Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 186 from your hardback hymnal. 186,
the church is one foundation. And let's all stand together.
186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation. I want her and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. ? Elect from every nation ? Get
one or all the earth ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord, one
faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one holy
food and to one hope she presses with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed. ? And the great church victorious
? Shall be the church at rest ? Yet she on earth hath union
? With God the three in one ? And mystic sweet communion ? With
those whose rest is won O happy ones and holy, Lord, give us
grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell
with Thee. Please be seated. The stone which was rejected
by the builders, he has made the head of the corner. And Peter refers to the people
of God as living stones built on that one foundation we just
sang about. What a blessing. Good evening. I guess everybody
knows that Savannah's body could not take
being pregnant one more minute. So yesterday morning, She gave
birth to Oliver and they're doing well. I think they were on the
way home now, right? So I would thank the Lord for that. All right, let's open our Bibles
together to Psalm 33 for our call to worship. Psalm 33. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. The righteous are the only ones
that are able to rejoice in the Lord. Everything else that religious
people do is feigned worship. Only those who are in Christ
are able to rejoice in him. For praise is comely. That word means beautiful. It
is. Remember Daniel said when he
saw Christ, he said, my comeliness was turned into corruption. My
beauty and my strength and my ability was done away with when
I saw his beauty. Praise is comely for the upright.
Praise the Lord with harp singing to him with the psaltery and
an instrument of 10 strings singing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right
and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness
and judgment. And there is no righteousness
outside of judgment. Sin had to be paid for in order
for righteousness to be established. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord, but the word of the Lord, by the word of the
Lord, I'm sorry, where the heavens made and all the host of them
by the breath of his mouth. John talks about that in John
chapter one, doesn't he? speaking of Christ being that
word and he's the one who said let there be light and he was
the light. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depths in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. We stand in awe of him. We don't
refer to him as awesome. If we're gonna use all, we have
to say all full, don't we? He's full of all. For he spake
and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever. The thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed
is the nations whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath
chosen for his own inheritance. There's only one nation where
God is their Lord, and that's the church. That's the church
of the Lord, the chosen ones. The Lord looketh from the heavens. He beholdeth all the sons of
men. From the place of his habitation,
he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their
hearts alike. He considereth all their works.
There is no king saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty
man is not delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing
for safety. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength. In other words, man can't save
himself by what he does. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. What is it to fear God? It's
to fear the thought of standing in the presence of a holy God
without the Lord Jesus Christ as your advocate. Does that strike
fear in your heart? To think, oh, if I had to stand
in the presence of God without Christ speaking on my behalf,
I'd be judged for eternal damnation. To deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine, our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield, for our heart shall rejoice in
him because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly
Father, how we do pray and hope now in this hour that your Holy
Spirit would speak truth to our heart, that you would once again
show us the glory of thy dear son and cause us, Lord, to see
our inability to save ourselves and cause us to cast our care
upon him, believing that he careth for us. Lord we thank you for little
Oliver and we ask that you would strengthen him physically and
we pray Lord that you would be pleased to call him to yourself
and to save his soul. We pray for Ryan and Savannah
and the rest of the family members that you would give them wisdom
and discernment and grace. to raise Oliver in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 239 from the hardback teminal. 239, Art
Thou Weary. Let's all stand. Art thou weary, art thou languid,
art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming
be at rest. Hath he marks to me to him if
he be my guide. In his feet and hands are wound
prints and his side. Is there diadem as monarch that
his brow adorns? Gay a crown in very surety, but
of thorns. If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask Him to receive me, will
He save me nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is he sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes. Please be seated. Rebecca Vincent
from Lexington, Kentucky is going to have special music for us
now. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a grisly stain. He washed it white as snow. For now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can cleanse the leper's spots And of the heart
of stone Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. before the throne I stand in
