looked at her he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.  Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me.  He said, "Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her.  How are you feeling?"

It was then that I said, "I'm fine."

Today, there is no need for any of us to lie and say "I'm fine."   We are not fine.   We are all accident victims of this human condition called sin. And none of us can cleanse ourselves from the awful stain that sin leave with us.

How many of you have ever used SC Johnson's Scrubbing Bubbles?   Does that

stuff ever worked like the bottle or can says?  Just spray it on and let those scrubbing bubbles will do the work. YEAH, RIGHT!!

Today our text deals with the incredible power of God's forgiveness. We, however, often think that God's forgiveness is like SC Johnson's Scrubbing Bubbles, the bottle says it removes tough soap scum easily, but instead takes a lot of Scrubbing elbow grease to make it work.

Have you ever asked God to forgive you of your sin, but then felt that He had not?   Or, have you ever asked God to forgive you and then thought that you must beat yourself daily for His forgiveness to take place?

Today, we are going to learn the reality of forgiveness as found in Psalm 130. SO, let us learn together the truth of Forgiveness!!

In this text from Psalm 130,  we see :

Confession of Sin

Confidence in Mercy , and 

Confirmation of Goodness

1. Body
1. Confession of Sin  (vv.  1-2)
1. We don't know who this author is... it's attributed by some to Nehemiah the priest.
2. He is in the depths.
1. When the Jews were taken captive in Babylon, they talked of themselves as if they were in prison.
2. Depths - an abyss or deep ditch, ready to be swallowed up.
3. He cries out to God
1. No matter where we are, we can cry to God
1. Daniel in the lion's den
2. Jonah in the belly of the whale
3. Paul and Silas in prison
4. The truth here in our text is not that the Psalmist is focused on his feelings, but on his circumstances!   
1. He is in a place where he has no control! 
2. He is in a situation that he can't change!
5. Only when you get to the place where you know you are not in control will you be able to find help!!
6. Why do we wait so long before we turn to God for help?
7. Many of us wait until we have exhausted all other means before we go to the Lord or before we go to church. Some of us view the Lord is a last resort.
8. STORY: A woman asked her husband to pray for her.
1. He replied, "Oh, has it come to that?"
9. Some of us aren't really sure of God's forgiveness.
1. We believe God forgives
2. We understand that He's forgiven other people
3. We just can't understand how God could ever forgive us.
4. I knew a great guy. Had a wife and 2 1/2 kids, 2 ½ cars with payments, a dog and ½ a cat, a mortgage. --The average American Joe with the average American debt. He had the average American Job making $49,500 annually. He was in a mid-level management position with American Widgets Inc., which produced and sold the average American high quality widgets which everyone in the world seemed to be buying in the 1990’s. He had been with the company quite a while and had done quite a good job over the years. He would get the average pep talks and corrections from his superiors everyone should expect to get if you work with or for anyone. But one year, the bottom fell out of his division of the widget market. He had never experienced lack-luster sales in all his years with the company and didn’t know the remedy to the situation. He had a team working with him who were equally as clueless. They read, they researched, they studied charts and actuaries. They cut costs, increased productivity and retooled the factory. There were others who worked with him, but he was in charge of that division. And, their team response to the problem did not prove adequate. The result—failure. The problem was complicated. There were many factors, many individuals, contributing to the failure (Not to mention, they found out later, there was a guy, working behind the scenes, gunning for my friend’s position, manipulating the facts and figures which were already poor enough). The company’s response however was simple. My friend had to go—He was the guy in charge—he was fired.
5. The point of my story is this: It is most difficult to justify yourself when you have at least some fault in the matter. In almost every situation, all of us, almost always are to some extent at fault. --Sometimes even 100% at fault.
6. How in the world can a man with unclean hands ask a holy God for help—for deliverance from his trouble, when he understands, at least to some degree, “I am getting what I deserve!”?
2. Confidence in Mercy   (vv. 3-6)
1. Perhaps some of us are afraid of God?
1. "there is forgiveness with" God
2. Who could stand it if God didn't forgive?
2. "there is forgiveness with" God
1. and that's exactly what we need
2. This is what we call the "Good News!"
3. Dr. Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he "could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day."
4. My soul waits for the Lord -- I hope in His Word
1. Waiting is not about unbelief!  Waiting here has to do with great expectation!
2. Because God has forgiven sin, and that being the greatest gift of
3. all, what else will He do?
4. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him (I Cor. 2:9/ Isaiah 64:4)."
5. The Psalmist knew if God forgave sin, there is nothing He would  withhold from those who love Him!!
6. Someone asked Luther, "Do you feel that you have been forgiven?"   He answered, "No! but I'm as sure as there's a God in Heaven."   "For feeling come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving; my warrant is the Word of God, naught else is worth believing."
7. Not only do we WAIT and HOPE -- we BELIEVE
1. "more than they that watch for the morning"
2. The person on the night watch may be discouraged because "nothing ever happens" overnight
3. They may have to fight off sleepiness and long night hours
4. But one thing they can count on with certainty -- morning is coming.
5. In the same way we can have confidence in God and wait on His answer to our prayers.
8. The Lord 's coming to the relief of a distressed person is so sure -- just as a watchman waits for the morning to come and knows that the morning WILL come -- that is encouragement to us.  To know that was we pray and wait ACTIVELY for him to answer that he will do just that.
9. How do we wait actively? 
1. Look for the answer to come -- expect it. 
2. Begin to make plans for the answer to come. 
3. Begin to thank and praise God for the answer.
3. Confirmation of Goodness  (vv. 7-8)
1. "with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption."
2. Without God there is no mercy... no redemption
3. But with the Lord, there is mercy... there is full redemption!
4. In the King James Version it says PLENTEOUS redemption.
5. In the New Living Translation it says OVERFLOWING SUPPLY of salvation.
6. The Message says GENEROUS redemption.
7. The interviewer examined the job application then turned to the prospective employee.
8. "I see you have put ASAP down for the date you are available to start, meaning as soon as possible, of course.  However, I see you've put AMAP down for required salary.  I don't believe I've ever seen that before, what does it mean?"
9. The applicant replied, "As Much as Possible!"
10. Verse 8 says, "He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. He redeems us from the condemning and the commanding power of sin."
11. Paul says in Romans 11:26, "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sin."
12. Matthew 1:21 says, "...he [Jesus] will save his people from their sins."
13. Titus 2:14 "who gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
14. He has an OVERFLOWING--GENEROUS---PLENTEOUS supply---that means ENOUGH for everyone.
15. Why are we so often just limping along just barely making it?  Why are we living so much of the time under a sense of condemnation from the past when He has provided an overflowing supply?  Sometimes we are so surprised when God answers our prayers. We are in fact startled.
16. A guy in a taxi wanted to speak to the driver so he leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulder.
17. The driver screamed, jumped up in the air and yanked the wheel over.
18. The car jumped the curb, demolished a lamppost and came to a stop inches from a store window.
19. The startled passenger said, "I didn't mean to frighten you, I just wanted to ask you something."
20. The Taxi driver said, "It's not your fault sir.    It's my first day as a cab driver.                 I've been driving a hearse for the past 25 years!"
2. Conclusion

