With hymn number, I think it's
70. It is. Number 70 in the hardbacked
hymnal, Holy, Holy, Holy. And let's all stand together.
Number 70. Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and Seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only thou art holy, there is
none Perfect in power, in love and
purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. I so hope the Lord will enable
us to believe that he's holy. He's holy. He's not like us in
any way. The natural man thinks that God
is altogether as he is himself, and he fashions in his imagination
an idol that looks like himself and ultimately sets himself up
on the throne of God. But our God is holy. He's not
like us. He's other than we are. That's
what the word holy means. Who is a god like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity? Oh, he's separate from sinners. When Isaiah saw him high and
lifted up, He heard the seraphim hovering over the throne of God
crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and
earth is filled with thy glory. Oh, I hope that his train will
fill this temple this morning and that we'll be brought by
his spirit to worship him in spirit and in truth and confess
what we just sang. You know, sometimes it's easy
just to sing words, especially if they're familiar, and forget
about what we're singing. But if the Lord enables us to
worship, those will be the words of our hearts that we'll be able
to worship Him rightly. We're going to be looking at
Psalm 32 this morning, Psalm 32. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come before thy throne of grace in the name and based on
the works of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know we
have no claim to your mercy. We have no right to your love. We have no hope. to your righteousness
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. You said that if he'd be lifted
up as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, that you
would draw us to him. Oh, Lord, how we need for you
to do that this morning. We come before you as centers
in need of grace. We asked Lord that your spirit
cause us to worship from the heart according to the truth
of thy gospel. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. I want to introduce this look
at Psalm 32 by asking you a question. Are you blessed? Are you blessed? Now, Most folks
immediately, when asked that question, their minds and hearts
go to the physical blessings that they have in their lives.
They think, well, yes, I'm greatly blessed. I'm in good health. I have family. I have friends.
I'm able to live in a country that's free. And I'm thankful for the blessings
that God has given me. That's not what I'm talking about.
And that's not what the Lord's talking about in Psalm 32. The blessing he's talking about
here, if you have it, you have everything. And if you don't
have it, you have nothing. I don't care how many comforts
you enjoy in this world. If you don't have this blessing,
you've got nothing. As a matter of fact, for most
people, the things that they consider to be blessings, because
they don't have this blessing, are going to add to the judgment
of God's wrath upon their souls for all eternity. They've enjoyed
the things that God has provided without acknowledging Christ
as their Savior, without coming before Him as a sinner in need
of grace. And all those things that they
call blessings will end up being for all eternity. They're going
to enjoy them for just a little while here, and then for all
eternity, those blessings will become their curses. Oh, I don't want that for you.
I don't want that for me. I want us to experience the blessing
that God's talking about here. You remember that hymn that we
used to sing, count your many blessings, name them one by one,
count your many blessings, look what great things God has done.
Listen to one of the stanzas in that hymn. Are you ever burdened
with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy that
you are called to bear? Count your many blessings. Every
doubt will fly and you will be singing as the days go by. Don't worry, be happy. That's
all that song's about. The power of positive thinking.
Oh, just count your blessings and the blessings that you enjoy
will get you through the trials of life. Somehow, I don't think
that Paul and Silas were singing that song after having been brutally
beaten and chained to the wall in a Roman prison. Somehow, I
don't think that Stephen, being pummeled with stones to his death,
was counting his blessings in the regard that that hymn speaks
of and in the regard that men think of their blessings. Somehow
I don't think that when John Bunyan was locked up in prison
and they would send his daughter, his little daughter, to the prison
to beg him to come home. He could have left any time he
wanted. All he would have had to do was
recount the gospel, is to deny the gospel, stop preaching the
gospel. Instead, he stayed in Bedford
prison for, I think it was seven years, and wrote Pilgrim's Progress. He wasn't enjoying any of the
blessings that men think of, was he? Stephen wasn't enjoying
the blessings. What about the many believers
that have sang their way into glory while being strapped to
a pole and being burned at the stake? What sort of blessings
did they have in that moment? You see, the truth is that the
blessing that God's talking about here in Psalm 32 is the blessing
that you and I need in order to get through that valley of
the shadow of death and be brought into the presence of God. And
if we don't have this blessing, all the other physical and temporal
blessings that we enjoy in this world will be for naught. And they will be worse than that.