Him complete Jesus died in my soul to save My lips shall still
repeat Jesus paid it all had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Rebecca, a special treat for
Wednesday night, isn't it? Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 32. Psalm 32, what a blessing it's
been to study the Psalms and to see how they reveal the person
and work of our Savior. One thing I know about sinners
is that they are primarily, above everything else, interested in
forgiveness. That's the blessing they want
more than anything else. You listen to the world talk
about being blessed. You see what it says in Psalm
32, verse one, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Blessed is he whose sin is covered
that's the blessing I'm interested aren't you the world talks about
being blessed a lot don't they you have friends and family members
that they'll say God bless you or what a blessed day or blessing
this and blessing that I fear I fear that what they consider
to be blessings are going to end up being curses I fear that
they are looking to those favorable circumstances and concluding
that God has favor with them. They're resting in those things
rather than trusting in Christ. The word blessed means to be
happy. If a person can be happy without
Christ, And whatever it is that's making them happy is going to
end up being a judgment. And for the child of God, it's
just the opposite, isn't it? For the child of God, we're blessed
in knowing that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. We're blessed in knowing that
we have a blood sacrifice that has covered all our sins, that
God has been gracious to forgive us for Christ's sake. and having
that blessing uh... everything else is a gift we
do you don't listen you don't hear unbelievers talk about a
terminal illness is being a blessing they don't talk about you know
chronic sickness is being a blessing they don't they they just don't
talk like that uh... but for the child god once we
have the mercy of god's forgiveness everything's a blessing I like
what, I think it was Scott Richardson said it, I've never heard any
bad news since I heard the good news. And that's so true, that's
so true. For the child of God, we know,
we know that all things work together for good for them that
love him and those that are the called according to his purpose. I want to know, the blessing of forgiveness. Often, for the child of God,
it's not our favorable circumstances that result in our happiness,
not in our true happiness. Oftentimes, the most difficult
circumstances result in the greatest blessing, don't they? And that's
just, that's something the world can't see. They've got it upside
down, don't they? Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And we've got three problems
in these two verses. We've got transgression. That's
the breaking of God's law. That word transgression comes
from the word rebellion. And you and I have broken God's
law in our father Adam. We're born into this world as
lawbreakers and we've never been able to keep one of God's laws.
And so we've got transgression. We've got rebellion before God
that needs to be forgiven. The word sin, you've heard it
said that the literal translation of that word is to miss the mark. And that's what we've done by
nature. We've never even hit the target. And so we've missed
the mark completely. And then iniquity. Iniquity. That's what men do in order to
try to fix their problem. And the word iniquity translated
means guilt. And what God is saying is that
those things which men look to for their righteousness, those
things that men look to to make up for their transgression and
their sins, God says they're guilty, iniquity. Here's the
blessing. Here's the blessing. Blessed
of God, happy is the man whose transgressions are forgiven. That's what we do. Whose sin,
that's what we are, is covered. And whom the Lord will not charge
with his iniquity. All those things that men that
we try to do in order to atone for our sins and make up for
our problem, God says it's iniquitous, but I'm not going to charge you
for it. because I've already charged my son. He's paid the
full debt. His blood has covered your sin
and he kept the law. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone. In him there is no transgression. So that's what we need to be
forgiven of. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus chapter 34. Remember in chapter 33, Moses
said, Lord, just show me your glory. Show me your glory. I want to see your face. And
the Lord told Moses, he said, no man can see me and live, but
I'm going to put you in the cleft of a rock and I'll cause my goodness
to pass before you. And that's what he did in chapter
33. And then in chapter 34, Verse
6, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. So, justice has to be satisfied
in order for iniquity, transgression, and sin to be put away. God can't
just put away our sin. He can't just put away our transgression.
He can't just overlook our iniquity. He said I'm not gonna let the
guilty go unpunished. So somebody's got to be punished
for our iniquity. Somebody's got to be punished
for our sin. Somebody's got to be punished for our iniquity.
And that's the That's the hope that we have in Christ, isn't
it? Let's go back to our text. Turn to me over to Proverbs chapter
27. Here's a description of what
it means to be blessed. Look at verse 7 of Proverbs chapter
27. The full soul loatheth the honeycomb. In other words, those who are
resting in their favorable circumstances, those who are happy with their
life like it is, they're full. They're full. Remember, the Lord
told the Pharisees, if you were blind, then your sins would be
put away because you say you can see. Therefore, your sins
remain. And the Lord says, those who
are full, they're full with contentment, they're full with satisfaction.
