Good evening, everybody. Is this
too loud? Okay. It is wonderful to be here. And as
Brother David said, I love you too. I love you so much. my Virginia brethren, and my
North Carolina brethren, and my Tennessee brethren, and my
Kentucky brethren, and every state that I might have missed.
Honestly, I'm just so happy to see you. I love you and I thank
you, Brother Paul, for asking me to come. Turn with me, if
you would, to Psalm 32. Psalm 32, and the last verse
of this psalm, which is verse 11, it says, Be glad in the Lord. Now that's the title of this
message, and that is the goal of this message. That's what
I pray will happen. I pray that we will be glad in
the Lord. We just heard something that
ought to give us great reason to be glad. And I pray that that
will continue for just a few minutes more, and I pray that
when we leave here, We will leave happy. That's my hope. I want
us to leave here happy. Really happy. We have reason
to be so, so happy. This psalm is a beautiful prayer
to God. And it's a beautiful answer from
God. And this is something that every
child of God can cry out to Him from the depths of their soul. And it begins with this truth
right here, okay? We start our happiness right
here. This is how the whole thing starts.
If you look with me at verse 1, Psalm 32, verse 1 says, Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is he. That means blessed
is she. Blessed. Blessed. People are always talking about
being blessed. You'll hear that a lot. People
say, I have been so blessed with good health. I've been so blessed with a good
job. I've been so blessed with a good
home life. Blessed with a good wife, good
kids, good friends, a good outlook on life, good home life, all
those things. I've been so, so blessed. A very
common way of saying goodbye now is Have a blessed day. And what that means is have a
prosperous day. I hope you have a prosperous
day. Now, although I want all of those
things for people, I really do. I want every one of those things
for people, but none of those things are the great blessing
from God. None of those things. Although God is the giver of
all those things, if you have a wonderful wife, God gave her
to you. Every good and perfect gift comes
from him, and when he gives those things, they are blessings. They
really are. But none of those things are
the great blessing of God Almighty to his people. The great blessing,
the true blessing of true significance is, blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Transgressions are what we do. Sin is what we are. We do what we do because we are
what we are. We commit transgressions because
in the flesh, sin is all that we are. That's all that we are
in this flesh. And in our flesh, because we
are what we are and do what we do, we are naturally Cursed. In the flesh, by nature, we are
not blessed. We are cursed. If man spoke correctly,
he would say, oh, we are so cursed. Our lives, if he really spoke
correctly, if truth was coming out of his mouth, he would say,
our lives are so cursed. I'm so cursed by this high-paying
job that has taken me away from Christ. Cursed is the ground for our
sake. Isn't that what the Lord said? Everything that we brought on
ourselves Oh, we're so condemned, if man was honest. We are so
exposed before God. We are so convicted. And had
God left us alone, we would have died in our cursed condition. And we would have spent an eternity
bearing a condemnation that we could never fulfill. Do you know
why Christ arose from the grave? It's because He fulfilled the
condemnation. It's because He satisfied the
judgment. We could never do that. That's
why those outside of Christ stay in the ground and stay in hell. Our Lord cried, you will not
leave my soul in hell because I'm going to finish this. That's why for a sinful soul
before God, one thing truly constitutes as the great blessing from Him. One thing is needful, and that
is the forgiving, covering blood of the Lamb of God. For God so
loved, He gave. He gave the great blessing to
the sinners that He chose to save. To all of His people, He
gave His only begotten Son. That's amazing, isn't it? It's
just amazing. Christ Jesus, our Lord, came
and took all the transgressions. And this is so amazing. This
is too wonderful for me. But all that wretched stuff that
I've done, transgressions are the things that we do. Christ
came and He rounded up all the transgressions and all the sin
from all of His people and He laid all of it on Himself. That's
just so amazing. You know, the stuff that we want
to be so far away with, so far away from. He laid it on himself and stood
before God in it. Just amazing. Made himself, this
is what he did. He made himself to be cursed
for his people. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. He made Himself to be exposed
before God with all that sin for His people. And convicted for His people
and condemned for His people. And He died in our cursed condition. He bore the fullness of God's
judgment. How could we possibly imagine
God's judgment? How could we imagine God's judgment? He bore the fullness of God's
judgment. He fulfilled the fullness of
all that punishment. He took all that punishment.
And He put every sin and every transgression, every spot of
iniquity away forever. Now that's a blessed man. Honestly, that. Oh, we have a
great job. Oh, my kids are getting straight
A's. That's a blessed man. That's
a blessed woman. Now, I want all of us, I do want
to be clear on this, I want all of us to have happy days rather
than sad days. I want all of us to have more
money rather than less money. I want all of us to have good
home lives rather than bad home lives. But what difference do
those things really make as long as our eternity before God has
been secured by the Lord Jesus Christ? What difference do those
things really make? If Christ has secured eternity
for us, sinless, eternal life for us. We're a blessed people. No matter what happens on this
earth, we're a blessed people. Verse 1 says, Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2 says, Blessed is the
man unto whom The Lord imputeth, not iniquity. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth. The word imputeth right here
means, and I really want to make this clear, it means to acknowledge
the condition to be. It means to assess something
and acknowledge it as it is. It does not mean to make it to
be that way. It means to assess something
and to say, this is the way it is. This is the current condition. All right, now, I impute. that this pulpit is painted some
shade of white, and then the top is natural wood
with a dark stain on it. Okay? I didn't make it to be
this way. I did not put the paint on here.
