My text this morning will be
found in the book of Psalms, chapter 32, if you would turn
there with me. Psalm 32, verses one and two. I suppose if you were to ask the
average church goer today to imagine in their minds the most
hideous nasty, foul, repulsive, and detestable thing that they
could think of. I'm certain they could come up
with some real offensive, vile, obnoxious, and nauseating things. I know I could. However, I'm
equally certain that not many, if any, would have thought of
themselves. No doubt that any unsaved man
or woman that would hear me preach on a consistent basis would more
than likely say, well, that preacher sure talks a lot about sin. They might even ask me, are you
proud of being a sinner? Well, my answer would be, no,
I'm ashamed of my sin. Like Joe, because of my sin,
I abhor myself. Like Paul, I would claim that
in my flesh dwells no good thing, oh, wretched man that I am. But
those of you who do hear me preach regularly and consistently know
that I do talk a great deal about sin and why shouldn't I? The
Bible talks a great deal about sin. God talks very extensively
about sin. And the reason he does is that
is the very reason that God sent his son into the world. Out of
personal curiosity, I looked up a few words this week to see
how often they're used in the Bible, being the word of God. And the word sin, singular, is
found 482 times. The word sins, plural, is found
172 times. The verb sinned is found 119 times. Sinners, mentioned
48 times. Sinner, 21 times. Senneth, 22 times. The word iniquity
appears 278 times in the scripture. The word transgression or transgressions,
99 times. The Bible substantially talks
about sin and it talks about our sin. The apostle Paul said,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Paul making
this statement to Timothy, saying that it's worthy of every man
and woman's attention and acceptance. This is something that a saved
man or woman takes sides with God on. What is it? that Christ
Jesus, who is God, came into the world for one reason, and
for one reason only, and that was to save sinners from their
sin. Now, neither David nor Paul denies
the fact that they, along with all of us, are sinners. We have
all sinned and come short of the glory of God, all of us.
Surely Paul was talking about those who commit those hideous,
nasty, foul, repulsive, detestable sins of the world. Surely Paul
couldn't have been referring to himself. After all, he wrote
the majority of the New Testament scripture. Well, what did Paul
say? He said, this is a faithful saying,
this is a sure, this is a true, this is a trustworthy saying
that Jesus Christ came in the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief." Paul is saying, not only am I one of these sinners,
but I see myself as the worst sinner of them all. And every
true believer sees themselves that way. And friends, even common
sense tells us that to be saved, we have to be saved from something.
For example, firemen save people from the flames of a fire. A
lifeguard saves men and women from drowning in the water. The
coast guard saves ships that are sinking in the depths of
the sea, depths of the ocean. Antidotes save folks from poison. But Christ Jesus, who is God,
saves his people from their sin. The angel told Joseph in Matthew
chapter one, verse 21, that his espoused wife was going to bring
forth a son and that he, Joseph, was to call his name Jesus, Savior,
as we talked about in the first hour. Why would you call him
that? For he shall save his people
from their sins. You see, we need to be saved
from our sins. Now, if you believe to have no
sin, you'll never have a need for the God-man, Christ Jesus.
Christ himself told us that. He said, they that are whole
have no need of a physician, of the physician. He said, Jesus
Christ is the physician. Those that are righteous in their
own eyes, well in their own mind, they have no need of Christ,
the physician. There's only one physician. There's
only one specialist for the disease of sin. Now that word whole means
well with no disease. If you have no sin, if you have
no disease, then you have no need of someone to heal you. You have no need of a doctor,
a physician, or a specialist. So who did Christ come to save?
He said that he came to save those that are sick. Has God
shown you that you're sick? The Greek word for sick used
in the Lord's original words here means much, much more than
just not feeling well. We all feel bad from time to
time and we say that we're sick, but the Greek word for sick,
kakos, I believe I'm saying that correctly, interpreted sick,
it's a very, very strong word. It means severely ill. It means badly. Diseased, it
means grievously and miserably and critically in bad shape,
bad shape. Word also means evilly corrupted. That is who Christ, the great
physician, came to seek and to save. That's who he came to help,
those who are evilly corrupted. He came to save those who have
a great need. Do you have a great need? Has
God shown you that? He'll have to show it to you.