1. We can go to God and say "Help--the bottom has fallen out of my life. Hear my cry for help. Listen to my prayer--be ATTENTIVE to it.  I'm waiting actively on you to do something and I know you will just as sure as I know that morning is going to come."
2. I know from my own experience that God can forgive sin and free us from all consequence of it.  Why does he do this?  Because he loves us with an everlasting and  unfailing love.
3. Will you accept the forgiveness of the LORD today?   Will you put away your "Scrubbing Bubbles" faith and really believe God forgives sin?   Today could be the most liberating day of your life!
4. The year was 1927, The place was West Africa, A blood specimen was taken from a native man named Asibi, Who was sick with yellow fever.
5. A vaccine was made from the original strain of virus obtained from this man. In fact, all the vaccine manufactured since 1927; By the Rockefeller Foundation and health agencies, Derives from the original strain of virus obtained from this one man. Carried down to the present day from one laboratory to another,
6. Through repeated cultures and by enormous multiplication, It has offered immunity to yellow fever to millions of people in many countries.
7. Through the creative imagination of science, The blood of this one man ‘Asibi’ in West Africa; Has been made available to serve the whole human race.
8. In another, more important way, The blood of another Man has been made to serve the human race.
9. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18: “We are saved not with silver, not with gold but the precious blood of Christ”.
10. In just a moment, we are going to the Lord’s Table.  Before we do that…
11. Climb up out of the pit of despair today.
12. Experience God's deliverance.