Hello and welcome. As we read the Bible, we cannot help but notice just how kind and gentle and good and merciful God is. He is not an evil ruler as Satan is. God is not someone who begrudges mercy. No. He tells us that He is a God who delights in mercy. He takes pleasure in bestowing His grace and, on the other hand, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God’s goodness is evident throughout the Bible.
Actually, as we think about this as men, we only know goodness and kindness and gentleness and love to a certain degree. We only have little bits and pieces of these things. Yet even what little bit we can experience or show forth in our lives of these wonderful attributes, these positive things that certainly are good things (as when we are kind to others), we are only able to do so because God Himself is the fullness of all of these things.
He says of Himself that He is love, that He is wisdom, that He is goodness. “There is none good but one, that is, God,” and God is all of these things in their fullness. He has an abundance of each one of these beautiful characteristics. It is His nature, it is who He is, and He tries to convey these things to mankind who knows very little of the good and blessed characteristics that we read of God.
So God informs us that He is merciful. He loves to have mercy. He delights in mercy. He does not begrudge His grace or salvation. He reveals these things to us and encourages us greatly to approach Him, to come forward to His throne, which is a throne of grace, and to beseech Him that He might bestow His grace to us and have mercy on us and save us. Again and again, God would encourage each person to approach Him in this way.
There are many passages in the Bible that give great encouragement for sinners. Yes, there is hope, even though the hope is not in you or in me or in any man. There is no hope there. We can never get ourselves saved. We can never become righteous in anything that we do. That is hopeless. However, the Bible reveals the hope of the Saviour in that He might save us.
The Bible shows us in many places this wonderful truth of the character of the person of God. One place in the Bible is in Psalm 130. This is one of many passages where the Lord reveals His tender nature. In this Psalm, a Psalm of degrees, it says in Psalm 130:1-3:
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O JEHOVAH. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, JEHOVAH, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
This is the truth because the Bible tells us, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” There is not a just man upon earth. None of us are good in any way. We have transgressed God’s Law.
If the Lord would hold each one of us accountable based on our works, if our only opportunity or shot at getting into Heaven was based on what we do, then not one of us would be able to enter into the Kingdom of God. This is because we have fallen short. We have offended at least in one point—no, more like 10,000—and “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Standing guilty, we are condemned to die.
If God “shouldest mark iniquities”—that is, hold each person accountable to what they do—then “who shall stand”? None; not one of us. None of us would stand. It would be impossible. But God has developed a salvation plan that is able to bring salvation to certain ones whom He has chosen to save from the foundation of the world. He does this through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ bore the sins of these certain ones and died for them and paid the penalty in full. Therefore, God is able to not mark iniquities against them. He does not hold them responsible for the sin that they committed, because the sin is paid for and the Law’s demands are completely satisfied. Therefore, they can stand in His sight through the work of Christ, but never through their own work.
It goes on to say in Psalm 130:4:
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
This is another lovely statement by God. It is a wonderful fact that in God’s hands, in His power, lies the ability to forgive the sins of sinners, the rebels and the enemies of God, those who have been shaking their fists at Him perhaps all of their life long.
This is like the thief on the cross who even up until the last couple of hours of his life was contrary to God and to the Law of God. He was an enemy of God Himself, and yet God had forgiveness with him. God drew the thief and changed his heart and moved him to beseech Christ that He might be with him. Jesus did indeed forgive his sins and said, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Jesus has that wonderful and blessed gift of pardon, as a king sovereignly reserves the right to pardon even the worst criminal if He so pleases. If someone is about to be executed, the king could send a messenger and pardon the individual so that he would not die. Likewise, Christ could pardon men because He has paid for the sins of His elect people. Therefore, since none of us know who His elect are, God encourages us to approach Him and to beseech Him for pardon that we might be forgiven our sins.
This power is in Him; therefore, we should go to Christ. We should go to God and say, “O Lord, I am guilty and deserving of wrath. I have never done anything that should cause You to look upon me graciously. I could never do anything to earn forgiveness, but may it be that Thou who art merciful and gracious and compassionate might have compassion on me. O Lord, save me and have mercy; O Lord, save me.”
After beseeching God for these things, the individual would have to wait to see, “Has God heard? Will He forgive?” It is often during this waiting period that a person begins to fear God. They may fear that God might not hear and that He might not forgive. If he is one of God’s elect and is being drawn by Him, this tends to lead the person to go to God all the more, “O Lord, please do not pass me by; please, O Lord.”
Psalm 130:5 goes on to say:
I wait for JEHOVAH, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
This is where our hope has to be. It has to be in the Word of God, the Word that reveals such a tremendous Saviour, such a great God. If our hope is there, if our hope is in God’s Word and in Christ that He might save us, what do we think that God will do? May we cast all of our hopes upon Him and may we approach Him as the just judge that He is and the Heavenly Father that He is, and may we beseech this Father for His Holy Spirit.