They will be part of our judgment. Oh, Lord, bless me with this
blessing. And if you have to remove every
other blessing from my life in order for me to enjoy this blessing,
this is the one that I'm in need of. This is the one that I'm
in need of. You have your Bibles open to Psalm 32. Blessed. Here's what God says. Here's what God says about your
blessings and my blessings. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. That's the blessing that you
need. That's the blessing that I need.
That word transgression is the word rebellion. We come from
the womb speaking lies. Our heart is desperately wicked.
Every imagination of the thought of the heart is only evil, and
that continually. The throat is an open sepulcher,
because when God looks down at the throat, He sees the condition
of our hearts. And our hearts are wicked. They're
dead. Dead in our trespasses and sins.
Here we are. This is our condition. We're
in need of forgiveness. That's the blessing. That's the
blessing you can't work for. That's the blessing you can't
earn. It's the blessing you can't demand. It's the blessing you can't obligate
God for. It comes by free grace, and it
comes through the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody told me recently, he
said, well, I know I make a lot of mistakes, but I ask God to
forgive me. Like me asking God to forgive
me obligates God to forgive me. And I was able to say to Him,
we are a mistake. And our prayers to God in no
way obligate Him to forgive us. We've got to be forgiven by free
grace. He's holy. You can't approach
God based on something you do. He's holy. He's got to come to
where we are. We can't get to him. Man's been
trying to do that ever since the Tower of Babel. The Tower
of Babel, that's what it was all about. Climbing up into the
heavens, trying to get access to God. And the Lord said, when
you do that, all you do is expose your nakedness. And man today
still thinks, he still thinks he can cover his nakedness. He's
still doing what Adam did back in the garden, sewing together
fig leaves in order to try to cover his nakedness so that he
can be accepted in the presence of God. God said, you need forgiveness. You need a robe of righteousness.
What did God do in that garden? Those fig leaves weren't sufficient,
were they? They weren't sufficient. I know I've probably told you
this before, but we have a fig tree in our yard. And it's interesting
to me that the leaves on that fig tree are shaped, I can lay
one of those leaves right on my hand and it looks just like
my hand. It's shaped just like my hand. I get them just at the
right time and it fits perfect right over my hand. I mean, thumb,
little finger, everything. Interesting the way the Lord
made that fig tree. Isn't that what we do? We try
to clean up our act with the works of our hands. God says
it's not sufficient. You put your hand to it. You
put your hand to it and you defile it. The Lord said when you build
an altar, don't take the stones and put a hammer and chisel to
them. Don't put, just pile up rough stones. Because as soon
as you put your hand to it, you defile it. What happened to Uzzah
when the ark started teetering? He put his hand to the ark, didn't
he? And God killed him right there on the spot. You put your
hand to what God has done in Christ to forgive you of your
sins, and you defile the sacrifice, and you suffer the judgment of
God, and you miss the blessing. You miss the blessing. Blessed
is he whose rebellion is forgiven. God says, I have forgiven you
of your sins, I have separated them from you as far as the east
is from the west, and I remember them no more. God requires a
perfect sacrifice. Remember, God's holy. He must
maintain His nature. He can't compromise His holiness. And the only thing that satisfies
a holy God is a holy sacrifice. And you and I can't come up with
it. We can't come up with it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that provided to God a sacrifice that God was able
to say, now that I'm pleased with. That I'm pleased with. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered, atoned for. This is the same
word that's used when Noah built the ark, which is a picture of
Christ, and the judgment of God fell. Can you imagine Noah putting
a big placard on the side of the ark saying, smile, God loves
you? Enjoy your blessings? No. No. The only people that were blessed
are those that were in the ark. And it's the same thing right
now. The only people that are blessed of God are those that
are in Christ. Found in Him. Not having their
own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. And what was that ark?
The scripture says it was pitched. After Noah built the ark, he
pitched it with tar, with some kind of resin that came from
a tree, I imagine, or maybe some tar that came out of the ground.
I don't know what it was, but it sealed that ark, and it was
pitched from within and from without. Whatever pictures Hollywood
comes up with of seeing the ark leaking and Noah and his sons
desperately trying to keep it afloat, that's not the case at
all. Not a drop of water. That water
was God's judgment. Not a drop of it came in that
ark. Not a single drop. Why? Because it was covered.
It was covered. And not a drop of God's wrath
will come upon those who are found in Christ. That's the blessing. Blessed! Blessed is he whose
sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are covered. The blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only covering. It's the only atonement. God said, when I see the blood,
then I'll pass by you. Not when I see your good intentions.