You'll never figure it out on your own. He came to save those
who have a critical condition and a critical disease called
sin. Do you need any help with your
sin? The Lord makes it very clear what He's talking about by what
He says next. He continued and He said, I came
not to call the righteous, those that are well, those that are
not diseased, but I came to call sinners. Those who are in critical
condition, Christ came to save these sinners by calling them
and granting them repentance. Christ is going to save all who
have a need of healing. And we see this healing, this
need that we have can only be accomplished by true repentance.
Repentance for what? Repentance for our sin. Did you
know that the word repentance actually means reversal? Christ
came into the world to save sinners from their sin. You see, our
sin has separated us from God. We need to be reversed. Only
God can do that. God said through the prophet
Isaiah, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot
save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. "'But your iniquities
have separated "'between you and your God, "'and your sins
have hid His face from you, "'that He will not hear. "'Your hands
are defiled with blood, "'and your fingers with iniquity. "'Your
lips have spoken lies, "'your tongue hath muttered perverseness.'"
That's what God says about you and me. Now look at the text
here in Psalm chapter 32, verse one. Blessed, happy, that's what
the word means. Blessed, happy is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no God. Now, I want you to stick your
marker here and turn with me to Romans chapter three, if you
would. It's here that Paul describes
each of us very precisely. I know you've read these verses
many times. This is not something that Paul
came up with on his own. Paul describes us according to
the word of God found in the Old Testament. Romans chapter
three, when you get there, look at verse 10 with me. Did you notice how he starts
in this verse as it is written? Written where? Written in the
Old Testament scriptures. He says, verse 10, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of Asp is
under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swept to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God." Now, who are these words describing? They're describing
all the world. All of us by nature and all of
us by practice. All the world is guilty before
God, whether they know it or not. All men and women are guilty
whether they see it or not. And there are multitudes that
believe that they're whole and that they're righteous. And the
word righteous means equitable. There are millions who believe
that they have something to offer God that God will accept. They
have some equity to give to God. Let me tell you, you don't. You
have none, no equity. But because of that, these have
no need of a physician. Why? Because they're not sick.
They don't see that they're corrupted. They don't see that they're diseased.
Has God shown you this about yourself? In his word, God reveals
to his elect people that every single one of them has a desperate,
critical, urgent need because they're guilty before a thrice
holy God. And God's gonna shut their mouths.
No excuses. No excuses. Many mouths have
already been stopped. Many of ours this morning have
been stopped, haven't they? Many sinners have already seen
their guilt. But one day, Every mouth will
be stopped and all the world will see that they're guilty
before God. It would be to our spiritual
good to see that now. Oh God, be pleased to show us
what we are. What makes this need so critical?
Well, the wages of sin is death, eternal death. The soul that
sins, it shall surely die, forever die. But to those whom the great
doctor of our souls has revealed the prognosis, they see that
they had this loathsome disease called sin. They see that they're
guilty before God and they call out for the great physician.
And God's behind it all. And they're the ones who are
blessed, happy and forever grateful, because seeing that the wages
of sin is death, God also shows them that the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ, their Lord. Now look back in
Psalm chapter 32 again, and here in these verses before us, we
have three words that very well describe what makes us needy
of God's forgiveness and why we are in need of reconciliation
with Him. I know you noticed these words
as we read them, I emphasized them a little, but the first
word is found in verse one, and it's the word transgression.
