Go with me if you would back
to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. I would like for us to focus
on verses one and two in light of the entire chapter.
I would like for us to enter in to verses one and two in light
of this entire chapter. After seeing what our Lord has
to say in the rest of the chapter, I believe we will more so enter
into verses one and two. This psalm has three divisions. A lot of times when you read
these commentary writers like Charles Spurgeon and John Gill
and men like this, They will point out that the Psalms will
a lot of times have different tones, different segments inside
one Psalm. And this Psalm has three different
divisions, three different sections. Verses one and two is the first
one. And those two verses, are a statement. That's the first division, a
statement is made. That's the first thing that's
said here. Now let's read this statement. It says, blessed 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 guile." What a statement. What a statement. What a statement
to make. Blessed is the man. You want
to see a blessed man? People talk about, oh man, we're
so blessed. God's really been blessing us.
Business is booming. Think about that. That's how
they measure God's blessing. Business is booming right now.
God Almighty said this is a blessed man. Blessed 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 guile. Now for the next division, the
next section in this psalm, as it is usually the case with the
psalms, whenever we read the psalms, we see the clearest picture
of the gospel. When we read the words of the
Psalms as the words of Christ Himself, rarely do we see a clearer
picture of what He did for us. Rarely do we enter into and understand
substitution. That's what the gospel is, a
trading of places. And rarely do we enter into it
more than when we read the Psalms as the words of Christ Himself. So let's read the next segment
here which is verses 3 through 7 as the words of our Savior. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ to His Father. He's speaking to His Father from
the grave. From the grave. This was His
cry on our behalf as He laid there in the grave for us as
our substitute. When I kept silence, oh, don't you love it how he
says, yet he opened not his mouth. When I kept silence, 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. I am completely dried up. I'm dried up. Now the word silah
at the end of verse four, that means just stop and enter into
that. Just pause for a minute. Just
enter in to what he said. These are the words of our Lord.
These are the words of our Savior. Listen to how he worded it in
Psalm 22. Go back a few pages with me to
Psalm 22. Psalm 22 verse 1 says, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This is Christ speaking. These are his words. These truly
are his words. And he said in verse 14, I am
poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. He was horribly disfigured. And our Lord never exaggerated.
Our Lord never told a lie. All of his bones were out of
joint. He said, my heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of
my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. Can you imagine? This is the
Son of God speaking. This is the Son of God. He said
that in our place, everything that we read here, is supposed
to be us saying it, enduring it, feeling it, crying it. He's saying this in our place.
Psalm 22 and Psalm 32, these are supposed to be the words
of Gabe Stoniker. David meant it. Oh, he wrote
it and he meant it. But seeing this as the absolute
judgment of God on the sin of His people, Christ is saying
this for us. As we hear Him cry this, this
is what He spared us from crying. Go with me back to Psalm 32. In verse 5, He said, I acknowledged my sin unto thee. and mine iniquity have I not
hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. There has to be another Silah
right there. Let's just stop and enter into
what he just said. He said, I acknowledge my sin
unto thee. Thank God. Thank God. Listen to how he worded it in
Psalm 40. Turn with me to Psalm 40. Psalm 40 verse 7 says, then said
I, lo I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me.
This is Christ speaking. These are the words of Christ.
And he said in verse 11, withhold not thou thy tender mercies from
me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. for innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. There's a song and Lord willing,
we're gonna end this service with it. And it says, he took
my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. And then the song says, how marvelous. don't have to suffer and die
alone because he did it for me he died alone for me how marvelous
go back to Psalm 32 verse 6 for this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found Surely
in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto
him. He said, Father, when your people
see this, as he's crying out from the grave,
Father, when your people see this, when they see what I'm
enduring, they are gonna see their only hope. They're gonna
see this and enter into this, and they're gonna know in their
hearts before you, this is my hope. This is my salvation. And they're gonna cry out to
you for mercy. They're gonna cry out that this
blood may be on us. May this blood be on us and our
children. They're gonna cry out for mercy. They're gonna seek
mercy while it may be found. And he said, surely they're gonna
find it. They're gonna seek it and they're
gonna find it. And when the floods of the great
waters of your wrath upon sin come, when those floods come,
they won't come nigh to them. They will not come nigh to them.
Psalm 23 says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, thou art with me. Psalm 92 says, he that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. It says a thousand shall fall
at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. That just blesses my heart. I
just entered into it. I've entered into it before,
I just entered into it again. It's not coming nigh you. Because Christ has been made
to be your hiding place. God has revealed the one and
only hiding place. You're hiding in Him. You're
dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty. It's not coming,
not you. Isaiah 43 says, when thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. He said, they're gonna seek and
they're gonna find deliverance. All because of this, all because
of what I'm doing. In verse seven, The Lord Jesus
Christ said to his father, thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt
preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. It is true that Christ is our
hiding place. David said in Psalm 27, in the
time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He is going to hide me in himself,
in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle. God told Moses
in Exodus 33, there is a cliff in the rock. And that's where
I'm going to hide you. I'm going to put you in the rock.