Not when I see your prayers. Not when I see your efforts.
Not when I see your good works. When I see the blood, there's
the blessing. Christ is the blessing of God. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. whose sin is covered, concealed,
hid. That's the word there. Oh, it's just put out of the
sight of God. I need a God who's able to find
in the atoning work of another a sacrifice that will cause him
to say, what sins are you talking about? I remember them no more. Everything about you, yes, is
sinful. But God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. There's my hope. Christ is my hope. He's my only hope. Don't look
for an improvement in your life. Don't look for something that
you're doing or something you're achieving as a hope of your salvation. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come. And I, if I be lifted up, as the serpent was lifted up
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He was
suspended between heaven and earth. He bore in his body all
the sins of all of God's people and suffered the full wrath of
God's judgment in order to deliver those for whom he lived and died.
And it wasn't everybody. It wasn't everybody. He didn't
make an offering that was somehow ineffectual. He died for those chosen of God
in the covenant of grace before the world ever began. You see,
if Christ died for everybody, if he died for everybody, then
that means that the only way that his death can work for you
is if you do something to add to what he did. That not true? You gotta do something, you gotta
add your two cents worth. You've got to put in your contribution
if he died for everybody. God's not in the heavens. He's
holy. He's not in the heavens wringing
his hands, wishing that men would let him have his way. That's
a false gospel. That's a lie from the pit of
hell, and most people believe it, and consequently, they depart
this world without the blessing. Without the blessing. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Oh, that's what I need. How is
he not going to charge me, credit me, account me guilty of my iniquity? You see how many words here are
used for sin? Transgression, rebellion, sin, missing the mark,
iniquity, is the good things that you do. It's the good things
you do. That's the mystery of iniquity,
isn't it? That men don't see that their good works, God says,
are iniquitous. They don't measure up to my standard
of holiness and righteousness. And if I impute them to... You
see, it's not that if God charged you with one of the things you
feel bad about that you'd go to hell. If God charged you with
one of the things you feel good about, you'd go to hell. One thing. Where am I going to
go? What's my hope? How am I going to be delivered?
Oh Lord, bless me with the blessing. Bless me. I don't have anything. I need the blessing of God. Blessed
is he in whom the Lord impute not iniquity. Lord, don't charge me with the
things that I'm proud of. Don't charge me with anything
I've done. Don't take into account anything that I've ever done.
A prayer I've ever prayed. A good intention I've ever, a
good work I've ever performed. Don't take it into account. Impute
it all to Christ. There's three imputations spoken
of in the scriptures. It's the imputation of the sin
of Adam. When Adam sinned, he was the federal head of the human
race, and we all fell in him. And contrary to what men say,
we're not evolving. Adam's the best man that ever
lived, and we've been getting worse ever since. God charged us with Adam's sin. We were in Adam's loins when
he sinned, and all of the human race fell in our father Adam. You say, well, that's not fair.
If you can't believe that imputation, then you have no hope for the
next one. You have no hope for the next
one. God charged the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel,
the sinless One, the One who in Himself is undefiled. He charged
Him with all the sins of all of God's elect. imputed them
to Christ so that he bore in his body all the sins of all
God's people. And then he took the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect obedience of Christ,
and charged that back to the account of those for whom Christ
lived. Three imputations. You gotta
be a part of the first one before you can be a part of the next
two. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. In whose spirit there is no guile. If you're found in Christ, you've
been given the mind of Christ. You've been given a new nature.
Christ, who is in you now, is your hope of glory. You still
carry around that old flesh. And what the Lord said about
that old flesh is still true. He came from the womb lying,
and all men are liars. God alone only tells the truth.
But in his spirit, where the light of the gospel shines in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no lies. There's no guile. That's what that word means.
There's no deceit. He speaks clearly. That new man speaks clearly about
who he is before God. He knows that he's nothing but
sin. In his spirit, there is no guile. He knows who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. The Holy One of Israel. He knows
that He could not fail nor be discouraged. That He's the Messiah,
the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And that He has power to
give life to whomsoever He wills. No man can obligate Him. He knows
that it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. He knows
that it is of God that showeth mercy. He knows that. There's
no guile. If you're in Christ, you know
that. You don't hear these sort of things and say, well, yeah,
but. There is a sense in which God loves everybody. No, there's
no sense in which. Well, there is a sense in which
I've got some sort of a free will where I can make a decision. No, you're dead. You show me
a dead man that's got a free will. You see, that's guile. And the ones who the Lord imputes
not their sin, the one who has received the blessing of God,
the one who has their transgressions forgiven, in their spirit there's
no guile. There's no guile. There's no
buts. They just bow. They don't but,
they bow. They just say, truth, Lord, like
that Syrophoenician woman when the Lord called her a dog. What'd
she say? What'd she say? Well, if that's the way you think
about it, I'll just go find somebody else. Is that what she said?