Now the word transgression means rebellion. It means to revolt. It means to rise up against God
because all our transgressions are against Him. All our sin
is against God and Him only, against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. It's against God that
we've sinned and done this evil. And it's been in His sight. And
that's why David goes on to say that God is justified when He
speaks against us. And that's why God is clear of
any injustice when He judges us. Why? Because we're guilty. He's not saying anything that's
not so. We've turned everyone to our own way. That's our point
of rebellion. We've turned from Christ, who
is the way. We've turned from the one who
came to save His people from their sin. We are a revolting
and rebellious people. And those of you who are parents
or have raised children, you know it's so. You tell your children
not to do something, and that's the first thing that they'll
do. You tell your children to do something, and that'll be
the very thing that they rebel and revolt against and refuse
to do. A few years back, I purchased 50 acres outside of town. And because of the close proximity
of neighbors who live very close on each side, for their safety,
I posted no hunting signs on several trees. I mean, you could
see them from a half a mile away. Big neon orange, you know, the
type sign, no hunting. Do you think that discouraged
anyone from hunting? I had one man put a deer stand
in the very tree that I had a no hunting sign on. You know, we
drive down the interstate and the speed limit's posted at 70
mile an hour. What do we do? We see that speed
sign to mean that we can drive 75 or 80. I remember a friend
of mine got a ticket one time for going five mile over the
speed limit. He contested the speeding ticket,
and he actually proved that his speedometer was four mile an
hour slower. So he took the written proof
with him to court and showed the judge, and the judge commended
him for his efforts. The judge accepted his findings,
and then he said, that'll be $78 plus court costs. And my
friend said, well, I proved my case. And the judge said, yes,
you did. You proved that you were still
going one mile an hour over the speed limit. One mile an hour
over is still breaking the law. Friends, God's law requires perfection. And we always come up short to
what God's law requires. All of us come short of the glory
of God that's found in His inflexible law. And then the second word
here we see that proves our need is also found in verse one, and
it's that word sin. Oh, such a little word that's
so big. That word sin means offense.
We've offended God. Sin is the voluntary departure
from a known rule prescribed by God. It's the voluntary transgression
of God's divine law. Sin is a violation of a divine
command from God. We've offended God's holy law.
We've offended God's holy justice. In offending God's law and God's
justice, we've offended God. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Yes, it's
true. It's because of Adam's offense
that we ourselves offend. But we're guilty in our own right
of offending God. God gave us His holy law to show
us our inability to keep His law. And the reason was to bring
us to Christ. In that, the law was our schoolmaster. But man would not have God's
Christ to rule over them. So they killed and they crucified
the Lord of glory. And we do the same thing when
we refuse to bow in our hearts to the very one who came into
the world to save sinners. Transgressions, sin. Then the third word that proves
we have great needs found in verse two, and that word is iniquity. The word iniquity means perversity. Actually means to be morally
evil. It's a deliberate desire of man
to behave in an unreasonable and unacceptable way. It's contrariness. It's to be unreasonable. Friends,
to believe what God says about us is the most reasonable thing
in the world to believe. But man is determined to go his
own way. Man is determined to do his own
thing. Man is bent on being his own
God. Oh, there's a way that seems
right to man, but it's the wrong way. It's a way that leads through
a wide gate to a broad road. And there are many that be that
find it. In the book of Job, the question
is asked, hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have
trodden? Have you marked the evil way
that wicked men have walked ever since man apostatized from God? The old way is the way of Cain
and his descendants who corrupted their way with all manner of
impurity and wickedness. And Job's friend goes on to say,
which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown
with a flood, which said unto God, depart from us. And what
can the Almighty do for me? That seems to still be the question
today, doesn't it? What can God do for me? Happiness
in the world is made up of three things, riches, fame, and strength. Strength including health and
beauty and all the things that men and women long for in this
life. But there's also three other
words used in our text that show us the merciful pardon of our
great King of Kings. you had to have noticed them.