They don't have Christ. They loathe the honeycomb. That's
the gospel. Sweet as honey, isn't that what
the prophet said to my taste? We loathe this light bread. They're
full without Christ. They walk around talking about
being blessed of God without knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.
The full soul loatheth a honeycomb. But to the hungry, to the hungry, those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, those who desire to have their
sins forgiven, to know God, to be at peace with God, to the
hungry, every bitter thing is sweet. Every disappointment, every discouragement,
every difficulty, they know. Oh, they may not respond positively
to it when it happens. We get frustrated, don't we?
But we know in our hearts, this is the Lord, and it's sweet,
and it's good. This is what it means to be blessed.
The world doesn't know anything about the blessing of God. Let
them talk about having a blessed day. Let them talk about being
blessed all they want. This is the blessing. This is
the only blessing in the end that's going to matter, that
our transgressions be forgiven, that our sin be covered, and
that God charge us not with our iniquity. And if we have that,
if we have that, We can be chained to a Roman dungeon, can't we? Like Paul was and be singing
praises to God if we have that. Blessed is he. Are you blessed? I mean, really
blessed. Three questions. What is the
ground of our blessing? What's the cause of it? What
is the means of our blessing and what is the result of our
blessing? Those three questions are answered
in this psalm. What is the grounds on which
we are forgiven? Many would say, well, it's your
faith. That's the grounds based on your forgiveness. If you exercise
your faith and repent and they'll quote passages like Acts chapter
2 after Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and the people
in Jerusalem said, men and brethren, what shall we do? And what did
Peter say? What did he say? He said, repent
and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins. Now that sounds like that's the
grounds on which I get forgiven if I repent and of course of
course by repenting they mean you know just stop doing everything
you're doing stop sinning if that's repentance I don't I don't
know anybody knows anything about repentance they'll say well you know you
have to have a sense of sin we're not we're not capable of having
a sense of our sin we can't We're senseless when it comes to the
real evil of our sin. They say we have to have a sorrow
for sin. We're just not capable of feeling sorrow deep enough
to satisfy what God requires. We have to have separation from
your sin. That's the grounds on which you're forgiven. There's
certain things you have to do in order for what Christ did
in order for it to work for you. These are the grounds of your
forgiveness. Now, those may be means of forgiveness
and they are. Let me illustrate it like this.
These fans and lights are running right now and there's wires connected
to those fans that are connected to Fuse box outside, they go
underneath the ground and go up in the telephone poles and
they go back to the power plant, don't they? Now, there's electricity coming
through those wires. What's the cause of these fans
running and these lights being on? What's the cause of it? It's
that power plant that's generating electricity, isn't it? That's
the cause. That's the grounds for these things to work. What
are the means by which these fans work? Well, it's the wiring
and the breakers and everything that goes on inside the fan,
isn't it? That's the means. People get confused. They think,
well, the means is the cause. No, it's not. It's not. The ground of our salvation is
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his successful work
of redemption on Calvary's cross, isn't it? That's the ground of
our salvation. For by grace are you saved. Through faith, that's the means. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. The ground of forgiveness. Well,
go back with me to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus Chapter 34, what is the ground, the cause
of our forgiveness? Verse 5 of Exodus 34, and the
Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. That's the cause of our, the
Lord Jesus Christ came down. The word was made flesh and he
dwelt among us. This is the cause. God has to
come to where we are. We can't get to where he is.
And in order for transgression and sin and iniquity to be put
away, the Lord's got to come down in a cloud, doesn't he?
And that's what he did for Moses. And then the Lord passed by in
verse six before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. The truth is in the day in which
you sin, you will surely die. The truth is that God is a holy
God and he must punish sin. The truth is that God's justice
cannot be overlooked in his mercy. And that's the ground of our
forgiveness. that God satisfied his divine justice when he shed
the blood of his dear son. That's the ground of our forgiveness.
It's not our faith. It's not our sorrow. It's not
our repentance. It's not anything that we do.
