Would you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 32. 32nd Psalm. Let's read the first two verses
of this Psalm. Psalm of David. 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 the title of the message
is the non-imputation of sin. The non-imputation of sin. Now a lot of people would hear
that today. And they would say something
like, or to the effect of, well, now he's really getting into
some deep theological things today. Most people, as you know, have
not even confronted or heard or even learned of the doctrine
of imputation. I know for years being brought
up in religion and even spending two years at a seminary, I really
never never confronted it, or had to deal with it, even though
it's a biblical word. It's translated many different
ways, impute, imputed. But here he says, blessed is
the man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. So we're gonna
talk about the non-imputation of sin. And rather than talking
about deep theological issues, what we're really gonna talk
about is the heart and soul of the gospel. That's what this
is all about, the heart and soul of the gospel. The issue of the
simple preaching of the gospel. And anything that people by nature
are interested in, they'll set their minds to learning. Well,
we know man by nature isn't interested too much in this at all, in any
way. But let me just give you an idea
of what gave rise to this message. As you know, we've been working
on this teaching series entitled, What Is Salvation? And we did,
back in October, as you know, I came down, spent several days
recording eight DVD messages, eight 30-minute messages on that
subject, and then been writing a booklet. I don't know if you
call it a booklet or a book. I guess when we get published,
Jim and Randy will know it's a booklet or a book, but whatever,
that'll go along with that series. And as you know, in that series
of messages, what I did is I was trying to go through the whole
realm or gamut of salvation as revealed in the Bible. an understanding,
a simple understanding of salvation, what it is. And I divided salvation
into four realms. First one was the eternal realm.
God is an eternal God. God is a God of purpose. This
thing of salvation, Paul wrote, it was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. God's covenant, God's electing
grace, God's predestinating grace, all of that is involved. But
it's a matter of eternity. In fact, we often say that the
preaching of the gospel is the setting forth of the terms of
an everlasting, eternal covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. And then we talk about the legal
realm. That's our justification based
on the blood or the righteousness of Christ imputed. The word imputed
means charged, accounted. That's what David's talking about
here. And then we talk about the spiritual realm of salvation.
That's the new birth, regeneration, and then the glorified realm
of salvation. That's something that no believer
has experienced yet. That's the final glory in heaven
and the new heavens and the new earth when Christ comes again.
But in dealing with the legal realm of salvation, and we say
it's a legal realm because in salvation, God must be a righteous
judge. as well as a loving father. That's
the issue. I've often said in several past
messages, and I've brought it forth in this series, that if
you've never been confronted with that question, that if God,
God is a just God, if he is a just God, and he is, then how can
he forgive sins? How can he pardon me and still
be just? If you've never confronted that
issue, you've never confronted the gospel. The good news, the
issue of what salvation is all about. And so when we talk about
the legal realm, we're talking about God being a righteous judge.
He must be a just God, as well as a savior. One cannot cancel
out the other. And when you find the answer
to that question is revealed in the scripture, you'll see
the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. That's
how. But this is the ground of salvation. And in writing on the legal realm
of salvation and justification before God and the ground of
salvation, I decided to use these two verses, Psalm 32, one through
two, to do a little exercise, what I call an exercise in biblical
interpretation. Trying to get people, as much
as we can, to study the scriptures. What does God's word say about
these things? It really doesn't matter what
I say, it's what God says. In fact, what I say has to line
up with what God says. And so I thought I would go to
this. Let's look at it. He says, blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven. There's that word transgression.
What you have here basically is all three words that the Old
Testament uses to describe sin. You've got transgression, you've
got the word sin itself, and then you've got iniquity. Well,
transgression, what does it mean? Well, it carries the idea of
rebellion against God, breaking God's law. The New Testament
equivalent transgression means sin is transgression of the law,
breaking the law. And that's just a setting forth
of a sinner who is condemned under God's law based on any
kind of covenant of works. And then he comes to the word
sin, whose sin is covered. And the word there has the idea
of deserving punishment, being guilty and liable to punishment.
And the punishment is death. Wages of sin is death. And the
New Testament equivalent of that would be missing the mark, falling
short of the requirement and therefore not being entitled
to eternal life. We read in 2 Corinthians 5.21
that God made Christ sin. That's the word missing the mark.
