The Joy of Forgiveness: Part 1

Again, I don't remember the last time when we've worshipped. I can't remember the last time we worshipped on 4th of July.

It's been a while but nevertheless as We join in with David when we say it was good for me.

They said let us go into the house of the Lord Let us go into the house of the Lord. Let us go into the house of the

Lord Let us not go to a barbecue Let's not go yet. These things are great, but let us first go to the

Lord of the Sabbath to the Lord of the Sabbath This is where our hearts at and give him our firstfruits this lover of our soul

Amen, as pastor sent me a quote this week. It said how precious is one soul

If God and Satan goes after it How precious is one soul?

So a Brief introduction in 1993 there was a film

I graduated around 1998 Shows me getting on up there, too But nevertheless, there's a film and it keeps you on the side of your seat the whole time.

It's a action thriller 1993 and it's Harrison Ford and He comes home he's actually a doctor in Chicago and he comes home

His name is dr. Kimball he comes home to find his wife

Being beaten and murdered by a one -armed man Nevertheless Dr.

Kimball the evidence is pushed aside and he is taken into custody and he is sentenced to death in prison

He is sentenced to death in prison There it shows a scene the train the school bus is driving

With the criminals on it and it flips a train hits it and he flees and runs for his life

He's fleeing. He's a fugitive That's the key word. That's the movie the fugitive

But nevertheless the whole scene shows the

FBI GBI and they're all Going after him. There's dogs after him running after him

But the whole time he's showing them more and more traces and finding out more and more of the man who truly did it

Nevertheless We come to a text this morning. I'm not going to go into the background of it.

It comes from 2nd Samuel chapters 11 and 12 This is the same man that pin

Psalm 23 This is the same man. This is the same man that pin this verse says the

Lord is my shepherd The same man that says goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life

Surely he said surely surely goodness and mercy but here if you will

We have if you look at this we have a shepherd He's a soldier

He's sovereign at one time. He's a singer.

He's a songwriter But we see their shame we see sorrowful, but also he sees the

Savior People in the Old Dispensation the Old Testament say the same way today as they are in the

New Testament Still of grace will always be of grace always been of grace And it's nothing but God's riches at Christ expense

So we come this morning and we get to see a beautiful thing. That will be an encouragement to us all

And if you will, please take your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 32

Psalm 32 There's 150 Psalms This is in the book book 1 of the first 40

Psalms This is Psalm 32 and I've never seen the beauty of this until I've dug into this and my the

Lord opened my eyes He opened the eyes of my heart and I want to share forth what he's been teaching me and may the

Lord richly bless And use this To love him more and to hate what he hates

Hear the word of the Living God. There's 11 verses here this morning I'm breaking this up into five the first five verses and then part two will be six through eleven

So but I think we see God's Word and I believe truly as pastor said when

God says seal it twice within five Verses that's enough said That's enough said

We need to take that to heart. So we said we have two here within five verses hear the word of the

Living God Psalm 32 a Psalm of David a Masculine also called a contemplation

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose spirit there is no deceit

When I kept silent my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer

Selah, I Acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity. I have not hidden I said

I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin

Selah Amen, let us pray our father Searcher of our hearts and lovers of our souls.

It is a good day when you give me a glimpse of myself Sin is my greatest evil, but you are my greatest good

Give me this hour Lord your spirit Help us Oh God To see as you see open the eyes of my heart

Open the eyes of my brothers and sisters arts that sit here before you

Lord Give us grace this hour because when? When you are absent all sorrow is here

But when you are present all blessings are mine Lord we and we give you things in Jesus name.

We pray. Amen Ah Psalm 32 Psalm 32 the central theme of this is titled the joy of forgiveness the joy of forgiveness

Many of you haven't this is the first time we've come across a word masculine Some of your

Bibles may have masculine m -a -s -c -h -i -l masculine It's a wonderful thing.

It's called to give instruction to give instruction And I personally believe when

David made that vow in Psalm 51 verse 13 he says remember his cry

Lord creating me a clean heart renewing me a steadfast spirit and restore the joy of your salvation

Restore the joy of your salvation. Then he says then I will teach transgressors your way

This is his vow and promise I believe it comes true right here It comes true right here.