It's what he has accomplished when he came into this world,
satisfied all the demands of God's holy law, and laid his
life down for the sheep. in order to satisfy God's divine
justice. That's what he's saying. No wise,
in no wise will I, by no means, by no means will I clear the
guilty. In other words, nothing you can
come up with that's going to put away the guilt of your sin. This is the grounds of our forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood
There is no remission of sin. When I see the blood and I'll
pass by you, that's the ground, isn't it? The long-suffering,
the justice, the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can't generate
the electricity, can we? We can't. All we can do is enjoy
the light that it gives us. So the ground of our salvation
is His name. Look at verse 6. And the Lord,
the Lord God, merciful. And He caused His name to pass
by Him. I will make, look at verse 19
of chapter 33. And He said, I will make all
my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. His name and all that His name
represents and all that His name means. His name is Jehovah Sidkenia. Jeremiah tells us that, doesn't
he? The Lord, our righteousness. I will speak of none other righteousness
other than thine only. All our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. And then he gives us his name.
That's the ground of our forgiveness. And then you remember when Abraham
took his son Isaac up on the mountain to do what God had commanded
him, to sacrifice his own son. And what did Abraham say? When Isaac asked him, he said,
father, here's the fire and here's the wood, but where is the lamb? And what did Abraham say? God
will provide himself a lamb. And there was, a ram provided
was, and it caught in a thicket. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the substitute who died instead of Isaac. And when Abraham
left that place, the scripture says, and he called that place
Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord shall see and provide. The Lord sees my need for a substitute,
and the Lord provides himself a lamb. That's the ground of
our forgiveness, and that's what God's saying here to Moses on
Mount Sinai. I'm going to declare my name
My name. And you shall call His name Jesus
for He shall save His people. And do you remember when Moses
was bringing the children of Israel through the wilderness
and they came across Amalek and there was a great battle between
the Israelites and the Amalekites and Moses sat upon a rock and
Aaron and Hur held up his hands and as long as his hands were
being held up The Israel got the victory over Amalek. And
when his hands got weak and fell, Amalek got the victory. And in
the end, in the end, his hands were held up. The law, Moses'
picture of the law. Aaron's the priest. Ur is the
prophet. Here we've got a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ sitting upon a rock. The prophet, priest,
and king. and as long as the laws being
held up and satisfied amalek amalek the enemy of God will
be destroyed and Moses called that place Jehovah Nisi the Lord
is my banner and that's what that's what he's that's what
the Lord saying here through Moses when I'm going to make
my name the ground of your forgiveness. Nothing else, nothing you do
is going to be the ground of your forgiveness. And then we have a picture of
the Lord being referred to as Jehovah Shalom. We have peace
with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace,
my peace I give to you. How am I going to have peace
with God? Only if the Lord Jesus Christ makes peace for me. He's the ground of our forgiveness.
The blessing of being forgiven is contingent upon what the Lord
Jesus Christ did in order to make our transgressions forgiven,
our sins covered, and our iniquities not imputed unto us. What is the means of our forgiveness?
Now this is where people get confused. They make the means
the cause. They turn the electrical wiring
into the power plant and they give the wiring the credit for
the light and that's not the way it works. the ground of our
forgiveness is the person and work of the lord jesus christ
the evidence of the means of our forgiveness look at look
at look at uh... uh... the next the next person
in our text in some thirty two first rate and we see we see
david in this stuff we we see those months when david after
david it did that shameful and Uriah, and he spent nine months
trying to cover up his sin, didn't he? Just piling on sin, on top
of sin, making his iniquity, hoping that his iniquity was
going to somehow satisfy the demands of God's justice and,
oh, the conscience, the guilty conscience that he suffered.
And he says in verse 3, when I kept silent, my bones waxed
old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night,
thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. This is the means of being forgiven. It's called conviction. It's
called conviction. The Lord said, it's expedient
for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But when he comes, When he comes, he will convict
the world of sin, of righteousness and of sin, because they believe
not on me. We have this experience, don't
we? We try to hide from God. We do
what our father Adam did. And the more we try to cover
things up, the more miserable we become. And the Lord convicts
us. and uses that conviction to cause
us to realize, Lord, my problem is me. My problem is my unbelief. My problem is my sin. Notice
in verse 2, I want you to see something in verse 2. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in
whose spirit there is no guile. Now that word guile means deceit. We deceive ourselves and we deceive
one another, but when we stand in the presence of God, there's
no fooling God, is there? You don't play games with God,
do you? You don't try to convince God
that you're good or that, you know, no, no. We stand in the presence of God,
there's no deceiving Him. Here is a beautiful picture of
what it means to be without guile. Look at verse 5. Look at verse
5. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins. This
is the means. It is conviction of sin and it
is confession of sin. and those whom God gives conviction,
He causes them to just... Remember 1 John 1, 9, if you
confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your
sins and cleanse you of all of your unrighteousness. And that
word confess, you know the two words that that word is made
from. It's a conjunction of two words.