And so we'll talk about that in a minute. And then you have
the word iniquity. That carries the idea of being
perverse or being crooked, being twisted or imbalanced, out of
balance. And the New Testament equivalent
of that means to be without or against the law as that which
does not balance out. We don't measure up. And what
it's showing here is that man at his best, he's a lawbreaker,
he misses the mark, and the best that he can do will not measure
up to what God requires. So anytime you hear, whether
you're at a funeral, or at a service, or some kind of a worship service,
and the preacher says, well, this guy did what was required,
or this girl did what was required, remember this verse. Because
I can tell you right now, they didn't do what was required.
Now, I know what people mean by that. When they say that,
they say, well, they believed, you know, that's what's required.
Well, you've got to put that in a context that is scriptural
to understand That's not so. What does God require for a sinner
to be saved? And the answer is in one word,
righteousness. That's what God requires. Perfect
satisfaction to His law and justice. You know, many people think of
and describe sin as if it were a substance or a thing, something
like a solid or a liquid or a gas. Some even kind of imagine it's
some kind of an entity such as a germ that's in your bloodstream.
No, that's not what it is at all. It's none of these things.
It's breaking the law of God. It's missing the mark. It's not
being equal to the requirement. The requirement of righteousness.
That's why in Romans 3.23 it says, All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now you can imagine in yourself
that you've gotten a little farther towards that point than some
other person. You can convince yourself of
that. Well, you still didn't hit the mark. That means this. That all we
can deserve and earn based on our best efforts to keep the
law is death and hell. That's all we can deserve or
earn. But look at what he says here. Verse 1. Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven. Now that word forgiven means
to lift up. to bear, to carry away. That's the forgiveness of Almighty
God that's based on satisfaction to His justice. There is no such
thing in the Bible. There is no such thing in the
Bible of forgiveness of sins by God without law and justice
being satisfied. Nothing. And so David recognized
and he expressed this. He says, blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Now that
word covered there means to conceal or hide from view. But it's not
simply covering over sin without dealing with it and its consequences. Yes, it means covered. It's related
to the word atonement. That is an Old Testament term.
And in the New Testament, it's reconciliation. That's where
it comes to. And it's covered. It's covered
over and it's sealed, but it's not covered over as if God's
not dealing with it or just trying to hide it from view. You see,
if that were the case, if it was covering just hiding it from
view without dealing with it, if that were the case, then Adam
and Eve's fig leaves would have worked. Remember when Adam and
Eve fell? And they saw that they were naked? And that nakedness in the Bible
is a metaphor for exposure to the wrath of God and lack of
righteousness. I don't have anything to recommend
me to God. I stand in my shame. I stand
in my guilt. And what did they do? They got
fig leaf aprons and covered themselves. But you see the problem with
that This is the spiritual lesson in all this, is it doesn't deal
with the problem of sin. It doesn't take care of the problem.
It just covers it over and hides it from view. So what did God
do? Well, he took off the fig leaf
aprons, didn't he? And it's recorded in Genesis
3 and verse 21 that he slew an animal and made coats of skin. Now, why did he have to do that?
Well, he told Adam back in Genesis chapter 2 why. He said, in the
day that you eat thereof, you sin against God, you shall surely
die. The penalty of sin is death. That's what blood represents.
And so when David says this, he has in mind not just a covering
over sin. You know, man tries to cover
over sin. I'll tell you how he does it,
with religion. with religion, his good works,
as he calls them. He gets baptized, he joins the
church, he turns over a new leaf. Now, my question is this, somebody
said, well, shouldn't people do all, listen, that doesn't
take care of the problem, the disease of sin. It just covers
it over, hides it from view, like Adam and Eve's fig leaf
aprons. David knew he was a sinner. Look over at verse 5 of Psalm
32. He says, I acknowledge my sin
unto thee. Mine iniquity have I not hid.
Now this is the same man who said, blessed is he whose sin
is covered. He said, but mine iniquity I
have not hid. He said, I will confess my transgression unto
the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. So he
acknowledges his sin. It's not just covered over, yet
he says, blessed is the man whose sin is covered. God doesn't view David's sin
in certain ways, but he knows David's a sinner. And what David
is talking about here. What is this? You know, whenever
you see that word covering, when it deals with sin, even though
the word itself means to hide from view and that's so. But
it doesn't teach us a lesson that God just merely covers it
over without dealing with it. Go back to the mercy seat in
the tabernacle, that lid that was placed over the Ark of the
Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments, the law that
we've broken, that sinners have broken. And what did the high
priest do one time a year on the Day of Atonement? He'd come
in with the blood of a lamb, and he'd sprinkle that upon the
mercy seat, just as satisfied. Well, look at verse two of Psalm
32. He says, blessed is the man in whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity. Now there's the non-imputation
of sins. That word impute, a lot of people, well, there's
a lot of people who don't even know the word, don't understand
it. And there's a lot of people who, who deny it for several
reasons. We don't know what, but I suspect
I know. But that word impute means this. It means that God does not charge
that blessed man with the guilt and the penalty of his sins.