This is after Psalm 32. He's older in age. He's got some battle scars on him He's speaking now from experience the best instructors can teach what they know and have felt

They have felt it the power of God You have felt his transcendent power manifest itself to you and you can speak of it with power

You don't seem like a clinging symbol or claim You have power. So the best instructors are those who know and have felt this first and Felt this first hand and if you're a born -again believer, you too can testify to this

So right here this scope is to instruct the convicted soul of how to obtain peace with God The scope of this is how to obtain peace with God And that's our cry the gospel reconciliation

How can man be reconciled to a holy God? There was a man back in the day in his younger age.

We just went through the you know, Leviticus It talked about slavery the laws of slavery. There was a man and you all know it

You may all know who I'm probably gonna talk about right now the young man But God struck him he became sick

God in his province struck him and he became a minister no longer a slave boat captain God struck him with a physical ailment

Led him to open up his word and became a minister of God's Word And he said in his dying age as his memory began to fail him.

He said two things. I remember Two things I remember this as my memory fails me.

I'm a great sinner and Jesus Christ is a great Savior And let that always be before you

Let this always be before you this Psalm Psalm 32 is the heart of a true penitent one that's broken over his sins

That he's committed before God David is careful right here as he's given a stumbling block for others to bring reproach upon God's name

He is so careful and his example of repentance to lift him back up and encourage them

This morning. I'm gonna spin this around real quick without Here's the outline if you want at any time just take a look we'll be looking into the first part one

So the outline understanding this Psalm within the first five verses if you look at verses one and two

They form a unit sometimes in your Bibles it actually breaks it up in units for us. We see it there

Psalm one and two the blessedness of being forgiven verses one and two

And this is profound. This is so deep verses three and four we have the results of notice this word not

Oh But this morning we're gonna show The results of not confessing sin in verses three and four and then we have

David's own personal testimony okay, and Then part two gets into the results of confessing sin

Exhortations and the portion of the two great classes of men. They each have their portion Uh in Job chapter 5

Job is being chastened by the hand of God in Job chapter 5 He said affliction does not come up from the dust nor does trouble spring from the ground

Yet a man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward If we were open the floor this morning for discussion and share stories of pain heartache suffering and trouble

While it is true, we all have many burdens from person to person But there is one common denominator

We all must deal with sin and that's the cause of all our misery And there's two types of people in this world those that are dead in sin and those that are dead to sin

Dead in sin. This is condemned of God This is an unbeliever No one has unregenerate heart, which is sadly the majority

This is church entity This is a religious systems and it's sad because the only thing a dead man can do is stink as we once all were

We must understand that Adam did not just break his finger. He broke his neck He's totally depraved his eyes are shut to the things of God he was driven out of a

God's presence Self -deceived and denying their sin Dead to sin.

This is the redeemed of God He's a believer washed in the blood again, he's been bathed in the blood of Jesus Pastor sent a great picture of a simple thing.

It said Jesus didn't go into the house. He looked upon the doorpost Wasn't who was worthy inside the house.

He was just looking on the outside Also known as regenerate and heart the few

The confessors these Christians are known as confessors constantly So look here's what

I want to get to quickly sin in the life of the believer must be dealt with Must be dealt with and there's only two ways to deal with sin the arm of the flesh or God's way

The question is to it comes to all of us. Which way will we choose? We have a choice If we deal with sin man's way leaning upon the arm of the flesh we fall on the footsteps of our first parents

We hide it we relish it in secret we pretend it never happened This method always quenches the

Spirit of God and our fellowship and communion with God is broken It leads to disaster and first John 5 16 tells us potentially death

God grades on no curve and he has no partiality Remember Aaron the other method is

God's way and that's the best way. It's always our best way Always restoring us always healing us always says

I will heal your all your diseases and heal your land We're salvation where sin has robbed us momentarily this morning.

