Alright, Psalm 32. This psalm
sets forth one of the most basic, fundamental truths of the gospel,
showing how God is just to justify the ungodly. by his grace through
the blood and righteousness of Christ. It begins with instructions. That word, if you look at, if
you have the King James Version, right underneath Psalm 32, it
says a Psalm of David, and it has the word maskil. That means
it's instructive, it's a teaching psalm. So it's not only a psalm
of worship, which every psalm is, that we use to worship God,
as we sing our hymns and look at the Psalms and read the poetry,
it's a beautiful poetry, but it's also a lesson to teach us
something. And it starts off, look at verse
one, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. There is no greater blessedness
than that right there. And the reason is, is because
we're all sinners. And we all deserve nothing but
death and condemnation. And yet, he speaks of the forgiveness
of sins, the forgiveness of transgression, because the sin is covered. Now
that covering there, you know, some people will talk about,
well, the covering of the blood of animals under the old covenant.
That covering there doesn't mean that our sins are covered over
as if to hide them from view, because God sees everything.
You can read about that over in Hebrews chapter four, where
it says, the word of God is powerful, quicker than any two-edged sword,
cutting asunder even into the thoughts, the motives. So they're
not hidden from God's view. I don't care what you try to
cover them with. But the covering here, in reference to the blood
of animals, understand that the blood of animals could never
take away sin. That was a ceremonial, temporal,
a physical way that God dealt with the nation Israel throughout
the time of the Old Covenant. But the key to understand this
covering is what it typifies. And Hebrews chapter 9 talks about
it, how if the blood of bulls and of goats sanctifying to the
purifying of the flesh cleansed the people in a physical ceremonial
way, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself unto God? This is a type of Christ,
and I believe that's what David has in mind when he's talking
about this, and we'll see that in just a moment. But here's
the key. We can talk about forgiveness
of sin. We can talk about God's mercy.
We can talk about God's love. We can talk about God's grace.
Every bit of that is grounded upon a just ground. Justice satisfied. And that's
what this psalm is teaching us. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. God forgives sin, but how does
he do it? It says, whose sin is covered. Not covered with the blood of
bulls and goats, they can never take away sin, but covered by
the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's the key. God is both
just and justifier of the ungodly. And you know, when you talk about
like, he uses two words here for sin, transgression, that's
rebellion, that certainly fits us by nature. rebellious by nature,
sin is missing the mark, coming short, always against God. And think about it, and listen
to this now. The guilt of sin charged upon
the conscience of a sinner, a conscience, not charged by God because who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, but charged upon
our conscience, our seat of judgment. Am I a sinner? Yes. But that's
a burden that's too heavy for me to bear. The punishment of
that, as God shows us, is death, the wages of sin is death, that's
intolerable, unbearable. So think about this now. We never
come up to the perfection of righteousness that God requires
according to the law. Yet our sin is forgiven. And
there's no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Everything
here, when it talks about our sins, and we can go to other
scriptures to see this, our sins were taken off, you might say,
or transferred from us to Christ when Christ was made sin and
became our surety. He took our debt. He's the surety
of the covenant, laid upon him really and judicially. Our debt
became his debt. He said, like old Paul said to
Philemon about Onesimus, he said, if he wrong thee, put it on my
account, I'll repay it. Now that's what Christ did for
each and every one of his people. He said, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. And from that time on, if we
can say it that way, we do because we have no way of speaking except
in words of time. From that time on, the debt became
his. And that's an amazing thing. And so he became our surety,
the surety for God's elect, given to him before the foundation
of the world. And our sins were imputed, charged
to Christ. Look at verse two. Here's the
word impute. Blessed is the man in whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no God.
Now that settles the issue. that whatever God did to forgive
sin, it was based upon the non-imputation of sins. Now what is imputation? It's the charging of a debt.
And for that reason, the Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself
as our surety the responsibility to pay our debt. And this is
so important. I'll tell you what, a lot of
people need to learn this truth. And that's this, the non-imputation
of sins, the non-charging of our debt to God's elect means
that it was charged to Christ. It had to be charged to someone.
Well, who is the Lord gonna charge it to? Our surety, which is Christ
the Lord. And it means his righteousness
imputed to us over in the book of Romans. And this is one of
the, you know, when we talk about interpreting scripture with scripture. We have a commentary on this
verse, these two verses in Psalm 32. Now remember what it says. We have a commentary on those
two verses in Romans chapter four, where Paul was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to quote David in the context of the doctrine
of justification. See, here in Romans 4, he's talking
about Abraham specifically, and he's using Abraham as an example
of how God justifies the ungodly. Now, what is it to be justified?