It's the word homo, which means same, and it's the word logos,
which means word. Homologia is the word for confess. In other words, when you confess
your sins, you don't make a list of all. You can't think of all
your sins. You don't know all your sins. You speak the same
word that God speaks. You agree with God that you're
a sinner and that everything about you is sinful. And that's
what it means to be without guile. Lord, I'm not pretending to have
something that's not sinful. I'm not coming into your presence
giving you something that's going to obligate you to forgive me
of my sin. I'm coming to you naked as a
sinner with nothing but your mercy and your grace and the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I agree with you. I speak
homologous. I speak the same word that you
speak. What do you speak? Every imagination
of the thoughts of your heart is only evil. And that could
say, Amen, Lord, that's me. That's me. All have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God. Amen, Lord, that's me. Everything
I've ever done falls short of your glory. In me that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Amen, Lord, that's me. Behold,
I am vile. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a
man of unclean lips. That's me. That's what it means
to be without guile. When you come before God, are
you without guile? That's a work of grace in the
heart, isn't it? Because the unbeliever is not going to be
without guile. He's going to come with deceitful lips. He's
going to come with lies. He's going to be pretending to
be something that he's not. He's going to be like that Pharisee
in the temple, God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other men.
I fast, I tithe, I do this and I do that, and I've done many
wonderful works in Thy name. And what does the Lord say? Depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. So this matter
of confession, that's the work of grace in the heart. That's
where we just agree with God. Lord, I have no righteousness.
I have no right to come into Your presence. I have no claim
on You. I have nothing that would force your hand to forgive me.
And if you don't forgive me for Christ's sake, I have no other
ground on which to come." Here's the means, isn't it? Conviction
and confession. Now look at verse 7 and 8. Thou art my hiding place. Oh,
Lord, I've got to get to that city of refuge. The avenger's
blood is coming for me. I've got to get in the strong
tower. I've got to be found in Christ,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law. Thou art
my hiding place. I've got no other place to hide.
I can't do what my father Adam did. I can't sew together fig
leaves and try to hide my nakedness before God. Thou art my hiding
place. Put that fleece on me, Lord.
Put that robe of righteousness, cover up my filthy body. Thou art my hiding place. This
is faith. This is the means of forgiveness. It's not the cause of it, it's
the means of it. For by grace are you saved. That's the cause.
Through faith, that's the means. And this faith involves conviction,
it involves confession, and it involves trust. And it's all
the work of grace in the heart, isn't it? Verse 7, Thou art my hiding place,
Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Trouble? What's your biggest
trouble? Same as mine, isn't it? you know,
they'd say, well, you know, my, this person I have to work with
is my biggest, my biggest trouble, or my spouse is my biggest trouble,
or this situation, no. No, that's a person with guile. An honest person, they know,
Lord, I'm my, I am my biggest trouble. Preserve me from trouble, protect
me from myself, deliver me from evil, Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Oh, Lord, here's my hope that
I can rejoice in the Lord, that I can rest in Christ, that I
can know my transgressions, my breaking God's law has been forgiven. My sin has been covered. My iniquity is not going to be
charged to me. Now I can rejoice. Whatever else
might be happening, I can rejoice. Verse 8, I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee
with mine eye. Oh, don't be like the horse and
the mule. We got to put the bridle in their
mouth. How many times we're that way, aren't we? And if the Lord
has to put a bridle in our mouth, He'll do it. He'll do it. But
oh, what a joy it is when he's able to direct us just with the
inflection of his eyes. Don't you love when you, you
know, you can just kind of do that and somebody that you're
real close to knows exactly what you're talking about and you're
directing them with your eyes. Oh, Lord, direct me with your
eyes. Don't have to use the whip on me. Teach me. They shall be all taught of God. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden. Learn of me. Learn from me. He's the teacher
and he's the subject, isn't he? Be ye not as the horse or as
the mule which have no understanding, Whose mouth must be held in with
bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee? David at one time said, Lord,
I'm a beast in thy presence. We see our own rebellion, don't
we? And we just think, Lord, I'm so much that way. Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked. Some of the wicked don't have
any idea how sorry they're going to be. They're talking about
being blessed of God. They're resting in their favorable
circumstances. They're enjoying life and enjoying
this world and investing all their resources in things and
people. And the Lord says, the wicked
have got great sorrow coming. And sometimes God's people are
given great sorrow now, aren't they? Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy, mercy shall
can pass him about. What is the result of forgiveness?
