Hope Incarnate

Introduction:

With Thanksgiving finished, the Christmas season has officially begun. Each year there is always the emphasis

We are beginning a series on the Celebration of the Incarnation as we work through the Advent Season and anticipate the birth of our Savior.

The word “Advent” comes from the latin word “Adventus” meaning “coming”

Each week we look at a different theme of the Advent season. The first theme is Hope. As we look at the idea of “Hope” this week we will be looking at Psalm 130 as we understand the hope that the people had looking forward to the coming Messiah and the salvation that God provides.

Before we read the Scripture this morning, I want to provide some context for this passage.

First, this passage is prefaced as “A Song of Ascents.” Psalms 120-134 are labeled as “Songs of Ascents.”

Most likely either referring to being songs sung by those making the journey to the Temple.

A spiritual representation of the soul’s ascent to God.

Possibly an antiphonal psalm, like a call and response where various groups sung responsively by different voices.

So this Psalm should be understood as a reminder and chorus about the hope and salvation found in God.

With that in mind, let us start by reading Psalm 130.

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 130 CSB

A song of ascents. Out of the depths I call to you, Lord! Lord, listen to my voice; let your ears be attentive to my cry for help. Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that you may be revered. I wait for the Lord; I wait and put my hope in his word. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning— more than watchmen for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the Lord. For there is faithful love with the Lord, and with him is redemption in abundance. And he will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

We All Need Hope

Hope is something that is pervasive in culture.

Star Wars: A New Hope — “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.”

There is this idea that “if this will just happen.” This is hope.

We watch a sporting event until there is no hope.

“Out of the depths”

We all have times where we feel like we are hopeless.

People are more likely now than ever to experience hopelessness.

Depression and thoughts of suicide increase year over year.

This idea of the “depths” in scripture is used to refer to te darkest of places and the hardest of days.

Psalm 69:1-3 gives this a better picture.

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 69:1–3 CSB

Save me, God, for the water has risen to my neck. I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing; I have come into deep water, and a flood sweeps over me. I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

Have you ever felt this way? Like you are drowning in hopelessness and despair?

We all struggle with hopelessness. We all need hope.

The reality that we face is that all hopelessness is a result of sin.

The source of Sin. Genesis 3. Adam and Eve were disobeyed and ate the fruit they were commanded not to eat.

From then on mankind has been broken and has a sinful nature.

This has resulted in all of the hurt and brokenness that exist in the world today.

Hopelessness that results from sin always comes in one of 3 ways.

Hopelessness caused by a fallen world.

The reality of living in a fallen world. Sometimes the hopelessness we feel is a result of living in a fallen and broken world.

Disease, sickness, natural disasters, and death all exist because of the corruption of sin.

When these things afflict us though they may not be the fault of others or our own fault, we must realize that we still live in an imperfect world that is thoroughly marred because of the effects of sin.

Hopelessness caused by the sin of others.

Sometimes the sin that causes our hopelessness is from the sin of others.

This is the one that most often we like to point to. We look at what others have done to us, the ways they have afflicted us.

While this can be a way of negating any role that we may play, there are certainly times where the sins of others affect our lives.

When a person steals from us. When someone we trusted betrays our trust. When people in power take advantage of those less fortunate, including adults who abuse their power over children.

These situations can vary in severity from minor inconveniences to major trauma.

To be sure, these are situations where hopelessness is the result and the cause is the sin that others committed, directly or indirectly, against you.

TWO BIBLICAL EXAMPLES

David fleeing from Saul. He had only ever been faithful to King Saul, but in his paranoia and realization that God had rejected Him, Saul sought to have Him killed.

Uriah killed by King David. In this example, David is on the other end of the equation. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and when Uriah would not go home to his wife, David commanded his fellow soldiers to abandon him so that he would be killed.

Hopelessness caused by our own sin.

Sometimes we only have ourselves to blame for the situations we find ourselves in.

We must be aware in this.

If we find relationships that we are in struggling constantly.

The guilt we feel when we sin.

If bad things happen to us after we do wrong things.

Sometimes these things are not immediate. Many of you may be able to trace some of your physical ailments to the ways you abused your body in your youth.

We may not feel the effects of sin and poor decisions until years later.

At some point we must look in the mirror and understand that often the hopelessness we feel is caused by our own sinfulness.

TWO BIBLICAL EXAMPLES

Jonah and the Whale. He was punished because of his own disobedience.

The Prodigal Son. He found himself eating the pods the pigs ate because of his own sinfulness.

This does not make you any different than others in the world. All people are hopeless and separated from God because of their sin.

There is a shame that comes from realizing that our state of hopelessness is our own fault. Our default reaction is to cast blame elsewhere, to blame others, or to justify our own actions.

It is in understanding our own sinfulness, we must come to realize where our hope must be placed.