We only want to be concerned with God's way Man, we can he needs to go

So let's this morning look at the verses 1 & 2 look at our text now, please I've done everything

I could to study and I just pray this will bless you and the Spirit of God will stir you up To holiness blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven

Whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit

This word blessed the first thing probably comes to mind is the Sermon on the Mount Sermon on the

Mount, but you remember let's go back one. Let's go to Psalm 1 This is these are called Psalms of benediction

This is a benediction of the pardon the benediction of the pardon This is a general brief beatitude to anyone anyone the whosoever has faith

This is who this promise and blessedness belongs to the whosoever's Let's always remember that we know

David is the author Paul Quotes it in Romans 4 and says regarding this verse identifies

David as the author Has already mentioned David is upper in age And we all know this is a man after God's own heart.

So the question we look at it can be read How blessed is he? How blessed is he?

In our in our vernacular our common day language He's so lucky

That's our vernacular But we want to hear from God. How blessed is he? How blessed are those?

This Psalms is hard. If you take this for a second, he is found pardoned with God It's like he's taking a jewel and he's taking it and he's spinning it round and round And he's showing it off and he can't stop uttering in one word the greatness of being pardoned and forgiven of God In the peace that overflows him and this this joy is reflecting at every angle if You look at this if Psalm 1 describes this is key and it's beautiful to understand that Psalm 1 describes the result of holy blessedness

Psalm 32 describes the cause of it So you have the result of holy blessedness in Psalm 1 and now you have the cause

Of holy blessedness Psalms 1 speaks this is this is beautiful Psalm 1 speaks of the individual that walks in covenant relationship with and fellowship with God.

Are you ready for this Psalm 32? Even speaks of a greater special blessedness

Stacked upon one another blessed and blessed Someone only starts with one blessed this has two blessed

How about that double benediction? It's like a double -barrel shotgun

Psalm 32 is even more precious because it's stacked upon one another and it belongs to a man that has failed

God and He has not walked in covenant faithfulness But God's great mercy and grace has experienced covenant restoration

This man has experienced covenant restoration where he's had failed in covenant faithfulness

And this is where the joy comes from This is where this psalm is shining forth it beams forth.

This is why Newton Augustine and Luther all said this is one of their favorite hymns Favorite hymns

First let's get to this sin is an abomination to God And it separates from God all sin separates

Sin makes you stupid sin poisons the well head sin is in our brain sin is in our hearts

We think roaming look we love that which is evil Sin bribes the judgment intoxicates the will and perverts the memory

You may be sitting here saying to yourself. I've never committed adultery. I've never murdered anyone.

I've never dealt drugs nor stolen from my employees I've never committed any big scandalous sins

However, the Lord says I see on you. I don't see as you see The Lord says man looks on the outward but I look on the heart first Samuel 16 verse 7

My question I would ask everyone and this is a big out And it's humbling

My question is have you ever gossiped? spoken critical of others arbored resentment become impatient with anyone

Acted selfishly Worried been unthankful had jealous in your heart

Discontent failed to trust God in the issues of life Given into materialism ever let a sports team become an idol

Maybe even a child. Oh God, we can all hear

Each one of us saying right now to each one of us. You are the man As Nathan said to the as Nathan the

Prophet said to his beloved friend. You are the man You are the man

If you look at this, this is key, I don't want to help break this down for you Blessed is he whose transgression we see your word transgression sin and iniquity

And you say wow, this is part of a confession. I call it the

Trinity of hell. I Call it the Trinity of hell transgression a little tea a

Trent transgression sin and iniquity. This is a three -headed dog This is a three -headed dog, but we're literally but let's turn that the worst sentence this man that this this man is the greatest enemy

And and here it is. These are words that denote our disobedience and foulness

But it's key To understand these three words and I've never really seen you know We see them all over the place in Scripture if your garden equity the transgressions and then you're like, but wow

They're all right here like confession What do we need to glean from this and I want to help you by it, but so I'm going to try my best

First transgression. I want to try to simplify this is and make this as clear as possible Transgression implies passing over a boundary and doing what is prohibited

It's a going away or rebellion against God and his authority It's often summarizes the sins of omission and commission

Proverbs 29 verse 6 I'm gonna give us chapter and verse with each one of these a an evil man is ensnared in his transgression, but a righteous man sings and rejoices

What a contrast one's caught and he's in trouble and another sings and rejoices

That's a distinct contrast when you're caught in a trap. You're not singing in rejoicing.