That's what it means. Paul stated it in the New Testament
in Romans chapter eight when he said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? The word impute, it's an accounting
term, it's a legal term, it's a term of mercantile trade. When you go buy something and
you don't pay cash for it and you charge it to your credit
card, that's imputed to you, that charge, you owe that money.
I know one of the illustrations that I always use, you've heard
me use it several times, concerning this doctrine of imputation.
The non-imputation of sin and the imputation of righteousness
is if a person is in debt and cannot pay a penny towards alleviating
that debt and has to go and throw themselves at the mercy of the
debtor, whether it's a bank or whatever. Remember, I used that
illustration where the banker opens up the account books, looks
at that person's name, and he says, well, hold on. He says,
you don't owe anything. Somebody paid your debt. Somebody
came in here and said, charge his debt to me, and paid it. I can't impute that debt to you
anymore. I can't charge it to you. I can't account it to you.
Your account's wiped clean. You don't owe a dime. Somebody
did that for you. You don't even know who it was.
They did it. And you get up with all that
relief and all that guilt removed, liberty. You feel liberated,
don't you? That debt's a bondage, isn't
it? We know something about that.
That debt's a bondage. You've heard people talk about
drowning in a sea of debt. What a bondage that is. And now
you're liberated. And the banker says, hold on,
hold on, there's more here. He says, that same person who
paid your debt, laid a million dollars to your account and said,
charge that to them. Now they earned it, you didn't
earn it. They worked for it, you didn't work for it, but they
gave it to you, they charged it to you. Now you talk about
being liberated. That's what the issue is all
about. David is saying that the man who is blessed is the one
to whom God does not charge sin. That's the non-imputation of
sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Now there are many today who
who stand in opposition to this because they call it a legal
fiction. You've heard that term or some
kind of a judicial pretense that God's pretending to do something
that he didn't do. That's not the case. David didn't
see it that way. David saw it as being blessed,
blessed, blessed of God. And that's not a pretense. It's
not a pretense on God's part because God doesn't pretend.
It's not fiction because God doesn't deal in fiction. This
non-imputation of sin includes three glorious realities that
I want to give you. And here's number one. The non-imputation
of sin to God's people means the imputation of sin to the
Lord Jesus Christ. You understand what I'm saying?
If God doesn't impute it to me, He's got to impute it to somebody.
He can't impute it to the moon. He can't just leave it hanging
out there in the air. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. Death is the wages of sin. God
is a just God. God could not forgive my iniquity
or cover my sin in a way that does not satisfy his justice,
no more than an earthly judge could justly set a criminal free
without paying the penalty. Now, I'm not saying that earthly
judges don't do that. I'm just saying that they can't
do it justly. In other words, for an earthly
judge to set a criminal free without paying the penalty, that's
a perversion of justice. God can't do that. So God has
to do it in a way that honors him. So the non-imputation of
sin means that God had to impute them to someone. Well, who did
he impute them to? Well, God had to do something
with that debt. He couldn't simply forget it
or ignore it. He must be just. Someone's got
to pay the penalty. How did God do this? Well, go
over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. This passage here has been the
subject of a lot of controversy here in the past few years over
this very issue. And listen to what he's saying
here. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 look at look at verse let's
start with verse 17 he says therefore if any man be in Christ now there's
there's one of the what's he talking about in 2nd Corinthians
5 he's talking about how sinners are reconciled to God how all
this comes together how God can bring a sinner into his fellowship
and favor and blessedness. And he says, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature or creation. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself,
how? By Jesus Christ. Now that reconciliation,
that bringing together of God and his people, you see, sin
kept them apart. That sin issue had to be taken
care of for them to be brought together, how they did it, unto
himself by Jesus Christ, hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation
to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
that's his people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation
all over this world, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. God did not
charge them with their sins. Now, who did he charge them to?
Well, read on. 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, for he, that is God,
hath made him, that is Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. He imputed him to Christ. That's
what that means. He charged them to Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ was made sin by the imputation, the charging
of the debt of sin of God's elect to him. And the guilt and the
curse and the debt of their sins were legally charged to him,
so much so that their sins became his own. That's why when you
read passages in the Old Testament, messianic passages like Psalm
22 and Psalm 40 and Psalm 69, where the Messiah is represented
there in prophecy as claiming, my sins surround me. Well, how can he say his sins? He knew no sin and did no sin.