When we cry for help, where are we turning?

We should take note from the Psalmist, “Out of the depths, I call to you LORD!”

When we are hopeless we must turn to the one who created us and sustains us: Yaweh!

This is the personal name for God that is expressed in the Old Testament. Usually translated as THE LORD in all capitals.

This name most simply means, “I Am”

When in need of hope, we turn to the great “I Am,” The Lord our God.

BECAUSE...

Our Hope Comes from God

In verses 3 and 4 we become even more keenly aware of our need for hope.

If God kept track of our iniquities or sin, who could stand?

NONE!

David expresses this idea as well in Psalm 143:2

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 143:2 CSB

Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous in your sight.

Paul expresses the same idea in Romans 3:20

SCRIPTURE

Romans 3:20 CSB

For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

Scripture is clear, Old Testament and New Testament both that all people are sinful and cannot please God through the works of the flesh.

While Verse 3 makes it clear that none are righteous.

Verse 4 is the turning point of the entire Psalm.

Up to this point, everything is despair and a crying out to the Lord. Everything is looking to our hopelessness, sinfulness and inability to please God.

Verse 4 is when things change. “But with you there is forgiveness.”

Ephesians 2 has this same sentiment

SCRIPTURE

Ephesians 2:4 CSB

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,

There is this common almost comical idea that the word “but” precedes bad news.

On a date you never want to hear:

You are so nice and sweet but… I just want to be friends.

At work you never want to hear:

You are such a great worker but… we are going to have to let you go.

While we might expect bad news to follow the word “but” in the Bible, it is almost exclusively used to express the goodness of God in comparison to our poor outlook without his intervention.

In this instance there is the assertion that with God there is forgiveness. This word for forgiveness is סְלִיחָה (slihah).

This word is only ever used in reference to Yaweh.

There are no “person to person” instances of forgiveness where this word is used.

There are only 3 times (including in Psalm 130) where this word appears as a noun.

SCRIPTURE

Daniel 9:9 CSB

Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against him

In Nehemiah 9:17 He is referred to as a loving God.

This gives the clear and undeniable understanding that forgiveness belongs to God and that only God can forgive.

This is the definite understanding that the people of Israel had concerning God and sin.

This then gives a much better picture to the shock the Pharisees showed when the friends lowered the paralyzed man through the roof. See their reaction in Mark 2:5-7

SCRIPTURE

Mark 2:5–7 CSB

Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” But some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts: “Why does he speak like this? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

The pharisees were theologically correct. Only God can forgive sins. What they failed to realize was that they had God incarnate, God in the flesh. They had in front of them the hope of redemption and they missed it.

So forgiveness belongs to the Lord alone, and this hope has been further revealed and realized as forgiveness from God being accomplished and made available through the work of Jesus Christ.

This is echoed and seen in John chapter 14

SCRIPTURE

John 14:6 CSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This concept of God’s forgiveness is personified and put into action in Christ.

Moving on to the second part of verse 4 we see the result that forgiveness produces. The reverence of God!

As mentioned previously, when confronted with our sins, we experience hopelessness, or grief over them.

There are two kinds of hopelessness that an understanding of our sin produces:

Godly Grief and worldly grief.

This is clearly seen in 2 Corinthians 7. Paul is expressing that he does not regret his scathing first letter to the corinthians and the grief it caused them. Starting in chapter 7 verse 10:

SCRIPTURE

2 Corinthians 7:10–11 CSB

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death. For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.

Worldly sorrow is the “Woe is me” attitude that does not acknowledge the help that is in God. This does not lead to repentance and salvation.

This leads to despair and misery.

Godly grief is understanding what you have done to God, but also understanding what He has done for you. This produces repentance. It produces a respect and reverence for God and motivates us to action.

This idea is so clearly expressed in Psalm 130

The grief that we feel leads us to repentance. The forgiveness God offers leads us to produce what Paul expressed that it produced in the Corinthians: a desire to clear yourselves, indignation, fear, deep longing, zeal, and justice.

It is a purification of the self in pursuit and submission to a Holy God.

Our hope is indeed in God. Only He can forgive. Only through Christ do we have the hope of reconciliation with God.

As we move into examining verse 5 and 6 we also know that this is a hope worth waiting for.

Our Hope is Worth Waiting For

In verse 5 the Psalmist says that he waits for Yaweh.

We are in a different stage of waiting than the Psalmist.

We are beginning today the celebration of Advent, “the coming.” This is the coming of the hope in which the Psalmist waited.

He waits and puts his hope in God’s word.

This idea of God’s word can be confusing when considering how many ways we refer to “the word of God.”

First we have the Bible being the “Word of God.”

We also have the idea of the “logos” “the Word” as seen in John 1 that is identified as Jesus the Word of God.

Then we have passages like this that speak of the word of God. Based upon its contextual use, the hope the author is putting his hope in is in the words that God had spoken.