You calling me a dog? No. She said, truth, Lord. And the dogs, the dogs eat from
the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Would you just
brush a few crumbs off the table for me? That's all I'm asking. Just a little mercy. A little
mercy. That's what I need. Those are the ones that are blessed
of God. Oh, and what a blessing. Don't count. You know, all these
other things, every good and every perfect gift comes down
from your Father of lights. with whom there is no variableness
nor shadow of turning. We acknowledge the things that
we enjoy in this world as coming from our heavenly father. Here's
how you know if those things are a blessing to you, if you've
received the blessing, and if you acknowledge the source and
give glory to that source for all the other blessings that
you enjoy in your life. Well, I've worked hard, I've
accomplished this, I've done that. I'm sorry, whatever you've
achieved and whatever you're enjoying as a result of that
is not a blessing. It's not a blessing. It's a blessing
when God gets the glory for it. And your salvation will be a
blessing when God gets all the glory for it. Your forgiveness
will be a blessing when God gets all the glory for it. That's
the only time that we're blessed, is when he gets all the glory.
Have you been blessed of God? Have you? Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the whole Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. He knows the truth. And the truth
has set him free. And he can't speak contrary to
the gospel. And he can't go listen to someone
who denies the gospel. Once he's heard the truth, he
can't go back to the lie. Why? Because in his spirit there's
no guile. How can a person who has a guileless
spirit go and listen to someone tell lies about the very thing
that he knows to be true in his spirit? He can't do it. That's why you all come from
so far and wide to come here. You can't go to those. You have
friends and family members. Why don't you go? There's church
in your community. You're driving that far, an hour,
to get to church? Why? Because in my spirit there is
no guile. And I need to hear about Christ. Because I need
to be reminded again and again and again of the blessing of
God. in the forgiveness of my sin. Verse 3, when I kept silent,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. We're
going to look at David's sin in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and 12
in the next hour. David tried to hide his sin,
didn't he? Tried to cover it up. It was a futile attempt. But that's what we do, don't
we? We try to cover it. And God says, what you cover,
I'm going to uncover. What you uncover, I'll cover
it. I'll cover it. Oh, we keep silent. We justify ourselves until we
can't stand it any longer. For day and night, thy hand was
heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. Selah, the convicting power of
the Holy Spirit, accomplished, accomplished his purpose. Brought
you to that place where you couldn't keep silent anymore. You had
to break forth before God. You had to confess. And what did you confess? I acknowledge
my sin. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Lord, my problem is
not with anybody else and my problem is with you. I'm the sinner. Well, the blame
game goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? And we're
still pretty good at it, aren't we? Well, the woman that thou
gavest me, she gave to me and I did eat. Adam was blaming God is what
he was doing. And so it is with you and I when we excuse our
sin, we're blaming God. I acknowledge my sin unto thee. John puts it like this. If you
confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your
sins and cleanse you of all of your unrighteousness. You know,
that word confess just means to speak the same thing about
your sin that God says about it. And this is the work of the Spirit
of God. You know that if you've been brought to that place, it's
because the Lord has brought you. Thy hand was upon me day
and night. Lord, you brought me to this
place. And yet there's no, with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness. I'm glad the Lord put it that
way in Romans. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
That's the work of the Spirit of God in the heart. revealing
to us Christ, and bringing us under the conviction of our sinfulness
before God. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Whatever takes place in the heart's
gonna come out in the mouth. It's gonna come out in the mouth.