I did not put the stain on here. But after assessing this, I impute
this is the way it is. This is how it is. Alright, look
at verse 2. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth, not iniquity. And in whose spirit there is
no God. Turn with me to Jeremiah 50.
I just love this. This scripture, I read it all
the time. Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 20. It says, In those days and in
that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for. Israel is going to be inspected.
In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for.
And there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found. I will pardon them whom I reserve."
He said, when I inspect them, I'm going to acknowledge that
this is their condition. No sin. No sin. Blessed is the man, blessed is
the woman who after the Lord inspects them in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, this is what I say. Not sin. No sin. I don't see
any guile in their heart. None whatsoever. Go with me back
to Psalm 32. Verse 1 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 God. Now David says in verse 3, 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."
We can hear the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ in that as
our substitute, hanging there on the cross, suffering all of
that for us. We can hear the voice of our
Savior in this. But the voice of David also represents
the voice of all of God's people, saying, I must confess what I am before
you. I cannot hide what I am from
you. I don't want to hide anything
from you. Do you want to hide anything
from Him? It eats at me. It weighs heavy
on me. Lord, You know everything about
me. You see me for what I am. That's
what David said in Psalm 139. Turn with me quickly to Psalm
139. Psalm 139 verse 1 says, O Lord, Thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. You know everything about me. You know every time I sit down,
every time I stand up, every thought that goes into my mind.
Verse 3, Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted
with all my ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it all together. Thou
hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot
attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit,
or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee. Nothing can be hid from you."
That's what he's saying. Verse 23, he says, Search me,
O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and
see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting." Is that not our cry? Lord, we have nothing to hide
from You. Never would we want to hide anything
within us from You. I need You to deal with all of
it. I don't want one spot being left undealt with. We want you
to search out all of our sin and, Lord, redeem us from every
last speck of it. Redeem us from all of our transgressions. That's the cry of all of God's
children. Through and through. Go with
me back to Psalm 32. Verse 5 says, 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 forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. Now that right there is one verse
that is worthy of a salah. David wrote that, and he said,
that needs a salah. We need to pause for just a minute.
Let me read it again. Verse 5. I acknowledged my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and you forgave all
of it. Every bit of it. He said, I didn't do anything
to redeem myself. I didn't bring anything of any
value or any worth to you. I didn't earn anything. I didn't
deserve anything. I just confessed what I was. And I said, Lord, whatever you
choose to do with me, you are right in it. This is what I am
before you. And whatever you choose to do
with me, you are justified in your judgment. And he said, lo
and behold, to the praise of the glory of your grace, this
is what you were pleased to do with me. You forgave me for all
of my sin. And he said, that deserves a
salat. He said, I don't want to leave that just yet. I want
to pause there for a minute. Verse six, 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. If you are a sinner
in need of mercy, if you're a sinner in need of a savior, seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is
near. Let the wicked forsake His way,
every way that you thought was the way of salvation. Like the
Apostle Paul, get rid of it. Honestly, today is the day of
salvation. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. Let him turn to our God, and
he will abundantly pardon him. Verse 6 says, 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 unto him. The temporary floods of
this world may come. The temporary floods of this
world. But the eternal floods of damnation. The eternal flood
of condemnation will never come to a soul that Christ has renamed. Never. Verse 7 says, Thou art
my hiding place. Don't we love the song that says,
Hail sovereign love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen
man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God that ruled
the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high. despised the mention of
his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place, but thus the
eternal counsel read, Almighty love, arrest that man. That was me, and that was him. Thank God. That song says, A
few more rolling suns at most shall land me safe on Canaan's
coast. There I'll sing the song of grace
to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Verse 7 says, Thou art my hiding
place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. That's what we're going to sing
throughout all eternity. That is our song right now. We've
been singing them all night tonight. And it's always going to be songs
of deliverance. That's what we're going to sing
in glory. Songs of deliverance. Songs of glory to Him, songs
of honor to Him because of His deliverance to us. Now that was David's prayer to
God and this is God's answer to David. Verse 8, it says, I
will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go. I will guide thee with mine eye. He said, I will, I will, you
shall. That's the greatest thing a sinner
could ever hear from the Lord. I will, you shall. Verse 8, I
will instruct thee and teach thee in my word. That's how he instructs us and
teaches us through the preaching of his word. Verse 8, I will
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. Which way should a child of God
go? Which way should a child of God
go? Here's the answer. Whichever
way Christ goes, we follow him. We follow him. He said in verse
eight, I will guide you with my all seeing eye. Verse nine,
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." He said, Don't resist. Come willingly. Don't kick against
the pricks. You won't be able to do it very
long. Come willingly. All of God's
people do. Verse 10 says, Many sorrows shall
be to the wicked, But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall
compass him about." Isn't that glorious? The one who looks to
Christ, that serpent on the pole, mercy is going to surround that
soul. Those who have no heart, haven't
been made to have a heart for Christ, oh that they would consider
their ladder in. But thank God He considered our
latter in. What do we have to boast in?