You're crying for help What a contrast What is sin it implies missing the mark

Sin is the transgression of the law The wages of sin is death so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin

James tells us What is iniquity Iniquity implies something evil perverted and disrespectful towards God Also used to refer as a word guilt

It's the root of all original sin Psalm 66 18 says if I regard iniquity in my heart the

Lord will not hear me So, what do we do with this how will God do what where did we go from here?

Where did we go from here? The first word I'm going to describe this The first word transgression describes sin in the view with our relationship to God Okay, I'm going to go through the relations

The second word sin describes the relationship to the divine law So the first is the relationship to God transgression sin is relation to divine law and Third the word iniquity describes sin relation to ourselves

The word guilt it is a corruption or twisting of the right standards

So those are the relations of those three words In Habakkuk chapter 1

Habakkuk 1 the prophet goes on to affirm the holiness of God and how God cannot tolerate evil

Habakkuk 112 It says your eyes are purer than to see evil and cannot look at sin back up 113 that was

Habakkuk 113 and this is anything but the characteristic of the human condition Pastor brought something to my attention and I thought this was wonderful Wonderful.

There's eleven hundred and eighty nine chapters in the Bible 66 books. We know chapters and verses are all for our admonition

But it's good to helpful to find quickly to get to God's Word It's for our aid 1189 chapters in the

Bible. There's only four that does not talk about a sinner and Sin, there's only four.

Can you guess? Okay It's the bookends

Genesis and Revelation and this is not original, please But it's so wonderful.

I have to share So the first two chapters you have the creation by God in the last two chapters

You have the consummation by Christ and those are only two chapters one in two have no sin 21 and 22 have no sin.

So that means you have 1185 verses that fills our history with sin So is the doctrine of sin important to understand this

How can we understand our need if we don't understand the problem? That's key sin fills our history.

Yes So I'm gonna answer that question, so how are these evils dealt with well and where are we to go from here?

Turn with me now quickly to Romans chapter 5 The great gulf of sin is bridged

Romans chapter 5 looking into verse 12 therefore just as though one man's sin enter the world and death through sin and thus

Death spread to all men because all sinned for until the law sin was in the world

But sin is not imputed when there is no law No, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who had not sin according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam who is

Who is a type of him? Who was to come? But the free gift is not like the offense for if by one man's offense many died

Much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man

Christ Jesus abound to many and the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned

For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification for if by one man's offense death reigned through the one much more those who receive abundance of grace and Of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one

Jesus Christ Therefore as the one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in the condemnation

Even so through one's man righteous act the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life for as one man's

Disobedience many were made sinners. So also by one man's obedience

Many were made righteous There it is. Moreover the law entered that the offense may abound but Where sin abounded?

Grace abounded much more So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through the righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord That great gulf is bridged the bridge is laid

Right there. That's the bridge. So if you will flip back with me to Psalm 32

That's where we go That is the only place to go that is the only safe place to go

God is angry with the wicked. He is a just God so Where we had the first three words,

I call it within the confession we have Transgression sin and iniquity here now within being forgiven.

We have three words. So where do we go? And how does God deal with this? Within these first three words, he has three words for those three words and it's beautiful Look at this.

The Trinity of hell is overtaken by the Trinity of heaven where sin abounded grace abounded more we just heard as The previous words denotes our disobedience emphasized within a confession now these next three words are gifts employed within the concept of forgiveness

So Let these words bless your soul if you will look at verses Right here.

I still am. I'm sorry. I'm still in verse 1. This is why it's so loaded. So we have number one Transgression is forgiven sin is covered number two and Does not impute iniquity we love the doctrine of double imputation, but how about the doctrine of non imputation?