And that rock is Christ. It is true that he is our hiding
place. But he said to the father, you're
my hiding place. He cried, they are in me and
I'm in you. Double safety. That's a glorious
salvation. That is one, we got the most
glorious salvation ever told. That's a sure salvation. through
the substitution of Christ for his people. And because of that
salvation, this is what he says to his people. This is the last
division, all right? This is the last section, verses
eight to 11. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye. 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. Many sorrows
shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy
shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. Now, based on the chapter, Based
on all of the verses, the glorious news of the chapter, let's enter
into the truth of the first two verses. Verse one says, blessed 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 guile. Oh, how blessed. Oh, how blessed. That's all you can say about
him. He has been blessed. He's been blessed. Charles Spurgeon
said, pardoning mercy is of all things in the world. most to be prized. He said to hear from God's own
Spirit, I absolve you, is joy unspeakable. What he's
saying is this is the greatest blessing on earth. We are sitting around, we are
gathered around, sitting under, listening to, enjoying the greatest
blessing on earth. Blessed is he or she whose transgression is forgiven. Now this is what I want us to
enter into. In English, the word forgiven
means it's okay. Even though you did it, even
though you did it, I won't break our union. I'll get over it. I forgive you. That is not what
God is saying in Psalm 32 verse one. That word forgiven translates
and I love this. It translates taken off. Carried off. Taken or lifted
away. It means gone. Gone. Blessed is he whose transgression
is gone. Gone. Not just forgiven. That's a blessed man. Whose sin,
it goes on to say, is covered. Whose sin is covered. That word
means clothed. Clothed with what? His blood. Just covered in his blood. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Why? Why will He pass over us?
It's because all the sin has been dealt with. He's covered.
It's covered. It's already been dealt with.
Verse 2 says, Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. This is what
I want us to enter into. Imputation. This is important. Imputation. The word impute is
the acknowledgement of the truth about something. It's to acknowledge the truth
of an object or situation. It's to declare the truth of
the matter about something. It does not mean, this is so
critical, it does not mean to charge something to an account. It does not mean that. It does
not mean to transfer something, impute. It does not mean that.
It does not mean to consider something to be so even though
it's not. It does not mean that. It is
to acknowledge the truth of the matter. Verse 2 says, Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord acknowledges the truth of the
matter that there is not sin. There's not sin, there's not
any. And the Lord acknowledges the
truth of the matter that in that man's spirit there is no guile,
no trickery, no wickedness. How can that be? How can God
look at a man and acknowledge that? It's because of everything
we just read in the rest of the chapter. It's all because of
the rest of the chapter. Christ took it from us. And when
he took it from us, it was gone. I mean, really gone. Really gone. Truth of the matter, gone. Turn
over to Romans 4. Romans 4 verse 6. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man, and he's quoting Psalm 32 right here.
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Blessed is the
man when God looks at that man and acknowledges the truth of
what he sees. Righteousness. That's a blessed
man. Verse seven, saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are gone, forgiven, gone, and whose
sins are dealt with, covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will look at him and acknowledge the truth of what he is. not
sin. He will not impute sin. Oh, the redemption that substitution
brought. What we are in Christ is indescribable. What he did for
us, it can't be fathomed. It cannot be fathomed. What he
reinstated us to be, it just can't be fathomed. But I will
impute this. I believe we can all impute this.
I believe we can all acknowledge this to be the truth of the matter.
What he came to do for us, he did. He accomplished it to its fullest,
it's done. It's done. And even though we
cannot fathom what he's done for us, we acknowledge the truth
of the matter that it's the greatest blessing a sinner could ever
receive on this earth. We have received the greatest
blessing on earth. Nothing compares to this. Nothing greater has ever been
done than what Christ has done for us. Now let's close by reading
it in 2 Corinthians 5. Go with me over there. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. To know that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, Not imputing. Acknowledging the truth of the
matter. That their trespasses were not unto them. Not imputing
their trespasses unto them. And hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. And that word means atonement.
We've been given the ministry of the atonement. The word of
the atonement. Verse 20, now then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. God has imputed that to be the
absolute truth of the matter. And if God says it's the truth
of the matter, it's the truth of the matter. How blessed, how
blessed we are, blessed men and women. In Christ, we've received
the greatest blessing on this earth, a complete trading of
places with him. That can't be fathomed, a complete
trading of places. How wonderful, how wonderful. Let's all stand together. Turn with me to 452. 452.