The first word is forgiven. David said, blessed, happy is
he whose transgression is forgiven. With God's forgiveness, the traitor
is reinstated. With God's forgiveness, the betrayer
is reconciled to the one he betrayed. A guilty sinner loves that word
forgiven, but I'll tell you something, he loves more. He loves to be
forgiven. David asked, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? We know that the
answer is none. None can stand, but there's that
little beautiful word. But there is forgiveness with
thee. that thou mayest be feared, that
thou mayest be revered. And that makes me happy. That
makes me blessed. I'm a blessed man. The second
word here is blessed. Happy is the man whose sin is
covered, not simply covered to be again uncovered, but covered
and concealed in the sense of being blotted out, be put away
forever. That's what Christ did for our
sin. He's blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that were against
us, which was contrary to us. And he took it out of the way,
nailing it to his cross. And then there's the third word
found in verse two. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now that word impute means charged. My iniquities are no longer charged
to me. My iniquities have been charged
to the account of another. Christ came into the world to
do what? Save sinners. Save them from what? From their
iniquities, from their transgressions, from their sins. All my sins
have been charged to Christ. David said, my sins are ever
before me. John said, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Paul
said, the things that I would do, I do them not. And the things
that I would not do, I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Well, I just told
you, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what would it mean to you
to know that every sin that you've ever committed or ever will commit
is forgiven? Jesus Christ came into the world
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. You see, the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin, past, present,
and future, all of it. And it would do us all good to
learn two words that begin with an S. You young folks, you ought
to learn these two words and ask God to show you what they
mean. The first word is substitution. Christ is our substitute. He
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement, the punishment for my peace was laid on him
and by his stripes, we are healed. That's substitution. The second
word is satisfaction. Christ satisfied the justice
of God for his people. The question is, do you know
the substitute? Do you see that he satisfied
God on your behalf? I heard a story one time about
a famous actor. It was a well-known orator who
was attending a banquet and there was this old silver haired preacher
there at the speaker's table. And by way of invocation, the
old preacher got up and he recited the 23rd Psalm. He said, the
Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And he went
through the Psalm. And when he finished, the audience
was visibly moved. There wasn't a dry eye in the
place. And a man sitting by the famous actor and orchard turned
to him and he said, you know, I've heard you recite the 23rd
Psalm, but I believe that old preacher has you beat. And the
trained actor and orator said, yes, there's no doubt about it.
And here's the reason why. He said, I know the Psalm. He
knows the shepherd. Do you know the shepherd? He's
the shepherd of his sheep. He gave his life for the sheep.
He knows the sheep by name. The sheep know his voice. If
you know him, you're a blessed man or you're a blessed woman.
If you know him, you ought to be happy. Blessed and happy is
he or she whose transgression is forgiven. Did you notice that
the words transgression and sin and iniquity are all singular? The unbeliever's transgression,
the unbeliever's sin, the unbeliever's iniquity is really singular.
You see, the singular thing that will condemn a sinner is that
they will not bow and believe that Jesus Christ as Lord can
put their sin away. The one thing that will keep
a man or a woman out of eternal fellowship with God is unbelief. The singular cause of eternal
condemnation and judgment is unbelief. Blessed and happy is
the man, the woman whose sin is covered, blotted out, put
away. And what a picture we see of
our sin being put away in the broken law that was put under
the mercy seat in the Ark of the Covenant. Christ is our mercy
seat. You see, we broke God's law.
The law was broken just like those tablets of stone were broken. We broke. But Christ put the
law that we broke away. He fulfilled the law in our place.
He satisfied God's justice in our stead. The law of God and
the justice of God has no claim on the believing child of God
because our transgressions against the law have been put away in
Christ, our mercy seed. Child of God, I can't say it
any clearer or plainer than this. You have no sin. God cannot charge
you for what you don't have. The proof is in the covenant
of grace that God made with Christ. And blessed, happy is the man
or woman who the Lord imputeth not, charges not with their iniquity. He's not gonna charge you. Why? You don't have any. Our transgression,
our sin, our iniquity have been charged to Christ account. Isn't
that such a plain, wonderful message? He did for me what I
couldn't do for myself. He did for me all that God required
of me, and He did it perfectly. And I receive all the benefit
from it. He was made to be sin, and I'm
made to be the righteousness of God in Him. There's nothing
for us to pay. He paid it all. So, are you happy? Do you see that you're blessed?
Men and women are happy and blessed in one place only. David said
in Psalm 72 verse 17, he said, and men shall be blessed in him. That's where we're blessed, in
him. May God be pleased to make it so for Christ's sake, for
our good and for God's glory. Amen.