It's He which has done all this in us, to us, and for us. And all that He's done that for,
the end of that man or woman is mercy, mercy. They're just going to be swallowed
up in mercy, just completely. That's one good way to drown.
If you have to drown, drown in mercy. Just drowning in mercy. Forgiveness through His blood.
So verse 11, He said, Be glad in the Lord, even if life on
this earth doesn't reflect what people consider to be blessed.
All those things that people consider to be blessings. Even
if our life does not reflect that at all. And our life is
the complete opposite of that. A blessed, sin-forgiven, iniquity-covered
child of God can always be glad in the Lord. Always. Always be glad in the blessing
of the blood, the blood of the Lamb. Verse 11 says, Be glad
in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous. Those of you who have been made
righteous in Him. And shout for joy. We don't shout
now, but we will. I think it's Psalm 46 that says,
Oh, clap your hands. There have been so many times
I have literally wanted to clap my hands. And I can't yet because,
I don't know why, we just don't do it. We don't want to draw
attention to ourselves and we don't want sin to ruin everything.
But the moment we're freed from all that, we're going to clap
our hands. We're going to shout for joy. Everything that has
breath is going to praise Him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. No matter what the circumstances
are, we can be glad in the Lord. And I'm going to leave you with
this story. Fifteen years ago, the five of us, Paul, Mindy,
Hannah, myself, and Isabella, Hannah was pregnant with Isabella,
went to Mexico to see the groomers. And I spent most of that trip
sick. But in one of the mornings that
I wasn't sick, we were all having breakfast at Walter and Betty's
house, and Walter was telling us stories of experiences he
had in Mexico over the years, especially when he first got
down there. And this one just touched my
heart so much. But he said, that he used to
when he first got down there, he would go into these villages
and set up a projector and he would play a short film. And
people would be intrigued by that and they would come up and
then once the film was over, he would start preaching. And
if anybody stayed, and then after it was over, if anybody wanted
to talk to him or wanted him to come back, he would come back.
And that's how these groups started becoming raised up, and some
of these churches got started. So he said that he met a woman
who wanted him to come preach to her family, and she lived
a good ways off. So he agreed that he would go,
and he had a Jeep with no air conditioning back then, and the
roads were basically just just a walking path, a wide walking
path. He said his Jeep tires would
be on both sides of the dirt and he was in the jungle and
there were holes and there were rocks and there was nowhere to
turn around. He said it was a rare thing to
meet another vehicle, but if he did, one of you would have
to back up until you could find a spot to turn around. It was
just tight. Well, he was headed out to this woman's house in
a very far village, driving very slow. And as he was going down
the path, he came up on two native men, both holding muzzleloader
rifles. And he said that he got anxious
immediately. because foreigners were not well
received. And he comes up on these men,
and they don't move, so he stops, and his windows are down, and
they come to each side of his Jeep, and this one right here
asked him, are you a missionary? And he said, yes, I am. And he said, the man's face just
fell. And he said, we just finished burying my 16-year-old daughter. And he said, I'm so sad. He said, I know that there is
a God, but I don't know who He is and I don't know where He
is. He said, will you come into my house and tell me who God
is? And he said it was just this
little hut, grass hut, dirt floors. And Brother Walter said, I can't. He said, I have an appointment
with a woman and her family and I told them I'd be there. And
I have to go. It's a long way and I have to
go. But he said, I'll come back this
exact same way tomorrow and I will stop right here in your house
And I'll talk to you." So Brother Walter went on his way. The next
day, at the time they agreed on to meet, Brother Walter pulled
into that little grass hut and he said he could not hardly get
in the front door. That man had gone into town and
told everybody, a man is coming tomorrow to tell us who God is. And if you want to know who God
is, you better get to my house. So Walter went in and started
preaching. He said the Lord saved that man. And the man's name
was Felice. That was his name, Felice. And
in English, that name means happy. And he said he was, that man
was so happy. No matter what the circumstances are, We can
be happy in the Lord. And I pray God will bring that
happiness to us right now and the rest of our days here, no
matter what the circumstances are. We can be glad in the Lord. That man found out who God was
and what God had done for his sin. And Walter said that man
was happy. And we are too. We are too. We have every emotion under the
sun, but all of it is surrounded by glad, happy, happy in the
Lord. May the Lord make it to be so.