Forgiven this word is so Powerful it literally means I'm gonna try to go through these three words and we'll combat the first three words

I call it the Trinity of hell Literally means to be lifted away. The burden is lifted away and this is the heart of the gospel is to be forgiven

Finding peace with God through Jesus in his vicarious death and sacrifice Covered this word covered

Reminds you of the day of atonement Simply is Christ's righteousness It's faith that receives the garment of Christ and is by faith that adorns the garment of Christ This word does not impute

Suggests ascribing to one's account. It's like an accounting term Well, I'm gonna break it down put it even low.

It's removed from your court documents. The records are expunged No longer to be found

God is the judge and is he who justifies? We love this doctrine of double imputation, but let us love more the doctrine of non imputation

He doesn't impute it to our records How great and harmonious the

Trinity works together to remove all defilement shame guilt sorrow and punishment and replaces it with?

righteousness security peace joy and a eternal reward My question is do you know this blessedness?

Will you testify to it? Will you testify to it as he told the demoniac the

Lord Jesus himself go and tell what great things I've done for you I want to stop right here for a second because if you've been following me

I want to look into if you will turn to first John first John and Many of you

I'm sure in your walk and fellowship with the Lord has spent many years in these in this one verse

Just pleading this verse back to him look at verse 8 with me, please starting in verse 8 first John chapter 1

If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins if If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness

If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us So stay with me in Hebrews chapter 8

We have Hebrews. I don't know who the author is, but it's a man of God. We'll just say that It's a man of God in Hebrews chapter 8 verses 10 and 13

He's quoting from the New Covenant That comes from Jeremiah 31 starting in verse 31

Verse 12 for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I Will be merciful to their righteousness no, no,

I will be merciless to their unrighteousness That's key and their sins and their lawless deeds.

I will remember no more In that he says a new covenant has been made in the first is obsolete now

And now know what blessing Now, I'm sorry. No, what is is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away

And in Psalm 103 we we've spent I think I opened up one time with this. It says forget not the benefits of the

Lord and the first benefit was You remember he pardons our sins

And in Psalm 103 verses 11 and 12 later on down after the benefits are mentioned It says he remembers our sins no more and he forgives them as far as the

East is from the West So if you're following me, but he said we're to confess our sins, but they're not to be brought back up So, how are we so you would think there's an apparent contradiction here

You know one was having spent time reading the whole context of God's Word and sometimes even

There's some heresies going around now that men don't need to confess their sins if they're washed under the blood of Jesus and I think this is a

Great great fallacy that needs to be corrected. Not that I need to correct it, but as Believers we need to speak upon this

Forgiveness falls. I want to share with you if you will There's no contradiction here and I want to show you this that forgiveness falls within two categories two categories bless her

Within two categories, it's judicial forgiveness and then parental Judicial and parental if you will flip with me to turn with me to John chapter 13

And you all know this is the upper room discourse where the Lord Jesus is speaking With his disciples and he's washing their feet

If you will look in verse 13 the look

Starting verse 5 after that He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel which he was girded with He came to Simon Peter and said

Peter and I'm sorry, then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him

Lord Are you washing my feet? Are you washing my feet then he then he said to Simon Peter Sorry and Jesus answered and said to him

What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this Peter said to him you shall never wash my feet

Jesus answered and said to him if I don't wash you you have no part with me

Simon Peter said to him Lord Not my feet only but my hands and my head goodness

Jesus said to him he who is bathed needs only to be only to wash his feet He who is bathed

Needs only to wash his feet, but it's completely clean and you are clean, but not all of you

So here there's no contradiction. So what does that represent? Okay? It's key to understand this and this gives us wings to fly

Judicial God is judge We come before his bar guilty.

He's the only one that can set us free from the penalty of sin So right here when you're bathed as you have trusted in the gift that he is given for the penalty, which

He laid upon his son That's our justification being bathed so bathing illustrates our forgiveness from a judicial standpoint

Washing illustrates the fatherly forgiveness of our sanctification That's our sanctification this ongoing

Please know that ongoing confessions don't bring justification Ongoing confession of sin is solely related to our sanctification

So it is so beautiful You remember in Luke chapter 11, we have the

Lord's Prayer really is the disciples prayer. It's our prayer But if you look at this remember what it says, does it say this our judge who are now in heaven?