It's to be forgiven of all our sins on a just ground. What is
it to be justified? It's to be declared judicially,
really, by God, to be righteous in his sight. And listen to what
Paul says, he's quoting David here. He says in verse six of
Romans four, even as David also describeth the blessedness of
the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
Now if you go back and read those passages that we just read in
Psalm 32, the word righteousness is not even mentioned literally,
but it's there in truth. Blessed is the man. When did
David write that? Look at verse seven, saying,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. So that saddles it. The non-imputation
of sins means that our sins were imputed to Christ, charged to
him, and his righteousness to us. That's what it means. Like in 2 Corinthians 5, which
is a beautiful verse stating the heart of the gospel. And
people go crazy over these things. It's under attack today. Look
at verse 19 of 2 Corinthians 5. He's talking about the ministry
of reconciliation. How God is reconciled to sinners
and how sinners are reconciled to God on a just ground. And he says, to wit, here's the
heart of the ministry of reconciliation. God was in Christ. Now how's
that? God engaged every attribute of
his glory in Christ, the God man, the second person of the
Trinity, reconciling the world unto himself. Now he's talking
about some people to whom God is reconciled to. God is at peace
with them. You see that? They're not under
God's wrath. God is reconciled to them. And
how did he do it? Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. The debts pay. And he says, and
have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. That's the
gospel. 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 you reconciled to God. That's the ministry of the gospel
he's talking about there. When we go out and preach, when
I stand here and preach, that's the command of the gospel. Now
God is reconciled to his chosen people. And he did it by the
act of imputation, imputing our sins to Christ and his righteousness
to us. Now you be reconciled to God.
You see, by nature, we come into this world as fallen, dead enemies
of God in our minds by wicked works. And though God has been
reconciled to his elect in the person and work of Christ, his
elect need to be reconciled to him. And how does that come about? It comes about by the work of
the Spirit in regeneration and conversion, the new birth. I
spent a lot of time in my life as an enemy of God in my mind
by wicked works, preaching false gospels. But then God the Holy
Spirit brought me to be reconciled to God through the preaching
of the gospel. And here it is, verse 21, here's
the hope. For God made him, Christ, to
be sin for us. A sin offering, a sin bearer. Sin imputed to him. Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. That's the imputation of righteousness to us. Now that's
what Psalm 32 is about. That's the heart of the gospel.
That's the fundamentals. And go back to Psalm 32 now.
This imputation of sin to Christ and of righteousness to us, my
friend, it's a real act of God. It's not fake. It's not a legal
fiction as some would say. It's not God calling me righteous
when I'm not. I am righteous in Christ, but
I'm not righteous in myself. I'm a sinner. One day I will
be righteous in myself, but that's when I go to be with the Lord.
I'll have a perfect spiritual humanity, be like Christ. But it's not fakery. It's not God pretending. He didn't
pretend that his son was made sin. He was made sin. And what
was the proof of that? Well, let me just read you this.
This is Hebrews chapter two. This is one of the passages that
I believe really, really sets this truth forth. He's talking
about how Christ had to become incarnate. This was something he was indebted
to do. Why? Because the sins of God's
elect were charged to him and he willingly said, put it on
my account, I'll repay it. And so in order to repay it in
the redemptive work of Christ on earth, on the cross, he had
to be made like unto his brethren. Look at verse 17 of Hebrews two.
Wherefore, In all things it behooved him. Now that word behooved is
the Greek word for debt. He was indebted to do what? To
be made like unto his brethren. To be conceived in the womb of
the virgin by the Holy Spirit. To be born on that given day.
To be made under the law, made of a woman. Why did he do it? Because there was a debt that
was laid upon him before the world began. And it says that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Now
can it be any clearer? Was Christ being made sin, a
legal fiction? Well, look at him on that cross,
based upon our sins, charged to him and called a legal fiction. Christ had to suffer and bleed
and die. He had to go under the wrath
of God. He had to cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Does that sound like a legal
fiction to you? And it was all based upon his
being our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And then is righteousness
imputed to us a legal fiction? Well, think about when God the
Holy Spirit came forth from Christ and brought you alive from the
dead spiritually. Did it change your life? Randy and I talk about this all
the time. It turned our worlds upside down, didn't it? It brought
us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, and those works
were things that we thought contributed to our salvation. You bet it
changed our life. It's no legal fiction. Talk about
a sinner saved by grace. But look on here, verse two.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit is no guile. You see, the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us is not only the ground of our justification,
it's the source and power of our sanctification by the Spirit.
