If you would this morning, I'd
like for you to turn with me to Psalm chapter 32. Psalm 32. Psalm 32 sets before us a pattern
of godliness and declares the very heart of the regenerated
sinner causing him to call upon the Lord with a full confession
of his sinful soul and the faith of a new man born within him. That's what this psalm is all
about. And there's four things that
I want you to see as we go through the psalm. I'm just going to
kind of do a running commentary on the psalm this morning. I
want you to see, first of all, David's statement of doctrine.
He makes a bold statement of doctrine. And this is the very
basis of everything else that he has to say. And then secondly,
I want you to see the confession of a convicted heart. When a
man is convicted, we talk about conviction, Holy Spirit conviction. What is that? What does that
mean? What does that do? How is it seen? What is the evidence
of it? And then thirdly, the character
of true godliness. Your old preacher, he just don't
preach godliness. Well, you might not know what
godliness is. That might be why you don't think
I preach it. True godliness. And then fourthly,
the hope of enlightened sinners. I'm not going to call out these
points as we go, but you can keep them in mind as we go through
the psalm. Now let's read these first two
verses. Psalm chapter 32. 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. That's a blessed man. A blessed
man. Now the Lord our God has by one
eternal act, by one eternal act, and I say eternal, knowing that
in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.
I know that Christ came in time and accomplished this thing.
But this thing was fulfilled in the purpose of God from the
beginning. Christ was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. That's what the Scripture says.
And the Lord our God has by one eternal act forgiven all the
sins of all His elect all at once. Somebody told Brother Mahan one
time, they said, now I can believe that God forgave my past sins. But I've got a real problem believing
that he could forgive my future sin. And he said, which one of
your sins was past when Christ died? They were all future, weren't
they? And even the atonement of Christ
was yet future. If I were to go on and read to
you in Romans chapter 3, just a little bit past where I read
to you a while ago, you'll find out that There was remission
for sins under the Old Testament. Looking forward to the coming
of Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins through faith in
His blood. That's what it says, isn't it?
For sins that are past. Talking about those Old Testament
saints. It began in the purpose of God.
In the very first verse of Jude, he directs his comments to a
people he describes as sanctified by God the Father. What's he
talking about? Sanctified by God the Father.
He's talking about a people set apart from all eternity. From
all eternity. Whom God the Father determined
to bless and did bless with all spiritual blessing in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. In Ephesians 1, verse 3, He tells
us this, and He says that He blessed us with all these spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ according as He had
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. That we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now listen, having
predestinated us. Who did that? God the Father.
God the Father. Predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will. God the Father, by eternal decree
and for reasons found in Himself, set apart a people to be heirs
of Himself, and joint heirs with His Son, and predestinated everything
that's needful to bring that to pass. Now that's what it's
telling us there in Ephesians chapter 1. And the greatest of
those blessings is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Son of God
in whom Jude says, that's the next thing Jude says. He said,
we're sanctified by God the Father. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. Preserved. You know, you take
that jelly or those green beans you pick out of the garden or
tomatoes or whatever it is and you put them in the canner and
you can that jar and you sit over on the countertop and you
listen. Pretty soon you hear that Hear that lid. When you hear it, it's preserved.
It's preserved. You can come in there a year
from now and take that lid off, taste it just like it did when
you canned it. Preserved. We're preserved in Christ Jesus. That's why He chose us in Him.
That's why we were predestinated to sonship in Him. We're preserved
in Him. And we're preserved in Him as
our representative. And Paul gives us three reasons
in Ephesians 1 for God's choosing us in Christ. He tells us in
verse 4, it's to be holy. He chose us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. To be holy, to be without blame. You think about that. Huh? There's just enough natural man
in me, I blame everything and everybody. I can't drive down
the road without talking about that bad driver in front of me,
or the one coming at me, or... I blame this, and blame politics,
and blame the president, and blame the Congress, and blame...