Our father Not judge our father who are in heaven as a father pities his son

So does God pity those who fear him? This is fatherly love

This is one that we call now Abba father Adopted into the family of God So this is where we have parental justification and we have first number one is always judicial So this is where Peter he said he didn't understand this but you will later

You will later Because he who begins a good work will finish it So let us hasten on if you will flip back with me to Psalm 32

But that that first two those first two verses are loaded and if you will look at this now if we look at the end of verse 2

Now we have the character of the one that's pardoned has changed and who spirit there's no deceit

What a word What is God? There's another word is God. Remember we said this is the

Israelite when there's no guy. Here's Nathanael No deceitfulness, but what does this mean?

And this is this is where This is key Another term is to see it's simply this

One that is not honest with the reality and it's not serious and seer of the weightiest matters of life

There's deceiving cow that has flooded their character and it represents their being So the weightiest matters of life, what are they

I'm sure you have family members I do They'll never want to hear about judgment.

They never want to hear about death Heaven or hell and they dare not to think ponder one second any of those

It's so sad. It is sad And I'll tell you why you ready why they don't want to ponder this because they know

They know oh do they know They know there's something wrong within them and they practice a crafty cleverness and a cunning indifference

When their true character is exposed and brought to life brought to light Their conscious alarms them and immediately the ink is cast into the water

You ready mindless statements are made empty religious questions are brought about I Get sick of it

Quit playing games Go play at Six Flags Empty religious questions regarding tradition ceremony doctrines tights prophecies they cloud the water for their escape and Their sad song their sad song they play over and over on the radio in their head is peace peace

When there's absolutely none What a lying damning deception that is

How can there be peace in such darkness? How can there be peace when stripes are being laid upon your back and the chains are getting tighter and tighter around your ankles in?

Your wrist and your neck. How is that peas? How can it be an

Example of this is I'm sure you've all heard it from them in the gospel of Matthew And it's probably one of the most misused texts of our day coined the 11th commandment judge not

That you can be not judged I'm gonna stop there because that's not even half the verse

That's all that they know That's all that Satan has vomited back up through this precious vessel that he is robbed and stolen

It's not his possession But you hear this miss Lillian was mentioned this morning pity their soul hate the sin pity them

This is all they know judge not that you be not judged how many times have you heard it if you start talking about sin

That's not even half the verse not even a quarter of the verse But here not only unbelievers, but even professing

Christians are like we'll say this and most are professing Christians As if Jesus tells his people

To not make any judgments whatsoever is absurd Christ is is most certainly not forbidding his people from his from issuing judgments altogether

Remember the context of this scriptures the Sermon on the Mount. It's all about contrasting true and false religion

You have heard, but I say unto you in Fact Jesus in the same gospel orders us to discriminate between good and evil

We must differentiate between those Receptive to us from the dogs and swans in order to obey

Jesus as being disciples We have to be obedient in Summary Jesus is warning us to be fair and humble when we make our evaluations not to be hypocritical in our judgments

We are prone to be harder on others Consider David's reaction to Nathan.

Let me follow this with me Consider Nathan's reaction to Nathan when he slept with Bathsheba and murdered her husband

The King did more evil than the man Nathan gave him in his parable But David wanted to chase after the speck in that man's eye.

You follow me He's chasing after the speck in that man's eye.