The reason we're born again, is because of the righteousness
that Christ worked out on the cross. Romans 8, 10. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. In other words, if God has imputed
Christ's righteousness to you, you will, at some point in time,
be born again by the spirit. And that's what he's talking
about, in whose spirit there is no guile. Now that guile is the
dishonesty that keeps us from knowing and loving and believing
the gospel. Doesn't mean that when God saves
us, when we're born again, we're no longer sinners. Doesn't even
mean that we can no longer be dishonest. We can be dishonest
about a lot of things. But when it comes to salvation,
who God is and who we are and who Christ is, That darkness
has been removed. I was blind, now I see. I see
reality. I know what God says about me
by nature. I know right now that if God
were to judge me based upon my best efforts to be saved, that
I would be damned forever. I know that my only hope is Christ. the glory of his person, the
power of his finished work. Now let's read down through the
psalm and look at the rest of it. That sets the stage, he says,
verse three, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long. He says, for day and night thy
hand was heavy upon me, my moisture, my tears is turned into the drought
of summer. I've cried myself dry, that's
what he's saying. 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 sin. Those verses there are talking
about the conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, which we by
nature fight. We're not gonna confess our sins
by nature. Oh, we'll say we're not perfect
and we'll even say we're sinners and we'll grovel in the dirt
and all that, but to really understand what sin is and how far it's
gone to the point that I have absolutely nothing to recommend
me unto God, that salvation is all 100% grace through the righteousness
of another. And he says, when you got me
to that point, when you brought me down to that point, then the
floods of great waters, he said, my sin was forgiven. Now he's
not talking about the forgiveness of sin based upon our repenting,
but the forgiveness of sin, our repenting is the evidence of
having been forgiven. Look at 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. He says, thou art my
hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. You see, what's he talking about?
He's talking about a sinner who has been brought down off the
high lofty thoughts of self-righteousness down to the level of that old
publican who said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's what
that's about. He says, for this shall those
who are ungodly pray. Well, we're not godly by nature,
are we? By nature, we're no different
than the children of wrath. Unbelievers, ignorant, self-righteous. So who's he talking about? He's
talking about his elect, redeemed by the blood of Christ, fallen
in Adam. Redeemed by the blood of Christ,
regenerated by the Spirit. And here's how you know that
if you're godly or not. You know how a lot of people
take that, don't you? Well, you stopped doing this, you started
doing that. Listen to what he's saying here. Verse seven, thou
art my hiding place. Where is your hiding place from
sin and death and hell? Is it in what you're doing for
the Lord? No, Christ is my, I'm hidden in the
cleft of the rock. And he says, thou shalt preserve
me. Who is our preserver? Is it what you're doing for the
Lord? No. God will not let us go. And He
surrounds us. We're protected. And it's not
with the law to beat us down and to try to get us to be something
we're not. He compasses about with songs
of deliverance. Think about that. Songs of freedom. Gospel songs. That's the word
of God. Look at verse eight. He said,
and that's sela, that's a musical tone. You know what I mean? Stop
and consider this. Think about that for a while.
That's a good thing to think about, isn't it? Verse eight,
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go. I will guide or counsel thee with mine eye. That's how God
works with us. In his word, by the Spirit, he
instructs us in the way of grace, the way of righteousness, which
is the way of Christ, and he leads us under his watchful eye. And you look, in your lesson
there, look those verses up. What that tells us, it's just
like, you know, when it says God's eye is on the sparrow,
you've heard that song? God's eye is on us. And He never
takes His eye off of us. His eye of grace, His eye of
mercy, He watches over us. Verse 9, He says, Be ye not as
the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose
mouth must be held with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto
thee. You've heard the old saying,
He's stubborn as a mule. There you go. Don't be like the
person who has to be threatened with hell and damnation to get
you to obey. Or the person who has to have
the sugar cube or the carrot dangled out in front of you to
get you to obey. That's the horse and the mule
who have no understanding. What is it we understand now?
We understand that everything we have in salvation and blessedness,
godliness, is a total free gift from God. And I'll bring it down
to this. Everything we have that's good
is a gift from God. Isn't it? The next breath you
take is a gift from God. Whatever you have. That's a gift
from God. Understand grace, understand
how God saves sinners in Christ. And that brings us not to legal
motivations or mercenary promises of earned reward, it brings us
to obedience motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. Now, we
still have the flesh now, even as sinners saved by grace, and
that flesh is legal, legal thought, self-righteous, and we have to
fight it, don't we? But we understand something,
and we understand it because God has taught us that we want
to serve Him, not because of what we can get out of Him, not
because of His threatenings of the law, but because what He
has freely given us in Christ, which is everything we have in
eternity. So look at verse 10, he says,
many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth
the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. This tells you the
difference between the wicked and the godly. The wicked are
those who trust in themselves for salvation, for forgiveness,
for righteous, salvation conditioned on the sinner. That's the wicked.
the righteous, the justified, the godly of those who trust
in the Lord. And mercy surrounds us. Remember the old verse in Malachi
3.6? God says, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Lamentations
3, I think it's 21-22, it's of the Lord's mercies that we're
not consumed. We're surrounded with Lord's
mercies. God will not charge us with our sins. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? We're not condemned. For Christ
is our Savior. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, where there's risen again, seated at
the right hand of the Father. Therefore, look at verse 11.
Look how this psalm ends. Be glad in the Lord. Our gladness. And rejoice, rejoice
ye in Christ, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are
upright in heart. That speaks of our legal standing
before God in Christ as forgiven, justified, his righteousness
imputed, and it speaks of the desires of our heart imparted
to us. That's what's imparted. Not righteousness,
but the desires of the heart, life from the dead, knowledge,
faith in Christ. Rejoice, all ye that are upright
in heart, all you who are looking to Christ and trusting in the
Lord for all salvation. All right.