Look at verse 21 again. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. Christ knew no sin. Christ was
not a sinner. He was not made a sinner. The
sins of His people charged to Him did not corrupt Him or contaminate
Him. They did not even affect His
thoughts as far as perfection. He suffered. He bled. He died. He anguished and agonized. He said, My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me? He experienced total alienation
from the Father. And I can't explain all that
to you. But I know it was based on sin charged to Him. Sin imputed
to him. But in Psalm 69, for example,
he talks about my sins. Well, how can they be his? Right
here. He took my debt. He took my sins
unto himself. They became his. Not because
he committed them, not because they contaminated him, but because
they were charged, imputed to him. Christ was never made a sinner
or even sinful, and neither was he ever made, as one man said,
the thing itself. I listened to a message last
week on this verse, and he said that Christ was made sin, he
was made the thing itself. Well, sin's not a thing. Christ was made a curse for his
people. Why is that? Because the law
pronounces a curse where sin is charged. That's how he was
made a curse. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree, in a human body. God in human flesh went to the
cross having our sins imputed to him. And the imputation of
the guilt and penalty of sins to Christ was so real, it wasn't
fake, it wasn't fiction, it was so real that he actually came
under the wrath of his father and suffered and bled and died
to pay the full debt of God's justice. for the sins of his
sheep. He bore our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. That means the punishment that
brought peace was upon him. And it was so real that he was
forsaken by the father on the cross. So the non-imputation
of sin, when David said, blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity, where were David's sins charged? to his savior,
to his substitute, to his surety, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
was made sin. That's how. Here's the second thing. Excuse
me. The non-imputation of sin to
God's people means the imputation of righteousness to all for whom
Christ lived and died and rose again. Let me say it again. If God doesn't impute sin to
me, that means automatically in the scripture now, it means
that he imputed the righteousness of God in Christ to me. Now,
let me say, listen to me very carefully here. It's possible
for a person to take upon himself another person's debt and pay
that debt. in full without giving that person
any more money to put to their account, just like the illustration
I used. A man could walk into a bank and pay my debt and leave
me clear at ground zero and not give me another dime. And let
me tell you something, I'd be fully appreciative of just putting
me at ground zero, wouldn't you? But he doesn't have, he's not
obligated to give me another dime. But that's not the way
God works according to the covenant of grace, according to the gospel,
in the justification of his people, according to the terms of the
everlasting covenant of grace. With God, in the justification
of his people, the non-imputation of sin automatically means the
imputation of righteousness to them. It's a given according
to the gospel, the terms of the covenant of grace. As Christ
was made sin, look at verse 21 again of 2 Corinthians. For he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, in order that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. You see everything
in that verse, the non-imputation of sin and the imputation of
righteousness, Sin imputed to Christ, His righteousness imputed
to His people, is all part of the same covenant, of which Christ
Himself is the surety. So if God doesn't charge you
with sin, that automatically means that He charges you with
the righteousness of God in Christ. And David knew that. Turn to
Romans 4. Now we read over there in, now
remember what we read in Psalm 32. This is why I call this an
exercise in biblical interpretation. Sometimes, sometimes you have
a commentary on Old Testament verses right there in the New
Testament. Remember what we read in Psalm 32. Verses 1 and 2,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,
blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and whose spirit there is no guile. Now look at Romans 4 verse
6. Paul is talking about here how
God justifies a sinner. And he quotes from our text,
Psalm 32. And listen to how he quotes it.
Verse 6, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works." Now, when we
read that Psalm 32, 1 and 2, did you hear the word righteousness
at all? You didn't, did you? It wasn't
there. Yes, it was in the mind and heart of David. How do I
know that? Because God the Holy Spirit said
it was. That's what David meant. Somebody, like I said, somebody
will ask you, how do you know what David meant? Well, right
here it is, Romans 4. Here's what David meant when
he talked about the non-imputation of sin. He meant by that, even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God charges, accounts, imputes righteousness without works. And how, when did David ever
say that? Look at verse seven, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. You see, David didn't say the
word righteousness in Psalm 32, but that's what he meant. God,
the Holy Spirit tells. But I'll tell you what, you read
a lot of the other Psalms of David, you'll hear a lot about
righteousness, won't you? He's not talking about his own
as far as his works. He calls it his own sometimes,
but it's the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. And that's
the way it is for all of God's people. It's a righteousness
without works. Is that right? Well, Christ worked
for it, didn't he? But now we don't. Turn over to
Hebrews chapter two. Somebody had to work for it.