My final point, the result of forgiveness is mercy, mercy. Now, mercy is God withholding
from us what we deserve. Grace is God giving to us what
we don't deserve. And that's the result of forgiveness,
that we get withheld. I will not charge you. I will not impute to you your
iniquity. He that trusteth in the Lord,
mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice."
Rejoice. Here's the result of forgiveness,
the result of the blessing of being forgiven. I can rejoice.
I can rejoice. I can rejoice in the Lord always
and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known
unto all men for the Lord is at hand. What hope, what joy,
what comfort. The result of forgiveness is
righteousness. We have a perfect righteousness
before God. The result of forgiveness is
love. You remember when Mary broke open that alabaster jar
and washed the Lord's feet and the disciples were criticizing
her and Simon made some remark about if he knew he was a sinner
The Lord said this, He said, they which are forgiven much,
love much. The more we grow in grace and
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we love Him
because the more we see of how much He's forgiven us. And then the result of forgiveness
is being a forgiving person. If you can't forgive, you can't have any hope that
you've been forgiven. Forgiven people just forgive.
They do. The Lord said, forgive us our
trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And again, people confuse the cause with the means. They'll
say, well, yeah, I've got to forgive in order to get forgiven.
No. No. You remember the parable that
the Lord told in Matthew chapter 18 about the king who had a servant
who owed him 1,000 talents. 1,000 talents. Now talent was
750 ounces of silver. I calculated it out and 1,000
talents comes out to about $125 million. And this servant owed
his master that kind of money. and the master came to him to
collect. He was going to throw him into prison, debtor's prison,
take his wife, take all of his possessions. He begged for mercy
and the master forgave him. He turned right around and he
went to his servant who owed him thirty dollars. Thirty dollars and demanded payment. And when the king found out that
this one had been forgiven $125 million, turned around and tried
to extract $30 from his servant and would have no mercy on his
servant, the king sent the jailer. They threw him into prison. You
see, you and I really are that person that owes God $125 million,
aren't we? And whatever offense that anybody
has had toward us doesn't compare to what we've been forgiven for. forgiven people are forgiving. If you can't, if people who can't
forgive have never known forgiveness, they've never known forgiveness. And they will end up being tormented by the jailers. That's what an unforgiving spirit
does, doesn't it? It leaves you being tormented. What's the ground of our forgiveness?
Oh, the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ground.
He's the cause of our forgiveness. He's the cause of our blessing.
What's the means? It's conviction, confession,
faith, trust. Those are the means that God
gives us. For by grace are you saved through faith. And what's the result of our
forgiveness? Oh, it's joy. It's mercy. It's grace. And it's being forgiving. How liberating it is to be able
to forgive. People put themselves in bondage
for not being able to forgive, don't they? Blessed, blessed, blessed of
God is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,
and in whom the Lord will not impute iniquity, and in whom
there is no guile, there is no guile, there is no deceit. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and oh how we pray that you would Bless us with
this grace of forgiveness. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 232, let's stand together, number
232. Christ our Redeemer died on the
cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul
with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Chiefest of sinners,
Jesus will save. All he has promised, that he
will do. Wash in the fountain, open for
sin. And I will pass, will pass over
you. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. ? Judgment is coming, all will
be there ? Each one receiving justly his due ? Hide in the
saving, sin-cleansing blood ? And I will pass, will pass over you
? When I see the blood When I see the
blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over
you. Oh, great compassion. Oh, boundless love. Oh, loving kindness, faithful
and true. Find peace and shelter under
the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you when I see the
blood, when I see the blood. When I see the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you.