I just blame everything. Blame, blame, blame. God predestinated
us. He chose us in Christ. And He
so preserved us in Him, that we're without blame. Without
blame. I'm not talking about what men
think. Men think all kinds of things. They'll blame you for
everything. I'm talking about before God. Without blame. And before Him in love. In love. Now here's the sense of what
he's saying there. The sense is that in things pertaining
to heaven, All the extraordinary endowments
of new nature, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the arrangement
of providence, the gifts of the Spirit, faith and repentance,
justification and pardon, the righteousness of God, everything
necessary to be sons of God, everything necessary to be heirs
with Christ, all given to us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And then if you'll continue reading
there in Ephesians chapter 1 and 2, you'll see all those things
I just mentioned to you. All those accepted in the blood. No man is holy outside of Christ,
no man is without blame whose sins were not charged to Christ,
and no man has the love of God outside of Christ, nor can he
have it apart from the Spirit of God who sheds that love abroad
in our hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a people in this world
and had been since the dawn of time, that are chosen of God
and blessed of God in such a way that He will not charge their
sins to them." He won't do it. And David said, this is the blessedness. We talk about being blessed of
God. And we want to say that when
our paycheck is $50 higher than it was a week before. That's
not the blessing. The blessing of God is to be
without blame. It's to be before Him in love. It's to be holy in Christ, to
be chosen of God, blessed of God, to be heirs of God. That's
the blessing. That's the blessing. Oh, my soul. There's a people in this world
and have been since the dawn of time that are chosen of God
and blessed of God in such a way. that God will not charge their
sins to them. God the Father chose them and
His Son, whom He appointed as their substitute. And all their
sins, John, He laid on Him. He laid on Him. All of their
sins were by the hand of God laid upon His Son. Listen to
this in Isaiah 53, verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes were he. Oh, we like sheep have
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Verse 10, it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. And
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So when David speaks in this
psalm of the blessed man, he speaks of all those blessed of
the Father in Christ Jesus the Lord before the foundation of
the world. And what makes them blessed?
God will not charge them with their sin. He won't do it. That's the most amazing thing.
You say, well, boy, I first heard about predestination and saw
it in the Scripture. That was amazing to me. And I
saw election. I'd never heard of any such thing
as an election. And I looked in there where God
had chosen a people before the foundation of the world. All
those things were amazing to me until I found out who I was. And I'll tell you what the most
amazing thing in the world to me is. That He can look at me, John,
and not charge me with my sins. Won't do it. Won't do it. And David's a man who knew that.
He knew that. Now wait a minute, preacher.
Are you saying that God chose a people in Christ and blessed
them forever no matter what they do? No, I'm not saying that.
No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that they were chosen
in Christ and everything else that they will do, could do,
might do, whatever you want to call it, is predestinated of
God to bring these blessings to pass. They will do it. There's
no possible way for them to get out of it. They will do it. They all will repent. They all
will believe. You just take all them... Somebody
said one time, you take all them ifs. Somebody was just hitting
him with all these ifs. You know, if we do this, if we
do that, if they do this. You take all them ifs. You put
them on a golden chain and you hang them right around the neck
of Christ. Then you can have peace. If you
put them ifs on you, you'll never have peace. Never have peace. I'm saying that all those chosen
in Christ are predestinated of God and all these means are predestinated
to bring these blessings to pass. In the fullness of time, Christ
must appear. He must appear as a man and on
their behalf obey the law in every jot and tittle. He must
be tempted as they are, as a man, in the weakness of human flesh.
He must be tempted in all points like as you are. I can't fathom
that. I just, I can't fathom that.
And in the weakness of a human nature and in spite of an ungodly
world, he must go through all these temptations. And then he
must go to the cross and bear our sins in his own body on the
tree. He must there face a holy God
being made sin for us who knew no sin. And then the work of
the Holy Spirit must be performed in us. We must be born again.
We must repent of our sins. We must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all of God's elect will.