This includes his commands and promises, including his promise to send the Messiah, revealed to be Jesus.

The two primary principles we can gain from this idea of “waiting for the Lord” is that:

God keeps His promises.

Men may regularly and often break promises, but the Lord is faithful.

He fulfilled his promise in sending Jesus, and He will keep all the other promises He has made. He is trustworthy.

The Lord is worth waiting for.

Have you ever been very excited about something, only to be let down? Perhaps a friend recommended a restaurant, for you to end up with food poisoning. Maybe your favorite sports team flops when it was supposed to be their year.

I know an example in my life was when I was in middle school, my favorite book series was being made into a movie. One of my best friends and I who had both read the books were excited and made sure we saw the movie.

It was a major disappointment. Characters were misrepresented and storylines were mishandled. It was so bad that the future movie adaptations for the later books never happened.

However many times we may have been let down for what we have waited for, this is not the case for the Lord. Consider Romans 8:18:

SCRIPTURE

Romans 8:18 CSB

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

What is to come is so much greater and grander than anything that we can possibly imagine. The hope we await cannot be overstated or oversold. It is the realization of everything we have believed.

If you have followed Christ, you have been justified before God, but one day you will be glorified; fully perfected and living in eternity forever enjoying and worshipping God.

We also see a further call to wait for the Lord as we wait for something certain in the refrain:

“more than watchmen for the morning — more than watchmen for the morning.”

This invokes the idea of people who eagerly await the morning as it marks the end of their shift and the end of any potential danger.

It also indicates that waiting on the morning is certain like the watchmen waiting on the certainty of the morning.

After all this is said, there is the call for Israel to put their hope in the LORD.

A Call to Hope in God

In this Psalm so far we have walked through:

The reality of hopelessness.

The hopelessness that is present because of our own sinfulness.

The reality of the Lord’s forgiveness. That forgiveness belongs to Him, and he alone forgives.

This forgiveness motivates us to a life of reverence and obedience.

This hope of the Lord’s forgiveness is worth waiting for.

This hope is a hope that will certainly be fulfilled.

After all this the Psalmist says:

“Israel, put your hope in the LORD.” Put your hope in Yaweh.

This is the precursor to the Gospel.

The awareness of the sinfulness of man and the guilt this brings before the Lord. The awareness that of the forgiveness only found in Him. The hope that the Lord will bring about this forgiveness and redemption.

In Christ we have the realization of this hope.

We have Hope Incarnate, Hope in the Flesh as, Jesus, the promised one of God has come.

We are not in the same situation as the Psalmist or those who initially read it or sang it as we have seen the promise fulfilled in Christ.

The call to Israel is the same call we must heed today.

Put your hope in the Lord!

Why?

There is faithful love with Him. Love that will not fade or change because of what we do or do not do.

There is redemption in abundance. There is nothing you can do or have done that the Lord cannot forgive.

He will redeem you and forgive you of all of your sins.

This is the promise that was to Israel but is now available to all who would believe.

A Few weeks ago, Nick Scott preached on Romans 1:16 and this is the reality of this promise

SCRIPTURE

Romans 1:16 CSB

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

The redemption mentioned in Psalm 130 is made possible through Christ. First for the Jew, or Israel, but also to the Greek essentially meaning all who would believe.

The question we must answer today, is where is your hope?

If you are a believer.

Are you hoping in something lesser?

Your own abilities

What others can do for you?

Or are you hoping in Christ?

The only one who can forgive.

The only one who will not ever fail you.

The one with whom there is redemption in abundance.

Has your hope in Him produced the reverence and fear that it ought to cause?

Are you seeking him faithfully?

Are you sharing this hope with the world?

This call to hope in the Lord is for all who would hear. Because all are in need of this hope.

For those who are not saved.

We must understand the reality of this predicament in which we find ourselves.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

July 8th, 1741 Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in Enfield, Connecticut. Before this day the Great Awakening that was taking place in America had not yet spread to Enfield, but after this day it exploded with the Awakening of God.

Edwards who most often read his sermons and preached them as though a lecture was not the same as the electrifying preaching George Whitefield also active at this time. In this sermon, Edwards put forth the hard truth that God’s just anger burns toward sin, and that those who do not turn to him will face a just destruction because of their own sin.

When face with this truth the congregation cried out for him to stop. They cried out, “How can I be saved?” “O, I am going to hell!”

His answer to them is the same as what is in Psalm 130 and the same that I tell you today.

Turn to the Lord. Hope in the Lord.

There is wrath that awaits those who do not turn, because if sin is counted, who can stand?

But with God and God alone there is forgiveness, and redemption in abundance.

Hope in the Lord, turn to Him today.

There is no better time to hope in the Lord than today as we celebrate the hope made manifest in Christ.

Pray