He can't see the plank in his own. Eye Sin has duped him and made him so stupid Now that's what the

Lord's talking about in this verse take this plank out of your own Eye, David's chasing after the speck in this parable that man and brings judgment upon his own head

He sees his sin so blinded by the plank in his own eye Joel 2 13 says we're in your heart not your garments

So if you will now, let's hasten on verses 3 & 4 the results of not confessing sin

Notice this right here sin affects the whole being sin Affects our whole being and I can testify this and it's sad

It's our physical spiritual and emotional well -being is all out of whack. It's a wire

Notice this when I kept silent not when I was silent. I kept silent. I kept it

Davis describes this pathetically from his own sad experience this experience God allowed to go on for almost a year a year

You and I know when you sin, can you imagine a year suppressing such a thing we're about to hear what he said

The inward reality of the guilt of conscience suppressed in silence is awful awful effect

It is like a festering wound like pastor mentioned earlier undealt with the wound gets bigger and bigger till it just explodes

It festers. It's like a damn like a river flowing and the dam has been bought and the water swells to the bank

And then it affects everybody on the wayside sin affects everybody It affects everybody in your life

And I'm sad this is sad, but it does and it's an awful thing How sudden and downward the spiral of sin takes you?

This is the old and This man's lamp has almost gone out

His lamp of light is flickering and it's And it's starting to give a black soot giving off as it's flickering about to run out of oil

And this is where he's at. His lamp of life is about to give out if you will look at this right here

Verse 3 when I kept silent my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long

Notice he says my bones grew old the bones are the main support structure of your body

He said my book on all my bones became like a old old feeble, man I can't even support my own weight.

I have no strength the strength in my vitality is sapped It's sapped

He says then the groaning and roaring his speech the utterance of that had become like a beast

Caught in a trap and it's by its own predator and it's making out a howling noise to be released

He's uttering and roaring words can't even be brought Brought key.

They can't even be mustered up If you will look at verse 4a we have the spiritual that was the physical look at 4a

Verse 4 for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer seal

As pastor mentioned earlier his violin and harp the spring this the strings popped they had broken

And whatever strings was left on there all out of tune and they're making an awful hiss

The spiritual hand can you imagine this the hand of God was heavy upon it. This is chastisement

One finger of God can crush us The hand of God was upon him

Notice this this is awful convictions, but it's sweet drawings too. These are tender drawings faithful are the wounds of a friend

It'll make you want to cry pastor one time share with me The worst thing God will do to his children is whoop them all the way to heaven

Praise God. Let it be so Let it be so if that's what it takes

But if one is too proud to acknowledge his sin, we deserve the punishment Taking a spanking hurts

For B. Look on down in 4b. It says my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

He's dried up. I Got to put water on it to bear fruit

Take fruit from it. That plan is done He is dried up Joy is gone and there's peace.

No like there's peace. The river is gone. Peace like a river It's not flooding anymore.

It's dried up. It's gone. There's no thoughts about God. No prayers to God He's dried up.

It's stolen him robbed him and beaten him and let it let him left him bleeding from within Bleeding from within Proverbs the great

Proverbs 28 13 says he who covers his sins will not prosper It's it's right.

This is to me the commentary of that But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy

Amen Look at verse 4 with me notice. It says at the end of verse 4

Selah It's like I said earlier his strings had popped and they're all out of tune

Now it's time to be still my soul Be still my soul and meditate upon what is going on right now

What has happened? Let me come to my senses So this is a break.

So now look at verse 5. This is Davis personal testimony Isn't this is the heart of the psalm as this almost falls right in the center of the psalm.

This is the heart of David. I Said I will confess my transgressions to the

Lord The psalmist becomes resolved not only to confess before God, but he makes his confession before a worshipping congregation

It was an open sin David had held out long, but when he did surrender how quickly and easy did he obtain favor with God?

Notice there is no break in this No break, no pause. Look at this. I acknowledge my sin to you that you is capitalized not to a man to God In my iniquity,

I'm not hidden. I Said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin

There is no There was no nine months of pausing. There was no year of pausing just like he had hidden it

Immediately what I love about this is so beautiful. He had done just like the prodigal son He had made up on him on his mind.

It said he never he said I was gonna say this But he never voiced it He was he had said and rehearsed the same thing what the prodigal had done

When he turned to the father the father was already running. It's immediately.