They all will. Now, you can't do any of them
things by yourself. So it stands to reason, if the
Holy Spirit, with His sovereign, irresistible power, moves upon
you, that you will do it. You will do it. There is a people among the sons
of Adam chosen and set apart of God to whom He will not charge
sin. Now if the Holy God charges you
with sin, you better know this, He will by no means clear the
guilty. He won't do it. If God charges
you with even one sin, you won't be cleared. And so David said,
the blessed man is the man to whom God will not impute sin. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Now, God cannot excuse sin. He can't overlook sin. He can't
erase sin as though it never occurred. The only way God can
be propitious to the sinner is by Christ, our propitiation. It requires a substitute and
a representative, one appointed for us. In 2 Timothy 1, verse
9, I quote this scripture to you all the time, but listen
to it. He said, God hath saved us. Isn't that what that says? He didn't say God's going to
save us. He said God hath saved us and called us. Because He saved us, He called
us. And He called us with a holy
calling, one consistent with His own character, with His own
attributes, with His own perfection. And He did it not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Ain't that what
that says? He who took the seven-sealed
scroll in the book of Revelations in chapter 5, from the hands
of God and opened all God's purposes of grace, was the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse
19 describes the ministry of reconciliation. Here is what
we preach to men and women. To wit, is that what this is? To wit that God was in Christ
reconciling. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Are you with me so far? This
is the blessed man. This is the statement of doctrine.
This is the basis of all hope and peace and comfort. When I
stand up to preach to you, here's the basis of it. I know sometimes
I think folks get weary of me saying the same thing, but if
they really heard it, they'd find peace. So I just keep saying
it. I keep saying it. Maybe the Holy
Ghost would be pleased one day to ring the bell, turn on the
light, whatever you want to call it, and ring it true in your
heart that all the basis of hope for man is in Christ. It's all
in Christ. You can't be blessed outside
of Christ. But if you have Christ, you've
got all the blessings. You've got everything God has
for sinners. Listen to this. Too wit that
God was in Christ. Blessed, David said, 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. No gal. That is, it's not corrupted. Not corrupted. God give him a
new spirit. A new heart. And he sees these
things and he considers these things in truth. In truth. Not in pretense. But in truth. This is what saved men come to
see. This is their hope. This is their
peace. And this is their joy. Now here's
the second thing. the reality of their sinnerhood. The hardest thing in this world
for a saved man to come to grips with is the fact that he is,
after all that God's done for him, still a sinner. He's still
a sinner. He's still capable of doing anything
any other man might do. You say, I'd never do that. I'd
never be like that. Oh, yes, you would. Oh, yes,
you would. All God has to do is take away
the restraints, put you in a little different light, in a little
different situation, you'd be the first one. You'd be the first
one. There'd be people standing in
line and you'd butt in. Let me do it first. That's exactly
what we are. We're still capable. Look at
the saints that God lists for us and preserves in Holy Scripture
for us to look at to prove this very point to us. Lot. Lot. I tell you, I read
old writers and they want to find some kind of inward holiness
and stuff to justify Lot and all this. He's just like everybody
else. He was just like everybody else.
He lived down in that despicable place and his whole conversation,
his whole way of life was affected by those things that went on
around him. Look at David in Bathsheba. Peter
standing by the fire. And then after all of that, look
at Peter over there with the Gentiles. Withdrawing himself
over into the corner. Wouldn't sit with them, wouldn't
eat with them. That would be like if you had a bunch of folks
from Danville come down here, 25 or 30 of them come down here
to visit, and we had a fellowship back in the back, and all 25
of them went over to one table, and then wouldn't talk to you.
That's where Peter was with the Galatians. Psalm 32, verse 3. He said, when I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For
day and night, my hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned
into the draught of summer. Conviction of sin by the Holy
Ghost is not a one-time experience. This is where we get into trouble.
Now, I know there's a first time when you're convicted of sin.
I know that. But brethren, it's not an isolated
thing. He constantly convicts us of
sin, doesn't He? You go through a day, you saints
of God in here, do you go through a day without conviction of sin?
Huh? You're convicted daily. And I
tell you the truth, the more light you have, the more convicted
you are. So that you become worse and
worse as time goes on. You weren't nearly that bad back
here at the beginning as you are now. You didn't know all this stuff
back then. Now you know it and you still
don't do it. Isn't that what Paul said in Romans chapter 7? It's not a one-time experience.