You see, if somebody's going to pay my debt and give me a
million dollars to the good, somebody's got to work for that
money. It doesn't just drop out of the sky. I didn't work for it. It was
just charged to me. And that's the way it is with
God's people. We didn't work for it. We didn't have anything
to contribute to it, nothing to recommend us unto God. We
have no righteousness before God. We didn't, that righteous
robe that's put upon us, which is an emblem of the imputed righteousness
of Christ, we didn't contribute one thread to it. It's righteousness
without words. Look at verse 14 of Hebrews 2.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also, Christ, Likewise in the same way took part of the
same that is flesh and blood and yet we know he was without
sin now That through death he might destroy him that had the
power of death that is the devil Christ destroyed the power of
Satan to accuse Bring us into condemnation and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage and For verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. That's the elect of
God, Jew and Gentile. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him. Now that word behooved is the
Greek word for debt. He was indebted. He was obligated. You see, if I walk into a bank
and I'm gonna say, put Jim Casey's debt on my account, then I obligate
myself to pay that debt. That's what a surety does. And
that's what Christ did in the everlasting covenant of grace
before the world began. He said, put it on my account,
I'll pay it. And that's why he had to actually
come in time. That doesn't mean that he didn't
have to come at all. No, that meant that he had to
come and pay it. It behooved him, he was indebted
to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God to pay that
debt to God's law and justice to make reconciliation or literally
propitiation, satisfaction to the law, satisfaction to the
debt for the sins of his people. You see the non-imputation of
sin to me means automatically the imputation of Christ's righteousness
to me. And that's what it is. And then
thirdly, the non-imputation of sin and
the imputation of Christ's righteousness to God's people means the impartation
of what? Spiritual life to them. in each successive generation.
And here's what I'm saying. Look back over at Psalm 32. If
God does not charge me with my sin, and He charges me with the
righteousness of Christ, justifies me before His holy law and justice
based on the righteousness of Christ imputed, Then that means
he's going to, in some day, in each successive generation, he's
going to give his people life from Christ. They're going to
be born again. They're going to be regenerated
by the Spirit. Now read it again, verse 1. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no guile. That spirit there, is the mark
of a regenerated sinner, born again by the Holy Spirit. You
see, where Jesus Christ has put away the sins of His people by
the sacrifice of Himself, where His righteousness has been imputed
to His people by Almighty God, the Holy Spirit is sent to impart
spiritual life and knowledge and grace, all the graces and
fruit of the Spirit to their person. They must be born again. They must be born again. That
word spirit there is the new heart, the new spirit created
within a person by the Holy Spirit in regeneration and conversion.
You see, the imputation of righteousness demands the giving of spiritual
life. That guile, he said in whose
spirit there is no guile. You know what guile is? It's
dishonesty and deception. It keeps sinners ignorant of
their own depravity. It keeps them ignorant of God's
holiness and justice. And it keeps sinners ignorant
and away from the way of salvation by the grace of God in and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens? Well, God gives
them a new heart. He gives us a new spirit. We're born again
by the spirit. Now let me give you this verse
and I'll close. Turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. You understand what we're saying
here? If God doesn't charge me with sin, and He doesn't, He
charges Christ. And if He charges my sins to
Christ, He charges Christ's righteousness to me. And if He charges that
righteousness to me, He's going to give me life to believe. He's
going to bring us to faith in Christ and repentance. Look at
verse 4 of Romans 10. It says, For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. Christ is the fulfillment, the
completion, the satisfaction, the finishing of the law for
righteousness. To who? To everyone that believeth. Now my believing forms no part
of that righteousness. That's totally Christ. He's the
fulfillment. Listen to what it says now. Don't
just leap over. Christ is the finishing of the
law for righteousness. Not my faith. Not your believing. Christ is the fulfillment of
the law for righteousness. But who did he do it for? It's
to everyone that believeth. And how do you believe? You're
brought to faith by the Lord Jesus Christ through the power
of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. in whose spirit there
is no guile, no deception. I know who I am now, I'm a sinner.
And I have no hope of salvation, no hope of righteousness, no
hope of blessing, but by God's grace in Christ. I see the holiness
of God like Isaiah, holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty. High and lifted up, woe is me,
I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. Then
I see the reality and the glory of Christ and what he accomplished
on Calvary's cross to put away my sins by the sacrifice of himself
with no contribution from me. It's all Christ and his righteousness
alone.