I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not
hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord,
and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sins. Nathan said to David, thou art
the man. And David said, I have sinned
against the Lord. And Nathan said, and the Lord
has forgiven you. He's forgiven you. He's blessed
you with the blessing of grace. He's put away your sin. He's
hid them from you. buried them in the depths of
the sea, sewed them up in a sack, threw them behind his back, remembers
them no more, and separated them from you as far as the east is
from the west, covered them by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the blessing that you and I need. Verse 6. For this shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee in the time. In what time? In a time when
thou mayest be found, surely in the floods of great waters
they shall not come nigh unto him. Notice that godliness comes before
praying and before forgiveness. For this shall everyone that
is godly, everyone that belongs to the Lord, everyone that's
elect of God, everyone that's chosen of God, he's going to
put it in their hearts to pray. I'm never encouraged when someone
who I know doesn't believe the gospel, a religious person who
I know doesn't believe the gospel, says to me, well, I'm praying
for you. I just don't say anything, because I know they're not. I
know they're not. Only God's people, oh, they may
be mouthing words to a God of their imagination, but they're
not praying to my God. Their prayers aren't what I need.
You know, I just let it go. Prayer is something only the
godly can do. And prayer is something that
only the Spirit of God can put in your heart to do. Prayer is
not a work that you perform. Prayer is a work of grace that
the Spirit of God does in the hearts of the godly. All that
are godly shall pray in a time when he may be found. Lord, would you cause me to pray?
Would you, would you not pass by me? Would you make me one
of your godly ones? Would you, would you enable me
to come before your throne of grace and pray in truth? If he does, then the floods of
many waters shall not overflow thee. I mentioned Bunyan earlier,
and at the end of Bunyan's story of Pilgrim's Progress, I think
it was Christian that became afraid at the very end, and didn't
want to go across the river into the promised land, into the celestial
city. And he had to be encouraged by
another brother. All these waters won't overflow
thee. You're going to come out on the
other side. Verse 7. Why? Because thou art my hiding place. Now in the Old Testament, God
gave the children of Israel six cities of refuge. Those cities
of refuge were places where if you accidentally killed someone,
you were guilty of manslaughter, and the law according to its
exact rule, allowed for the next of kin to take your life in revenge
for what you had done, even though it was accidental. And God, in
showing mercy to the children of Israel, gave them cities of
refuge. And He told them, if you accidentally
kill somebody, you get to one of those cities. Because the
avenger of blood, that was the next of kin who had the right
to take your life according to the law. The avenger of blood
is going to pursue you. But you get into that city of
refuge and that's a safe zone. He can't touch you. He can't
touch you. That avenger of blood is the
law. Oh, the hound of the law would pursue me and you to our
death. Not because we've sinned innocently,
but because we've sinned in guilt and in shame, and God's given
us cities of refuge. Thou art my hiding place. That cleft in the rock that God
made for Moses on Mount Sinai, here was Moses on the very mountain
of the law, which shook and quaked with fire. And boy, a place of
being consumed by the law of God. What'd God do for Moses? He put him in the cleft of the
rock and he covered him with his hand. Thou art my hiding
place. You need, you and I need a place
to hide from the law of God. The law of God shows no mercy. The law of God is relentless.
The law of God has no loopholes, it has no compromises, it has
no exemptions or exceptions whatsoever. The law of God is strict and
it will execute its full judgment against all those who have violated
the law of God. And that's what happened on Calvary's
cross. God let loose his law on the sin bearer and satisfied
the demands of God's law. Wedding the sword of his justice
in the blood of his own son to set his people free. That's what
we need. What does David say? Oh, Lord,
thou art my hiding place. You're the only place I have
that I can go. You will preserve me from trouble. You don't know trouble in this
world. I don't know. I know many of
you have suffered things beyond what I can imagine. But you and
I do not know trouble compared to the trouble that will come
if we've not received the blessing. For in that day of wrath, The
troubles of this world will seem like nothing. Nothing. Being hid in Christ is the only
way to escape the trouble that is to come. And when we are in Him, oh, we
don't fear that anymore. The Lord Jesus Christ has already
suffered that trouble for me. Oh, there's so much more in this
psalm. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way. One of my eyes, I'll direct you
with my eyes. Don't be like the horse or the
mule that had to put bits in their mouth. Bow, bow. Lord, would you instruct us?
Would you make us like... Those of you that have been parents,
isn't it wonderful when you can just look at a child and they
can see from your expression exactly what you want them to
do and they do it? And you don't have to pull out
the rod. I mean, that's what you want, a compliant, obedient
child. Lord, would you make me, would
you make me that way? Don't let me be like the horse
and the mule. Don't let me have to be beat.
Direct me with your eye, the eye of your grace, the eye of
your love. All right, let's take a break. th th th Thank you.