It's not some isolated experience in time. It's a continual experience
by which sinners are made to cry out to God in repentance.
But oh, how the sinner fights that conviction. He don't want
to own up to his sinfulness. He hates to acknowledge his sins.
Now he'll talk about his faults. He'll talk about his weaknesses.
He'll talk about his shortcomings. He'll talk about his overindulgences
and worldliness and so on. But he has to be forced of God
the Holy Spirit. Gently forced of God to face
up to what he really is. And what he really is, is a sinner. He's a sinner. If you cut through
the chase, he's a vile, putrid rebel whose best deeds is filthy
rags. That's what he is. That's what
I am. That's what you are. His best
prayer, his best gifts, nothing but filthy rags. At his best
state, that's what David said, the man who wrote the psalm,
at his best state, he's altogether vanished. Job, here's a sign of God. God
set him apart and said there wasn't another man on earth like
him. Job, you know what he said about man? He drinks iniquity
like water. There's only one thing that separates
us from the most vile and wretched man who ever lived, and that
is the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. And when a
believer hides his sins, and the sin of his nature, and he
tries to ignore it, tries to go on like it didn't exist, then
God the Holy Spirit begins to turn his days into drought. All that spring rain and them
blessings, they just turn to the drought of summer. His hand,
like David said, becomes heavy upon him. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 deals with the
two natures in the believer, and he tells us the remedy. First
of all, he tells us the problem back in Romans 7 verse 14. He said, we know that the law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. I have a spiritual
law that demands perfection of holiness in motive, thought,
and deed. It's spiritual. But I'm carnal. I'm not spiritual. I'm not perfect. I can't do what
that law demands. I can't do it. Do we know that? Paul said he knew that. Is this a living principle applied
in our everyday life? Listen to this, verse 18. For
I know that in me that is in my flesh, in this Adamic nature
dwelleth no good thing. Do I know that? Or are we still
looking for it? No good thing. Now here's the
end of the whole thing, verse 24. Here's where God brings the
believer. He wrestles over this. This is
where the warfare is. He wants to do good, but evil's
present. Evil's present. Verse 24, He said, O wretched
man that I am. Do you see yourself that way?
The wretched man. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I'm living in a cursed body with
a cursed nature. Who's going to deliver me? I
can't do what the law demands. I can't do what God directs me
to do. Who's going to deliver me? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's worthy. That's where deliverance
is. That's where peace is. And that's
what the man who owns his sins, that God shuts up and proves
to him his sinnerhood. And he has to do it constantly.
He just has to do it constantly. But when he does, when God the
Holy Spirit convinces, you know where we go? We run to Christ.
We run to Christ. Because that's the only place
we can find any peace. The confession of sin before
God is necessary to peace and happiness and fellowship with
God and one another. He said in verse 5 of Psalm 32,
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. And that's what John tells us.
If we'll confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Alright, now here's the third
thing. And this is the happy experience of every sinner called
of God. Psalm 32 verse 6. For this, this confession of
sin, this heaviness of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, convicting
the man, shutting this man up to his sin, and shutting him
up to the mercy of God in Christ. For this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. And
surely in the floods of great waters, talking about the waters
of Noah, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding
place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. What a profound statement. I
want you to think about this. True godliness. I've read books
on it. I've heard men preach on it.
I've listened to different preachers talk about it. And I've listened
to individuals give me their opinions on it. Godliness. You've
heard it all, ain't you? You've listened to men talk about
godliness. And they call that going to church
and all this kind of stuff. It's all godliness. True godliness
here manifests itself in confession of sin. True godliness convinces a man
that he's a sinner. That's godliness. Two men came into the temple.
Our Lord was standing there. And He's telling them. Two men
came into the temple. One of them was a Pharisee. He
didn't slow down. He hit the back door. He come
all the way up to the front. He didn't bow his head. He had
no humility about him at all. I imagine them old bibbed overhauls
had them thumbs back in there looking up. He said, I thank
God I'm not like other men. That's how he prayed. He said,
I'm not like other men. He said, I pass twice a week.