He's restored. How do we know that we look at the product? We see this we see this admonition here for our sake

And he says and he forgave the iniquity of my sin If you will in your own spare time look at the chastisement of a the the prayer of a chastisement in Psalm 38

Goes into deeper of the chastening in depth and said the Lord and it's

Psalm 38 But how do I land this plane where do we go from here?

There's a hymn that we love to sing here and it has three great probing questions that it always starts with Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour?

I Ask you if you remain unwashed as Jesus just said in John 13

From the master's lips himself. You have no part with me the past unforgiven the present unchanged and the future unsanctified

And there remains for you that dread summons it comes That That summons when death comes it's going to be that bailiff that that arresting officer that takes you to the judgment

It's appointed unto man to die once then judgment and we're all on probation.

We're all probationaries. We're probationaries of grace under grace in grace Notice David said goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life

He pinned that First of all, he just doesn't know He knew the

God of mercy. These are this is who God is He was leaning upon who

God is So nothing can comfort. So when that arresting officer if you're not washed bathed in the blood of Christ That awful day will come when death that that arresting officer takes you to the judgment and the verdict will be given

God's hell is prison God's prison is hell and Then the eternal lake of fire

Nothing can afford a ray of hope at that time. It's too late So I warn you to flee from this flee from your sin to be washed.

Oh how simple it is Nothing is asked of you, but to take what

Christ has made ready for you. Take what Christ has made ready for you. Oh Cast not away the promise of God through unbelief, which is the dog of hell

But except the washing at least you cast yourself into eternal condemnation You cast yourself into eternal condemnation

But beloved embrace this example and be washed over and over and over and over This work is so simple yet difficult to pride

Mercy's freely given solely on Christ's sake alone Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling

If salt has lost its flavor is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under the feet of men As pastor mentioned earlier salt is a preservative, but I want you to know this too salt is an antiseptic

It's a healing balm And what it's what done in secret notice He said let salt and light notice the sermon on the mountain and the very first thing.

He says to be solid one the word salary Comes from salt you've heard people say he's not worth his salt

The word salary comes from the word salt because that's what people they barter with back then So Let us be antiseptics a healing balm to everyone we come into and you are already

But then you had the salt which is secretive and then the balancing act of that is light Salt is like pastor said is a preservative it is salt is for dying men in decaying men where light is for living men

So may we embrace this example and be washed over and over again Believe in Jesus now and you shall be cleansed

Your life shall become new When your final day here on earth comes to depart to be with the

Father and you shall see Jesus where he is And you shall behold his glory You shall behold his glory he says come unto me what a great invitation not to the church to him first Let us take this word this morning and we see these examples of the double blessedness

The causes we had this for our admonition God allowed what showed us what happens when sin is unprofessed you don't prosper

But when we acknowledge it, there's immediate Immediately forgiveness and that's found through Jesus Christ his son where if we

I hate to say I guess the word is if we were to never be in washed if we're truly bathed and Washed in the blood of Jesus and we were to never confess our sins again

You're still Received of God you're still pleased and beloved of God, but your fellowship and communion would not be sweet It will be grieved, but I want you to know this

Forgiveness is absolute and certain and cannot ever be brought back up.

It can never be brought back up Never, but we we need to be cleansed daily

So let us pray our Father Lord We love you

We thank you for your tender mercy and your loving kindness, which is better than life itself

We thank you for this word We pray Lord that we will see this dog of hell in this

Trinity of hell transgression sin and iniquity Where sin abounded grace abounded more?

Hallelujah Lord you're so good You're so good

Lord, I we love you because what you have commanded you've already provided Help us

Jesus to lean upon you as that limpet as that little little animal of the seashore

That you've created He clings to the rock of its salvation help us to cling to Jesus the rock of our salvation

That as the winds and storms of this world beat us up and the waves beat upon us.

Oh Lord, may we kiss the rock? May we kiss the rock of our salvation and as the waves beat upon us and more let it strengthen us in faith

And grow deeper to love you more and hate what you hate and to be a Just a vessel of honor for your glory.

Lord. We want to just return a token back to you what you've done to us Washing us and bathing us

Lord you're so good to us We love you, and we thank you and we praise your name in Jesus name receive all glory