I pay tithes of everything I own, all my possessions. And he said,
I especially thank God I'm not like that public. And the old
publican was way back. He didn't get past the back door.
He barely come in the door and said, I am. And he wouldn't look. He wouldn't hold his eyes up
to heaven. He smote himself on his breast. And he said, God
have mercy on me, the sinner. And you know what our Lord said
about them too? He said that old publican, that the Pharisee
couldn't stand. That old publican back there
went home justified. He went home godly. Godliness confesses. It's that
nature of God that hates sin. It sees it, it condemns it, it
despises it, and it confesses it before God. That's godliness. This, he said, shall every godly
man pray. And he's going to pray it in
a time when God can be found. In a time when thou mayest be
found. Now, I read some things on this,
and some of them said that this is a time, this time that he's
talking about, is the time of the sinner's need, when the sinner
is in great need. He sees his need. He feels his
need. And then others say it's the
Lord's time of favor. There's a time when the Lord
shows favor. But I looked at both of these, and having read
them both, I personally believe it's both. I believe it's both. The time of need and the time
of favor is the same time. God will never show the sinner
his need until he's ready to forgive. Did you know that? Because you can't find your need.
God has to show it to you. That's the gift of God. Godly
sorrow. That's what He calls it. Godly
sorrow. Well, who caused this Godly sorrow? Well, God did. God's never going
to cause that Godly sorrow unless He's ready to forgive. Ready
to forgive. And then here's the conclusion.
He tells us in verse 7, Thou art my hiding place. My hiding
place. That's what the sinner needs.
He don't need more righteousness. Christ is his righteousness.
All his righteousness are his filthy rags. He don't need all
of these things. I'll tell you what he needs.
He needs a hiding place. That's what he needs. You know
that manslayer back there under the Old Testament. We're going
to be getting back into that pretty soon. God ordained certain
cities as cities of refuge. And that manslayer, he's out
here cutting down a tree or whatever he's doing, the axe head flies
off, and he kills this man. And through his recklessness,
the kinsman, the near kinsman to this man is going to seek
vengeance, and he comes after him. Well, God fixed certain
cities around. And they had to clear the way
of all debris. Couldn't be any stumbling blocks
or anything in the way. There's a sign clearly pointing
the way to the city of refuge. City of refuge. If he could make
it to the city of refuge, that man couldn't touch him. Couldn't
touch him. What's a sinner need? David said,
thou art my hiding place. Thou art my hiding place. Vengeance
can't get me in the hiding place. Christ, that's what sinners need.
They need a hiding place. Noah. Think about Noah. That's what David's talking about
in his psalm. The flood of great waters. It's
not going to come down to him. How did he know that? Because
it didn't get Noah. He hid in the ark. And that ark
is Christ, isn't it? True conviction of sin is to
bring us to Christ, our hiding place. I love that song Brother
Moose sang when he was here. I always ask him when I see him
to sing it. Hail sovereign love that first began the theme to
rescue fallen man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Is that your experience? Against the God who rules 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
ran, Almighty love, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. That's what you discover. Indignant justice stood in view. To Sinai's fiery law I flew,
but justice cried with frowning face, this mountain is no hiding
place. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
and mercy's angel form appeared, she led me on with placid pace
to Jesus Christ, my hiding-place. On Him, almighty vengeance fell
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race, and thus become their hiding-place. A few more rolling suns, at most,
will land me on Pericanin's coast, where I shall sing the song of
grace and see my glorious hiding place." Christ. Christ. Christ. You see how the
Psalms run? You see how the Psalms... David's
singing his experience. He's singing his experience.
He's telling what he knows. Telling about Christ. Telling
about that hiding place. God be pleased to reveal that
to your heart and to comfort you with it, for Christ's sake. Our great God and Savior, we
thank You. Thank You for the Word. Word
of peace. Word of comfort. Word of exhortation. Be pleased this morning to honor
Your Word and Your Gospel. And honor Your Son. by calling
chosen sinners to yourself for Christ's sake. Amen.